Production and Consumption of Milk. 
427 
the discussion which followed the reading of the paper, challenged by 
Mr. George Barham, who considered that the average would be more 
like 28 or even 30 pints to 1 lb. of butter. I stated in the paper 
that I had fortified myself with a considerable collection of figures 
on this point, and I ventured to point out that it had lately been 
authoritatively stated that 16 pints of Jersey milk, of average 
quality, will produce one pound of butter, when set and churned in the 
ordinary manner. It will not be denied that the J ersey cow is now 
a very influential factor in the butter production of the country. It 
might also be fair to point out that as long ago as 1878, in this Jour- 
nal, Mr. Morton adopted 21 pints as the average quantity of milk 
to a pound of butter. It is probable that the estimate then was too 
high, but since that time the introduction of cream separators, the 
increase of “ butter breeds,” such as the Jersey, and the general im- 
provement in dairy matters, must have tended to raise the ratio, so 
that if it was even approximately true then, it can scarcely be too 
high now. 
Another interesting question raised in the discussion was whether 
the average yield of milk per cow has increased in comparison with, 
say, half a century ago. Mr. Barham stated that, in his opinion, 
the produce of the average cow was less now than it was forty years 
ago, though more than it was fifteen years ago ; and Sir Eawson 
Bawson took up the point as a reproach to farmers. It is not, per- 
haps, a matter which can be decided with certainty. No doubt, 
fifteen or twenty years ago, the tendency to despise dairying pro- 
perties had, especially as regards Shorthorns, decreased the milking 
qualities of a considerable number of the stock of the country ; but 
it must be remembered that the rage for pedigree, and pedigree 
only, did not affect all districts alike, and that in some parts of the 
country, as in Scotland, for instance, attention was even then being 
directed to milk production, especially in connection with improved 
cheese-making. Apart from this, as there is no evidence that forty 
or fifty years ago, or at any previous time, any special attention had 
been given to milk production, it is surely fair to assume that the 
very energetic and widespx’ead efforts of the past decade have 
more than recovered the ground lost by the Shorthorn craze of the 
fifties, sixties, and early seventies, and that therefore the average 
yield per cow is higher now than it was, not only fifteen, but also 
forty, years ago. 
R. Henry Eew. 
FIXATION OF FREE NITROGEN BY THE 
LOWER GREEN PLANTS. 
A NOTABLE contribution to our knowledge of the Nitrogen Question 
is contained in a memoir, by MM. Th. Schlcesing fils and Em. 
Laurent, entitled “ Recherches sur la Fixation de I’Azote libre par 
les Plantes,” which occupies upwards of fifty pages in the Annates 
de VInstitut Pasteur (Tome VI., no. 2, 1892). 
