Dairy Ode

Our muse it doth refuse to sing

Of cheese made early in the spring,

When cows give milk from spring fodder

You cannot make a good cheddar.

The quality is often vile

Of cheese that is made in April,

Therefore we think for that reason

You should make later in the season.

Cheese making you should delay

Until about the first of May.

Then cows do feed on grassy field

And rich milk they abundant yield.

Ontario cannot compete

With the Northwest in raising wheat,

For cheaper there they it can grow

So price in future may be low.

Though this a hardship it may seem,

Rejoice that you have got the cream,

In this land of milk and honey,

Where dairy farmers do make money.

Utensils must be clean and sweet,

So cheese with first class can compete,

And daily polish up milk pans,

Take pains with vats and with milk cans.

And it is important matter

To allow no stagnant water,

But water from pure well or stream

The cow must drink to give pure cream.

Canadian breeds 'tis best to pair

With breeds from the shire of Ayr,

They thrive on our Canadian feed

And are for milking splendid breed.

Though 'gainst spring cheese some do mutter,

Yet spring milk also makes bad butter,

Then there doth arise the query

How to utilize it in the dairy.

The milk it floats in great spring flood

Though it is not so rich and good,

Let us be thankful for this stream

Of milk and also curds and cream.

All dairymen their highest aims

Should be to make the vale of Thames,

Where milk doth so abundant flow,

Dairyland of Ontario.