Cattle 1853 - Lewis Family Farm

60 CATTLE.
eight gallons of milk, with the cream, will yield 24 pounds of sweetmilk
cheese, or 514 pounds per annum.
This is certainly an extraordinary quantity of butter and cheese,
and fully establishes the reputation of the Ayrshire cow, so far as the
dairy is concerned.*
Mr. Aiton rates the profit of the Ayrshire cow at a higher value.
He says, " To sum up all in one sentence, I now repeat that thousands
of the best Scotch dairy cows, when they are in their best
condition and well fed, yield at the rate of 1000 gallons in one year;
that, in general, from 3§ to 4 gallons of their milk will yield a pound
and a half of butter ; that 11\ gallons of their milk will produce 21
pounds weight of full milk-cheese."
Mr. Rankine very justly maintains that Mr. Aiton's statement is
far too high, and his calculations not well founded. " He deduces
his statement," says Mr. Rankine, " from the circumstance of some
fanners letting the milk of their cows Tor a year at £15 and £17,
which, taking 30 gallons to produce 24 lbs. of «heese, and the price
being 10s., would require 1,080 gallons for each cow. But he-is
not warranted in inferring that the milk from which these rents were
paid was all converted into cheese. No such rents were ever paid
for cows where a considerable portion of the milk was made into
cheese. In the vicinity of a town where the whole of the milk could
be sold for 8d. a gallon, 450 gallons would bring £15. Where the
whole of the milk could have been turned to such an account, such
rents might have been paid ; but it is erroneous to calculate the
quantity of milk given from the quantity of cheese required to enable
a rent of £15 to be paid. His first statement that 600 gallons are
yielded, though far above the average of all the cows in the county,
may be too low when applied to the best selected stocks on good
land ;—but I have reason to believe that no stock of 20 cows ever
averaged 850 gallons each in the year. I have seen 9 gallons of
milk drawn from a cow in one day. I quote with confidence the
answers to queries which I sent to two individuals. One states that,
at the best of the season, the average milk from each is i\ gallons,
and in a year 650 gallons ; that in the summer season 32 gallons of
entire milk will make 24 lbs. of cheese ; and 48 gallons of skimmed
milk will produce the same quantity : and that 90 gallons will make
24 lbs. of butter. Another farmer, who keeps a stock of between
30 and 40 very supe\ior cows, always in condition, states that the
average quantity-ef each is G87j,gallons. Although there may be
* In some experiments conducted at the Earl of Chesterfield's dairy at Bradlev-
from the Holderness, 38 J ounces ; from the Deyon, 28 ounces ; and from the Alderney*
25 ounces. The Ayrshire yields 5 gallons per day, and from that is produced 34
ounces
r
of butter.