[ i26 ] 



No, V. 



On the Means of supplying Milk for the Poor. By John Christian Curwen, Esq. 



M. P. 



My Lord, 



1 H E increased spirit with which agricultural pursuits have been carried on 

 for some years past, in every part of the United Empire, may in no small degree 

 be attributed to the zeal and attention of your Honourable Board. 



The encouragement it has held out, has proved a powerful inducement for un- 

 dertaking different experiments; and by the communication of their results to the 

 public, much useful knowledge has been diffused. 



Confiding in your experiaiced indulgence, and stimulated by the premium of- 

 fered for the management of winter dairies and supply of milk for the poor, I beg 

 leave to submit, with great diffidence, the result of what I have done in the last two 

 years, towards accomplishing those objects. 



The vicinity of a large and populous town had previously afforded me an op- 

 portunity of being acquainted with the great scarcity of milk, and consequent suf- 

 ferings of the poor, especially where there are young families, from the impossibility 

 of obtaining, for the greatest part of the year, a supply at any price. 



My attention had long been called to the subject, and the accidental perusal of 

 a tract* intended to show the number of lives lost to the community for want of 

 this salubrious aliment for young children, determined me on making the experi- 

 ment of furnishing a plentiful supply of new milk during winter. 



I am fully aware that, to enable the public to reap any extensive advantage, I 

 must be able to demonstrate that a fair and adequate profit is to be made ; with 

 this view my first enquiries were directed to ascertain the most usual modes of 

 feeding dairy cows during the winter months, in the neighbourhood of large and 

 populous towns, as also the expence attending it. 



I found, wherever any quantity of milk was supplied, that the principal depen- 

 dancc was upon grains got from breweries or distilleries, and hat it was not to be 

 obtained in any profitable quantity without them. 



♦ By Samuel Ferns, M. D. 



