Page:1902 Encyclopædia Britannica - Volume 27 - CHI-ELD.pdf/400

 364

DAIRY-FARMING

[home output.

noticed that owing to the terrible drought of 1893 a recow’s production as extreme cold, the customer also duction of 9 per cent, is made from the average. Acceptdemands an increased quantity of milk. Ten degrees fa of temperature in the summer will result in a lessened Table XL Estimated Annual Production of Milk, Butter, and Cheese in the United Kingdom, for the Ten Years ended 31s« demand and an enlarged supply—to such an extent inDecember 1899. deed, that a single firm has been known to have had returned by its carriers some 600 gallons in one day. 5S In such cases the cream separator is capable of rendering Sx •3 invaluable assistance. To make cheese in London in large •S•S'do "3 cr-2 “A § G gS ° 5)m 3cH'4-H quantities and at uncertain intervals has been found to be g o-2 -j f H O O impracticable, whilst to set for cream a great bulk of milk <2 >-§ Sg | Eh OS-» .SM -‘d ->a is almost equally so. But now a considerable portion of 'do ■2a*® 03 O 2 §.s what would otherwise be lost is saved by passing the milk a-g-gnm a fill I through separators, and churning the cream into butter. tHfi X o o Previous to the enormous development of the urban Tons. Tons. Tons. No. Per cent, 7,487,640 No. trade in country milk, dairy farms were in the main selfNo. 85,572 147,078 +3-0 1890 3,956,220 105-5 2,967,165 sustaining in the matter of manures and feeding-stuffs, Average. 7,566,288 86,472 148,624 1891 4,117,707 108-9 3,088,281 81,684 140,394 7,147,337 -5-6 1892 4,120,451 108-1 3,090,339 and the cropping of arable land was governed by routine. 76,709 131,843 104-4 3,010,542 -90 6,712,004 4,014,055 1893 87,628 150,611 7,667,505 To-day, on the contrary, many dairy farms are run at high +6-3 1894 3,925,486 101-2 2,944,115 79,652 137,148 6,982,087 -3-5 2,953,193 1003,937,590 1895 pressure by the help of purchased materials, corn, cake, 79,817 130,000 6,983,999 -4-0 1896 3,958,762 100-0 2,969,387 148,260 86,261 7,547,856 +31 2,988,126 and manure,—and the land is cropped regardless of routine 99-7 3,984,167 1897 87,372 150,171 7,645,105 +3-2 1898 4,035,501 100-0 3,025,526 130,020 and independent of courses. Such crops, moreover, are 83,760 7,329,027 -3-5 3,099,937 1011899 4,133,249 grown—white straw crops, green crops, root crops—as are 141,412 83,992 7,906,874 10 Tears’ Average 4,018,318 103-0 3,013,660 -0-7 deemed likely to be most needed at the time when they are ready. Green crops,—“ soiling ” crops, as they are termed in North America,—consisting largely of vetches ing these estimates with due reservation,1 it is seen that or tares (held up by stalks of oat plants grown amongst the annual production of milk varied in the decade to the them), cabbages, and in some districts green maize, are extent of nearly a million tons, the exact difference beused to supplement the failing grass-lands at the fall of tween the maximum of 7,667,505 tons in 1895 and the the year, and root crops, especially mangel, are advantage- minimum of 6,712,004 tons in 1894 being 955,501 tons. ously grown for the same purpose. For winter feeding The decennial averages are 7,906,874 tons of milk, the farm is made to yield what it will in the shape of 83,992 tons of butter, and 141,412 tons of cheese. meadow and clover hay, and of course root crops of the Table XII. furnishes an estimate of the total conseveral kinds. This provision is supplemented by the sumption of butter in the United Kingdom in each of the purchase of, for example, brewers’ grains as a bulky food, and of oilcake and corn of many sorts as concentrated food. Table XII. Estimated Home Production and Imports of Butter into the United Kingdom for the Ten Years ended ZOth June 1900. Home Output, Imports, and Exports of Dairy Produce. Honae Imported Total. Year ended Production, Imported Foreign. Colonial. 30th June. estimated. Whilst the quantity of imported butter and cheese Tons. Tons. consumed in the United Kingdom from year to year, can Tons. Tons. 187,442 99,598 2,883 84,961 be arrived at with a tolerable degree of accuracy, it is 1891 194,141 101,796 6,323 86,022 1892 more difficult to form an estimate of the amounts of these 199,198 105,712 9,408 84,078 1893 articles annually produced at home. Various attempts 202.280 107,534 15,550 79,196 1894 216,705 116,730 have, however, from time to time been made by competent 17,807 82,168 1895 229,838 133,249 12,949 83,640 authorities to arrive approximately at the annual output of 1896 236,645 138,800 18,111 79,734 1897 milk, butter, and cheese in the United Kingdom, and the 242,197 141,426 17,732 83,039 1898 results have been brought down to date by Messrs W. 251,962 142,193 22,443 87,326 1899 255,251 133,957 Weddel & Co. in their annual Dairy Produce Review 37,534 83,760 1900 (1899-1900), from which Table XI. is quoted. It shows 221,565 122,099 16,074 10 Years' Average 83,392 the estimates for each of the ten years 1890 to 18.99, the numbers in the second column of “ cows and heifers in milk or in calf ” being identical with those officially recorded years 1891 to 1900. Whilst the estimated home producin the agricultural returns. In thus estimating the quan- tion did not vary greatly from year to year, the imports from tity of milk, butter, and cheese produced within the United colonial and foreign sources underwent almost continuous Kingdom, the “ average milking life ” of a cow is taken to increase. The ten years’ average indicates 37-6 per cent, be four years, from which it follows that on the average home-made, 7-3 per cent imported colonial, and 55-1 per one-fourth of the total herd has to be renewed every year cent imported foreign butter. But whereas at the beginby heifers with their first calf. This leaves 75 per cent, ning of the decade the proportions were 45-4 per cent, of the total herd giving milk throughout the year. Each home-made, U5 per cent, colonial, and 53-2 per cent cow of this 75 per cent, is estimated as yielding 49 cwt., foreign, at the end the percentages were 32-8 14-7, and or 531 gallons of milk annually. It is assumed that 15 52-5 respectively. It thus appears that whilst the United per cent, of the total milk yield is used for the calf, 32 per Kingdom was able in 1891 to furnish nearly half of its cent, utilized for butter-making, 20 per cent, for cheese- requirements (45‘4 per cent.), by 1900 it was unable to making, and the remaining 33 per cent, consumed in the supply more than one-third (32’8 percent.). ^ household as fresh milk. A ton of milk is estimated to The rapid headway which colonial butter is making m produce 80 lb of butter or 220 lb of cheese. A gallon of 1 A special committee appointed by the council of the Royal milk weighs 10-33 lb (10J lb). The probable effects of each season upon the production have been taken into Statistical Society commenced m 1901 an inquiry into the home p consideration in making these estimates, and it will be duction of milk and meat in the United Kingdom.