208 BOARD OF AGRICULTUKE. [Jan. 



There are two rival methods of carrying on butter-making 

 by the associated phin, — the one known as the separator 

 system, and the other the cream-gathering plan. It is not 

 for me here to discuss the question of which is the better. 

 My work to-day is with the business, and not its details. 

 Each has its merits, and each its place. The separator sys- 

 tem involves the transportation of the milk to the factory, 

 and the return of the skim-milk to the farm, — in this respect 

 being precisely on a par with the cheese factory. In the 

 cream-gathering plan the farm is relieved of all responsibility 

 or cost of transportation, the cream being gathered by the 

 factory, and the skim-milk left on the farm, where wanted. 

 There is no form of dairy work that leaves so little of labor 

 or responsibility resting with the producer of the milk as the 

 cream-gathering plan of butter-making. In the transporta- 

 tion of milk, whether for sale or otherwise, there is an item 

 of cost that cannot properly be omitted from this examina- 

 tion. 



The price of butter must always remain an uncertain 

 quantity, hence any calculations of value and comparison of 

 profits must be made with a reservation. True, we now 

 have in our factory records reliable figures on what has been 

 done ; but they may not strictly represent what we iuay be 

 able to accomplish in the future. Besides, always and every- 

 where the outcome of the business depends, in a measure at 

 least, on local conditions never common to all localities", and 

 which give certain factories an advantage in price received 

 for the product made which others equally well managed are 

 not able to reach. Barring extremely high prices secured on 

 account of local advantages on the one hand, and extremely 

 low, from whatever cause, on the other, it is fair to the 

 business to claim that the net average price per year paid per 

 pound to patrons of New England factories has ranged from 

 twenty cents to twenty-five cents. Comparatively few have 

 touched either extreme. Probably twenty -two cents repre- 

 sents more factories than any other figures Ave could use. 



The amount of milk required is also an uncertain quantity, 

 for most of the factory work is gauged by measure rather 

 than weight. Estimates in this direction should be made on 

 common country milk, since this is the quality usually sold 



