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GENERAL MEETING THE PAST ONE HUNDRED YEARS

b y E. CAPSTICK, Past President

Pcsptr read at the Mornirtg Sess ioJ i (,S the General 31t9eting of the Society, Conway Hall, Lopido?t, 10th Jamrar?, 1950

In looking back on the dairy industry through such records as I have been able to consult it was early apparent that dairying one hundred years ago was comparatively little different from what it had been three hundred years ago, and was still unaware of impending changes when the period we are reviewing today began.

In 1851 the population of England and Wales was less than eighteen millions, and that of Scot- land just under three millions. The huge expan- sion of the great towns had not yet taken place, and although the country had just experienced the railway mania its effect on the dairy industry was yet to be felt. The milk requirements of 1,ondoners and other town dwellers were either supplied from cows kept in town cowsheds, or driven in by horse-drawn float from farms on the outer fringes of the built-up areas. These cows supplying the domestic milk market were usually milked two or three times a day and the milk delivered warm to customers as soon as possible after milking. Welsh men and women were numerous in the milk business in London, and their prominence has persisted up to the present time. Old prints reveal the use of yokes and wide mouthed pails of rather shallow type. In all probability the milkers themselves acted as roundsmen immediately after the milking opera- tion was completed. There are numerous ref- erences to the pump or dairyman’s ’ black cow ’ which was an important and, indeed, indispens- able adjunct to the business of milk selling! Milk produced in excess of immediate require- ments was put by in shallow pans and cream skimmed off twelve to twenty-four hours later and either sold to the gentry or made into butter. These town cow-keepers enjoyed a complete monopoly of the milk trade and their only worries were cattle plague and foot and mouth disease, which might wipe out their herds in the course of a few days.

In the Illtistrated I-ondon hre:es dated June l l t h , 1853, there is an illustrated article on the Friern Manor Dairy Farm, situated at Peckham, about six miles from the Royal Exchange. The number of cows in the herd was 186 and each cow gave on the average ten quarts of milk per day. \Then the quantity fell below the average the

animal was fattened and sold to the butcher. Cows were generally bought in when four or five years old and might survive in the herd for as long as two years. Milking in this herd took place twice a day-at 1.30 a.m. and 10.30 a.m.-and the milk was in London by 5 a.m. and 1 p.m. The cows were milked into tin vessels and thc milk passed through several strainers to free it from every kind of visiole dirt and then placed in large tin cans, barred across the top, and sealed. This particular farm was obviously well run, as there is reference to the conservation of liquid manure and its application to the land with the result that no less than six crops of Italian rye grass were obtained in one year.

In the typical dairying districts of the West of England and the Midlands the farmers made butter and cheese from their milk which was sold in local markets or to produce merchants. Shal- low pan setting for cream raising was still the vogue and the butter was made in a variety of ingenious churns, the pictures of many of which have fortunately survived. The butter was generally sold by the farmer’s wife in the local weekly market, having been made up and printed by hand, and placed delicately in the middle of suitable cabbage leaves.

Cheese-making was mainly carried out in round tinned copper unjacketed tubs, though wooden tubs undoubtedly were still in use on many farms. The scalding of the cheese was effected by withdrawing a portion of the whey from above the curd and raising its temperature thirty to forty degrees and then returning it to the bulk so that the whole was raised in tempera- ture by five to seven degrees. The old text books discuss the respective merits of making cheese by- the two- or three-scald system. In the two- scald system, the whey was taken out of the vat twicle and heated up, and in the three-scald system the operation was repeated a third time. The three-scald system was the more popular with the Cheddar makers, but the two-scald system seemed to be found sufficient by those making Cheshire cheese. These two varieties, however, had not then achieved the dominance which they enjoyed in the early part of the present century as Glou- cestcr, Norfolk cheese and Suffolk, where skim-

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Fig. 1. Interior vie= qf the first cheese ,factory built as such in Great Bri tain at Longford, near Derby in 1870.

med cheese was still made and were of commercial importance. Cheese was sold direct to cheese factors or a t monthly fairs. The fair system was the more favoured in the Cheshire and Shrop- shire districts, and the factor system in the south- west of England. I t is clear, however, that , generally speaking, cheese were held much longer by the farmer than is the modern practice, and that many yeoman farmers were quite pre- pared to hold sound cheese for twelve months if the price offered by the factor was not satisfactory.

The long period of stable conditions was, how- ever, rapidly drawing to its close. In 1838 the Atlantic was crossed by the Great Western and the Sirius, two ships entirely propelled by steam. The United States and Canada were rapidly expanding their wheat production, whilst the railways of the Sew World and these Atlantic steam ships were gathering strength to carry the grain and later the meat from the New World to our shores.

