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The business of the dairy, like the feeding of hogs and poultry,

is originally carried on as a save-all. The cattle necessarily

kept upon the farm produce more milk than either the rearing of

their own young, or the consumption of the farmer's family

requires; and they produce most at one particular season. But of

all the productions of land, milk is perhaps the most perishable.

In the warm season, when it is most abundant, it will scarce keep

four-and-twenty hours. The farmer, by making it into fresh

butter, stores a small part of it for a week; by making it into

salt butter, for a year; and by making it into cheese, he stores

a much greater part of it for several years. Part of all these is

reserved for the use of his own family; the rest goes to market,

in order to find the best price which is to be had, and which can

scarce be so low is to discourage him from sending thither

whatever is over and above the use of his own family.