ABSTRACT
The limiting factor in the trade of dairy produce in Tudor times was the slowness and cost of transport. It has been suggested that one of the results of the large scale enclosure that took place between 1750 and 1850 was to reduce the number of dairy farms, that the large scale farming it involved was almost exclusively directed to corn growing and stock feeding, known as mixed farming. The dairy farmers delivered the milk to the stations in cans of their own providing, and they or their men helped to load it. The Dairy and Cowshed Order of 1885, and Amending Order of 1889 required a minimum standard of accommodation in dairy and cowshed on the farm. The rapid development of the railway network placed the question of profitable disposal squarely before the rural dairy farmer—was it better to manufacture or to sell liquid milk.
