REPORT STATE DAIRY COMMISSIONER 453 



the realization on the part of the creamerymen of the necessity 

 of supplying the market with better butter in order to dispose 

 of it at a satisfactory margin, and the efforts of the dairy educa- 

 tional forces to introduce practical methods for the systematic 

 grading of cream, have been mighty factors in focusing the at- 

 tention of the creamerymen on improving their cream suppl)- 

 by cream grading and quality-paying. 



The earliest efforts at cream grading were largely abortive. 

 In isolated cases some concerns had the courage and determin- 

 ation to grade and pay on the basis of grade only. But the great 

 majority of creameries, while acknowledging the fundamental 

 correctness of cream grading, lacked the courage to undertake 

 it. Their intentions foundered on the rock of competition in 

 the cream supply territory. They lacked confidence in each 

 other to stand by mutual agreements to start grading and 

 quality-paying. They were fearful of losing patrons and of 

 working into the hands of their competitors. