THE RATE OF CONSUMPTION 213 



stuff. 1 Improvements in cheese mamifactuie with the establish- 

 ment of specialised factories, the standardisation and grading of 

 the products of these factories, and the increase in the varieties 

 of market cheeses are factors that may assist in raising the popu- 

 larity of cheese of different kinds as a substitute for meat. 2 It is 

 possible that in the near future butter will be regarded much more 

 in the nature of a luxury than has hitherto been the case, and that 

 the customary edible fat for large masses of the industrial popula- 

 tion in the various countries of Europe will be rather some form of 

 margarine, manufactured more or less directly from vegetable 

 products. 



The high food value of whole milk appears to have been over- 

 looked in the past. 3 It is likely that for some time in the future 

 the need will be felt for economising foodstuffs and for utilising 

 the available supplies in the most complete way ; and one obvious 

 method of doing this is to increase the consumption of whole milk 

 as such, and to reduce correspondingly the consumption of extracts 

 from milk, such as butter and cream. 



In recent years there has been a great increase in the manufacture 

 of condensed, and especially of dried milk. The latter appeared 

 on the market only quite recently, as the inventions in machinery 

 and processes necessary for the large-scale production of this article 

 have not long been made. Dried milk, or milk powder, has one 

 great advantage over condensed milk, namely, its greater port- 

 ability. Apart from their value as useful substitutes for fresh 

 milk for nursery consumption, the dried and condensed forms of 

 milk are naturally of great service in mining centres and similar 

 places, where it is either impossible to keep cows, or where the cost 

 of keeping them or of bringing fresh milk from a distance is pro- 

 hibitive. The consumption of these portable forms of milk has 

 increased enormously in recent years, not only in pioneer settle- 

 ments, but also in large and small towns throughout Western 



1 Conversely in the decade 18951906 it was noted that the per capita cheese 

 consumption of the United Kingdom declined, consequent upon increased 

 supplies of cheap imported meat. 



2 The high food value of full-milk cheese as compared with meat is not yet 

 generally recognised. One Ib. of cheese is said to be equal in food value to 

 2 Ibs. of fresh beef and to 3 Ibs. of fish. U.S. Dept, Agric., Circ. 166. At 

 ordinary market prices, therefore, cheese is a much cheaper food than meat or 

 fish, and according to the authority above quoted, it is as completely digested 

 as any other form of food experimented with. 



8 In the United Kingdom in 1907-8 the total consumption of milk as such 

 baa been estimated at 1010 million gallons, or 23 gallons per capita, which 

 amounts to about \ pint per day (Cd. 8123), p. 49. 



The present small average consumption of milk in the United Kingdom and 

 in some other countries with large urban populations, seems to be due partly 

 to prejudice and ignorance, partly to the clumsy and costly system of dis- 

 tribution in use, and perhaps also in some countries to suspicions, not 

 altogether unfounded, as to the cleanliness of the milk as delivered. Where 

 thrse conditions do not appear as in Copenhagen, the per capita consumption 

 of milk is higher. 



