The Country Housewife's Family Companion - Part 6



Of Calves.

OF suckling Calves for weaning, with a Case of the same.--This article 
comes under the care of many farmers wives, maid-servants, and others, and 
therefore I have thought it material to write on it, and the rather, as 
this oftentimes proves a profitable branch in the farming business. There 
are two seasons in the year for weaning calves; one in September and 
October, and the other in April and May. In the first two months suckling 
calves require much attendance and cost, for they must be fed with milk-
porridge good part of the winter, besides sucking the cow for a month or 
more, and with milk and water to drink. To this purpose they must first be 
learned to swallow it out of a bowl or little tub, by putting the fingers 
into its mouth, and forcing it into the liquor, which by a little custom 
it will take of itself. I knew a farmer's wife wean two calves after this 
manner; the last was begun with about Michaelmas 1746, and for maintaining 
it well, her husband sent four bushels of oats at a time to the mill, to 
be made into oatmeal for this last one calf, which made one of her 
neighbours say the toll was more than the grist. For my part, I don't 
practise winter weaning, but commonly begin it in April or May, when (if I 
don't wean my own calves) I can buy a couple of calves about a week old, 
at Leighton great market in Bedfordshire, for six, eight, or ten 
shillings; and as grass is then firm and growing apace, I can give them 
milk enough; and after I have suckl'd and brought them to drink milk, or 
milk and water out of a bowl, which they will do in a month or six weeks 
time, I turn them (if the weather is agreeable) out about noon into some 
grasing ground, and when they have been here three or four hours, I house 
them, and after three or four times serving them thus, I turn them out to 
grass for good and all, where plenty of water is. In this cheap manner I 
wean my calves without any cow near them; and once I did it without giving 
the calves any water at all, the juice of the grass sufficed to quench 
their drought, and they did well. Next winter they will live on oat straw, 
or better on clover, or natural hay, for good keeping is not lost here. 
The better a calf is kept, the sooner it will take bull, therefore some to 
make a calf the more forward in growth, will give it skim milk at its 
weaning, wherein is first stirred some wheatmeal, barleymeal or oatmeal, 
and for obliging the calf to eat it, they will keep its mouth a little 
open with their fingers of one hand, and by bending its head to the meat 
with the other hand, it will soon be brought to take it of itself, and 
thrive a great pace. And if horsebeans, pease or oats, and the best of 
hay, are bestowed upon it the next winter, it will be a year forwarder in 
bulk and height of body than a straw-fed one.

   Weaning a Calf at Christmas.--A farmer's wife having a great desire to 
wean a calf from a favourite cow, though calved at Christmas, she weaned 
it at three days old, for it was her opinion a calf could not be weaned 
too young. First she put her fingers into its mouth, and forced its head 
into a bowl of new milk for sucking it the first fortnight; then she gave 
it milk-porridge for three weeks, at the end of which it would eat hay and 
drink itself. The milk was given warm from the cow, and the milk-porridge 
(which was made with skim milk) she gave it always blood-warm. By this 
management she saved cream to make butter, and brought up her calf 
besides; but take care not to buy a drove calf to wean, for these are 
generally so beaten and fatigued, that they are either runted or die, but 
always buy those that are never drove, and has its four teats stand well; 
neither let it be a heifer's calf, for this will make but a puny cow.--
Some give whey to drink in weaning.

   Weaning a Calf in April.--Another weaned his calf in April, by forcing 
its mouth into a bowl or tub of new milk for the first fortnight, and then 
turn'd it to grass with a trough of water by it, but every day for a 
fortnight longer he gave it skim milk morning and evening, after which it 
was left to shift for itself; and if it is a moist time, and there be 
grass enough, it will do well without water.--An old neighbour of mine, a 
tradesman, owner of a pretty large orchard, bought in two calves to wean, 
that were hardly a fortnight old, and turn'd them directly into his 
orchard, without setting any thing but water by them, and they did well.--
Always wean calves forward in March or April, and they will stand the 
winter the better if no hay is given them, for they will live on good 
straw if it be of the oat sort, or indeed any other. The next summer they 
will live on a common, by feeding on the long sour grass that grows among 
the fern, which the sheep won't eat.

   Weaning Calves in Cheshire and Lancashire.--If a calf falls in January, 
February, or March, some wean at a week or twelve days old, at which time 
they begin to teach it to drink, by putting a finger in the calf's mouth, 
and with the left hand thrusting its head down into the pail, when the 
calf laps its tongue about the finger as if it would suck, and so fetches 
up the milk. And after a few times thus doing, the calf will drink of 
itself very eagerly in good new milk from the cow till a month old. Then 
they mix oatmeal with skim milk, and give it blood-warm, and as the calf 
grows older, more oatmeal and less milk; but in cheese time they give it 
whey instead of milk and oatmeal, and continue this two or three months, 
with good grass in the day, and fine hay at night, says Mr. Houghton.

   Of suckling and fatting Calves for the Butcher.--This work likewise in 
many farms is carried on by farmers wives, or maid-servants, as well as 
the business of dairies is, and many times (when veal sells dear) to a 
greater advantage than making butter and cheese, especially if it happens 
to be in the reach of London, for sending their fatted calves dead or 
alive, and this for more reasons than one.--As first, where water is 
scarce and bad, a butter-dairy cannot be rightly managed, because on 
plenty of good water very much depends the sweetness of the utensils, 
cream, butter, and cheese. Secondly, where few cows and few hands are 
kept, suckling of calves may be easier managed than making of butter and 
cheese. Thirdly, where a person lives remote from a market town, and has 
not a ready conveniency of selling butter. If he lives within forty miles 
of London, he may perhaps suckle and fat calves in a cheaper manner, and 
be at no other trouble than buying them in, suckling them, and delivering 
them fat to the butcher, who generally buys and fetches them away from the 
gentleman's, the yeoman's, or the farmer's house, to kill for a London 
market. For my own part, after I have fatted and sold off the calves that 
fall from my own cows, I send to Leighton market, where they are every 
week exposed to sale on a Tuesday in great numbers throughout the year; 
and there I buy them as I want them. And it is to this market, farmers and 
others come above thirty miles an end, to carry cart loads of calves away 
to suckle for a London market. And for fatting them with the greater 
expedition, they have all necessary conveniency. For which reason, and for 
their skilful management, they are justly accounted in Essex the best 
suckling calf farmers in England: For here most of them have their calf 
apartments or penns made with oaken planks laid on joists with a little 
descent, with large holes in them, by which the piss runs presently off 
into a deep hollow place, so contrived as to receive much of it. And it is 
on this account, that they are not obliged to consume much straw; for in 
the summer time they use little or none, because the planks are presently 
clean'd from the dung, and they seldom put above three or four calves at 
most in one of these apartments at a time; each apartment having a rack in 
it for straw or hay, and a trough for holding powder of chalk or some 
agreeable food. Suckling calves must not be confined in too close a place, 
nor in too large a one. If they lie too close, they are apt to heat one 
another and breed lice, which will assuredly hinder their thriving: And if 
they have too much room, they will frisk about and play away their flesh; 
for which last reason some tie each calf to a ring in a post by a swivel 
collar, to prevent its roaming. But as few farmers have the conveniency of 
calf penns made with oaken planks, what must they do that have none? Why 
then they should lay a foundation of faggots, and upon these faggots wheat 
straw, a little at a time, once or twice a day; for such fresh straw will 
prove an additional help to the calves fatting, by preventing their 
breeding lice, and inviting them to eat its thrashed ears; but then such a 
calf penn should be thoroughly clean'd out at every week's end, by 
carrying away all the dung and litter, and laying fresh straw in its room. 
But besides all this, there should be two or three large pieces of chalk, 
as big as a man's head, hung by cords in each penn, for the calves to lick 
at their pleasure; and also a trough that should stand two feet from the 
ground and is three feet long, for holding in it powder'd chalk, or corn, 
as aforesaid; for this mineral we account is of a binding and whitening 
nature, therefore perfectly necessary to create an appetite and prevent 
their scouring. And for hitching out and saving milk, some hang now and 
then a wisp of hay before them. Others give them oatmeal finely sifted, or 
wheat-flower mixt with a little salt, or barley meal, or white pease 
slitted. And now, supposing these necessary conveniencies to be in order, 
the next thing I have to offer is the method of suckling calves.

