The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1899-04-21
DAIRY METHODS.
Some of Many Changes Within
Twenty-Five Years

w udb many IdIuICIS lIO@ uCGQ IL lO
realize the radical changes that have
taken place in all the methods that have
to do with the production, distribution
and consumption of dairy products.
Then if there is any scientific teaching
that will help him to adjust his methods
to meet the changes that have taken
place he should avail himself of them.
twenty-five years ago, writes a cor
respondent Of Hoards Dairyman, when
[ was living on my fathers old dairy
farm, every cow was fresh IN milk IN
the spring. The most of the butter was
made during the summer months and
packed in frkins. Every fall we could
depend on several butter buyers coming
to our home to buy the butter. The
COWS were dried off in the fall or early
in the winter, and no more butter was
made until the next spring In those
days the production of butter was con-
fined to a few eastern states, and there
was demand in the large cities for all
the butter-Old butter, too-at good
prices Then came the imitation prices
of the wartimes, and great opportu
nifty was given for farmers to pay for
their farms if they were bought at the
right time.
This method Of farming was adapted
entirely to summer dairying The only
grain fed the COWS was little in the
spring, before grass, and this was grown
on the farm. The butter was all made
at home by the farmers wife, and the
expense of drawing the milk to the
creamery and money paid for making
the butter were saved. The breadstuffs
and vegetables used by the family were
all grown on the farm, taxes were less,
less was spent for the comforts or luxu-
ries Of life, and the social demands were
less, so the economical farmer could
save more money than the farmer Of
the present time.
do not say that he could make more
than the enterprising farmer Of today,
but that, the processes Of dairying be-
ing nearly all conducted on the farm
and being less a consumer of other peo-
pies products, he could live and save
money on a smaller cash income than
he can now. Butter making has been
relegated to the factory, and the de-
mand now is for fresh butter, SO the
farmer must practice winter dairying
to hold his trade with the factory. The
butter buyer, instead of going to the
farmer, now goes to the factory, where
he can buy butter in large quantities
that is Of the highest quality and uni
form in grade The western states have
become butter making states, and with
their cheap grain and transportation
facilities they can undersell the eastern
dairymen in their own markets and
still make larger profits.
The result of a large production of
any article and intense competition is
that the standard of quality is raised
The market demands better article
and inferior goods are of little value
The fact is that the dairyman Of today
is compelled to produce a better article
and produce it cheaper than at any
other time. He must patronize the
creamery in order to sell his product;
he must pay the creamery for manufac-
turing it, and he must produce part
in the winter when it costs him more,
and there is only one way for him to
meet the changed conditions of things
and that is to produce his milk at
less cost
The Old methods of farming that l
have described will not do, and the
farmer. who tries to make them fit with
the present order Of things will soon
find his mistake If our agricultural
papers and dairy conventions and farm
Institutes can tell us how to make fair
margins.rin these times, we want to
hear from them. If we have men who
have studied the situation, then have
gone to work and made their farms pay
good profits by what has been called
scientific farming" they should have
something to tell us When they tell us
that the silo, clover, soiling crops, test
ing their COWS to see which pay profit
and warm stables with tight cutters
that save all the liquids have helped
them to solve the problem of reducing
the cost Of production, we may rightly
call it scientific farming, and we
. will do we'll to make it cur study.