; for 1 



THE JOURNAL 



OF THE 



BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Vol. XII. No. 4. 



JULY, 1905. [NEW SERIES.] 



CO-OPERATIVE DAIRYING IN ENGLAND. 



The dairy trade in England is probably on the eve of a 

 revolution. The old methods of marketing the produce of 

 dairy farms appear to have had their day, and the great success 

 of co-operative dairies and cheese factories in other countries, 

 notably in Ireland and Denmark, has caused British farmers 

 and those who have the interests of British agriculture at heart 

 to turn their attention to the application of the principle of 

 combination to the industry at home. 



It appears probable (whatever may be urged to the contrary), 

 that butter-making has not any great future in this country, for 

 the simple reason that other countries and our own Colonies are 

 able to send us plentiful supplies of butter at a lower price than 

 the British farmer is prepared, or indeed can afford, to take for 

 his own product. 



From an examination of the trade done by those co-operative 

 dairies already in existence (a list of which is given) it will be 

 seen that the sale of whole milk and of cream is the most general 

 form of outlet for the produce of the dairies of this country, 

 and in this connection it is interesting to note that one of the 

 largest co-operative dairies at the present time, viz., the Eastern 

 Counties Dairy Farmers' Co-operative Society, deals almost 

 exclusively in whole milk, and that the Skelldale Dairy, which 

 was established in a district which was regarded as purely butter- 

 producing, found it more profitable, after a very short time, to 

 abandon the exclusive tradition and deal in every other kind of 

 dairy produce, including whole milk, separated milk, bottled 

 whole milk, cream, cream-cheese, and cheese. 



It will probably simplify the matter if a short account of the 

 actual working of a dairy is given here — most of the co-operative 



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