44 Housatonic Agricultural Society. 



of this kind have the best facilities for setting cream. It is well known that there 

 is a particular point when cream is at its best stage, ani at the factory the cream 

 can always be handled when at this stage, but the farmer who makes butter at 

 home cannot, because of other duties, handle the cream each day at just the time 

 it should be handled. George Wheeler, of Monterey, then inquired of the speaker 

 whether there were any statistics to show the difference in profit between creamery 

 and home-made butter. The answer was, that but few farmers keep accounts, 

 for said the speaker, ''when I took the census in 1875, not twenty men in the 

 town of Great Barrington could give the correct amount of their dairy products, 

 but as I had tested the matter by keeping accounts in my own diary I assisted 

 them, otherwise the returns would have been greatly out of the way. It is im- 

 portant that farmers should keej) accounts, and be able to tell what cows produce 

 the most butter or give the most milk. If your cream is taken to the creamery 

 you will know exactly how much milk it takes to make a pound of butter. Tak- 

 ing the season through, the saving would be amazing if deep setting of milk was 

 practiced." The speaker then described all the advantages of deep setting of 

 milk, and said that if a farmer had the best cows, he would get the credit for 

 them under the creamery system. 



James Bullard, of Lee, president of the Creamery Association, described 

 what has been done at Lee. He agreed with Mr. Wheeler as to the advantages 

 of deep setting and of the co-operative system for making better butter which 

 will bring a higher price, as in Iowa where there are 350 creameries, and the pro- 

 duct brings much more than in Massachusetts. The creamery system has a ten- 

 dency to get poor cows out of the way, as one man said in Lee the other day, ' ' If 

 I send my cream to the creamery my farm must be stocked with better cows," 

 On Monday the Lee creamery made its first lot of butter, and 200 pounds of it 

 were sold on the same day. 



F. K. Hinckley, of Lee, approved of creameries. One of the disadvantages 

 of private dairying is that the cream made on several different days is mixed to- 

 gether and churned, whereas the cream manipulated in the creamery is all of the 

 same age, and is similar. He thought that cream of the same age would work 

 into butter much better than cream of different ages. For beef, or as matched 

 cattle, or for butter, he had yet to find the equal of the Durham cattle. 



Henry W. Sheldon, of New Marlboro, gave his experience in sending milk to 

 the Sheffield factory, and after a few more questions were put and answered, the 

 institute, shortly after one o'clock, adjourned. 



NINTH INSTITUTE. 



The Society held their ninth Institute in the Town Hall, Great Barrington, 

 on Tuesday, November 22, 1881. In the absence of the President, the meeting 

 was called to order by Vice President Lester T. Osborne, of Alford, at 11 o'clock, 

 a. m. , but on account of the small attendance at that hour, it was decided to ad- 

 journ until 1 o'clock, p. m., at which time the meeting was again convened. 



The subject proposed for discussion was "THE BREEDS OF CATTLE 

 BEST SUITED TO THE NEEDS OF BERKSHIRE FARMERS, AND THE 

 BEST METHODS OF FEEDING." 



Vice-President Osborne called on M. I. Wheeler, of Great Barrington, to 

 open the discussion. Mr. Wheeler said that those present at the last meeting 



