MILK DANGERS AND REMEDIES 119 



163,883,360 pounds ! Our cheese imports reached 

 the enormous total of 262,018,624 pounds, whilst 

 817,274 cwts. of condensed milk and 10,691 of 

 milk and cream were supplied to us from without. 



If we glance at the energy and enthusiasm dis- 

 played by other countries, and notably Denmark, 

 in the prosecution and scientific development of 

 the dairy industry, we shall not wonder at the high 

 standard of excellence achieved, or at the readi- 

 ness displayed by Great Britain to absorb their 

 produce. Thus, whilst in England it may be ques- 

 tioned whether in a single dairy the artificial 

 souring of cream by pure cultures of bacteria is 

 carried out, in Denmark the use of so-called special 

 bacterial butter-starters is rapidly gaining ground. 

 Thus, whereas in 1888 at the Odense Exhibition 

 not a single sample of butter was exhibited in 

 which pure bacterial cultures had been employed, 

 in 1894, 46-7 per cent, of the samples shown were 

 thus produced, in 1896, 89-2 per cent, in 1897, 

 94-4 per cent, 1898, 95-9 per cent, and in 1899, 

 every sample, and since this year nearly every 

 dairy of importance in the country employs special 

 bacterial butter-starters. 



The Danes are enlightened and shrewd enough 

 to realise that in order to retain their existing 

 markets and acquire fresh ones, it is necessary to 

 take advantage of every improvement in methods 



