TJic Country Gciitlcinaiis Magazine 



469 



%kt ^airg anli P^wltrg-^arii. 



BUTTER FACTORIES. 



ALTHOUGH the Americans have suc- 

 ceeded in estabUshing, and success- 

 fully carrying out, the factory system, as 

 applicable especially to the manufacture of 

 cheese, that principle, as regards the produc- 

 tion of butter, does not seem to meet with 

 such general approval. We believe that 

 butter can be manufactured in as good con- 

 dition in the factory as in the private dairy ; 

 indeed, from those that have been established 

 in America, the best results, both as regards 

 manipulation and profits, are reported. A 

 correspondent of the Country Gentleman, in 

 speaking of butter-making in Franklin County, 

 New York, says : — 



The factory buildings are all of a better class than 

 the average cheese factories, and do not cost over 

 about half as much for the same number of cows, and 

 there is even more difference in cost of fixtures and 

 expense for labour. 



The Union Factory in Bangor was the fust visited 

 by us. This was not fully supplied with water the 

 past season, and reports, as the average amount of 

 milk required to make I lb. of butter, 24.48 lb., 

 though they made during a portion of the season i lb. 

 from 2I_J4 lb. of milk, which, as the product of ordi- 

 nary cows in ordinary poor pastures, may be set 

 down as a very fair shewing. The aggregate of butter 

 made at this factory was 9522 lb., which was sold at 

 the factory for 30 cents, a pound. 



The Cold Spring Factory of Malone made a pound 

 of butter from 23.31 pounds of milk. Amount made, 

 19)776 pounds ; sales to August ist at an average of 

 29% cents a pound — for the remainder of the season 

 at 34 1-9 cents per pound at the factory. 



The Keeler Factory, Malone, made a pound of 

 butter from 20 5-7 pounds of milk. Amount made, 

 12,012 pounds, which was sold at the factory at 31 

 cents a pound. 



The Berry Factory, Malone, made a pound of 



butter from 25. i pounds of milk, which they sold at 

 31 X cents a pound at the factory. Like the Union 

 Factory, they had not sufficient water to cool their 

 milk, which defect they will remedy for the coming 

 season. 



Horace Dickinson's factory in Moira, made a pound 

 of butter from 23/s pounds of milk, and sold the 

 butter at 30 cents a pound at the factory. 



The Bailey Spring Factory, Chateaugay, made a 

 pound of butter from 22.55 pounds of milk and sold it 

 at 29 1-5 cents a pound at the factory. 



The private dairymen have none of them kept their 

 accounts so as to furnish information of value. One 

 gentleman, a merchant, said his dairy of twelve cows 

 paid him more money last season than nineteen did 

 the year before, though the price per pound was one- 

 fourth less. He attributed it to the factory system, 

 and will keep twenty cows the coming season instead 

 of carrying out his intention of reducing the number 

 merely to supply the actual necessities of his farm 

 hands. How far the improvements they have made 

 are peculiarly due to the system of setting the milk 

 in vogue there, is only to be determined by experi- 

 ment ; that the Jewett pan is a very great improve- 

 ment upon the old system, there cannot be the 

 slightest doubt. All who use it assure us that there- 

 is not the least difficulty in keep the milk sweet till 

 all the cream has risen, and that the cream does not 

 acquire the filmy condition (which is now admitted to 

 be a condition precedent to the production of strictly 

 prime butter), and as a natural result, that there are 

 no " white caps " or "flecks"' produced. That the 

 co-operative or factory system, as practised there, is 

 (compared with the farm dairy system) a very great 

 economy of labour, and profitable in securing a uni- 

 formly good article, cannot be doubted. It must, 

 moreover, be conceded that, as compared with any 

 other factory reports which iiave come under our 

 observation, these are exceedingly favourable to the 

 system. It is to be hoped that such experiments will 

 be made the coming season, both here and else- 

 where, as it will settle many of the controverted ques- 

 tions in relation to butter-making. 



