Jp^armers' Institutes. 43 



tern of workiDg our dairy farms. This matter is of especial importance to Berk- 

 shire farmers, since it is conceded that dairying is the leading interest of Berk- 

 shire county. In his opinion the dairy business, including the nmking of butter, 

 cheese, etc., should be regarded as a manufacturing industry. He thought there 

 must be some change from the old method of butter-makicg, and that farmers 

 should be ready to adopt the new method ; there should also be changes in the 

 method of feeding cattle, for, without good feed, good butter cannot be made. 

 One of these changes, he thinks, is the silo, which, in the future, will become the 

 method of curing fodder. The next important matter is the working up of the 

 dairy product. As all the old methods of making tools have been changed, and 

 their manufacture is now in the hands of skilled workmen, so also the making of 

 butter should be in the hands of persons thoroughly skilled in the art. The or- 

 dinary creamery, to which all the milk from the farm, and not the cream alone, 

 is carried, is open to several serious objections. The gross cartage of the milk, 

 from a number of fai-ms, to such a creamery, involves a large item of expense, 

 time and trouble, which does not occur in individual dairying. Moreover, there 

 are good reasons for thinking that skim milk is of more value at home than else- 

 where. But in spite of these objections farmers have found it more profitable to 

 have their dairying skillfully done at such creameries than at home. Any farmer 

 can make as good butter as the ci-eamery can turn out, but he cannot afford to do 

 it. To make ten pounds of butter a day at home would if it was well made re- 

 quire the entire time of the farmer, but at the creamery 500 pounds can be made 

 in the same time, because the mechanical facilities are much superior, and there 

 is a skilled man to superintend all operations. Moreover the butter can be more 

 advantageously marketed from the creamery than from the private dairy. The 

 speaker thought that he should never live to see much higner prices for dairy 

 butter than it commanded to-day, but the cost of its production can be lessened 

 by having it made by the co-operative system, where only the cream is taken to 

 the factory. While certain individuals who patronize a creamery might perhaps 

 realize more money apiece by making their butter at home, he thought that the 

 whole number of patrons could realize a greater aggregate of gain than they 

 would if each had a private dairy. The tendency of farm products at the present 

 time to sell at lower prices should be taken into consideration by the dairyman. 

 One reason for this tendency is that the area of production is extending faster 

 than that of consumption. Another reason is that the consumption of butter les- 

 sons greatly — since butter is not a necessary article — whenever the price goes up. 

 To obviate the evils of the low prices on dairy products it is advisable for farmers 

 to lower the cost of production, and one of the best ways to do this is for farmers 

 to adopt the system of co-opei-ative dairying. The objections to creameries, 

 which he had mentioned, are overcome when the Fairlamb method of setting 

 milk is adopted by the farmers who patronize the creamery. This method 

 usually consists in setting the milk in deep cans surrounded by cold water, kept 

 at a uniform temperature. Every day a man from the creamery visits each farm, 

 and removes the cream, taking it to the factory and leaving the skim milk with 

 the farmer to dispose of as he pleases. It is valuable, and worth some two cents 

 a quart. He may use it for feeding, or a good quality of cheese can be made 

 from it. This method has been successfully adopted at the creamery at Hatfield, 

 Mass., where the farmers average twenty-seven cents a pound net for their butter, 

 and recently a creamery of the same kind has been estabhshed at Lee. Factories 