   The Method of suckling Calves as practised by this Author.--There are 
two sorts of calves that I suckle, one sort that falls from my own cows, 
the other that I buy (as I said ) at market. As to the first sort, as soon 
as it falls from the cow, we strew a handful of salt over all its body, to 
be taken by the cow as she licks her calf, which we think tends to her 
health, and causes her to glean the sooner. When the cow has calved, we 
generally let the calf suck what it will, and milk the cow besides, giving 
her the milk to drink, and for two days after water made luke-warm. As to 
the calf, we let it lie with the cow the first night and day, and while 
the maid is milking one side, she lets the calf suck on the other: For by 
this the cow gives down her milk the freer, and therefore the maid 
continues this practice all the first week, and throughout the next she 
allows the calf short of a bellyfull, because their nature is too weak to 
be gorged with a full quantity of milk till they are about a fortnight 
old, and then they should not want what they can suck. This management is 
strictly observed by nice suckling farmers, not so much for saving the 
milk to give the more of it to older calves, but because if a very young 
calf should be over-charged with milk, it would be in great danger of 
scouring, and that so violently, as can't be easily nor readily stopt, and 
then the calf grows lean and sometimes dies.--Others give the cow, for the 
first drink after calving, a pail of water, wherein a small shovel-full of 
hot ashes are put, for their taking off the rawness of it, and for giving 
it a due warmth to prevent the cow's catching cold. And for the better 
preventing it, I not only observe to do after one of these ways, but also 
throw a handful of barley or wheat-meal, or bran, over the first pailful 
of cold water that I give the cow, and do the same a second time if I see 
occasion: For many cows have been lost by letting them drink cold water 
too soon after calving.

   To cure a suckling Calf of its scouring.--Some to do this let the calf 
go into some grasing ground with the cow, and it sometimes stops the 
looseness, but this is what I never practise. I always cure it in the calf-
penn. If we find a calf begin to scour, the next time of suckling we allow 
it very little milk, and mix a little powder'd chalk with some salt: Of 
salt, as much as will lie on a shilling: Of chalk, as much as will fll a 
small tea-cup. This my maid rubs on the roof of the calf's mouth, and 
leaves it. Others put it down the calf's throat as far as they can. Some 
do it before the calf sucks, others after; and if this is begun and 
repeated in time, if clean wheat straw is twice a day given it, and the 
calf is not too close confin'd in summer time, it seldom fails of a cure; 
but if this does not do, we have recourse to a stronger remedy, that is to 
be made thus:--Knead a little brandy, verjuice, wheat-flour, and powder'd 
chalk together, and give the calf two crams of it, each made about the 
bigness of a man's little finger, as soon as it is done suckling, and pour 
a little milk after them. Others therefore will give the crams before the 
calf sucks, that they may the better be wash'd down.--Calves can't lie too 
cool in summer, nor too warm in winter; but in both seasons be sure to 
allow them fresh wheat straw often enough, for this, with a convenient 
lying, tends very much to keep them from being louzy and scouring. Not but 
that a little scouring, if it last not too long, will contribute to whiten 
the calf's flesh; and to this end some put fuller's earth always before 
them to lick, as well as pieces of soft fat chalk. It would likewise be a 
good piece of husbandry, where a plank floor with holes in it is wanting, 
to lay a foundation of great pieces of chalk; for if the place is bare of 
straw, the calves will be apt to lick the ground, redden their flesh, and 
lose their appetite by it. Chalk prevents it.

   Of bleeding suckling Calves.--Of this I the rather write, because of 
the different practice made use of on this account. Some are right and 
some are in the wrong of it, and therefore many calves disappoint their 
owners hopes of fattening them, when they bleed them too often, or when 
they take too much blood at a time away; both these extremes lessen the 
calves appetite, and backward their fattening. On the contrary, when they 
are discreetly bled, the first time at five weeks old, and again at 7, and 
killed at 8, they will thrive the faster and die the whiter, particularly 
in their fat part.--Two neighbouring farmers, that sold their fat calves 
at Smithfeld market, bled their calves at different times; one about a 
week before the calf went away, and again two days before its sale: The 
other bled his calf for the first time at a month's age, and again just 
before it was carried to market. A calf has such a large neck vein, that 
it may be blooded by a penknife or struck with a fleam, or a bit of his 
tail-end may be cut off. --A cow-calf having a smaller vein than a bull-
calf, a less fleam will serve to bleed it, nor does a calf that is 
naturally white require so much bleeding as a redder one; which two 
qualities may be partly distinguish'd by the eyes and mouth.--Always cord 
before bleeding, and pin up.--Bleeding a calf in the neck makes a lean 
shoulder, which is prevented by cutting off a little bit of the tail, to 
take near half a pint away, and tie it afterwards with an end: Yet some 
tie it not, but let it go as it is.

   Of cramming Calves.--This is what has been much in practice with some 
farmers, in winter time especially, when milk is scarce, in order to make 
a little go the further. But my notion is, that this necessitous way 
rather reddens the calf's flesh than whitens it, because no artificial 
feed comes up to the natural milk: However, as necessity may engage the 
practice, I have to say that there are many sorts of invented crams to be 
given fatting calves. But no author, that ever I read or heard of, makes 
any difference in the time of year of giving these crams, but I do; by 
saying, that a summer cram ought not to have any spirits mix'd in it, 
because they will be apt to heat and sweat the beast too much, when in 
winter they may be necessary. Therefore for a summer cram mix fine wheat 
flower with the finest flower of oatmeal, or with the finest flower of 
pale malt, and with milk knead it into crams about the bigness of a man's 
finger; and begin with only giving the calf two about an hour before 
suckling in a morning, and the same at night, increasing the number of 
crams as you see occasion. But for a winter cram, begin to make them for 
the first very weak, by putting very little brandy or gin in a mixture 
with the finer wheat flower and milk or cream, and give them as before; 
and as the age of the calf comes on, increase your quantity of 
ingredients.--Or you may grind white pease and sift their meal fine, which 
mix with fine flower of pale malt and fine powder of chalk: These three 
knead into a dough with milk, and make crams to be given as aforesaid in 
summer; but in winter mix anniseed water, gin or brandy with them, and 
observe not to begin cramming too soon; at a month old is better than a 
fortnight. If crams are judiciously prepared, and rightly given to a 
suckling calf, it is, in my opinion, possible to save half the quantity of 
milk that otherwise must have been suck'd by it. But instead of these mixt 
crams, my maid cracks an egg and thrusts it as deep down the throat as she 
can in the midst of its suckling, and then directly suckles it again; and 
sometimes, when eggs are cheap and milk scarce, she gives two or three 
eggs immediately after one another, shells and all, for these are a cool 
food and nourish much.

   To make a Calf suck that has lost its Appetite.--For this we make no 
more to do, than to take a little salt between the two fore fingers and 
the thumb, rub the palate of the calf's mouth with it over night, and it 
seldom fails to suck heartily next morning.

   How long Calves ought to be suckled for the Butcher.--One certain time 
for suckling all calves can't be rightly adjusted, because of the several 
incidents attending the undertaking. For example: Some farmers suckle 
calves of the butcher's providing, for two shillings and six pence a week 
in summer, and three shillings in winter. Others buy them in on their own 
account, to suckle for a chance market, either for a London or country 
one. If for a London one, then a calf should not be suckled less than 
nine, ten, or twelve weeks. If for a country one, six or seven often 
proves sufficient; for at Smithfeld they give the largest price, and 
require the largest and whitest calves; but in the country markets lesser 
and coarser veal will go down at a lower price. This I write at the 
distance of thirty miles from London. But to go further, I have to say, 
that many calves are killed in the country at six weeks old, and sent to 
London by the higler, for as in that metropolis there are poor and rich, 
they must have meat accordingly; and this is the poorest and cheapest veal 
that is so sent, some calves going with the cow in the field from the time 
of its falling to its killing, others are suckled in a house, and both 
employ considerable numbers of butchers and higlers within forty or fifty 
miles of London, who get most of their livelihood by it: Which leads me to 
make some observations on veal.

