290 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



I do not believe that there is any need of going any tiir- 

 ther on this subject in the way of opening, but I should be 

 very glad to answer any questions which may be asked. I 

 think that is the l)etter way from this time on. And let me 

 add, that I think there are those here who have had much 

 more practical experience than I have had who wi^'-be glad 

 to answer questions, as glad as I shall be, and to whom I 

 shall take the liberty of referring personally if I cannot 

 answer any question. 



Mr. Grinnell. Can you tell what the farmers receive 

 per quart for their milk at any creamery within your knowl- 

 edge in Massachusetts? You have one at Amherst, I know 

 they have one at Hadley, and I do not know but that there 

 are others. 



Major Alvord. That is a very difficult question to answer, 

 because the patrons of the different factories differ so much 

 in the ratio of cream to milk. A cream gatherer may go 

 to one farm where ten cows are kept, and get a certain quan- 

 tity of cream, and from a neighboring farm he may get the 

 same amount of cream from fifteen cows. He may get from 

 one farm a certain amount of cream which makes, say, ten 

 pounds of l)utter from a given amount of milk, and from the 

 next farm he may get milk enough to furnish cream sufficient 

 to make ten pounds of butter, and yet tbe milk may be much 

 more, because of the different quality of the cows. I may, 

 however, answer the question from my knowledge of the 

 details of these matters. I know of some factories where the 

 dividend per pound of butter has ranged during the year in 

 the neighborhood of twenty-five, twenty-three and twenty- 

 six cents, where, as near as the facts could be obtained, it 

 required ten or eleven quarts of milk to make a pound of 

 butter the year through . In these cases the farmers were 

 getting two and a quarter cents a quart, not for their milk, 

 but two and a quarter cents for the cream that every quart of 

 milk produced, and the}^ had their milk left sweet on their 

 hands at home. 



Mr. Myrick. And none of the work of butter making? 



Major Alvord. None of the work of butter making. 

 The value of that milk would depend upon the use to which 

 they could put it. But generally I think the cream-gather- 



