THE DAIRY. 291 



ing factories throughout New England for the last year have 

 paid about two cents for the cream of a quart of milk, leav- 

 ing three quarters of a cent a quart, or whatever it may l)e, 

 remaining on the farmer's hands in the form of skim miik, 

 to be used as best it may. A good many factories, not 

 merely in New England, but the country over, take whole 

 milk and pay for it by the quart or hundred pounds. The 

 Amherst factory, which is making from six hundred to one 

 thousand pounds a day, — last June I think they made some- 

 thing over twenty-tivc thousand pounds of butter, — has been 

 paying us lately, net, between twenty-three and twenty-four 

 cents a pound for our cream. I think my last check for the 

 college was the September check, and my recollection is that 

 it was twenty-three and three-quarters cents for a pound of 

 butter. The October check will be better, because we are 

 on the upward scale now. 



Mr. Grinnell. Then our farmers had better continue tO' 

 sell their milk for three cents a quart. You say they only 

 get two and a quarter cents, and you allow three-quarters of 

 a cent for the skmi milk. That would make three cents » 

 quart. 



Major Alvord. On the face of it, the sale of milk at 

 three cents a quart would be equally good, but you have got 

 to offset against that the fact that the milk is depriving the 

 farm of its fertility, which must be broug'ht back in some 

 form, and also the fact that the farmer is saved the perplexi- 

 ties and expenses which attend the business of shipping 

 milk, which is a subject which others here present are better 

 able to discuss than I am. But the Avhole matter of cans, 

 shipments, commissions and losses comes in there to be con- 

 sidered. The factories are very generally in neighborhood 

 hands ; your dividends are sure. It is a good deal like your 

 road tax. The matter is in the hands of men whom you 

 know, and if you are not satisfied you can change thi 

 administration. You cannot always regulate these other 

 matters. 



Mr. IlooT. Perhaps I ought to make a statement of the 

 plan which is generally pursued here in disposing of milk. 

 The price of milk delivered at our station has hcon, for the 

 past year, eighteen cents for au eight-and-a-half quart can, 