   Observations on the Goodness and Badness of Veal.--Veal, says a 
physician, is temperate and tender, though sometimes waterish; if it is 
thoroughly roasted, it affords good juice, is of a pleasant taste, and 
yields a thicker juice than lamb or mutton: But there is more to be said 
on the account of veal than what this physician writes. I say, that it is 
the practice of many cow-keepers to suckle the largest and fattest of 
calves for a London market, even till they are twelve or more weeks old, 
and in this time to bleed them often, and the night before they are 
carried to Smithfeld to bleed them excessively; insomuch that I have seen 
several in London streets that could not hold being drove to the 
butcher's, but fainted and fell down by the way. Now such old rank flesh 
in the first place must be very coarse-grained, as being part beef and 
part veal: And in the second place, it must eat very dry, for want of that 
gravey which was exhausted by frequent bleedings. A calf therefore that 
has been constantly housed, been bled but once or twice at most, and 
kill'd at six or seven weeks old full fat, will prove by far the sweetest 
veal. To which I add, that there are two other sorts of veal brought to 
some markets: One sort is, that from calves always let run in the field 
with its dam-cow for a month or more; this sort is red, coarse, and cheap. 
There is also another sort suckled in the house, but killed at five or six 
weeks old, to give the owner the greater benefit of his milk for making 
butter; of this last, as they are generally those calves that fall at 
thirty, forty, or fifty miles from London, the butcher is forced to employ 
many white cloths to wrap the quarters in, for absorbing the bloody 
moisture, that is apt to ouze out of the flesh in such a long confined 
carriage in hampers by the waggon. This, with first soaking the flesh in 
cold spring water before, to make it look white when it comes to London, 
extracts the gravey and hearty valuable part of the flesh in a great 
degree, and leaves it an insipid flabby veal. But no matter, says the 
suckler and butcher, what the flesh is, so we get the more money by it; 
which made one say, he never doubted being master of white calves flesh, 
provided he bled it at a fortnight old, and the same a fortnight after, 
and so on, till the creature has been blooded perhaps four or more times; 
and as the last bleeding is done the day before the calf is killed, it is 
bled till it pisses or dungs before it is pinned up, but then what must 
the flesh be?--In Cheshire and several other parts of the North, where 
they carry on large cheese and butter dairies, they get rid of a calf as 
soon as they can; and therefore sell some at a fortnight old for four or 
five shillings a piece to the butcher, and seldom ever keep one above 
three weeks; but whenever any calf is killed, the butcher seldom fails of 
blowing it, for making the flesh the larger and fairer to the buyer's eye, 
and to give it the whiter colour, when the calf is flayed, he will lay the 
whole carcase in cold water or in wet cloths for several hours, or a whole 
night; others only joints.

Of Cows hoving or what some call swelling, by their eating Clover-Grass, 
or Rapes, or Turnip Tops.

HOW the Care and Inspection of Cows belongs to the Country Housewife.--It 
is certain, that great part of the inspection and management of cows 
belongs to the country housewife and her maid-servants, where they carry 
on a dairy, and commonly where they suckle calves to fat for the butcher; 
for as these milk them morning and evening, they have an opportunity to 
espy the cause and beginning of distempers, and in some cases to 
administer medicines for the cure of the same, while the master and men-
servants seldom do more than give them provender and clean their stalls; 
besides which, when the master and his men are abroad, the dame and her 
maid are generally at home, ready to assist or get assistance, if any 
extraordinary event should happen to the cows, an example of which take as 
followeth.

   Of preserving the Health of Cows, and of Remedies when they are sick or 
hurt.--It is a maxim in physick, that diseases may be prevented when they 
cannot be cured; therefore the first thing I have to advance on this 
account is, that something be given to a cow by way of antidote for 
keeping her in health, preventing future diseases, and causing her to give 
pure milk, and a due quantity of it. This piece of good husbandry is so 
little regarded by most people, that very few have any notion of it, and 
therefore let their cows take their chance, as if there was no such thing 
to be done. Hence proceed those fatal distempers, the murrain, the garget, 
the blain, the yellows, and many other foul maladies incident to these 
most serviceable creatures, merely for want of timely applications and 
remedies. While I am writing this very account, I hear that one of my 
neighbours cows has got the garget in her bag to that degree, as obliges 
the owner to send for the same cow doctor he did once before from Ivinghoe-
Arson, who by a well composed drink cured her, though she was then like to 
have died; whereas, had a good drink been given her presently after 
calving, this misfortune had not happened.

   A Drink to be given a Cow presently after Calving.--As soon as a cow 
has calved and lick'd her calf, we stay a little from milking her to see 
if she will glean, which some cows will do in an hour or two's time; but 
if she exceed this, we commonly milk her, and give her the milk to drink, 
as I said before, which some will take, and some will refuse. Some cows 
again that go to grass are so full of milk, that they must be milk'd a 
little before they calve, else their bag will be in danger. However, the 
water she has for the first two days we give milk-warm, with a handful of 
bran or barley-meal strew'd over it; and this we do, let it be summer or 
winter, for it has been the death of some cows to drink cold water 
presently after calving, except it be those that always lie at grass and 
calve in the field, for these are not in so much danger as a cow that is 
housed now and then. The third day after calving I give three pints of 
piss out of a horn to a cow, and about a week after repeat the same; for 
this cleanses her body and blood, creates an appetite, and prevents the 
breed of diseases, and is so cheap and safe an antidote that none can 
object against it; and for giving it, one man must gripe her nostril with 
one hand, and hold the horn with the other hand, while another opens her 
mouth with his hand, and pours down the drink with the horn. Or you may 
make use of the following drink.

   A Soot Drink to preserve a Cow in Health all the Year.--Get half a pint 
of pure fine wood soot, and mix it with half an ounce of diapente and a 
quartern of fresh butter. The soot and diapente must be first boiled about 
a quarter of an hour in three pints of strong beer or ale, and when it is 
half cold, dissolve a quarter of a pound of fresh butter in it, and when 
the drink is blood-warm, give it the cow well mixed; and for the greater 
assurance, you may repeat this drink a week or fortnight after. N. B. The 
diapente is a cheap powder, and is sold at most apothecaries shops in town 
and country. There are several other compositions that might be made to 
answer somewhat of this purpose; but as I have proved both these several 
times, I recommend them, especially the last, as a most safe and 
efficacious drink.

   A Drink to make a Cow glean.--It was the practice of a Vale dairy-man 
to heat two quarts of buttermilk, and while it was heating, to stir into 
it one ounce of treacle, and one ounce of flower of brimstone, and give it 
out of a horn a little more than blood-warm.

   A second Drink.--A cow-keeper near London, that keeps above two hundred 
cows, gives bruised parsley-seed in ale, to make a cow cast her glean.

   A third Drink.--Give some flower of brimstone in wort, and some 
diapente in it; one ounce of each powder in this or ale.

   A fourth Drink.--Make a quarter of a pound of soap into a lather in a 
quart of warm ale, and it will bring it away in one hour's time. But this 
receit to make a cow cast her glean must be cautiously made use of, for it 
is of so slippery a nature that it may cause her bearing to come out; and 
then this remedy will be far worse than the retention of her glean.

   A fifth Drink.--Mix one ounce of flower of brimstone with a quart or 
three pints of warm ale, wort, or milk, and as much powder of white pepper 
as will lie on a half-crown, and give it out of a horn. This is a very 
good receit to make a cow glean, and is also very proper to give to all 
cows the same or the next day after calving.

