No. 7. DEPARTMENT OF AGliiCULTURE. 639 



We have a butter expert at work here examining the butter, scor- 

 ing it according to the market value and explaining its defects. He 

 has shoAvu at the creamery session how to determine the amount of 

 water in butter, using the new rapid method and device invented by 

 our Mr. C. E. Gray, Avhich promises to do for butter what the Bab- 

 cock test does for milk. This is a device patented by the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture for the benefit of the public. It can be had of 

 the manufacturer at a slight charge for a royalty to the inventor. 



Our cheese experts are at work in Connecticut and Wisconsin with 

 the purpose of ascertaining the best methods .of making cheese of 

 the European and American varieties. Swiss cheese is now produc- 

 ed in Wisconsin in almost the same form as in Switzerland. 



We are also pushing Southern dairy investigations under special 

 appropriations by Congress, so as to ascertain the difficulties pe- 

 culiar to that section and overcome them. Our field agents visit 

 the dairy farmers, manufacturers and dealers, co-operating with 

 them in the introduction of improvements. 



We have a building expert at work so that we are able to recom- 

 mend suitable plans to those who are about to erect dairy buildings, 

 and we furnish sketches of such plans so that we may learn in re- 

 turn what are the actual benefits of such improvements and then 

 pass them on to others. 



We have our dairy laboratories at Washington, where we are now 

 ready to make such investigations as are necessary to supplement 

 the lines of work carried on at various outside stations. 



In co-operation with the State College of Missouri, we are con- 

 ducting investigations of the composition of normal milk as affected 

 by the age, feed, breeding and lactation of the cow, and the nature 

 of her care and surroundings. We want to find out what milk really 

 is, and how it varies naturally. 



We are inspecting the manufacture and sale of renovated butter 

 throughout the country, as required by Congress. 



The Division now has 4(5 employes, 31 of whom are scientists, and 

 seven engaged in inspection work. Write us fully and ask us any 

 questions that you would like to have us answer, and we will do all 

 that v.'e can from Washington to help you. 



May I say a few words of encouragement to the dairymen as to the 

 general advantages which it seems to me are not appreciated as 

 highly as they should be, advantages which belong to the occupation 

 of the farmer, especially of the dairy farmer? I find that young 

 men in a great many places have an entirely false and unworthy no- 

 tion of what farming really is, what it really affords, for example, in 

 the Avay of independence, of opportunities for profit, and for social 

 pleasure and comfort. You, with your broader ^iews, I presume, are 

 already doing missionary work trying to raise the lamentably poor 

 conditions of some of the farms around you, as you see them. Our 

 boys should learn from us the advantages of the dairyman's inde- 

 pendence of living as compared with the constant limitation of the 

 freedom of men in other employments. We could show our girls 

 and boys and our neighbors how really less capital is required to 

 start "l^i'ofitably in the business of dairy farming, than in almost any 

 other occupation. I wish we might appreciate also the advantages 

 of the dairyman's home, in the fact that all the members of the fam- 



