138 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



CREAMERY MEN'S HOUR. 



Address by E. L. Bradford, Manager Turner Center Dairying 



Association. 



Great changes have been made in the dairy business in the 

 last quarter of a century. Twenty-five years ago all butter was 

 made at the farms, and as for cream, comparatively little was 

 used in the cities. But as we go along, progress seems slow 

 in comparison with so much that we can always see ahead to do, 

 and we might exclaim in the words of Cecil Rhodes, "So much 

 to do, So little done !" 



The first four creameries started in Maine were at Wales, 

 New Gloucester, Turner Centre and Winthrop. This was 

 about twenty- four years ago. Soon after the factory started 

 at Turner Centre, there came a telegram from one of our large 

 cities "Ship immediately four cans of cream." This was our 

 first "wire" and caused quite a sensation at the Creamery when 

 it was brought in by the president of the company. It was soon 

 decided that the word "butter" had been omitted by mistake in 

 copying. Of course the man did not mean "cream." But there 

 was the word "cans" — "four cans of cream." We used tubs 

 for our butter — had no experience with packing butter in cans. 

 After much deliberation it was decided that the order was alto- 

 gether too indefinite. It came from a stranger and perhaps he 

 was trying to bunco us, thinking we were green, as we had just 

 started in business. We would let him know we were not to 

 be caught that way and so the matter was dropped entirely. 



Since that day we have come to know what a man means 

 when he wires "Ship immediately four cans of cream." 



Such messages are now received and executed without any 

 palpitations more than are caused by the necessary exertion. 



In the spring of 1890 butter reached a very low figure. We 

 were then selling some cream in Lewiston and Auburn and had 

 one customer as far away as Portland. It was easy to see that 

 cream sales paid very much better than butter at the low price 

 at which butter was selling. I determined to try Boston for 

 cream business. The first two parties I visited were interested 

 in the proposition but were skeptical of success in sending cream 