The effect of the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846 was for several reasons not sharply felt in Britain until after the Franco-German war in 1870-1871. The great agricultural depression

began in 1878, and the period between 1880 and 1885 was often referred to as " The Five Oppres- sive Years." James Long, a prominent edu- cationalist, writing of this period, said " If, as is argued, we cannot compete with America in the prices of wheat and beef, why should we not endeavour to produce milk for consumption by our town people and compete with other countries in the manufacture of butter and che-se. Milk and butter almost always fetch remunerative prices. . . . in many parts of the country milk often cannot be obtained, fresh butter is comparatively unknown during several months of the year, and the best English cheese are not to be had at all. It is strange that for years our leading agricultural societies have strained every nerve devoted large sums of money and plenty of energy to introduce and perfect machinery to encourage the manu- facture of artificial manures and improve the breeds of beef cattle but have scarcely given a passing thought to the milking cow or the manu- facture of butter and cheese. Fow however it is all changed. Associations have been formed, demonstrations are conducted etc., and it is evident to every person connected with agricul-

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ture that a great dairying mo\-ement has com- menced and have recognisecl its importance.”

The British Dairy Farmers’ Association was founded in 1876 during the first London Dairy Show, largely through the enthusiasm of the late I’rofessor Sheldon. Partly as a result of the enthusiasm created by that Dairy Show this Association founded the British Dairy Institute a t Aylesbury in 1888 and was instrumental in encouraging dairy education through the award of certificates, diplomas and medals. Other institutes were established in the 1890’s and peripatetic county dairy schools were numerous.

In the meantime to save himself from bank- ruptcy the British farmer was slowly and often reluctantly changing over from wheat and beef production to dairying. Those near the railways and within reasonable pro::;mity to the bigger towns made contact with town dairymen and w n t their milk forward for liquid consumption.

Itail-borne milk received its first big fillip in 1865 when the town cow population in London mas seriously reduced by foot and mouth disease. Sir beorge Barham, Chairman and Founder of the Dairy Supply Company and the Express Dairy Company, claims to have been the first nian to bring milk into London by train in 1865. This, however, is disputed, and our worthy Hono- rary Secretary, Captain Freeth, believes that his own father beat Sir George Barham by a matter of a few weeks. From this start, however, the growth of rail-borne milk for liquid consumption was steady and by 1880 provided a considerable percentage of the total supply in London and some of the other larger towns. Paddington, Maryle- bone, Euston and Clapham Junction were the great platform milk markets of the metropolis. During the same period milk was being sent by rail from South Cheshire to Manchester for the town trade.

With this expansion of milk production, the Koyal Agricultural Society in 1868 initiated an enquiry into the working of the cheese factory system in the United States and a report appeared in the Society’s journal in 1870. In the mean- time the possibility of using this method was actively discussed in the farming papers and a t meetings of farmers’ clubs and agricultural societies. The first factory cheese was made in a building in Siddels Road, Derby, which was lent to the farmers’ committee by an Alderman Roe, rent free for a year. A Mr. Higginbottom, with equal kindness, provided gratuitously steam from his adjoining silk mills for the cheese-making operations. The account reveals that a compe- tent American cheese maker, a Mr. Cornelius Schermerhorn, was hired from New York, a t a salary of L200 for the cheese-making season, together with a free return passage to America,

should lie decide to go home a t the end of the season. Whilst the Derby factory was 1:eing equipped the Association found that the supply of milk offered to it was more than it could take in the town premises and proceeded with the building of a new factory in the village of Long- ford, about ten miles away. The first cheese were actually made in the Derby factory on the 8th April, 1870, and a t the Longford factory on the 4th May in the same year. The American type of cheese made were not particularly attractive to the English palates and the early records of the Association’s marketing experiences were not any happier on this account. At the end of the first year’s experience it was decided to make cheesc on -the Cheddar system, and the early records reveal the struggles to carry this policy into effect.

From this humble bcginning the factory system of manufacturing milk products gradually spread throughout the country and the great wholesale milk: companies found it economic to establish country collecting and manufacturing stations.

Tlhe farmer unable to place his milk on the liquid market, or sell i t to a newly established cheese factory, was greatly helped by the inven- tion of the first successful continuously operating centrifugal cream separator by Dr. Gustav de Lava1 in 1878. This machine left only a tithe of the cream behind in the milk which was passed through it, and i t also made the separated milk available for animal feeding whilst it was still fresh and sweet. The centrifugal separator also altered the technique of factory butter making, as i t enabled the butter maker more closely to con- trol the souring of his cream.

