CHAP. vni. DAIRY FACTORIES. 351 



Dairying in the United States of America has long been celebrated 

 for the system with which its details have been carried out, even on 

 farms which we should consider as very small a system which 

 embraces not merely the arrangement of the buildings, but the fitting 

 up with various contrivances, and the application in working of diffe- 

 rent kinds of appliances ; all calculated to economise time and save 

 labour both necessities of the situation in which American farmers 

 find themselves, with respect to the difficulty of securing farm servants. 

 As our readers are generally aware, the United States Government 

 have a department which concerns itself wholly with agriculture. This 

 department has done a vast deal of work since the date of its establish- 

 ment, in the way of appointing commissions of practical men to inquire 

 into various subjects exciting attention amongst, and likely to be of 

 service to, farmers, publishing reports, &c. Convinced of the import- 

 ance of attending to the production of butter and cheese with a view 

 to getting rid of the necessity of importing supplies of these from 

 foreign countries a commission was despatched many years ago to 

 Europe, for the purpose of instituting inquiries in all the countries 

 in which there were districts or localities celebrated for their dairy 

 produce. The report published by the commission, which extended 

 over a very wide range of countries and of districts, was perhaps the 

 most valuable ever issued on any agricultural subject ; and this, being 

 widely and wisely distributed through the United States, gave an 

 impetus to dair}dng which it has never since failed to feel the force of. 

 It gave rise to the systematic working already alluded to, the latest 

 and most successful phase or outcome of which is the " factory 

 system," of which doubtless the majority of our readers have heard, 

 and of which there are now in this country a number of examples. 



As usual in the case of all new movements, so in this ; the proposal 

 to establish the system met with great opposition. This was not to 

 be wondered at when it came from quarters from which it might with 

 some reason be expected to flow, where an interference with private 

 enterprise was expected and feared ; but that it should come from 

 those who had not this excuse, if indeed &ny, to make, was a matter of 

 surprise to some and disappointment to many. But to some minds all 

 innovations are bad ; and it is only when they become successes that 

 they are considered in the more favourable light. 



That the factory system is possessed of great advantages, even from 

 a commercial point of view, a fair and candid review of all the circum- 

 stances connected with it will lead the majority of inquirers to admit ; 

 but that there are difficulties in the way of carrying it out in some dis- 

 tricts, and that in a few it is not at all applicable, even its warmest 

 supporters will readily allow. It would indeed be a singularly suc- 

 cessful movement which was found to be applicable to all circumstances 

 and all localities. 



We cannot, from lack of space, give a full account of all the features 

 connected with the system ; nor, if space were at command, would that 

 be necessary, as not coming within the scope of our work. We can 

 only glance at its leading features, those chiefly which involve points 



