73 Thirty-Sixth Annual Report of the 



SUGGESTIONS FROM A CREAMERY MANAGER TO 



DAIRYMEN. 



A. A. PRIEST, RANDOLPH, VT. 



Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen : — I shall be very brief 

 in what I have to say. You have come here to hear experts along 

 dairy lines and I am not foolish enough to think that I can en- 

 tertain you. The dairy product of this country amounted in 1905 

 to $665,000,000, exceeded in value only by the corn crop. Ver- 

 mont farmers are principally engaged in dairying, probably three- 

 fourths of them gaining a large part of their living directly or 

 indirectly from the sales of the product of the dairy cow. The 

 larger part of this product is made up at the creamery or cheese 

 factory, principally the former. Hence it seems proper that we 

 should get together at least once a year and discuss means of 

 enhancing the value of our herds and increasing the quantity and 

 quality of their products. When I said I was going up to the 

 Dairymen's Association, someone remarked, "What is the use 

 of going there ; you can't learn anything ; they rehearse the same 

 thing over year after year, year in and year out." This may be 

 in a measure true ; but it is continual teaching that gets us out 

 of the old ruts and leads us to adopt new and better methods in 

 the feeding and in the care of our cattle, and in the manufacture 

 of our butter. The Experiment Station, — and I believe that we 

 have the best one in the United States and that no person has 

 done so much for the farmers of the State of Vermont as its 

 present director,— it has thus continually taught, through bulletin 

 and lecture, so that nearly every farmer in the State of Ver- 

 mont is practicing some of the methods thus laid down and are 

 reaping the results by so doing. But we get our knowledge so 

 slowly and in such a roundabout way, many times by pattern- 

 ing after the neighbor who is keeping in touch with these meet- 

 ings and Stations that we do not give its source the least bit of 

 credit. Instead of ignoring the scientific man, we should humbly 

 sit at his feet. 



While we admit that we have been making a great progress 

 along many lines, are we making equally great progress in the 

 quality of butter ? If we judge by the scores read this morning, 



