340 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



prepared ; our best clocks and watches are turned out by scores and 

 hundreds every day from fiictories ; most of our tools and imple- 

 ments of husbandry, as well as those used in the arts and in trades, 

 are made in tlie same way. Associated capital drives us through 

 the land, over the railway, by the swift steam car, instead of our 

 going as of yore, by the slow and lumbering stage coach. This 

 doing things by combined effort seems to be the spirit of the age. 

 Why should farmers be behind all ? Why should not the same 

 system be applied to their business where it can be applied ? Why 

 should they drag behind when progress is the law in everything 

 else ? System is already marking many of their efforts ; cheese 

 factories are springing up all over the country which is adapted to 

 cheese making; several hundred in all, mostly in New York, 

 Ohio and Massachusetts, some in Vermont and New Hampshire. 

 I have been told that not one has yet been built in Maine. If I 

 am in error in this, I shall be glad to be corrected. Is not this a 

 fact worth noting, these several hundred factories ; and j'ct the de- 

 mand for cheese is greater than ever before. I mean for first quality 

 cheese. And again, I say you possess all the requisites for making 

 it here except this one, the factory ; and this I say is a requisite. 

 iMany farmers would convert their hay and grass into cheese who 

 now use their fiirms less profitably, if only they could get their 

 cheese made in factories. I know in towns where factories have 

 recently been erected hundreds more of cows are kept than for- 

 merly. The dairy productions of the towns have greatly increased, 

 and consequently the wealth of the towns. 



It is an argument for associated dairying that thereby the wive» and 



daughters, usually overtasked with hard work, are relieved of a great 



burden. A large dairy tasks exceedingly the time and strength of 



the women at our homos ; so much so, that in very many cases they 



■prefer, and the men prefer, a less remunerative a)id less laborious 



employment of their laml. Now in associated dairying the burden 



,18 removed from the kitchen and the cheese room to the factory ; 



and the mothers and daughters have a little leisure for other lighter 



and pleasantcr tasks. And will it harm them or you if they take, 



with the sacrifice of no real interest, a little time and pains to 



ornament and beautify their homes ? VVill it not be better for us 



all il the gentle ones, whose burden of duty and of lii'e, be it 



lightened ever so mucli, will slill Ix,' nil too heav3% have a little 



•respite from these coarse and hard tasks which they too willingly 



*endure ? Will it hurt them or us, or the children that cluster 



