i6 



Our Imports of Dairy Produce. 



the dairy herds of the United Kingdom in 1896 works out 

 to nearly 1,600 million gallons. 1 Thus, excluding the imports 

 of margarine and of fresh and condensed milk, the volume 

 of milk in all forms available for consumption in the 

 past year amounted, on the basis of the calculation already 

 adopted, to about 2,700 million gallons, and to produce the 

 whole of this supply a milking herd of nearly 7,000,000 

 cows would be required. 



In 1886, the year when butter was first separately 

 distinguished in the Trade Returns, Denmark and France 

 each contributed about 26 per cent, of the entire importation, 

 but while the supply from the former country now constitutes 

 over 40 per cent, of the total quantity entered annually, the 

 consignments from French dairies have fallen to about 15 

 per cent. Butter has also been shipped to this country in 

 considerable quantities from Holland ; these shipments 

 declined with the growth of the Dutch margarine trade, but 

 there has been a recovery in recent years, and they now form 

 about 8 per cent, of the yearly importation. Swedish pro- 

 ducers contribute about 1 1 per cent, of our present annual 

 imports, and a similar proportion was received from Austra- 

 lasia in 1895. The average value of the butter imported from 

 all sources last year was £5 is. od. per cwt , or nearly 

 1 id. per lb. 



The bulk of the importation of cheese is supplied by Canada 

 and the United States. Until 1891 the latter country con- 

 tributed the major portion of the transatlantic supply, but 

 during the past few years our annual consignments from the 

 Dominion have been about twice as heavy as those from her 

 southern neighbour. In 1876 the entries of Canadian cheese 

 amounted to about a quarter of a million cwts. ; last year 

 they exceeded this quantity by nearly a million cwts. 

 During the same period our receipts of cheese from 

 the United States have fallen from about one million 

 cwts. to nearly half this quantity. Dutch cheese, which 



1 There are no official data as to the production of milk in the United Kingdom. 

 The estimate adopted above is probably in excess of the actual quantity yielded, as 

 an allowance must be made for a certain percentage of non-productive cow-. Th 

 number of cows and heifers in-milk or in-calf in the United Kingdom is 3,959.087.. 



