280 The Agricultural Lessons of " The Eighties." 
imports of butter and margarine in ] 879 had risen up to 
2,045,399 cwt., while cheese had reached 1,789,721 cwt. In 
1889, imported butter had only risen in quantity to 1,927,469 
cwt., and margarine to 1,240,769 cwt. Cheese had reached 
1,909,545 cwt. These figures are not alarming. It is true 
we are relying more upon the foreigner for our supply of butter 
and cheese than we were ten years ago. Alarmists, however, 
appear to forget one important factor — namely, that of price. 
So long as our ports remain open, it is price which will regulate 
imports, and the only way of checking them would be a diminu- 
tion of quotations, an alternative which would scarcely find favour 
among our own producers. That London provision merchants 
should prefer French and Danish butters to our own was a more 
serious feature, and one of the lessons of the decade has been the 
necessity for improving the quality of our own dairy produce. 
The new trade in milk had already reached great dimensions 
before 1880, and better prices were then realised than now. It 
is interesting to note that the increase in population of Eng- 
land and Wales is at the rate of l - 36 per cent, per annum, and 
that on a population of 26,000,000, which was the figure of the 
last census, there must be an annual increase of about 354,000 
souls. The increase during the last ten years would, according 
to these figures, be 3,540,000 persons ; and on the assumption 
that each unit of population would consume a quarter of a pint of 
milk, the extra number of cows required would be 900,000. Fur- 
ther, if 3 acres of grass-land are required for each cow, 2,700,000 
acres of grass would be required to meet this increased demand 
alone. It seems, therefore, probable that, as in the last twenty 
years we have added 3,129,966 acres to our permanent pasture 
for all purposes, the supply of grass for cows scarcely keeps 
pace with the increase of mouths for milk, to say nothing of 
cheese and butter. 
The supply of new milk is peculiarly a home trade, *and is 
safer from foreign competition than that of any other commodity. 
The introduction of milk-registers, of improved cows, and of 
improved rations for cows, have all assisted to encourage a 
larger yield of milk per head, and the old figures of 450 to 500 
or 600 gallons of milk per cow per annum have gone up con- 
siderably during the last ten years. Thus, in January 1889 Mr. 
George M. Chamberlin contributed a record in which the yield 
of milk per cow of three good dairy races from February 1888 
to February 1889 was as follows : — 
Gallons 
Shorthorns 
Ayrshires 
Jerseys . 
872 
704 
GOO 
