INTRODUCTION. xvil 



prevention of adulteration. Not a little of the increase in the 

 consumption of milk has been due to the enterprise of dairymen 

 and milk-sellers, and to the larger dairy companies in our cities, 

 who, by attention to cleanliness, by prompt and convenient supply, 

 and by the employment of the best-known means for the detection 

 of adulteration, have succeeded in inspiring the public with confi- 

 dence in the soundness and quality of the dairy produce supplied 

 by them. Consequently, while other articles of farm produce have 

 been steadily falling in value, milk has remained in good demand 

 at a comparatively high level of prices, at prices that were, indeed, 

 rising during a number of the years when the depression in 

 arable agriculture, outside of the dairying districts, had reached 

 its most acute and disastrous stage. The effect of these various 

 influences, the fall in the. value of other articles of agricultural 

 produce, together with the increased consumption of dairy produce 

 and the maintenance of high relative values alike for milk and its 

 manufactured products, has been to raise dairying gradually into 

 a much more important position as a branch of agriculture in 

 Britain than it has ever before occupied. 



If consideration be given merely to the value of dairy produce 

 sold off the farms, the following estimates recently made by Mr. R. 

 Henry Rew 1 may be quoted to show the present importance of 

 dairying relatively to other branches of agriculture. According to 

 these estimates, the value of the whole amount of agricultural 

 produce of the United Kingdom sold off the farms is 197,749,477, 

 while the value of the whole dairy produce of the United Kingdom 

 sold off the farms is 32,493,000. 



The particular forms of dairy produce from which the income is 

 derived are estimated by Mr. Rew to be as follows: 



Description of Produce. Quantity Sold off Farms in U.K. Average Price. Total Value. 



Milk, 576,000,000 galls. 6Jd. per gall. 15,600,000 



Butter, 2,000,000 cwts. 112s. per cwt. 11,760,000 



Cheese, 2,000,000 51s. d. 5,133,000 



Total, 32,493,000 



From these estimates it appears that one-sixth of the whole 

 income of British agriculture is derived from the sale of dairy 

 produce. There remains, in addition, a large proportion that is 

 consumed on the farm in the form of the milk supplied to calves, 



iSee Journal of Royal Agricultural Society, 1895. 

 (M175) 6 



" 