In other fields men with curious and enquiring minds were investigating the possibility of con- centrating milk in order to lengthen its keeping quality. A Mr. Page in England was reputed to be the first to make an edible concentrated milk, but it was left to Gail Rorden in the United States in 1856 to obtain the first patent for the manu- facture of condensed milk under reduced at- mospheric pressure. Ten years’ later the Anglo- Swiss Milk Condensing Company started at Cham in Switzerland, and in this country a Mr. Hooker started condensing milk on a commercial scale and ultimately consolidated his operations a t Buckingham as the firm known as Bentham 8r Hooker. A t the fourth London Dairy Show in 1880 a silver medal was offered for condensed milk and (eight samples competed, three of which were unsweetened. The analysis of the unsweetened samples ranged as follows :-Water 51-57%, Fat 14-170/,, Casein 7.5-1 1.57:,, Milk sugar 9.5-16.10/, and Ash 2.1-2.75%. Dr. Voelcker who did the analyses reported that the quantity of water was much too large to permit of gnod

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keeping property, and that one sample had com- menced to ferment before it was opened, and another did so the following day. The analysis of the sweetened milks ranged as follows :- Water 21-25%, Fat 6-10.5%, Casein 7.4-9.47/;) Sugar 57-58%, Ash 2-2.29/,. Four of these samples came from abroad and one from Mr. Hooker. All were pronounced excellent in qual- i ty and the final award was in consequence made with the greatest difficulty. I t is curious that in 1880 they had arrived pretty well a t the standard composition for sweetened and con- densed milk which we know to-day, with the exception that some of the factories still found it profitable to extract a little of the cream before the condensing operation begun. With un- sweetened milk they had not realised the real difficulties they were up against because there is no mention whatel-er of any attempt a t sterili- sation.

Somewhat later in the field were the men who developed processes for the production of dried milk. The first patent for roller drying was granted to a Mark Ekenberg in Sweden in 1899, but the development of the industry was first really made possible by the invention of the Just- Hatmaker drum drying process in 1902. Almost simultaneously the Merrell-Soule Company in America was developing the spray process for milk drying with the object of obtaining a more soluble product. These developments had repercussions on the creamery industry in Great Britain, and condenseries and drying plants were gradually installed during the early years of the present century.

Other developments in the early years of this century were the commencement of the processed cheese industry to tempt the appetite of the occasional cheese eater by producing attractive looking portions wrapped in tin foil. The choco- late and sugar confectionery industry started using large quantities of condensed milk and milk powder in their products, and one company set up factories to convert milk direct into chocolate crumb. Perhaps the youngest of all our dairy manufacturing industries are those of " Lactose " which is extracted from concentrated whey, and the plastic industry which, a t least in its early stages, used casein as the raw material for making a variety of plastics.

The ever increasing facilities available to the farmer to sell his milk brought about a correspond- ing reduction in the farmhouse manufacture of butter and cheese. The early history of the cheese factory system has already been touched upon, but similar developments occurred in the field of butter making with the evolution of ever larger butter churns, the introduction of pasteuri- sation of cream and the addition of 'special cul- tures to produce controlled souring before churn-

ing. Of more recent introduction are automatic packing machines for cutting and wrapping quarter, half, and pound pats of butter without their being touched by hand. Churn sizes in- creased, from the small hand-operated churn used on the farm, to huge barrel churns capable of producing 2h tons of butter at one churning. More recently, the scientists and engineers have departed from the empirical method of producing butter and have developed several revolutionary types of butter manufacture in which the funda- mentals of agitation remain but the process has been speeded to one of seconds instead of 40 to 60 minutes. In others, cream is submitted to a double separation to secure a final fat content and composition similar to that of butter. This extra thick cream is then submitted to a phase inversion process and the butter issues from the machine as a viscous liquid which rapidly sets on cooling.

The farmer, in addition to being relieved of the necessity to manufacture dairy produce on the farm, has also benefited by the development of mechanical milking. Milk tubes, not unlike the modern catheter, to secure the emptying of the udder of milk, were first tried in the U.S.A. in the middle of the nineteenth century. They soon, however, produced adverse effects on the udders of cows so milked. The first machine, using mechanical pressure, was designed by Mr. Mayor in the U.S.A., but did not prove satisfactory. Inventors next turned to the possibility of using vacuum, and in the development of suction machines Scottish inventors took the lead, which they held for several vital years. In 1889 Murchland of Kilmarnock, and in 1891 Nicholson and Gray a t Stranraer, both developed suction machines which removed milk from the udder quite speedily, but as the suction was continuous adverse effects on the cows milked by these machines were soon apparent. The principle of pulsation was first devised by Dr. Shields in 1895, but the machine was so complicated and impracti- cable that a company formed to develop it failed. The idea was afterwards taken up by the Lawrence Kennedy Milker, which had a pulsator driven by a small vacuum motor on top of the milking pail, which was placed between the two cows being milked. In 1907 the Wallaces of Castle Douglas produced another intermittent suction machine which had a small pulsator at the bottom of each teat cup, which worked quite satisfactorily.

