MILK OF VARIOUS ANIMALS. 117 its qualities, and is recommended for invalids in pulmonary complaints. Camel's milk is poor in every respect, but is employed in countries where the animal flourishes. Every preparation of milk, and every separate ingredient of it, is wholesome. Milk, Captain Burton tells us, is held in high esteem by all the tribes of Central Africa. It is consumed in three formsfresh; converted into butter-milk; and in the shape of curded milk. The latter is everywhere a favourite on account of its thirst-quenching properties, and the people accustomed to it from infancy have for it an excessive longing. It is procurable in every village where cows are kept, whereas that newly drawn is generally half soured from being at once stored in the earthen pots used for curding it. Buttermilk is procurable only in those parts of the country where the people have an abundance of cattle. The aggregate consumption of milk in the United Kingdom is very large, and may be roughly estimated at a quart a week for each person. At this rate 812,500 gallons would be required for 118 CONSUMPTION OF BUTTER. the weekly supply of London alone, with its population of 3,250,000. The average yield of milch kine is variously estimated, ranging between 2 quarts and 20 quarts a day; assume 8 quarts as a fair average, about 406,250 cows are required to furnish the metropolitan supply alone, and the consumers must pay more than 3 millions sterling per annum for milk in London. In Paris, even with its smaller population, the aggregate consumption of milk is larger than in London. In 1860 it was. returned at over 300,000 quarts daily. Milk, in the language of the dairyman, is composed of three substances butter, cheese, and whey; and to separate the two former from the latter is one of the chief occupations of the dairy. A quart of milk of fair average quality should weigh 2 lbs. 21 Qunces. BUTTER.-The usual allowance of butter to domestic servants is half a pound per week, but if we assume a consumption of only 20lbs. yearly, for each individual of two-thirds of the population, this would require a total supply of 200,000 tons a year, and our home production must be fully 130,000 tons. We import now about 80,000 tons of foreign butter, for which we pay more than £8,500,000 sterling. In 1858 the consumption of foreign butter was only 152 lb. per head, now it is as much as 5.51 lbs. per head of the population. The quantity received from abroad has not varied much of late years; the average imports are about 1 million cwts. Foreign butters from Holland and France are preferred to the Irish butter, because they are so fresh and scrupulously clean; Irish butter often contains hair and dirt of various kinds, as well as too much salt and brine. Irish butter is sub-divided into six qualities or classes. In Paris the consumption of butter in 1850 was only about 18,000,000 lbs. ; in 1860 it had increased to 30,400,000 lbs., being an average of 25 lbs. per head per annum for the population. In the first rank stands the butter of Isigny, which includes not only the butter made in the locality of the Department of La Manche, from which it takes its name, but also the superior butters of Normandy and Calvados. After this comes the Gournay butter, made in the departments of Eure and Seine-Inférieure. The salted butter comes from Brittany, especially Morlaix, Rennes, Nantes, and Vannes. The quality of butter, either as regards its keeping properties or otherwise, is affected by the weather, by the condition of the milk, the description of cattle, by the pasture, by the size, airiness and convenience of the dairies, and very much by the sort of fuel used in the district; for where peat or turf is burned, the butter generally takes a flavour from it. Butter intended for keeping ought to be thoroughly freed from the milk in making, the cream being in good condition, and not injured by heat, and the butter should be made close in grain, firm, and not too rich. Such butter does not require the great quantity of salt that is necessary for butter not possessing those keeping properties. Munster is the great butter-producing province of Ireland, Cork being the seat and centre of the trade, especially the foreign, which from many causes, it entirely monopolises. Waterford is a great butter shipping port, and Limerick and Belfast also supply considerable and increasing quantities for the English market. The butter of the above three towns is more adapted than that of Cork for immediate consumption from its lighter cure, less salt being used in its preparation; whereas the Cork butter, being more heavily salted, can be preserved much longer than the others. The receipts of butter in the chief Irish markets have steadily increased of late years, at least one-third being destined for foreign consumption. The principal foreign trade is with Brazil, Portugal, the West Indies, and the Mediterranean, and large shipments are also made to Melbourne. The great Irish foreign trade in butter is now with Brazil. The average amount of butter from milk in summer is rather |
