The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 68
Experimenting-Stations
Experimenting-Stations.
I beg to call the attention of the dairying community to those portions of my annexed reports which describe the experiment stations and dairy-schools in different countries—the great majority of which are maintained at a very trifling cost, more especially the first-class station at Kiel, in Germany, which receives £375 from the Government; the new station at Fribourg, in Switzerland, costing £300 a year; and Lodi, in Italy, which costs £536 per annum, the building, an old barracks, being lent by the Government. Here three chemists and a cheesemaker are maintained, and the scientific work done is of a high order. In England dairy-schools are largely Increasing in number, but the majority are connected with butter-Inking alone—cheesemaking is taught in very few instances, and I believe there is only one school, the British Dairy Institute, at Aylesbury, at which it is possible to learn how to make more than one variety of cheese. This institute has received a grant of £100 from the Government. It costs about £350 a year, the receipts being in the form of subscriptions, of which the British Dairy-farmers' Association contribute £100, and fees from pupils, the produce made probably paying for the milk used.
I also beg to call attention to the following Danish dairy-school records, the principle of which cannot fail to prove valuable to colonial factory-managers and farmers. I extract it from my report on education on account of its special usefulness.
(1.) During the last few years about thirty-five calves have been fattened per annum.
(2.) Separators have been used for the last four Years.
The profits per cow in 1882 were £17 2s. 9d.; in 1883, £15 19s. 5d.; and in 1884, £15 17s. 9d.