Whilst a small number of machines were operating a t the close of the century they have only been available to the farmer at a reasonable price since the end of World War I. Now, however, about half the cattle in the country are milked by means of machinery and manufacturers are endeavouring to product. a small unit a t a sufficiently low capital cost to interest the most

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nuinerous group of farmers-those with less than 15 cows.

In the second half of the nineteenth century Louis Pasteur, the French scientist, turned froni pure chemistry to the study of fermentations, and !.)etween 1855 and 1860 he published a series of papers in which he was able to show that the fermentations of various organic liquids are always associated with the presence of living cells.

This threw a flood of light on the so-called c!iseases of wine and beer, and the souring of milk. I’asteur further stated that heating, by destroying certain bacteria, would postpone the souring of milk.

The dairy indusrry was not slow i n recognising the far-reaching importance of Pasteur’s dis- covery. Within a few years dairies in Denmark and Germany were heating skim milk prior to its return to the farms with the object. of reducing the possibility of cattle disease. I t should not escape notice that in this instance the health of the cattle was of greater concern than the health of the human race, but by 1880 some Berlin milk

shuj)s were selling heat-treated milk. In 1887 an Englishman named Hailwood exhibited a com- mercial sterilisation process in which milk bottles were held a t the boiling point for twenty minutes and the keeping quality thus very greatly leng- thened. Patents for pasteurisation plants fol- low’ed each other in rapid succession, including that of the Danish pasteuriser, which is still used for certain flash heating purposes in the dairy industry to-day. By 1890 Bitter had constructed the first holder pasteurising machine and sug- gested that milk should be held a t a temperature of between 140°F. and 154°F. for thirty minutes. Pasteur in his experiments made no reference to the disease-carrying aspect of milk, but the medical scientists studied the thermal death point of x-arious pathogenic bacteria, including the typhoid organism isolated in 1880, and the tulxx-cle bacillus, discovered by Koch in 18132. Up to about 1890 the Public Health officials regarded pasteurisation with distrust and viewed it rnerely as a means by which the .dairymen coilid keep dirty milk sweet long enough to sell it.

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Fig. 3 . T h e first power driven A v a I a v a l Separator. Note the absence of discs i n the 6ord.

By 1893 Sathan Strauss, impressed with the disease-carrying potentialities of milk, established the first city milk pasteurisation plant in New York to supply pasteurised milk for infant feeding. This work aroused great interest in the dairying world and in this country Ben Davies in London was one of the first in the field with a pasteurised milk for infant feeding.

During the first decade of the present century, town cow-keeping was slowly dying out in face of the ever increasing pressure of railborne sup- plies from the country, where big wholesale companies like the Great Western and Metro- politan dairies, the Dairy Supply Company, and Wilts United Dairies, had come to occupy very important positions in controlling and whole- saling milk supplies to the capital.

The out-break of the First World War in 1914, saw revolutionary changes. The Army’s demands for horses and vehicles made it impossible for large dairies to carry on in their present way and they surmounted the vehicle problem by distribu- ting milk in greatly reduced fleets of horse-drawn vehicles by a wartime agreement whereby they pooled their resources and exchanged customers

to minimise transport and labour requirements. I t is not difficult to imagine what a terrific strain on the principals concerned this must have been, having in mind that there were no greater individualists than the large master-dairymen of those days. Compelled by stern necessity to agree during the war years, the end of the war found them working harmoniously together.

The First World War in many of the big towns, and particularly in London, transformed the business of retail distribution from small busi- nesses to large amalgamations, and the elimina- tion of overlapping and excessive competition, brought other problems in its train. Existing premises were found to be no longer suitable for large scale pasteurisation and the 1920’s saw the building and equipment of many town milk pasteurising and bottling centres on a scale hitherto undreamt of.

The end of the 1914 war saw the release of large numbers of motor vehicles and the freeing of petrol. Notor lorries rapidly began to dis- place the horses as a means of delivering bulk milk supplies. The horse, however, persisted for retail delivery until the close of the recent war.

