74 Thirty-Sixth Annual Report of the 



help one can make a fairly good lot of butter from a pretty 

 tough article of cream ; but nice butter requires nice milk. If 

 a patron l)ring-s a can of sour milk or cream that is not more 

 than two days old in the summer, or three or four in the winter, 

 its acidity is proof positive that he has neglected to take care of 

 it in a proper way. He has either got too much filth in it or it 

 has not been cooled down quick enough or low enough. 



Filth is the great source of acidity in milk. It gets in in 

 many ways. I once found a certain dairy making poor butter. 

 The cause was unknown. A sample was taken from each cow, 

 put into a jar, made perfectly clean by steam. Everything was 

 perfectly clean and the milk was drawn under cleanly conditions. 

 These jars were placed outside a barn in August, — the tempera- 

 ture must have been over ioo° — and the milk remained sweet 

 for more than four da3'S. 



If the farmer would observe just a few simple rules, we 

 would not have this vast amount of poor butter. In the first 

 place he should not keep the separator in the barn. Most of 

 them are kept either in or near the cow stable where its odors and 

 dust may enter the milk. He should not feed his cattle before 

 milking, particularly with hav or silage. The dust from the 

 hay getting into the pails and the separator may give rise to 

 most undesirable bacterial troubles. Silage and cottonseed meal 

 are cheap sources of food supply, yet I believe them responsible 

 for much poor butter. Cottonseed meal makes it too tallowy and 

 silage, certainly if it is very sour and fed to excess, imparts its 

 taste to the butter. Cans, separator and everything about the 

 dairy should be kept perfectly clean. The cows should be on 

 drops, on platforms short enough and high enough so that no 

 dirt can get upon them. It does seem as if the patron, knowing 

 that so much poor butter is caused by his lack, and, that his in- 

 ferior milk brings the quality of butter for that day down to his 

 level, would do better ; but often he doesn't. 



One suggestion more and the most important of them all : 

 Stick to your cooperative creamery. I have no fault to find with 

 the many small creameries over the State where a farmer has 

 fixed up a place at his house or barn and is making his neigh- 

 bor's butter. He often has good success and may make a better 

 product as cheaply as a larger cooperative creamery can. He 

 has but a few j'jatrons ; they are his neighbors, they will have a 

 little pride in bringing good milk, and besides he can teach them 

 to bring better milk. lUit there is being established all over this 

 country large proprietary creameries ; they are buying out the 

 cooperative creameries wherever they can; they do just as you 

 and I would under like circumstances ; they are there for what is 



