No. !.] DAIRYING IX FRANCE. 127 



Charente, is to be found the best French development of the 

 co-operative system of butter making. The first factory 

 under this system was organized in 1888, with 88 patrons, 

 and produced that year 1)5,000 pounds of butter. There are 

 now more than 100 of these co-operative creameries in the 

 region described, with 50,000 patrons, owning 125.00(1 

 cows, and producing annually about 17,000,000 pounds of 

 butter. Most of these establishments are less than eight 

 years old ; they have organized in a strong association. The 

 industry in this region has been developed in a former winc- 

 makino- country , where the vines were destroved, from ten to 

 twenty years ago, by phylloxera. In the rest of France 

 there are another 100 creameries, but most of these are pro- 

 prietary. Half of them are in western departments, and 

 the rest are scattered through other portions of the country. 

 There is nothing instructive in these French creameries, and 

 they are hardly worth a visit. 



Paris and its milk supply, with the producing farms, are 

 the next form of dairy to be considered. The main point 

 of interest is the endeavor to conduct the milk service of 

 this great city almost entirely without provisions for cooling- 

 milk, on the farms, during transportation or in the city, 

 either by dealers or consumers. Failure to give satisfaction 

 to anybody is the natural result, and sweet milk is a rare 

 article in Paris during warm weather, excepting two or 

 three hours immediately after the deliveries, which take 

 place twice a day and sometimes thrice. A few of the largest 

 milk supply companies do cool milk at their city depots, 

 when they succeed in bringing it sweet from the farms; 

 and there are a very few milk farms fairly up to date along- 

 some lines, within easy access of Paris. Such an one is 

 the celebrated farm of Arcy in Brie, where about 200 cows 

 are kept, and which was the first, so far as known, to regu- 

 larly deliver milk to city consumers in sealed glass or porce- 

 lain vessels of small size. The Arcy sealed jar of white 

 opaque glass, holding one litre (or large quart) , first appeared 

 in Paris in the year 1873. This is still in use, notwith- 

 standing its great weight and its clumsy metallic cover. 

 At this farm, and very generally in connection with the city 