   Of the ill Effects that attend the gleaning of Cows.--An author that 
writes a book of this kind, and never owned a cow, must be obliged to 
compose such a work either by collections from what others have wrote 
before, or by hear-say; in either case he is liable to lead persons into 
very detrimental errors. It is true, I have in this and former treatises 
presented my readers with several receits to expedite a cow's gleaning but 
I here give cautions with them, a strong cow and a weak cow are both 
subject to suffer in gleaning, by that fatal malady that some call 
withering, that is to say, her bearing comes out behind, and when this 
happens, the cow is near spoiling. Now this misfortune may be occasioned 
naturally or accidentally; naturally, when a cow has calved a larger calf 
than ordinary; accidentally, when she has got a cold, or by having too 
strong and forcing a drink given her to forward her gleaning, or by 
drinking cold water too soon after calving. But these are not all the ill 
effects that attend calving cows; for if a cow is not carefully watched 
when she has calved, she may eat her glean, as most cows are prone to do. 
When cows calve at grass and eat their glean, it is not of such ill 
consequence as when she eats it in a house; because the grass helps to 
purge it away; yet there is this evil attending it both at grass and in 
the house, that a cow may be choaked in eating it.--At Eaton in 
Bedfordshire there was a farmer's best cow at grass, that happened to 
calve in the field, and in eating her glean it choaked her; so that in the 
morning, when the owner came to see her, he had for his sight a dead cow, 
but a live calf: therefore we are sometimes obliged to sit up with a cow 
all night to watch, and take her glean away with a fork; and if part of 
her glean hangs down, as it often does, we put the stringy substance 
through the hole of a tile, to prevent its returning in again, and for 
bringing it leisurely away; for such substance must not be pull'd away 
hastily, if it is, it may cause the cow to suffer.

   A safe Way make a Cow glean.--To avoid the ill effects that too strong 
forcing drinks may produce in causing a cow's bearing to come out, it is a 
common way to hold oats in straw over a fire; or in case you have no oats 
in straw, take clean oats and hold them in a sieve over a fire to be 
smoaked, and then give them to the cow to eat. This will oblige her to 
husk or cough, and strain, and thereby help to dislodge and bring away her 
glean in a safe manner.

   How to cure a Cow that by straining has her Bearing come out behind.--
When this is the case, it is to be returned into the cow's body by the 
help of moist warm bran, and warm cloths. Others mix new milk with 
powder'd linseeds for putting it up. But these will not do without the 
help of other means, for when the cow lies down, the bearing is apt to 
come out again; therefore when it is returned in, we sling her, so that 
her feet bear very little on the ground, and always keep her hind part 
higher than her fore part; by this and comfortable meat, some cows have 
recovered.

   A knavish Trick that has been made use of to sell a Cow that withers, 
or has had her Bearing come out.--When this misfortune has happened to a 
cow that has a bulky body in tolerable flesh, it has put some knavish 
persons on a stratagem how to cheat a buyer at a fair or market, by 
selling him such a cow and calf; and to do it cleverly, they get a 
shoemaker's end, and stitch up her bearing behind, just before she enters 
the fair or market, and takes the first chap that bids money; for there 
are some so ignorant, as not to mistrust any such thing, and therefore 
make no inspection about the matter, but when the cow comes to stale, the 
bite too late is perceived.

   The Case of a Buckinghamshire Gentleman's two Cows, whose Bearings came 
out; one died of it by wrong Management, the other was saved by right 
Management.--To cure the first cow, they made several attempts, but could 
not make the bearing stay in but a very little while, before she strained 
and forced it out again, notwithstanding they were an hour each time in 
putting it up; this so fatigued and hurt the beast, as made her bleed to 
death. After this, another of the same gentleman's cows was taken in the 
very same manner, upon which they employed another cow doctor, who, upon 
hearing how they had treated the last cow, said they had acted wrong. The 
first thing therefore that this called for was a sack, part of which he 
cut off; and when he had soaked her bearing in warm water long enough to 
make it slippery, he easily put it in, and sewed both ends of the 
sackcloth to the cow's skin, which had the desired success, by making her 
forbear to strain; for if she strained, it hurt her, and thus the cow was 
cured: Whereas the other sewed up her sheath with tape, but this did not 
prevent her bearing coming out again; not but that some cows have 
recovered of this malady by only moistening the bearing and returning it 
in, and have done well.--I knew a cow at calving twice had her bearing 
come down, and at last was fatted and sold to the butcher.

   The Nature and Cause of a Cow's pissing bloody Water.--This disease is 
fatal if not stopt in a little time, because in a few days it turns to 
what we call the oak water, and then from being of a red colour it becomes 
of a blackish red, and generally kills. All authors have hitherto been 
deficient in assigning the causes and prevention of this malady, therefore 
many people are ignorant how to prevent it. It is chiefly caused by their 
feeding in the spring time on flashy grass, croping [sic: cropping] the 
black thorn and some other shrubs. In some parts of Vales it is customary 
for cows not to be admitted grasing on commons till the 11th day of May; 
other grounds in June. Then if it is a wet spring, and grass grows apace 
high and flashy, the poorer sort of cows are apt to feed very greedily, so 
as to bring themselves under this distemper.

   The Method that some take to prevent a Cow's pissing bloody Water.--
Those persons that are aware of this evil take particular care to give 
their cows some hay, straw, or chaff, when they come off from a common or 
other ground in the spring time to be milked; for by giving her this dry 
meat, it absorbs moisture, and very much prevents the ill effects of 
flashy raw grass; and this some will practise in a dangerous season, to 
almost Midsummer.

   The Cure for a Cow's pissing bloody Water.--My neighbour had one so bad 
of this disorder, that after applying several remedies they did no good, 
till one advised him to make use of this:--They got some shepherd's-pouch 
and cut it very small, bole armoniac and vinegar (the latter was about a 
pint and a half) which being boiled a little while all together, when cold 
enough they gave it to the cow, and it cured her. The herb shepherd's-
pouch has a white flower, and grows in gravelly ground; it is a strong 
stopper of fluxes.

   A second Receit for the same.--Some have put a live squab tame pigeon 
with its head foremost down the throat of a cow, and it has cured. Instead 
of her drinking cold water, give her but little, and that milk-warm, with 
ground malt or bran in it.--Some had rather see a cow piss blood, than a 
bloody water, as reckoning the first easier to cure than the last. A cow 
that has pissed bloody water has been cured in three hours time, by 
putting a large live frog down her throat.

   A sure Cure for a Cow that scours.--Take half a pint of rennet for a 
strong cow; but if it is a weak one, give it only a quarter of a pint, 
mixt with some powder of chalk finely sifted, in a quart of ale or strong 
beer; and repeat if occasion.

   How an ignorant Farmer, by suffering his Cow to drink Dunghill Water, 
had near kill'd her by the Scour.--This is the second farmer that I have 
known guilty of this error to their loss. Cows naturally affect to drink 
this black dunghill water, and to eat the long litter of a dunghill; and 
for this reason, I oblige my servants strictly to keep them from both, 
tho' when their common drink water is only a little tinctured with it, it 
is of no ill consequence, but on the contrary, in winter especially, it 
takes off the chilly raw nature of it, and prevents the belly-ach and 
gripes; but when their drink water is black, especially in summer-time, it 
generally swarms with lice, polipes, and other worms, water spiders, the 
spawn of frogs and water toads, and other monstrous insects that greatly 
breed and multiply in shallow and narrow receptacles of such foul filthy 
water, and which are unavoidably swallowed by cows that drink at it. Now 
as that may be prevented which cannot be cured, I here, by plainly shewing 
the case, tell my reader how that damage may not fall to his lot, which 
befell the farmer I am writing of, who was one that rented about sixty 
pounds a year, living not many miles from Dunstable in Bedfordshire, and 
who (not having the like misfortune before) did not take any precaution to 
avoid it, but let his cow drink of a nasty dunghill water till it scour'd, 
and bugs bred in her skin to that degree, that on hard squeezing of the 
knobs they bred in, they came out; others that were bigger they lanced, 
and took out many that were half as big as a caterpillar. In short, this 
black water had so corrupted and poison'd the blood of the cow, that they 
were forced to dry her at two months end after calving, in order to try 
for curing her.--Another farmer rotted a cow, by suffering her to drink 
mudgell-hole water; as did another by letting his cow have free access to 
the hogwash-tub.

