200 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



added to this is the fine qualit}-. It is eas}' to understand how, 

 with proper management, the butter made at a factor}' from the 

 milk or cream from a hundred different farms, will be much better 

 than the average quality of the butter from any hundred farms in a 

 neighborhood when separately' made. It is a fact that in many 

 cases the factory product equals in quality the very best previousl}' 

 produced in any private dairy in the same locality. 



The high position of creamery butter is, therefore, not a mere 

 fashion, or temporary matter, but being based upon sound reasons, 

 we cannot hope for a change. It behooves us to consider whether 

 it is not expedient to adopt the creamer}' system, in some form, in 

 New England. To one who has given the subject a little attention 

 it seems hardl}' necessary' to argue it. Manifesth' something must 

 be done to overcome the disadvantages under which we now labor 

 in the sale of our dairy products. So radical a change, however, as 

 removing all the care of milk, or at least all the butter-making from 

 the farm, changing this home production to a regular liranch of 

 manufactures, deserves to be fully and carefulU' considered. 



Objections exist to the factory system of dairjing, as well as to 

 everything else, especially new things. First, there is the dail}' 

 labor of transportation of the milk or cream from farm to factor}', — 

 certainl}' a serious matter, whether done by the farmers or the factor}' 

 agents. Second, there is risk of loss and damage attending this 

 transportation. Third, there is the cost of the labor at the creamer}'. 

 A good many will say at once that here is labor, of a skilled char- 

 acter, which must be well paid for, when the work could be done on 

 the farm for nothing. But as these objectors must be peoi)le who 

 don't think the labor of wives and daughters costs anything, and 

 that the more they can be made to do the greater the gain, it will 

 hardly pay to dwell on this matter ; discussions with such people 

 are useless. Fourth, the farmers who unite in any scheme of 

 cooperation must be prepared to surrender their individual ideas 

 and preferences for the good of the many. This forfeiture of inde- 

 pendence is one of the hardest things for a farmer to do, and the 

 necessity for it operates as a serious obstacle to cooperative dairying. 

 Yet at the foundation of our institutions lies the execution of the 

 will of the majority, not the individual, and the submission of the 

 minority, and it can do no harm to apply the same principle to the 

 regulation of neighborhood butter making, as to the management of 

 the affairs of state. 



