English Bent

Fig. 64. English Bent.Fig. 65. Meadow Fescue.

Fig. 64. English Bent.

Fig. 65. Meadow Fescue.

(Fig. 64), known also by a great variety of other names, is also largely cultivated in some sections. It closely resembles redtop, but may be distinguished from it by the roughness of the sheaths when the hand is drawn from above downwards. It possesses much the same qualities as redtop.

(Fig. 65) is one of the most common of the fescue grasses, and is said to be the Randall grass of Virginia. It is an excellent pasture grass, forming a very considerable portion of the turf of old pastures and fields; and is more extensively propagated and diffused by the fact that it ripens its seeds before most other grasses are cut, and sheds them to spring up and cover the ground. Its long and tender leaves are much relished by cattle. It is rarely sown in this country, notwithstanding its great and acknowledged value as a pasture grass. If sown at all, it should be in mixture with other grasses, as orchard grass, rye grass, or June grass. It is of much greater value at the time of flowering than when the seed is ripe.

TheTall Oat grass(Fig. 66) is the Ray grass of France. It furnishes a luxuriant supply of foliage, is valuable either for hay or for pasture, and has been especially recommended for soiling purposes, on account of its early and luxuriant growth. It is often found on the borders of fields and hedges, woods and pastures, and is sometimes very plenty in mowing-lands. After being sown it shoots up a very thick aftermath, and on this account, partly, is regarded as nearly equal for excellence to the common foxtail.

It grows spontaneously on deep, sandy soils, when once naturalized. It has been cultivated to a considerable extent in this country, and is esteemed by those who know it mainly for its early, rapid, and late growth,making it very well calculated as a permanent pasture grass. It will succeed on tenacious clover soils.

Fig. 66. Tall Oat grass.Fig. 67. Sweet-scented Vernal.

Fig. 66. Tall Oat grass.

Fig. 67. Sweet-scented Vernal.

TheSweet-scented Vernal grass(Fig. 67) is one of the earliest in spring and one of the latest in autumn; and this habit of growth is one of its chief excellences, as it is neither a nutritious grass nor very palatable to stock of any kind, nor does it yield a very good crop. It is very common all over New England and the Middle States, coming into old worn-out fields and moist pastures spontaneously, and along every roadside. It derives its name from its sweetness of smell when partially wilted, or crushed in the hand, and it is this chiefly that gives the delicious fragrance to all new-mown hay. It is almost the only grass that possesses a strongly-marked aromatic odor, which is imparted to other grasses with which it is cured. Its seed weighs eight pounds to the bushel. In mixtures for permanent pastures it may be of some value.

(Fig. 68), is an annual forage plant, introduced into France in 1815, and more recently into this country. It germinates readily and withstands the drought remarkably, remaining green when other grasses are parched and dried up. It has numerous succulent leaves, which furnish an abundance of sweet fodder, greatly relished by stock of all kinds. It attains its greatest luxuriance on soils of medium consistency and richness, but does very well on light and dry plains.

Fig. 69. Red Clover.Fig. 68. Hungarian grass.

Fig. 69. Red Clover.

Fig. 68. Hungarian grass.

(Fig. 69) is an artificial grass of the leguminous family, and one of the most valuable of cultivated plants for feeding to dairy cows. It flourishes best on tenacious soils and stiff loams. Its growth is rapid, and a few months after sowing are sufficient to supply an abundant sweet and nutritious food. In the climate of New England clover should be sown in the spring of the year, while most of the natural grasses do far better sown in the fall. It is often sown with perfectsuccess on the late snows of March or April, and soon finds its way down into the soil and takes a vigorousroot. It is valuable not only as a forage plant, but as shading the ground, and thereby increasing its fertility.

The introduction of clover among the cultivated plants of the farm has done more, perhaps, for modern agriculture than that of any other single plant. It has now come to be considered indispensable in all good dairy districts.

Fig. 70. White Clover.

(Fig. 70), often called Honeysuckle, is also widely diffused over this country, to which it is undoubtedly indigenous. As a mixture in all pasture grasses it holds a very high rank, as it is exceedingly sweet and nutritious, and relished by stock of all kinds. It grows most luxuriantly in moist grounds and moist seasons, but easily accommodates itself to a great variety of circumstances.

