PRACTICAL PAPERS—BUTTER FACTORIES. 
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the New York market. From so long attention to a specialty, 
the butter of Orange county, as was to be expected, was of fine 
quality, acquired a high reputation, and commanded better 
prices than any other brand made in the State. By adopting, 
however, the associated system, together with a new plan for 
setting the milk and obtaining the cream, the product has 
risen to the highest point of excellence, and in consequence 
extraordinary prices are paid for it. 
But the farmers under this system have not only reaped 
better prices for their butter, they have also obtained an addi¬ 
tional gain from the skimmed milk, which, under the old sys¬ 
tem, was fed to swine, but which now is turned into a palata¬ 
ble cheese. This cheese goes into the southern states ; it is 
shipped to China and the East Indies, and not unfrequently 
commands a price but little below that made from whole milk. 
As the manufacture of skimmed cheese is a part of the but¬ 
ter factory system, we shall speak of it more fully under its 
appropriate head. 
THE GRASSES. 
Before entering upon the question of butter manufacture and 
factory management, it will be proper to say a word concern¬ 
ing the food of stock. The excellence of “ fancy butter ” does 
not depend altogether upon its manufacture, for, in the first 
place, good milk must be secured. 
“Fancy butter,” that will sell fora dollar per pound, cannot 
be made from bad material, from milk produced on weedy pas¬ 
tures, or upon the rank sour herbage of swamps, or upon land 
newly seeded with red clover. The experienced butter dairy¬ 
men, therefore, pay much attention to the feed of their cows, 
and prefer old pastures. 
On the old pastures of the butter district there are several 
varieties of grasses that spring up spontaneously, and are mftch 
esteemed as affording sweet and nutritious feed, from which 
the best qualities of milk and butter are produced. These grasses 
form a dense solid turf, leaving no intervening spaces. They 
embrace the June, or blue grass (poa pratensis), the fowl mead- 
