DAIRY

(Dey, milk, obsol. Eng.) An apartment in a house, or a separate building, for the purpose of holding milk, and manufacturing it into butter, cheese, or other dairy produce. On a small scale, where butter only is made from milk, the dairy may be a room in the north side of the dwelling-house; or it may form one of the oflices connected with the kitchen court. The requisites for the room to contain the milk are — an equal temperature throughout the year, viz. between 48° and 55°; sufficient ventilation to carry off all bad smells and impurities in the air; and the exclusion of flies and other insects. An equable temperature is maintained by thick or by hollow walls, and by double windows. In winter the temperature is somewhat raised by the warm milk, and in summer it is cooled to the degree required by ventilation and the evaporation of water poured on the floor. The ventilation is effected by opening the glazed sashes of the windows, and supplying their places by wire shutters; and indeed one of the best modes of arranging the windows of a da'iry is to have wooden shutters outside for closing in the most severe weather in winter; next a fixed frame of wirework to exclude the flies; and within this, at three or four inches distance, the glazed sash, which should be made to open. A dairy on a large scale is most conveniently arranged as a detached building; in which case, it contains a milkroopi, a churning-room, and a dairy scullery, or place for [s. 326]