British Dairy Farming

Abstract

THIS very readable volume is from the pen of one who evidently understands the highly technical subject to which he has devoted himself. Writing upon agriculture has too often been attempted by mere theorists, and as an inevitable consequence practical men have been contented to cursorily scan and forthwith consign both book and author to oblivion. In this department more than in many others those who know are not book-writers and those who are book-writers do not know. Mr. Long is happily able to exercise the discernment which comes of knowledge in the marshalling of his facts and the quality of his suggestions. In his introductory chapter he gives solid statistical reasons why we should as a community endeavour to " produce more and import less," and the subsequent chapters are devoted to a review and comparison of our dairy system and those of our Continental neighbours, much to the advantage of the latter. The genius of the English farmer does not appear to have as yet shone into his dairy. His fields, his machines, his cattle stalls, his animals, have each and all been the admiration and the model of Europe and America. But he pauses on the threshold of his dairy and, we may add, his hen-house. These are, he thinks, the proper domain of the dairy-maid or the housewife, and the farmer is done with the milk when he has set it down at his dairy door.

British Dairy Farming.

By James Long. (London: Chapman and Hall, 1885.)