Vermont farmer. [volume] (Newport, Orleans County, Vt.) 1870-1877, 1873-07-11
Gbe Qairp.
CHEESE MAKING.

A Paper Read by Hon. L.. ID. Mason, OF Ver-
mont, before the ST. Lawrence County, N.
", DaIrymen's Association, Feb. 25th,
1873.
OF all the industrial occupations aud pur-
suits, farmers are said to be the slowest to
make improvement, the most firmly welded
to old ideas and old methods, the lust TO see
that any change can be made for the better.
No pursuit in which man can engage re-
qures more constant, careful watch TO detect
errors in ideas and methods aud to discover
better ways The gathering of dairymen
here to-day shows desire for improvement
and that is the first great step toward attain
ment No man or body of men ever set
themselves honestly and earnestly to the ac-
QUESTION of better knowledge of their busi-
ness without some success. Let no farmer
say then that Agricultural Societies, Far
mers' Clubs, Boards of Trade or Dairymcn's
Associations are useless waste of time and
money,
They are all the evidence and the
outgrowth of a desire to increase the amount
and quality Of our productions, to improve the
breeds of our stock and our methods Of keep.
ing it. m".I taf
1t is for this that we are here to-day to
take counsel together. 1t might seem at first
thought, after so many thousand years ex-
perience of the human race in producing
subsistence from the soil that very little would
now be left for US to do but to follow in the
beaten paths of our fathers that just what
methods would produce the largest yields of
any given crops; that just what breeds Of
stock, and what system of feed would for the
least labor and expense give the best results
or that all the minutest details necessary to
produce pound Of cheese or butter Of the
best quality for the least outlayj that all
these matters would now be perfectly well
settled and understood, and put in practice
by every one engaged in the business, 50 that
the mission of Agricultural Colleges, Far,
mers Clubs State Boards, and Dairymen's s
Associations. would have been accomplished,
and their day Of usefulness passed away, But
if we take only aslight and rapid survey of the
field, we see a condition Of things that ought
to satisfy any one that the necessity for more
light, for more knowledge, and for better
ways, is more pressing than ever. When we
see one doing the best he knows and gather
ing as result of seasons hard labor s to
Is bushels Of wheat, 20 to 30 bushels of oats,
20 to 30 bushels Of corn, and from onehalf
to one ton Of hay, to the acre and another
working on the same kind Of soil producing
so to 90 bushels Of corn, the same Of oats,
25 20 40 of wheat and two tons of hay per
acre one keeping flock of sheep that will
yield lbs. of wool each, and another flock
that will cat no more, and will yield 9 lbs,i
one keeping dairy that will produce $50
lbs of cheese per COW, that will sell for IL
cents, and another with dairy that costs but
triAe if any more to keep, but yielding 400
lbs Of cheese per COW, which sells more read
| lily for Is to lS cts. per pound; where we
see all this great difference of results from the
same kind Of operations, We may see that the
field of labor for improvement is broad enough
for all to find plenty of work to do. Just
how this important work is to be done | shall