120 Thirty-Fifth Annual Report of the 



heard Prof. Hills, we have come to the conclusion that the state 

 of Vermont is something more than a jumping- off place. 



I have been greatly interested in the papers and in the dis- 

 cussion at your meetings, and more directly yesterday in the 

 paper in regard to the cream gathering system vs. the milk sys- 

 tem. In Maine it is common for us to gather our cream inasmuch 

 as we have no whole milk, we cover such large areas it is im- 

 possible to get it at the price our farmers can afford to pay. We 

 do not make the quality of butter you make in Vermont, but we 

 have something of a reputation in regard to the sweet cream we 

 are making. Wo feel there is a reason why we are not making 

 the good butter. We believe we can make as good butter as you 

 can if we would only put our effort intO' that instead of putting it 

 into our cream business. It seems to me that the cream gathering 

 system has some and perhaps many advantages over the whole 

 milk. In fact I am able to see but one point where you can make 

 any account of your whole milk system and that is in the quality 

 of your product. It was suggested in the discussion yesterday 

 that the butter would sell at a cent a pound less in the gathered 

 cream factories than the whole milk factories. If that is true 

 it has cost at least a cent and a half a pound more to gather milk 

 than it has to- gather cream ; allowing we are not getting as much 

 by a cent a pound for the butter made from cream as from milk, 

 we are then making a gain of a cent and a half a pound. I am 

 not willing to admit the quality cannot be kept just as good with 

 the gathered cream as with the whole milk. I will not say it is 

 as good, I don't think it is. I believe the factories are making 

 a little better quality. If you take your milk from the cow and 

 separate it, using the ordinary care every dairyman would use 

 with his milk in taking care of his separator and with his cream 

 after it is separated, I think there is no reason why the quality 

 will not be just as good with t^e gathered cream as with the 

 whole milk. 



If you send your teams out to gather as they do, in some 

 places, both the milk and the cream, gather milk from some 

 patrons and cream from others — if you do this every day you 

 are still making a saving in the expense and there is no reason 

 why the quality shall not be and is not, just as good. 



Now you people have discussed this a great deal more than 

 it is necessary for us to discuss it, it is a condition which you 

 have lately changed and, as I understand it, not necessarily, from 

 the whole milk to the gathered cream. 



We have never had this change come u])on us. We started 

 in practically this way, our effort has been along the line of im- 

 proving the quality of our cream as it comes from the farm. We 

 have not had to discuss whether it should be milk or cream, 