   How a Farmer presumptuously bought a scouring Cow, in Assurance of his 
curing and fattening her.--A farmer living near Charley-Wood by 
Rickmansworth was tempted to buy a cow that he knew run out, for the sake 
of the little money that he gave for her, with an intent to cure and 
fatten her; and he did both, by keeping her always in the house, and 
feeding her with oats, chaff, and hay.

   To cure an inflamed snarl'd Bag or Udder of a Cow.--This for the most 
part happens presently after a cow has calved, when the bag will look red 
and angry, which if not cured may oblige the owner to have part of the bag 
cut off, or it may turn to the garget in the guts and kill the beast. For 
the cure of this, there are many receits; one is, to hold a piece of fat 
bacon between a pair of tongs made red hot, let it drop before the fire 
into cold water, and rub the cow's bag well with the grease that so drops 
out, which will cure, if the bag is gargetty.--This is the Cheshire 
method; but our Hertfordshire method is otherwise.

   The Hertfordshire Method to cure a gargetty or inflamed Bag of a Cow.--
This garget or inflammation commonly begins in one teat, which it swells 
and makes hard, then gets into another, and so to all the rest; next it 
takes the bag, which also becomes hard and swell'd: At last it takes the 
guts, and then the cow very likely dies; but this like other diseases, if 
a proper remedy is applied in time, may be easily cured. My maid every 
year makes a pot of adder's-tongue ointment, solely for this very use; it 
grows as before mentioned in my meadows, is known by its pecked stalk, 
somewhat in the shape of an adder's tongue, and is in its full virtue in 
August, when we gather it, cut it small, bruise it, and boil it with some 
butter as it is taken out of the churn, free of any salt; then we strain 
out the thin parts, and press out what remains in the thick herby part, 
and keep it in a glazed earthen pot all the year ready for our want; and 
when we want it, she rubs it soundly on the cow's teat or bag, which 
generally at once or twice using it disperses the humour, allays the 
swelling, and cures. For, thus made, it is a balsam that heals green 
wounds, bitings of venomous creatures, St. Anthony's fire, burns, scalds, 
hot tumours, aposthumes, spreading sores and ruptures, as a physician's 
character is of it.--Others take adder's tongue, melilot, and sellery 
stalks, and when they have been well bruised, they boil the juice up in 
fresh butter without salt.--Others boil the juice of rue and houseleek 
with that of adder's-tongue in butter; but the nicest way of all is, to 
stamp the adder's-tongue herb in a mortar, squeeze out its juice, and boil 
it up in butter or fresh lard, without any salt: But butter is best, 
because the lard may give an unpleasant tang to the milk, if it should be 
mixt with it as the cow is milking. Put the juice and butter into your 
saucepan together, and boil them for a quarter of an hour.

   The Damage of suffering long Hairs to grow on a Cow's bag or Udder.--
This article, as trifling as it may appear, is of no little consequence, 
because it is the ready way to cause a cow to become a kicker if 
neglected. A dairy-woman being with her husband on business at an inn in 
the town of Bedford, she saw the maid-servant in a sad confusion as she 
was milking her cow, as not being able to milk her quietly; upon this the 
woman said to the maid, go fetch me a pair of scissars, and I will engage 
you may milk your cow to your mind; the scissars being brought, the woman 
clips all the long hairs short that grew on her bag, and then the cow 
stood perfectly still.--This was never before taken notice of by any 
author whatsoever, yet how necessary it is, I leave my reader to consider, 
since this is the very cause why many cows are made desperate kickers, and 
if they are suffered to be accustomed to it, some will never leave it. It 
is therefore the part of a good country housewife to clip the hairs from 
off the cow's bag twice a year at least; that is to say, at spring and 
fall of the year. But without staying for time, it ought to be more 
especially done, when a cow has calved; for if the hairs are suffer'd to 
grow long (as sometimes they do if neglected, till they are as long as the 
cow's teats, and curl again) the calf cannot help lugging the hairs as 
well as the teats, and then the cow in course kicks the calf, and thus 
hinders it from getting a belly full of milk. Again, the cliping [sic: 
clipping] off hairs from a cow's bag is the more necessary to be done for 
preventing their lodging dirt, as some short-legged cows are obliged to 
travel in the dirt in coming home to be milked, because long hairs will 
take up and lodge much dirt, but whether such cows have long or short 
hairs on their bags, the milkmaid is obliged to wash them before they can 
be milked clean.



Various RECEITS.

TO roast a Pound of Butter or more the Irish Way.--Take a pound of butter, 
season it well with salt, and put it on a wooden spit; place it at a good 
distance from the fire, let it turn round, and as the butter moistens or 
begins to drip, drudge it well with fine oatmeal, continuing so to do till 
there is any moisture ready to drip, then baste it, and it will soon be 
enough. A certain Irish woman told me this eats vere nicely, insomuch that 
she has done on a Christmas eve twenty-seven different pounds so, at a 
farmer's house in her country, where it has been kept all the holidays, to 
accommodate a friend with a slice or two, as we do cakes or minced pies 
here.

   Another Irish Country Dish.--Boil potatoes and parsnips till they are 
soft, make them into a mash with some new milk, and add a cabbage boiled 
tender and cut very small; mix the whole well over the fire with store of 
good butter, some salt and pepper, and eat it hot.

   To make a Herricane.--Take slices of turneps, carrots, and some young 
onions; boil them a little to make them somewhat tender, and after some 
mutton steaks are fry'd and taken up, put in the parboil'd roots and fry 
them brown; clear your pan, put in some butter, flower, water, and some 
gravey (if you have it) and brown it; then put in your meat, &c. to warm, 
and serve it up.

   To collar a Breast of Mutton.--Bone and skin it; then prepare some 
seasoning of parsley, a little thyme, onion, pepper and salt, with some 
small slips of bacon laid cross-ways, and your seasoning spread along it; 
roll it up, and tie it, setting it up end-ways in the saucepan with some 
water; cover it close, letting it stew gently till it be very tender; when 
you think it about half done, turn it.

   To dress a Loin of Mutton.--Skin a loin of mutton, and thrust in long-
ways some stuffing of parsley, a little onion, egg, bread, nutmeg, pepper, 
and salt, and then roast it.

   The best Way to roast Pigeons --Is first to stuff them with parsley 
chopt very small, some butter, pepper, and salt; tie them close neck and 
vent, parboil them, and afterwards roast them. The parboiling makes them 
eat pleasanter, plumps them, and they eat not so dry as otherwise; and it 
takes off the usual strong tang.

   Jugging Pigeons --Is to put one or more so stuft without liquor into a 
stone or other wide-mouthed earthen pot close tied over with bladder, and 
so boiled in water till enough.

   To eat raw Cucumers in a wholesome pleasant Manner.--When you have 
pared and sliced cucumers, put a little water and some salt over them, and 
let them stand so about ten minutes; then drain that from them, and just 
wash them with a little vinegar, throwing that away likewise, before you 
put oil and vinegar upon them. This will make them eat much crisper and 
finer than without such management.--The addition of a few green 
nasturtian pods fresh gathered and eat with them, correct them, and make 
them much wholesomer as well as pleasanter, especially to such as do not 
chuse to eat onions with them.

