The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1874-04-03
TERMS $500 PER ANNUM IN ADVANCE.

L.
iast season was 42.040 lbs. CT over 21 tons.
Ts.e price obtained, Is 1-2 cts. per lb.
AU"- eaiue OF cheese In market $6616.30.
IL 'asc c"st OF manufacture IL cts. per
~. average number OF pounds OF milk TO a
Rounu ts ol cneese clio cr fraction over 91-2
s1o .nd ssS price OF shares $25; extremes
?iV anu $oO. The number of cows 61rnish-
ing milk to those factories ranosd rro,, on 70
.oo 70 eacn. The work in ia tory manu-
featuring the milk of or 400 cows q hut
little more than in one of 100.
So we have accepted this specially in
farming in Waldo county and so far the mem
bers OF different companies are entirely sat
isfed with the results.
Let us consider briefly the subject Of as
sociated daiying in some of it, most impor-
tant bearings. 1t is fact and a crying evil
that majority of the farms la Maine are de-
notwithstanding poorer and less valuable
year by year. And why? Because the orig
inal richness ana fertility of our soils have
been wholly or partly exhausted by our farm
ing system which has taken nom th EN- year
by year more than has been returned. We
extract and sell OF raw material-bay, po-
tatoes and grains, neglecting to make cor
responl ling returns. hence we are constantly
impoverishing the SOIL Associated diirying
put IN practice would he step toward stop
ping this drain from the farm. Cheese lac
tories require milk; more milk means more
cows; the keeping OF more cows requires the
consumption Of the hay and grain, or the
faIm products, upon the farm. all Of which
means more manure which must be returned
to the soil, so that every sea on a cheese
factory operates in a peighborhood the farms
supplying milk ale arOwing just so much
richer and more valuable.
This in my opinion Is the strongest argu-
ment yet adjuced in favor of cheese factories
this gradual and sure though small in
crease IN the fertility OF our farms.
Then it is no doubt fact that the more
condensed the form in which we can market
our farm products the better it pays. An old
saying is that successful iarmer will market
his crops on four legs, meaning that he will
sell it in the form Of live stock which have
been used as machines TO concentrate the
raw products, but if we marker them 10 the
form OF cheese or butter we have reached
step higher and are still nearer success.
As to competition. Some will say we can
not compete with the middle and Western
States in the production OF cheese. Why not?
We have several advantages. In the first
place land is not so valuable here as In The
cheese producing sections farther west. Stock
is cheaper here help can be obtained az less
rates, and certainly our prices are far in ad-
vance. That we can produce as good quail
ty Of cheese has certainly been demonstrated
beyond doubt. Waldo Co. factory cheese
placed side by side with Western in our re
tail stores have been pref r. ed BY consumers
in nine cases out OF ten. Ninety-five per
cent. Of our factory cheese have proved to oe
first quality, and this zoo in our ibexper:ence.
Cheese making by the factory system is not
an injury to the general dairy interest in the
State; it is just otherwise. The market TOR
butter and cheese will be better. Said
one of the leading darymen in my town at
our dairymen's meeting;-'I believe in
cheese factories though cannot furnish milk
for them. But they make better market
for my butter. So it is. OF course dairymeu
living near cities and large villages which give
them a sure market for milk at from six to
eight cents per quart and butter from thirty
six to forty-fve cents per ID. cannot afford to
support cheese factories; hut the great mass
OF our farmers are not thus luckily situated,
and it is for them that cheese factories are es-
pecially desirable.
One word as to the social bearing of thelques-
tion. 1t is almost impossible to procure suit
able female help on tn, farm. and farmers
wives are proverbially an overworked class.
| To them cheese factory consuming the milk
| from the farm is perfect god-send as il re-
| lieves them fro1 the drudgery Of the dairy in
hot summer months and especially during the
| haying season when household duties weigh
most heavily upon delicate shoulders.
Then there Is the transportation question,
that problem which our Western friends are
graphing with so persistently and we hope
successfully. Take my section ct The State
as an example. The cod oil hauling or trans
porting a ton of farp products to market at
| Belfast. from mos CT the towns in Waldo
| Co.. where cheese factories are organized is
| about two dollas. Thus it costs 50, 10 mar
| ket ton of pressed hay, which is one OF our
| priucipal parket products. and 81 10 market
| a ton OF e1eese. In one case the value OF the
PRODUCTS SIS; in the other 1920. In other
wordy it costs $40 to market $3.50 worth of
hay and only 50 to market 1920 worth of
cheese. This is an item not 20 be overlooked,
and when we take into consideration the fact
that cheese factories can just as well be oper-
ated in localities so far from n market that hay
and coarse products are oil small marketable
value on account Of the cost of t,ansporta-
tion, the subject becomes OF the greatest i'm
portance. ,
These are several other important points
connected with the subject, suches the d. SIR
ability and pIacrcaSility of con- bining the
manufacture OF both cheese and butter in the
same factory so as to consume the milk dur
ing most Of the year. the necessity OF breeding
dairy stock combining certain qualities, &C.,
to which have not time to iefer.
Do not understand me as saying that in
associated dairying our farmers bave found .
short cut to prosperity, panacea for farming
| ills, nor that by engaging in il they will be-
| come suddenly ricb,-but as means OF rem
ovating our old and wornout farmer as help
to careworn overworked farmers wives: as
safe and fair paying investment, and as step
in the direction of agricultural progress, I
think it would he well for every farming COM
munity in the State, favoraby situated, to
give the subject careful consideration.