Domestic Animals Part 8

CHAPTER III.

THE DAIRY.

Cows for the Dairy.

From what has been said on the various characteristics of the different breeds of cattle, it must be evident, that no very definite criteria of excellence can be given for all good dairy cows. But there are certain points in a good milker, that can hardly be mistaken.

She should be descended from the best milking stock; her head should be small or of medium size, muzzle fine, and nostrils flexible and expanded; face long, slender, and dishing; cheeks thin; eyes full, mild, and prominent; horns delicate and waxy, and they may be either branching, lopped, crumpled, or hornless; long, thin, lively ear, and the inside of an orange color; neck thin and small at its junction with the head; deep chest, but not too heavy before; back level and broad; well ribbed; belly large; low flank; wide thighs, but thin; short legs, and standing well apart; large milking veins; loose, capacious udder, coming well out behind; good teats; loose, mellow skin, of a deep yellow; and a fine, thick coat of glossy hair; and she must be of a good disposition, and free from tricks.

Yet, with all the skill of a well-practised taste in the selection of animals, the dairyman will frequently find his theories and results at sad variance. One may sometimes select a fine animal, with every appearance of good milking qualities, which is but a medium cow at the pail; and another, that hardly seems worthy of notice, and which sets at defiance many established milking points, and all preconceived notions of symmetry, may yet prove a good milker. A cow that runs to flesh while in milk, is generally an indifferent animal for the dairy. Perfection in a cow, consists in converting all she eats into milk while yielding it, and when dry, in turning all she consumes into valuable meat.

Management of Dairy Cows.

A cow may have her first calf when between two and three years of age, according to her size and development. After calving, she should be stinted in her food for two or three days, and not fed freely for a week. Avoid fat in a breeding cow. Too high feeding is the cause of milk-fever, caked bag, garget, and a host of evils; and very poor feed is almost equally objectionable.

The average time of a cow with young, is from 40 to 41 weeks; but they sometimes go only 34, and occasionally overrun 44.

A dry, unoccupied stall or yard is best for her to calve in; and if there is any serious delay or difficulty in the operation, she may be a.s.sisted by placing the f[oe]tus in the right position, and gently pulling it, with every throe of the dam. After the calf has drawn all he wants at morning and evening, the bag should be thoroughly and quickly emptied of all the milk. If strong and vigorous, the calf is the best doctor for garget or caked bag. He may be allowed to suck the cow or not, at the option of the owner; there are reasons for and against the practice, as will be seen under the head of rearing calves, and each person must determine in his own case on which side the balance lies.

Milking.

This is an important operation, and on its proper performance depends much of the success of the dairyman. A cow regularly, gently, yet quickly and thoroughly milked, will give much more than if neglected. If a herd of cows be separated into two divisions, each yielding the same quant.i.ty of milk, and one is given to a good milker, and the other to a shiftless or lazy one, the latter will speedily reduce his milk much below the quant.i.ty obtained by the former; and if the milkers then exchange cows, they will be found to change quant.i.ty too, those before affording the least, soon giving the most. An indifferent milker ought never to be tolerated in a herd, good ones are cheaper at double the price. It is best to milk at intervals of about 12 hours; which may be done when pastures are convenient, or cows are soiled or fed in the yard. But as this is not often the case in the season of green food, they should be milked early in the morning and turned into pasture, to fill themselves before the sun is oppressive; and if they are to be kept up at night, let them browse in the pasture as long as possible, before they are brought to the yard.

MILK

Is produced from the females of all the warm-blooded animals, which are enumerated among the mammaliae. The milk of several animals is employed for domestic purposes, among different nations. That of the camel is used by the Arabs; the milk of the a.s.s by the Spaniards, the Maltese, and the inhabitants of the Levant; that of the mare by the Cossacks, the Kirgheez, and other Tartars; and that of the goat, the ewe, and the cow, by most of the ancient, and with few exceptions, by every modern European nation. Within the last century, however, the use of all excepting cow's milk has been almost entirely discarded, among the most highly civilized people.

