PRACTICAL PAPERS—BUTTER FACTORIES. 
217 
Again, the factories are able to obtain a larger price, because 
it costs the dealer no more to purchase the one hundred dairies 
combined than it would to purchase an individual dairy, and 
the uniformity and reliability of the product does not entail 
the losses that are constantly occurring in different small lots 
by reason of inferior quality. The factories, too, as we have 
previously remarked, relieve the farmer and his family from a 
great deal of drudgery, and unless the work can be done by 
members of the family, who cannot be employed profitably at 
other labors, it is a matter of economy to have the butter and 
cheese made at the factory, since what would take one hundred 
hands scattered over the country to do, is performed in the 
same time by three or four, when the milk is worked up to¬ 
gether in one place. 
The only serious complaint against the factory-system is in 
hauling the milk. This has been obviated in many instances, 
by establishing a route of milk-teams, where milk is delivered 
for the season by the payment of a small sum. 
THE SKIM CHEESE. 
We have referred to the manufacture of “ skim cheese” as 
a part of the butter-factory system. We have said that the cream 
is dipped from the milk while it is sweet, and that the latter 
then goes into the milk-vats for making “ skim cheese.” 
It should be remarked that at the butter factories the quan¬ 
tity of milk to be manipulated is usually much smaller than at 
the cheese factories. In making a fancy product it is found 
advisable that the delivery of milk be kept within moderate 
bounds, say from three hundred to four hundred cows. The 
factory milk-vats are all essentially alike in form and size. 
They hold from five hundred to six hundred gallons. 
There is a great variety of heating apparatus, boilers, steam¬ 
ers, tanks for hot water, and what is termed “self-heaters,” that 
is with fire-box attached to, and immediately below, the milk- 
vat. This kind of heater is very popular at the butter factories, 
as it consumes but little fuel, is easily managed, and does as 
good work as the best. 
