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DAIRY- FARMIN G

140° F. or higher to 1° above the temperature of the water. The fat test for milk was originally devised by Dr S. M. Babcock, of the Wisconsin Experiment Station, U.S.A. It combines the principle of centrifugal force with simple chemical action. Besides the machine itself and its graduated glass vessels, the only requirements are sulphuric acid of standard strength and warm water. The machines — often termed butyrometers—are commonly made to hold from two up to two dozen testers. After the tubes or testers have been charged, they are put in the apparatus, which is rapidly rotated as shown (Fig. 22); in a few minutes pIG. 22.—Bufcyrometer. the test is complete, and with properly graduated vessels the percentage of fat can be read off at a glance. The butyrometer is extremely useful, alike for measuring periodically the fat-producing capacity of individual cows in a herd, for rapidly ascertaining the percentage of fat in milk delivered to factories and paying for such milk on the basis of quality, and for determining the richness in fat of milk supplied for the urban milk trade. Any intelligent person can soon learn to work the apparatus, but its efficiency is of course dependent upon the accuracy of the measuring vessels. To ensure this the Board of Agriculture have made arrangements with the National Physical Laboratory, Old Deer Park, Richmond, Surrey, to verify at a small fee the pipettes, measuring-glasses, and test-bottles used in connexion with the centrifugal butyrometer, which in recent years has been improved by Dr N. Gerber of Zurich. Dairy Factories. In connexion with co-operative cheese-making the merit of having founded the first “ cheesery ” or cheese factory is generally credited to Jesse Williams, who lived near Rome, in Oneida county, New York State. The system, therefore, was of American origin. Williams was a skilled cheese-maker, and the produce of his dairy sold so freely, at prices over the average, that he increased his output of cheese by adding to his own supply of milk other quantities which he obtained from his neighbours. His example was so widely followed that by the year 1866 there had been established close upon 500 cheese factories in New York State alone. In 1870 two co-operative cheeseries were at work in England, one in the town of Derby and one at Longford in the same county. There are now thousands of cheeseries in the United States and Canada, and also many “ creameries,” or butter factories, for the making of high-class butter. The first creamery was that of Alanson Slaughter, and it was built near Wallkill, Orange county, New York State, in 1861, or ten years later than the first cheese factory; it dealt daily with the milk of 375 cows. Cheeseries and creameries would almost certainly have become more numerous than they are in England but for the rapidly-expanding urban trade in country milk. The development of each, indeed, has been contemporaneous since 1871, and they are found to work well in conjunction

[dairy factories.

one with the other—that is to say, a factory is useful for converting surplus milk into cheese or butter when the milk trade is overstocked, whilst the trade affords a convenient avenue for the sale of milk whenever this may happen to be preferable to the making of cheese or butter. Extensive dealers in milk arrange for its conversion into cheese or butter, as the case may be, at such times as the milk market needs relief, and in this way a cheesery serves as a sort of economic safety-valve to the milk trade. The same cannot always be said of creameries, because the machine-skimmed milk of some of these establishments has been far too much used to the prejudice of the legitimate milk trade in urban districts. Be this as it may, the operations of cheeseries and creameries in conjunction with the milk trade have led to the diminution of home dairying. A rapidly-increasing population has maintained, and probably increased, its consumption of milk, which has obviously diminished the farmhouse production of cheese, and also of butter. The foreign competitor has been less successful with cheese than with butter, for he is unable to produce an article qualified to compete with the best that is made in Great Britain. In the case of butter, on the other hand, the imported article, though not ever surpassing the best home-made, is on the average much better, especially as regards uniformity of quality. Colonial and foreign producers, however, send into the British markets as a rule only the best of their butter, as they are aware that their inferior grades would but injure the reputation their products have acquired. There are no official statistics concerning dairy factories in Great Britain, and such figures relating to Ireland were issued for the first time in 1901. The number of dairy factories in Ireland in 1900 was returned at 506, comprising 333 in Munster, 92 in Ulster, 52 in Leinster,_ and 29 in Connaught. Of the total number of factories, 495 received milk only, 9 milk and cream, and 2 cream only. As to ownership, 219 were joint-stock concerns, 190 were maintained by co-operative farmers, and 97 were proprietary. In the year ended 30th September 1900 these factories used up nearly 121 million gallons of. milk, namely, 94 in Munster, 14 in Ulster, 7 in Leinster, and 6 in Connaught. The number of centrifugal creamseparators in the factories was 985, of which 889 were worked by steam, 79 by water, 9 by horse-power, and 8 by hand-power. The number of hands permanently employed was 3653, made up of 2976 in Munster, 279 in Leinster, 278 in Ulster, and 120 in Connaught. The year’s output was returned at 401,490 cwt. of butter, 439 cwt. of cheese (made from whole milk), and 46,253 gallons of cream. In most cases the skim-milk is returned to the farmers. A return of the number of separators used in private establishments gave a total of 899, comprising 693 in Munster, 157 in Leinster, 39 in Ulster, and 10 in Connaught. In factories and private establishments together as many as 1884 separators were thus accounted for. Much of the factory butter would be sent into the markets of Great Britain, though some would no doubt be retained for local consumption. A great improvement m the quality of Irish butter has recently been noticeable in the exhibits entered at the London Dairy Show. Adulteration of Dairy Produce. The Sale of Food and Drugs Act, 1899, which came into operation on January 1, 1900, contains several sections relating to the trade in dairy produce 111 the United Kingdom. Section 1 imposes penalties m the case ot tne importation of produce insufficiently marked, such as (a) margarine or margarine-cheese, except in packages conspicuously marked “Margarine” or “Margarine-cheese ;