HINTS ON DAIRY MANAGEMENT.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XVII, Issue 1369, 22 January 1861, Page 6

HINTS ON DAIRY MANAGEMENT.

By A. 1). Bdrt.

First, I consider that it is absolutely necessary to have good, sweet pasturage, with an abundance of the best grasses, and an unstinted supply of pure fresh water, not such detestable stuff as can be found in stagnant pools, but such as you behold when you "see the rill from the mountain joyously gleam," where the cows c«n slack their thirst and feel invigorated. The pasture should have shady trees sufficient to accommodate all, without the necessity of disturbing each other in the excessive heat of midsummer. Then have cows suitable for a butter dairy; not those that give the largest amount of milk, but the richest, yielding a large supply of the rich orange-colored cream. Thecows should be salted regularly, at least twice eaoh week, as it will keep them in health and in a thriving condition, which is needful for profit. Always be sure to drive them carefully to and from the pasture; never allow them to be worried by boy» or dogs, as it will tend to heat the milk and often cause great delay in churning, which some will impute to witchcraft, and that correctly ; but the witchery, 1 believe, is in overheating the inoffensive cow and often causing injurious effects upon the poor dumb beast. Always be regular in your time for milking, and let one person (as much as possible) milk the same cow or cows, and be sure to milk them as quickly and thoroughly as possible, for you thereby save the richest part, and often save knots from forming in the teats, or causing a milk fever, or inflammation in the udder. A clean, cool, airy and light room (the lighter the better) is the most suitable place for the pans, and racks instead of shelres, are considered the best, as the air can circulate freely aiound the pans, cooling the milk more evenly. A common house cellar will very seldom be found a suitable place for setting milk, and the cream or milk in a cellar should never be placed on the floor or bottom, for if there is any impure gas in the cellar it will settle to the ground, causing the cream to be bitter, and a poor quality of butter will be the result. After setting the milk away it should never be disturbed again until it is ready to be skimmed, which should be done as soon as possible after the cream has risen and before the milk has curdled; all the gain there is in quantity after about twenty-four hours' setting you must lose in quality. Keep the cream in stone pots or jars, in a cool place in summer (moderately warm in winter.) Sprinkle a little salt on the bottom of the jar. Always stir the cream from the bottom every time you add a fresh skimming of milk. Never churn until at least twelve hours after the last cream has been put into the jar. After the cream has been churned and the butter properly gathered, it should then be washed in cold water and changed two or three times, or until there is no coloring of milk about the water; the whole of the water must then be worked from the butter, and it should be salted with about twelve ounces of the best Ashton dairy silt, t\ell pulverised, to sixteen pounds, or thiee fourths of an ounce to each pound of butter The salt should be evenly woiked thiough the entire mass. I differ much with many of our butter-makers in the quantity of salt, but I have taken the first premium at our county fair (in the Fall) on June-made butter that was salted with half an ounce to each pound, and packed immediately, without a second working, and that butter, when thirteen months old, was just as sweet as when fint packed. Always pack immediately, as it tends to make it streaked if it is t\ orked a second time. It should be packed in jars, if for home use ; if for market, in the best oak firkins, or tubs, which should be well soaked with cold water, then scalded and steamed by pouring boiling water in, and covering to keep the steam in for a short time, say twenty or thirty minutes. Then pour oft the water and scrub the firkin with salt or with soda, then wipe out the surplus, give it a slight rince, and, when cooled, it is ready for use. When the firkin or jar is full, cover the butter with good sweet brine, to exclude the air." —American paper.

Caiduus arve7isis. — When a boy it used to puzzle me what could be the use of Nettles and Thistles, the first of which used to punish my finger* and the other prick my legs. As I grew older I became reconciled to the Nettles as being the means of painting our landscape with the beautiful tortoiseshell and peacock butterflies, as well as feeding many a poor man's pigs and cows At Criccxeth this spring I saw innumerable ducks almost reared upon the two chopped with the smallest possible amount of meal, and any cottage knows that by careful feeding >ou may rear turkej sto a certainty upon Nettles and Docks chopped. But it is to Thistles that I mean to draw your attention. Some 32 pears or more ago I observed the cottagers and small farmers in Carnarvonshire feeding their cows upon Gorse and remarking how sleek they looked and how well they milked I adopted it for my own, and have ever since found it the best winter and spring food for cows and horses. This year I was visiting n farmer ia the same county, when he was called out, andonh's return said " You will be rmused sir, at what a man has been to me to purchase. I have two fields with a good many Thistles in them, and he has come to buy them for his horses." This certainly was quite a new idea to me in farming, and I determined to examine into it. I found all thp farmers and cottagers about regularly feeding theii horses upon chopped Thistles, and I never saw animals look better or more up to their -work, At the farm »here they kept six large horses, I saw the servant girls coming home with long deep baskets at their backs very much like those the Swiss women use filled with Thistles, which they cut in the corn fields with a little hooked knife at the end of a stick, These they look to the stable, where they were chopped, and the horses ate them greedily. When I got home I walked round my small farm hopnig to find a crop of this useful plant, but could not discover any— l however afterwards found some in an orchard and had them mowed. The looks of my carters face when I sent them in a wheelbarrow and told him they were for his horses, were inimitable. He evidently set me down as a fool, However I saw them chopped and had them gnen to five horses, all of .whom were upon excellent Tares and Oats. They •would not touch the latter till they had finished every bit of the Thistles— and then the broad grin of the same carter was as amusing as his former looks. I have now my eye upon a bed of Thistle* some miles off which I mean to fetch, and have another trial ot them now they are old and in seed, and will send you the result. I have no doubt that in stiff lands wheie Thistles grow abundantly they will provea\ery useful food for horses— and this has brought to my mind that any farmer must have observed that cows eat the withered Thiitles when mown in a pasture greedily— so no doubt they are a good food for them also. IF. D, Fox.