DAIRY AND SEED IMPROVEMENT MEETINGS. 307 



unsatisfactory to the producers. In such cases they withdrew 

 their support from the creamery and found a market for their 

 product elsewhere. Because of this condition it is essential in 

 the estabhshment of creameries that the amount of raw material 

 available be carefully determined, otherwise they may be doomed 

 to failure from the very start. In some sections of the country, 

 particularly in localities where dairying is undeveloped, many 

 creameries have been started where the amount of material 

 was insufficient for their successful operation, in the hope that 

 they would stimulate dairying. In almost every instance such 

 creameries have failed for the reasons given above. 



A study of these conditions has led us to conclude that a 

 creamery established in a territory where dairying is develop- 

 ing and where there is good prospect that the amount of milk 

 and cream will increase from year to year, may be successfully 

 operated on the milk and cream produced by 400 average cows, 

 but that a smaller amount of product than this makes the suc- 

 cessful operation of a creamery doubtful. In localities where 

 creameries are already estabhshed and where competition will 

 be encountered from the first, it is considered necessary that 

 an output of at least 100,000 pounds of butter per year be 

 assured. Investigation has shown that the cost of manufac- 

 turing butter is not much greater in a creamery making 100,000 

 pounds per year than it is in a creamery making 150,000 to 

 175,000 pounds per year, but that the cost of making butter in 

 a creamery producing 50,000 pounds per year or less is much 

 greater than in the plants making 100,000 pounds. In estab- 

 lishing new creameries it therefore appears that careful con- 

 sideration should be given to the amount of material available 

 for manufacture. 



QUALITY OF RAW MATERIAL. 



The quality of raw material which is necessary for the suc- 

 cessful operation of the creamery cannot be definitely measured 

 as long as we judge of success by comparison, but the creamer}' 

 which gets a better quality of raw material than its neighbor 

 always has a decided advantage. Dealers are becoming move 

 and more critical and it is the fine butter that brings premiums 

 and is in the greatest demand at the present time. During the 



