i9 io.] The Organisation of the Milk Supply. 817 



and interest in this department of Agricultural Organisation 

 is growing rapidly." 



The Lugton and Dunlop Associations, formed under the 

 Society's guidance, have substantially increased the price of 

 milk in their respective districts, and their first half-year's 

 operations show satisfactory profits after the cost of working 

 and interest on capital have been met. A similar depot is in 

 the course of erection at Fyvie, and negotiations for the 

 formation of depots are in progress in Kirkcudbrightshire 

 and Banffshire. 



The Dunlop Co-operative Dairy Association handled an 

 average of 1,255 gallons per day between May 1st and 

 October 31st, 1909, and in the same period the total income 

 was ,£6,763, and the total expenditure ,£6,454. The total 

 number of gallons received in 1909 was 231,081, as compared 

 with 213,450 in 1908. Of that quantity 84,049 gallons were 

 made into cheese, which yielded ,£2,068 8s. id. An interest- 

 ing point is that if this milk had been consigned to Glasgow 

 the cost of railway carriage would have been ,£263 13s., 

 whereas the cost of carriage of the cheese was only ^"14 35. 



Similar accounts were received from other Societies, and the 

 Secretary of the Scottish Agricultural Organisation Society, 

 in a letter that I received from him recently, estimated that the 

 rise in price obtained had been fully id. per gallon, while he 

 was hopeful that in the near future an increase of 2d. per gallon 

 might be obtained; "but," he added, "id. per gallon means 

 to some of our district Associations a sum of about ,£1,500 

 per annum, so you can easily realise what potentialities there 

 are in the development and organisation of the dairying 

 industry. By organising the producing end of the business 

 we eliminate risk of loss to the middlemen who are distri- 

 butors in the big centres of consumption by giving them 

 supplies to meet their requirements from day to day, instead 

 of by the old system sending all the milk from the individual 

 farms, whether the trader required it for his business or not. 

 So far butter-making has not been attempted by any of our 

 depots, as cheese-making has been found more profitable 

 business. The cheese made at these co-operative depots 

 during the past year was of first-class uniform quality, and 

 commanded a relatively high price as compared with the 



