REPORT OF STATE DAIRY INSTRUCTOR. l8l 



The quality of the products of Maine creameries that ship 

 cream seems very satisfactory, and this product has a g^ood repu- 

 tation, which our factories are striving hard to maintain, with 

 evident success. 



The quahty of butter made in those factories which make a 

 specialty of butter is excellent, and it is being sold to the most 

 critical dealers in New England, showing that our factories, 

 under the same conditions, can make just as good an article as 

 those of any other state. But every factory receives more or less 

 cream which is unfit to be used for sweet cream, and must of 

 necessity be made into butter of inferior quality, and it naturally 

 finds its way to the commission houses in our large market places 

 and this has a bad effect on the reputation of our factory butter, 

 wdiile but little of our good product goes to commission houses. 

 There seems to be but one remedy, which is to reduce the amount 

 of poor cream so manufactured, by educating the producer to 

 take better care of his product. The percentage of poor cream 

 received at the factories is very small, but when we consider the 

 vast quantities of the sweet cream, shipped as such, we can see 

 at once that the percentage of butter made from this poor cream 

 is large. As no one would put it out to regular fancy trade, it 

 must of necessity go on the market for what it will bring, and 

 gives us a market reputation which is not as enviable as is our 

 cream reputation. \Ye have in the state 62 creameries, 80 per 

 cent, of which are selling sweet cream. Ninety-five per cent, of 

 all the business done is by factories selling sweet cream, which 

 shows that to be the general way of marketing our product. 

 The cheese industry has fallen off considerably during the past 

 five years, many factories having been converted into creameries 

 or skimming stations. This is undoubtedly caused by the low 

 prices of cheese for a few years and the demand at good prices 

 for cream ; but in the past two years, the price of cheese has 

 rapidly advanced to a figure where cheese making is profitable 

 even in competition with cream, and in consequence, many more 

 factories will be operated this coming year. And as we are 

 importing into the state large quantities of cheese, the outlook 

 seems to be good, and localities not near to a creamery or trans- 

 portation can undoubtedly make dairying profitable by operat- 

 ing a cheese factory, as it requires comparatively few cows for 

 successful operation. 



