When milk has been suffered to stand a few hours, a substance called cream rises to the surface. This is skimmed off for several uses, but principally for the purpose of being made into butter, which is done by beating it in a vessel called a churn. In Cheshire it is customary to churn the butter from the whole milk, without its being skimmed, but this is contrary to the practice in most other parts of England. The consumption of butter is so great that not less than 50,000 tons' weight of it are stated to be annually used in London only. That, which is principally in esteem there is produced in Essex, and known by the name of Epping butter.
To make butter keep for a greater length of time than it would otherwise do, it is salted and packed in small tubs or barrels; and, in this state, it is a very considerable article of commerce. In the salting and packing of butter many abuses are practised, to increase its bulk and weight, against which there is an express act of parliament. Lumps of good butter are sometimes laid, for a little depth, at the top of a barrel, with butter of inferior quality beneath it. Sometimes the butter is packed hollow; and sometimes the exterior part of the butter is good whilst the whole interior is bad.
After the butter has been separated there remains in the churn a kind of whey which is called butter-milk, and the quality of which greatly depends on the manner of churning. Before it turns sour, butter-milk is a favourite beverage in the families of some farmers. It is also occasionally used as a wash for the face, being considered a remedy against freckles; but it is principally applied for the feeding of pigs.
The flesh of oxen constitutes the kind of food which we call beef. This is usually eaten in a recent state, but is sometimes, particularly in the northern parts of England, in Ireland, and Holland, salted in the manner of bacon, and in this state, it is a considerable article of trade. It affords a strong and invigorating nutriment, superior to any that we are acquainted with. Beef-tea is a preparation commonly made for invalids and convalescents, and consists of an infusion of the lean parts of beef in boiling water. Veal, or the flesh of calves, is an highly esteemed and delicate food.
The skins of cattle, after they have undergone the processes of tanning and currying, are employed for making harness, saddles, bridles, the soles of shoes, and for various other purposes. Calves' skins are used for the upper leathers of shoes, and by saddlers, book-binders, &c. The skins of sucking calves are manufactured into vellum, a thin substance which is employed by book-binders; also for writing and drawing upon, and for other uses. From the parings and other offals of the hides of oxen, and the parings and scraps of the legs, by boiling them in water to the consistence of a jelly, straining them through a wicket basket, suffering the impurities to subside, and then boiling them a second time, is made glue. This, in a state of jelly, is poured into flat frames or moulds; when congealed, it is cut into square pieces, and afterwards dried, by being suspended in a coarse kind of netting.
The leg-bones of oxen, after having been whitened by boiling them with quick-lime, are used in the manufacture of the handles of knives and forks, and for innumerable other purposes. This substance, when good, is nearly allied to ivory: but is easily distinguished by its porous nature, its coarse grain, and its wanting the beautiful white veins which are so conspicuous in ivory. Bones, after having been burnt or calcined, are used by the refiners of gold and silver.
The horns of oxen are used for many of the same purposes as bone. After having been softened by heat they are capable of being moulded into almost any shape. They are sometimes stained in such manner as to imitate tortoise-shell, and they are then used for the making of combs. By a peculiar process they are rendered semi-transparent, and, when formed into thin plates, are employed instead of glass for lanthorns. Horn was the first transparent substance that was ever used for lanthorns and windows.
Tallow is the fat of sheep and oxen, cleared of its fibrous parts by straining and other management. It is further improved and clarified by the addition of alum, and, in this state, is used for the making of candles. Tallow is also a chief ingredient in soap. From the feet of oxen is procured a kind of oil, called Neats'-foot oil, which is of great use in the preparing and softening of leather. The blood is employed in the clarifying of sugar, and great quantities of it, during the late war, were exported from London to Sweden for this purpose. The skins of the intestines are used for beating gold leaf betwixt; and these, under the name of gold-beaters' skin, are afterwards considered efficacious as an adhesive plaster for healing small wounds. Of gold-beaters' skin the French manufacturers of toys sometimes construct little balloons for the amusement of children. A few years ago there was, in London, an exhibition of animals formed of this substance and inflated with air.
102. British cattle are considered preferable to the cattle of any other country in the world. Those called Devonshire cattle, which are distinguished by their mahogany colour and light yellow horns, are adjudged to be the best of any. They are much used in agricultural labours, being peculiarly fitted for draught both by their hardiness and activity. The beef of this breed is peculiarly excellent. Their skins are thin, but improve much in tanning; and the tallow is of peculiarly good quality.
103. In the northern parts of England there is a very useful kind, called Holderness or Dutch cattle. These, in size and weight exceed all the British cattle. The cows have great celebrity for yielding a very extraordinary quantity of milk; instances have been mentioned of their yielding thirty-six quarts in a day. This stock is well known in the neighbourhood of the metropolis, being that which is generally kept by the London cow-keepers. The animal exhibited in London in the beginning of 1802, under the name of the "wonderful ox," was a variety produced from this breed, and weighed more than 200 stone.