   The best Way to pickle Walnuts after the French Method.--Take fine 
fresh-gathered succulent walnuts about the latter end of June or beginning 
of July; wipe them well with flannel, and pour upon them rape vinegar 
enough to cover them. Let it be upon them nine or ten days, then pour it 
off into a jar or wide-mouth'd glass vessel, adding thereto a few bay-
leaves, some horse-radish grosly scraped, some black pepper and salt at 
discretion; stop the vessel close, and put it by to be used for sauce as 
kechup, which it far exceeds. Then having put some pieces of horse-radish, 
a few bay-leaves, and some whole black pepper between every layer of the 
nuts, till the jar is near full, fll it up with the stoutest right white-
wine vinegar cold, and cover it very close with bladder and leather, and 
they are done.--Be sure let no salt touch the nuts, and (thus managed) 
they will appear beautifully green, have their natural fine taste, and eat 
firm and good for five years or more.--This receit with the following one 
was given by Monsieur Lebat, who says this is the right way, and that in 
England they do not know how to pickle walnuts right.

   To pickle Cucumers.--Take girkin cucumers fresh and dry gather'd, wipe 
them clean with flannel, and cover them with the best vinegar cold; let it 
lie upon them nine or ten days, then pour it off and cast it away. Just 
boil up some more best vinegar with some grosly scraped horse-radish, and 
whole black pepper; let it stand till it is cold, and having first put a 
little horse-radish thin sliced and whole pepper between every layer of 
the cucumers, pour over them the boiled cold vinegar; stop your jar very 
close with bladder and leather, and they are done.

   To pickle Walnuts white.--Take your walnuts at the latter end of June, 
try them with a pin, &c. pare the green outside till you come to the 
white, and put them into cold water as you pare them. When done, fling 
them into a pot of boiling water, boil them till tender and as quick as 
you can; then take them out, and put them into cold water. A hundred and 
half will take up a quart of vinegar, one ounce of black pepper whole, 
half a quarter of an ounce of mace, and twelve cloves. Let them boil 
together, then fling in the nuts, and give them one boil; when cold, stop 
them close, and keep for use.

   To pickle Oisters.--Take a quart of oisters and wash them in their own 
liquor from the gravel, then drain your liquor to them again, and set them 
over a fire to boil a quarter of an hour softly, to plump them; then take 
them out of the liquor and put them into the pot you keep them in, drain 
the liquor over again, and put to it four spoonfuls of white-wine vinegar, 
half a spoonful of whole pepper, a blade or two of mace, and a quarter of 
an ounce of cloves, with some lemon-peel and some salt. Let all these boil 
together a little while, pour it to the oisters and the spice with it, and 
when cold cover close.

   Mrs. Hays's Receit to make a Seed Cake.--Take three pounds of flour, 
four ounces of fine sugar, half a pint of cream boiled, two pounds of 
melted butter, one pint of good ale yeast, eight eggs with two whites. Mix 
the sugar with the flour, make a hole in the flour, and put all these 
together into it. Let it stand by the fire half an hour, then mix it 
together, and strew in one pound of carraway-seed, then put it in a hoop 
and bake it an hour.

   A notable Oxfordshire Housewife's common Way of makeing Marrow 
Puddings.--Take the crumb of a penny loaf, a pound of clean pick'd wash'd 
currants, the quantity of two London quarts of new milk boiled, the marrow 
of a common large bone, a pound of suet, nine yolks of eggs, half a pound 
of sugar, a nutmeg, and two pennyworth of mace powder'd, a little salt, 
and half a dozen large spoonfulls of flour. Mix, and fll your hog's guts 
but half full, tying each yard in four equal parts. After you have tye'd 
them up (that they are not above half-full) wash them in rather hotter 
than blood-warm new milk, and directly throw them into a kettle of boiling 
water, letting them only simmer therein for eight minutes, for if they 
continue longer they will burst: When boiled, lay them upon wheat straw on 
a sieve, and they will dry in seven or eight minutes; then you may broil 
them brown, and eat them. They will keep five or six days in warm weather, 
but at Christmas or in a hard frost thee weeks.

   The Process of making Hogs large Gut white delicate Puddings.--Take a 
quarter of a peck of the best flour, three pounds of the hog's leaf cut 
small, two pounds of the best raisins of the sun, a quarter of an ounce of 
powder'd ginger, half a nutmeg, a blade of mace, a little stick of 
cinnamon, and three whole eggs well beat. Season the whole with salt and 
with new milk, blend these together almost as stiff as paste for pye-
crust, fll your large guts moderately full, tie them at both ends about 
half a yard long, put them in boiling water, and let them boil a quarter 
of an hour upon a slow fire. Lay these upon straw as the other, and keep 
them so till used; then cut them in slices about half an inch thick, lay 
them upon the gridiron over a clear fire, broil them brown and eat them.--
n. b. These last are praised much, as being exceeding fine, short, and 
well relished of the hog's meat.

   To preserve the Chine, the Tongue, the Spare Ribs, short Ribs, But-
Pieces, Hocks, and Head of a Porker or Baconer.--The common way practised 
by our Hertfordshire farmers wives to do this is thus: When they salt down 
the fleshy pieces of pork for pickling them, I say after this is done, 
they salt the two but-pieces, the two hocks, the two spare ribs, the 
chine, the head, and the tongue. If the chine and spare ribs are to be 
sold, I generally contrive to kill the hog a day or two before the market 
day, for the opportunity of selling them to the London higler, because 
these pieces fetch a better price than ordinary; in this case they only 
just sprinkle them with common salt. But if they are to be kept for 
spending them in the family, they salt the spare ribs, and hang them up 
where the blow-fly cannot come; and the chine, the hocks, the head, and 
the tongue, they salt and lay in an earthen glazed pot or tub, where they 
are to remain as they are put in, till they are dressed. In doing all 
which, they make use of no other than common salt; for as they are to be 
boil'd or roasted, or baked in a little time, they think there is no 
occasion for any other salt.--A second receit is how to salt a chine, 
spare ribs, and tongue, for drying them in a chimney: To do this, mix 
about a quarter of an ounce of powder'd salt-petre with a quart of common 
salt, and with this mixture salt the pieces all over; and when it is 
rubbed well in, let them lie under this salting two or three weeks; then 
wrap each of them in paper, and hang them up near but not too near a fire, 
and if this is cleverly done, the chine and spare ribs will keep good 
four, five, or six months; the spare ribs for roasting or baking, and the 
chine for boiling, provided they are (just before using) soaked in warm 
water a day and a night; and if they are not fresh enough, you may soak 
them in more warm water, and you need not fear their eating good and 
fresh: And I also add, that by this same method both pork and bacon offald 
may be preserved a great while sweet and sound, though kill'd and thus 
managed in summer; partly because salt-petre is a most powerful searcher 
and preventer of taints, and because it forces and drives in common salt, 
when they are mix'd and used together. But salting spare ribs thus is not 
agreeable to all, because the salt-petre colours them reddish, and hardens 
the thin meat of these bony pieces too much.--A farmer's wife, that lives 
near Market-Street in Hertfordshire, allows it to be a housewifely way, to 
put the short ribs of a porker into pickle, because, as she says, there is 
less waste of the flesh this way than in salting them; besides which, she 
thinks this bony meat eats the pleasanter for being thus pickled.--Another 
of our country housewives manages her offald pieces of pork in this 
manner: She makes pyes of her short bony pieces, and the coarse pieces she 
boils first; so that she salts down only her fat fleshy pieces of pork 
clear of all bone, for if the bony pieces of pork were salted down with 
the fleshy pieces, they would stink and corrupt the fleshy pieces.