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The milk float, drawn by a smart pony and con- in S e w Zealand for his foresight, dri\re and energ!- taining two or three 17-gallon milk churns and an in developing refrigerated shipping. I t is re- assortment of metal measures, gradually gave corded that the mutton averaged over 6d. per place to vehicles specially constructed to carry poiind, which was considered a very handsomc crates of bottled milk and, as tlie weight increased, price in those days. Compression machines, the brightness and sprightliness of the turn-out working on gases which could be comparatively gradually became a thing of the past. The easily liquefied, were first developed in Australia, transport of milk from the country to London now antl actually preceded the compressed air tna- reccived the attention of the big company, and in chines but took longer to reach practical utility. 1927, the first rail-borne milk tanks were brought James Harrison of Geelong, Australia, in 1857, to London from Wootton Bassett in \I’iltshire and invented the first compression machine, which C,alverly in Cheshire. These tankers contained used sulphuric ether as a refrigeration gas. ’hi: 3,000 gallons of brine-cooled milk antl, due to machine, however, was ver?. large and heavy for their insulation, the tempcratur-e rise on thc the work it could do. Sumerous other machines journey was negligible. Further, they eliminated were developed between that year and 1873 when the filling, handling, and washing of not lcss than Professor I i n d developed the first ammonia 300 ten gallon milk cans. Sirice 1926, bulk transport of milk from country to town has almost completely superseded transport in milk cans, and the road tanker of the satne capacity now appeared as a serious rival to the rail tanker for the shorter journeys.

In 1923 the Government a t last recognised thc process of pasteurisation in its first Milk Special l)esignations Order and laid down the times and temperatures for holder pasteurisation. This gave a great impetus to the design and develop- ment of pasteurising equipment to satisfy t h r legal requirements and enable milk which had been heat-treated to be sold under the now special designation, Pasteurised. The great increase in milk consumption brought about by the Kational Milk Scheme and the shortage of other foods dur- ing the Second World War, caused the Govern- ment provisionally to recognise the High-Temp- erature-Short-Time method of pasteurisation, which had already been adopted in many other countries. Pasteuriser design was again in thc melting pot and the tendency now is for all larger plants to change over to thc High-Tempera- ture-Short-Time method, in view of its greater flexibility and economies in heat reco\my and the Iiibour required for cleaning.

Between the two world wars thc dairy industry felt the repercussions of the economic crisis in tho

13ritish farmer’s one protected market since the beginning of the century had been liquid milk, as the introduction of mechanical refrigeration had compression machine---and modern refrigeration enabled the farmers of the S e w 1Vorld and the began. Southern Dominions to flood the British market Ln the early twenties even the liquid milk with butter, cheese, beef and mutton. market was thrcatencd, and isolated importations

Messrs. Bell and Coleman produced the first of Lquid milk from Holland and Ireland are practical cold air machine in 1877, and in l$79 the recorded. “ Sfrathleven ” brought thirty-four tons of frozen To obtain some sort ol stahilit,v in the, milk mutton and beef from Australia. In 1881 the market, the farmers arid tlie dairy trade met ‘‘ I h n e d i n ” ex Xew Zealand, commanded by together as a Permanent Joint Milk Committee Captain Whitson, brought five thousand frozen to agree annual milk priccs and the form o f con- sheep, the shipment of which had been arranged by tract under which milk would be bought and sold. Mr. Tom Hrydone, whose name has been honoured This annual milk bargaining gained perhaps undue

]ate nineteen twenties and early thirties. ~ h c Fig. 1. Old t’erticnl Ti? l t f r7V C h t l W t ofieruLtJd hx standing on ii see-ma?.

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publicity and, as it was never in any way compul- sory, the large firms which honoured the annual bargain made with the farmers were often placed a t a serious disadvantage with their competitors who bought milk on open contract. The situ- ation, however, got quite out of hand in the early thirties, when heavy production of milk in this country and increased imports of dairy pro- duce were offered to the consuming public, already suffering from the economic depression. The Government passed the Agricultural Marketing Acts, and appointed a Milk Re-organisation Commission which recommended the establish- ment of the following bodies :-

(a) A Central Milk Producers’ Board.

(b ) A Central Dairymen’s and Manufacturers’ Board, and

(c) A General Milk Council representing both Boards.

The Government of the day accepted the first of these proposals only and the Milk Marketing Board commenced operations in October, 1933, with powers to compel all producers with minor, exceptions, to sell their milk through their organi- sation and according to contracts subscribed by them.

