Report on the Dairy-Farming of the North-west of France. 295 
gear. The axles of these wheels are prolonged on the other 
side of the plate, and are fitted to carry the rotatory brushes. 
Above is a series of taps to regulate the supply of hot and cold 
water, for all these brushes are intended to cleanse the inside of 
the vessels. At the end of the machine are some more brushes, 
working at right angles to the rest, and used to polish the out- 
side of the vessels, therefore they are worked dry and supplied 
with a polishing material. 
As a favourable example of the ordinary system I will take 
two of the establishments of Mons. Lecomte, President of the 
Association of Wholesale Dairymen, to whom I am most deeply 
indebted for the ready and kind manner in which he devoted 
his valuable time to facilitate my inquiries. M. Lecomte has 
several establishments, but it will only be necessary to refer to 
the two which I visited with him. He sells milk wholesale to 
the value of 40,000/. per annum, makes on the average half a ton 
of Gruyere cheese per day, feeds and fattens between 400 and 500 
pigs per annum, and keeps about 70 horses for the sole purpose 
of collecting milk from the farmers, of whom he purchases. He 
buys from each farmer as much or as little milk as each one 
chooses to sell, probably not more than a gallon or two of one, 30 
or 40 gallons of another, and so on. The milk is put into his 
own cans, holding 20 litres, or a little more than 4 gallons each. 
As these milk-cans are universally used in 
the north of France for the conveyance of 
milk long distances, I have thought it 
desirable to give a sketch of one of them 
(Fig. 2), as well as of the two-storied rail- 
way-waggon (Fig. 3, p. 296) in which they 
are stowed. It is claimed for these cans that 
their shape, more especially their shoulder, 
retards the rising of the cream longer than 
any other form of can. For use in the sum- 
mer months, AL Lecomte has these cans 
made with a double case, the space between 
the inner and outer case being stuffed with 
wool. I should add that the cans are made 
and repaired by M. Lecomte's own people 
at his Montereau establishment. 
The morning's milk is brought in by 
M. Lecomte's collectors between 8 and 10 
o'clock, and is immediately scalded by 
placing the cans containing it in a hot-water bath having a tem- 
perature nearly approaching the boiling-point. It is alterwards 
cooled by the cans being immersed in a bath of cold water, 
fed either by a running stream — as at his Melun establisti- 
Fig. 2. — Milh - can 
used for conveying 
Milk long distances 
hy road or raii. 