   To make a Mince-Pye costly and rich.--To one pound of the meat of a 
tongue, add two pounds of suet, six pippins, and a green lemon-peel shred 
small, with an ounce of Jamaica pepper, two pounds of currants, citron, 
lemon, and orange peels, candy'd and shred small. Mix all these with half 
a pint of sack, and fll your pye with it. And to make this richer still, 
add two spoonfuls of lemon juice or verjuice, stoned and sliced dates, 
with some chop'd raisins.--Another says: take an ox heart, or tongue, or 
meat of a surloin of beef, parboil it, and chop it with two pounds of suet 
to every pound of lean meat; this mix with a two-penny grated loaf and 
eight pippins minced fine. It makes excellent pyes, if spice, sack, and 
orange-peel are added, with two pounds of currants to every pound of meat. 
Also that this composition may be kept in an earthen pot in a dry place a 
month or more good, and to make the pyes eat moist, as soon as they are 
out of the oven, put in a glass of brandy or white-wine.--Another says, 
that savoury mince-pyes are best made with equal parts of mutton and veal, 
and other proper ingredients.--Another says, that double tripe boiled 
tender and minced small, with currants, sugar, and other materials, makes 
good mince-pyes.--Another, to make mince-pyes without flesh, says: Boil a 
dozen or more of eggs hard, then boil also a pound of rice very soft; 
mince the eggs, and beat the rice to a pap: Mix these with beef suet 
shred, currants, raisins, sugar, nutmeg, candy'd orange-peel, and put the 
whole into a pye with sack, and bake it in an oven moderately heated.

   How a poor Woman makes palatable Mince-Pyes of stinking Meat.--This is 
a poor industrious woman that rents a little tenement by me of twenty 
shillings a year, who for the sake of her poverty is every week relieved, 
with many others, by the most noble lord of Gaddesden Manour; who killing 
a bullock almost every week for his very large family, he has the offald 
meat dressed, and is so good as to have it given away to the poorest 
people in the neighbourhood. But it sometimes happens, through the 
negligence of careless servants, that this charitable meat is apt to stink 
in hot weather, for want of its due cleaning, boiling, and laying it in a 
cool place: However, the poor are very glad of this dole, as it does their 
families considerable service. And to recover such tainted meat, this 
woman, after boiling and cleansing it well, chops and minces it very 
small, and when mixed with some pepper, salt, chop'd sage, thyme and 
onion, she bakes it: This for a savoury pye. At another time she makes a 
sweet pye of this flesh, by mixing a few currants and plumbs with it. But 
in either form the taint is so lessened that it is hardly to be perceived.

   How to make Hertfordshire Cakes, Nuts, and Pincushions.--These are much 
used in Hertfordshire, for giving farmers servants a changeable dinner now 
and then to their satisfaction; for if they are made as they should be, 
the men are generally fond of them. To do which, our housewife puts skim 
milk and hogs-lard over the fire, and warms them only for mixing. Then she 
takes some flour, sugar, yeast, and an egg or two, with the powder of 
Jamaica spice, and makes a paste of these and the milk and fat, as if for 
pye-crust; and when it is work'd and rolled enough, to the thinness of 
about a quarter of an inch, she cuts it out in two-inch square pieces, and 
boils them in hogs-lard in a little kettle, or in a stew-pan or frying-
pan. Others roll up this paste in the shape of walnuts, and dress them in 
the same manner the square pieces are.--N. B. No fat is so good for this 
as hogs-lard, because the lard hollows the cushions or nuts, and makes 
them look whiter than any other fat does; though some for want of this 
make them with dripping, &c.

   How much the Guts of Chauldron of a Calf in Esteem with the People in 
and about the Town of Tring in Hertfordshire, for making Pyes of them.--It 
is notoriously known, that Tring market has acquired no little reputation 
for the sale of the whitest and best of veal, because the ground of the 
adjacent country produces a most sweet grass and milk, and white calf's 
flesh. By which there are great numbers of calves fatted and kill'd in a 
year for the London markets, to which the flesh is carried by common 
higlers. This gives the people in and about Tring an opportunity to buy 
the guts or chauldrons of fatted calves, to make pyes with them as a very 
delicious food. And accordingly these guts are seldom put to any other 
use, especially throughout the summer time. And for those of one calf the 
price is generally six-pence, but the butchers are indifferent of selling 
them so, because the fat that is on them might be taken off and sold for 
near that money without the guts. Now the guts of one calf is enough for 
one pye but for a large family pye two have been made use of.

   How the Guts or Chauldron of a Calf is to be clean'd and prepared for 
making Pyes with them, or to eat them otherwise.--There is no receit as I 
know of extant, that directs a person how to clean and prepare the guts of 
a calf for making them eatable in pyes or otherwise: The most that any 
author says on this account is, that the guts must be first parboil'd 
before they are made into a pye, without taking notice what is to be done 
before. Wherefore I have thought it necessary to tell my reader, that our 
country housewife's way is, to slit the guts along with a penknife that 
has a pea stuck at the end of it, to keep the knife's point from entering 
the gut, and making it the better slide through it. When guts are thus 
slit and opened, they must be well wash'd till cleansed of their filth; 
then they must be laid in a tub, and salt strewed over them, for their 
being well rubbed with it, to bring off all manner of slime and foulness: 
This being neatly done, the guts are to be rinsed in spring water twice a 
day for two days together.

   How the Guts or Chauldron of a Calf is to be made into a Pye.--The guts 
being thoroughly cleaned, as before directed, are to be boiled a little 
while, or what may be called parboil'd; and when cold, if there be any 
kernels in them, they must be picked out, then chopt into small bits, 
which are to be season'd with pepper and salt and nutmeg, and mixed with 
minced sweet herbs and a piece of fresh butter. These (put into pyecrust) 
are to be closed up with some verjuice, and when baked, a caudle must be 
prepared and put into the pye, made with nutmeg, vinegar, butter, sugar, 
the yolks of two new laid eggs, a spoonful of sack; and if you think fit 
the juice of a Seville orange.

   A Second Receit to make a Chauldron Pye, or to make a delicious sweet 
Chauldron Pye.--The guts should be chop'd very small, and mixed with 
currants, sugar, and some butter; or with plumbs and no currants, with the 
addition of some of the ingredients of the other receit.

   A third Receit to make a Chauldron Pye.--Half boil a calf's chauldron, 
when cold mince it as small as grated bread, with half a pound of suet or 
better, and as much marrow. Season it with mace, nutmeg, and cloves beaten 
small; then wring out the juice of half a lemon, and add some of its rind 
minced small. This done, mix them all together; and when you have laid a 
piece of puff-paste at the bottom of a dish, put your mixture on it, cover 
all with another leaf of paste, and bake it. When baked, open the pye, and 
squeeze in the juice of three Seville oranges.

   To make a Pudding of a Calf's Chauldron.--Take the parboil'd guts, and 
mince them as small as possible, with half a pound of beef suet. Season it 
with a little onion, parsley, thyme, and the rind of a lemon shred very 
small, with beaten nutmeg, cloves, and mace, all mixed together, with the 
yolks of five eggs and a little cream; then take sheeps guts thoroughly 
cleansed and cured, fll them with this meat in the shape of hogs puddings, 
and boil them after the same manner.

   To fry a Calf's Chauldron.--After the calf's guts are cleansed and 
cured, parboil them, and when cold cut it into little bits as big as 
walnuts. Season it with powder'd cloves, nutmeg, mace, an onion, parsley, 
and a little pepper. Then put this mixture into a frying-pan, with a ladle 
full of strong broth and a little piece of butter, and fry it. When fry'd 
enough, put over it a layer made with mutton gravey, the juice of a lemon 
and orange, the yolks of three or four eggs, and some grated nutmeg. Toss 
this in the pan two or three times, then dish and serve it up.



Of Brewing Malt Liquors.

