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GENERAL AGRICULTURAL NOTES. [June 1896. 



Dairying in Derbyshire. 



The fourth volume of the evidence given before the Royal 

 Commission on Agriculture contains a report on dairying in 

 Derbyshire by Mr. Gilbert Murray. 



Mr. Murray states that during the latter part of the sixties 

 cheese-making in Derbyshire had reached a very low point as 

 regards quality, prices had correspondingly receded, owing 

 chiefly to American competition ; both landlords and tenants 

 were suffering. Cheese was made for six or seven months of the 

 year, and the cows were then dried off and remained so for a 

 period of three or four months. No artificial food was used, 

 and the average value of the produce of a dairy cow varied 

 between 1 21. on the best lands to Si. on the inferior and high- 

 lying soils. 



In order to discuss and devise some practical method of im- 

 provement, the agricultural society of the county, being in 

 touch with the landlords and tenants, was urged to call a 

 meeting of its members and others interested in the cheese- 

 making industry. A largely-attended and representative 

 meeting was held in 1869; cheese-making was fully discussed, 

 and a resolution passed to give the American system of factory 

 cheese-making a trial. A committee was appointed, and in 

 order to cover the preliminary expenses a guarantee fund was 

 originated and liberally supported by the landlords and others. 

 This support induced the committee to start a factory both in an 

 urban and in a rural district. No time was lost in securing the 

 services of skilled experts from America, who brought over 

 plans of the necessary buildings and plant. One factory was 

 started on the estate of the Hon. E. K. W. Coke at Longford, and 

 another in the town of Derby, and these have worked con- 

 tinuously up to the present date. During the first two years of , 

 the experiment the committee guaranteed the suppliers a fixed 

 price for their milk, but at the end of the second year the 

 farmers were so far satisfied as to release the guarantors from 

 any further responsibility as to price. 



A detailed balance sheet of a small factory in the valley of 

 the Derwent is given which shows the cost and the profit from 

 cheese-making in 1875. From this statement it appears that 

 the price paid for the milk was nearly 7d. per gallon ; the cost 

 of making amounted to 5s. 2\d. per cwt., and the average price 

 at which the cheese sold was 75s. 2d. per cwt. of 120 lbs. 



The report contains several tables of prices realised for cheese 

 during the past 20 years. The average prices realised by a 

 purely co-operative factory in the Peak district are stated to 

 have been as follows : — 69s. 2d. per cwt. in the five years, 1874- 

 78 ; 61s. 2d. in 1879-83 ; 49s. 5d. in 1884-88 ; and 54s. 4_d, in 

 1889-94. The average price obtained by another factory in the 

 period 1889-94 was 55s. 7d. A list of prices obtained from one 

 of the largest cheese factors in the Midlands is also given. Front 



