1021.] 



The Co-operative Dairy Movement. 



185 



bricklayers and the difficulties of the present abnormal times 

 the factory will be ready by the autumn. The roof is now- 

 being put on the main portion of the factory and a large part 

 of the plant has arrived from the machinery contractors, the 

 Compagnie de Fives-Lille, the well-known French sugar 

 engineers. French specialist erectors will supervise the erection 

 by English workmen. 



The public should realise that the real commercial test of 

 a new industry is when yon have arrived at the point where 

 the raw material is of the best quality, and is being secured 

 from experienced farmers, so that the factory is working with a 

 complete economic supply under the best factory conditions, 

 viz., full time with trained labour. This point cannot be 

 arrived at in the first or second year, but the main essentials 

 have already been secured, namely, a new factory planned on 

 the most modern lines, and a list of growers whose experience 

 in farming under British conditions is of a high order. 



Suggestions have been made from time to time to the effect 

 that the Co-operative Cheese Schools started by the Ministry 



Th* Co o erative ^ ave no * P rove ^ economically sound, and 

 _ . w ^ . . that the result of their efforts has involved 

 Dairy Movement m , . , m . . 



Workin Order ^hose concerned m loss. This, oi course, 

 * ° 'is very far from being the truth. Of the 



letters which have been received at the Ministry by those 

 responsible for the working of Co-operative Cheese Factories, one 

 dealing with a considerable undertaking in Denbighshire is 

 typical and may be selected for quotation. 



The work of this particular Co-operative Cheese Factory 

 started in 1917 as a Co-operative Cheese School with a loan 

 from the Ministry of utensils and the services of a competent 

 cheese-maker instructor. The local farmers interested in the 

 scheme provided a suitable building and undertook to send in 

 the necessary amount of milk. The school worked for 106 days 

 during the season of milk surplus, and handled upwards of 

 20,000 gallons of milk, the turnover being rather more than 

 £1,350. The experiment w*as so successful from every point of 

 view — farmers receiving more money for their milk and a 

 profit on their cheese — that those who had taken part in the 

 first year's endeavour formed themselves into a registered 

 co-operative society with a modest capital of .-£400. The returns 

 for the years 1918, 1019 and 1020 are now recorded, and the 



