Siberian Butter Industry. 



373 



employed as dairies, in no wise suited to their purpose, with no 

 drainage outlet, and the floor often intersected by large cracks, 

 giving easy access to damp." 



" In summer," adds the report, " the presence of a dairy is 

 heralded at a considerable distance by the terrible smell. To 

 diminish the foul odour the owners in some cases have recourse 

 to a mixture of carbolic acid, sprinkling the floor and walls 

 with the same." 



Of 283 dairies in the district referred to, 72 consisted of 

 one room, 183 of two rooms, 25 of three, and 3 of four rooms 

 each. 



Nor, as regards cleanliness and arrangements, do the 

 public or combined-peasant dairies present any exception in 

 this respect. 



" Dirt and disorder find a welcome there." Speaking of 40 such 

 dairies in the district in question in 1902, the report states that, 

 with the exception of seven or eight, the remainder are worked in 

 premises either fitted up somehow for the purpose or in lodgings, 

 two or three are maintained more or less cleanlily, the majority 

 4< dirtily in the extreme. The utensils are always badly 

 cleansed, the floor unwashed, the ceilings and walls dirty, milk 

 spilt abcut, and the atmosphere of the dairy foul. The output 

 is butter of poor quality." 



Alluding to the dairies in general, " no attention whatever," 

 it is added, "is paid to the water serving for washing purposes, 

 whether for the utensils or for the butter, foul and stagnant 

 water being at times used." 



There must be exceptions, of course, as there are, to this 

 dark side of the Siberian butter industry, but, from the descrip- 

 tions given on all sides, the official versions quoted as to the 

 insanitary conditions prevailing in the majority of the dairies 

 can by no means verge on exaggeration. Mr. Cooke saw in 

 one instance something of both sides of the question. After a 

 drive of thirty miles to a village in the Kourgan district, he 

 was kindly conducted over the local dairy by the official 

 instructor. The premises were of the primitive wooden hut 

 kind, and the general surroundings certainly not such as are 

 universally associated with the very name of dairy ; but, in this 

 instance, the establishment was already condemned, and was at 