With respect to the mixtures of grass-seeds most profitable for the dairy farmer, no universal rule can be given, as they depend very much upon the nature of the soil and the locality. The most important point to be observed, and one in which we, as a body, are perhaps most deficient, is to use a large number of species, with smaller quantities of each than those most commonly used. This is nature’s rule; for, in examiningthe turf of a rich old pasture, we shall find a large number of different species growing together, while, if we examine the turf of a field sown with only one or two different species, we find a far less number of plants to the square foot, even after the sod is fairly set. No improvement in grass culture is more important, it seems to me. I have suggested, in another place, a large number of mixtures adapted to the different varieties of soil and circumstance, together with the reasons for the mixture in many instances. (SeeA Practical Treatise on Grasses and Forage Plants, comprising their Natural History, Comparative Nutritive Value, Methods of Cultivating, Cutting, and Curing, and the Management of Grass Lands, &c. 236 pp. 8vo., with illustrations.) As an instance of what I should consider an improvement on our ordinary mixtures forpermanent pastures, I would suggest the following as likely to give satisfactory results, dependent, of course, to a considerable extent, on the nature and preparation of the soil:

For mowing-lands the mixture would, of course, be somewhat changed. The meadow foxtail and sweet-scented vernal would be left out entirely, and some six or eight pounds added to the Timothy and red clover.The proper time to lay down lands to grass in the latitude of New England is August or September, and no grain crop should be sown with the seed.

Stiff or clayey pastures should never be over-stocked, but when fed pretty close the grasses are far sweeter and more nutritious than when they are allowed to grow up rank and coarse; and if, by a want of sufficient feeding, they get the start of the stock, and grow into rank tufts, they should be cut and removed, when a fresh grass will start up, similar to the aftermath of mowing-lands, which will be greedily eaten. Grasses for curing into hay should be cut either at the time of flowering or just before, especially if designed for milch cows. They are then more succulent and juicy, and, if properly cured, form the sweetest food.

Grass cut in the blossom will make more milk than if allowed to stand later. Cut a little before the blossoming, it will make more than when in the blossom; and the cows prefer it, which is by no means an unimportant consideration, since their tastes should always be consulted. Grass cut somewhat green, and properly cured, is next to fresh, green grass in palatable and nutritive qualities. And so a sensible practical farmer writes me: “The time of cutting grass depends very much upon the use you wish to make of it. If for working oxen and horses, I would let it stand till a little out of the blossom; but if to feed out to new milch cows in the winter, I would prefer to cut it very green. It is then worth for the making of milk in the winter almost double that cut later.” Every farmer knows the milk-producing properties of rowen, which is generally cut before it blossoms.

No operation on the farm is of greater importance to the dairyman than the cutting of his grass and the manner of curing hay, and in this respect thepractice over the country generally is susceptible of very great improvement. The chief object is to preserve the sweetness and succulence of grass in its natural state, so far as it is possible; and this object cannot be gained by exposing it too long to the scorching suns and the drenching rains to which we are liable in this climate. We generally try to make our hay too much.

As to the best modes of curing clover, my own experience and observation accord with that of several practical farmers, who write me as follows: “My method of curing clover is this: What is mown in the morning I leave in the swath, to be turned over early in the afternoon. At about four o’clock, or while it is still warm, I put it into small cocks with a fork, and, if the weather is favorable, it may be housed on the fourth or fifth day, the cocks being turned over on the morning of the day it is to be carted. By so doing all the heads and leaves are saved, and these are worth more than the stems. This has been my method for the last ten years. For new milch cows in the winter I think there is nothing better. It will make them give as great a flow of milk as any hay, unless it be good rowen.” Another says: “When the weather bids fair to be good, I mow it after the dew is off, and cock it up after being wilted, using the fork instead of rolling with the rake, and let it remain several days, when it is fit to put into the barn.” And another: “I mow my clover in the forenoon, and towards night of the same day I take forks and pitch it into cocks and let it stand till it cures. The day I cart it, I turn the cocks over, so as to air the lower part. I then put it into the mow with all the leaves and heads on, and it is as nice and green as green tea. I think it worth for milch cows and sheep as much per ton as English hay.” And stillanother: “I have found no better hay for farm stock than good clover, cut in season. For milch cows it is much better than Timothy. The rowen crop is better than any other for calves.”

makes an exceedingly valuable fodder, both as a means of carrying a herd of milch cows through our severe droughts of summer, and as an article for soiling cows kept in the stall. No dairy farmer will neglect to sow an extent in proportion to the number of cows he keeps. The most common practice is to sow in drills from two and a half to three feet apart, on land well tilled and thoroughly manured, making the drills from six to ten inches wide with the plough, manuring in the furrow, dropping the corn about two inches apart, and covering with the hoe. In this mode of culture the cultivator may be used between the rows when the corn is from six to twelve inches high, and unless the ground is very weedy no other after culture is generally needed. The first sowing usually takes place about the 20th of May, and this is succeeded by other sowings at intervals of a week or ten days, till July, in order to have a succession of green fodder. But, if it is designed to cut it up to cure for winter use, an early sowing is generally preferred, in order to be able to cure it in warm weather, in August or early in September. Sown in this way, about three or four bushels of corn are required for an acre, since, if sown thickly, the fodder is better, the stalks smaller, and the waste less.

