Previously to 1864 it was only possible to bring milk into
London from short distances, but the introduction of the refrigerator
has enabled milk to be brought from places as far
removed from the metropolis as North Staffordshire, and it has
even been received from Scotland. Practically the whole of
the milk supplied to the metropolis is produced in England.
Attempts have been made to introduce foreign milk, and in
1898 a company was formed to promote the sale of fresh milk
from Normandy, but the enterprise did not succeed. The trade
subsequently showed signs of reviving, owing probably to the
increased cost of the home produced article, and during the
winter season of 1900–1901 the largest quantity received into
the kingdom in one week amounted to 10,000 gallons. Of recent
years a large demand has sprung up for sterilized milk in bottles,
and a considerable trade is also done in humanized milk, which
is a milk preparation approximating in its chemical composition
to human milk.
Estimating the average yield of milk of each country cow at 500 gallons per annum, and assuming an average of 28 cows to each farm, as many as 4300 farmers are engaged in supplying London with milk; allotting ten cows to each milker, it needs 12 battalions of 1000 men each for this work alone. Some 3500 horses are required to convey the milk from the farms to the country railway stations. The chief sources of supply are in the counties of Derby, Stafford, Leicester, Northampton, Notts, Warwick, Bucks, Oxford, Gloucester, Berks, Wilts, Hants, Dorset, Essex, and Cambridge. It is not entirely owing to the railways that London’s enormous supply of milk has been rendered possible, for the milk must still have been produced in the immediate neighbourhood of the metropolis had not the method of reducing the temperature of the product by means of the refrigerator been devised. There are probably 5700 horses engaged in the delivery of milk in London, and more people are employed in this work than in milking the cows. One of the great difficulties the London dairyman has to contend with, and a cause of frequent anxiety to him, is associated with the rise and fall of the thermometer, for a movement to the extent of ten degrees one way or the other may diminish or increase the supply in an inverse ratio to the demand. Thus, at periods of extreme cold, the cows shrink in their yield of milk, while from the same cause the Londoner is demanding more, in an extra cup of coffee, &c. Again, at periods of extreme heat, which has the same effect on the cow’s production as extreme cold, the customer also demands an increased quantity of milk. Ten degrees fall of temperature in the summer will result in a lessened demand and an enlarged supply—to such an extent, indeed, that a single firm has been known to have had returned by its carriers some 600 gallons in one day. In such cases the cream separator is capable of rendering invaluable assistance. To make cheese in London in large quantities and at uncertain intervals has been found to be impracticable, while to set for cream a great bulk of milk is almost equally so. But now a considerable portion of what would otherwise be lost is saved by passing the milk through separators, and churning the cream into butter.
Previously to the enormous development of the urban trade in country milk, dairy farms were in the main self-sustaining in the matter of manures and feeding-stuffs, and the cropping of arable land was governed by routine. To-day, on the contrary, many dairy farms are run at high pressure by the help of purchased materials,—corn, cake, and manure,—and the land is cropped regardless of routine and independent of courses. Such crops, moreover, are grown—white straw crops, green crops, root crops—as are 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 or tares (held up by stalks of oat plants grown amongst them), cabbages, and in some districts green maize, are used to supplement the failing grass-lands at the fall of the year, and root crops, especially mangel, are advantageously grown for the same purpose. For winter feeding the farm is made to yield what it will in the shape of meadow and clover hay, and of course root crops of the several kinds. This provision is supplemented by the purchase of, for example, brewers’ grains as a bulky food, and of oilcake and corn of many sorts as concentrated food.
31st December 1899.
| Year ended Decem- ber31. |
Cows and Heifers in Milk or in Calf on 4th June. |
Cows per 1000 of Popu- lation. |
Cows and Heifers giving Milk all the year round; say 75% of Total. |
Influence of Season. Percentage above or below the Average of previous 10 Years. |
Estimated Total Quantity of Milk produced in the 52 Weeks, by 75% of the Total Herd, at 49 cwt. or 531 gallons per Cow. |
Estimated Total Quantity of Butter produced in the 52 Weeks, taking 32% of the Total Milk to yield 80 ℔ of Butter per Ton of Milk. |
Estimated Total Quantity of Cheese produced in the 52 Weeks, taking 20% of the Total Milk to yield 220 ℔ of Cheese per Ton of Milk. |
| No. | No. | No. | %. | Tons. | Tons. | Tons. | |
| 1890 | 3,956,220 | 105.5 | 2,967,165 | +3.0 | 7,487,640 | 85,572 | 147,078 |
| 1891 | 4,117,707 | 108.9 | 3,088,281 | Average. | 7,566,288 | 86,472 | 148,624 |
| 1892 | 4,120,451 | 108.1 | 3,090,339 | −5.6 | 7,147,337 | 81,684 | 140,394 |
| 1893 | 4,014,055 | 104.4 | 3,010,542 | −9.0 | 6,712,004 | 76,709 | 131,843 |
| 1894 | 3,925,486 | 101.2 | 2,944,115 | +6.3 | 7,667,505 | 87,628 | 150,611 |
| 1895 | 3,937,590 | 100.5 | 2,953,193 | −3.5 | 6,982,087 | 79,652 | 137,148 |
| 1896 | 3,958,762 | 100.0 | 2,969,387 | −4.0 | 6,983,999 | 79,817 | 130,000 |
| 1897 | 3,984,167 | 99.7 | 2,988,126 | +3.1 | 7,547,856 | 86,261 | 148,260 |
| 1898 | 4,035,501 | 100.0 | 3,025,526 | +3.2 | 7,645,105 | 87,372 | 150,171 |
| 1899 | 4,133,249 | 101.9 | 3,099,937 | −3.5 | 7,329,027 | 83,760 | 130,020 |
| 10 Years’ Average | 4,018,318 | 103.0 | 3,013,660 | −0.7 | 7,906,874 | 83,992 | 141,412 |
British Output, Imports and Exports of Dairy Produce
Whilst the quantity of imported butter and cheese consumed in the United Kingdom from year to year can be arrived at with a tolerable degree of accuracy, it is more difficult to form an estimate of the amounts of these articles annually produced at home. Various attempts have, however, from time to time been made by competent authorities to arrive approximately at the annual output of milk, butter and cheese in the United Kingdom, and the results are given by Messrs W. Weddel & Co. in their annual Dairy Produce Review. Table XI. shows the estimates for each of the ten years 1890 to 1899, the numbers in the second column of “cows and heifers in milk or in calf” being identical with those officially recorded in the agricultural returns. In thus estimating the quantity of milk, butter and cheese produced within the United Kingdom, the “average milking life” of a cow is taken to be four years, from which it follows that on the average one-fourth of the total herd has to be renewed every year by heifers with their first calf. This leaves 75% of the total herd giving milk throughout the year. Each cow of this 75% is estimated as yielding 49 cwt., or 531 gallons of milk annually. It is assumed that 15% of the total milk yield is used for the calf, 32% utilized for butter-making,
