OS Thirty-Fifth Annual Report of the 



iTiaking here than you do in cheese making. It is quite true we 

 make some butter up in Canada although cheese business is the 

 principal branch of our dairying. 



I think we have between eleven and twelve hundred cream- 

 eries located in different parts' of the country extending from 

 the Atlantic to the Pacific. I come in contact with those cream- 

 eries more or less, and know how the work is carried on in the 

 different provinces and sections of Canada. 



It is part of my official duty to manage several creameries 

 which are operated by the Dominion government in North Alberta 

 just under the shadow of the Rocky mountains. I was interested 

 in the discussion this morning because those creameries are neces- 

 sarily operated on the cream gathering plan. It might seem 

 strange to you that the government should undertake to oper- 

 ate creameries. Perhaps a word or two in explanation will be 

 sufficient. This district of Northern Alberta, which extends 

 from about 50 miles north on the Canadian Pacific railway, a 

 distance of 150 miles and is about as wide as that, is a country 

 very much in all respects like this part of the world. It is not 

 necessarily a woody country, they are going in some for farming 

 and tillage and I think it will be a great dairy district in the 

 future. 



When that district was first settled seven or eight years 

 ago, at least when there was sufficient settlement to warrant 

 any attempt at co-operative dairying at all, we found we were 

 unable to make a success of co-operative dairying because of the 

 great cost of hauling the cream long distances, a small amount 

 of butter was made and the cost per pound immediately went up 

 and a number of creameries were started. The settlers were not 

 as prosperous as they are now and they were not able to go on 

 with the work and the Government came to the rescue, and said, 

 ''we will take hold of the creameries and charge you a reasonable 

 price, and the government will stand the loss if there is any 

 until the creamery is well established." This gave confidence 

 to the settlers, they said, the Government is going to run these 

 creameries and we are sure of our money. The result is today 

 that we have some first class creameries that are well supported 

 and they have reduced the price of manufacturing down to a 

 little over two cents per pound. 



Then they had to get some new markets as they were too 

 far away from the Atlantic to take much of the export trade 

 and consequently we were obliged to look to the far east. 



Now just that word of explanation I thought was necessary. 

 It seems to me one of the problems that would engage the at- 

 tention of all dairymen is how we may best show the producer of 

 milk — how we may best point out to him the lines upon which 



