No. 7. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICUL,TURE. 99 



farm are estimated aud deducted from the rents, accordiug to a 

 sliding scale, year by year, until there is no further probable resi- 

 dual effect of the manure upon the productiveness of the laud. A 

 similar allowance could be made in cases where the lease is on the 

 crop-sharing plan. 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE FACTORY SYSTEM. 



No survey of the dairy industry can be fairly complete which fails 

 to take into account the relation of the factory system to the in- 

 dustry as a whole. In Pennsylvania, as elsewhere in the Union, the 

 creamery and the cheese factory have revolutionized dairy farming 

 and transferred the manufacture of butter and cheese from the 

 farm home to some neighboring specialized seat of industry. While 

 this change began early in the State, it has progressed less rapidly 

 than in some of the AVestern States; for in 19U0 only one-third of 

 the butter produced in Pennsylvania was manufactured by cream- 

 eries, while over one-half the butter product of Iowa and Wis- 

 consin was so made. 



The number of creameries and cheese factories of the State more 

 than doubled from 1890 to 1900. The increase is still continuing, 

 though no list of these establishments so revised as to be entirely 

 trustworthy is at command to afford a satisfactory basis of judg- 

 ment respecting the present rate of increase. The average farmer 

 has been much benefitted by the development of the creamery system 

 since the quality and price of the butter have been distinctly im- 

 proved by the factory methods — although the product from a few 

 most skilfully managed farm dairies is still the most excellent, for 

 the creameryman's raw material can be no better than the average 

 among his patrons, and can never equal the best. Alvord has con- 

 servatively estimated that the farmer's profit by gain in price of the 

 creamery product — on the average better made and more advantage- 

 ously marketed — is 1.8 cents per pound, or over 11 per cent, of tlie 

 average farm price; and there are many indirect advantages in addi- 

 tion. 



DAIRY FACTORIES IN PENNSYLVANIA. 



In 1900 there were in the State 619 creameries and 140 cheese 

 factories. These had an average investment of capital to amounts, 

 in round numbers, as follows: land, $200; buildings, |1,200; machin- 

 ery, tools, implements, etc., |1,700; cash, sundries, etc., |1,000; total, 

 $4,100; an amount superior, especially in point of equipment, to 

 that of the average creamerv of the Middle States and of the United 

 States. 



Of these factories, comparatively few remained in the first form 

 of co-operative associations, over one-half belonging instead to in- 

 dividuals, nearly one-fourth to partnerships, and about one-eighth 

 to unincorporated companies. 



Only a small fraction of the creameries liad outlying separator 

 or skim-stations, and in most cases the patrons delivered milk to 

 the creamery instead of the latter collecting cream from the dairy 

 farms. 



CREAMEEY OPERATIONS. 



The average creamery spent $12,091 for raw material and con- 

 tainers and manufactured $l.j,105 worth of products, thus securing 

 $2,414 of gross profits out of which to pay wages, dei)reciation and 

 interest upon investment. 



