1890.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 4. 205 



doubt but there could be built up an unlimited demand for 

 this earl}' new cheese in the many cities and large towns in 

 your State, Some of the factories in Maine have taken up 

 the business, and are prosecuting it with equally good results 

 on near-by milk. The requirements, different from summer 

 operations, called for, are simply a warm operating room, 

 and a curing room artificially heated to the required tem- 

 perature. 



The private make is marketed at twenty to twenty-five 

 days old, while the factory requires a few more days for 

 ripening. Fourteen cents a pound is the lowest starting 

 price now recalled, and frequently it has been some cents 

 higher than that. The green weight and the high price 

 combine to make the business a paying one. 



It is possible to do better work in the private dairy than 

 by the associated system. Milk never again is as perfect as 

 when first drawn from the cow, and never again so well 

 adapted to cheese-making. The less it is handled and the 

 sooner it is curded, the more and the better product it will 

 make. Taken as soon as drawn, there is no difiiculty in grasp- 

 ino' the fat of the milk and transferring it to the richness of the 

 cheese. Eight pounds of milk, average for the season, will 

 make a pound of domestic green cheese. In my own dairy, 

 seven pounds of September milk from spring-fresh cows has 

 given its pound of cheese ; while, with hay milk from fresh 

 cows in March, eight and one-half to nine pounds is required. 



Computing the value of milk per hundred weight in this 

 work as in the associated system, we have the following 

 result : — 



100 pounds milk gives early cheese ready for market, . . 11 pounds. 



100 pounds milk gives average for season, for market, . 12 " 



100 pounds milk gives September milk, for market, . . 13^ " 



11 pomids early cheese, at 14 cents, . . . . . . f 1 54 



12 pounds average for season, at 12 cents, . . . . . 1 44 

 13| pounds September and October, at 12 cents, . . . . 1 62 



The cost of making cheese in the private dairy is difficult 

 to compute, and I make no attempt. As usually carried on, 

 the work is chiefly done by those whose time would not 

 otherwise be employed in a way that would bring cash 

 returns to the farm ; and thus the dairy work becomes an 



