785. To milk Cows.—A cow should be milked clean. Not a drop, if it can be avoided, should be left in the udder. It has been proved that the half-pint that comes out last, has twelve times, I think it is, as much butter in it, as the half-pint that comes out first. The udder would seem to be a sort of milk-pan, in which the cream is uppermost, and, of course, comes out last, seeing that the outlet is at the bottom. But, besides this, if you do not milk clean, the cow will give less and less milk, and will become dry much sooner than she ought.—Cobbett.
RAISING POULTRY.
786. There is scarcely any branch of farming operations more productive than the raising of poultry for market; and yet, with a large majority of our agriculturists, it is considered of but little account. The proximity to a great market, and the facilities for reaching it possessed by many of our farmers in this country, should make the rearing of poultry an object of attention.
787. To fatten Poultry.—Poultry should be fattened in coops, and kept very clean. They should be furnished with gravel, but with no water. Their only food, barley-meal, mixed so thin with water, as to serve them for drink. Their thirst makes them eat more than they would, in order to extract the water that is among the food. This should not be put in troughs but laid upon a board, which should be clean washed every time fresh food is put upon it. It is foul and heated water which is the sole cause of the pip.
788. Method of expeditiously fattening Chickens.—Take, for that purpose, a quantity of rice, and grind or pound it into a fine flour; mix sufficient for present use with milk and a little coarse sugar; stir the whole well over the fire, till it makes a thick paste; and feed the chickens, in the day-time only, by putting as much of it as they can eat, but no more, into the troughs belonging to their coops. It must be eaten while warm; and, if they have also beer to drink, they will soon grow very fat. A mixture of oatmeal and treacle, combined till it crumbles, is said to form a food for chickens, of which they are so fond, and with which they thrive so rapidly, that at the end of two months they become as large as the generality of full-grown fowls fed in the common way.