404 Prices of Commodities during last Seven Years (1886-92). 
and some years may still elapse before an important improvement 
will take place ; but much unsoundness has been cleared, and, with 
production arrested, a more healthy tone may set in, and some im- 
provement in certain branches may perhaps not be very distant. 
A serious curtailment in the use of silver, on the other hand, 
though it does not seem probable that anything will be done this 
year, will naturally depress its price, and any sudden change will 
have a disasti’ous effect on Eastern trade, and hence on trade 
generally. 
The average prices of the next decade may still keep low, or 
may even show some further decline as compared with the last 
seven or ten years, if gold remains the sole measure of value, and if 
the production of commodities again increases. That this production, 
generally speaking, should remain stationary for any length of time 
is of course impossible, as with the increase of population there will 
be more hands to work and more mouths to be fed. The production 
may, however, go into different channels. In the first development 
of new countries the settlers take up principally certain large 
agricultural products such as wheat, maize, cotton, wool, &c., then 
comes the mining industry, but with the increase of population and 
the requirements of the people the production will also become 
more variform, more of the food will be consumed there, and a time 
may arrive when the shipments of certain commodities will no longer 
be so excessive as they are now. 
Augustus Sauerbeck. 
PRESERVATIVES FOR CREAM. 
The production and distribution of fresh cream is an important and 
increasing branch of the dairy industry of the present day. Cream 
is extensively sold in small earthenware jars, which are often sent 
long distances and retailed at a price varying from 6 d. to Is. accord- 
ing to size. It is a great convenience to the public to be able to 
buy cream in small quantities, and in a portable form, provided that 
its purity and freshness can be guaranteed, for nothing is more 
easily tainted or susceptible to its surroundings. In fact, cream 
seems to have a special power of attracting the odour of anything, 
whether good or bad, in its vicinity. The composition of the cream, 
therefore, and the extent to which it has been “ doctored ” in order 
to ensure its keeping qualities, are of the greatest importance to 
consumers. It is, indeed, well known that cream unmanipulated 
does not travel well, and will not — especially in close weather — 
keep many hours. 
The means used to prevent the rapid souring of cream are steri- 
lisation on the one hand, and the use of preservatives on the other. 
Both have the same object, namely, to arrest fermentation and the 
