802 
The Butch Agricultural Colonies. 
fat. All the milk produced is made into butter and cheese at 
a central daiiy founded in 1882, which is excellently fitted up 
and managed.' The cheese, butter, and milk sold yielded 910/. 
during the year. 
The cattle pass the summer in the pastures, but are fed also 
with grass, clover, maize, etc. In the winter they are kept in 
the cowhouses, where they receive hay, carrots, peas, roots, oats, 
silage, and oilcake. The cost of feeding each cow during 
the winter varies form 71. to 8/. The greater number of cows 
calve in spring ; but care is always taken to have some of the 
cows in milk during the winter. 
On the day of our visit there was a special parade of the 
live-stock of the farm, and very fine specimens of the omni- 
present Dutch breed the working oxen and milch cows were. 
A giant subsoil plough with six oxen harnessed to it, and a 
Frisian milch sheep with an udder almost as big as a cow's, 
were features which specially attracted our attention. 
It is a little difficult to gather from the accounts a precise 
statement of the financial operations of the Society ; but it is 
undeniable that the farming 2)er se does not pay, and that it is 
only the annual subscriptions of the subscribers, and donations, 
that keep the colony afloat. Considering the circumstances 
under which the colony was originally located on a barren 
tract of land, and the nature of its work, it cannot, however, be 
looked at purely from a financial point of view, but must be i"e- 
garded as a philanthropic institution wasting infinitely less money 
than some others nearer home that could be mentioned. 
The criticism on the Society's system which at once arises 
to the mind is, that its benefits are restricted to so few people. 
I had the advantage of travelling between Steenwijk and 
Frederiksoord in a carriage with Monsieur Meline, a former 
Minister of Agriculture in France, and the President of the 
Hague Congress, Monsieur Tisserand, the well-known chief of 
the French Agricultural Department, and Dr. Lohuis ; and we 
urged this point somewhat strongly upon the Director. Dr. Lohnis 
agreed that the small number of fresh families admitted to the 
advantages of the colony was a drawback ; but he pointed out 
that so long as the Society took upon itself the care of the 
families whilst they were on its property it Avas impossible to 
turn them out. When a family was accepted, the husband as 
well as the wife were entitled to remain during their lives in 
' The system of feeding calves described in Mr. Jenkins' Report of 1882 to 
the Duke of Richmond's Comaiissioii is no lone;er in vogue. All the milk csf 
the six farms is brought to the central dairy to be turned into buUer and 
cheese. 
