Estimating the average yield of milk of each country cow at 500 gallons per annum, and assuming an average of 28 cows to each farm, as many as 4300 farmers are engaged in supplying London with milk; allotting ten cows to each milker, it needs 12 battalions of 1000 men each for this work alone. Some 3500 horses are required to convey the milk from the farms to the country railway stations. The chief sources of supply are in the counties of Derby, Stafford, Leicester, Northampton, Notts, Warwick, Bucks, Oxford, Gloucester, Berks, Wilts, Hants, Dorset, Essex, and Cambridge. It is not entirely owing to the railways that London’s enormous supply of milk has been rendered possible, for the milk must still have been produced in the immediate neighbourhood of the metropolis had not the method of reducing the temperature of the product by means of the refrigerator been devised. There are probably 5700 horses engaged in the delivery of milk in London, and more people are employed in this work than in milking the cows. One of the great difficulties the London dairyman has to contend with, and a cause of frequent anxiety to him, is associated with the rise and fall of the thermometer, for a movement to the extent of ten degrees one way or the other may diminish or increase the supply in an inverse ratio to the demand. Thus, at periods of extreme cold, the cows shrink in their yield of milk, while from the same cause the Londoner is demanding more, in an extra cup of coffee, &c. Again, at periods of extreme heat, which has the same effect on the cow’s production as extreme cold, the customer also demands an increased quantity of milk. Ten degrees fall of temperature in the summer will result in a lessened demand and an enlarged supply—to such an extent, indeed, that a single firm has been known to have had returned by its carriers some 600 gallons in one day. In such cases the cream separator is capable of rendering invaluable assistance. To make cheese in London in large quantities and at uncertain intervals has been found to be impracticable, while to set for cream a great bulk of milk is almost equally so. But now a considerable portion of what would otherwise be lost is saved by passing the milk through separators, and churning the cream into butter.

Previously to the enormous development of the urban trade in country milk, dairy farms were in the main self-sustaining in the matter of manures and feeding-stuffs, and the cropping of arable land was governed by routine. To-day, on the contrary, many dairy farms are run at high pressure by the help of purchased materials,—corn, cake, and manure,—and the land is cropped regardless of routine and independent of courses. Such crops, moreover, are grown—white straw crops, green crops, root crops—as are deemed likely to be most needed at the time when they are ready. Green crops,—“soiling” crops, as they are termed in North America,—consisting largely of vetches or tares (held up by stalks of oat plants grown amongst them), cabbages, and in some districts green maize, are used to supplement the failing grass-lands at the fall of the year, and root crops, especially mangel, are advantageously grown for the same purpose. For winter feeding the farm is made to yield what it will in the shape of meadow and clover hay, and of course root crops of the several kinds. This provision is supplemented by the purchase of, for example, brewers’ grains as a bulky food, and of oilcake and corn of many sorts as concentrated food.

Table XI.—Estimated Annual Production of Milk, Butter and Cheese in the United Kingdom for the Ten Years ended 31st December 1899.

Year
ended
December
31.		Cows and Heifers
in Milk or in
Calf on 4th June.		Cows
per 1000
of
Popu-
lation.		Cows and
Heifers giving
Milk all the
year round;
say 75% of
Total.		Influence of
Season.
Percentage
above or
below the
Average of
previous
10 Years.		Estimated Total
Quantity of
Milk produced
in the 52
Weeks, by 75%
of the Total
Herd, at 49
cwt. or 531
gallons per
Cow.		Estimated Total
Quantity of
Butter produced
in the 52
Weeks, taking 32%
of the Total
Milk to yield
80 ℔ of Butter
per Ton of
Milk.		Estimated Total
Quantity of
Cheese produced
in the 52
Weeks, taking 20%
of the Total
Milk to yield
220 ℔ of Cheese
per Ton of
Milk.
No.No.No.%.Tons.Tons.Tons.
18903,956,220105.52,967,165+3.07,487,64085,572147,078
18914,117,707108.93,088,281Average.7,566,28886,472148,624
18924,120,451108.13,090,339−5.67,147,33781,684140,394
18934,014,055104.43,010,542−9.06,712,00476,709131,843
18943,925,486101.22,944,115+6.37,667,50587,628150,611
18953,937,590100.52,953,193−3.56,982,08779,652137,148
18963,958,762100.02,969,387−4.06,983,99979,817130,000
18973,984,16799.72,988,126+3.17,547,85686,261148,260
18984,035,501100.03,025,526+3.27,645,10587,372150,171
18994,133,249101.93,099,937−3.57,329,02783,760130,020
10 Years’
Average		4,018,318103.03,013,660−0.77,906,87483,992141,412

