THE DAIRY INDUSTRY 67 



The State has, practically, taken him into partner- 

 ship, with a view to realising the hopes that prompted 

 the construction of the great railway. Last jyear 

 the carriage on butter alone contributed £250,000 

 towards the expenses of the line, while the value 

 of land situated in the vicinity of the railway has 

 risen as much as 200 per cent, in some places land 

 will rise higher still. 



Peasants who establish creameries on their own: 

 initiative, ajid without the aid of the Government, 

 generally hire a wooden hut at a rental of about 

 £1 per month, which they furnish with an ordinary 

 " Alfa Laval " plant costing anything from £5 to 

 £27. A peasant is then engaged who has gone 

 through the course of Government training described, 

 and, with the help of a Government instructor, the 

 separator is started^ much to the astonishment and 

 awe of the peasants. Notwithstanding cheap labour 

 and inexpensive plant, however, failures are very far 

 from being unknown, as the dairies cannot afford to 

 pay rnore than 35 or 40 kopecks (8fd. or lod.) per 

 vedro of milk, in order to realise a profit ; competi- 

 tion may, therefore, easily kill a nursling venture of 

 this kind. Before the advent of the cheap native 

 dairy-man, Danish companies commencing operations 

 in Siberia; were accustomed to employ Danish 

 managers and instructors at what were, proportion- 

 ately, enormously high wages. The consequences 

 were that the manager's salary usually ate up the 

 whole of the profits. I know of two Dainish firms 

 iSind one Russian one, all of which were at first worked 

 on this plan but were compelled to alter their methods 

 in order to a;void insolvency. It is, moreover, a 

 rather dangerous undertaking to put up a creamery 

 unless the proprietor is guarlajnteed a sufficient number 

 of cows to keep it going, as otherwise he will be 

 entirely in the hajids of the peasants from whom he 



