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THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST* [December j, 1887. 
AGRICULTURE ON THE CONTINENT OF 
EUROPE. 
(Special Letter.) 
Pabis, October 29. 
The dairy industry is more and more extending on 
the Continent. It is divided into two distinot branches s 
the preparation of butter and the manufacturing of 
cheese. Both are conducted on more or less extensive 
commercial bases. It is chiefly to the application of 
machinery in the working up of the milk, that dairy 
industry owes to-day its vast progress and the 
ameliorations have not yet reached their final limit. 
Indirectly, the soil has been improved also as despite 
the most ingenious and labor-saving apparatuses, 
milk-farmiug to be remunerative must rest on selected 
breeds of cattle, and choice dairy stock demands 
suitable aliments, and hence good soils to produce 
such. 
In Denmark there are co-operative societies for 
butter farming ; in Hollaud for butter and cheese ; 
and in Switzerland for cheese aloDe. These societies 
vary, due principally to local necessities. In Denmark 
an association or a large butter manufacturer contracts 
to purchase the milk from farmers, representing 
collectively 500 to 1,000 cows. In both cases the 
aim is the same ; skim the milk with the most 
perfect creamers in the shortest time and in the 
most economical manner. There are Belgian centri- 
fugal creamers that will separate instantly 9 gallons 
of milk in less than 30 minutes. The key to the 
Danish co-operation system lies in leaving to each 
farmer to deliver his milk himself at the central 
establishment and to take away his proportionate 
quantity of the skimmed milk which is usually 
employed for hog-fatting, or making inferior cheese. 
In the case of an association all expenses for machinery 
&c. are borne by the members pro-rata to their 
deliveries of milk. A council composed of 6 or 7 
members is elected to superintend the receipts and 
expenditure, while a paid manager devotes his time 
exclusively to the out-put of butter. Every week a 
balance sheet is submitted, and the associates paid 
their respective net amounts for milk delivered. 
As all deliveries are not of the same quality, the 
price of the milk is determined by weighing the oreani 
removed from the daily deliveries, and next testiug 
the richness of the milk furnished by the Fjord 
apparatus. No one establishment could keep a 
sufficient number of pigs to consume the skimmed 
milk, so each client takes his share baok to utilize 
as observed on his own farm. This allows the central 
dairy to devote its undivided attention to turning 
out a sole product — butter. It has been found that 
the larger the quantity of milk worked up, in other 
words the more numerous the associates the greater 
the returns and the less machiuery expenses. One 
matter that should never be lost sight of in preparing 
butter, whether for home or foreign market have a 
distinct quality, a factory mark as it were by which 
the article can be ever recognised. This is the 
secret of the French butter trade. As yet co- 
operative dairies are in their infancy in France. 
The peasants bring their butter in rolls to the market ; 
the wholesale dealer purchases following quality. But 
when the butters arrive in his warerooms, they are 
classed with the most punctilious care, then each 
class-mass is separately mixed and prepared to form 
a distinct grade or mark specal to the fabricant. It 
is similar as with French brandies and wines. The 
merchants purchase right aud left, then blend or 
grade, and therein lies the secret of their business 
and the success of their firm. Scandinavia patronizes 
♦he Burmetster and Wain Creamer; in Belgium, 
France, and Switzerland the vertical Laval creamer 
is preferred ; it is simple, so does not get out of 
order; it separates the cream almost as completely 
as the horizontal machines, and is less laborious to 
work. It is besides cheap and adapted to a daily 
milk-yield of 33 to CO gallons, while exacting no 
tr clinical cares. 
Switzerland affords the best types of co-operative 
cheese- farms. They are not the most ancient since 
i'lauee claims to have Fmitilres, or associated dairies 
in the J ura since 1650. It is only at the commence- 
ment of the present century that Switzerland entered 
into the manufacture of its celebrated type-cheese, 
gruyere, of which that from Emmenthal and Sim- 
menthal have a world-wide renown. Three centuries 
ago the price of gruyere in Switzerland was a fraction 
less than four sous a pound; it has recently fetched 
as much as 17 sous per pound. The statistics for 
the total dairy products of Switzerland are not com- 
plete ; however, the little republic, with an area of 
lb',000 square miles and a population of three mil- 
lions exported in 1885 a total of these products 
representing a value of 56 million francs. (Jne-half 
of the milk yielded is worked up for exportation, 
and strange fact, Switzerland, the first miik-produc- 
ing country on the Continent has to import, and 
mostly from France nearly her whole supply of butter 
She purchases annually 3,000 tons of butter and as 
many of lard. 
In Switzerland then cheese is a natural product, 
and each region claims to have its special brand ; 
just as in France each vineyard has its characterized 
cm. At the recent agricultural show held at Neuchatel, 
the sectiou devoted to dairy industries attracted not 
only the curious but business thousands. Every 
modern utensil or machinery oonnected with dairy 
industry was exhibited, and what was better still 
tested. A steam engine set in motion an army of 
churns and creamers — Danish, Sweedish, Laval, &c. 
The latter creamed at the rate of 172 gallons of milk 
per hour. Laval's delaiteuse or milk-expeller which 
completely removes the milk from the butter and so 
secures its perfect conservation was much admired. 
The dairy section also served as a capital school 
replete witii object lessons ; a specialist lectured on 
some improved utensil, some ameliorated process of 
butter or cheese making, the lecture being accompanied 
by practical demonstrations of cheese and butter pre- 
paration in their several stages. 
Cheese farming has ameliorated Swiss agriculture 
from every point of view. The peasant possessing 
only a few cows has by the principle of co-operation 
been enabled to share in profits, that isolatedly he 
could never dream of realizing. The French Govern- 
ment is studying the encouraging of cheese farming 
in the mountainous districts of the Alps and Pyre- 
nees as a means of leading to the treeing and 
grassing of hill slopes, and by such means controlling 
in a sense the watershed or climatic conditions of 
these regions. Taking one of these cheeseries that 
of Eschbolzmatt, which has been in operation since 
1849, 34 associated farmers supply annually 770,000 
gallons of milk. This realised a sum of 14,000 in 
less 400 fr. expenses. Over a 6eries of years from 
1854 to 1883 the milk has realized, that is, paid at 
the rate of 7 to 13 sous per gallon when converted 
into cheese. It is a singular fact that the number 
of members has always remained the same and 
belong to the tame families who orignally founded 
the association, while the quantity of inaiik furnished 
by them has doubled and the receipts have trebled. 
Their holdings have not been augmented, but their 
fields have been ameliorated and their stock improved. 
The Canton of Bern has 639 cheeseries, Zurich 
282, Lucerne 358, and the other Cantons in proportion. 
Tue preparation of condtnsed milk has so extended, 
that in 1885 Switzerland exported 16,000 tons of 
that commodity which sells at 9 sous per lb. 
Another speciality is milk sugar, of which 114 tons 
are annually exported and selling at 21 sous per lb. 
Milk sugar was discovered by Bartoletti in 1619 ; 
one gallon of milk contains alout 7| ounces of 
sugar. The latter is prepared from the whey ill 
cheese making. After subjecting the whey to evapor- 
ation, it deposits on cooling, irregular sand-like grains, 
which next undergo refining. Marbach is the head 
centre of this industry since the early part of the 
present century and where 8 out of the total of 
11 sugar refineries exist. Previous to the extraction 
of its sugars, the whey was given to bogs — the least 
profitable mode of utilizing it. About 9,l00 gallons 
of milk will yield one ton of sugar and the expense 
