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VII. — Report on the Trial of Dairy Implements and Machinery 
at Bristol. By Gilbert Murray, of Elvaston, Derby. 
Introduction. 
The growing importance of the dairy interest of these islands 
is inducing a great desire for information likely to elucidate any 
of the various processes in the manufacture of butter and cheese, 
and to guide to new and improved practices. Since the intro- 
duction of the factory system of cheesemaking into England in 
1869, the Council of the Royal Agricultural Society have, at 
considerable cost, obtained and published a large amount of 
information descriptive of the different systems which exist in 
Great Britain, as well as in other countries. Before entering 
into a detailed account of the trials of the dairy utensils exhi- 
bited at Bristol, I must briefly sketch the growing importance 
of the dairy interest. 
Within the last twenty years vast improvements have taken 
place in dairy management ; the introduction of the Cheddar 
system of cheesemaking into the great dairy counties of the 
south-west of Scotland produced a revolution in that district. 
The new system, where intelligently carried out, enhanced the 
prices obtained by cheesemakers from 25 to 30 per cent., and, in 
the case of first-rate makers, even more. But, like every innova- 
tion on established customs, the new system met with considerable 
opposition, and its principle was warmly discussed; a spirit of 
rivalry sprang up, and was fanned through the publicity of the 
press, hence the rapid development and perfecting of the system, 
which has long since surpassed the old Dunlop method. The 
introduction of the factory system of cheesemaking from America 
nine years ago, the passing of the Adulteration of Foods Act, 
and the fatality of the contagious diseases with which the urban 
cowsheds have recently been infested, have each contributed in 
no small degree to the extension of dairy farming in the rural 
districts. The promoters of the factory system, in dealing with 
the raw material on a large scale, elicited and conveyed to the 
public a large amount of practical information, hitherto unatfain- 
able in this country. Previously, many who had been engaged in 
cheesemaking from childhood had hazy ideas as to the quantity 
of milk requisite to produce a pound of dry curd, or of the 
percentage of shrinkage entailed in curing the cheese. 
The protection afforded to the consumer by the provisions of 
the Adulteration of Foods Act has immensely increased the con- 
sumption of milk in its natural unprepared state. So recently as 
ten years ago, except in the case of a few small farmers located 
round the suburbs of the large towns, there was no established 
