DAIRYING. 123 



handling and distributing of milk, and the manufacture of dairy 

 products. These involve the study of the management and feeding 

 of dairy herds, of 'methods of securing and distributing milk, of 

 the constitution of milk and milk products, of the various activi- 

 ties in the dairy, of the technical processes involved in the making 

 of such products as cheese and butter. The chemist, bacterio- 

 logist, physiologist, physicist, the specialist in dairy husbandry, 

 and the animal pathologist are intimately concerned in one or 

 other of the technical questions bearing on the subject. Further, 

 the importance of milk from the human standpoint, and its rela- 

 tion to public health, give a value to dairy research quite apart 

 from its agricultural value. It is to be regretted, therefore, 

 that only recently have the means been found for the equipment 

 of an Institute on a scale approximating to the importance of 

 the subject. The account given in this chapter of the work that 

 is now in progress and the results recently obtained will, it is 

 hoped, not only show that valuable work has been done in spite 

 of very considerable difficulties as regards staff and equipment, 

 but will also indicate to some extent the large volume of research 

 which is waiting to be accomplished and which, in the interests 

 both of the producer and the consumer of milk, should be taken 

 in hand as soon as opportunities permit. 



The investigations fall into three broad categories ; those relat- 

 ing to the management and feeding of dairy herds; those 

 bearing on the question of the cleanliness of the milk that is 

 produced; and those deahng with the technicaHties involved 

 in the manufacture or disposal of the various milk products. 

 It will be desirable to refer to the work under these three heads 

 in the order stated, and in the first instance to consider what is 

 being done to solve some of the numerous problems of dairy 

 husbandry. 



Dairy Husbandry. 



As the Institute has had no farm or dairy herd under its 

 control it has been necessary to rely mainly on such work as 

 it has been found possible to carry out with the Reading College 

 dairy herd, and to supplement this by information obtained 

 from the Berkshire Milk Recording Society^to whose records 

 the Institute has been allowed free access — and from numerous 

 dairy farmers in the locality who have not hesitated to supply 

 any particulars of value in connection with the investigations of 

 the Institute. 



Effect of Age and Period of Calving on Milk Yield. — In a 

 previous chapter reference has been made (on p. 109) to the 

 results of recent work at the Cambridge Animal Nutrition 



