St. Landry democrat., 1886-05-01
Communicated.

MI.
We now propose to give our observa-
tons and notes of an English dairy, the
one we visited after an absence of 2S
years, was at our birth place, Hlilsden.
three miles from Buckingham, that of
Mrs. Lyons. We selected cburning
day (they churn only twice week. and
arrived there about 10 O'clock, and
English like, lunch was soon spread out,
consisting of cold round of boiled
beef, bread and cheese, ale of course,
and wine, having OF necessity broke
loose from these eatings each, chose
glass of milk, to their 1ismay, they
never drinking it except boiled and
with bread, a habit now keep up, as it
is to me the best OF food.
Soon the daughter came and stated
she was going to take up the butter, We
went to the churning room, which joins
the dairy but is level with the ground,
the dairy being sunk about feet paved
with stone, the milk vessels, in which
the milk is put for cream to rise, are
about five feet long by three feet wide
and six inches deep lined with sheet
| lead, arranged on trestles round three
sides of the dairy, the centre being
clear of every thing except vessels Tor
skimming and holding the cream. The
! cburn is about the size of 4 whisky
barrel, with dashers inside geared to
turn horizontal and with horse power
as our corn mill. The churn was
tnrned down over a wooden tub and
out came six dozen of butter, golden
yellow, or in our say, u pounds. ms
after working little to dispose of the
butter milk was weighed and rolled I'D
two pound rolls, put in cloth and pack
ed in willow hampers for London mar
ket and kept its shape, nOtwithstand-
| ing this was July but the temperature
was only 70 to SO now mark what diff
| ferent conditions exist between Us.
Milk slow to sour, only churn twice a
week, milk nevor clabbers, Except
with runnet) cool temperature. We
heard nothing of improved churns or
new methods of making butter, but
when we see such meadows OF grass, !;
not weed can show itself or Il nettle
/ intrude from the hedge or roadside, bnt
if is cut befo seeding. This makes
fine cows which give large quantities
| of good milk, which are all important
TO make good butter and likewise good
ha, for winter, then the COWS fall OF
but little in quantity OF quality OF milk
and butter. No such tiue favored but
! fer have we eat elsewhere. We have
spent a season in Duchess county,
| New York, good hutter on the banks OF
| the Ohio, but inferior, aud when we see
the mixture OF rank weeds allowed t.
grow the thing is explained. And prob
ably it is not generally observed that
the COW kind has the poorest instinct IN
selecting food, OF any other animal.
| The following has come under my own
observation eating wild peach ana
diving in a few hours, wild onions, which
destroys milk and butter, bitter weed
and cotton seed the latter sp0lIn2 the
meat in favour and have known calves
| TO eat rags used TO strain white lead
and three of them 10 die from the FL,
| fpcts. This goes to show how careful
we should pe as to what COWS eat. AT
the west we hear of milk sickness, we
| never hear of it in England. Of course
there they have been wedding out tor
hundreds of years, it is not reasonable
to expect, such dairies as theirs, nntil
we obtain the similar conditions or
pure grasses, free from weeds, ana
climate which produce fine cattle, where
all animated nature digest we'll and
| tatten easy. If you wish to see tht
reason of this with us go to our beet
| market which seldom has liver hit to
eat, being full OF gals.
| There is one cruel aud painful prac-
| tice on those dairy farms, that OF taxing
| the calf from the COW at three weeks
old leaving the mother TO run over the
field blating for her Young. which was
very distressing to we children, even
the calves they raise to keep up their
stock, they take away and raise on skim
milk, the balance are sent to market
where others come to purchase. Inc
excuse is they need the milk for the
butter as it takes all the dairy to pay,
the enormous rents as the shylock OF
landlords, if they do not demand the
pound of flesh, must have the. two
pound in sterling money. if it goads the
| flesh to obtain it. j. GIBBS.
| Opelousas, La