14 ITAIvY - CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION 



manufactures daily about four quintals of whey butter and six quintals of 

 butter made from the complete milk and more than 500 cheeses. 



The work being so much, it is not surprising that the dairy has a nu- 

 merous staff, one namely of about two hundred. The number varies with 

 the work as this is influenced by the market. In each season the staff 

 must be proportionate to the needs of manufacture. There are however 

 certain employees who are more stably employed and have even an interest 

 in the profits. 



At the head of the dairy there is a manager, and at the head of the^fac- 

 tories of various kinds there are experts — Swiss for the Ermenthal, Fri- 

 bourg and Sbrinz factories ; workmen from the Lodi district for the but- 

 termaking ; southerners for making the cheeses in demand in the south. 



Since the quantity of milk treated has, as has been said, gradually 

 passed from 150 to 500 quintals a day, it is clear that the dairy has develop- 

 ed considerably. It is now supplied with all the most modern cheese- 

 making machinery. 



The society's buildings comprise several large halls. One for wash- 

 ing and sterilizing the cans, which measures about 130 square metres (i) 

 and holds 1,500 cans, is provided with a special mechanism which allows 

 125 of them to be washed in an hour. 



The next in importance is the cheesemaking hall, which contains 

 sixteen boilers having a capacity of 15 hectolitres (2) each. Then there 

 is the buttermaking hall, and there are a large number of spacious rooms 

 in which lactose is prepared, and others used for the preparation of condensed 

 milk and sterilized milk, a recent enterprise. 



The attention of visitors is more attracted by the storehouses for 

 the preservation of cheese. There are six of these; three underground, 

 measure altogether 235 metres (3) in length, from 4 to 6 in height and 

 6 to II in width ; and three above stairs measure 6 to 11 metres in width 

 and 3.5 to 6 in height. These storehouses contain 30,000 Swiss cheeses 

 and aboiit 130,000 Roman pecorino cheeses. 



In view of the importance of the process to wliich the milk is subjected 

 the dairy is obliged to employ considerable motive power. It has six en- 

 gines : two worked by steam, the combined force of which is about 75 horse- 

 power, and four electric engines having a total force of more than 100 

 horse-power, as well as four steam boilers of 300 horse-power. The dair}' 

 sells and exports most of its products directly. Retail selling is specialh' 

 limited to cover only the needs of members and the provisioning of neigh- 

 bouring middlemen (4). 



(i) I sqtiare metre = 1. 196 square yards. 



(2) I hectolitre =- 22 gallons. 



(3) I metre = 1.094 yards. 



(4) The dairy of Soresina is a centre which imites all the farmers of the district. It helps them 

 in that it encourages among them various forms of initiative tending to the progress of agricul- 

 ture. In 1903 it became a branch of the co-operative agricultural consortium of the province 

 of Cremona. It buys on behalf of its members the coal they need for the engines necessary to 



