The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1888-12-12
Dairy versus Creamery Butter.

we were obliged to omit noticing
few minor points, in which, uninten-
tionally no doubt, he much misstated
our position. One of these was in
reference to the relative quality and
value of creamery and farmmade but
ter. We thought that we made our
opinion on the subject perfectly plain,
yet Brother Towle stated it quite differ
emily. We hold that the best, and
usually also the poorest, butter that goes
to market, is the farm-made product
and, in regard to creamery butter, we
hold that while most of it may acreage
better than farm butter, none of it ever
is, or ever can be, quite as good as the
best. We know it as fact that hun
dreds of families in the cities will not
have creamery butter on their tables at
any price, no matter how good it may
apparently be. These families are gen.
orally of country origin, and the way
they reason about the matter is like
this. eve take this down almost ver-
batim from the lips of one of them
with whom we conversely CT have
lived in the country, and / know by
the sight of my own eyes that con-
siderable number, not only of the poor
and small farmers, but of the men of
broad acres and large herds, are far
from neat in the way they care for
their cows and handle their milk. They
would be mad if they heard me say
they were filthy; but were it any other
kind of dirt but the dirt they are so
used to, the dirt of a constable, that
they are so careless about, they would
be as disguised as l am at the thought
of its getting into their victuals. These
men will cry out loudly about hog
butter and bull butter,'-an they
are right enough there,-but they will
not allow word to- be said about their
dirty and cobwebby tie-ups, their dung
flanked cows, their fostering and fer
menting barn-cellars. Now every
creamery is anxious to get all the milk
it can, and this anxiety forbids its
manager from being too particular
There is point beyond which he will
not go, because he cannot; and he will,
after much scolding, cut off patron
who is extremely careless. But above
that class he takes all the cream, or if
it is separator creamery, all the milk
he can get; and he makes the best but
ter he can out of the mixture. That
creamery butter is not all of high
grade is shown by the variety of prices
set upon it; and that it is rarely best
in quality is proved by the frequency
with which it is beaten in competition
with dairy butter, on the judgment of
experts"
These were the points that we made
with Brother Towle. We admitted the
high average of most creamery butter,
and conceded its commercial popularity
on account of its uniformity in large
lots. 1t will always be popular with
dealers on these grounds; and will
average "good enough" to satisfy the
majority of village and city consumers.
We fully agree with our friend that
the creamery has "come to stay"
We go still farther, in believing that it
is an educating force, which will gradu-
ually push up its patrons to make better
and purer milk, and more of it. We
are by no means unfriendly to cream
cries.
We are no more unfriendly to cream
cries than we are to sewing-machines;
but as there will always be hand-sew-
ing, so also there will always be farm
dairying; and the two different classes
of butter will not interfere with one
another. Each will fill its own place.
But in Brother TOwle's case, while mis-
understanding, and therefore misstat-
ing, our position, he failed entirely to
meet the main point of our argument,
which touched this creamery matter
only incidentally. We were contend
ing chiefly for lower, living freight rates
on all farm products in less than car
lots, on the ground that all farmers can
not be butter-makers, nor even cream.
cry patrons. The creameries them.
selves, by the high average quality OF
their goods, have made all but the very
best home dairy product of butter un,
salable. The question we put to Bro
Towle (and which, we are sorry to say
he did not answer,) was what the small
farmers, who can not make or find {
market for a choice article of butter O.
cheese, are going to do for living il
Vermont? Probably one-third, at least
of our farmers are out of the reach o
the creameries. At the present higl
rates of freight on small shipments o
farm products, in less than car lots
they can produce very little, if any
thing that thew can live bv In tn