ASSOCIATED DAIRYING. 147 



creamery adapted to its wants "will depend upon various con 

 ditions. 



In Massachusetts the milk-producers near any of our large 

 towns, where there is a steady demand for milk, butter, and 

 cheese, can advantageously associate for the sale of their 

 product, especially if they are already selling milk, and com- 

 peting with one another. In such a case, all the milk should 

 go to the creamery twice a day ; and its manager should 

 dispose of it in such ways as circumstances dictate. Much 

 milk may be sold to peddlers to retail ; or the concern may 

 itself profitably deliver to families by its own wagons. 

 Cream, skim-niilk, sour milk, and buttermilk can all be 

 sold in our cities and towns. The milk not sold may be 

 made up into butter, cheese, and cottage-cheese, according to 

 the market, and disposed of at wholesale and retail. Several 

 establishments of this kind are in successful operation in 

 different parts of the country : a part are co-operate or joint- 

 stock concerns, and others owned by men who buy the milk 

 outright from the producers at fixed prices. Although in- 

 cluded in the general term of creamery, such is more prop- 

 erly called a dairy in its broadest sense, or a milk-association. 

 One at Syracuse, N.Y., has for several years handled all the 

 milk from sixteen hundred cows, at a total expense of less 

 than a cent a quart, and has returned to its patrons about 

 three cents for every quart received during these years of 

 low prices. 



But taking the whole milk off the farm is, in the long-run, 

 practically selling the farm itself by the gallon or by the 

 pound, and can only be afforded, when the receipts for 

 the milk are so good as to enable a return to the land by the 

 purchase of food for the stock, or of fertilizers. As a rule, 

 selling the whole milk should not be advocated, and the 

 butter-factory in its original form is objectionable on that 

 account. Butter alone, however, contains no nitrogen, or 

 other mineral matters of consequence, and may be perpet- 

 ually produced and sold, -without perceptibly affecting the 

 fertility of the farm, provided the skim-milk be all used at 

 home, and in the best way. 



The kind of co-operative dairying which is best adapted 

 to a specially butter-making section, where there is but little 

 sale for milk at remunerative rates, seems to be that lately 



