VERMONT DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 39 



Mr. Stafford. Is the space system equitable? And where- 

 in is the separator preferable to deep setting- systems? 



Maj. Alvord. I hope the gentleman does not want me to go 

 back on myself. He has placed me in a very awkward posi- 

 tion. I was responsible for the first half dozen creameries 

 ever established in Vermont, on the space system, or deep set- 

 ting plan. I believed in it twenty years ago and I believe in 

 it yet largely and with some qualification. If the cows of the 

 patrons of any one creamery are of the same class and alike 

 in their method of handling, and if the feed of those cows is 

 much alike I still hold that the space system is sufficiently 

 equitable for all practicable purposes and I think there may 

 be a reasonable doubt as to whether the creamery will gain any 

 thing by making the change. Again, in a great many cases 

 in New England a change from the deep setting space system 

 to the separator system entails hauling the milk from the 

 farms to the factory and the skim milk back again; hence I 

 sav the matter should be long deliberated and most carefully 

 studied before the change is made. This burden of hauling 

 the milk and skim milk is not half appreciated in the country. 

 I have no doubt that a carefully operated separator will make 

 more butter from the same quantity of milk than can be made 

 from it if the milk is treated by the deep setting system. I 

 think there may be a gain in the quality of the butter by get- 

 ting the milk quickly under the control of the factory or the 

 separator station. I do not think that is necessary, however. 

 I believe it is just as easy with the same effort and the same 

 care, to produce as good a quality of butter from the gathered 

 cream system as from the separator and whole milk system. 

 So I am not prepared to advocate the separator system as a 

 substitute for deep setting and gathered cream system, es- 

 pecially in New England I believe the records show that there 

 are creameries on the gathered cream plan here in Vermont 

 that are doing just as well as those creameries which have 

 adopted , what may be considered the latter, or separator sys- 

 tem. It does not seem to be thus in the West. There the sep- 

 arator system seems to be ahead. I do not believe the fact 

 that the butter from the separator factories ranks higher than 

 the butter from the creameries conducted on the gathered cream 

 plan is necessarily due to the use of the separator. 



A Member. Why not separate at home? 



Maj. Alvord. That system is a modification brought 

 about by the competition of the two older sytems. I was 

 about to add as a conclusion that I believe the ideal creamery 

 is the one which equips itself so as to handle milk or cream 

 brought to it in any good, convenient way, cream which has 

 been separated from its milk anywhere, in any way that its 