The chief difficulty in curing corn cultivated for this purpose, and after the methods spoken of, arises mainly from the fact that it comes at a season when the weather is often colder, the days shorter, and the dews heavier, than when the curing of hay takes place. Nor is the curing of corn cut up green so easy and simpleas that of drying the stalks of Indian corn cut above the ear, as in our common practice of topping. The plant is then riper, less juicy, and cures more readily.

The method sometimes adopted is to cut and tie into small bundles, after it is somewhat wilted, and stook upon the ground, where it is allowed to stand, subject to all the changes of the weather, with only the protection of the stook itself. The stooks consist of bunches of stalks first bound in small bundles, and are made sufficiently large to prevent the wind from blowing them over. The arms are thrown around the tops to bring them together as closely as possible, when the tops are broken over or twisted together, or otherwise fastened, in order to make the stook “shed the rain” as well as possible. In this condition they stand out till sufficiently dried to put into the barn. Corn fodder is very excellent for young dairy stock.

is another very valuable crop for fodder in soiling, or to cure for winter use, but especially to feed out during our usual periods of drought. Many varieties of millet are cultivated in this country, the ground being prepared and treated as for oats. If designed to cut for green fodder, half a bushel of seed to the acre should be used; if to ripen seed, twelve quarts, sown broad-cast, about the last of May or early in June. A moist loam or muck is the best adapted to millet; but I have seen very great crops grown on dry upland. It is very palatable and nutritious for milch cows, both green and when properly cured. The curing should be very much like clover, care being taken not to over-dry it. For fodder, either green or cured, it is cut before ripening. In this state all cattle eat it as readily as green corn, and a less extent will feed them. Millet is worthy of a widely-extended cultivation, particularly ondairy farms. Indian millet (Sorghum vulgare) is another cultivated variety.

, as a fodder plant, is chiefly valuable for its early growth in spring. It is usually sown in September or October, from the middle to the end of September being, perhaps, the most desirable time, on land previously cultivated and in good condition. If designed to ripen only, a bushel of seed is required to the acre, evenly sown; but, if intended for early fodder in spring, two or two and a half bushels per acre of seed should be used. On warm land the rye can be cut green the last of April or first of May; and care should be taken to cut early, as, if allowed to advance too far towards maturity, the stalk becomes hard and unpalatable to cows.

are also sometimes used for soiling, or for feeding green, to eke out a scanty supply of pasture feed; And for this purpose they are valuable. They should be sown on well-tilled and well-manured land, about four bushels to the acre, towards the last of April or first of May. If the whole crop is to be used as green fodder, five bushels of seed will not be too much on strong, good soil. They will be sufficiently grown to cut by the first of July, or in some sections earlier, depending on location.

TheChinese Sugar-Canealso may deserve attention as a fodder plant. Experiments hitherto made seem to show that when properly cultivated, and cut at the right time, it is a palatable and nutritious plant, while many of the failures have been the result of too early cutting. For a fodder crop the drill culture is preferable, both on account of the larger yield obtained and to prevent it from becoming too hard and stalky.

is the first of the root crops to be mentioned. This produces a largequantity of milk, though the quality is inferior. The market value of this root is, at the present time, too great to allow of feeding extensively with it, even in milk-dairies, where it is most valuable as food for cows; still, there are locations where it may be judicious to cultivate this root for dairy feed, and in all circumstances there is a certain portion of the crop of unmarketable size, which will be of value fed to milch cows or swine. It should be planted in April or May, but in many sections in June, on good mellow soil, first thoroughly ploughed and harrowed, then furrowed three feet apart, and manured in the furrows with a mixture of ashes, plaster of Paris, and salt. The seed may be dropped in the furrows, one foot apart, after the drill system, or in hills, two and a half or three feet apart, to be covered with the plough by simply turning the furrows back, after which the whole should be rolled with the field roller, where it can be done.

If the land is not already in good heart from continued cultivation, a few loads of barn-yard manure may be spread, and ploughed under by the first ploughing. Used in this way, it is far less liable to cause the rot than when put in the hill. If a sufficient quantity of wood-ashes is not at hand, sifted coal-ashes will answer the purpose, and are said to be valuable as a preventive of the rot. In this way one man, two boys, and a horse, can plant from three to four acres a day on mellow land. I have planted two acres a day on the sod, the manure being first spread on the grass, a furrow made by a yoke of oxen and one man, another following after and dropping, a foot apart, along the outer edge of the furrow on the grass. By quick work, one hand can nearly keep up with the plough in dropping. When arrived at the end of the piece, a back furrow is turned up to thepotatoes, and a good ploughman will cover nearly all without difficulty. On the return-furrow the man or boy who dropped follows after, covering up any that may be left or displaced, and smoothing off the top of the back-furrows where necessary. Potatoes thus planted came out as fine as I ever saw any.

