THE DAIRY.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 914, 6 September 1889, Page 18

THE DAIRY.

TSE DAIRY INDUSTRY—PAST v. PRESENT. Mr George Gibbons, of Tunley Farm, Bath, read the following before the Economic Science and Statistics section of the British Association, at Bath, The industry we are about to -consider is one of the oldest and most important of fcfle world’s occupations; and the many references to it {too well known to need recapitulation) in the • pages of the Holy Writ, bear eloquent testimony to its antiquity. / MILK. In milk wflfch, as the first of dairy products, is entitled to priority of consideration, we find all the elements required from infancy to build and sustain the human frames and truly is it said that the most skilful compoupder of so.called goods can only imitate ‘ it, whilst the chemist gives ,it up in despair. Among early writers who refer to it may be l mentioned Aristotle, who divides it into two : parts, watery and caseoug, and Galan, who says, ‘ Cows’ milk is the best, sheep’s and j goats’ less good, aijd asses’ -the poorest/ j Mr J. T. Rogers, in his ■* History or Agricub ; ture,’ states that in the thirteenth century { British cows were sold at 0s each, and let ifcy j the owners, who found food for them, at 0s to : 63 8d per annum. In the fourteenth mn tjjry milk was sold at Id per gallon, cream at 8d par gallon, and butter at 6d per gallon. Milch cows ye re worth from 8s Gd to 10s each. Three, .cost 4d, a churn 41 cl, cheese tub Bd, and the dairymaid's wages were Gs per annum. ' Jn Tusser’s ‘ 500 Points dtff cod Husbandry,’ published. 1573, we read— Good dairy,doth pleasure,, 111 dairy spends treasure." j Good housewife in dairy that peed not be • told, Deserveth her fee to be paid her in gold. Gervaise Markham in the ■“ English Housewife,’ 1660, recommends large cows, as when age or mischance shall disable her for the pad, she may be fed and made fit for the shambles, and so not lose, hut profit. The signs oi plenty of milk, in a e-'W, he says, are a crumpled horn, a thin neck, a hairy dewlap, a very large udder with four teats, long, thick, and sharp at the end, for the most part white of whatsoever colour the cow be, and if it be well-haired before and behind, and smooth at the bottom it is a good figure. The housewife to ehoo3e.from the different breeds, ageording

as her opinion and delight shall govern her, and he advises her getting them from a harder soyle. To this most excellent advice he adds, ‘ for the ordering of milk,’ what cannot be too strongly emphasised in the present day, ‘not the least mote of filth may by any means appear, but all things either to the eye or nose, so void of sourness and sluttishness, that a princess’s bedroom may not exceed it.’ The addition of such milk to such beverages as tea and coffee dates from about 250 years ago, but in the land of tea (China) no such admixture is practised. The increased demand for milk in our large centres of population during the last twenty years is a source of congratulation from every point of view. Considerable physical benefit is derived by the use of such an unequalled beverage. The farmer is only too happy to supply it, the railways receive from its carriage a considerable and constantly increasing revenue, and a new industry has sprung up to meet the demands for the churns required in its transit. Prior to the year 1865 the large bulk of the milk consumed in London was produced within it, hut the cattle-plague which then broke out swept away more than half of the cows within the metropolitan area within a few months. The continued outbreaks of pleuro-pneumonia and foot-and-mouth disease for some years after so reduced the number of town-kept cows that only a few, comparatively, are now found in London. Doubtless the necessary regulations imposed by the Metropolitan Board of Works for the proper sanitary condition oi urban dairies has also tended to reduce them further. UTENSILS. The methods used for the separation of cream and milk' are many in number and widely different in mode. • They show how extremes meet; for, by the most diverse systems, fairly even results can he obtained. One says, put your milk in shallow tins or pans, surrounded by sweet, fresh air, as they did in ths good old times, and you get the best results. Another says, ‘No, it’s only old fogies do that now ; put your milk on the * Schwartz ’ or ‘ Cooley ’ principles, into deep, narro w vessels ; immerse or plunge them into the coldest water, and'you get the whole volume of cream raised between the milkings.’ Whilst a dainty Devonshire dairymaid assures you these cold water systems are nowhere compared to hers ; that you must have the hottest water to ensure delicate, delicious cream and butter. Then again, we are informed that the ‘Jersey system,’ which, it is claimed, combines all the best conditions of the old and new methods of raising cream, is the sweetest, surest, safest, and soundest. Lastly, we are told that all these varied lauded methods arc obsolete; there is no need of placing your milk in either hot or cold water; that the shallow pans and deep ones, the Cooley, Schwartz, and Devonshire systems have all been left long behind by the grand machine into which you place the milk hot from the cow, whirl it round 6000 to 7000 times per minute, and thus get entire and complete separation of the cream at the rate of from 40 to 160 gallons per hour, according to the size of the machine, thus enabling you to dispose of the milk whilst it is still naturally warm. A man can work an ordinary separator, powerful enough to separate over twenty gallons per hour,, and a woman, a ‘ Baby ’ separator, separating twelve gallons in the same time. To Sweden and Denmark belong the honour of inventing these centrifugal cream separators, and their introduction marks the most important advance made, of late years, in dairy husbandry,' many thousands being now in daily use, "both in large and small dairies. The chief advantages to he derived from their use may be thus summed up; an almost unlimited supply of sweet, separated milk, so valuable for children, at a very low price ; the entire (if desired) abstraction of the cream (in its purest and sweetest condition), which places a delicacy (not to be obtained, until lately, eyen at the best hotels) within reach of all, at a most moderate price ; and the means of dealing with much larger quantities of milk than under the old system was possible. BUTTER. The making of butter has been practised from very early times, and frequent allusions to it are found in the Works of early writers. Herodotus mentions that the Scythians poured milk into wooden vessels, which they caused to be violently shaken, and separated the part rising to the surface. Hippocrates prescribed butter applied externally as medicine and calls it ‘ Finkerfon.’ Anaxandrides, contemporary with the aboye, in describing the wedding of Sphicrates, the daughter .of the King of Thrace, states that the Thracians ate better, to the amazement of the Greeks. Tertulliofl alludes to butter as an ointment, and Hecatus speaks, of it as oil of milk used for anointing. From many testimonies it appears buttermaking was communicated to the Greeks by the Scythians, Thracians, and Phrygians, and that the Romans learned it from the Germans, who appear to fiave used it rather as a medicine, or ointment, tflan food. The art of 'butter-inahing must have been Icnown in Engird at a very early date, as C.sgsar fells us >vhen he invaded this country he found butter the common food of the islanders. The earliest mention of a barrel of butter is found in the year loM, as it realised 12s sd. In 1549 it was sold At Is per gallon. The price of a good cow in 1502 was.Bs; in 1520, 10s; ar.c? in 1555, 20s. It, js generally know# tjnafc flutter ip made from tha fatty globules contained in milk, and, in the * Journal fil tfle Society of Arts.’ fer the last month, Mr Eushaja? says ‘ A pound of milk with four per cct;.t gf butfer fat in it contains about 40,000,066 of foie.se globules. Small as is the largest of these, yet there are some considerably smaller than Others, and it is to this difference in size that certain descriptions of milk, containing the ‘same of fat, exposed to like pppditions, will not "yield the same quantity of cream m a given time. The larger globules rise first, and so on,to the srflillfisf, winch will scarcely rise at all. From ,a vessel of milk which had been allowed to stand fourteen hours. sampGs were t iken .frorp different depths, and the size of the gjolmles nmlsured as "accurately as possible,- with the. following results i.-e-From surface of cream, diameter of average globule was 1-8120 inch, from lower layer of cream 1-6840 inch, and from six indies below the surface 1-3260 inch. In practice it is found that the larger the. globule the more easily the cream is churned into butter. Oftentimes now we bear, ‘ Butter will not

