296 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



tions which it seems to me should determine this question to 

 the satisfaction of practical men who are selling milk or 

 who arc making butter. 



Major Alvord. I, of course, can express only my indi- 

 vidual opinion. There are, no doubt, gentlemen here who 

 have had experience with factories that handle whole milk, 

 but certaiuly from my own observation I have been fully 

 convinced that the cream-gathering system is the one which 

 gives the most satisfactory results. That is a system by 

 which the milk is set for creaming upon various farms, the 

 milk is skimmed, and the cream taken to the creamery by 

 the agent. 



Mr. Root. By the Cooley process, or some other? 



Major Alvord. I do not think that makes so much dif- 

 ference. If there is uniformity on the part of patrons in 

 the way in which they handle their milk, I am not prepared 

 to say that one set of tools is any better to do the work 

 than another. I think that the work (although good tools 

 are a necessity) generally depends on the workman ; and 

 with reasonably good tools a man in these days can get 

 about all there is out of his milk, no matter what the sys- 

 tem may be, and that there is no such difference between 

 factories differently equipped in that respect as would make 

 it fair for me, at least, to say that one set of appliances is 

 any better than another. In fact, there are factories using 

 things as different as the old-fiishioned shallow pan, or 

 its equivalent, the Ferguson Bureau Creamery, as opposed to 

 the different forms of shallow setting, the Lincoln & Moseley, 

 and other systems, and they all seem to be doing equally 

 well. Others prefer open pails set in water, without any 

 covering at all, and they get very satisfactory results. I 

 think there are none of those in New England, but they are 

 quite common in New Jersey and in New York. 



Let me add, that I am not willing to admit that, as a rule, 

 the butter factories in New England receive less than the 

 value of three cents a quart for their milk, on an average, 

 through the year. I am not prepared to support that now 

 by an array of focts and figures, but I have the data at 

 home, and I am so thoroughly convinced, that I will risk t?he 

 assertion that they will bear out the statement that the butter 



