CATTLE TEE DAIRY. 867 



Milk Selling. A most popular way, and one that is rap- 

 idly superseding all other plans upon the Western Reserve of 

 Ohio, is the system of milk selling. The milk buyer either 

 builds or rents an already existing patron factory, and proceeds 

 to buy milk, he making such disposition of it as his judgment 

 may warrant. The price is based upon New York quotations, 

 the price of a gallon of milk being fixed about two cents below 

 quotations for prime cheese, and made subject to rises and falls 

 corresponding with the market. The payment for the milk is 

 made monthly, usually ten days after the close of a month. 

 This enables the farmer to know what his cows are doing each 

 day, and their exact performance for the month. The farmer 

 then has no interest in the result of cheese sales. The buyer 

 fixes the price, but taken one year with another the milk seller 

 usually fares quite as well as the patron factory man. 



Private Factories. Occasionally a private factory is met 

 with where the farmer has a large number of cows of his own, 

 and he equips a factory and makes, to all intents and purposes, 

 a strictly prime factory cheese and creamery butter. The ex- 

 tent of manufacture in these factories varies from the actual farm 

 dairy up to the near approach to the general factory, for where 

 private factories are established it is usual to accommodate 

 those who desire it by allowing them to bring their milk and 

 pay a sum for the making and selling the combined products. 

 There are great numbers of these " one vat " factories and cream- 

 eries, but their transactions are generally with the local buyer 

 of dairy produce. 



Different Factory Systems. The practices of the fac- 

 tory men in the handling of milk vary greatly with the different 

 sections in which dairying is carried on. A large number of 

 factories make full stock cheese exclusively, and allow no pa- 

 tron to skim the milk, either in whole or part, making at all 

 seasons a market cheese known as full stock. Another factory 

 will make half-skims at the extremes of the season, and full 

 stock for the four or five summer months. A class of factories, 

 usually milk-buying concerns, follow the indications of the mar- 

 ket. When butter quotes high, the production of butter is 



