Author of "British Dairy Farming,” ," "The Dairy Farm," "The Book of the Pig," "Farming in a Small Way," etc.

DAIRY farming as we understand it to-day, is a branch of our agricultural system which is but of modern growth. Dairying has been conducted in a more or less slipshod manner for generations, for it has not been properly understood, and it is only by the light of modern investigation and by sound instruction that the best work can be done. It is quite common to hear those who were engaged in butter or cheese-making forty years ago declare that the produce of those days was superior to that which is produced to-day; but the imagination of the speaker can only be compared to the equally incorrect belief of others in the good old times when Charles the Second was king, when England was supposed to be "merry," and the people happier and more prosperous than they are to-day. The British Dairy Farmers' Association came into existence about fifteen years ago, and from that date until this there has been one continued advance in dairy farming. For several years this and other Associations, which added the dairy to their programme, worked almost in vain. Here and there they gained adherents to the cause, who assisted, as many have

continued to assist, in the promulgation of knowledge destined to advance the interests of dairying; but although, by the determined efforts of a few, prizes were offered for dairy farms, for the records of dairy herds, for cheese and butter, and for practical makers of butter and cheese, the whole subject was restricted to a limited area. A Committee appointed by the House of Commons, and presided over by Sir Richard Paget, sat some four years ago, and recommended the introduction of dairy schools. The grant of five thousand pounds made by the Government, which helped such schools as were worthy of assistance, small though that help was, was a fresh incentive to those who were working in the interest of dairy farming. The schools were talked about, their work was recognized, and as the Americans say, they "took on" to such an extent than when the County Councils had to determine how to expend the windfall which they received from the Government in 1890-91, in connection with technical instruction, dairy teaching seemed to leap into the first place, and within twelve months classes were being held or demonstrations given in butter-making in almost every county in England.

We have to consider how the dairy affects the value of land. It is quite unnecessary in dealing with this question to attempt to show in detail how possible it is for a dairy farmer to succeed and to pay a fair rent for the soil he occupies. Such a course would occupy far too much of our space, but we can point out that highclass dairying is one of the most profitable branches of farming if, indeed, it does not occupy the first place. During the trying times which followed 1878, the milkseller and the cheese-maker maintained their position much better than any other class of farmer.

There is not, and never has been, a wide margin between the values of dairy produce in Great Britain and in other countries, and it has always been possible, and is possible to-day, for our own people, especially under modern conditions, to compete against the butter-makers of France, Denmark, Sweden and Italy, and the cheesemakers of the American continent and New Zealand. The market for dairy produce is at our very doors. No other country can land such fine cheese as the best we make, or finer butter than we can produce. We have no competitor in the production of milk for sale au naturel; our consumption is increasing enormously in every direction, and our means of producing with greater economy have assisted us materially in holding our own. For use in an article upon "Our Trade in Dairy Produce," written for the Christmas volume of the Co-operative Wholesale Society, the writer calculated upon the basis of public statistics, that the consumption per head of our population per annum of imported butter is 9'4 lbs., and of home-made butter 5'6 lbs. ; of imported cheese 5.7 lbs., of home-made cheese 7.9 lbs., representing in all the value of eighteen shillings and tenpence (at wholesale prices) in money, or fifty-four gallons in milk, and this without any reference to the consumption of margarine, which is now enormous. In 1861 the consumption of butter and margarine per head was 3'9 lbs. ; this had increased to 48 lbs. ten years later, and in 1881-85-each set of figures being placed upon a quinquennial average to 7.2 lbs. These figures alone should be sufficient to show that there is tremendous scope for the dairy farmer in these islands, even admitting that in order to sell his produce, he must be prepared to accept such prices as are paid to the foreign producer.

Butter-making has transformed the agriculture of

Denmark; it is materially assisting the farmers of Sweden, and the system adopted in these two countries is being adopted in all suitable parts of Norway. The French butter-maker is able to make both ends meet, and by thrifty habits to lay money by. The Italian has commenced modern butter-making upon a large scale, and he too finds the business answer his purpose. It has been the business of the writer to investigate, even in detail, the system pursued in each of these countries, and there is very little reason for the assumption that the British dairy farmer is handicapped either from the point of view of rent, taxes, or labour.

We have never been enamoured of the business of butter-making under all circumstances, and do not suggest for a moment that it can be conducted with profit in every district, even in every dairy district; but if we except bleak hilly farms adapted only for the breeding of sheep we have always maintained the opinion that milk. can be profitably produced whether the farm be arable or pasture. There is a popular error to the effect that dairy farming is adapted only to pastoral districts. A greater mistake has seldom been made. Not only can more milk per acre be produced from arable land adapted to the growth of roots and forage crops, but the milk costs less to produce. Even the pastoral farmer requires a small acreage of roots to enable him to carry his cows through the winter in high condition. Some of the most successful dairying is conducted in Manche and Calvados in the north of France, by the assistance of arable crops in the summer season. It is true that the cows are tethered, and tethered, too, upon such forage crops as clover, vetches, and trifolium incarnatum, but the difference in the yield of the animals and in the number which can be kept per acre is surprising. Those who understand the

feeding properties of these crops and of grass, from the point of view of milk production, will readily recognise their value, more especially as compared with grass of second rate quality, or of pasture in which leguminous herbage is deficient. The dairy farmer of to-day is in possession of means and of knowledge which were utterly unknown to those who preceded him. By the use of the separator, by means of which milk is creamed by centrifugal force, he is able to extract a much higher percentage of butter from the milk, and to place the skim milk upon the market in a perfectly fresh and sweet form. By the aid of the instantaneous butter-maker he will soon be in a position to economise labour still farther. The old-fashioned dairy with its large number of utensils and costly cleanings is abolished for ever upon every well-managed farm. The dairy exhibitions have enabled the farmer to select milking stock of the highest type, and bulls which he can use for the improvement of his herd, which alone should add very considerably to the average milking power of every cow in the herd. The practice, derived from the teaching of able experimenters, of mixing rations upon a scientific basis for the economical production of milk, is one of the most important, as well as one of the most valuable, additions to dairy farm practice; and the discovery by a German chemist, confirmed by men of equal eminence in England, France, and America, of the power of clover and allied plants to absorb nitrogen from the air, is not only one of the greatest achievements of our time, but is specially calculated to assist the dairy farmer in providing the most valuable portion of the ration of his cows, and at the same time of maintaining the fertility of the soil he cultivates.

So far we have said nothing with regard to the manufacture of cheese, but this is not because we