In the successful management of milk, butter, and cheese, much depends upon the dairy itself. It should have, if practicable, a northern exposure. Proximity to sewers. pig-sties, or any offensive smells, must be sedulously avoided. Stone and lime are the best materials. The walls may be advantageously lined with a skirting of brick, or, where the cost is not objected to, with white glazed tiles. A lofty roof and free ventila tion must he provided, with windows looking north. A double door is advisable—a light sparred one placed inside, useful in summer for freely admitting plenty of air; and a solid, well-fitting, boarded one, removable in summer, and necessary for keeping out the winter cold. The temperature of the dairy may be further moderated, in hot wea ther, by allowing a stream of cold water to trickle slowly over the floor, or, better still, round the milk-vessels, placed in large vats, and-by hanging throughout the room coarse calico saturated with water several times a day. In winter, hot-water pipes, closed doors, windows protected by straw, and such other appliances, must be resorted to for the maintenance of the desirable temperature of from 50° to 56°. Further to insure an equable temperature, it is advisable to shelter the building with trees and shrubs, and, if possible, have it 4 or 5 ft. below the level of the ground. No animal food, drying ing clothes, or indeed anything else, except milk, butter, and newly made cheese, should ever enter its walls. To remove any acidity or noxious emanations, charcoal-powder is sometimes kept strewed- cm the shelves. An annual whitewashing of roof anti walls helps to cleanse and purify. Daily must the floor and shelves be thoroughly scrubbed and washed, and not a drop of spilled milk allowed to remain for many minutes mire moved. By far the neatest and best shelves are of stone or slate, 21 ft. wide, raised on stout iron rods about 2 ft. from the bricked or paved floor. The dishes are best made of earthenware, or oak lined with lead. Where many cows are kept, these last may be conveniently made 3 ft. wide, and 4 or 5 ft. long. They will thus project 6 in. over the shelf, and should be provided with a brass plug, by which the milk, when skimmed, can be drawn oif without moving the vessels. These, and the milk-buckets, and, indeed, every article that comes in contact with milk or butter, must be kept scrupu lously clean. Immediately after use, they should be rinsed out with cold water, and then with hot; wooden and metal articles well scoured with a scrubber, again washed, or, where practicable, dipped into a boiler amongst scalding water, and then set aside for several hours to dry, air, and sweeten. For scrubbing purposes, a small, tightly girded bunch of mountain heath, where such can be had, is best adapted, and failing it, a wisp of strong straw. These should be changed frequently. Indeed, the compara tively short period of their duration is a guarantee for that. inattention to the proper cleaning and scouring of the dishes, especially in sultry weather, is sure to be marked by sour milk. Upon many farm homesteads in Scotland, loss is occasioned by the unsatisfactory condition in which the dairies are kept. • The milk, when brought into the dairy, is run through a wire-gauze or horse-hair strainer, into the vessels above described. To encourage the rapid rise of the cream, the layer of milk should be shallow, especially in summer. At the end of 12 or 24 hours, the cream is carefully removed; and in cool weather the milk may stand for another 12 or 24 hours, when it is again skimmed, the residue going to the pigs or calves. The cream removed at the first skimming is always richest and best; and where it is desired that the butter should be first rate, any subsequent skimmings may be kept separate, and churned by themselves. Churning at short intervals of twice or thrice a week is prefer able to allowing the cream to stand for a longer period. Every time cream is added, the contents of the Lank or cistern are well stirred, and a little salt added, unless, as in Scotland, where the butter is liked perfectly fresh. The cream should be kept as cool as possible, especially during the several hours preceding churning. For this end, in
very hot weather, the cream-tank is sometimes lowered into a conveniently deep well, or placed for several hours in a water-eistern or under a running tap. In such weather, the churning, which generally occupies from 30 to 40 minutes, should be done at night, the butter laid in brine, and made up early next morning. When the whole milk is kept for churning, care must be taken never to add new milk to that which has already been sour. Cheese-making (see CIIEESE) was a laborious process. Now, how ever, by the establishment of dairy factories in America, and latterly in England, much of the manual labor is saved. The factories have been very successful in America, where they are carried on to a great extent, and with advantageous results to all con cerned. On the same principle, two have existed in Derbyshire for several years.
Railway communication has greatly extended, improved, and even cheapened the dairy supplies of London and other large towns. The night and early morning trains now carry thither from distances of 60, 80, or 100 in., quantities of butter and milk, time latter in large tins, which in hot weather are usually covered with wetted calico to promote evaporation, and thus keep the milk cool and sweet. The sale of the sweet milk is found to pay better than the making either of butter or cheese. Quantity rather than quality of milk is usually the main requirement, and a liberal amount of soft succulent food is accordingly used. In London, Edinburgh, Glasgow, and other large towns, the cow proprietors do not rear their own cows, and dependent as they are on the ordinary cow market, they often buy animals which they do not find it advis able to keep long. They put a great many through their hands. For the most part of the year they are necessarily stall-fed, the dietary consisting of cut grass, various sorts of early roots, and distillers' or brewers' draft and wash. This sloppy sort of food produces a great quantity of milk, which is the main desideratum. The grass raised from town-sewerage irrigation has latterly been given extensively to city dairymen's cows. The milk from cows fed on this grass has been blamed for engendering typhoid fever. Whether it is blameworthy or not is a point that has not as yet been set at rest.
Statistics show that the united kingdom is gradually becoming more dependent on foreign supplies of dairy produce. In 1856, 513,392 cwt. of butter were imported; and in 1875, the quantity had increased to 1,467,183 cwts. Cheese shows an even greater increase in the same period, the quantity imported in 1856 being 407,076 cwts., and in 1875, 1,626,413 cwts. To add to the significance of the statistics, the exports from Great Britain indicate a decrease. The butter exported in 1856 reached 139,548 cwts.; and in 1875, 39,281 cwt-s. Cheese exported in 1856, 39,545 cwts.; and in 1875, 21,428 cwts.
For further information, the reader is referred to the following works: Dairy Farm ing, by John C. Morton; Dairy Management, by J. Horsfall, being a republication of the papers above alluded to (Ridgway); Dairy Management, by Mrs. Scott (Blackwood); articles on Dairy Management in Morton's Cyclopcedia of Agriculture; and Stephens' Book of the Farm.
DAIS (Fr.). This term was used with considerable latitude by mediaeval writers. Its most usual signitications are the following: 1. A canopy over an altar, shrine, font, throne, stall, chair, statue, or the like. The term was applied to the canopy without regard to the materials of which it was composed, which might be cloth, wood, stone, metal, or other substance. 2. Thechief seat at the high table in a hall, with the canopy which covered it, from which probably the word in all its siguifications was introduced, its French meaning being a canopy. 3. The high table itself. 4. The raised portion of the floor, or estrade, on which the high table stood, and by which the nivel' was divided from the lower portion of the hall; and 5. A cloth of state for covering a throne or table. In old writings, the word occasionally takes the form of dois, and more rarely that of dez or detz.