Me and my little sister posing with cute smiles (surely in the middle of a battle!)Among my favorite wedding presents was a book my sister gave us. The book is called Milch Cows and Dairy Farming, authored by Charles Flint and printed in 1860. Charles Flint dedicated the book to The Mass. State Board of Agriculture, the Mass. Society for the Promotion of Agriculture and the Various Agricultural Societeies of the United States, Whose Efforts Have Contributed So Largely to Improve the Dairy Stock of Our Country.
All in all it’s a well-maintained book, especially given the fact that it’s 150 years old! I love reading old books for the sage advice about how it was done in the old days. How things operated before a significant amount of outside inputs were required. Back when you would sit on a plank to press your cheese.
Pressing cheese on a plankHere’s a pic of the interior cover page, which is neatly preserved behind a thin sheet of cover paper:
Cover of Milch Cows & Dairy FarmingThe author discusses the importance of dairy cows and how they fit in to a diversified farm. He mentions the use of whey as feed for hogs, which is a practice we hope to follow. He details various methods for the selection of dairy cows, highlighting "Guenon's Method" and the idea of "milk mirrors", which is the rating of a cow based on the fineness and shape of the hair that grows near the milk veins at the top of the udder (whoa). As Flint notes, the book is "liberally illustrated". Indeed.
A-Good-Dairy-Cow.
Churning some butter
In case you couldn't tell, that's a First Class Cow right there
Intro cover illustration of cows being cows