BUTTER THAT WILL PRODUCE THE HIGHEST TRICE. 23 



but the majority of farmers, I venture to sa}-, who make their 

 own butter are obliged to get what they can at store pay. This 

 affects the price. He will take what he has in store for pay- 

 ment or getting an order on some other store, the merchant 

 there getting his profit, and the farmer gets his goods. This is 

 carried on to a great extent. Such farmers benefit by sending 

 their product to the creamery. 



I have noticed since the creamery came into general use 

 that the farmer's buildings are kept better. He gets his check 

 every month and depends upon it to meet various demands 

 when he couldn't otherwise keep up a look of prosperity. 

 Where a man has a special market it will usually pay him bet- 

 ter than patronizing a creamery. If he has not a good market 

 it is better to go to a good creamery — if he can find one. 



Secretary Pierce. I believe that the best, highest scoring 

 butter is made in the private dairy. I believe, however, that 

 that we can make just as good butter in the creamery as in the 

 dairy. Gilt-edged butter commands a high market price. 



Mrs. Nelson. I have hardly got my books figured up for 

 the year to know what I have done. As near as I could tell 

 the grain for the cows cost about fifteen dollars per head. My 

 butter averaged me per pound twenty-one cents net. I presume 

 some creameries pay more than that. I help to do my milk- 

 ing, and to manufacture butter at home ; I can do it as well as 

 not with what help I have. 



Member. We churn twice a week, one hundred or one 

 hundred and fifty pounds on each churning day. It takes from 

 five to seven hours, and costs about a cent or a cent and a half a 

 pound. I doubt if I could get that much for the same hours for 

 any other work on the farm I do. We separate in the barn. 



Mr. Gale. In regard to the comparative cost of butter- 

 making at home and at the creamery, I think that it depends a 

 great deal upon circumstances. It costs us to make butter less 

 than three cents per pound, which includes everything. The 

 farmer has the check returned to him. It costs less than three 

 cents, about two and three-quarters ; and I doubt whether many 

 private individuals can make it at a less cost. There may be 

 cases where it can be produced at less cost and mofe can be 

 realized if it is made by the farmer than when it is made by the 

 creamery, but it isn't always convenient for the farmer to make 

 his own butter. The creamery ought to be able to make it at a 

 lower cost than can the individual. If the latter has his pri- 

 vate customers he gets enough more than the difference in the 

 cost of the production. 



Mr. Currier. I would like to ask a question I have never 

 heard asked in a dairymen's meeting. Has any dairyman here 

 ever used sugar with salt in making butter? I have made butter 



