No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGR1CUL,TUKE. 345 



products. I flrmlj believe that uo middlemau eau aecompiish as 

 iimcli in tliis direction as you can yourself, but he may, unintention- 

 ally, do you and your products a vast amount of injury by placing 

 them where they will come in contact with articles which will con- 

 taminate them. Go, if you please, into almost any store where they 

 handle dairy products and notice how butter is displayed promis- 

 cuously around the storeroom and on the display shelves along 

 the street, coming in contact with the odor arising from decayed 

 vegetables of all kinds, hsh, fre^h and salted, smoked meats, cheese, 

 lamp oil, and sundry other articles, the tlavor of which is not desir- 

 able in the products of a well-managed dairy, large or small. After 

 a scrupulously clean and careful butter maker has prepared a 

 gilt-edged article and taken it to the store, it is too often either 

 placed in a case with a lot of oli-rtavored butler or permitted to 

 set around the storeroom, which is too often tilled with the fumes 

 of tobacco, and when the purchaser comes along he is told thai 

 this particular roll of butter was made by Mrs. Smith, Jones or 

 Brown, as the case may be, and the consumer tinds, to his sorrow, 

 that this particular butter maker uses peculiar tiavoring in her 

 butter, not to his liking and over which the producer has no control. 

 ■ The Pure Food Law says that the dairyman must practice ap- 

 proved, sanitary conditions when producing an article which is 

 placed on the market, but it does not offer any protection from 

 the above abuses of their products after they have left their hands. 

 It is possible for the small dairy to remove and overcome, in a 

 large measure, these conditions, by placing their products directly 

 in the hands of the consumer, and while doing this have the benefit 

 of the middleman's profit. It is also possible to maintain a more 

 uniform price, for it is not unusual for the storekeeper or middle- 

 man to have two or three different prices in a single day, varying 

 from two to ten cents, and often fifteen cents per pound. 



In order to get the best possible results eternal vigilance in regard 

 to cleanliness is absolutely necessary. Do not think for a moment 

 because you have a few private customers, that they do not know 

 when they get a good article, for ihey do, and they will very quickly 

 detect any change in conditions, whether good or bad, notwith- 

 standing the oft-repeated remark that people get used to a certain 

 make of butter. You will sometimes find those who will be harder 

 to please and more exacting than if they bought the same of a 

 poorer grade of goods at a store, but persevere and continue to im 

 prove, not only the quantity of your goods but the quality, for the 

 number of careless, indifferent dairymen and dairy women will al- 

 waj's assist in furnishing a market for the better grade of goods. 

 and a very large proportion of your customers will approve and 

 highly appreciate any improvement in the quality of your product*. 



You will notice that I have kept in view the marketing of the 

 surplus of the small dairy, for I believe it is possible for every 

 dairy consisting of two or more cows, to produce enough beyond 

 the home needs to not only supply a few private customers the 

 year round, but make the income therefrom vastly profitable, both 

 to the farmer and his family, Not less than two cows must be 

 kept if you desire the best results, and as many more as your help 

 will warrant you to keep. It is possible to make this small dairy pay 

 in cash returns, or its equivalent, handsoine Drofit«, arifi if the 

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