Up to the outbreak of the war this organisation of reunity was chiefly concerned with consolida- ting its position and obtaining a reasonable return to the producer. Since the war, when its princi-

Fig. 5 . An early attempt at regenerative pasteurization. T h e wi lk entering the pasteurizer %as fore- warmed by $owing over the $at cooler a i d the milk leaving the $asteurizer $re-cooled by counter you itpwards between the plates of the same cooler, which z e r e opened f o r cleaning by means of ~rmcrezc i ig

clamped wing nuts .

pal powers were, .let us hope temporarily,, taken over by the Ministry of Food, i t has devoted more attention to the quality of milk, rationalised collection, milk recording and the artificial insemination of dairy cattle to improve the gen- eral standard of the national dairy herd.

During the war years the distribution and man- ufacturing industry underwent a period of great strain. The Xational Milk Scheme introduced, by the Ministry of Food in 1940, rapidly increased the demand for liquid milk and by the end of the war consumption had risen by fifty per cent whilst during this period the staffs in the distribu- tion industry had fallen by about 20 per cent. the distribution figures by about 18 per cent., and petrol usage by 31 per cent. in Great Britain ex- cluding London and 41 per cent. in London.

This had only been rendered possible by the rationalisation of distribution effected by a large cxchange of customers. I n this case, however, unlike the earlier rationalisation during \Vorld War I , the state took a hand and the transfer was made compulsory through Food Office procedure. On the manufacturing side, cream- eries and condenseries were closely controlled and had to vary their manufacturing programme widely from year to year to provide dairy pro- duce which was in short supply. In addition, large quantities of special types of dried milk were produced and sent to feed the Eighth Army in the desert warfare in Africa, and later on in the war, the Ministry of Supply demanded large quantities of lactose, as this had keen found to be a main ingredient needed for producing penicillin, the new powerful anti-biotic disco\~ered by Sir -indrew Fleming.

To-day the farming community are reaping the benefit of the prices given to them during the war to improve their farms and make these more self-supporting with home-grown food stuffs. Still enjoying the guaranteed market for many of the commodities they produce their output of milk had reached a new high annual level of 1379 million gallons in 1948, and there is no reason to believe that the economic peak has yet been reached. Liquid milk consumption has risen to, and is now running at , an annual level of 1288 million gallons, due to the continuance of the Sational Milk Scheme and the Milk in Schools Scheme, both of which are now permanent fea- tures of our social welfare system, and to the high spending power of the nation’s priority consumer. It will be interesting to see whether it can be maintained if spending power is reduced.

The industry now, therefore, looks with con- fidence to the. future and is well organised and equipped to surmount difficulties and effect alterations as changing circumstances demand. In the early part of the century this country certainly lagged behind Europe and -4merica in

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Fig. 6. First attempt at continuous bi.dter?nakzitg. T h e cream was cooled immediately o n leaving the cream spout of the separator and then entered a small horizontal cylinder containing a rapidly revolving dasher. Is’utter p a i n s a n d butter m i l k came out of tlze opei.2 cnd qf tlze cylinder.

research and technical development in the dairy- ing field. ,411 this has now been rectified with the establishment of the Sational Institute for Re- search in Dairying in Reading in 1913, and the Hannah Dairy Research Institute in Scotland in 1933. With all this scientific development the dairyman of to-day must now have a reasonable knowledge of chemistry and bacteriology and a nodding acquaintance with engineering. Edu- cation facilities have not kept pace with tke in- dustry’s requirements, and in this field we, as a Society, must press for radical improvements in the future.

DISCUSSION The President (in the Chair), in opening the discussion, said :

.‘ I think that most of the people on dairy farms a t the present time would be rather upset if they had to get up and milk their cows a t 1.30 a.m. as apparently they had to do st one time !

I was most intrigued by the pictures of Longford, because the firm with which I am connected a t one time owned that factory, and I only wish that I had some of the timber which was in it. The actual shelves were 3-inch polid mahogany boards which would be practitally priceless to-day.

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It is, I think, a pity that cheese fairs have gone out in this country. I have seen them in Holland, and they are a most picturesque sight, particularly when all the waxed and colonr- ed cheeses are laid out in the main square of the town.

It was rather surprising to me that the author did not mention anything about icecream. Perhaps it cannot be said to be a dairy product to-day, but it was a t on? time; at any rate there was a dairy type of icecream, and we hope that it is coming back again as a dairy product. I should like to have heard a few things about the progress over the last few years of that product.

I was particularly interested in the remarks about Nathan Strauss. I believe it is a fact that Mr. Stranss’ own daughter died as a result of contracting bovine tuberculosis, and that is what started him on the pasteurisation of milk in Ncw York.

‘‘ I remember reading that the great Cecil Rhodes, the empire builder, was the son of a London dairyman, and that they kept about a thousand cows. I remember, too, reading that it was suggested that had Cecil Rhodes stayed in the milk industry it would probably have made more progress than it did !