The cost of cultivation in this mode, it must be evident, is but trifling compared with the slower method of hand-planting. The plan will require a skilful ploughman, a quick, active lad, and a good yoke of oxen, and the extent of the work will depend somewhat on the state of the turf. The nutritive equivalent in potatoes for one hundred pounds of good hay is 3.19 pounds; that is, it will take 319 pounds of potatoes to afford the same amount of nourishment as one pound of hay. The great value of roots is as a change or condiment, calculated to keep the animal in a healthy condition.

is somewhat extensively fed, and is a valuable root for milch cows. This, like the potato, has been cultivated and improved from a wild plant. Carrots require a deep, warm, mellow soil, thoroughly cultivated, but clean and free from weed-seed. The difference between a very good profit and a loss on the crop depends much on the use of land and manures perfectly free from foul seeds of any kind. Ashes, guano, sea-weed, ground bone, and other similar substances, or thoroughly-rotted and fermented compost, will answer the purpose.

After ploughing deep, and harrowing carefully, the seed should be sown with a seed-sower, in drills about eighteen inches apart, at the rate of four pounds to the acre, about the middle or twentieth of May. The difference between sowing the fifteenth of May and the tenth of June in New England is said to be nearly onethird in the crop on an average of years. In weeding, a little wheel-hoe is invaluable, as with it a large part of the labor of cultivation is saved. A skilful hand can run this hoe within half an inch of the young plants without injury, and go over a large space in the course of a day, if the land was properly prepared in the first place.

The American farmer should always plan to economize labor. That is the great item of expense on the farm. I do not mean that he should try to shirk or avoid work, but that he should make the least amount of work accomplish the largest and most profitable results. Labor-saving machinery on the farm is applied not to reduce the number of hours’ labor, or to make the owner a man of leisure,—who is, generally, the unhappiest man in the world,—but to enable him to accomplish the greatest results in the same time that he would be compelled to labor to obtain smaller ones.

Carrots will continue to grow and increase in size late into the fall. When ready to dig, plough around as near to the outside rows as possible, turning the furrow away from the row. Then take out the carrots, pulling off the tops, and throw the carrots and tops into separate heaps on the ploughed furrows. In this way a man and two boys can harvest and put into the cellar over a hundred bushels a day.

TheTurnip(Brassica rapa) and the Swedish turnip or ruta baga (Brassica campestris) are also largely cultivated as a field crop to feed to stock; and for this purpose numberless varieties are used, furnishing a great amount of succulent and nutritious food, late into winter, and, if well kept, late into spring. The chief objection to the turnip is that it taints the milk. This may be remedied, to a considerable extent, if not wholly, by the use of salt, or salt hay, and by feeding at thetime of milking, or immediately after, or by steaming before feeding, or putting a small quantity of the solution of nitre into the pail, and milking upon it.

Turnips may be sown any time in June, in rich land, well mellowed by cultivation. Very large crops are often obtained sown as late as the middle of July, or first of August, on an inverted sod. The Michigan or double-mould-board plough leaves the land light, and in admirable condition to harrow, and drill in turnips. A successful root-grower last year cut two tons of hay to the acre, on the 23d of June, and after it was removed from the land spread eight cords of rotten kelp to the acre, and ploughed in; after which about three cords of fine old compost manure were used to the acre, which was sown, with ruta baga seed, in drills, three feet apart, plants thinned to eight or ten inches in the drill. No after cultivation was required. On the 15th of November he harvested three hundred and seventy bushels of splendid roots to the acre, carefully measured off.

The nutritive equivalent of Swedish turnips as compared with good meadow hay is 676, taking hay as a standard at 100; that is, it would require 6.76 lbs. of turnips to furnish the same nutriment as one pound of good hay; but, fed in connection with other food, as hay, for instance, perhaps five pounds of turnips would be about equal to one pound of hay.

The English or round turnip is usually sown broadcast after some other crop, and large and valuable returns are often obtained. The Swede is sown in drills. Both these varieties are used for the production of milk.

The chief objection to the turnip crop is that it leaves many kinds of soil unfit for a succession of some other crops, like Indian corn, for instance. In some sections no amount of manuring appears to make corn do well after turnips or ruta bagas.

TheMangold Wurzel, a variety of theBeta vulgaris, is often cultivated with great success in this country, and fed to cows with advantage, furnishing a succulent and nutritive food in winter and spring. The crop is somewhat uncertain. When it does well an enormous yield is often obtained; but it often proves a failure, and is not, on the whole, quite as reliable as the ruta baga, though a more valuable crop when the yield is good. It is cultivated like the common beet, in moist, rich soils, three pounds of seed to the acre. The leaves may be stripped off, towards fall, and fed out, without injury to the growth of the root. Both mangolds and turnips should be cut with a root-cutter, before being fed out.

