Repoi't on the Agriculture of Sweden and Norway. 
215 
calves, on page 217, and the result is an average quantity of food 
to the value of 4^f?. for every gallon of milk. Adding the average 
of the " other expenses " for the years 1865-66 and 1866—67, 
as given on pages 242 and 243, we get a total of 5"95fZ., or very 
nearly &d. per gallon, as the cost of production of milk in the 
year ending May 31st, 1872, on a basis of 100 cows, giving an 
average of 588 gallons per head during the year. Mr. Odelberg 
states that his milk was in that year sold at 28 ore per kanna 
{^\d. per gallon), and at that price yielded a profit of 1/. 18s. Wd. 
per cow ; therefore the cost of producing the milk must have 
been a trifle more than I have calculated, otherwise the profit 
(which of course includes the value of the manure reckoned as 
the value of the straw, as in the years 1865-66 and 1866-67) 
would have been about 95. per cow more. It is, however, possible 
that the statement " all the milk was sold " is subject to a modi- 
fication to the extent of the quantity usually consumed by the 
farm-labourers and their families, which would nearly balance 
the results of the two methods of calculation. These results are 
also confirmed by calculating the values of the quantities of food 
given for the year ending May 31st, 1873, the cost per cow being 
in each year between 10 guineas and IIZ. 
It requires no argument to show that, if Mr. Odelberg's state- 
ments as to the cost of producing milk in the neighbourhood of 
Stockholm, are at all indicative of the average cost throughout 
Sweden under the best management, it is perfectly clear that milk- 
production in that country cannot pay even so low a rent as 13s. 
per acre, and leave a profit to the farmer. So far, indeed, is this 
from being the case, that there is a dead loss of |c?. per gallon 
on the milk produced in the most favourable of the two years 
in Mr. Odelberg's table, if %d. per gallon represents the average 
net price obtained. The comparatively small farmers cannot be 
in the habit of comparing the returns from their dairy with the 
value of their labour, and of the materials that go into their 
cow-house for the production of milk, otherwise dairy-husbandry 
would not continue to hold its sway as the principal object of 
Scandinavian agriculture. 
The best meat-growers in Sweden, as well as in England, 
hold that their fat beasts leave little or no profit except the 
value of their manure ; but they are better off than the Swedish 
dairyman, whose cows, as it appears to me, generally entail a 
loss even after crediting them with their own estimate of their 
value as fertilising machines. I should, however, here observe 
that Mr. Odelberg's estimate of the value of the manure, namely, 
the original value of the straw, equal to very little more than 
1/. per cow per annum, appears too low, although doubtless 
the value of the liquid manure is discounted in calculating the 