To some of u s who have spent the whole of our lives in the milk industry, the reminiscences and history which we have heard this morning have been of very great interest. There are many people throughout the country who have been in the milk industry for generations. I myself am the fifth genera- tion of such a family, but we have only been pastcurising for the past thirty years. I know from my early days how diE- cult it was to clean the machines and in other ways to do our job. In that connection I was very pleased to note that mention was made of the man from Manchester who first devised sterilised milk. I do not like it myself, but 1 do like selling it !

I was interested to hear that Mr. Ben IJavies is still with us and in fact here this morning. I should very much like to hear some of his earlier experiences. I remember when he came np to Manchester to help us to get compulsory pasteuri- sation. A vigorous fight was put up by our opponents and slanderous statements were made ; and Mr. Ben Davies went away from Manchester a very disappointed man. So was I, because I had just started pasteurising !

We dairymen have struggled and worked hard to keep engineers prosperous, and quite a number of us are still doing it ! I am delighted all the same to see the engineers here this morning.

To me this has been a most fascinating lecture, and I am grateful to Mr. Capstick.”

Mr. Edgar Heald :

Mr. Ben Davies : ‘‘ We people who were in a t the beginning of this were brought up to fight. When you hear politicians sometimes claiming credit for the great advance in the health of babies, just push their claims to one side. No Government ever helped us a t all ; neither did the politicians nor the Ministries, whether of Health or Agriculture. In fact, the Kinistry of Agriculture for the greater part of the time said $hat they were there to look after the interests of the farmers, and it was no use appealing to them. I could show, and it is a favourite topic of mine, that the great improvement in infant welfare, especially in the decreased rate of infant mortality, con be related to the beginning and the extension of pasteuri- sation.

Sometimes i t is difficult to realise just what it has meant. In the course of twenty years the equivalent of the total population of a great city has been saved in infant life. Some- thing of the order of 800,000 babies were saved due to the fact that pasteurisation eliminated infection with bovine tnbercu- losis. Many years ago-1922 I think- a Medical OEcer of Health from a great district of London rang me up one day and said he was puzzled about something connected with his work, and that he would like to hear what I had to say about it. He then went on to state that in his capacity as Medical Officer of Health for the district and School Medical Officer it was his duty to examine all school entrants each year coming into the elementary schools, and that, three years previously

he had found one hundred children of five years of age suffering from some form of tuberculosis. ‘I But,” he continued, ‘‘ this figure has come clown, and now we have no children suffering from this disease. I pointed out in reply that in his particular district the whole of the milk for the past five years had been heat-treated or pasteuri- sed, and that the children coming along had been brought up on pasteurised milk so tha t they no longer suffered from the common infections which we used to meet.

At one time the great preponderance of baby deaths occur- red in the third quarter of the year-July, August and Sep- tember. I n the worst year as many as 279 children per thou- sand died in those three months, and that could be said of many other countries in the world. That was a terrible time, and it went on year after year in country after country. Since pasteurisation, however, that worse season of the year has become the safest, and in the particular area of which I am speaking the deaths last year numbered 17, which included those infants who died from hereditary troubles.

1 recall on one occasion a meeting a t Paddington at which some very notable people were present. Among them was a, very eminent K.C. who seemed to be most keen on attacking us, and having made a very strong speech, he rose to go off on another engagement. Before he could leave, however, I sprang to my feet and said, “ Surely, Mr. So and So wiil not run away before he hears an answer to his misstatements ? ” and I replied to him. Some few days ago I happned to be in the Law Courts over which the Lord Chief Justice was pre- siding, and I recognised him as my old time enemy !

How do you account for it ? ”

Captain Lane (National Sterilised Milk Trade Association) : “ One point which I think was not sufficiently stressed in the paper concerned the transport of milk in its early stages. This was largely owing to the introduction of the capillary cooler by the Dairy Supply Company. It was very difficult before then for the farmers to cool the milk properly so that it could be transported to London in a good condition, and it was due to this invention that the farmer was able to utilise cold spring water for cooling his milk and transporting it long distances. That was a revolutionary measure in the dairy trade in the early days, and enabled an enormous amount of milk to be brought on to the market which had not been brought on the market before.

It also assisted buyers when there was a district with a good supply of cold well water for cooling, because they knew that the milk would arrive in a better condition than would other- wise be the case. As a result, the large grouping of industries rather started on that particular invention.

