Mr. Alcock fattens his cows whilst giving milk, and sells them whilst giving 4 to 6 quarts per day. He quite agrees with me that it is far more profitable to buy far-milked cows for fattening; and obtains, from a change to his food, 2 to 3 quarts per day more than the cow had given previously.
Though Mr. Alcock’s cream is not so rich as what I have described on [pp. 377] and [378], it is more than ordinarily so. His mode of separating his milk from his cream differs from my own, his milk being set up in leaden vessels, from which, on the cream being formed, the old milk is drawn, by taking a plug from a hollow tube, with perforated holes in the centre of the vessel. To this difference I am disposed in some degree to attribute the less richness of Mr. Alcock’s cream. On examining, the cream with a spoon, after the dairy-keeper had drawn off the milk, I observed some portion of milk, which would have escaped through my perforated skimmer.
Mr. Alcock’s proportion of butter from milk, which is the matter of practical importance, is greater than what I have shown on a preceding page, being from each 16 quarts of milk 27 oz. of butter.
Quality of Butter.
—In January, 1857, samples of about 56 oz. each, of butter of my own, and also of Mr. Alcock’s, were sent to the laboratory of Messrs. Price & Co.’s candle-works, at Belmont.
My butter was found to consist of (taking the pure fat only),
| Hard fat, mostly margarine, fusible at 950°, | 45.9 |
| Liquid, or oleine, | 54.1 |
| 100.0 |
Mr. Alcock’s,
| Hard fat, mostly margarine, fusible at 10°, | 36.0 |
| Liquid, or oleine, | 64.0 |
| 100.0 |
For these analyses of butter the agricultural public is indebted to the good offices of Mr. George Wilson, director of Messrs. Price & Co.’s manufactory. It will be observed that Mr. Alcock’s milk is richer in butter and that his butter is also richer in proportion of oleine to margarine than my own.