42 Thirty-Sixth Annual Report of the 



RIvI^ATlVE PROFITS. 



Cheese making has no doubt paid the majority of our farm- 

 ers in Canada better than butter making, hence the marked de- 

 velopment of this branch of dairying. Butter making, however, 

 is bound to be relatively more important in the future as the soil 

 becomes impoverished and the butter by-products are used to 

 greater advantage. We also need to learn how to make fine 

 butter of uniform quality all the year round. 



It has been estimated that the average price per pound re- 

 ceived during 1905 for export butter has been 213^ cents and 

 for cheese 103/2 cents. The milk that will make one pound of 

 butter will make on the average 2)^ pounds of cheese. Without 

 considering the by-products, the relative returns from butter 

 and cheese this last season have been 21^ cents and 26^ cents, 

 or roughly as i to i^i- 



When we come to consider the relative values of butter and 

 cheese by-products, we are met with difficulties. It is one of 

 these questions which it is practically impossible to decide def- 

 initely as so much depends upon circumstances. However, if 

 we allow five cents as the value of the by-product from making 

 one pound of butter, and one cent as the value of the whey from 

 2^ pounds of cheese, we shall not be far astray. Figuring 

 on this basis, we shall have, assuming that average milk makes 

 four pounds of butter per 100 pounds, — $1.10 as the returns from 

 one hundred weight of milk made into butter and $1.09 as the 

 returns from the same weight of milk made into cheese. We 

 should therefore conclude that so far as the cash returns from 

 the two systems is concerned, there is not much difference. But- 

 ter making, however, always has two advantages over cheese 

 making. It enables the farmer to rear better stock and is less 

 exhaustive on soil fertility. 



We may sum up the whole question by saying that either 

 cheese or butter making will pay well. In direct cash returns, 

 the making of cheese, in most cases, is more profitable than but- 

 ter making. Taking into consideration the greater value of the 

 by-products from making butter, this branch of dairying is likely 

 to be more profitable. 



Let me say in conclusion that to the people who will give 

 attention to dairying, to the man or the woman who will give to 

 the dairy cow intelligent care and intelligent feeding, who will 

 give to the manufacture of milk into butter or cheese the intel- 

 ligence which is required in order to make a first class product, 

 there is no other branch of farming in Canada or the United 

 States which will pay like dairying. 