come. In 1553 butter churns, for bringing butter when it will not come, were sold, and 130 years ago Thomas Hale in his * Compleat Body of Husbandry,’ says :—‘There is great uncertainty as to the time of butter coming ; but this depends upon the manner oE beating. Let the mistress examine the manner of working of those who complain ; she will commonly find that laziness is the devil in the chnrn that sets his spell upon the butter; let her oversee the work, that it is done briskly, with sharp strokes, and tell the people for their own sakes to continue in the same manner, and the desired effect will soon follow.’ And I think old 'Lhomas Hale was about right. The value of the total quantity of butter imported by us last year was £11,866,717, being over two millions more than in the year 1877. The value of butter exported by us last year was £155,901, as against the sum of £719,993 in the year 1559. CHEESE. In the Bible cheese is mentioned but three times. Job must have had a_ thorough knowledge of its manufacture, for, in order to_ illustrate the unrest and ferment of his mind in the days of his adversity, he says— ‘ Hast Thou not poured me out like milk, and curdled me like cheese.’ In 1 Samuel, c. xvii., v. 18, Jesse gives directions to his son David 1 to carry ten cheeses to the army, for _ the captain of his brethren’s thousand.’ And in 2 Samuel, c. xvii., v. 28, is related the. fact of his being repaid in kind hy B.irzillai and others, who brought * Honey, butter, and cheese of kine for Havid and the people with him.to eat.’. 350 E.c, Aristotle refers to cheese, and in Virgil, in his ‘Georgies, ’ as translated by Bathurst, alludes to cheese-making in the following lines ! ‘ The mornings’s milk they put to press at night, That which is yielded at the waning light ; Placed in large cans, is by the shepherds borne To neighbouring towns at the first blush of morn ; . Or, press’d and slightly salted, is laid by To form, for Winter’s use, a fresh supply.’ Caesar states the Germans made cheese, and that the art of cheese-making was introduced into England by the Homans.. Mr J. T. Rogers, in his ‘History of Agriculture and Prices,’ mentions that English cheese was sold in the year 1260 at per lb, in 1278 at 33-45 d per lb, in 1381 at §d per lb, in 146 S at per lb, and in 1549 at Jjd per lb. At a banquet given by the Prior of Sfc. Augustine’s, Canterbury, in the year 1309. to 600 guests we are told the fish, cheese, milk, onions, &c., cost £2 10s. Walter De Henley calculated that two cows produced, between Christmas and Michaelmas, 2cwt of cheese worth 8s -per cwt, besides 20 gallons of butter worth 10s. Thus the value of the produce per cow was 93, hut, he adds, ‘ they must be kept”on good pasture to produce so riiuch,’ as on lighter pasture it took three to make that value. In English cheese is found an unsophisticated, natural, wholesome, nutritious article of food, the richness of which is derived, not only from oily compounds, but from butter of kine, and its sweetness and aroma from the grass that grows ‘ for the service of man ’ on our hills and dales. In this beautiful county of Somersetshire, where the fallow deer roams as in the days when the Druids cut the sacred mistletoe (a plant which is turned, to better account by the youthful Britons of to-day); where is found the only, pack of hounds in the world that hunts the wild deer ; .and where the highest average rent per acre is paid of any county, save Middlesex in this favoured county is, and lias been for many years, produced that famous cheese known all over the world as ‘ Cheddar.’ When it was first made, we know not; but from a very early time the dairy industry must have been important at Cheddar; for a Ban well Charter of 1068, quoted in a paper, read in 1887 by F. H. Dickenson, Esq., to the Somerset Archaeological Society, speaks of ‘Nine heordes and the common land up above milking way.’ These ‘nine heordes,’ Mr Dickenson supposes to have been pasture on the Cheddar pasture common for nine beasts for the bishop’s people, perhaps his own in the king’s land Pennard, August 21. Sir, —In regard to the big cheese, it was the produce ot 750 cows, and was, as you say, presented to the Queen ; but. in an evil hour permission was asked to exhibit the cheese, which was granted, and there began a series of disputes which only ended in Chancery, and when the cheese once arrived there, I leave you to'guess what became of it, I suppose it was speedily eaten up by those sharks called judges and lawyers. The cheese weighed 11 cwt, measured 9ft 4’m in circumference. 20in deep, and was ornamented with the Royal arms. I don’t suppose the quality was very good, as we for the most part find that pheese made from different dairies mixed together is not, as a rule, first-class. I do not know when cheese was first called Cheddar, but as Cheddar has always been a well-known place, I suppose it gave its name to cheeses made in the district. There is a statement in ‘ Beckman’s History,’ under the article ‘ Butter,’ that, cheese was known earlier, but there is no proof given T. Nunn, Vicar. THE OF SOILS ON DAIRY PRODUCE. . The influence of soils on dairy produce has been much debated, giisd by some writers, reduced to a minimum. ' On this subject I would quote the opinion of my father-in-law, the late, Joseph Harding, of Marksbury, to whose researches, labours, and writings the dairy industry of this day is much indebted. . , In a paper in my possession, on the boils ot England, ? 