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Siberian Butter Industry. 



In general, the dairies, as at present constituted, are still 

 worked under primitive and defective conditions, notwith- 

 standing the efforts of the authorities, special butter officials 

 and instructors, agricultural societies, and of all interested in 

 the extension and development of this new industry. The 

 manufactured product, in consequence, does not reach the 

 high level it might attain. 



The effort to effect any speedy appreciable change in the 

 conditions of manufacture, of such paramount importance as 

 they must appear to all, will be a hard and long task, as all 

 struggles against the ignorance and national characteristics of 

 the lower classes must be. Nor, from their point of view, have 

 the latter all the economical encouragement that they should 

 have. What they make, and as much as they can make, they 

 sell, if not to one office, then to the next ; if not at the highest 

 price, then at one but slightly inferior. The very small dis- 

 tinction made by the buying offices for quality is insufficient 

 to induce the dairy owner to reconstruct his premises, to re- 

 organise his procedure, or to revolutionise his habits. 



He is subjected to no forcible impulse to so order matters as 

 to produce a better article. The excess of competition among 

 the export offices established in Siberia, and the speculative 

 character of the trade itself, soon reveal to the peasant that 

 (beyond a certain point) it is not quality that is of the first 

 importance. Mr. Cooke was told at more than one butter centre, 

 and in the same words, that anything sells " provided only that 

 it is covered by a cask." This may be an exaggeration, but it 

 conveys the general idea. 



The main causes influencing the inferior make of the butter 

 are thus stated in an official report of this year : — 



" i. The dirty furnishing and set up of the dairies." 



" 2. The want of technical knowledge on the part of owners 

 and men ; and, in general, defective working, packing, and 

 despatch." 



fi 3. General irregular equipment of the dairies." 



Another special butter official reports the general sanitary 

 conditions of the Siberian dairies as " beneath all criticism." 

 Yet another official butter instructor, referring to a district com- 

 prising nearly 300 dairies, dwells on " the old and confined huts 



