56
ON Tin; LIVE-STOCK
their calves. Great numbers are kept in large towns for sup-plying the inhabitants with milk, and in the country largequantities of butter and cheese are made, and many calvesfattened, in these counties, as well as in those of Ayr, Ren-frew and Lanark, where the dairy is the chief object of at-tention.
The food, management, and produce of milch cows, dependon local circumstances, and must be viewed in connectionwith the value of their produce. The price of beef does notvary perhaps more than 20 or 30 per cent, in different partsof the island but milk brings double the price in large towns,which it is worth at a few miles distance. Cows, therefore,are fed and managed very differently, as they are kept in ornear large towns, where milk, fresh butter, and butter-milkcan be sold at high prices, or in the country, where there isa very limited demand for these articles.
It is therefore proposed to consider the produce of cows,so far as regards milk, otherwise employed than in rearingcalves, under the following heads: 1. Town Dairies, wherethe milk is sold as it comes from the cow; 2. Butter Dairies,where the milk is made either into butter and butter-milk, orinto butter and skimmed-milk cheese; j3. Cheese Dairies;And, lastly, when it is applied to the fattening of calves.
In treating of the third division, it will be proper to attendmore particularly to the Ayrshire cows and their manage-ment, as the principal cheese dairies of Scotland are in thatcounty.