WHY so little good Malt is made in England.--It is to little purpose to 
hope for the enjoyment of wholesome pleasant beer and ale, unless the malt 
is good it is brewed from; and such malt is more difficult to come by than 
most people imagine, which made an expert common brewer say, he believed 
there was hardly one malster in twenty that made true malt; and I am 
really of the same opinion, as thousands I am sure would be, if they had a 
knowledge of the many incidents and contrivances that hinder it. 
Incidents, I say, because when barley is mowed in several degrees of 
ripeness, as when some is full ripe, some half ripe, and some only begun 
ripening, it is then impossible to make good malt of such barley; the 
occasion of which is owing to a long dry season of weather, that directly 
succeeds the sowing of it; by which means thousands of acres of barley in 
some years are thus damaged, although this great damage may be very 
cheaply and easily prevented by liquoring the seed before it is sown, as I 
have, and intend in my future works further to shew, when I publish my 
treatise to be entituled New Discoveries in the Art of Agriculture. 
Secondly, another incident of damage is, when barley after it is mowed is 
rained on, so as to make it spire in the field. Thirdly, in the malt-house 
by wrong management in the cistern, floor or kiln; on the kiln, by drying 
brown malt too hastily, so as to cause the kernels to jump and snap, which 
is blowing of malt, to make the fewer kernels fll the bushel, and thus 
they are often dried to a bitterness; whereas to dry it leisurely as it 
ought to be, it should be ten hours on the kiln, instead of which many dry 
it in four hours time. The same fault is also committed by many malsters 
in making pale malts, who to save time, labour, and fewel, dry them in 
eight hours instead of sixteen; and to deceive the buyer will just crisp 
them without-side, when the inside is rawish: hence it is, that we have 
such great quantities of bad beer and ale. Fourthly, there are thousands 
of quarters of malt damaged every year by whools or wevils, bred by the 
rawness of pale malt. Many people find themselves sick after drinking, 
little thinking such sickness is occasioned by whools or wevils; but I 
say, wevilly malt will cause the beer to give its drinker a sickness, and 
when many of these stinking poisonous insects are among it, a very panick 
sickness indeed. The Londoners have no notion of this; and that in some 
country towns, where are several malt-kilns, they are never free from 
wevils all the year.

   To know good Malt.--It is known by smell and taste, by smelling, if it 
smells sweet; by taste, if the kernel bites mellow and tastes sweet; for 
if the kernels are hard throughout, it is a sign of bad malt.--See more of 
this, and many other curious serviceable matters in brewing, in my 
treatise intituled The London and Country Brewer, sold by Astley, at the 
Rose in Pater-Noster-Row, London.

   Hops.--The bright hops of the last year's growth are best, the older 
the worser. Hops ripe, when gather'd free of the damage of insects and 
rains, and if rightly kiln-dried, will (by rubbing them between the finger 
and thumb) feel oily, yield a delicate scent, and taste thoroughly bitter.

   Of Water for brewing.--The best water to brew with is a soft river, 
pond, or rain-water, because these make stronger drink than hungry hard 
well-water, and agree best with malt of any kind, in opening its body, 
whereby the beer or ale wort receives its strength the sooner, and more 
gradually than it does from an astringent, sharp, hard, well-water; 
insomuch that it is allowed by good judges, that one or two bushels of 
malt may be saved in eight, if brewed with a river or pond water. I knew a 
nobleman (whose well-water is a bracky, hard, chalky sort) say he could 
never have such good beer at his house, as the keeper of his park had at 
his lodge. The reason was, because the keeper brewed with a pond-water, 
that had much more strength in it than the well-water, and gave the drink 
a better relish; and if such pond-water should be (as sometimes it is in 
summer) stagnated and foul, it is only throwing some salt into the copper, 
and it will not only raise a filthy scum, but entirely cure the water. 
This and many other matters in brewing I have the more knowledge of, as I 
was executor to my uncle's will, a brewer in London; which engaged me a 
little while in that business.

   Of keeping brewing Utensils clean and sweet.--Without a roomly 
brewhouse, a sufficient number of tubs or other coolers, and without they 
are kept sweet and clean, there is no such thing as brewing right malt 
liquors. But if any taint of them is suspected, it may be cured at once by 
throwing scalding water into them, and upon that some bay-salt, which when 
dissolved, scrub and wash them well with a birch broom, or hard brush; and 
thus you will deliver yourself from that poisonous damage, called in great 
brewhouses the fox, which gives the drink a sickish nasty taste, and a 
very unwholesome quality.

   A good plain Way to brew a Hogshead of October or March stout Beer.--
There are many ways of doing this; but the plain common way is this I am 
going to direct, I will suppose a hogshead of strong beer was to be 
brewed.--In the first place, I would see if my malt was not eat at the end 
of the kernels by wevils, that it was sweet, and bit mellow; then I would 
have it only just broke, and that's all, between the two stones of a mill, 
or else only bruised between two rollers of the shape of a mill that flats 
tobacco-leaves, or the plat that our country people weave for making straw-
hats: Then having my soft water boiled a minute or two, I would put it 
into the mash tub, there to stand till I could see my face in it, or just 
bear my finger in it; then to put my ground malt directly into it by 
degrees, stirring it all the while it is running leisurely into the tub; 
when all is in, I would mash the whole for about twenty-five minutes, then 
cover it with a bushel of malt that I left out on purpose, and leave it so 
for two or three hours; at the end of which, I would turn the cock to let 
the wort run out, and return it back on the malt till it run fine upon 
some rubbed hops. When I had my full quantity, or rather before, I would 
be putting it into the copper with hops, and boil all as fast as I could, 
till the wort breaks into particles as big as lice; then I would take all 
out of the copper as fast as I could, for then it is boiled full enough, 
and better than if the wort and hops were boiled longer. But to be more 
nice, I would put my hops in a large canvas bag or fine meshed net, to be 
boiled in the wort only thirty minutes at most, but the wort should be 
boiled on longer, till it breaks as aforesaid; for by boiling the hops so 
little a while, the drink will be impregnated with only the fine 
spiritous, flowery, wholesome bitter of the hops, free of that nasty-
tasted earthy unwholesome quality that is in all hops whatsoever, and 
which would be extracted if the wort was to boil much longer. As to the 
quantity of malt and hops to brew a hogshead of strong beer from, it is as 
a person thinks fit; for from ten to sixteen bushels or more of any sort 
of malt, a hogshead of good beer may be brewed; and as to the quantity of 
hops, they may be used from four to ten pounds or more. Be sure to lay 
your wort thin in the cooling tubs or backs, for if it is laid thick, it 
will be very apt to fox; and when almost cold, take about a gallon, and 
mix some yeast with it in a pan, tub, or pail; do this in time, that it 
may be incorporated with the rest of the wort before it is cold, and when 
it has work'd into a curled head turn it, but never beat the yeast into it 
above once or twice at most, before you put it into the cask.--Others brew 
by lading over boiling water after the first mash is over, and this from 
time to time without stirring the malt, till all the strong wort is got 
off; which is a good way, but is too tedious for some people's patience.--
Others work their strong wort in a cask, and will not put any yeast into 
it before it is all in it, thinking the spirits will not waste here during 
the fermentation, as when openly work'd in a tub.--Ale is to be brewed in 
the same manner, only with less malt and fewer hops; and if a person has a 
mind to brew an ale that is excellent for the gout or gravel, he may put 
some treacle into the copper when he puts in his malt wort to boil; this 
opens the pores, and promotes perspiration, to the great relief of the 
body. N. B. If your first hot water is not too hot when the malt is put to 
it, you need not fear a miscarriage in the brewing afterwards.


A Proposal for putting a Stop to that pernicious, but too common Practice, 
of beating Yeast into strong Beer and Ale.

Notwithstanding I have done my endeavour, in my aforesaid brewing-
treatise, to detect this pernicious practice, yet I find to my surprise it 
increases, especially in the country, as it brings the greater profit to 
the brewer, who by this means can save two bushels of malt in eight. For 
if one brews eight bushels of malt and does not beat the yeast in above 
once or twice at most, his drink shall be no stronger than the same 
quantity brewed from six bushels, if the yeast is beaten in near or quite 
a week together, as many do in winter time; because by this the malt 
liquor is so impregnated with the sulphureous and saline spirit of the 
yeast (which is of a poisonous nature) that a quart of such yeasty ale has 
fuddled a very stout man: Which inebriating quality tempts the ignorant to 
spend their money, lose their time, ruin their health, and bring their 
family to the parish. Besides which, it greatly lessens the consumption of 
barley and malt, and consequently the king's duty. Now to prevent this 
horrid practice, if the excise officer was to make a narrow inspection, 
and find yeast beaten into any strong beer or ale above twice, it should 
by a strict law be made very penal.

F I N I S.