Alderney Cow, after Howitt.
BUTTER.
The Alderney Cow, considering its voracious appetite, yields very little milk; that milk, however, is of an extraordinary excellent quality, and gives more butter than can be obtained from the milk of any other cow. John Lawrence states that an Alderney Cow that had strayed on the premises of a friend of his, and remained there three weeks, made 19 lbs. of butter each week; and the fact was held so extraordinary, as to be thought worthy of a memorandum in the parish books. The milk of the Alderney Cow fits her for the situation in which she is usually placed, and where the excellence of the article is regarded, and not the expense.
Lord Hampden, of Glynde, had a cow which in the height of the season yielded ten pounds of butter and twelve pounds of cheese every week, and yet her quantity of milk rarely exceeded five gallons per day. The next year the same cow gave nine pounds and a half of butter per week for several weeks, and then for the rest of the summer between eight and nine pounds per week; and until the hard frost set in, seven pounds; and four pounds per week during the frost. Yet as a proof of the quality of the milk, she at no time gave more than five gallons in the day. To this may be added that, "four or five years before, the same person had a fine black Sussex Cow from Lord Gage, which also gave, in the height of the season, five gallons per day, but no more than five pounds of butter were ever made from it." This is accounted for in a singular way; for there is a common opinion in the east of Sussex, that "the milk of a black cow never gives so much butter as that of a red one."
MR. YOUATT'S PHILOSOPHY OF RABIES, OR MADNESS.
In treating of Rabies, Youatt says:—"When a rabid or mad dog is wandering about, labouring under an irrepressible disposition to bite, he seeks out first of all his own species; but if his road lies by a herd of cattle, he will attack the nearest to him; and if he meet with much resistance, he will set upon the whole herd, and bite as many as he can.... If the disease is to appear at all, it will be about the expiration of the fifth week, although there will be no absolute security in less than the double number of months," After making these remarks, our author reasons himself into the sapient conclusion, that the poison in all rabid animals resides in the saliva, and does not affect any other secretion. "The knowledge that the virus is confined to the saliva," he opines, "will settle a matter that has been the cause of considerable uneasiness. A cow has been observed to be ailing for a day or two, but she has been milked as usual; her milk has been mingled with the rest, and has been used for domestic purposes, as heretofore. She is at length discovered to be rabid. Is the family safe? Can the milk of a rabid cow be drunk with impunity? Yes, perfectly so, for the poison is confined to the saliva. The livers of hundreds of rabid dogs have been eaten in days of ignorance, dressed in all manners of ways, but usually fried as nicely as possible, as a preventive against madness. Some miscreants have sent the flesh of rabid cattle to the market, and it has been eaten without harm; and so, although not very pleasant to think about, the milk of the rabid cow may be drunk without the slightest danger."
Is it, indeed, possible for any of the secretions of an animal to be in a healthy state, and fit for human food, after it has had the virus of a rabid dog circulating in its system for at least five weeks? Furthermore, is it consistent in Mr. Youatt to call those miscreants who send the flesh of rabid cattle to market, when he acknowledges, in the same breathy that it can be eaten without harm?
According to Mr. Youatt's philosophy, a cow in a rabid state is actually as good as a cow in a healthy state; for its milk may be drunk with impunity—the family is perfectly safe who uses it for domestic purposes; and, moreover, the flesh of rabid cattle may be eaten without harm. What more can be predicated of cattle in the purest state of health?