EL—23

4

Quantity. Value. Average of five years:— Cwt. £ Butter and butterine ... ... ... 2,484,762 ... 11,765,560 Cheese ... ... ... ... 1,824,771 ... 4,464,485 m , j 4,309,533 £16,230,045 lotas ••• ••• •••{or 215,477 tons. per annum.

Butter Production and Consumption.

Europe produces 651,000 tons of butter, and consumes 681,000 tons. The United States and Canada produce 404,000 tons, and consume 374,000 tons, leaving 30,000 tons for export.

Section lI.—FOEEIGN BUTTER AND CHEESE. 1. NoBMANDY AND BeITTANY. The Normandy butter is most in fashion at present in England, owing to a number of things that combine to give it peculiar excellence. The climate is mild on that part of the French coast, which is benefited, like England and Ireland, by the Gulf Stream, and its soft winds and moisture. Normandy butter is made for the most part at the farms, with an unrivalled exactness and minuteness of attention to every detail, added to a remarkably good quality of milk. The Danish systems and improvements are seldom seen on Normandy and Brittany farms. Cheap labour, with incessant carefulness and patient work by the dairymaids and peasants, combine to produce a result which cannot at present be matched in this country. The secret of this foreign success is that a butter of exactly the same colour, flavour, and texture is turned out in great quantities, and can be depended upon for ever-constant uniformity all the year round. Opinions differ as to its actual superiority in quality to English and Irish butter, many experts holding that it is intrinsically inferior; but it is to a great extent mixed up by powerful butter-workers at the large factories, and blended into the uniform character that is its great characteristic. A single house in London pays to a single Normandy factory more than £30,000 a month. Professor Long sums up the advantages of that part of France as a dairy country when he says that " the system in Normandy is not only simple, but perfect." A curious point is mentioned by Consul Baillon in speaking of the industry in the Districts of Finistere, Cotes dv Nord, and Morbihan. He says that at a recent annual show at Morlaix butter was shown which suffered no deterioration whatever although exposed for a w reck, yet that this butter could only be introduced into the English markets under a Danish mark. It is said that Normandy butter does not possess what is called the " nutty flavour " of the best home-made kinds ; but the London market does not care for that. The one thing it wants is to get always the same flavour, and colour, and texture, and this is just what it does get from Normandy. 2. Denmark, Sweden, etc. The great success of the dairy industry in Denmark is attributed by all the best authorities here to the excellence of the technical education given in that country, and to the way it is carried to the farmers' doors, every pupil being taught on the same lines. Consul Ingiis, in a report just published (May, 1888), says that the increased export of Danish butter (which five years' ago only amounted to between 80,000 and 90,000 barrels, and has nearly doubled) has been due to the co-operative system of dairying, and the export of cheese has trebled, having grown from 200,00011). to 600,0001b. Nearly all this is due to the spread of technical teaching. Denmark is permeated with agricultural and dairy-farming schools ; and its superiority as the model State in dairy-fanning has been achieved by the constant co-operation of science and practice. The butter manufacture in Denmark is chiefly done on the " creameries " system, large creameries having been established to which farmers sell all their cream. In Sweden there are many Government travelling-teachers. If a dairymaid wants to improve herself the travelling-teacher goes to the farm and tells her what to do, and shows the farmer how to produce the richest milk. Instruction in Swedish dairy colleges includes the methods of farming, varieties of pasture, dairy management, and characteristics of good butter and cheese. Practical work is done in weighing and cooling milk, setting cream, separating milk, and testing; and the Government pays a number of girls for learning how to turn out their produce in the best

Production. Consumption. Surplus. Deficiency. Jnited Kingdom ... Tons. 90,000 160,000 90,000 90,000 88,000 55,000 46,000 20,000 12,000 Tons. 205,000 160,000 65,000 86,000 88,000 40,000 10,000 15,000 12,000 Tons. Tons. 115,000 Sermany ?rance Russia Vustria Scandinavia Holland 3elgium !taly ... 25|000 4,000 15,000 36,000 5,000