Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1915-06-24
The Stya,vpile

SS
Oairyjns and euttsrmakins in America
by Cornelius F'riis, Danish Butter
maker.l
I The purpose of this article is to ex-
press my ideas concerning the dairy
ing and farming people in America.
shall not go into details, but l wish
| to mention few matters in this con-
nection. l am not going to speak of
war, but about the every day life which
| l have observed and of the people
where have been.
| Let me say here that no people have
pleased me as much as have the
Americans, and am sure that there
are numerous other Scandinavians who
will heartily agree with me in this.
| The American people teach the for
eigners the English language, help
them to get better positions and to
know what a life Of liberty is, and
give them a chance to be more inde-
pendent than in any other nation.
| The foreigners may become citizens, il
they wish, vote, and help to govern
! the place where they are living. II
any Of these foreigners are disap-
There are great opportunities in the
United States for farming in conjunc-
ton with dairy products: but many Of
; the American farmers fail to see that
| there is more money in making butter
of the sweet milk than there is in
| feeding it to the calves.
| 1 believe it is easy to judge what is
right and what is wrong in this. The
way many of the farmers handle the
milk and cream in the United States
does make it pay them better to feed
| it to their cattle than to make butter
of it. Why is this?
Because there are many farmers and
creamery men who do not care what
kind and quality of goods they handle,
just SO they make the most and quick
est money without too much trouble
in doing it. They do not care, or even
think of others welfare, or Of the repu-
tation of the country in which they are
working.
What kind of food can we expect
made of cream that has been standing
on the farm week before 1t has been
brought to the creamery? Then il
is sour and bitter, many times almost
rotten. The reason for this Is many
farmers believe that II cream Is kept
for a week and naturally gets sour
and thick, it will show a greater per
cent of butter fat when tested than il
sweet. fresh cream brought to the
creamery the same day ii was
skinned.
That is absolutely wrong: There
is only so much butter fat in the cream
and it does not matter how sour and
thick it may be. the amount of butter
fat Will not be different. 1t is only
loss in quality and money.
1t is hard to make some people
understand that it is difficult work to
make butter from that kind Of cream
score from 90 to 90. The majority OF
wholesale houses must admit that
cream brought to the creamery once
week will go far below 80, and some
times almost too far. The result is.
of course. losing money instead Of
gaining.
had creamery in charge where I
hardly ever saw drop Of sweet cream.
The farmers brought the cream to the
creamery once a week-a very few,
twice a week. But that was not the
worst l could neutralize that by diff
ferent chemicals and the aid OF
vacuum pump SO that 1t could be eaten.
but that was just about all. There
were cream stations. as they are called,
where one man in the country bought
the cream from the farmers. and, after
four or five days, he would send II to
the creamery. That cream. before
reaching the butter maker. was nearly
always two weeks old. That is why
so many butter-makers fail: not be-
cause they do not understand the BUSH
ness, but because it is impossible to
make fresh butter out of rotten cream.
1t may be that some man claims that
he can make fair butter out Of that
kind OF cream by using chemicals.
This may be true. The butter may be
made salable for three or four days,
but soon ii starts to smell old and
taste sour again. and this Is the reason
that many housekeepers do not under
stand why their ice box smells so
badly. They do not know that the
goods they bought have gone thru the
process described above.
However, it is not all of the cream
cries that are managed in this way,
but those which are running the wrong
way are pulling down the creameries
which are following better methods.
Also, the farmer who delivers the good
his work: for the care he has taken
of the milk and cream, of the COWS, and
Of the barn, not to forget the kind OF
food given to the cows, all cornt for
nothing. Even if ninety five farmers
are in the right and FIVE tre in the
wrong, the combined action spols the
whole product.
/ wish that the time were here when
the farmers would say, I'VE do not
want so or 80 per cent Of the patrons
to deliver good cream. and then have
the few spell the whole thing for us.
for the butter-maker. and for the
reputation of our country. No! We
want everyone to do his duty"
After running the creamery for
short time, ! started to grade the
cream-the first grade being the abb
solu.ely sweet and fresh cream. and
the second grade the bitter and sour
of cream. We refused to buy the
cream which was brought from the
stations. because it was unfit for food.
The farmers did not like it at first,
but before long, when they saw that
the butter made Of first class cream
sold for cents more per pound than
the second class, they all came with
sweet cream.
With little ability this can be done.
Look at the-states Of Minnesota and
Wisconsin. and see what has been done
there. That proves that things are
moving forward. Iowa and Illinois are