CHEESE AND CHEESE-MAKING.]
D A I R Y-F ARMING
of a yield of 6, 8, 12, and 14 quarts per head per day. For comparison there is also given, in the first column, the estimate of the total or original manure-value when the foods are consumed for the production of fattening increase. So much for the plan and results of the estimations of total or original manure-value of the different foods, that is, deducting only the constituents removed in the milk, and reckoning the remainder at the prices at which they can be purchased in artificial manures. With a view to direct application to practice, however, it is necessary to estimate the unexhausted manure-value of the different foods, or what may be called their compensation-value, after they have been used for a series of years by the outgoing tenant and he has realized a certain portion of Table IX. Comparison of the Estimates of Total or Original Manure- Value, when Foods are consumed for the Production of Fattening Increase, with those when the Food is consumed by Cows giving different Yields of Milk. Totalthat or Original Manure-Value per Ton of Food consumed— is, only deducting IncreasetheorConstituents in Milk. in Fattening Production Milk, the Yield Description of Food. For the For theper Head perofDay to besupposing as under— Production of Fattening In- 6 quarts. 8 quarts. 10 quarts. 12 quarts. 14 quarts. crease. £ s. d. £ s. d. £ s. d. £ s. d. 1 19 2 1 14 7 1 12 0 19 6 17 1 Linseed 2 11 11 2 8 1 2 6 0 2 3 10 2 19 Linseed cake Decorticated cotton cake 3 14 9 3 11 2 3 9 2 3 7 4 3 5 4 Palm-nut cake . 16 4 13 2 114 0 19 5 0 17 9 Undecorticated cotton cake 2 5 3 2 2 4 2 0 8 1 19 2 1 17 6 Cocoa-nut cake . 1 1910 1 16 11 1 15 3 1 13 9 1 12 3 2 16 5 2 14 2 2 12 11 2 11 7 2 10 4 Rape cake . 1 16 5 1 13 1 1 11 2 19 6 1 7 Peas 2 1 11 1 18 7 1 16 10 1 14 11 1 13 Beans . 2 0 8 1 17 5 1 15 7 1 13 9 1 12 Lentils 2 1 1 1 17 11 1 16 0 1 14 2 1 12 Tares (seed) 0 16 7 0 13 4 0 11 7 0 9 11 0 8 Maize 0 18 11 0 15 8 0 13 11 0 12 1 0 10 Wheat 0 17 7 0 14 5 0 12 7 0 10 8 0 9 Malt 0 17 2 0 14 0 0 12 3 0 10 6 0 8 Barley 0 19 9 0 16 8 0 15 0 0 13 4 0 11 Oats (0 18 6) 0 15 5 0 13 9 0 12 0 0 10 Rice meal Locust beans 1 1811 1 17 4 2 6 7 2 3 9 2 2 0 Malt coombs 1 15 2 1 12 0 1 10 5 1 6 11 15 3 Fine pollard 1 10 5 18 9 Coarse pollard 1 18 1 1 15 2 1 13 6 1 18 6 1 15 11 1 14 6 1 11 8 1 10 3 Bran . 17 0 15 5 14 5 13 7 12 8 118 Clover hay . 0 18 7 0 17 0 0 16 3 0 15 5 0 14 5 0 13 7 Meadow hay 7 8 0 12 0 10 9 0 10 0 8 5 Pea straw . 0 7 0 6 2 0 5 5 4 9 4 0 3 3 Oat straw . 0 6 0 5 5 0 4 10 4 2 3 6 3 0 Wheat straw 0 6 0 5 6 0 4 10 4 4 3 9 3 2 Barley straw 0 11 0 10 4 0 9 9 9 2 8 7 8 0 Bean straw . 2 11 3 6 3 3 3 1 4 1 Potatoes 2 4 2 3 2 1 1 11 2 9 Carrots 2 7 3 1 2 10 3 6 Parsnips 2 10 2 9 Mang’el wurzels 3 2 2 8 2 7 2 11 Swedish turnips 2 6) 2 3 2 2 Yellow turnips 2 4 2 3 White turnips 2 ' the manure-value in his increased crops. In the calculations for this purpose the rule is to deduct one-half of the original manure-value of the food used the last year, and one-third of the remainder each year to the eighth, in the case of all the more concentrated foods and of the roots— in fact, of all the foods in the list excepting the hays and the straws. For these, which contain larger amounts of indigestible matter, and the constituents of which will be more slowly available to crops, two-thirds of the original manure-value is deducted for the last year, and only onefifth from year to year to the eighth year back. The results of the estimates of compensation-value so made are given for the five yields of 6, 8, 10, 12, and 14 quarts of
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milk per head per day respectively in Lawes and Gilbert’s paper 1 on the valuation of the manures obtained by the consumption of foods for the production of milk, which may be consulted for fuller details. It must, however, be borne in mind that when cows are fed in sheds or yards the manure is generally liable to greater losses than is the case with fattening oxen. The manure of the cow contains much more water in proportion to solid matter than that of the ox. Water will, besides, frequently be used for washing, and it may be that a good deal of the manure is washed into drains and lost. In the event, therefore, of a claim for compensation, the management and disposal of the manure requires the attention of the valuer. Indeed, the varying circumstances that will arise in practice must be carefully considered. Bearing these in mind, the estimates may be accepted as at any rate the best approximation to the truth that existing knowledge provides ; and they should be found sufficient for the requirements of practical use. Obviously they will .be more directly applicable in the case of cows feeding entirely on the foods enumerated in the list, and not depending largely on grass • but, even when the animals are partially grass-fed, the value of the manure derived from the additional dry food, or roots, may be estimated according to the scale given. The whole question is more fully dealt with under Agriculture. Cheese and Cheese-Making. For generations, perhaps for centuries, the question has been discussed as to why there should be so large a proportion of bad and inferior cheese and so small a proportion of really good cheese made in farmhouses throughout the land. That the result is not wholly due to skill and care, or to the absence of these qualities, on the part of the dairymaid may now be taken for granted. Instances might be quoted in which the most painstaking of dairymaids, in the cleanest of dairies, have failed to produce cheese of even second-rate quality and character, and yet others in which excellent cheese has been made under commonplace conditions as to skill and equipment, and with not much regard to cleanliness in the dairy. The explanation of what was so long a mystery has been found in the domain of ferments. It is now known that whilst various micro-organisms, which in many dairies have free access to the milk, have ruined an incalculable quantity of cheese—and of butter also—neither cheese nor butter of first-rate quality can be made without the aid of lactic acid bacilli. As an illustrative case, mention may be made of that of two most painstaking dairymaids who had tried in vain to make good cheese from the freshest of milk in the cleanest of dairies in North Lancashire. Advice to resort to the use of the ferment was acted upon, and the result was a revelation and a transformation, excellent prize-winning cheese being made from that time forward. By the addition of a “starter,” in the form of a small quantity of sour milk, whey, or buttermilk, in an advanced stage of fermentation, the development of acidity in the main body of milk is accelerated. It has been ascertained that the starter is practically a culture of bacteria, which, if desired, may be obtained as a pure culture. Professor J. It. Campbell, as the result of recent experiments on pure cultures for Cheddar cheese-making, states2 that (1) first-class Cheddar cheese can be made by using pure cultures of a lactic organism; (2) this organism abounds in all samples of sour milk and sour whey; (3) the use of a whey starter is attended with results equal in every respect to those obtained from a milk-starter. It is well within 1 2
Journ. Roy. Agric. Soc., 1898. Trans. Highl. and Agric. Soc. Scot., 1899.
