110 
The Supjilij of Milk to Labourers. 
and found that he was kept in perfect health, and at a constant 
weight, by 1^^- lb. of oatmeal and 2 pints of milk." The man 
was sorry, says Dr. Parkes, to return to his soldier's rations 
of bread, butter, meat and potatoes, &c. He mentions these 
facts to show " how, with the present price of meat, a man may 
live better and cheaper on other foods." Yes ; but it cannot be 
done without milk. A Scotch ploughman's daily allowance is 
2^ lbs. of oatmeal and 1 pint of milk. The milk costs little ; 
but Dr. Parkes paid for the soldier's 2 pints of milk 4rf., or 
bs. 3d. a week, meal included ; and, cheap as the meal may be, 
such a price for milk places the meal and milk diet quite 
beyond the reach of the labouring man. 
I believe that milk might be supplied in most districts at 
Id. per pint. It is true that the prices of agricultural produce 
are at the present time somewhat unsettled, and that lower 
prices than those of the past twenty years for meat, and wheat, 
and cheese, are generally anticipated. Land hitherto devoted 
to these articles will probably be set free for the more perish- 
able products, and it may prove in the future advantageous to 
develop such a milk trade throughout the country as its con- 
sumption by the labouring classes would occasion. The price 
of milk has risen with that of meat. According to the Parlia- 
mentary Returns relating to grain and other agricultural pro- 
duce, obtained on the motion of Mr. Bass, and printed in 1879, 
the price of milk delivered at Bethlehem Hospital from 184G 
to 1856, ranged between Id. and lid. per gallon; from 1856 to 
1866 its price was dd., 9^d., and lO^Z. per gallon ; and in the 
last two years Is. and Is. Id. The price then stood at Is. until 
1874, when it rose to Is. Sd., at which it has remained. It 
may be anticipated that the price of milk must fall with that 
of meat and cheese ; but it is unlikely that it will come gene- 
rally within the labourer's reach as an article of diet on the 
existing system of milk production. 
The following is a suggestion by a practical man, and I may 
say here that whether the difficulties of the milk supply are 
removed by co-operative farms or not, they can only be solved, 
I think, by small farms widely scattered over the country. In 
Scotland and the North the milk is consumed on the very spot 
where it is produced, and this was the case in the South, when 
farm-servants lived in farmhouses, and bread and milk, with 
pork or bacon, formed their morning and evening meals. 
Mr. G. H. May, Elford Park, Tamworth, tells me that his 
farm, of 435 acres, with not a cottage on or near it, is equi- 
distant from two villages, each containing 500 inhabitants. 
In one, new milk can be obtained in limited quantities ; in the 
other, to quote one of Mr. May's men : " Nothing but skim, 
