Gentlemen's dairies are often built expensively, and highly ornamented ; but they seldom unite all the conveniences essential to a good dairy, generally from a want of practical knowledge of the subject in those by whom they are designed. In Switzerland and Holla nd. the cow-house and dairy have a very neat appearance within a short distance from the principal residence. In the common dairy-farms in Hulland, the farmer and his tinnily frequently live under the same roof with the cows ; in north llolland and Friesland, a cow house is as clean as any dwelling house, and the family often assemble and take their meals in it.
The following description of a eow-house and dairy under one root; combines all that is useful, with considerable neat ness internally and externally. "It is a building about sixty feet long, by thirty wide, with a veranda running round three sides of it. The dwelling is not here attached, as it usually is in common dairies, and the building is not surrounded by a fin-in-yard ; these are the only circumstances in which it differs from that of a common peasant. The dairy-room is sunk below the level of the soil, and is paved with brick. The sides are covered with Dutch tiles, and the arched roof with hard cement. The cow-house, like all in Holland, has a broad passage in the middle, and the cows stand with their heads towards this passage, which is paved with clinkers or bricks set on edge. Their tails are towards the wall, along which runs a broad gutter sunk six or eight inches below the level of the place on which the cows stand. This gutter slopes towards a sink covered with an iron grate, which communicates by a broad arched drain with a vaulted tank into which all the liquid flows. The gutter is washed clean twice a day before the cows are milked. The cows stand or lie on a sloping brick-floor, and have but a small quantity of litter allowed them, which is removed every day, and carried to the dung-heap, or to the pig-sties, to he more fully converted into dung. Whenever the litter is removed, the bricks
are swept clean, and in summer they are washed with water." In Holland, the cows never leave the house from November till May. In summer they are driven home to be milked, it' in pastures near to the cow-house, but if the pastures are far off, they are milked there, and the milk is brought home in boats. This is thought not so good for the butter, which is then churned from the whole quantity of the milk, without allowing the cream to rise. The finest butter is always made from the cream as fresh as possible, and the milk should, to make this cream rise, be set as soon as milked. The best quality of butter is churned from cream skimmed from the milk after six hours setting; an inferior kind, from a second skimming.
The utensils of the dairy, such as pails, churns, vats, &c. are usually made of white wood, and require to be kept, as does everything about a dairy, scrupulously clean and neat. Utensils of brass and tin are sometimes used ; in Holland, the milk is invariably carried in brass vessels. There is some danger in the use of brass utensils, but a very little attention will obviate it. Cast-iron pans have been invented, tinned inside ; but there is nothing so safe, or so neat, as well-glazed white crockery ware of the common oval from.
A dairy for cheese, well constructed, should consist of four rooms : one for the reception of the milk ; another for the scalding and pressing of the cheese; a third for the purpose of salting; and the fourth for stowing the cheese, which last may be a loft made over the dairy, though it is sometimes placed at a distance, which makes it inconvenient.
The butter dairy should consist of three apartments, namely, a milk-room, a churning-room, and a room for the different utensils, and for cleaning and airing them in. The churning-room should be fitted up with the necessary apparatus.