298 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



four cont.s ;i quart or more, they would be just as unreliable. 

 We eanuot depend upon any report from any two cows ; we 

 have got to cover a very large field. If Mr. Porter is here, 

 I w^ould like to have him tell us what their milk is worth a 

 quart, for a rough guess. 



Mr. Portp:r. I have no figures with me or in memory. 

 We have our superintendent and treasurer, who has charge 

 of all the business. I think, however, I am not wrong in say- 

 ing that we get three cents a quart the year round, although 

 ours is a small factory. We were the first that started, and 

 we are not in a butter-makinsr town. We are on the Connec- 

 ticut River, where the land is rich and our farmers raise 

 tobacco mostly ; but there are a few of us who have cows 

 and wanted to go into this system. I must say that we 

 have not made so much as we should if we had better cows. 

 We have made three or four hundred pounds a day, l)ut the 

 herds of some of our farmers have been scattered, and some 

 of them have moved out of the township, so that we are 

 left with not so many cows as we formerly had ; but we still 

 keep the thing going. 



Major Alvord. How much does your butter cost a 

 pound y 



JNIr. Porter. It costs us six cents a pound. We hire 

 one man to gather the cream, who takes it to the factory, 

 churns his butter, furnishes his fuel for the engine, finds his 

 own salt, markets the butter, pays the rent for the building 

 and various incidental expenses, for six cents a pound. 



Mr. Washburn. What is the lowest return per pound 

 for the last year. 



Mr. Porter. I should say, in the hottest weather in the 

 summer, from twenty-two to twenty-three cents. We are 

 selling it now for thirty, thirty-two and thirty-three cents a 

 pound. 



Mr. Wheeler. The creamery with which I am connected 

 has not been in operation long enough for me to give any 

 statistics that would be of value on this line. I wish to 

 call attention to one point to which Major Alvord did not 

 allude. When you come to the question of associated 

 dairying as compared with individual dairying, one advan- 

 tage that the associated system has is the facilities which it 



