240 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
September  5,  18&5,  • 
shrewd  middleman  who  has  seized  the  rare  chance  open  to  him 
of  sure  profit  and  quick  returns  on  an  article  which  he  has 
simply  to  receive  and  sell  at  once.  He  buys  it  very  much  at  his 
own  price,  and  sells  it  very  much  to  his  own  advantage  For 
6d.  per  gallon  the  farmer  has  to  provide  and  maintain  the  cows, 
to  do  the  milking,  pass  the  milk  through  the  refrigerator,  cart 
it  to  the  railway  station,  and  pay  carriage  by  rail.  For  Is.  4d. 
per  gallon  the  middleman  has  simply  to  fetch  it  from  the  station 
nearest  to  him  and  to  deliver  it  to  the  consumer.  His  trade 
plant  consists  of  a  horse  and  cart,  one  or  more  handcarts,  and 
milk  cans  of  various  sizes.  If  he  is  a  “company”  with  a  large 
connection  he  reqaires  more  vehicles,  cans,  and  assistants.  In 
either  case  he  thrives.  By  way  of  example  we  mention  one 
case  well  known  to  us  where  the  man  and  his  two  sons  serve  a 
long  “  round,”  while  the  wife  attends  to  the  shop,  where  milk, 
bread,  and  occasionally  butter  are  sold.  They  all  work 
hard,  and  he  is  the  owner  of  several  good  suburban  houses  in 
which  he  invests  his  profits  derived  from  that  lOd.  per  gallon 
which  the  fai'mer  allows  to  slip  (literally  to  enter  by  oversight) 
into  his  hands. 
When  shall  we  have  farmers’  co-operative  stores,  each  sup- 
plying  its  round  of  consumers  not  only  with  pure  milk  and 
cream,  but  with  butter  and  cheese  of  the  highest  quality,  and 
poultry,  eggs,  bacon,  hams,  and  pork  ?  That  such  stores  would 
prove  profitable  there  can  be  no  doubt,  provided  they  were  run 
on  sound  principles,  an  essential  fundamental  being  purity,  high 
quality,  and  a  full  unfailing  supply.  To  judge  from  the  report 
of  a  special  commission  appointed  by  the  “  British  Medical 
Journal”  to  inquire  into  the  quality  of  the  milk  sold  in  some 
of  the  poorer  districts  of  the  metropolis,  we  should  say  that  such 
a  thing  as  pure,  wholesome  milk  is  not  to  be  had.  Of  fifty 
samples  of  ordinary  milk  analysed  twenty-four  were  found  to 
be  more  or  less  sophisticated  by  the  addition  of  water,  or 
separated  milk,  or  by  the  whole  of  the  milk  having  been  passed 
through  the  separator.  Nearly  half  of  the  samples  were  thus 
reduced,  and  a  still  larger  number— 28  per  cent. — had  been 
tampered  with  by  the  addition  of  preservatives,  So  far  the 
Commission  did  good  by  exposing  the  dishonesty  of  dealers,  but 
we  really  do  not  see  how  it  is  to  be  prevented  while  milk  passes 
through  so  many  hands  before  it  reaches  the  conmmer.  The 
best  method  which  has  come  under  our  notice  is  that  of  Mr. 
Sturley  Nunn,  who  sen'ls  the  milk  from  his  farm  to  his  I 
customers  at  Bury  St.  Edmunds  in  glass  bottles,  with  an 
adhesive  label  fastened  over  the  stopper  bearing  the  appropriate 
motto,  “  Safe  bind,  safe  find.” 
