26 BULLETIN 182, V. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



receives from 10 to 13 gallons of spent mash daily. The daily aver- 

 age yield of milk per cow is about 2.3 gallons. 



Five men are employed in the distillery — one master distiller, one 

 assistant, two laborers, and a fireman. The master distiller is also 

 a sort of general-utility man, having general charge of all the ma- 

 chinery, the superintendence of the buildings, etc. Moreover, he 

 must be something of an electrical engineer, as he also has charge 

 of the dynamos used for both light and power, including field power, 

 Heie, as in Dahlem. no alcohol is used on the estate for technical or 

 industrial purposes, electricity and steam being employed. 



In this connection attention should be called to the electric rail- 

 way operated on the estate. It has already been stated that it is 

 about a 15-minute walk from the station to the estate buildings. 

 These buildings are connected with the State railway by a track on 

 which cars are hauled by an electric locomotive. Thus coal is 

 brought directly to the distillery, and the alcohol, when released by 

 the revenue officer, is hauled by rail in carload lots directly to Berlin, 

 each car containing about 15 barrels having a capacity of about 119 

 gallons each. 



Another matter of general interest is the system by which the ac- 

 counts are kept. These are systematized, it would seem, by account- 

 ants of the agricultural society. Thus the dairy was charged with 

 $2,875 for the previous year, including liberal items for fodder raised 

 on the estate, for management, etc. If, on an average, 237 gallons 

 of milk are obtained daily and 210 gallons are sold in Berlin at a 

 little over 5 cents per quart (0.25 mark per liter), the income from 

 this source ma}^ be estimated at $42 per day, to which should be 

 added the price obtained for the fattened cows when they cease to 

 be valuable for milldng purposes. 



According to the statement of the owner, the distillery in itself 

 does not pay, but when it is regarded as part of the entire estate it 

 does pay.^ In the foregoing estimate of expenditures of the dairy 

 business of the estate, the distillery receives a credit of 4.1 cents for 

 the spent mash derived from every bushel of potatoes used. 



The owner stated that in spite of the fact that the estate has 100 

 milch cows, 40 oxen, and 32 horses, besides calves, pigs, and chickens, 

 he is still compelled to buy stable manure. In addition, he uses large 

 quantities of artificial fertilizers, a fair-sized building being de- 

 voted to the latter. The soil about Berlin is very light and sandy, 

 and evidently needs much stimulation to produce crops that it will 



1 Recently Pi-of. Delbriick warned against trying to introduce the manufacture of 

 alcohol on too small a scale. In this connection he has figured out the cost of a gallon 

 of alcohol when made in a small distillery and compared it with the cost of the same 

 quantity when made in a large distillery. These figures, he said, were decidedly against 

 the small distillery and were used by others as an argument against the agricultural 

 distilleries. The justification of the small agricultural distilleries lies in their relation 

 to agriculture as a whole. 



