State dairy association. 765 



pail, and In a short time still more. I should like to give you a word of 

 warning right here while we are on this subject. You will have to watch 

 the average tin pail that you get at the hardware stores for they do not 

 give good measure, and you do not want to subject yourself to criticism 

 and embarrassment on this account. We have graduated from the tin 

 pail to the cleaner and more convenient bottle. 



The problem that we come in contact with most is the problem of the 

 town cow. There are only about 1,000 inhabitants in our town, and yet the 

 other day we were counting it up, and we found that there were about 40 

 cows in that town. Of course some of these are devoted exclusively to the 

 manufacture of butter. They are so distributed that most of the people in 

 the village depend on the town cow for their supply of milk. Where does 

 our chance come in? Right here. We have a good grade of Jersey cows, 

 and some thoroughbreds, and I find that the milk and cream is good; in 

 fact our patrons tell us it is the best milk they have ever had. The town 

 cows will go drj^ We try to keep enough cows to supply our trade and a 

 little more. When the town cow goes di"y their patrons will telephone over 

 to us to bring them milk. Now, right here comes in a little heart to 

 heart talk— a business talk— with them. We ask them if they are going 

 to want milk of us permanently, or if they are simply going to make a 

 convenience of us and go back to their former man as soon as he has a 

 fresh cow, and only patronize us while they are taking a rest. If this is 

 true we will not take care of them. If they will stay with us it is worth 

 our while to let them have milk. 



There is another class of business which we meet. This is the cream 

 trade. We keep a surplus of milk that we can run through our hand 

 separator. We have a large Sunday cream supply. The cream brings 

 more than the milk, and so we are glad to sell it. We keep two kinds 

 of cream— fresh cream and cream that is about 24 hours old, that is in 

 good condition to whip, and we find that this is very much in demand 

 among the housewives. We are accommodating to the extent of putting 

 a boy on a bicycle and sending him to the other end of town with a single 

 pint of milk to our regular customers. We have managed to build up a 

 good trade there in that little town, and we now hope for better things. 



I thought this afternoon that we were rather out of the race, and 

 hardly up to date, because we can not talk bacteria and microbes and cul- 

 tures. We have a great many things to contend with in the retail milk 

 business. We do not work on a farm because neither myself nor my boys 

 are large, and we could not handle the heavy work on the farm very well, 

 but we can milk, and even the youngest can drive a wagon and handle 

 milk bottles, and I have two or three that ax*e good buttermakers, but I 

 have figured this matter out carefully, and I can see more income from 

 my cows in selling my milk at five cents a quart than I can in seUing 

 butter at 25 cents. 



We have good Jersey cows, as I told you in the beginning. Of course 

 there are drawbacks, for instance, if I want to increase my herd. I can 



