DAIRY, the department of a farm which is concerned with the production of milk and its manufacture into butter and cheese. As a rule, the soil and climate of a country, and the nearness of suitable markets, determine in a great measure the choice between tillage and dairy hus bandry. For milk dairies cows that yield abundantly are selected, while for butter and cheese dairies the rich quality of the milk is the principal point. Regularity in feeding is very important, and the na ture of the food given has a great effect on the quality of the milk. The younger the cow is the richer is her milk, and the second and third years, therefore, are generally the most profitable, both quan tity and quality being taken into account. In general, after the seventh or eighth year it is not considered advisable to con tinue the cow longer in milk, as her milk is fast deteriorating and she consumes more food than a young one.
In the United States the cattle oi .Ayr shire and Jersey hold the first place for dairy purposes, the first on account of the large yield which they give on com paratively poor feeding, the second for the richness of their milk. In the manage ment of a dairy cleanliness is of the ut most importance, as no substance more easily receives and retains the odors and taste of putrescent matter than milk. No food, either vegetable or animal, should be allowed to enter the milk-house. A good mode of purifying the atmosphere of a milk-house is to dip clothes in a so lution of chloride of lime and then hang them up on cords stretching from one corner to the other. In a similar way,
too, the temperature of the room may be kept low during hot weather. The milk room, therefore, should be built in such a manner as to be most easily cleaned and kept clean. The floor should be of smooth flagstones carefully jointed and dressed. It should have a slight slope toward the wall, where a channel is formed to convey all water and spilled liquid to a drain.
All cornices and moldings, or any pro jections or cavities where dust or dirt can lodge, should be as far as possible avoided. The practice of making a larder of a portion of the milk-house, or of hav ing a number of cheeses drying on the shelves, is much to be reprehended. Spilled milk should never be allowed to remain an instant longer than is neces sary for its removal. The liberal use of water (cold in summer and warm in winter) is always to be commended; a little common washing-soda dissolved in the water will be found useful in destroy ing any taint of sourness the milk-dishes may have acquired. The best dishes for milk are made either of glass, tin, tinned iron., or well-glazed earthenware. Wood is objectionable because it is difficult to keep the dishes clean, and lead and zinc are liable to corrosion or decomposition from the acid of the milk. See also BUT