If we except some few Welsh and Swiss, or other emigrants, who resort to the goat and ewe for their dairy materials, for the first few years of their residence here, the cow is the only animal which is employed in America for producing milk. For this, she is pre-eminently fitted, and the modern improvement of this invaluable animal has carried her product of milk almost as far as can be reasonably looked for from a given amount of food; and although this is of about the average richness of the goat and ewe, and before that of the a.s.s, the quant.i.ty she yields is frequently as 60 to 1, in favor of the cow, over the first two compet.i.tors. As a milk-giving animal, the cow is the best fitted for the purposes of civilized man; and she is made to contribute, not only to his health, his comfort, and his economy, but to many of his choicest luxuries. Milk contains every element of nutrition necessary to animal existence; and man can subsist, with unimpaired health and strength, if limited to this food alone.

The Const.i.tuents of Milk

Are b.u.t.ter, which varies from 2 to 6 per cent.; casein or cheese, usually 4 to 5, but sometimes varying from 3 to 15 per cent.; (the last excessive quant.i.ty, yielded only by the first milk after calving;) milk-sugar, 4 to 6; salts or saline matter, 0.2 to 0.6; and water, 80 to 89.

_There is much diversity in the product and quality of milk_ from cows of the same breed, the same food, and other circ.u.mstances and conditions, apparently equal. Thus, of a herd of 22, chiefly Ayrshire, one gave 84 quarts in one week, which afforded 3 lbs. of b.u.t.ter; two others in the same time gave 86, yielding 5 lbs.; and a fourth gave 88 quarts, making 7 lbs.

The amount of b.u.t.ter, however, which a given quant.i.ty of milk will produce, is not the only criterion of the value of the milk, except for this purpose alone. Some cows will yield more b.u.t.ter, others will produce more cheese; while for consumption, another may partially compensate, in the increased quant.i.ty of milk-sugar, and the saline matters, for a deficiency of both the other ingredients. But for dairy purposes, b.u.t.ter and cheese are the only measure of the value of milk; and a cow is esteemed good or indifferent, as she gives one or the other in the greatest abundance.

Circ.u.mstances which modify the Quant.i.ty and Character of Milk.

Besides the accidental variation in the quant.i.ty and quality of milk in different animals, before adverted to, there are many reliable causes which influence both. Of these, parentage has a most decided and uniform influence, frequently modified, however, in the particular individual, by some personal and controlling causes. But a cow, whose maternal ancestry on both sides are choice milkers, is almost certain to resemble them.

Food influences the quant.i.ty, rather than the quality. Boussingault tried numerous experiments, with cows fed on various kinds of food, and found the difference hardly appreciable in the quality of milk. Its true benefit is to be looked for in the increased quant.i.ty, through which, the valuable ingredients are distributed in nearly the same proportion, as when the product is materially lessened. By quality we mean to be understood, the amount of the ingredients, _valuable for nutrition only_; for it is certain, that there is a rich aromatic flavor, not only in milk, but in b.u.t.ter and cheese, which is afforded in various articles of food, and especially by the fresh green herbage which abounds in the pastures from spring to autumn.

Activity or rest has a great effect on both quant.i.ty and quality. The less action, and the more quiet and rest, the greater the amount of milk and b.u.t.ter. But exercise is absolutely essential to the production of cheese. b.u.t.ter may be made from cows confined in a stable, but cheese can only be profitably made from animals at pasture. It is supposed by physiologists, that the exercise in gathering their food, rather than any peculiarity in its character, is necessary to convert the nitrogenized tissues into the nitrogenized principle of caseum or cheese.

The time from calving, has also its effect. The first milk drawn from a cow after calving, has been found to yield over 15 per cent. of casein, while in its ordinary state it gives only three to five and a half. As the quant.i.ty of milk diminishes in a farrow cow, the quality improves within certain limits. Pregnancy affects the quality injuriously, and especially towards its latter stages; and a cow that is predisposed to giving milk, should be dried off a few weeks before its expiration, as it is then unfit for use.

Fat cows give poorer milk than such as are moderately lean; and young animals do not come up to the maximum of their quality, till after their third or fourth calving.

