ARE CREAMERIES A BENEFIT?

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1157, 4 May 1894, Page 7

ARE CREAMERIES A BENEFIT?

Everybody made butter at home years ago. To-day, creameries are so common that private dairying is the exception and not the rule. But does it pay the dairyman to patronise a creamery instead of having his work done at home] With this question uppermost in my mind, writes 11 H.S. ” in the American Cultivator , recently 1 spent some little time in Vermont among owners of dairies, some of whom patronise creameries, while others do not, making their butter at home in the old-style manner, with more or less machinery of improved pattern. Occa sionally one is found who is succeeding fairly well in the fight single-handed, but this is usually due to exceptionally good help iu the house, or especial ability on the part of the owner to market his produce either at or above tho highest market rates. Under such circumstances, and with his product alf spoken for as fast as it can be made, the dairyman with a highly-bred herd

of cows averaging 3001 b of butter or more per annum can make a good thing and may not be willing to patronise a creamery. But too often is the case a different one, and the work besides being unprofitable, is done at a great expense of strength and labour in the family, and frequently to the physical detriment of the wife and mother. For the sake of contrast, let us compare the farming of two young men, both strong, active, and between thirty and thirty-five years of age, the one preferring to manufacture his product at home, the other to bend every energy in the channel of cream-prcduction, being satisfied not to dabble in manufacturing. The first, Mr F. S. Bliss, of St. Albans, keeps eighteen cows that average 101 b of butter per week. He buys quantities of bran, which is fed liberally all the year round. This bought feed enables him to keep more stock than li o could keep without it. The manufacturing process, together with packing, occupies considerable time which, of course, cannot be devoted to the production of extra feed crops, Mr Bliss farms 175 acres and keeps thirty head Jof cattle, besides thirty sheep, which act as pasture cleaners. He iB a good farmer and is getting ahead, but not so rapidly as his neighbour, as will be seen. The herd made butter to the extent of L 137, an average annual return of L 7 12s per cow. This amount was reduced by L2 per head for bought feed, which expense could have been largely obviated had the butter not been made at home, and the time usod in the production of nutritious crops every way as good for the butter production as bought feed. Mr N. D. Hayden, of St. Albans Bay, keeps sixteen cows, which averaged him LlO per head last year. They are grade Jerseys from five to ten years of age and not large cows. During the year mentioned the feed bill has been but L 4, “and,” adds Mr Hayden, “during the time I sold oats enough to more than return the money I spent for grain." Here then is a> total profit of LlO per cow compared with an average profit of not quite L 6 in the case previously cited—quite a difference in a man’s incoms when multiplied by eighteen. Mr Hayden's cream is separated from the milk by a centrifugal machine at once on being drawn from the cows, and is invariably sold to the creamery, all the skim-milk being retained and fed upon the farm to pigs and calves, the same as it is cn the farm of Mr Bliss. Mr Hayden buys little or no grain, depending upon raising oats and peas, and feeding them ground with maize. This is a highly nutritious food, which is sprinkled upon the coarse fodder, cut fine and moistened. By saving his grain bill, he adds so much to his profits. The corn, Mr Hayden believes, is raised as a profit, inasmuch as the value of the fodder entirely pays the cost of raising the crop. It is his rule to apply about 25s worth per acre of some high-grade bought fertiliser to the maize, besides all the stable manure that can be spared. He is a firm believer in good cows and will not keep any other. If he has to pay a little more for a good cow than he would have to pay for a poor one, he does so, expecting to more thau make it up from the cow's product in a short time, and he is never disappointed. Like Mr Bliss, he has his skim-milk to feed upon the farm, and usually makes it net him L2O or more, thus augmenting the profits per cow largely. He is sure no system the dairyman has ever tried can compars with cream selling, and this, after trying to make money from home-made butter, selling of milk, etc. Mr Hayden's testimory is substantially what is rendered by most of the other creamery patrons visited. Mr M. S. Howard is a small farmer owning only fifty-five acres, but he keeps ten Jersey grades that return him an average of LlOper head from 45001 b of milk. What is still more remarkable one-half of these animals are heifers. He says :—“ I intend to keep fifteen cows on my little farm next year, and see no reason why I may not. I have my cows come in fresh in the fall, and get the greatest flow of milk when the milk is highest." A striking example of thrift from intelligent farming is the case of L. D. Smith, a farmer of maturity, experience and good judgment. He is not a man of many words, but knows what good farming and financial success mean, and , believes that the latter cannot be obtained without the former. He said briefly : “ I have come to the conclusion that if I want the best of cows I have got to raise them. It pay# to make pork, especially at present prices, but I believe the raising of first daw heifers

would pay better. I have & superior herd headed by a choice butter bull, and am going to try it. Not a little of the profit in farming is derived from the economy of manure. Years ago I adopted the practice of not allowing it to accumulate about the barn, and my farm has come up visibly in appearance and productiveness ever since I began having it carried to the field daily. I have found it very profitable to use absorbents in the drops. This is horse manure and the bedding mixed with it, and large quantities of dry muck which I drew two miles. Even this Ido not consider expensive." Mr Smith has a charming home, buildings that are large, handsome, and convenient, well supplied with spring water in pipes, and is an enthusiastic believer in the benefits to the community 'of a first-class creamery. The manufacture of a fine grade of butter demands the utmost cleanliness in and about the yards, milk-house, etc., and this is nowhere understood more thoroughly than among the large numbers of excellent dairymen who supply the creameries in various parts of the State with cream.