But  the  Commission  makes  an  accusation  of  even  more 
serious  character  against  the  farmer's,  the  most  disgusting  part 
of  the  exposui’e  of  this  milk  business  being  the  bacteriological 
proof  of  the  kind  of  dirt  which  gains  access  to  the  milk.  Every 
sample  examined  contained  specimem  of  the  Bacillus  coli 
communis,  a  microbe  which  has  its  natural  habitat  in  the 
intestines ;  in  fact,  this  particular  microbe  constituted  fully 
90  per  cent,  of  all  the  micro-organisms  found  in  the  milk.  The 
occurrence  of  this  organism,  proving  as  it  does  the  fact  of  foecal 
admixture  with  every  sample  of  milk,  shows  well  enough  the 
grossly  defective  sanitary  conditions  under  which  milk  is  so 
commonly  obtained,  stored,  and  distributed.  We  think  the 
presence  of  fcecal  matter  shows  conclusively  how  generally  filthy 
are  the  coats  of  the  cows,  the  places  in  which  they  are  milked, 
and  the  milkers  themselves.  It  tends  to  prove  the  soundness  of 
our  oft-repeated  advice  of  rigid  cleanliness  in  the  cow  hovels, 
the  milkers’  dress  and  hands,  and  a  daily  use  of  the  curry  comb 
on  the  cows  when  they  are  shut  in  the  yards.  It  is  certain 
that  much  dust-like  foecal  matter  is  rubbed  off  the  coats  of 
dirty  cows  by  dirty  milkers  into  the  milk  pails,  and  the 
straining  of  the  milk  subsequently  is  very  generally  insufficient. 
The  ordinary  milk  sieve  may  retain  hairs,  but  finely  divided 
filth  passes  through  it.  In  Danish  dairies  the  milk  is  filtered 
through  sand,  leaving  a  marvellous  accumulation  of  impurity 
behind  it  in  the  sand.  Government  action  is  obviously  called 
for  in  this  matter,  no  radical  improvement  being  possible 
without  it,  and  a  measure  by  the  Legislature  to  insure  pure 
wholesome  milk  to  the  consumer  must  be  regarded  as  right. 
WORK  ON  THE  HOME  FARM. 
During  the  present  month  yards  and  all  buildings  connected  with 
them  should  be  put  in  good  order  for  winter.  This  is  a  matter  of  so  much 
importance  that  it  should  have  attention  early  in  the  month,  so  as  to 
be  ready  for  cold  rain,  which  is  often  so  heavy  in  October.  Fences, 
gates,  drains,  water  supply,  and  fodder  racks  should  all  be  examined  and 
repairs  done  before  much  litter  is  placed  in  the  yards.  Roofs,  walls, 
floors,  doors,  windows,  ventilators,  drains,  and  gutters  of  buildings  must 
all  be  put  in  sound,  clean,  working  order.  Fill  all  hollows  in  floors, 
wash  and  paint  woodwork,  whitewash,  or  rather  limewash,  walls,  using 
one  part  common  salt  to  three  parts  fresh  lime.  The  addition  of  salt 
gives  a  hard  surface,  preventing  the  lime  from  being  rubbed  off.  This 
may  appear  a  trifle,  but  it  is  worthy  of  attention,  as  we  are  frequently 
in  cow  hovels  where  the  limewash  rubs  off  at  a  touch,  and  we  hold  that 
walls  properly  whitewashed  are  excellent  as  an  incentive  to  general 
cleanliness  in  the  cow  house. 
Wherever  bracken,  heather,  sedges,  rushes,  or  other  litter  can  be 
had  in  quantity  a  stack  of  it  should  be  made  in  or  near  the  centre  of 
every  cattle  and  cow  yard,  now,  in  readiness  for  winter.  Failing  this 
there  is  no  alternative  but  to  use  straw,  but  we  always  deplore  having 
to  trample  down  good  wholesome  fodder.  We  have  just  built  a  com¬ 
modious  additional  cow  hovel  for  a  tenant  who  really  required  more 
accommodation,  and  as  the  cow  yard  was  open  to  the  north  we  have 
placed  the  hovel  on  that  side,  shutting  in  the  yard,  so  as  to  afford 
shelter  for  cows  in  it.  At  one  end  is  a  large  loose  box  for  calving,  at 
the  other  a  fodder  room,  with  access  to  both  old  and  new  hovels.  A 
water  cistern  has  been  fixed  high  up  inside  the  roof  ,•  it  will  be  kept 
filled  by  means  of  a  ballcock  in  a  feed  cistern  connected  with  a  pool 
above  the  homestead.  In  winter  this  water  will  be  of  the  same 
temperature  as  the  hovel,  and  the  cows  will  be  supplied  by  a  trough  at 
the  back  of  the  manger. 
Let  equal  care  be  taken  with  all  buildings  used  for  pigs.  Swine 
fever  is  rampant ;  it  is  positively  increasing,  which  may  be  regarded  as 
an  outcome  of  carelessness  both  at  farms  and  in  the  importation  of 
infected  pigs  from  Ireland  without  supervision  or  inspection  of  any  sort. 
