380 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 



population and material prosperity. Among the smallest of the conoties iu territorial 

 extent and population, she stands,' by the returns of the last census, as the tenth in the 

 cash value of farms, the eleventh in the value of farming implements and machinery, 

 as well as of total agriculturai productions, and in the vaiious classes of live stock 

 holds about the same relative positioUi 



Mr. Horace Colmau, in an essay on tbe subject of butter and clieese 

 making, maintained that butter-making is the most profitable. He 

 stated that a cow that will make one pound of butter per day will make 

 two of cheese. As a good article of butter will always bring 40 cents 

 per pound, with cheese at 15 cents per pound, (the usual price,) this 

 would give 10 cents per day in favor of butter-making. He thinks it 

 less trouble to make butter than to manufacture cheese, but if equally 

 as much labor is required, the skim and butter milk Avill be clear gain, 

 whereas the whey in cheese making is regarded as nearly worthless. 

 In associated dairying a great many things may come up that will not 

 prove very pleasant. In the first place, the difference iu cows in regard 

 to the quality of their milk, charges of adulteration of milk, tainted milk, 

 &c., are subjects that are continually arising. Butter being made at home, 

 these controversies are of course avoided. He gives his own experience 

 in butter-making as follows: 



I kept eight cows during the year 1862. I thought I should like to know if dairying 

 paid. At a certain time in the spring I commenced to set down the amount of butter 

 of each churning, and keiJt a strict account through the year; I had scales sitting 

 handy, so it Avas not much trouble to weigh it after it was ready for market. I had 

 hogs enough to eat the skim-milk and more, but kept a strict account of all I fed to 

 them besides the skim-milk. At the year's end I made up my account of sale of butter 

 and pork, pigs and calves, and a family of twelve had all the milk they needed. The 

 proceeds were almost thirteen hundred dollars, over $150 per cow. But we are to take 

 into account that butter sold for 50 cents per pound, pork for 19 cents per pound, pigs 

 at $5, and calves at §10. The season at my place was good for grass ; fed second crop. 

 October and November fed refuse potatoes and pumpkins, and through the winter 

 months fed freely on good hay, with proveuder. Cheese at that time was from 20 to 

 22 cents per pouud, so it left from 8 to 10 cents in favor of butter; that is, if the same 

 amount of milk that will make a pound of butter will make two pounds of cheese. 



In replying to the statements and declarations of Mr. Colman, Mr. Z. 

 A. Gilbert said: 



In considering this subject, it is safe to deal with averages only ; the extremes will 

 not do; and the average of milk-production for the making of butter is, that it 

 requires 24 pouuds of milk to make 1 of butter. There have, it is true, been instances 

 where more was required, and in a few cases a less quantity has made it. Now, the 

 returns from all the cheese-factories in the country show that on au average one pound 

 of cheese is made from 9.76 pouuds of milk ; our own State, it is true, does a little bet- 

 ter than this, a matter which renders Maine well adapted for cheese-making. In my 

 own dairy it has taken from S^ to 9 pounds of milk to make 1 of cheese. From these 

 averages it is clear that 2f pounds of cheese will be produced from the milk required 

 for 1 of butter; but to bo generous, and leave a wide margin for contingencies, it 

 may be set down with safety at 2i pounds. Now, as to the prices of the two products: 

 It is pretty hard averaging the price of butter, it is so variable in quality; but it may 

 be called ',\0 cents, though this is too high. Good cheese the couutry over is sold at 14 

 cents. Of that manufactured in this State, none has sold less' than 15 cents, wjiile 

 some has sold at IG cents at the factory, and at the stores it retails at 20 cents. Thus 

 the milk required for a pound of butter, selling at 30 cents, made into cheese, will 

 actually sell for 40 cents on an average ; the lowest estimate giving 37| cents. This 

 difference may be offset with the value of skimmed milk over whey. 



Mr. D. M. Dunham read a paper on irrigation in Maine. He stated 

 that at a meeting of a farmers' club he had recently' attended, in dis- 

 cussing the best way to renovate worn-out grass-lands, a remark was 

 made that irrigation might be a help, and it was made a matter of 

 ridicule. Maine was thought to be too cold a country for cold-water 

 farming, as it was expressed. But this declaration was disputed by 

 another member of the club, who stated that he had turned the water 



