40 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



The average selling price of the product of the Hatfield 

 creamery for the year has been 341 cents, and for the Hamp- 

 ton creamery 35 cents. During the same period the average 

 for the best dairy butter Inis been less than 30 cents. The 

 Hatfield creamery, by close management, has kept its ex- 

 })enses down to 3| cents a pound, and thus netted its patrons 

 for every 114 cubic inches of cream (not quite two quarts), 

 something over 30 cents, or more than the average price 

 of home-made batter. In Easthampton, the effect of send- 

 ing creamery butter Irom town, several thousand pounds 

 a month, has been to create a scarcity in the local market, 

 and keep the price of dairy butter higher than ever known 

 tliere before. In this instance, the cow owners not con- 

 tributing to the factory have been benefited by its existence 

 almost as much as the patrons themselves. 



The general effect of this kind of factory has been to 

 produce as much money revenue from a given number of 

 cows as ever before, wdiile the cow owners and their families 

 liave been saved all the time, labor and annoyance of 

 making- and marketing the butter. 



As nearly as can be ascertained, the patrons of these new 

 factories have obtained for the cream of their milk, skimmed 

 and removed by the factory agents, almost three cents to 

 every quart of milk, being nearly if not quite as much as 

 obtained on the average by the producers of whole milk, 

 who have sold it, in this State. Besides this, with no 

 more labor than in the case of milk-selling, the factory 

 patrons have had all their skim- milk left sweet upon their 

 farms. Judiciously used, this is worth at least a cent a quart 

 more. I believe, from all I can learn, that those farmers 

 who have during the present year sent their cream to Fair- 

 lamb butter-factories in Massachusetts, have netted just 

 about four cents a quart for their whole milk produce, with 

 a minimum of dairy labor. 



One important point is as to the equity of the system 

 among the different cow owners contributing to a factory. 

 How does the owner of the best of butter-stock, well kept, 

 compare with his neighbor who has inferior cattle? Perfec- 

 tion is not claimed for the system, but it certainly comes 

 nearer to perfect equity among the patrons of a factory 



