JOHN BULL'S OTHER ISLAND. 197 



in that they would give advice and prizes for 

 the best-kept creameries and the best butter. 

 It also suggested rules and methods as to 

 the ratio of payment to the farmers according 

 to the butter-fat. 



The usual plan adopted by a number of 

 farmers in a dairying locality is for each cow- 

 keeper to take shares according to the number 

 of cows he possesses — usually £l per cow. 

 But these shares are rarely fully paid up. 

 Instead, the actual cash is obtained from the 

 Joint Stock Bank, sufficient to erect the 

 building and buy the necessary expensive 

 machinery. Mistakes were made at first, as 

 when the creameries bought the cream direct 

 from the farmers, with the disastrous con- 

 sequence of the manufacture of inferior butter, 

 for cream which has been standing in an Irish 

 kitchen in different degrees of temperature 

 and of culinary smells (to say nothing of the 

 pig) is not in ideal condition for the manu- 

 facture of butter. 



Now, however, the milk is taken from the 

 churn direct from the cowshed in a donkey- 

 cart driven by the farmer's wife or daughter. 

 She will drive up at one end of the creamery, 

 where the milk -churn is taken on to the 



