MILKING AND TREATMENT OF MILK.--The cows are turned to pasture early in spring, and stay there day and night throughout the pasture-season. They are milked daily in a particular part of the lot called the milk-yard. This is kept in some instances permanently in the same place; in others, it is changed about at pleasure. A shady part of the pasture is generally selected, and it is commonly enclosed with a board fence. The cows are driven into this yard to be milked, when not already there at the usual time. The milking is done by male and female domestics, who carry their pails, cans, and dishes, hung on a kind of wooden yoke, Fig. 84, neatly cut out, painted, and set with copper nails. This is swung over the shoulders, or else the dairy utensils are carried on donkeys, ponies, or hand-carts; or, where there is water communication, in boats, twice a day, to the yard. [Illustration: Fig. 84.] In the larger dairies the utensils in common use are small wooden pails, Fig. 85, painted in variegated colors, with bright brazen or iron hoops, and neatly washed; a strainer, Fig. 86, made of horse-hair; a large wooden tunnel, Fig. 87, for pouring the milk into the cans and casks; one or more buckets, Fig. 88, usually of brass, lined with tin, large enough to hold the milk of several cows together, or from twelve to eighteen quarts. In many dairies they have wooden buckets, Fig. 85, painted green or blue outside, with black stripes, and with iron or brass handles, kept very bright. Here the buckets are coated over inside with white oil-colors. These are borne by the yoke (Fig. 84), or in some of the ways indicated above. [Illustration: Fig. 85.] [Illustration: Fig. 86.] [Illustration: Fig. 87.] [Illustration: Fig. 88.] [Illustration: Fig. 89.] In many places, instead of buckets for keeping the milk together, they use copper or brass cans lined inside with tin, and in the form of antique vases or large beer-jugs, Figs. 90 and 91, which are constantly kept brightly polished. In other places, they use for holding the milk smaller or larger barrels, Fig. 92, with broad hoops also kept constantly polished. [Illustration: Fig. 90.] [Illustration: Fig. 91.] [Illustration: Fig. 92.]