622 ANNUAL. REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



man who reads (and no farmer or dairyman should be without four 

 or five of the best agricultural and dairy papers), can devise some 

 plan to do this at small cost. The barn should be whitewashed 

 every 60 days at least, the barn and cows must be kept reasonably 

 clean, the cows should be tested annually for tuberculosis, not only 

 as an aid to a better price of milk, but as a matter of self -protection. 

 The udders of the cows should be wiped with a damp cloth before 

 each milking. The milk should be removed from the bam, and 

 cooled as soon as a cow is milked, if possible, and kept very cold — 

 say 45 degrees — until shipping time. I know that there are many 

 farmers anxious to follow better methods but are restrained from 

 doing so because of the expense connected, and a feeling that they 

 cannot procure a sufficient increase in the price of milk for the trou- 

 ble and expense involved. In answer to the matter of expense, I 

 would say, that with a proper system of doing this extra work, the 

 expense of caring for cattle and barn in a reas"onable, sanitary man- 

 ner, need be but a trifle larger than the cost of doing so in the ordi- 

 nary slip-shod way. 



At Willow Glen Farm, we seem to have a fairly good system of 

 ventilation for a 100-year-old barn. We keep the cows clean and 

 whitewash the barns once a month in summer and every 60 days in 

 winter, with a spraying outfit; this is done by the regular farm help 

 in less than one-half day. At milking time we have a bucket and cloth 

 back of each row of cows, so that the udders can be wiped before 

 milking. I am sure this adds no cost, but makes the milking more 

 pleasant because the udders are clean. I have never seen the milker 

 who did not become disgusted with a dirty udder. I know of no class 

 of people who are slower to respond to progressive methods than my 

 own, the Pennsylvania Dutch, yet these people follow the weighing 

 of the milk, and the wiping of the udders religiously, because they 

 see the value of it. It is plain to be seen that with me it adds but 

 little, if anything, to the cost of production, but adds considerably 

 to the value and wholesomeness of our milk and gives us a ready 

 market at one cent a quart above the regular price. Let us see 

 how this would figure out in a 5000-pound cow. Five thousand 

 pounds of milk would give us approximately 2,390 quarts. 



2,390 quarts at 4c $ 95.60 



2,390 quarts at 5c 119.50 



or an increase of ^23.90 per cow for clean milk. In a 20-cow dairy, 

 the difference would amount to $478 annually. 



I appreciate the fact that so long as the farmer leaves himself en- 

 tirely in the hands of the middlemen, he must take the price offered, 

 regardless of quality. There is, however, in every community, a 

 ready and growing demand for better milk for which at least two 

 cents above the average price can be secured, and milk produced in 

 the manner described is worth all, and more, than the additional 

 two cents a quart that is asked, and people will welcome an oppor- 

 tunity to get such a product if the farmer can bring the superiority 

 of his product to their attention. After having made arrangements 

 to follow reasonable sanitary precautions at Willow Glen Farm in 

 the production of our milk, I went to two nearby cities and saw the 

 retailers and explained the kind of mi^k I had to sell, and soon dis- 

 covered that the retailer was anxious enough to handle such milk 