TheParsnip(Pastinaca sativa) is a very sweet and nutritive article of fodder, and adds richness and flavor to the milk. It is worthy of extended culture in all parts of this country where dairy husbandry is pursued. It is a biennial, easily raised on deep, rich, well-cultivated and well-manured soils, often yielding enormous crops, and possessing the advantage of withstanding the severest winters. As an article of spring feeding, therefore, it is exceedingly valuable. Sown in April or May, it attains a large growth before winter. Then, if desirable, a part of the crop may be harvested for winter use, and the remainder left in the ground till the frost is out, in March or April, when they can be dug as wanted, and are exceedingly relished by milch cows, and stock of all kinds. They make an admirable feed at the time of milking, and produce the richest cream, and the yellowest and finest-flavored butter, of any root with which I am acquainted. The good dairy farmers on the island of Jersey often feed to their cows from thirty to thirty-five pounds of parsnips a day, in addition to hay or grass.

Both practical experiment and scientific analysis prove this root to be eminently adapted to dairy stock, where the richness of milk or fine-flavored butter is any object. For mere milk-dairies, it is not quite so valuable, probably, as the Swedish turnip. The culture is similar to that of carrots, a rich, mellow, and deep loam being best; while it has a great advantage over the carrot in being more hardy, and rather less liable to injury from insects, and more nutritive. For feeding and fattening stock it is eminently adapted.

To be sure of a crop, fresh seed must be had, as it cannot be depended on more than one year. For this reason, the largest and straightest roots should be allowed to stand for seed, which, as soon as nearly ripe, should be taken off and spread out to dry, and carefully kept for use. For field culture the hollow-crowned parsnip is the best and most profitable; but on thin, shallow soils the turnip-rooted variety should be used. Parsnips may be harvested like carrots, by ploughing along the rows. Let butter or cheese dairymen give this crop a fair and full trial, and watch its effect on the quality of the milk and butter.

TheKohl Rabi(Brassica oleracea, var.caulorapa) is also cultivated to a considerable extent in this country, to feed to stock. It is supposed to be a hybrid between the cabbage and the turnip, and is often called the cabbage-turnip, having the root of the former, with a turnip-like or bulbous stem. The special reason for its more extensive cultivation among us is its wonderful indifference to droughts, in which it seems to flourish best, and to bring forth the most luxuriant crops. It also withstands the frosts remarkably, being a hardy plant. It yields a somewhat richer quality of milk than the ordinary turnip, and the crop is generally admitted to be as abundant and profitable. I have seen verylarge crops of it produced by the ordinary turnip or cabbage cultivation. As in cabbage culture, it is best to sow the seed in March or April, in a warm and well-enriched seed-bed; from which it is transplanted in May, and set out after the manner of cabbages in garden culture. It bears transplanting better than most other roots. Insects injure it less than the turnip, dry weather favors it, and it keeps well through the winter. For these reasons, it must be regarded as a valuable addition to our list of forage plants adapted to dairy farming. It grows well on stronger soils than the turnip.

is the ground cake of flax-seed, after the oil is pressed out. It is very rich in fat-forming principles, and given to milch cows it increases the quality of butter, and keeps them in condition. Four or five pounds a day are sufficient for cows in milk, and this amount will effect a great saving in the cost of other food, and at the same time make a very rich milk. It is extensively manufactured in this country, and largely exported, but is worthy of more general use here. It must not be fed in too large quantities to milch cows, for it would be liable to give too great a tendency to fat, and thus affect the quantity of milk.

possesses much the same qualities. It is the residuum after pressing the oil from rape-seed.

is an article of comparatively recent introduction. It is obtained by pressing the seed of the cotton-plant, which extracts the oil, when the cake is crushed or ground into meal, which has been found to be a very valuable article for feeding stock. An analysis has been given on a precedingpage, which shows it to be equal or superior to linseed meal. Practical experiments are needed to establish it. It is preparedchiefly in Providence, R. I., and is for sale in the market at a very reasonable price.

TheManuresused in this country in the culture of the plants mentioned above are mostly such as are made on the farm, consisting chiefly of barn-yard composts of various kinds, with often a large admixture of peat-mud. There are few farms that do not contain substances which, if properly husbanded, would add very greatly to the amount of manure ordinarily made. The best of the concentrated manures, which it is sometimes necessary to use, for want of time and labor to prepare enough on the farm, is, unquestionably, Peruvian guano. The results of this, when properly applied, are well known and reliable, which can hardly be said of any other artificial manure offered for the farmer’s notice. The chief objection to depending on manures made off the farm is, in the first place, their great expense; and in the second, which is equally important, the fact that, though they may be made valuable, and produce at one time the best results, a want of care in the manufacture, or designed fraud, may make them almost worthless, with the impossibility of detecting the imposition, without a chemical analysis, till it becomes too late, and the crop is lost.

