Britain at Work
A Pictorial Description of Our National Industries

346 THE MILK INDUSTRY. SOME idea of the vastness of this interest- ing industry may be gathered from the simple statement of fact that there are no fewer than 4,100,000 cows in the British Isles, and that the quantity of milk consumed in London alone reaches the astonishing amount of at least 50,000,000 gallons per annum. Day and night, year in and year Ten thousand pairs of hands, at least, are necessary to draw the milk from the cows ; for, as yet, milking machines have not ousted the dairy maid and man from their morning and evening work. Then there is the work of preparing the milk for the evening and morning trains. The consumption of the lacteal fluid has increased so greatly during MILKERS AT WORK. Photo: Cassell & Co., Ltd. out, many thousands of men and women are ever toiling throughout the whole length and breadth of the land, urged by the ever pressing demand for milk to drink. Fifty years ago the city and suburban dairies supplied London with all the milk it required. In a great number of instances the cows were kept in unhealthy sheds in overcrowded and often fever-stricken localities. Those evil days are no more ; the milk used now comes from the country or from suburbs with a reasonable claim to be termed rural. Needless to say, the health of the big city has vastly improved thereby, while the increased demand in the country finds a great deal of employment for those who would otherwise crowd in to try their fortunes in the vortex of London life. the last ten years that railway companies running trains into London have laid them- selves out for the business, and it is now no unusual sight to see a dozen trains entering, say, the. Great Western terminus at Padding- ton every morning and evening as fast as the platforms are ready for them. Each of these special milk trains is made up of about a dozen vans ; all built, for the purposes of the trade, on the lattice principle, to ensure a current of cool air passing amongst the great sealed cans. Let us consider the conditions under which a large London milk distributing centre is worked. I he milk is received in churns twice a day from a number of farms in various parts of the country. All the churns are