3 i8 GERMAN VIEW OF ENGLISH AGRICULTURE 



In regard to dairy products, Dr. Levy con- 

 tinues, the impression prevails in Germany that 

 the large supplies of butter received from 

 Denmark and Ireland have done serious harm 

 to the English farmer, and such supplies cer- 

 tainly represent a serious competition. But 

 neither in Denmark nor in Ireland does he find 

 conditions which the English farmer might not 

 have secured for the purpose of at least check- 

 ing this competition, had he thought fit. Instead, 

 however, of doing so, the English farmer found 

 it more profitable to devote himself to the 

 supply of fresh milk. Here the two leading 

 factors were (1) the steadily increasing con- 

 sumption of milk in the towns ; and (2) the 

 constant improvement in the conditions of trans- 

 port. Farmers who could send their milk to a 

 town got better prices and incurred less trouble 

 than if they turned it into butter ; so that (in 

 effect) it paid them to let the foreigner supply 

 the towns with butter if they could control the 

 market there for fresh milk. All this is perfectly 

 true, no doubt ; but the German critic omits to 

 point out that there are parts of England so 

 situated that the farmers cannot send their milk 

 to the large centres of population. In these cases, 

 at least, the establishing of co-operative dairies for 

 butter production should be a decided advantage. 



