144 REPORT OF THE SCOTTISH COMMISSION 



Egg- Collecting 



The great and profitable egg export trade of Denmark rests, 

 not upon large poultry farms, but upon numerous groups of peasant 

 proprietors and cottagers who keep fowls, from the number of 

 10 to 100, and are joined in co-operative societies for collecting, 

 testing, and marketing the eggs to the best advantage. In Scot- 

 land the keeping of poultry for profit is less general, but the practice 

 would rapidly grow were organisations formed to gather in and sell 

 the eggs. Co-operative societies with this object, beginning in a 

 small way in suitable rural centres, are well worth attempting and 

 encouraging. One society of the kind has recently been formed at 

 Kirriemuir, upon the initiative of Sir Leonard Lyell. The crofting 

 districts seem well adapted for success in this form of associated 

 work. 



Bacon- Curing Factories 



Bacon-curing is an adjunct of dairying. Co-operative bacon- 

 curing factories in Denmark have grown concurrently with the 

 growth of co-operative dairying. But the Commission are of 

 opinion that it is not necessary to wait a marked development of 

 dairying in Scotland before attempting to capture for the Scottish 

 farmer the advantage from pig-keeping that is so successfully 

 obtained by the Danish farmer. It is known that there are sold, 

 publicly and privately, in certain groups of counties with a con- 

 venient centre, for example, Perthshire, Forfarshire, and Fifeshire, 

 a number of pigs per week sufficient to maintain a co operative 

 bacon-curing establishment in profitable working. This is clearly 

 a phase of co-operation in which farmers may take the initiative 

 to their common advantage ; and the Commission recommend the 

 formation of District Committees to consider the subject. 



The Art of Milking 



The Commission direct the attention of dairy-farmers to the 

 Hagelund system of milking, which is fully described in this 

 Report. They are of opinion that the experience of Denmark, 

 corroborated by the experience of the Wisconsin Agricultural Ex- 

 periment Station, justifies the conclusions drawn, namely, that by 

 the more thorough system of milking the production of milk and 

 fat from the cow is increased, the maximum flow of milk throughout 

 the lactation period is more likely to be maintained, and the milk- 

 ing qualities both of the dam and her ofl'spring are permanently 

 developed. The Commission strongly recommend this matter as 

 one requiring to be dealt with in the form of special instruction 

 classes under County Councils and Colleges of Agriculture. 



Milk Supply in Cities 



The Commission are deeply sensible of the advantages that 

 must accrue to our large communities by the establishment of such 

 milk collecting and distributing agencies as the Copenhagen Milk 

 Supply Company and the Danish Milk Supply Company. It is 

 not too much to say that the subjection of milk to scientific tests. 



