392 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



A great change has been witnessed in the dairy season in 

 the last few decades. Large sections where formerly only 

 summer dairies were kept now make winter the principal 

 season for prosecuting this business. In some instances this 

 amounts to entire suspension of dairying during the summer 

 months. The Connecticut valley is a notable example of 

 this transition. Here, on many farms where large winter 

 dairies arc kept, the number of cows is reduced to the mini- 

 mum in summer, to allow the farmer the time needed for 

 tillage operations and work on special crops, such as onions 

 and tobacco. A more profitable system in most cases would 

 appear to be that of perennial dairying, for which these 

 reasons may be advanced. 



First, where dair3dng does not continue throughout the 

 year, the market is general, and the prices of its products, if 

 not low, are not higher than those for the country at large. 

 Producers cannot secure private trade at the flush season 

 unless they are prepared to take care of their customers when 

 the supph^ is short. It is a business principle that the time 

 to secure valuable trade is when competitors find it difficult 

 to provide for the wants of their customers. To be able to 

 furnish the goods at such times is to demonstrate one's abil- 

 ity to do so at all times. So, in the butter business, our best 

 creameries and private dairies are able to defy competition 

 when they can furnish choice goods in uniform quantity 

 throughout the year ; while in proportion to the fluctuation 

 in their su})])ly they are handicapi)ed in finding satisfactory 

 markets for their })r()ducts. 



When the creamery, Avith a large private trade which pays 

 several cents more than the general market, finds its cream 

 sup})ly cut down to a low figure, it must either drop a part 

 of its trade, — which once lost is not easil}^ regained, — or 

 else supply this trade with purchased goods, — purchased at 

 a high ]irice in a short season. This latter method either 

 reduces the profits on purchased products to very little, and 

 perhaps even to a loss, or else entails the risk of dissatisfac- 

 tion and loss of custom by the substitution of other and 

 inferior i^oods for those with which customers are familiar. 



If the creamery is co-ojierative, the })atron's profit is less, 



