suited to the size of the farms, which not often exceed 100 English

acres.

The amount of stock kept is largely in excess of even the best dairy districts in our country, forty or fifty milking cows being frequently carried by a hundred-acre farm.

The buildings are kept scrupulously clean; though it can hardly be believed, it is not an uncommon event to see a farmer slip his wooden sabots off before going into his own cow byre, in order that the floor, the bricks of which are polished like a mirror, should not be soiled. This may, perhaps, be considered a hypersensitiveness in favour of cleanliness, but it is typical of the race.

The same excellence of upkeep may be observed in the management of the land; it is kept in the highest possible state of flourishing fertility; the most is made of everything. Compost and manure heaps (pictures of neatness) appear everywhere, supplemented in many cases by the mud dredged out from the dykes and canals, the latter forming a valuable adjunct to the manure derived from the cattle; nothing is wasted.

The passion for cleanliness and good order appears equally among the labouring class. The villages are models, planted with trees and laid out with walks. Down the centre in many of the principal villages runs a light railway, giving access to the adjoining neighbourhoods, towns, and villages. There is usually a hall, or stadhuis, of some sort, an excellent school, and in many instances a kiosk or stand for a band, used on occasions of village holidays and festivities.

On the outskirts of the village, and sometimes inside it, is the butter and cheese factory. Some persons have an idea that these factories in foreign countries are roughly constructed buildings, run up with no regard to permanancy or appearance. Such, however, is not the case in Holland; the factories are usually excellent buildings, and in many cases ornamentally constructed of brick and stone, fitted up with all modern improvements, and lighted by electricity.

The cattle in Holland are almost universally the old black and white Dutch or Friesland breed; they are large and hardy animals, carry a good amount of flesh, and are good milkers. The quality of their milk is of somewhat a low standard, but they yield immense quantities, some cows giving as much as thirty-two litres (seven English gallons) per diem, a result of years of patient breeding for dairy purposes mainly, and unsurpassed, we imagine, by an English breed of cattle.

The farmers are at great pains to keep up the standard of their stock and to improve the breed, keeping careful registers and entering their stock in the national herd books; for this purpose they are helped by the State, the latter keeping stud animals for the use of certain neighbourhoods. In other districts the farmers themselves combine and purchase high-class bulls for the use of certain areas.

The bulls are kept at some central point, and are looked after and fed at the expense of the society they belong to.

This is an admirable plan; it could be wished that English dairy farmers would adopt this system, as it would much help to maintain and improve their stock. Many of the bulls used in the British dairy districts are inferior beasts, often being a calf saved from the herd on the farm, and in-breeding is thus perpetuated, with unsatisfactory results; or else, what is, if anything, worse, 'pedigree bull calves, purchased and descended from herds bred for generations to specially produce beef instead of milk.

The Dutch breed of cattle is much sought after by Americans and South Africans, who buy a great many prize and pedigree beasts. Some farmers especially lay themselves out for breeding high-class cattle, and do a large trade in pedigree beasts.

The marketing of dairy produce is carried on in Holland much the same as it is in England; three profits are taken before the goods reach the consumer.

There is first the cheese and butter factor, who attends the markets and buys direct from the producer; secondly, the provision merchant, who buys in turn from the factor; and thirdly, the retailer, who buys from the provision merchant.

It is an unsatisfactory method, but it seems an inevitable one: the middleman appears to be indispensable, and, whatever prices are, he always takes care to get a profit. In some cases factories sell direct to the provision merchant, and thus escape the factor; but generally the latter individual is called in to assist in the sales, and often a better price is obtained through him than by dealing direct with the merchant in the towns.

In one respect the Dutch marketing arrangements are superior to ours. In most of the large market towns there is an official weighing house, The officials attached to this establishment unload the cheese arriving by rail and boat, and after its sale weigh it and affix the Government stamp certifying the weight; they then again load it, in ship or waggon, to its new destination. All this is done at a trifling cost, and has many advantages, the principal one being that both vendor and purchaser are bound by the Government figures, thus avoiding all disputes as to weight, which so often arise at home, especially with regard to an article like cheese, which loses rapidly if kept for any time and not passed into immediate consumption.

In England it often happens that the factor keeps the cheese he buys for a rising market, and then wants to put the loss of weight on to the farmer from whom it is purchased. This is unfair, as the farmer is supposed to have the weight of the cheese at the time of selling. Many kinds of cheese improve by keeping and become more valuable; the factor gets the advantage of this, but wants the farmer to pay for it and thus derive an extra profit.

Farm labourers in Holland are well paid; in many districts they receive 7 to 9 guilders, or from 12s. to 158., per week, besides a meal of bread and milk or coffee in the morning. Although wages are good, the men are well worth the money, and their labour is really cheap. It is no exaggeration to say that they do nearly twice the work of our West-country labourers, though it must be borne in mind that the best of the latter go off into the towns, leaving only the inferior hands.

The cows in Holland are milked at daybreak; it is general in the summer months for the milking to be done at 4 A.M. and 4 P.M., a thing almost unknown in England. The day from sunrise till sunset is devoted to unremitting labour, though it must be admitted that the number of holidays and days devoted to festivities are more numerous than our own.

Dutch labourers are cheerful, honest, and contented, and take an interest in the farm on which they work and in their master's welfare; moreover they have not yet lost the charm of courtesy, which is dying out so rapidly in our own country districts; nine out of ten persons will salute those whom they meet, even if strangers. It is said that one of the kings of France was saluted by a beggar in the street, and returned the salutation; on being remonstrated with by his companions for acknowledging the courtesy of so mean an individual, his Majesty replied that they could hardly desire that the beggar they had passed should be a better gentleman than himself.' The rural Dutchman has taken this principle for his own, and prides himself on acting up to it.

