A DAIRY FARM IN HOLLAND,

Dunstan Times, Issue 956, 13 August 1880, Page 3

A DAIRY FARM IN HOLLAND,

An American lately visited one of the leading stock and dairy farms in Holland {says the Provisioner), and gives the following interesting account of what he saw:—“ They used the very same stable at the farm that they did in the fourteenth century. They have little rings’ in the ceilings, with cords passing through them, by which the cows’ tails are held up to keep them from getting dirty. The stable was carpeted, and had plants and flowers in it. The floor of the stable was of small bricks. At the back of the stalls was a trough of masonry about eight inches wide and nine inches deep, with a ditch or reservoir of water at one end. As soon as the trench was dirtied they turned in water, and all the manure, etc., was carried out to a covered vat, whence it could he removed to the fields or wherever they wanted it moved to. The cows were as clean if not cleaner than our horses. All the fastening they have is a little cord round their necks, and they are so gentle and quiet that they don’t require anything stronger. They use brass milk pails instead of wood or tin ones. I saw the way they make the round cheeses that are sent to America. Ihey have wooden moulds in the shape of two hemispheres or halt halls ; these are hollow and fit together. The cheese curd is first roughly pressed into shape, and then placed in the moulds. The lower half of the mould is stationary, whilst the upper part is fastened to a kind of screw, working in a beam overhead. The upper part is screwed down tight, and the cheese is left for a week. A c the end of the week it is screwed down tighter, and left another week. At the end of the third week the cheese is exposed to the air, and the curing begins. It takes three mouths for a cheese to be cured, and a year before it is fit for the market. Everything was as sweet and neat as any parlour I ever saw. The stables and stalls for the horses were covered with matting. You have no idea how clean everything was.”