THE LAW OF UNIFORMITY. 145 



But now let all the milk or all the cream from the thou- 

 sand or more cows on the separate farms be brought daily, or 

 twice a day, to one place, and thoroughly mixed. You see at 

 once how the law of average will give you a remarkable 

 uniformity to the mass day after day, and month after 

 month. In so large a number, there will always be just 

 about so many cows of one kind in milk, and just so many of 

 another, just so many fresh, and so many giving rich strip- 

 pings onl}'. But add to this uniform, methodical treatment 

 of the milk or cream, and the butter made always in exactly 

 the same way and by the best butter-maker that can be found 

 on all those hundred farms, whose whole time is devoted to 

 the work, and it becomes clearer and clearer why the butter 

 so made is uniform in quality and of a high grade. More- 

 over, let the many different owners of these cows, men who 

 have an equal interest in the result, consent to be governed 

 by rigid rules, wisely framed, to guard against those mis- 

 takes in feeding and management of cows which so often 

 injuriously affect the butter, and the matter of a uniform 

 product becomes clearer still. This is the creamery system. 



Several objections to it at once suggest themselves : 1. 

 There is the additional labor necessary for carrying the milk 

 or cream to the creamery; 2. The risk of injury and loss 

 in the transportation; 3. The inconvenience of delivery at 

 stated hours, which in no case can be deviated from ; 4. The 

 payment for labor at the factory which might be done at 

 home ; 5. The loss of the skim-milk, or the labor of taking 

 it home, if the whole milk be delivered; and, 6. The sur- 

 render of some of that independence of action, and exercise 

 of personal judgment, on the part of the farmer, which is one 

 of the distinguishing and ennobling characteristics of the 

 calling, and must be yielded, in some degree, by each indi- 

 vidual to insure success for all. 



Opposed to these objections are the following advantages, 

 but a partial list at best. 1. The expense of manufacturing, 

 including maintenance of implements and apparatus, as well 

 as labor, is much less, in proportion, when conducted at 

 one place and for large quantities, than for small lots at a 

 hundred different places. 2. The tendency of this system 

 is, unquestionably, to very greatly raise the average quality 

 of the product, from the same cows, as well as to insure uni- 



