57- 



British import records, which form the sole reliable factor in the cal- 

 culation, come from abroad, whence for some time there has been 

 received a yearly quota of just 6.8 Ib. of cheese per person. Not 

 very much more than half as much, or 3. 7 Ib. per head apparently, 

 therefore, represents the present domestic manufacture of this com- 

 modity. It would take less than 9 per cent ot the milk furnished 

 annually by the cows of the United Kingdom to supply this quan- 

 tity. Practically 153,000,000 gal. of milk out of 1,723,000,000 gal. 

 available for all purposes may thus be taken as supplying 1,366,000 

 cwt. of all forms of British cheese. The imports for the same group 

 of years gave us nearly twice as large a figure, or a net total of 

 2,520,000 cwt. For the year 1907 this importation was indeed some- 

 what reduced, but taking a longer survey it may be said that over 

 the whole period from the end of 1895 up to 1907 the receipts of 

 cheese from abroad have kept very closely to an average of 2,500,000 

 cwt., a calculated ration of nearly 6.8 Ib. per head having been 

 thus maintained without much variation for a dozen years. The 

 cheese imports of the United Kingdom have not increased with the 

 same rapidity that has distinguished those of butter, but if the com- 

 parison be made with the period before 1870, when the total was 

 below a million cwt., or with the five years 1871-5, when it ave- 

 raged only 1,350,000 cwt., the addition is nevertheless considerable, 

 the sea-borne supply being nearly doubled. 



Unlike some other forms of imported food, the cheese which 

 arrives in Great Britain is, as to tree-fourths of its bulk, the pro- 

 duce of a single British colony Canada, whence in the last five 

 years it has been accustomed to draw annually quantities vary- 

 ing from 1,700,000 to 1,900,000 cwt., -- larger totals than the 

 entire British production of cheese supplies. . This source of imports 

 has grown, while the quota furnished by the United States has of 

 late steadily declined, reaching only 5 per cent of the total receipts 

 in 1907. Holland with 242,000 cwt, of cheese, and New Zealand 

 with 192,000 cwt., are the only other important contributors to British 

 wants the French and Belgian exports of cheese to this country 

 collectively do not reach 120,000 cwt. in recent years. 



The available statistics of the prices of cheese are not very sa- 

 tisfactory, but the published average of the Board of Agriculture 

 * Market Prices ' for 1906 gave a mean of 73 s. per cwt., for British 

 Cheddar, and 71 s. for Cheshire of first quality, while the average 

 for Canadian Cheddar, which formed the bulk of the imports, was 

 from 6 1 s. in the lower to 63 s. in the higher grade. For the whole 