British Output, Imports and Exports of Dairy Produce

Whilst the quantity of imported butter and cheese consumed in the United Kingdom from year to year can be arrived at with a tolerable degree of accuracy, it is more difficult to form an estimate of the amounts of these articles annually produced at home. Various attempts have, however, from time to time been made by competent authorities to arrive approximately at the annual output of milk, butter and cheese in the United Kingdom, and the results are given by Messrs W. Weddel & Co. in their annual Dairy Produce Review. Table XI. shows the estimates for each of the ten years 1890 to 1899, the numbers in the second column of “cows and heifers in milk or in calf” being identical with those officially recorded in the agricultural returns. In thus estimating the quantity of milk, butter and cheese produced within the United Kingdom, the “average milking life” of a cow is taken to be four years, from which it follows that on the average one-fourth of the total herd has to be renewed every year by heifers with their first calf. This leaves 75% of the total herd giving milk throughout the year. Each cow of this 75% is estimated as yielding 49 cwt., or 531 gallons of milk annually. It is assumed that 15% of the total milk yield is used for the calf, 32% utilized for butter-making, 20% for cheese-making, and the remaining 33% consumed in the household as fresh milk. A ton of milk is estimated to produce 80 ℔ of butter or 220 ℔ of cheese. A gallon of milk weighs 10.33 ℔ (101⁄3 ℔). The probable effects of each season upon the production have been taken into consideration in making these estimates, and it will be noticed that owing to the terrible drought of 1893 a reduction of 9% is made from the average. Accepting these estimates with due reservation,[15] it is seen that the annual production of milk varied in the decade to the extent of nearly a million tons, the exact difference between the maximum of 7,667,505 tons in 1894 and the minimum of 6,712,004 tons in 1893 being 955,501 tons. The decennial averages are 7,906,874 tons of milk, 83,992 tons of butter, and 141,412 tons of cheese.

Table XII. furnishes an estimate of the total consumption of butter in the United Kingdom in each of the years 1891 to 1900. Whilst the estimated home production did not vary greatly from year to year, the imports from colonial and foreign sources underwent almost continuous increase. The ten years’ average indicates 37.6% home-made, 7.3% imported colonial, and 55.1% imported foreign butter. But whereas at the beginning of the decade the proportions were 45.4% home-made, 1.5% colonial, and 53.2% foreign, at the end of the percentages were 32.8, 14.7 and 52.5 respectively. It thus appears that whilst the United Kingdom was able in 1891 to furnish nearly half of its requirements (45.4%), by 1900 it was unable to supply more than one-third (32.8%).

Table XII.—Estimated Home Production and Imports of Butter into the United Kingdom for the Ten Years ended 30th June 1900.

Year ended
30th June.		Home
Production,
estimated.		Imported
Colonial.		Imported
Foreign.		Total.
Tons.Tons.Tons.Tons.
189184,961 2,883 99,598187,442
189286,022 6,323101,796194,141
189384,078 9,408105,712199,198
189479,19615,550107,534202,280
189582,16817,807116,730216,705
189683,64012,949133,249229,838
189779,73418,111138,800236,645
189883,03917,732141,426242,197
189987,32622,443142,193251,962
190083,76037,534133,957255,251
10 Years’
Average		83,39216,074122,099221,565

The rapid headway which colonial butter has made in British markets is shown by the fact that for the five years ended 30th of June 1900 the import had grown from 12,949 tons to 37,534 tons per annum, or an increase of 24,585 tons. It is during the mid-winter months that the colonial butter from Australasia arrives on the British markets, while that from Canada begins to arrive in July, and virtually ceases in the following January. The bulk of the Canadian butter reaches British markets during August, September and October; the bulk of the Australasian in December, January and February.