CHEESE FACTORY. A place where cheese is made on a Commercial scale. The first cheese factory in the United States was established at Rome, N. Y., in 1851, by Mn Jesse Williams, a fanner and skillful elleese-maker. The idea of bringing together daily the milk from several neighboring farms, to be made into cheese by a skillful operator. has spread extensively throughout the dairy States, and has been adopt ed abroad. in 1S09 the number of cheese fac tories in the railed States had reached over IMO, and since that time this coOpprative. or factory, system has practically superseded the making of cheese on farms. There are now said to be nearly 3000 factories in the United States. The advantages of the system are diminished cost of product inn, a more uniform and superior quality of cheese, a higher and more regular price, and a great reduction of labor at the farm. Cheese factories are operated on two plans—namely, the stock-company or coopera tive system, under which the farmers own and manage the factory. through proper officers: and the proprietary plan, in Nvhiell an individual owns and operates the factory, making cheese for the patrons for a certain price. which in New
York State is usually one dollar per hundred weight. The milk is hauled to the factory tinily by the patrons, the distance being in many in stances several miles. Payment for the milk is usually made on the basis of the weight, account being token of the amount of milk required to make a pound of cheese. The demonstration that the fat content is a reliable index to the cheese producing value of milk has led some progressive factories to adopt. this basis. which is carried ant as at creameries (q.v.). There is a wide dif ference in the size of cheese factories. Some make only five or six cheeses a day, while others make over twenty in the height of the semi.4(m. An average-sized factory produces from eight to ten cheeses a day, requiring the milk of about 300 cows. The kind made is almost exclusively Cheddar cheese.