Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1895-02-07
COME, FARMERS /!
DON'T LET THE CREAMERY SLIP
AWAY FROM YOU.
A VISIT TO SOME OF THE FARMERS OF
ORRINGTON WHO SELL TO
THE CREAMERY.

spirit characteristic of him, at the in
stance of the committee on manufactures
of the board of trade, has made trip to
Orrington for the purpose of talking with
the farmers and studying the effects of
the creamery system in that locality.l
Orrington is a village nine or ten miles
from Bangor. 1t will be seen at once
that the Orrington farmers have market
for their butter, eggs, milk and produce
superior to that offered the farmers in this
vicinity. When the Bangor creamery
started, many Orr,ngton farmers hesitat-
ed about patronizing it, thinking, some
OF them, that il they could sell their butter
at Bangor all the year round for about
twenty-five cents per pound this would
be doing better than by selling their
cream to the butter factory. But they
did not correctly figure cost of labor in
making their own butter and carrying it
to market, to say nothing of the chances
of loss in having dealings with SO many
customers.
Now no farmer in Orrington pretends
to make business of making butter and
marketing it at Bangor. All sell cream to
the creamery. There is no instance of a
person having changed from the cream
cry to the old system of home made but
ter, marketed by personal labor. Many
farmers sell all their cream, and buy
creamery butter for their own use.
Many persons in Ellsworth know
Howard Richardson, who used to be in
business with Alderman j. p. Eldridge.
Mr.. Richardson has an exceedingly in
teresting place at Orrington. He bought
farm there about six years ago. He has
made business of selling cream to the
factory for about two years. Mr.. Sowle
had the pleasure of looking over his
whole plant. He has two barns-one
hay barn, the other devoted to hay and
COWS. He is now milking fourteen cows,
and proposes to increase the number to
twenty-five in the near future.
On the side of the COW barn next the
tie-up he has built a shed-roof addition,
divided into three parts. The first con-
tains a watering trough, the water being
carried in pipes from well on hill near
by. He has a constant supply of clear,
running water. There is room here for
four or five COWS to drink at once. In
another part is a room which he calls
creamery, which opens into the third
| compartment, which is the lee house.
The women of the household have
1t goes from he barn into the creamery,
and is there handled and the cream de-
ivered to the collector. The SKINNED
milk is fed largely to the pigs,
Mr.. Sowle talked with the members of
several households, and In many cases
| found that the wives did not know how
many COWS We're kept. This shows that a
great burden is removed from the
woman's shoulders. All women are in
favor of the creamery system.
Mr. Richardson's two years experience
in the creamery system has been very
satisfactory in every way. He says that
he is now getting more money off his
farm than he ever got before. His cream
netted him a fraction less than twenty
cents per pound Of butter during the last
year. More money comes into the vii
lage, and the farmers are more prosperous
than ever before. They all say the cream
cry has done it.
The condition of the village goes to
show recent increase in prosperity.
New paint goes on; recent additions are
visible; fences and all farm buildings
look heater and better kept. II man
wants to know what creamery will do,
he may go to Orrington and spend day.
Mr.. Sowle also interviewed Arthur
King, OF Orrington, a farmer who always
had market for all his produce at Ban
gor. He now keeps larger number of
cows, and sells to the creamery. He is
much pleased with the result, and says
that he is getting more profit han he
ever got before. This seems to be the
general verdict of the whole village.
The method of operation of the Bangor
creamery is very similar to the proposed
operations here. The Babcock test is
used in testing the cream. As above
stated the price paid for cream averaged
little less than twenty cents. The
cream is collected three times per week.
1t is entirely possible to get creamery
started at Ellsworth with little CO.
operation on the part of the farmers and
Others in the vicinity who can keep cows
Don't hang back and see whether your
neighbor is going into it and what he
makes out of it before you start. If all
should show that spirit we could not
start peanut stand here.
Let the farmers take hold of this project
earnestly. 1t is primarily for their adj
vantage. Merchants and Others of Ellis
worth will reap the benefits after the
farmers have money in their pockets
not before.
The creamery is all ready to start as
soon as a sufficient number of cows is
pledged. Every other arrangement has
been made. No one disputes that it will