It is, therefore, safest to rely mainly upon the home manufacture of manure. The extra expense of soiling cattle, saving and applying the liquid manure, and thus bringing the land to a higher state of cultivation, when it will be capable of keeping more stock, and of furnishing more manure, would offer a surer road to success than a constant outlay for concentrated fertilizers.

The various articles used for top-dressing grass lands, and the management of grass and pasture lands, have been treated of in detail in the work already alluded to, on theCulture of Grasses and Forage Plants.

Milk, as the first and natural food of man, has been used from the remotest antiquity of the human race. It is produced by the females of that class of animals known as themammalia, and was designed by nature as the nourishment of their young; but the richest and most abundant secretions in common use are those of the cow, the camel, the mare, and the goat. The use of camel’s milk is confined chiefly to Africa and to China, that of mares to Tartary and Siberia, and that of goats to Italy and Spain. The milk of the cow is universally esteemed.

Milk is an opaque fluid, generally white in color, having a sweet and agreeable taste, and is composed of a fatty substance, which forms butter, a caseous substance, which forms cheese, and a watery residuum, known as serum, or whey, in cheese-making. The fatty or butyraceous matter in pure milk varies usually from two and a half to six and a half per cent.; the caseous or cheesy matter, from three to ten per cent.; and the serous matter, or whey, from eighty to ninety per cent.

To the naked eye milk appears to be of the same character and consistence throughout; but under the microscope a myriad of little globules of varied forms, but mostly round or ovoid, and of very unequal sizes,appear to float in the watery matter. On more minute examination, these butter-globules are seen to be enclosed in a thin film of caseous matter. They are so minute that they filter through the finest paper. Milk readily assimilates with water and other sweet and unfermented liquids, though it weighs four per cent. more than water. Cold condenses, heat liquefies it.

The elements of which it is composed, not being similar in character or specific gravity, undergo rapid changes when at rest. The oily particles, being lighter than the rest, soon begin to separate from them, and rise to the surface in the form of a yellowish semi-liquid cream, while the greater specific gravity of the serous matter, or whey, carries it to the bottom.

A high temperature very soon develops acidity, and hastens the separation of the cheesy matter, or curd, from the whey. And so the three principal elements are easily distinguished.

But the oily or butyraceous matter, in rising to the surface, brings up along with it many cheesy particles, which mechanically adhere to it, and give it more or less of a white instead of a yellow color; and many watery or serous particles, which make it thinner, or more liquid, than it otherwise would be. If it rose up free from the adhesion of the other elements, it would appear in the form of pure butter, and would not need to undergo the process of churning to separate it from other substances. The time may come when some means will be devised, either mechanical or chemical, to separate the butter particles from the rest instantaneously and completely, and thus avoid the often long and tedious process of churning.

The coagulation, or collecting together of the cheesy particles, by which the curd becomes separated from the whey, sometimes takes place so rapidly, from theeffect of great heat, or sudden changes in the atmosphere, that there is not time for the butter particles to rise to the surface, and they remain mixed up with the curd.

Nor does the serous or watery matter remain distinct or free from the mixture of particles of the cheesy and buttery matters. It also holds in suspension some alkaline salts and sugar of milk, to the extent of from three to four per cent. of its weight.

We have, then,

It may be stated, in other words, that milk is composed chiefly of caseine, or curd, which gives it its strength, and from which cheese is made; a butyraceous or oily substance, which gives it its richness; a sugar of milk, to which it owes its sweetness, and a watery substance, which makes it refreshing as a beverage; together with traces of alkaline salts, from whence are derived its flavor and medicinal properties; and that these constituents appear in proportions which vary in different specimens, according to the breed of the animal, the food, the length of time after parturition, etc.

Milk becomes sour, on standing exposed to a warm atmosphere, by the change of its sugar of milk into an acid known as lactic acid; and it is owing to this sugar, and the chemical changes to which it gives rise, that milk is susceptible of undergoing all degrees of fermentation, and of being made into a fermented and palatable but intoxicating liquor, which, by distillation, produces pure alcohol. This liquor is extensively used in somecountries. The arrack of the Arabs is sometimes made from camel’s milk.

The Tartars make most of their spirituous liquors from milk; and for this purpose they prefer mare’s milk, on account of its larger percentage of sugar, which causes a greater and more active fermentation. The liquor made from it is termed milk-wine, or khoumese. It resembles beer, and has intoxicating qualities. The process of manufacture is very simple. The milk, being allowed first to turn sour, is then heated to the proper temperature, when it begins to ferment; and in a day in summer, or two or three days in winter, the process is completed, and the liquor may be kept several weeks without losing its good qualities.

