JOURNAL 
OF TIIK 
ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY 
OF E^^GLA^^D. 
1. — The American Butter Factories and Butter Manufacture. 
By X. A. WiLLARD, A.M., of Herkimer, [New York. Lec- 
turer at the Maine State Agricultural College, &c., &c. 
Introduction. 
The American System of Associated Dairies was inaugurated 
during the early part of 1851. Though 20 years have elapsed 
since the plan was conceived, the leading features of the system 
remain unchanged. Great improvements, it is true, have been 
made in buildings and dairy apparatus and in the methods of 
manipulating milk for cheese and butter manufacture ; still, in 
organizing factories, in the manner of delivering milk, in the 
relation between manufacturer and patron, in the care and dis- 
posal of the product, — indeed, in all the general outlines of the 
system, — it is the same to-day as when Jesse Williams, in 1850, 
mapped it out for the first cheese-factory which he erected early 
the following year. 
After 19 years' experience in associated - dairying, during 
which time the system has been put to the severest tests, the 
American dairyman finds it more economical as regards labour, 
buildings, dairy machinery, and appliances ; while the factory- 
product on an average will sell for enough more than that made 
in the individual farm-dairy to pay the entire cost of making. 
Another important result of the system has been a constant 
improvement in dairy management, and the better knowledge of 
all that pertains to milk and its products, than would naturally 
obtain under the old system. It has established a special 
profession or calling, upon which men enter with a view of 
making it a sole business. They, therefore, seek to perfect 
themselves in it, and as skill and success are sure to be properly 
VOTi. VII. — s. S. B 
