DAIRYING IN EUROPE AND AMERICA. 61 



stations, for prizes in favour of distinguished farm holdings, 

 which are chiefly dairy farms, and for itinerant lectures upon 

 the manufacture of cheese. 



Art. 12 provides for annual subventions to the principal 

 agricultural societies, for lectures and special courses of instruc- 

 tion, for the composition and distribution of dairy literature, and 

 for the improvement of small cattle, including milking goats. 



On the 5th July 1886 the Federal Department of Agricul- 

 ture sent a circular to the cantonal governments, in which they 

 quoted a passage from the message of the Federal Council to 

 the Assembly upon the budget of the year. This passage was 

 as follows : — " Excellent results might perhaps be obtained if 

 well-qualified men were to visit the cheese dairies wherever 

 they are required, and where they would not be refused admit- 

 tance, in order to give advice upon their installation, the utensils 

 they use, and the methods of manufacture they employ, as well 

 with regard to the members of cheese associations as to the 

 small contributor (fruitier) himself We should have willingly 

 voted a certain sum for employment in this sense, but we reserve 

 ourselves in accord with the committee of the Swiss Society of 

 Agriculture to carry to the next budget a sum for this end." 



" Since this passage was written [continues the message] 

 (September 1885), the state of the dairy industry, particularly 

 favoured as it is by nature, not only is not improved, but has 

 become disturbed in an important degree. It is useless to dis- 

 cuss the numerous causes to which this sad state may be attri- 

 buted, for we can only exercise influence upon them in a small 

 degree. We can only repeat the unanimous opinion of skilled 

 men, that dairy products of the first quality will always find 

 open markets and remunerative prices ; that our people must so 

 apply themselves above all to improve the quality of our cheeses 

 and of our butter. It would be an injustice to charge the 

 fruitiers (the small milk producers) solely with responsibility 

 for the great quantity of inferior produce which inundates the 

 markets of the interior. With us it is rare that the factory 

 man is at the same time an owner of cattle, but the interests of 

 those who buy milk and of those who furnish it do not march in 

 the same direction. Whilst the factory owner determines only 

 to receive the best milk, produced under the most favourable 

 conditions and treated in the most rational manner, and whilst 

 he deals with it and preserves its products in the most suitable 

 premises, the farmer has an especial aim in producing the 

 largest quantity at the smallest expense. It is not, therefore, 

 possible under some existing conditions, where there are 

 negligence of management and fraudulent acts on the part of 

 the farmer and his servants, to manufacture an article of the 

 first quality. Contracts for the best goods cannot be guaranteed. 