The admirable though complicated organization of the udder and teats of the cow has already been explained, in speaking of the manner of milking. But it may be said, in general, that the number of stomachs or powerful digestive organs of the ruminants is wonderfully adapted to promote the largest secretions of every kind.

The udder of the cow, the more immediate and important receptacle of milk, and in which other milk-vessels terminate, is divided into two sections, and each of these sections is subdivided into two others, making four divisions, each constituting in itself, to some extent, an organ of secretion. But it is well known that, as a general thing, the lateral section, comprising the two hind teats, usually secretes larger quantities of milk than the front section, and that its development, both external and internal, is usually the greatest.

Milk is exceedingly sensitive to numerous influences, many of which are not well understood. It is probably true that the milk of each of the divisions of the udder differs to some extent from that of the others in thesame animal; and it is well known that the milk of different cows, fed on the same food, has marked differences in quality and composition. But food, no doubt, has a more powerful and immediate effect than anything else, as we should naturally suppose from the fact that it goes directly to supply all the secretions of the body. Feeding exclusively on dry food, for instance, produces a thicker, more buttery and cheesy milk, though less abundant in quantity, than feeding on moist and succulent food. The former will be more nutritive than the latter.

Cows in winter will usually give a milk much richer in butter and less cheesy than in summer, for the same reason; while in summer their milk is richer in cheese and less buttery than in winter. As already intimated, the frequency of milking has its effect on the quality. Milking but once a day would give a more condensed and buttery milk than milking twice or three times. The separation of the different constituents of milk begins, undoubtedly, before it leaves the udder; and hence we find that the milk first drawn from the cow at a milking is far more watery than that drawn later, the last drawn, commonly called the strippings, being the richest of all, and containing from six to twelve times as much butter as the first.

Many other influences affect the milk of cows, both in quantity and quality, as the length of time after calving, the age and health of the cow, the season of the year, etc. Milk is whiter in color in winter than in summer, even when the feeding is precisely the same. At certain seasons the milk of the same cow is bluer than at others. This is often observable in dog-days.

The specific gravity of milk is greater than that of water, that of the latter being one thousand, and that of the former one thousand and thirty-one on an average,though it varies greatly as it comes from different cows, and even at different times from the same cow. A feeding of salt given to the cow will, in a few hours, cause the specific gravity of her milk to vary from one to three per cent.

Milk will ordinarily produce from ten to fifteen per cent. of its own volume in cream; or, on an average, not far from twelve and a half per cent. Eight quarts of milk will, therefore, make about one quart of cream. But the milk of cows that are fed so as to produce the richest milk and butter will often very far exceed this, sometimes giving over twenty per cent. of cream, and in very rare instances twenty-five or twenty-six per cent. The product of milk in cream is more regular than the product of cream in butter. A very rich milk is lighter than milk of a poor quality, for the reason that cream is lighter than skim-milk.

Of the different constituents of milk, caseine is that which most resembles animal matter, and hence the intrinsic value of cheese as a nutritive article of food. Hence, also, the nutritive qualities of skimmed milk, or milk from which the cream only has been removed, while the milk is still sweet. The oily or fatty parts of milk furnish heat to the animal system; but this is easily supplied by other substances.

From the peculiar nature of milk, and its extreme sensitiveness to external influences, the importance of the utmost care in its management must be apparent; and this care must begin from the moment when it leaves the udder, especially if it is to be made into butter. In this case it would be better, if it were convenient, to keep the different kinds of milk of the same milking by itself—that which comes first from the udder, and that which is drawn last; and if the first third could be set by itself, and the second and the third partsby themselves, the time required to raise the cream of each part would doubtless be considerably less than it is where the different elements of the milk are so intimately mixed together in the process of milking, after being once partially separated, as they are before they leave the udder.

After milking, as little time as possible should elapse before the milk is brought to rest in the pan. The remarks of Dr. Anderson on the treatment of milk are pertinent in this connection. “If milk,” says he, “be put into a dish and allowed to stand until it throws up cream, the portion of cream rising first to the surface is richer in quality and equal in quantity to that which rises in a second equal space of time; and the cream which rises in a second interval of time is greater in quantity and richer in quality than that which rises in a third equal space of time. That of the third is greater than that of the fourth, and so of the rest; the cream that rises continuing progressively to decrease in quantity and quality, so long as any rises to the surface.

“Thick milk always throws up a much smaller proportion of the cream which it actually contains than milk that is thinner, but the cream is of a richer quality; and if water be added to that thick milk, it will afford a considerably greater quantity of cream, and consequently more butter, than it would have done if allowed to remain pure; but its quality at the same time is greatly deteriorated.

