188 
The late Mr. H. M. Jenkins. 
of the veterinarian, the tenant-farmer, and the land-agent, had 
been stimulated, the services of a Consulting Botanist and 
Entomologist had been enlisted, an experimental farm had been 
established, and a system of exposing frauds in the food and 
manure markets had been organised and fearlessly carried out. 
It had been said that a man should be strong at thirty, wise at 
Ibrty, and rich at fifty : ten years before, the Royal Agricultural 
Society had completed its first period, and its 5500 members 
might be considered strong in numbers and in influence ; its 
action during the next ten years had established its claim to 
the quality belonging to that stage of existence, and he had no 
doubt that " at the end of another ten, without any diminution 
of strength or wisdom, it would be rich, enabling it to carry 
out the great object for which it was established." 
In 1879, Mr. Jenkins reported on the Dairy Farming of the 
North- West of France. The geological map accompanying his 
report includes the whole territory north of the Loire and west 
of Auxerre. Cattle and cattle-management, the milk industry, 
and the dairy, butter-making, the butter trade, and cheese-making 
— hard, and soft, and special — are described ; and the whole is a 
most instructive account of a big industry in which English agri- 
culture had much to learn ; and in which, thanks to Mr. Jenkins, 
much of what it needed has been learnt. The two conditions 
on which the improvement of the butter industry in this country 
depends are the raising of the bulk that is turned out to the 
standard already belonging to the best dairies among ourselves, 
and the bringing about a uniformity of quality. In these two 
points lay the urgency of his lesson. The firm conviction 
that sour milk carries a mixture of curd with its cream, and 
that for every shilling thus gained in quantity five shillings 
are lost in quality, was what gave its urgency to the first lesson 
which had to be learnt ; and the combination of farmers in 
order to ensure the uniformity of their combined produce was 
the point on which he insisted on the other hand. The cheese 
manufacture also is described — the various soft cheeses, both 
fresh and cured (no fewer than two dozen sorts are named), 
and the hard cheeses (Dutch, Roquefort, and Gruyere), are all 
described ; and the marketing business is referred to emphati- 
cally. — " My cheese-manager said to me the other day, ' Look at 
this French box. I open it,' and he did ; ' here is the butter 
fit to weigh out to you without an atom of loss. Now let iis 
break open this cask of Irish. You see I have to scrape it all 
round, and I lose a lot, beside the trouble.'" Is the contrast thus 
asserted now hapj)ily out of date? To a large extent, no doubt, 
it is ; we have at length very generally learnt our lesson, and to 
Mr. Jenkins belongs much of the credit of having taught us. 
