VERMONT AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 87 



FROM A CREAMERY AND CHEESE FACTORY 



STANDPOINT. 



Delivered at Vergennes by T. B. Harriott of Georgia. 



The leading industries among the farmers of Vermont be- 

 ing dairying, and how to produce the most butter or cheese at 

 the lowest cost, or how rather to produce the largest flow of 

 milk and leave a credit balance on the right side, seems to be 

 the question at issue. 



The questions relating to dairying as discussed by the 

 board of agriculture very properly commence with the methods 

 pertaining to the production of feeds, of what constitutes 

 most profitable, most nutritious substances in supplying what 

 is termed a balanced ration ; in short how to utilize the pro- 

 ducts of the field through most economic methods into milk. 

 The study of the process of milk production, through its vari- 

 ous stages, seems almost bewildering, but when we have fol- 

 lowed these discussions and have a comprehensive under- 

 standing of them, of feeds, how to produce them, of breeds, 

 silos, barns, of the necessary expense and labor in providing 

 for and maintaining a dairy herd, we have passed that per- 

 plexing and difficult stage and leaves the remaining process 

 easy and comprehensive, which takes us from the milk pail to 

 the package. The discussion on this subject has taken the 

 dairymen through the methods of producing the most of, and 

 at the least cost, his product of milk as far as the milk pail 

 and there leave him. And it is at this point I take him up 

 and carry the argument through with a few suggestive hints 

 along the line leading to the finished product, which I hope 

 may be productive in awakening an interest in the most simple 

 methods which influence to a great degree the success and 

 standing of the product manufactured. 



However well the dairymen may understand the method of 

 producing milk from the beginning to the milk pail, by what 

 seems a little thoughtless carelessness in the handling or 

 care of it, he unconsciously has lost that which he has most 

 striven to obtain, the profit, or a considerable portion of it, 

 and he becomes perplexed. It is the desire of every dairyman 

 that his product reach the best market. He should consider 

 that only the best goods get there, that is, in supplying milk, 

 furnishing the raw material which determines the grade or 

 rank this product must take. He must not consider that all 

 depends on the maker, but should reason that no milk is 