With regard to Mr. Ben Davies’ remarks concerning past- eurisation, I would point out that we sterilised before we pasteurised. Mr. Carson started it, and my father followed it very shortly afterwards in 1896. It has since grown into a very large industry indeed, and there are large sterilised milk farms spread over Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Liverpool, Manchester, Hull, Leeds, Grimsby, Bristol, and so on. So when Mr. Davies talks about how the past.eurisation of milk reduced the death rate among children, I must say that sterilised milk had a great deal to do with it.

Another great invention which bcnefited the milk trade very much was that of homogenisation. That went, a long way t o enabling milk to be handled as it is to-day for distribution.”

“ No one is more conscious than I am that I have not completely reviewed the past hundred vears. I n fact, very soon after I began my task I regretted that I had chosen the last hundred years, because I felt that a period of such length could not possibly be adequately covered in such a short space of time. I apologise for missing out that important point concerning use of cold wat,er capillary coolers. I apologise also for my failure to give sterilised milk more than a reference to its introduction, but one could go on.

I have not mentioned the great amount of work carried out in connection witb starter control in the last twenty years, and-doubtless many of you citn think of other points with which I have not dealt. I chose too large a canvas, but T have

Mr. E. Capstick (in reply) :

161

enjoyed doing it very much, and if I have given some of you a little pleasure, I am more than compensated for the effort w1iic.h i t has cost me.

Mr. 5. Clifford in proposing a vote of thanks, said '' It gives me very great pleasure to propose a vote of thanks to Mr. Capstick for his very comprehensive review of a period only a part of which, of course, we remember. No doubt many of 11s have been trying to see at what part we came in and started t'o remember. Some will feel older than others, but I think that we will all agree that whenever Mr. Capstick discourses, he is always interesting, and he has been particularly so to-day. Bearing in mind that he took t h e place of a defaulter in prc- senting the paper, I think that we are doubly indebted to him. Again, he was not giving it in the best of circumstances, and

I think that we appreciate the fact that he bas spoken to us while suffering from a handicap.

There is one comment which I hope ho will forgive me for making. Throughout tha t review I think there was a com- plete absence of emphasis on the question of improving the raw material. I think the reason is that in this industry, as in every other, progress always seems to be made in the form of geometricd progression. ,t, goes slowly at first, then gradually tb s tempo increases, and now the rate of progress is far greater than it was in the early days in the milk industry. h is only right that we should now pay close attention to the really iwportant matter, namely. improving the raw material. Mechanical development itsclf really means nothing unless the product with which it deals is good. I think a t long last we are getting the thing into proper focus."

The vote of thanks was carried by acclamation.

THE ROAD AHEAD IN THE M,ILK INDUSTRY

@ BES HISUS, 1.1'.

Chairman of the Milk Marketing Board

Paper rend at t h e Afternoon Sessioiz of the General .Ileeting of t h e Soc'ietj,, Coiz-da?' Hall, I.ondota, 1Ofh Janzinry, 1950.

I feel greatly honoured by being invited to speak today to the members of this Society. As Chairman of the Milk Marketing Board, if I had been asked to discuss with you the achievements of the past or t o discourse on the present position of the milk industry, I should have found this both pleasant and interesting. However, you have decided to set to me a task which is the most difficult of all, that is to try to forecast the trends of the future. I need not remind you of the difficulties of the prophet a t all times. I need not recount either the errors which have been the habit of many prophets along the ages. I must ask that you should bear these difficulties in mind if what I say to you does not happen exactly as I forecast, five or ten years from now. Whatever I suggest or propose will be subject to many events which may happen and which may be entirely outside the control of myself, the Milk Marketing Board, the producers of milk or anybody connec- ted with the industry in this country. I t is a fact always to be borne in mind that we are sub- ject to external affairs and in seeking to tread a path of our own we must pay heed to them, measure their force and discretion in the best way we can and be prepared to be deflected from our own road if they prove to be too powerful for

us. I feel, however, that great as the difficulties of forecasting the future are, particularly a t present, we who are connected with this great industry have to make our plans, have to look ahead and have to take decisions which concern the future. I t is of these that I will try and speak today.

Looking a t our milk industry I am always tempted in these days to consider its course in three distinct phases. I remember, and you will remember well, the position as it was in the 'thirties, when agricultural surpluses were avail- able all over the world, when prices were low and when the supply of all commodities seemed t o exceed the demand. I n this period the Milk Marketing Board was formed, and I think we may claim some credit for having weathered the storm in the milk industry during those early years.

After only six years of experience in organised marketing we were to operate under war condi- tions, and this I describe as the second phase in our recent history. Tf'e were soon to realise that in wartime, conditions in the milk industry can be very abnormal. Demand for milk rose quickly as the shortage of other foods developed and, up to now, we have been preoccupied mainIy with the problem of how to produce more milk to meet the increasing consumer demand for the product.