The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1885-03-21
THE EuGIN DAIRY REGION.
A Section Famous for Choice Butter an
Cheese Production.


The region of Elgin, H., is famous
for the production of the choicest butter
and cheese made in the United States;
md an account of the methods practiced
there will be interesting and profitable.
The soil is the usual black loan notice.
able on the prairies, and grass grows
spontaneously wherever it can secure
stand. No crops are cultivated except
corn and oats, and every farm is a
dairy. Elgin is the center of the dis
tr1ct, and contains no creameries within
the city proper, but the enterprising
dairymen of the surrounding country,
by the organization of a Board of Trade
and Exchange, succeed in attracting
customers for their product from all sec
tons. The butter and cheese are sold
by sample in the rooms of the Board,
and every one who uses the rooms as
medium for the sale of goods is COM
PEELED to furnish articles in strict accord
ance with the samples The butter and
cheese are graded and classified and the
prices obtained vary, of course, with the
quality of the products. Any commu-
nifty of farmers may thus easily build up
market for their goods in the same
manner. the secret of success being that
all articles are sold upon their merits.
Grass being stable crop. and seldom
failure, the dairymen have excellent
pasturage in summer with an abundant
supply of hay for winter, while the large
farms are provided for with silos. and
ensilage is made an important adjunct
to the hay. The corn and oats are fed
usually in the ground condition, and
though admitting the value of roots for
feeding the crops of such are not large.
Wheat is not grown, nor are farms sup
piled with variety of fruit, with the
exception of apples and cherries. There
being several large horse-breeding es-
adjustments in the region, the equine
stock is excellent, consisting of grade
PercheroDs and Clydesdales. The
creameries are owned by individuals,
who buy the milk at fixed pf1ce from
the dairymen, though some of the dali
ries are operated on the cooperative sys-
tenn. The milk brought to the cream
cries carefully tested as to quality, that
being below certain standard refused.
The refuse whey and buttermilk is sold,
the patrons of the creameries having
the preference of purchase, it being
used for feeding to pigs. The cream is
separated from the milk by the centrif-
ugal process, and the entire work Of
butter-making is done by machinery.
The skinned milk is made into cheese.
the fat being provided in the shape Of
lard, but such cheese is not, however,
sold at the same price as that made
from the entire milk.
The dairymen have long been accus-
toned to the practice of buying fresh
COWS and selling those that become dry,
the calves being sacrificed when only
few days old; but as the Holsteins have
been introduced, and the results from
such cows so superior to the former
stock, dairymen are learning the fact
that it is to their advantage to raise
their own cows. which are certain to
yield largely, instead of buying any
kind OF stock that may be offered. In
addition to the large quantities of milk
used by the creameries, trains of cars
daily carry thousands of cans to Chica-
60. the prices ranging from two cents
per quart at the creameries to three and
four cents in the city.
Although on many farms sufficient
food is grown for the stock, yet the ma
jority Of dairymen purchase bran, ship
stuff and oilcake and save their manure
carefully. This practice assists very
materially in retaining fertility, as the
constant marketing of the elements
of the soil, in the shape of milk, would,
in the course of time, cause the soil to
become impoverished. Being naturally
very fertile, and well adapted to nearly
all kinds of grass, the farmers find that
by the sale Of milk alone they can de-
rive larger profit than by growing
crops for market. A glucose factory
furnishes refuse, which is utilized hy
the farmers. and with their whole atten-
ton given to dairying, and the feeding
Of the soil annually, they hare but little
fear of failure BY the concentration
of efforts the Elgin dairymen have Gre
ated market for their products near
their farms, and a ready sale is found
for all their produce. The production
Of milk, butter and cheese is very large
and bids fair to increase on each farm
every year, a. improvements is taking
DlAoo annually - Ehi2uxIsls,1iu Rern,,S