Manages the dairy, milks the cows, makes the butter, cheese, wheys,
syllabubs, &c. attends the poultry, picks and prepares them for
trussing, makes bread and fresh butter for the parlour every morning,
and bakes all the bread of the family.
The greatest possible attention must be paid to the Dairy. Cleanliness
being the primary object, all the utensils, shelves, and the floor,
should be kept perfectly neat, and cold water should be frequently
thrown over it.—There should be shutters to the Dairy to keep out the
sun and hot air.
The cows should be milked at a regular and early hour, and their
udders should be _perfectly emptied_, else the quantity given will be
diminished. When you go to the cow, take with you, _cold water_ and a
sponge, and wash each cow’s udder; bathe it well with cold water, both
in winter and summer, as that braces them and repels heat. But, if any
cow has sore teats, let them be soaked in warm water twice a day, and
either dressed with soft ointment, or bathed with spirits and water. In
either case, the milk should be given to the pigs.
When the milk is brought into the Dairy, it should be strained and
emptied into clean pans, immediately, in winter, but not till cool, in
summer. Suffer no one to milk the cows but yourself, as much depends on
their being _dripped quite clean_, particularly after a calf is taken
away.
The quantity of milk given by cows, will be different according to
their breed, health, pasturage, the length of time from calving, and
other circumstances. Change of pasturage will tend to increase the
quantity.
In good pastures, the average of each cow will be about three gallons a
day from Lady-day to Michaelmas; and thence to Christmas, one gallon a
day.
Cows will be profitable yielders of milk, to fourteen or fifteen years
of age, if of a good breed. They should be fed well two or three
weeks before calving, which will increase the quantity of milk. In
gentlemen’s Dairies, more attention is paid to the beauty and size of
cows, than to their produce.
It is absolutely necessary that the cows should be kept feeding whilst
you are milking them.
It should be contrived that cows kept for a gentleman’s family, should
calve at different seasons, and, particularly, that one or two should
calve in August or September, to insure a supply of milk in winter.
When there is not a great demand for cream in the family, the
Dairy-maid will take that opportunity to provide for the winter store.
She should keep a regular weekly account of the quantity of milk given
by each cow, and the quantity of butter she pots. The average of a good
fair Dairy cow, during several months after calving, will be seven
pounds of butter a week, and from three to five gallons of milk per
day; afterwards, a weekly average of three or four pounds of butter,
from barely half that quantity of milk. On an average, three gallons of
good milk, will yield one pound of butter. The annual consumption of a
good cow, turned to grass, is from an acre to an acre and a half in the
summer, and from a ton to a ton and a half of hay, in the winter. Each
cow should be allowed two pecks of carrots per day. The grass, if cut
and carried to the cows green, will economize full one-third.
Alderney cows yield rich milk, upon less food, than larger cows, but
are seldom large milkers, and are particularly scanty of produce in the
winter.
Wages from 8l. to 12l. a year.—Perquisites, 1d. per pound for butter;
1½d. for each chicken, or fowl killed; 2d. each, for ducks, geese,
and turkeys; and 3d. a score for eggs.