Dutch farmers complain of low prices and of the difficulty of making profits at all commensurate with those received years ago; yet it appears that in the case of rented farms there have been no reductions at all to be compared with those given by English landlords to their tenants, notwithstanding that the rents are undoubtedly higher than those paid in this country and the prices received for produce are lower. We have already quoted the price paid for milk. Dutch cheese has been quoted this summer in the English market at 408. per cwt. for the best Endams and a less price for Goudas, though it is fair to say that, with our usual craze for cheapness, only inferior Dutch cheese is bought by England.

The highest price, however, that has been realised during the past summer at any of the markets for the best cheese made is 26 guilders per cwt., about 44s. in English money. The wholesale price of Friesland butter, the greater part of which comes to England, has been this summer 848. per cwt., or 9d. per lb.

The best English cheese, such as Cheshire and Cheddar, has been selling during the summer months at from 50s. to 708., according to quality, while English butter was selling for the summer months at an average of 18. per lb.

How is it, then, that our English dairy farmers complain that they make no profits and are beaten by foreign competition, when a country like Holland, with higher rents and lower prices, paying much the same wages to their labourers, and having to contend with a more rigorous climate, can succeed?

There is, we are afraid, no doubt that from want of combination, and slowness of action, English dairy farmers in many districts are being beaten. Many run in the old grooves and grow more slipshod and inattentive to their business than ever. Their idea seems to be how they are to make a profit with the least possible trouble to themselves. Milk-selling is their beau idéal of happiness. If they can only get a good contract for their milk they rest content and are happy, quite oblivious as to whether the fertility of their farms is maintained or not. If markets go against them, their first impulse is to run to their landlord for a further reduction of rent, or cry to Government to give them a dole of some kind or other. They affect to despise factories or other methods of cheap production; technical and secondary education they regard with apathy; while light railways they laugh at. Their only idea of combination is one to bring pressure upon Parliament to help them in some pecuniary form or other, though they will attend any number of meetings to hear speeches on protection or bimetallism.

Our farmers by their own indolence often make markets for foreigners. In the great cheese-producing grounds of Wiltshire, Dorsetshire, and Somersetshire the feeding and fattening of pigs from dairy refuse, combined with barley meal, has formed in the past, and still forms, a great source of profit to the dairy farmer. Wiltshire bacon is proverbial for its excellence, and there are factories there, containing every modern appliance and most elaborate machinery, capable of killing and curing several thousand pigs weekly.

The companies who own these factories, which have the effect of giving immediate market to the farmers for their fat pigs at good prices, have impressed upon them the necessity of producing a pig which in shape, size, and quality shall defy competition. Yet our farmers have done very little to improve their breeds, and have allowed Denmark and Canada, two large dairy countries, to produce a breed of pigs which in shape, size, and profitableness, though not in quality, is superior to their own, and from which an article is produced which has certainly affected this branch of industry.

In Denmark fifteen years ago the bacon industry was practically unknown; the pigs there were gaunt creatures of prehistoric type, quite unsuited to the English market; yet in a few years these enterprising Danes have, by careful attention to breeding and feeding, produced a pig which, from a bacon-curer's point of view, is perfect in shape and most profitable to deal with. Though for various reasons they can never hope to produce such a fine quality of meat as our

English-fed swine furnish, they have produced in an incredibly short space of time a formidable competitor; moreover the percentage of soft or inferior pigs, arising from careless and improper feeding, is in Denmark not more than 4 or 5 per cent., while in England it is often 10 to 15. If the West-country English farmer had paid more attention to the breeding and feeding of his swine, he might have prevented Denmark from obtaining the strong hold on the English market which she has at the present time.

It is the same with butter. Our farmers do not seem to realise that what the large centres of England want is an article of good uniform quality which they can rely on getting all the year round. The big provision merchants in London and elsewhere have given up English butter in despair, and now get their supply almost entirely from abroad.

There is a large agricultural district in England where the price of butter is ruled by the price quoted from a market in which not fifty pounds of butter are sold weekly; and it is a fact that the farmers of this district, merely because they will not combine to produce uniformity of quality and steadiness of price, are receiving twopence per pound less than two factories not ten miles away.

We do not mean to say that all British farmers are such as are above described; we should be very sorry to think such was the case. There are many excellent farmers still existent in England-men of energy, thought, enterprise, and intelligence; but unfortunately they are in a minority, and have not yet been able to carry their feebler brethren with them.

It must also be admitted that some individual dairies are capable of turning out an article of such superlative excellence that it cannot be matched by any factory make; for instance, it is possible for very skilled dairy hands on some farms to make a Cheshire or Cheddar cheese of that silky, flaky quality so much prized by experts. Of such quality as this there is very little made, and it is doubtful whether a factory which has to mix its milk will ever be able to turn it out, though factories can produce a uniform article of first-rate quality which can be depended on, and which is better than the usual product of farmhouses.

If any skilled dairyman possesses or rents a farm on which he can produce goods as above mentioned, he does well to stay at home and devote his labours to his own ground; but the majority of English farmers would do well to brush the cobwebs from their eyes, and, while observing what is done in other countries, look forward to an intelligent adaptation of our great industry to its new surroundings.

After what we have heard and seen in other countries, it seems that to argue that agriculture is a ruined industry and can never recover is misleading.

In comparing Dutch and English dairy farming, one of the most