The southern sentinel. (Winnfield, La.) 1883-1910, 1906-01-19
TEE FARM SEPARATOR.


The evolution of the dairy business
I'm this country is hardly less remark
able than the evolution Of the steel
rail or the telephone. From condi-
ton thirty years ago. when only the
very few could make pound OF good
butter, year by year has brought i'm
provements in machinery and methods,
SO that today wherever modern dairy
methods are in operation the pound of
bad butter is the exception rather than
the rule. No one thing contributed
more toward this result than the In
yention Of the separator, the use of
which in the creamery where the MIX
was delivered in good shape made pos
sible the production of the best butter
ever made or that ever Will be MADE.
This method had one serious drawback,
however. and that was the heavy ex-
pense connected with delivering the
milk and the poor quality of the skim
milk when returned to the farmer. Ii
further limited the benefits OF the
creamery system to those localities
where n creamery was located and.
where the dairy of necessity was made
the principal business on all the con-
tiguous farms. Then appeared the
farm separator, which aimed to solve
these troubles which removed the ne
cessity of large investment of money
in the local creamery plant, which per-
mitted the separation of the milk on
the farm and the feeding of the skim
milk while still warm with the animal
heat 10 the calves in the very best of
condition and which further permits
any man, no matter how located with
reference to a creamery, to go into the
dairy business provided he is within
reach of n railway station from which
his cream goes by express to some dis
tant creamery to be made into butter.
These are really very great advantages,
and the writer knows of hundreds of
men who>for want of local creamery
have never taken up the dairy bust
ness and who are now by the use of
the farm separator making great sue
cess of the business, their cream being
shipped from 30 to 80 miles to some
big creamery in the city. The objec-
tons to this new plan are that the but
ter so made is not of the highest grade.
the output of such a concern selling
little under the highest market price.
but still giving an added value to the
butter product of a territory so Gov
cred of from 80 to so per cent more
than it ever brought before. Another
objection is that the introduction of
the farm separator into any territory
covered by the old system of creamery
separators makes. more or less, usually
more, confusion and trouble with the
patrons of the creamery. A few of the
old creameries have changed over and
now encourage all their patrons to use
the farm separator, but the fact re
mains that the quality of the butter so
made is not quite as good as that made
In the old way. 1t may be said for the
farm separator that it viii make the
best butter In the world If the cream is
properly cared for and made up right
on the farm. There is needed quite
campaign of education among the users
of the machine, mostly in the matter
of greater degree of cleanliness in the
care of the cow and the handling and
care of the cream prior to shipment
This will come in time as well as a
better knowledge of how to feed the
COW. The introduction of the farm sep
arator probably marks the last step in
the evolution of the dairy business. and
without doubt it will be the agency
which will become the final base of all
dairying operations Of the future The
machines have been too high priced to
secure their general introduction until
recently, but this hindrance will soon
disappear. In word, the greatest ben.
eft connected with the farm separator
is that 1t permits any one to go into
the dairy business and that it doubles
the value of the skim milk for the
young things ON the farm.