The  pigs  are  now  out  in  the  open,  only  coming  into  yards  at  night ; 
now,  therefore,  is  the  time  to  prepare  their  winter  quarters,  to  limewash 
walls,  and  make  sound  faulty  roofs  and  floors. 
The  Twentieth  London  Dairy  Show,  to  be  held  in  the  Royal 
Agricultural  Hall  in  October  next,  should  be  a  great  success,  for 
prizes  to  the  value  of  £2515,  in  addition  to  142  gold,  silver,  and  bronze 
medals,  are  offered  for  competition  in  451  different  classes,  in  many 
of  which  a  keen  contest  is  already  assured.  This  handsome  total  is 
due  to  the  fact  that  the  British  Dairy  Farmers’  Association  have  this 
year  been  generously  supported  by  liberal  contributions  to  the  prize 
fund  from  the  Corporation  of  the  City  of  London,  the  Poulters’  Com¬ 
pany,  the  President  (Lord  Derby),  Mr.  Titus  Barham,  Sir  James 
Blyth,  Bart,,  and  others,  the  last  named  gentleman  giving  £400  as 
prizes  for  plans  and  models  of  dairies  adapted  for  the  manufacture  of 
butter  and  cheese.  A  vigorous  attempt  is  being  made  to  give  a  helping 
hand  to  this  important  branch  of  agriculture  and  its  allied  industry 
of  poultry  raising.  ^ 
METEOROLOGICAL  OBSERVATIONS. 
Oamdbn  Square,  London. 
Lat.Slo  32' 40"  N. ;  Long.  0°  8/  0"  W.:  Altitude  111  feet. 
Date. 
9  A.M. 
In  the  Day. 
*3 
CS 
1895. 
August. 
1  Barometer 
1  at  32°,  and 
1  Sea  Level. 
Hygrometer. 
Direc¬ 
tion  of 
Wind. 
Temp, 
of  soil 
at 
1  foot. 
Shade  Tem¬ 
perature. 
Radiation 
Temperature 
Dry. 
Wet. 
Max. 
Min. 
In 
Sun. 
On 
Grass. 
Inchs. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
Inohs> . 
Sunday  . . 
26 
30-308 
59-1 
53-1 
N. 
62-1 
69-4 
46-0 
1191 
41-0 
0-142 
Monday  , . 
26 
30-103 
59-4 
58-4 
W. 
61-9 
68-9 
55-7 
92-9 
52-3 
0-010 
Tuesday  . . 
27 
29-826 
61-8 
59-4 
s.w. 
6T1 
71-9 
57-1 
110-9 
62-1 
0-012 
Wednesday 
28 
30-154 
63-2 
57-2 
w. 
60-3 
73-3 
51-7 
118-2 
45-9 
Thursday . . 
29 
30-232 
63-6 
58-8 
s.w. 
611 
75-0 
57-6 
122-0 
53-9 
Friday 
SO 
30-096 
66-3 
58-9 
s.w. 
62-0 
73-1 
57-9 
118-9 
53-1 
_ 
Saturday  . . 
31 
30-241 
59  9 
55-1 
N.W. 
62-0 
69-9 
51-7 
122-4 
47-0 
— 
30-.39 
61-9 
57-3 
61-5 
71-8 
54-0 
114-8 
49-3 
0-164 
REMARKS. 
25tli. — Bright  all  day;  overcast  in  evening. 
26th. — Rain  4.80  A.ji.  to  11.3  J  A.M. ;  dull  and  breezy ;  sun  about  1.15  P.M.,  but  generally 
overcast. 
27th.— Spots  of  rain  early,  and  rain  at  9.30  A.M. ;  dull  and  breezy;  shower  11.5  A.M.  ; 
bright  afternoon  and  evening. 
28th. — Bright  early  and  all  day  and  evening. 
29th. — Bright  early  and  throughout. 
30th.— Bright  early;  overcast  from  1  to  2  P.M.,  then  bright  with  fresh  breeze;  fine 
night. 
31st. — Bright  and  fine  all  day. 
A  fine  week ;  cooler  than  the  previous  one,  but  still  above  the  average.— 
G.  J.  Symons. 
