374 



Siberian Butter Industry. 



work for the last time. A new one, on very different principles, 

 was nearing completion close by, under the personal supervision 

 of the instructor, to replace the old one within a fortnight. 

 And here, so far as the premises, the machinery, and the water 

 supply were concerned — and more it was not then possible to 

 judge of — it promised to be a model of its kind. 



That the evil is universally recognised is evident from the 

 accounts of the meeting held at Tomsk in March of this year 

 of all interested in the butter industry, at which one of the 

 official butter instructors, among others, " painted a lurid picture 

 of the dirt and disorder which reign, in a greater or less degree, 

 in the majority of the Siberian dairies — a picture of the gross 

 infraction of the elementary requirements of hygiene and of 

 sanitation."* It is unnecessary to quote details. The meeting, 

 after some discussion, carried a formal motion that " the sanitary 

 conditions of the majority of the dairies of Western Siberia are, 

 in a greater or less degree, unsatisfactory," and recommended that 

 the subject be brought to the notice of the authorities with a 

 view to preventive and remedial measures. 



It should be added that the official instructors are but few in 

 number compared with the large tracts confided to their care, 

 and that, owing to the dairies being scattered about in distant 

 villages, away from ordinary communications, it is physically 

 impossible for them to exercise any appreciable influence on a 

 general scale. Their duties, too, are rather to advise and 

 instruct, as their name implies, and they are purposely exempt 

 from penal powers, as police duties of the kind would rather 

 impede than further their authority and utility in their intercourse 

 with the dairy owners. 



There can be no doubt that improvement must follow in this 

 respect with the gradual spread of enlightenment among the 

 peasantry, assisted by a rigid enforcement of the elementary 

 demands of cleanliness. But a few years ago, in some villages 

 of the Barnoul district, the peasants attributed the bad harvest 

 to the uncanny Danish machines, and " drowned " the separators 

 in the river, but this remnant of superstition seems long past 

 now, so universal is the use of these dairy appliances. With 



* Rmski Vier'omosii, Moscow, March 30th, 1 903. Also the official Commercial 

 and Industrial Gazate, of St. Petersburg, of March i4-27th, 1903. 



