THE UNITED KINGDOM. 235 



For tlio five years which have passed of the current decade, prices have been made 

 lower and the tendency seems to be still lower prices. 



The present year is the cheapest for a long time back, the butter market feeling 

 the effect of the great depression in prices as severely as other classes of farmers* 

 produce. 



For the ten years ending January 1, 1881, a little over 4,000,000 firkins of butter 

 passed through the Cork market, or an average of 400,000 firkins a year, which, if 

 valued at 3 10-9. ($17.03) per firkin, would give an annual total of 1,400,000 

 ($0,813,100) as the yearly value of the butter sold in the Cork butter market during 

 these two years. 



T. J. CLANCHY. 



THE BUTTER INDUSTRY OF IRELAND. 



[Evidence of "William <J. Lane, osq., before committee of House of Commons.] 



To discuss the question of the Irish butter industry from either the farmer's or 

 trader's point of view would bo an inexcusable mistake. Its national importance 

 could hardly be overestimated. The manufacture of butter is the staple industry of Ire- 

 land, and any close student of what is going on in other countries must recognize that 

 the future agricultural prosperity of Ireland largely depends on the full development 

 of its dairy industries. While British free-trade legislation continues it would be 

 simply impossible for Ireland to compete, as a grain-producing country, with the ever- 

 increasing wheat areas of Canada, United States, Russia, India, Egypt, and Australia. 



The approximate number of cattle in the United States is 51,000,000, and the possi- 

 ble increase may bo estimated by the fact that the pasturage lands west of the Missis- 

 sippi exceed 780,000,000 acres. Each year the cattle-raising industry of the United 

 States makes a vast stride, and year by year the development of the American rail- 

 way-systems and the competition of ocean-carrying lines enables the surplus produce 

 of America to be landed on our shores at prices with which Irish farmers cannot com- 

 pete. 



The threatened competition of Australia and South America in the meat markets of 

 Great Britain, by means of refrigerator transportation, should not be minimized or 

 ignored as another source of danger to the Irish cattle trade. These facts justify the 

 assumption that Irish farmers cannot, in the future, look forward either to the raising 

 of grain or cattle as a remunerative employment. Barley and oats, of course, may yet 

 be regarded as paying crops, but, like all others, they also are menaced in various 

 ways. By climate and the nature of its soil Ireland is specially adapted to the manu- 

 facture of butter, and its geographical position certainly gives it great advantages 

 for the speedy marketing of its produce, as compared with the other countries rival- 

 ing it in the butter trade of England. 



Addressing the Royal Dublin Society in December, 1879, Professor Sheldon valued 

 that year's make of Irish butter at 6,181,818. I have no hesitation in saying that 

 by proper development the butter produce of Ireland could be raised to an annual 

 value of over 12,000,000, with even the same number of cows. This is not difficult 

 to calculate. With the present very inferior breed of dairy cattle in Ireland, the aver- 

 age annual production of milk per cow may be put down at 430 gallons. It requires 

 3| gallons of the milk yielded by these cows to produce 1 pound of butter by the ordi- 

 nary methods of setting and churning. This gives a return of 123 pounds of butter 

 per cow. The cows on the Munster model school farm give an average annual yield 

 of 690 gallons of milk, which, by the use of the separator, produced an average yield 

 of 276 pounds of butter per cow. Mr. Richard Barter, of St. Anne's, Blarney, attains 

 an average of 228 pounds of butter per cow in his improved dairy. Taking a far lower 

 standard than Mr. Barter's of what might be achieved by an improved breed of dairy 

 cows, and an improved method of manufacture, I do not think a yield of 205 pounds 

 of butter per cow would be an impossible achievement, which would be an increase 

 of two-thirds on the quantity made at present. To estimate the increased price which 

 would be otained for Irish butter manufactured on the most improved continental 

 systems at one-third of its present value needs no figures to support the assumption. 

 Should the accuracy of the above figures be questioned, which is quite possible, be- 

 cause there are no standard records of the produce of the average dairy cow of the 

 Irish farmer, I can fall back on the wide room there is to support a vastly-increased 

 number of dairy cows in Ireland, to sustain my theory that the butter produce of the 

 country can be raised to an annual value of 12,000,000. This sum would pay two- 

 thirds of the present rental of Ireland, and if the dairy reHOurces of Ireland were 



