cattle and dairy farming of the world

Cattle and Dairy Farming of the WorldSource: Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Vol. 50, No. 4 (Dec., 1887), pp. 725-726Published by: Wiley for the Royal Statistical SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2979385 .

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1887.] Cattle and Dairy Farming of the World. 725

had also prepared for the Agricultural Department, were subse- quently transmitted to the editors of agricultural and other news- papers circulating in agricultural districts.

" In consequence of the anxiety manifested in regard to the subject of the insect pest above referred to, Mr. C. W. Gray, M.P., and Mr. Whitehead were appointed by the Government as Com- missioners to inquire into its visitation on corn crops in Great Britain, and their report-Paper [C-5217] 1887-has been presented to Parliament, giving the result of their investigation."

VJI.-Cattle and Dairy Farming of the World.

THE following is taken from the Times of the 12th October, 1887. It refers to a recent donation to the Society, which is acknowledged on a subsequent page of the present number of the Journal under " Additions to the Library :"-

" It is a curious fact that at the moment when attention is being directed to the question of dairy farming in this country by means of our dairy show, and when a discussion is taking place as to how little we are doing in this country as compared with others, a remarkable proof in point should arrive in this country from the United States. In his paper on the needs of technical education in the dairy, Professor Long has produced a mass of statistics as to the work done in Denmark, in Germany, in Norway, in France, and many other European countries. Some of these are described as being honeycombed with dairy schools, and their Governments as helping in a hundred ways. But the most startling and recent example of the life with which other countries are investing the subject had no place in his paper, neither is it exhibited at the dairy show. In outside appearance it has not much to commend it, for it is only two of those sober-looking, black-bound, official publications of the Government of the United States of America. But those two volumes contain no less than 850 pages of closely printed letterpress, and 368 full paged coloured plates, descriptive of the cattle farming and dairying of every country in the world, and illustrative of every known breed of cattle. Such a work has never before seen the light, and that it should be issued by any Government ought to be a matter for most genuine satisfaction. No private individual could have prepared it, and no publisher would have been warranted in going to the expense of printing it.

" To give a review of such a work is impossible. Blemishes might be pointed out, but they are so very small that they might well be compared to the spots on the sun's face. One notices, for example, that names of English breeders and English places are curiously and wondrously contorted by the printers, but they are so obviously printers' errors that can be easily rectified in a new edition, that only those who are prone to magnify the ant-hill into a mountain would indulge in any serious grumbling. Neither has

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726 Miscellanea. [Dec.

the work been edited into that symmetrical form which the lover of a finished production would ask for. Another fault is that it is composed of consular reports, and has all the faults of such reports. The consuls get all the information they can on a subject, and in the report everything goes, making the reports in cases too long, while facts are sometimes tediously repeated by other consuls in the same or neighbouring countries. But all these faults do not touch the one great fact, that the student on the subject of dairy- ino or cattle breeding can find out the customs, practice, and know- ledge on the subject in every part of the civilised world, and that, too, at as recent a date as 1886. The information is solid, sound, and trustworthy, and the whole work one that will live long and become the basis of many future works. A new edition would require amendment and slight additions. For instance, in the paper on scientific implements for the dairy, there are many important omissions, which apparently come from the fact that the writer was not a chemist.

" It may be well to state briefly the history of the work. It appears that it has been some four years in preparation, a circular letter having been sent out at the end of 1883 to all the American consular agents, asking them to obtain the fullest information on the breeds of cattle, the management of cattle, and the dairy farm- ing of their respective countries. These two volumes are the answers, and it is a curious feature, and one which shows the thoroughness of the work, that in no case did a consul answer the inquiry under a year, in most cases they were two years, and in some cases they were three years in preparing their reports.

" Of the scope of the work a few facts may be given, as shown by an analysis of the index. Take cattle feeding, for example. Of this, there are no less than eighty-three descriptions in different countries or districts, besides an immense amount of statistical information. There are also as many as eighty-six distinct breeds of cattle of different countries fully described and illustrated, while of no less than twenty breeds elaborate tables of milk yields are given. Everything is on this colossal scale, and makes the work most complete and exhaustive."

VIII.-The Trade Improvement in 1887.

THE following is taken from the Statist of 15th October, 1887:- " As the much talked of improvement in trade should have had

a material influence on the very depressed prices of 1886, it may be interesting to your readers to examine the following figures:

" In my table published by the Statistical Society1 I took the eleven years 1867-77 as my standard for the calculation of the index numbers of forty-five commodities. The movements of prices in comparison with this average point have been as follows:-

1 See p. 180 in the March number of this volume.

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