20 



pounds of cheese during the season of 1864, the net price of 

 which was $19. GO per hundred pounds. During 18(55 eleven 

 factories were in operation, — some of them, however, only 

 a short time, — and the same number in 18(36. 



In the latter year nine of them reported an aggregate 

 capital invested of $44,866.57 ; that the whole amount of 

 milk was 10,604,518 pounds, from which was made 1,072,705 

 pounds of cheese, which brought to the farmers, after paying 

 all expenses, $175,240.62. Early in 1869 it was reported 

 that there were not less than twenty factories in successful 

 oj)eration in Massachusetts. Ten of these reported an 

 aggregate of 1,095,850 pounds of cheese made in 1868. The 

 aggregate capital in 1871 of thirteen factories was reported 

 as about i:^(>0,(^00 ; that 10,233,450 pounds of milk were 

 used and 948,876 pounds of cured cheese produced. Of 

 these factories the New Braintrec led, with an invested 

 capital of $9,000; using 1,679,351 pounds of milk, making 

 165,552 pounds of cured cheese, yielding a net income of 

 $10.71 per hundred pounds. It is impossible at the present 

 time to state the date when this association was dissolv^ed. 

 " The organization had its inception at the time of the intro- 

 duction of the factory system of making cheese. The factory 

 at Brimfield and the South Factor}" at Barre started the same 

 year, and were the first in the New England States to adopt 

 the S3'stem. It was a new era in the dairy business. The 

 meetings of the association lasted two daj's and one evening, 

 with lectures from the best then known speakers, — very 

 much such meetino:s as the Board now hold. Probably thev 

 were a stimulus to the Board, and, indirectly, the mother 

 of ' farmers' institutes ; ' and they only ceased when the 

 Board and institutes took up the work, and the selling of 

 milk became better than cheese-making, with Canada to 

 compete with." 



The exact number of cheese factories now in operation in 

 the Commonwealth is not known, but it is believed th6re are 

 but four. Returns from a portion of these only have been 

 received. It is estimated, however, that these factories in 

 1889 made about 150,000 pounds of cheese, usifig some 

 1,750,000 pounds of milk, and netting about 9 cents per 

 pound. In Boston the last seven months the wholesale price 