“Milk which is put into a bucket or other proper vessel, and carried in it to a considerable distance, so as to be much agitated and in part cooled before it be put into the milk-pans to settle for cream, never throws up so much or so rich a cream as if the same milk had been put into the milk-pans, without agitation, directly after it was milked.”

Milk as it comes from the cow is about blood-heat, or 98° Fah. It should be cooled off as little as possible before coming to rest. With this object in view, the pails may be rinsed with hot water before milking, and the distance from the place of milking to the milk-room should be as short as possible; but, even with all these precautions, the fall in temperature will be considerable.

From what has already been said with regard to the manner in which the cream or oily particles of the milk rise to the surface, and the difficulty of rising through a great space, on account of their intimate entanglement with the cheesy and other matters, the importance of using shallow pans must be sufficiently obvious.

To facilitate and hasten the rising of the butter or oily particles, the importance of keeping the milk-room at a uniform and pretty high temperature will be equally obvious. The greatest density of milk is at or near the temperature of 41° Fah.; and at this point the butter particles will, of course, rise with the greatest difficulty and slowness, and bring up a far greater amount of cheese particles than under more favorable circumstances. These caseous and watery matters, as has been already stated, cause the cream or the butter to look white, and to ferment and become rancid. To avoid this, the temperature is generally kept, in the best butter-dairies, as high as from 58° to 62°. Some recommend keeping the milk at over 70°, and from that to 80°, at which temperature the cream, they say, rises very rapidly, especially if the depth through which it has to rise is but slight. But that, in the opinion of most practical dairymen, is too high.

To obtain the greatest amount of cream from a given quantity of milk, the depth in the pan should, it seems to me, never exceed two inches. A high temperature and shallow depth, as they liquefy the milk and facilitatethe rising of the particles, tend to secure a cream free from the cheesy matter, and such cream will make a quality of butter both more delicate to the taste, and less likely to become rancid, than any other.

It has already been intimated, in another connection, that neither the largest quantity nor the best quality of milk is given by the cow till after she has had two or three calves, or has arrived at the age of five or six years. It may also be said, what cannot fail to have attracted the attention of observing dairymen, that in very dry seasons the quantity of milk yielded will generally be less, though the quality will be richer, than in moist and mild seasons.

Hence it may be inferred that moist climates are much more favorable to the production of milk than dry ones; and this also has been frequently observed and admitted to be a well-known fact. From these facts it may be stated that dry and warm weather increases the quantity of butter, but it is also true that cooler weather produces a greater amount of cheese. A state of pregnancy, it is obvious, must reduce the quality of the milk, and cause it to yield less cream than before.

In the treatment of milk the utmost cleanliness is especially requisite. The pails, the strainers, the pans, the milk-room, and, in short, everything connected with the dairy, must be kept neat and clean to an extent which few but the very best dairy-women can appreciate. The smallest portion of old milk left to sour in the strainers or pans will be sure to taint them, and impart their bad flavor to the new milk put into them. Every one is familiar with the fact that an exceedingly small quantity of yeast causes an active fermentation. The process is a chemical one, and another familiar instance of it is in the distillation of liquors and the brewing of beer, where the malt creates a very active fermentation. Ina similar manner the smallest particle of sour milk will taint a large quantity of sweet.

The milk-room should be removed from dampness, and all gases which might be injurious to the milk by infecting the atmosphere. If the state of the atmosphere and the temperature, as has been stated, affect it, all contact with foreign substances to which it is liable in careless and slovenly milking, and all air rendered impure by vegetables and innumerable other things kept in a house-cellar, will be much more liable to taint and injure it. Milk appears to absorb odors from objects near it, to such an extent that a piece of catnip lying near the pan has been known to impart its flavor to it.

Milk, as sold in most large cities, is often adulterated to a great extent, but most frequently with water. Not unfrequently, too, a part of the cream is first taken off, and water afterwards added; in which case the use of burnt sugar is very common for coloring the milk, the blueness of which would otherwise lead to detection. The adulteration of pure milk from the healthy cow by water, though dishonest, and objectionable in the highest degree, is far less iniquitous in its consequences than the nefarious traffic in “swill-milk,” or milk produced from cows fed entirely on “still-slops,” from which they soon become diseased, after which the milk contains a subtle poison, which is as difficult of detection by any known process of chemistry as the miasma of an atmosphere tainted with yellow fever or the cholera. The simple fact is sufficiently palpable, that no pure and healthy milk can be produced by an unhealthy and diseased animal; and that no animal can long remain healthy that is fed on an unnatural food, and treated in the manner too common around the distilleries of many large cities.

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