The milk first drawn from the udder, will yield only an eighth, and sometimes even a much less proportion of cream, than the strippings; and the milk which is drawn three times a day, is greatly inferior to such as is taken but once, though the latter is less abundant.

Excitement, or fretfulness; change of locality, or to a different herd, with new companions; separation from her calf; periodical heat; annoyance from flies, or worry from dogs; exposure to storms, severe cold, or an oppressive sun, and many similar causes, diminish the quant.i.ty of milk and b.u.t.ter; but some of these may reasonably be expected to increase the proportion of its casein.

Dr. Playfair found that the quant.i.ty of b.u.t.ter in the evening milk, after the cow had been at pasture all day, was 3.7 per cent., while the casein was 5.4; after lying quietly all night, the milk from the same cow, on the following morning, contained 5.6 per cent. of b.u.t.ter, and only 3.9 of casein. In stabling the cow, the b.u.t.ter was invariably in greater proportion than when allowed to ramble in the pasture; and the casein, with a single exception, was equally diminished.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 17.

Lactometer, or Cream Guage.]

Fig. 17, is a number of gla.s.s tubes of equal size, set in a frame called a _lactometer_ or _cream guage_. If milk from different cows be set in these, the depth of the cream will indicate their comparative richness.

Cream.

If milk be immediately set away in shallow vessels, after being taken from the cow, the cream rises to the surface, carrying with it most of the b.u.t.ter contained in the milk, and much of its casein also. Hence, the great nutritive properties of b.u.t.termilk, which retains the casein in very large proportions, much of it being rejected by the b.u.t.ter in its separation from the cream.

A temperature below 34, will prevent the cream from rising in any considerable quant.i.ty, and preserve the milk unaltered for some weeks.

Coagulating the milk from any cause, will equally prevent the separation of the cream. The elevation of temperature within certain limits, hastens the separation. Thus, at 50, the cream will mostly have risen in 36 hours; at 55, in 24; at 68, in 18 or 20; and at 77, in 10 or 12 hours.

Heating the milk near the boiling point, and then setting it away and allowing it to remain undisturbed, will soon cause the cream to rise. In the celebrated Orange dairy, near Baltimore, Md., this system was practised, by which, not only most of the cream was secured for b.u.t.ter, but in consequence of its rapid separation, the skimmed milk was sent to market within a few hours after being drawn; and the scalding imparted to it an agreeable flavor and apparent richness, which it did not really possess.

The celebrated clouted cream of Devonshire, England, and the b.u.t.ter made from it, contains an unusual quant.i.ty of casein, the consequence of heating the milk. "It is prepared by straining the warm milk into large shallow pans into which a little water has previously been put, allowing these to stand from six to twelve hours, and then carefully heating them over a slow fire, or on a hot plate, till the milk approaches the boiling point. The milk, however, must not actually boil, nor must the skin of the cream be broken. The dishes are now removed into the dairy, and allowed to cool. In summer the cream should be churned on the following day; in winter it may stand over two days. The quant.i.ty of cream obtained is said to be one-fourth greater by this method, and the milk which is left is proportionably poor."--[_Johnston._]

b.u.t.tER.

Electricity

Has much to do with the changes in milk, as in all other substances.

Gla.s.s milk-pans might, therefore, be supposed to be the best vessels for keeping the milk unchanged and sweet.

It may possibly not afford any practical result, yet intelligent experiments for introducing a stream of electricity might well be justified, to aid in the separation of the b.u.t.teraceous particles in the operation of churning.

Sour Cream.

Cream, for the purpose of churning, is usually allowed to become sour.

It ought to be at least one day old, but may with advantage be kept several days in cool weather, if it be previously well freed from milk, and be frequently stirred to keep it from curdling. This sour cream is put into the churn, and worked in the usual way until the b.u.t.ter separates. This is collected into lumps, well beat and squeezed free from the milk, and in some dairies is washed with pure cold water as long as the water is rendered milky. In other localities the b.u.t.ter is not washed, but after being well beat, is carefully freed from the remaining milk by repeated squeezings and dryings with a clean cloth.