No. 4.] NEW ENGLAND DAIRYING. 169 



fanner's independence to be emphasized, or minimized? 

 Rightfully or wrongfully, wisely or unwisely, the tendency 

 of all modern business operations is in the direction of 

 aggregation. The department stores, the trusts, combines 

 and the like are familiar instances. The same trend is evi- 

 dent in dairy operations. Co-operative or proprietary 

 creameries and cheese factories and the like are thickly 

 dotted all over the map of New England, outside of the sec- 

 tion devoted to supplying home milk to the metropolitan 

 district. Dairy butter, as such, even though of first quality, 

 ranks below creamery butter of even grade. The question 

 answers itself. New England dairying, outside of isolated 

 cases, must of necessity become more and more associate in 

 its methods, in order to compete successfully with the prod- 

 ucts of similar methods made elsewhere. 



(d) Nature of Products (/. e., milk, butter, cheese, 

 cream, by-products, etc.). — Thus far western competition 

 has been felt in butter and in cheese. New England dairy- 

 men have only had to compete with each other and to 

 wrestle with the contractors in the matter of milk supply ; 

 while the cream business is still profitable. The consumer 

 now takes dairy products in several different forms, — milk, 

 butter, cheese of a dozen kinds, cream, condensed milk, by- 

 products, certified milk, modified milk, ice cream and the 

 like ; while the by-products, skim-milk, buttermilk, and 

 cheese, are made into a considerable number of materials 

 of dietetic or industrial use. Did time permit, I would like 

 to go into the consideration of the considerable income 

 which New England dairymen may yet obtain through a 

 more reasonable and economical use of by-products. This, 

 however, is of the future rather than of the present. Milk, 

 butter and cheese must always be made the main dairy 

 products. Many individuals may solve for themselves the 

 problem of competition, both western and of home origin, 

 by entering into, alone or in combination with neighbors, 

 the manufacture of certain dairy specialties, such as certain 

 brands of cheese, of certified milk, or things of like charac- 

 ter. I doubt whether, for instance, the certified milk busi- 

 ness is likely to be overdone in the vicinity of Boston for 

 many years. Many of tho foreign cheeses, for which fancy 



