MILK PRODUCTION 349 



we saw milked 26 cows on 50 acres and to carry so 

 many cattle feeding stuffs as well as manures must be 

 purchased, though we were informed that too large a 

 proportion of the business was done in proprietary 

 articles, " special manures " and " oilcakes," of which 

 the composition was imperfectly apprehended by the 

 buyer. 



Some of the farms sold milk, especially in the 

 summer, when the demand from visitors is very great ; 

 but milk selling was still regarded as impoverishing to 

 the farm, despite the ease with which such losses can 

 be repaired now that artificial feeding stuffs and 

 manures have become available. We were told of one 

 landlord who gave a tenant notice because he sold 

 milk instead of butter, and thus had no separated 

 milk on which to rear pigs in order to make dung. 

 The milk, then, is chiefly converted into butter and 

 clotted cream ; and there are creameries in the district 

 which purchase the separated cream from the farmers, 

 though none of these enterprises are on a co-operative 

 basis. Except for the subsidiary profit derived from 

 pig-keeping on the separated milk, it was difficult to 

 see why men should stick to butter-making ; the local 

 price was only is. a pound, whereas the milk would 

 fetch gd. a gallon wholesale. On most of the farms 

 the work was done by the farmer and his family with a 

 single hired man if there were no grown sons ; where 

 the herds were large the women of the labourers were 

 hired to do the milking. 



The stock we saw were disappointing ; indeed, con- 

 sidering how purely a cattle country Cornwall is, we 

 were surprised at the indifferent quality of the animals 

 grazing in the fields. The Cornish farmer seems to 

 ask for no more than a dairy cow, and the prevailing 

 type is a mongrel with a Devon or South Ham, or 



