The record-union., 1891-04-03
FARM And ORCHARD.
Creameries are School Houses
Where to Get Points.
To Invest in Scrub Cattle is Ruinous-
The sheep Men VIII Be to the
Front-Using False Pedigree or
Certiffcate-General Farm Notes.


by President Loveioy Johnson at a meet
ing of the Illinois State Dairymen's As
sociation: The fact that milk is about
the only food capable of sustaining ami
mai life for an indefinite length of time
the fact that its products contribute so
largely TO the comfort and happiness of
all mankind renders the discussion of
anything connected with its products Of
general interest. When we consider how
largely its principal product butter, en-
ters into the food of the human race, the
rich and poor alike using it, the question
of its manufacture becomes one Of vital
interest to us all. At what stage in tho
worlds history this industry was organ
lied we can only conjecture. ! presume,
however, that as there were animals of
every kind taken aboard the first great
ship, Noah and his family must have had
something to do with it. The Arabs had
their peculiar way Of churning, our
grandmothers had theirs, our own moth
ers brought the butter with the dasher
and stone crooks, but it was left to
genius of about the middle of the nine
teenth century, a native of Herkimer
County, New York, to originate an easier
and in the judgment Of most men a better
scheme for butter-making.
We read that in the year 1900 certain
Elder Leland, of Massachusetts, took the
first step in cooperative cheese-making
by asking his neighborS far and near to
put their cheese curds together to make
one enormous 1,600-pound cheese, to be
presented to President Jefferson, but no.
body thought of cooperative dairying
proper till 1851, when Mr.. Williams of
Rome, y. Y, built the first cheese factory
in America. The writer to whom l am
indebted for this information says that
MIR. Williams was an original thinker
and to him we are indebted more than 10
any other for the great progressive step
which places American dairying to-day
in the front ranks of the nations of the
EARTH" The framework of the American
system sprang from his fertile brain in
one harmonious whole, and although he
was fruitful in invention of implements
and appliances adapted to his work, he
took out no patents, but presented the re-
suits of his labors as a gratuity to the
world. The inestimable benefits that
have come and are yet TO come from his
labors can hardly be figured. 1t put
American dairying on footing by which
1t could measure arms with any other
branch of agriculture.
If we should undertake to figure the
amount invested in dairy stock and pork
made from the skinned milk, add it to
the value of the butter and cheese pro-
duced, we should reach so far into the
millions that our own figures would be a
surprise. A well-built and properly
managed creamery, with intelligent pa
irons behindit it, is and will continue to be q
blessing to the district where it is located
Better butter is produced and at less eX-
pense than in the private dairy, and of
course brings higher price. 1t is bet
ter because made by experts, with all the
approved apparatus. IT is with less eX-
pense because one or two men do the
work that would require the labor of
ttt,sA
style Just as they are wanted by the dealer
or consumer. Being uniform in quality
the salesman is able to realize a large
price.
/ have little respect for the idea that
what the dairyman gets out of his wife
and children in the way of butter-mak-
ing is clear gain, costs nothing because
the time is worth nothing. The import
ant consideration, "What shall we do
with the boys; how shall we keep them
on the farm?" viii be an open question
as long as they are held to the work of
butter-maling. When our boys and
girls and wives see land they have more
sharpness in that direction than we give
them credit for that they are doing this
work for nothing, that it is easier and
just as profitable to take the milk to the
factory that moment the work becomes
drudgery and their escape from it is sim
ply question of time. Far be il from
me to belittle any necessary work on the
tarm-unnecesSary work alone is drudg-
cry. There is growing conviction that
there should be more spare hours for the
boys and girls on the farm, and that
these hours should be devoted to literary
and esthetic culture. The creamery sys-
tenn is great help in carrying out this
idea.
am often assailed with the statement,
have seen just as good butter made on
the farm as you make at your factory"
4 4 4
conveniences ought to produce better re-
suits, and sometimes does, but this in
telligence, skill and these appliances are
out of the reach of the average dairyman,
because too expensive.
Hon. III. d. Sherman of Iowa says that
the butter In the entire milk that is man
utactured on the farm in the Western
State loses at least 80 per cent. of its value
for the want of proper conditions. or the
exercise of proper skill in its production
If this be true il is no wonder that every
farmer doesn't get rich at once by keep
ing cows. No other business can pros
per when such losses occur in its man
agement.
Don't condemn the creamery system
because it entails more middlemen. If
one man can in one day sell five thousand
pounds of butter for as large price be-
cause OF the quantity and uniformity of
quality, as twenty-five farmers in that
time, isn't 1t economy to employ him,
even though he be an obnoxious middle
man? Don't understand me as trying to
condemn private dairying. On the con
trary, II has always been the aim of this
association to encourage the production
of better goods, whether on the farm or
in the creamery. There is room for both
The business is not so much overdone as
poorly done. The wide-awake manufact-
.urer in any line is on the alert for new
and better markets. While the creamery
man should be no exception to the rule,
he should never let an Opportunityslip of
offering a tub of butter to our brethren
across the water, vet should ut the same
time bend every effort to cheaper the cost
of production. This can and is being done
by introducing labor-saving machinery,
by improvements OF dairy breeds of cattle,
by studying up the best producing
rations, and the surest means of preserv-
ing and feeding the same.
We are to-day shipping out of our State
millions and millions of pounds of cream
cry butter that should be consumed al
home. We have population sufficient to
consume ten times the amount Of butter
that is used to-day. AS the cost of any
article of food is lowered the demand
within certain limits is Increased. Inproof
of this you have but TO watch our market
reports. A small reduction in price stim-
ulates the demand every time. To accom-
plish this should be the mission of every
intelligent creameryman.
The creamery system should have much
of the credit for the advance in even pri-
vate dairying. Creameries are school
houses where the masses are getting points
on the care of milk and the protection of
butter. They should be- and many of them
are, models of neatness and precision in
their work.
The creamery system should be so
managed as 10 carry out the idea so sue
cessful in other industries, as for instance