it might always be supplied in
sufficient quantities to become a plentiful source of human sustenance.
It is of the best quality however, five or six months after a cow has
calved. When she becomes with calf again, her milk will of course fall
off, both in quantity and in quality. The impatient greediness of
cow-keepers would have calves and milk at the same time, and on this
account they seldom allow their dairies a fair interval for keeping up
a successive supply of the best milk. To keep cows in the healthiest
condition, and their milk consequently in the purest state, they should
not be confined in houses, nor in yards, but suffered to go at large in
the open fields. They should also be well fed with wholesome provender,
and have access to good water. If kept quite clean, by occasionally
rubbing them down, and washing their bag, and legs and feet, their
health would be promoted, and of course the nutricious quality of the
milk. If the comfort and welfare of society were consulted, the higher
classes would not slight their dairies for studs of horses, kept more
for ostentation than for use. In reference to the same subject, the
breaking up of small farms is deeply to be regretted, not only as
ruinous to a numerous class of deserving persons, but as depriving the
markets and the neighbourhoods of those articles of necessity which
their industry produced. It was an object to a small farmer to make the
most of his dairy and poultry yard, which to an occupier on a larger
scale is regarded as a matter of indifference. The consequence is, there
is neither so plentiful a supply of these things, nor are they so good
in quality as formerly. The wife of a small farmer attended to her own
business, her poultry was brought up at the barn door, and killed when
it was sweet and wholesome, while the produce of her dairy redounded to
her credit, and afforded ample satisfaction to her customers.--The most
judicious choice of food however will avail but little, if the manner of
preparing it is not equally judicious. The principal error in cooking
lies in overdoing what is intended for the table; the qualities of the
meat are then so entirely changed, that it ceases to be nourishing, and
becomes hard of digestion. It is literally put into the stomach only to
be pressed out of it again by some unnatural exertion, which at last
throws the oppressive load into the rest of the system, from whence it
will not pass off without leaving some inj