Dairy
the department of a farm which is concerned with the production of milk and its manufacture into butter and cheese. As a rule, the soil and climate of a country, and the nearness of suitable markets, determine in a great measure the choice between tillage and dairy husbandry. For milk dairies cows that yield abundantly are selected, while for butter and cheese dairies the rich quality of the milk is the principal point. Regularity in feeding is very important, and the nature of the food given has a great effect on the quality of the milk. The younger the cow is the richer is her milk, and the second and third years, therefore, are generally the most profitable, both quantity and quality being taken into account. In general, after the seventh or eighth year it is not considered advisable to continue the cow longer in milk, as her milk is fast deteriorating and she consumes more food than a young one.
In the United States the cattle of Ayrshire and Jersey hold the first place for shire and Jersey hold the first place for dairy purposes, the first on account of the large yield which they give on comparatively poor feeding, the second for the richness of their milk. In the management of a dairy cleanliness is of the utmost importance, as no substance more easily receives and retains the odors and taste of putrescent matter than milk.
No food, either vegetable or animal, should be allowed to enter the milk house.
A good mode of purifying the atmosphere of a milk-house is to dip cloines in a solution of chloride of lime and then hang lution of chloride of lime and then hang them up on cords stretching from one corner to the other. In a similar way, too, the temperature of the room may be kept low during hot weather. The milk- room, therefore, should be built in such a manner as to be most easily cleaned and kept clean. The floor should be of smooth flagstones carefully jointed and dressed. It should have a slight slope toward the wall, where a channel is formed to cravey all water and spilled liquid to a drain.
All cornices and moldings, or any projections or cavities where dust or dirt All cornices and moldings, or any procan lodge, should be as far as possible avoided. The practice ractice of making a larder of a portion of the milk-house, or of having a number of cheeses drying on the of a portion of the milk-house, or of hav- Spilled milk should never be allowed to remain an instant longer than is necessary for its removal. The liberal use of water (cold in summer and warm in little common washing-soda dissolved in the water will be found useful in destroying any taint of sourness the milk-dishes little common washing-soda dissolved in milk are made either of glass, tin, tinnediron, or well-glazed earthenware. Wood is objectionable because it is difficult to keep the dishes clean, and lead and zinc is objectionable because it is difficult to from the acid of the milk. See also BUT- TER; CHEESE.
The are liable to corrosion or decomposition from the acid of the milk. See also BUTknown plants and flowers of the genus TER; CHEESE.