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Summary Since the Union of South Africa was founded in 1910, the volume of dairy production and consumption has increased--both in total amount and per capita. This growth is part of the evolution of the purely pastoral land of the last century into a predominantly mining, and, finally, into a predominantly industrialised, economy. Although dairy development is hampered by the fact that over 30% of the country is arid and another 34% semiarid, the latter portion now contributes at least 24% of the butter and 29% of the cheese output. Production of thees two commodities, as well as of condensed, dried, and fluid milk, also has increased greatly in the more humid areas on which sound future development depends. Official assistance is responsible for much of the progress made by dairying in general, but world advances in equipment design also have been important. State-sponsored control of marketing, which dominates the agricultural economy, has resulted in the one-channel schemes of the Dairy Industry Control Board in regard to national butter and cheese output, and of the new Cape Milk Board in regard to fluid milk in one centre. Dairy Board policy has resulted in the more rapid advance of producers' prices for manufacturing milk and cream as compared with retail prices for final products. The producers' share of the increased retail prices for butter and cheese has also risen, but proportionate manufacturing costs have been reduced. Commercial butter and cheese manufacture on the farm--a predominant factor over 40 yr. ago--is slowly disappearing. Although affected by the Dairy Board's licensing policy and improved transport facilities, the tendency for fewer processing units of greater capacity--also observed in the fluid-milk trade--is a normal economic development. When South Africa has been unable to absorb its total butter and cheese stocks, including receipts from S.W. Africa and the Protectorates, at ruling prices, the Dairy Board has exported the surplus, usually at a loss. Various assisted consumption schemes have used some of these excess stocks, and it is obvious that in the still-expanding industrial economy the future of dairying must depend heavily on the large potential home demand which can be met through the better utilisation of natural resources and the resulting improved milk solids output.