12 THE STATE AS FARMER 



wife herself milks and makes a friend of the 

 one dairy cow she owns. But the district 

 soon begins to taste the pleasantness of 

 success and to find a very army of women 

 to undertake the new and interesting work. 



The milk which we are first considering 

 tends to grow in volume, and the old area 

 at the head of the valley which used to cut 

 hay and keep store cattle only has become 

 a busy hive of milk-producing farms. On 

 any but the one State system I am advocating 

 all sorts of risks and difficulties would be 

 feared ; but here there are, and can be, none. 

 The whole-milk is sent to convenient centres 

 of population in the exact quantities required. 

 The loss can be cut down to the smallest 

 percentage if there need be any at all. Then 

 comes the extremely interesting problem of 

 the manufacture of the surplus collected 

 into a multitude of different commodities. 

 Butter, perhaps, should come first for two 

 reasons. This product is the quickest and 

 best test of quality that we can apply to the 

 milk itself. And I am taking for granted 

 that each district wishes, not to shut its eyes 

 to its own reputation, but to secure an eager 