'be says, ‘ I have divided them into three classes ; tfie first c^as3 f° r making meat; the second class for malting gutter and cheese, because it is incompetent to do the yf(}vj£ of the first and second. " . One of the largest and most expenenped cheese merchants in the West of England .writes me as follows — 1 It is well known that various dpils haye tfieir characteristic herbage, and, consequently, jfchje.fr .influence is great, pot only on the quantity and quality of milk, 1 Jout also on £h e character and‘flavour of the fh.eeg.e~ pxoduc ed from .cows fed on them. As a rule, the pheese made on very rich lanq is coarse in flavour, and fejjkJ vPfh land is deficient and weak sn uavbjjr. .Cheese made off peat-land is seldom good. Tim b*3st laud for cheese-making appears to be that which is not very rich in quality, but produces what is called ‘ swept herbage.’ ‘A few makers seem to be endowed with a peculiar instinct, which enables them to produce line cheese under any condition almost as> to soil ; whilst others, who have been most successful on one farm, make, when removed. to another, a very inferior quality. Others, again, who for years have produced the finest quality, will suddenly fall away, and id is seldom they quite regain their former perfection. In most cases the failure cannot be attributed to carelessness ; occasionally it is caused by the

altered condition of the land under a different system of management, but, as a rule; the only explanation to be given is, that the ’ hand has lost hjs cunning.’ Another eminent Somersetshire firm says ‘ We certainly think soil has a great deal to do with the quality and flavour of cheese, the best being made on old pastures ; recently converted land certainly has no chance of producing such good cheese as that of old pastures.’ In a valuable paper contribution to the 1877 Journal of the Bath and West of England and Southern Counties Agricultural Society, Mr Beard says : — 4 Many dairymen maintain that a first-class quality of cheese cannot be produced on certain lands, and that good old pasture yields a better quantity of cheese.’ Nor is this line of thought without a fair show of reason to support it. Old pastures, usually abound in thyme and other plants, which, it is assumed, yield greater richness and aroma to the milk. The late Professor Buckman gave it as his opinion, ‘ that the most noted dairy produce is derived from the new red sandstone.’ Personally, I have every reason to believe that the difference of soils is a most important factor in the quality of the dairy produce made off them ; and that whilst a good, useful article can, by the lest management, be made almost anywhere, yet the.most delicately flavoured cheese and butter will be produced on soils not too rich, but which grow natural clovers, . grasses, and herbage of the sweetest quality. I would also point out the injury which arises from keeping any quantity of sheep on lands fed by dairy cattle, to the cheese made on it. As a matter closely connected with dairying, a reference may be made to the continued increase in the permanent pasture of our country. In the agricultural returns for last year on page 15, appears the following : —‘ It is remarkable that in spite of the increased acreage under permanent pastures, and clover or artificial grasses in G-reat Britain, the stock of cattle has fallen off considerably in the past year ; each of the several classes of this stock, as distinguished in the returns, participating in the result; the total number being now 6,431,268, equal to 3 per cent less than in ISSS.’ From the partially-published returns for this year it appears that there is a further decrease of 312,044 head of cattle, or 4 per cent less than the reduced numbers of 1877. But this decrease of the past two years will, perhaps, cease to be considered remarkable when we look at the decrease of the last twenty years. In 1868, with 16,099.044 acres of permanent pasture clover in Great Britain, we fed a total of 38,443,916 head of cattle, sheep, and pigs. This year we only keep 33,789,650 of cattle, sheep, and pigs on an area of 20,500,000 acres of permanent pasture, clovers, &c. ; so that with an increased area of . permanent pasture and clovers this year, equal to 4,500,000 acres, as compared with 186 S. we have a decrease of 4,654,239 head of cattle, sheep and pigs. EWE-SULKING-From time immemorial the milking at the ewe-bughta was considered a kind of annual holiday*or festival. It came when the minings and the evenings were balmy and inspiriting, and the pleasures of the season had been handed down in old songs in almost ajl languages. The poets, from Homer to Burns, have sung of * the lilting at the ewe-milking.’ The practice of ewe-milking was not, howeyer, followed merely as a sylvan pleasure,. It was a part of that systematic thrift which in former times was essential to success. Our ancestors had many ways of gathering small, things which we now-a-days do not consider worth stooping for; and ewe-milking was one of these pickings, ~, About the beginning of this century farmers began to milk their ewes less, not considering it judicious management, and as a general principle they, were perfectly right. It was not to be expected that ewes, after rearing a lamb to full size, could afterwards give sufficient milk to pay for milking. , In former days a man’s time was of comparatively little value, and it then probably did pay to milk even for small returns. But, doubtless, ewemilking was kept up for many years after it was understood to be of no pecuniary advantage. It wasjane of those inherited practices, handed down from generation to generation, and persisted in from sheer force of habit or custom. It was believed to be essential and humane, until some far-seeing genius discovered that it was about the same thing to let the lambs suck a little longer. There is now about two months’difference in the time of weaning since ewe-milking was abandoned. We have .not the least intention of advising a return to the old practice, but wish to point out a system by which ewe-milking can be very profitably pursued. At the present value of mutton and lamb, it is not to be imagined that ewes can be spared for any other purpose than nursing their lambs ; but where the system of rearing early fat lambs is practised ewe-milking seems to suggest a -way of overcoming the greatest obstacle totfiat system, viz., very long keep of the ewes for very short service, When the lambs are sold fat early in the season, just at a time when there is abundance of succulent, food forthcoming, it is difficult pot to believe that the ewes might be milked a few months without injury, when, as we will presently show, the practice can be turned to good account. Ewe-milk, cheese is richer than cow-milk cheese, and used to be. counted a great dainty ; but the home-made article is not now obtainable except at an extravagant price. In France it is made on a large scale. In the district of Roquefort there is a factory where the milk of some 250,000 sheep is made into cheese of that name, and the amount turned out averages from 3000 to 3500 tons annually. It is also Baid that many of the choicest Continental cheeses owe their fine flavour to the presence or a proportion of / ewe-milk. Considering the energy which is now being infused into dairying, it may be worth suggesting that the ewe i 3 capable of contributing very materially to the making of fine cheese. • We do now, howeyer, recommend ewe-milk* ing for the purpose of assisting in the production of a fine-flavoUred article’ of diet" .opty. We recommend it as a business, : a system complete in itself, the same aS any cow dairy™ ,W : ith this exception, that every ewe wbuldhave Iq nurse her lamb for a short time. As already mentioned, the only' disadvantage which attends the reaping of early fat lambs, where the gwes are' not fattened mpd sold off hlso, js the heavy'expense of .bringing fine ,eweg int.b for rearing fat lambs, ' jyfiefi they have to r,un for .the -remainder 'of the year. It stands to reason that tjie ewes most suitable for making fat lambs' would naturally have good milking capacities, and would therefore be the best for dairy purposes. We are not in possession of any test giving the comparative yield |of milk by different breeds, yet there is evidence enough to prove that some of the breeds in existence milk very heavily, and would easily, by selection, give sufficient to satisfy even the most sceptical, . In Iceland they milk the ewes for six. weeks

after the lambs are weaned, and from 100 well kept sheep easily realise from 12 to 15lbs of butter daily. If this can be done with the small Iceland sheep, what might we not expect from some'of our better-developed breeds ? At Roquefort, each ewe is estimated to produce 24 lbs of cheese in the year, besides suckling her lamb for two months. Now, talcing three months as the average milking period of the ewes after rearing an early' fat lamb, and allowing''!.'gallon to lib of cheese, reckoning oil the same total of 24!bs as above, the daily yield of milk would be like two and two-thirds quarts per ewe. The milk made into ( cheese might be expected to command Is per lb., or even more. How far the Roquefort estimate could be exceeded we will not predict, but we have little doubt that there are milk ewes in this country that are capable of giving at least two quarts of milk daily. Here, then, is/a new field for energy and ability !—Sheep and Wool.