September, 1910.1 



235 Agricultural Finance & Co-operation. 



arrangement has in the past been largely 

 practised, cheese being made on milk- 

 selling farms at certain seasons. But 

 circumstances increasingly discourage 

 cheese-making on separate farms ; for 

 although the best farm-made cheese may 

 be better than any that can be pro- 

 duced from milk that has been carried 

 to a factory, any advantage that this 

 may give is more than outweighed by 

 the greater uniformity of factory made 

 cheese. The large dealers require a 

 greater degree of uniformity in what 

 they are to sell than can be attained by 

 separate manufacture in small quan- 

 tities ; and cheese making as a supple- 

 ment to milk selling is less and less 

 practicable at the farms. Whatever 

 may be the case in large specialised 

 farms, cheese making as a means of 

 using surplus milk can only be profit- 

 ably carried on in factories that are 

 adjuncts to milk-depots. 



The co-operative depot is able not only 

 to supply well-chilled milk, and to avoid 

 waste of surplus milk, but also to 

 protect the co-operating farmers agaiust 

 the bad debts which are so frequent in 

 milk-selling districts. Loss of this kind 

 is much more easily guarded against by 

 a society than by an individual, and if 

 it should occur its incidence is so distri- 

 buted as to be much less severe. The 

 dep6t, dealing with large quantities of 

 milk, is also in a much better position 

 than the individual for negotiating both 

 with buyers of milk and with railway 

 companies. 



The net result of these combined ad- 

 vantages is that, even in districts where 

 dairying has long been the prevailing 

 industry, a better price can be given for 

 milk by the co-operative societies than 

 has hitherto been paid by milk dealers, 

 while the societies make profits which 

 warrant the expectation of a bonus to 

 the associate farmers. 



It has been an interesting consequence 

 of the development of co-operative 

 dairying that, in districts where less 

 intensive farming has hitherto prevail- 

 ed, dairy farming is now being practised 

 with the help of co-operative dairy 

 societies, such as the Pyvie Society 

 lately established under the presidency 

 of Lord Leith of Fy vie. 



The present development of co-oper- 

 ative dairying in Scotland has been 

 described at greater length, perhaps, 

 than its actual dimensions justify — on 

 the one hand, because its future appears 

 to be full of significance for Scottish 

 agriculture, and on the other hand, 

 because it seems to show that Scottish 

 conditions are not less favourable to 

 co-operative dairying than those which 



have made the same system so con- 

 spicuously successful in other lands. 

 Combined action in dairying enables 

 farmers not only to secure for them- 

 selves the whole profits of their indus- 

 try, but also to improve the quality and 

 the uniformity of their produce in such 

 a way as to stimulate the demand for it. 



Bacon Factories. 



The production of bacon is so closely 

 allied with dairy-farming as to be almost 

 a branch of the dairying industry. This 

 is specially the case when the manu- 

 facture of butter or cheese leaves as by- 

 products separated milk or whey, which 

 are specially adapted for pig-feeding. 

 But it is generally true that dairying 

 and pig-keeping are apt to go together, 

 particularly in the smaller holdings. 



It is all the more interesting to find 

 that pig-keeping is one of the agricul- 

 tural industries to which co-operative 

 action has shown itself most capable of 

 giving help. It is to Denmark, once 

 more, that we must look for the most 

 successful development of this kind of 

 co-operation. There we find great co- 

 operative bacon factories belonging to 

 bodies of farmers. The members are 

 under contract to supply their pigs to 

 the factories, and are paid for them at 

 a rate based upon the quality of the 

 pigs supplied. The balance of profit, as 

 in the case of the creameries, is distri- 

 buted to the supplying farmers as a 

 bonus on their sales to the factory. 

 The general result of this method is an 

 enormous economy in the cost of market- 

 ing pigs. The British farmer's pig, sold 

 at a public auction passes to a jobber, 

 and is perhaps exposed by him again, 

 usually paying commission or profit and 

 railway carriage more than once, besides 

 depreciating on its way from the farm 

 to the slaughter-house. The Dane sends 

 his pig to the factory and receives its 

 total ultimate value, as bacon and by- 

 products, subject only to deduction of 

 the cost of railway carriage, slaughter 

 aud curing, It is not difficult to realise the 

 great increase of profit which the Dane 

 derives from co-operation ; for a gain 

 which cannot be less than 10 per cent, 

 of the gross price may easily represent 

 an increase of 50 per cent, in the net 

 profit. Ireland, indeed, has profited to 

 a considerable extent by the Danish 

 model ; and in Suffolk co-operative 

 sale of pigs has had an advantageous 

 effect. In Scotland it has not yet been 

 found possible to organise co-operation 

 in the marketing of pigs. 



Sheep, Cattle, and Corn. 

 Co-operation in the sale of sheep and 

 cattle appears to be much more diffi- 



