DAIRYING 01E. dcycry, from deyc, dairy maid• leel. deigja; probably connected with ( Swed. dirgyja, to suckle, Skt. dull, to milk). That branch of agriculture which has to do with the production and utilization of milk. It em braces the feeding and management of milch cows, the supplying of cream and milk, and the making of butter and cheese, etc. The term dairy husbandry is applied to a system of farm ing under which cows are kept and bred, and the principal crops grown with special reference to the dairy herd. Dairy was formerly used to designate the place or house where the milk was kept, cheese was made, etc. Like almost all other occupations, dairying has become in recent years divided into several distinct and special lines. These as to the form of the pro duet and the manner of disposing of it. In one case milk or cream may lie produced for de livery to eonsume•s direct from the dairy, or the same product may be delivered to a creamery to be manufactured into buttes• and cheese, or the product of the herd may be converted into butter and cheese at home.
In 110 branch of agriculture has greater pro gress been made in recent years than in dairying, and it is now. regarded as among the most pro gressive and highly forms of farming in the United States. While formerly believed to be confined by natural conditions to a limited area, known as the 'dairy belt,' it has been shown that the industry can be profitably and success fully carried on over a wide range of country, and that, generally speaking, good butter and cheese can be made by proper management in almost all parts of North America. Dairying was formerly confined to the spring and summer mouths, when pasturage could be had for the cows, and it was planned to have the cows calve as far as possible in the spring; they were gen erally allowed to go dry during the fall and early winter, and were neither well fed nor well housed through the winter. Winter dairying was prac tically unknown, as it was not supposed to be feasible or profitable. Under the system at present followed, dairying is not confined to any season, and the cows are fed succulent fodder during the winter in the form of corn silage, and roots, in addition to hay and liberal grain rations, composed largely of bran, cornmeal, and the by-products of factories where glucose and similar products are made. Great stress is laid
upon the value of succulent foods as supplements to dry feed in winter, and in all countries where dairying has attained a high degree of develop ment succulent feeds have occupied a prominent place in the ration given throughout the year. Corn silage is extensively relied upon for this purpose in the United States, being the cheapest food which can be supplied over a wide extent of the country. There may now be said to be two general systems of summer-feeding cows, the pasturage system, and the 'soiling' system, in which latter the green crops are cut for the animals. Pasturage is still extensively practiced where practicable, and it is quite customary to feed some grain to good cows on pasture. A large number of cows in the eastern part of the United States are now 'kept up' during summer, sueh green feed as comes into condition in suc cession throughout the season being raised for them. This method is thought to be more eeo nomical in sections where land commands a high price. A umeh larger number of cows can be kept on a given area by this 'soiling' system, and the animals are found to keep healthy and do well under it. Perhaps the most remarkable advance in dairying has been in the keeping of better cows, and in giving more attention to their feeding, comfort, and genera] management. The introduction of the creamery and cheese factory systems (q.v.) has caused a great revo lution in dairy practice, to a large extent trans ferring the manufacture of butter and cheese from the farm to the The invention of the Babcock test, which has made practicable the payment for milk by test and placed it within the power of dairymen to test their individual cows, has been a very potent factor in improving the grade of cows which are kept, and has prob ably done snore than any other single thing to advance American dairying. :Milk of guaranteed fat-content is now sold in most of the large cities, and cream is supplied of various degrees of richness, according to the purposes for which it is intended. The sanitary conditions of milk production have been greatly improved as a result of bacteriological and other studies which have been made, and pasteurized milk and cream are now extensively used.