178 AGRICULTURAL ORGANISATION 



in its tenth year, has been especially successful in manufac- 

 turing Stilton cheese, having completely refuted the old 

 idea that the finest quality of that cheese can be manu- 

 factured only from the milk of a particular herd, and not 

 from mixed milk. In 1911 the society made nearly 5,000 

 cheeses, which realised an average price of lof ^. per Ib. 



Good work has also been done by the Nidderdale (York- 

 shire) Dairy Society and the Walkden (Lancashire) Farmers' 

 Milk Supply Association, Ltd. 



The most recent developments are represented by the 

 Wiltshire Farmers, Ltd., the Cheshire Milk Producers' 

 Depots, Ltd., and the Cornwall County Farm and Dairy 

 Co-operative Society, Ltd. 



Wiltshire is one of the chief centres of milk supply for 

 London, and the general conditions in regard to the relations 

 between the farmers and the wholesalers, as already told, 

 prevailed there in full force until the opening, in January, 

 1911, by the Wiltshire Farmers, Ltd. a co-operative 

 association of dairy farmers in Wiltshire of their Chippen- 

 ham depot. Here the milk supply of a large proportion of 

 the 500 members is received and passed through the milk 

 cleaners and pasteurisers, and then over copper milk coolers, 

 which, together with other appliances and the general 

 arrangements of the building, are of the most up-to-date 

 type, the whole of the plant being the best that science can 

 suggest and engineering skill furnish. Run into i7-gallon 

 churns on the dairy floor, the milk is either despatched at 

 once to London from Chippenham station, on the Great 

 Western Railway, or placed in one of three specially- 

 constructed cold rooms until the following day, no change 

 whatever taking place in the nature of the milk so kept. 

 Surplus milk not wanted at all for despatch to London is 

 converted into cheese, for the making of which every 

 necessary appliance, once more of the best possible type, is 

 provided. So well does this arrangement answer that during 

 the three months of May, June and July, 1911, about 

 7,000 worth of milk was turned into cheese, this being milk 

 which, under previous conditions, would have been thrown 



