Britain at Work
A Pictorial Description of Our National Industries

350 BRITAIN AT WORK. could do ten times the work.” It is the bottling and sterilising which occupy so much time. Even the water which is used in the preparation of special kinds of milk and for cleansing utensils is bacteriologically treated by being passed through a condenser. There is also a cold storage in which the bottles of milk are kept in water of a certain tem- perature. Another interesting department is that of humanising milk for infants. T his entails a great deal of time and labour, and is carried out under the direction of a doctor. A mother desirous of dispensing with the natural function of nourishing her offspring will consult her medical adviser, who in turn instructs the dairyman. A milk is then prepared which corresponds as nearly as possible with breast nourishment, but it is varied in strength and quality according to the age of the child. The milk is put up in bottles, sealed, and labelled with the name of the mother. A book is kept by the dairyman in which is to be found a table of treatments, identified by numbers. The doctor instructs the dairyman, “ Treatment No. —and the milk is made up accordingly. Sometimes a child becomes ill through being fed not wisely but too well, on ordinary milk ; the dairyman is then called upon to minister to it. It is calculated that to bring up an infant on humanised milk costs 2s. a day. Frequently milk is bottled and supplied to persons going abroad, to be consumed on the voyage. For this the bottling is done quickly so that the milk has as little contact with the air as possible. Under these con- ditions it is possible for it to keep sweet for a twelvemonth. The Aylesbury Dairy Company alone deal on an average with 35,000 gallons of milk a week, which they receive from a hundred different farms. The Express Company has sixty cows at its picturesque farm at Finchley, and the product of these is distributed over a very wide area. The Maypole Dairy Company have between 300 and 400 branch establishments throughout the United King- dom. In Ireland they have about twenty. At Congleton and Market Drayton they have two dairies, both fitted with the latest and most approved appliances. In the season at Congleton they deal with gallons of milk every day, brought in surrounding farms. There are many large and well-known firms of milk dis- tributors whose names are as familiar to the consumer as the beverage itself. Viewed generally the milk industry is in a healthy and prosperous condition, and con- sumers may rest assured that every possible precaution for their safety is taken by those engaged in the distribution of one of the greatest necessities of* life. Henry Lee. busy 3,000 from other AT THE RAILWAY STATION.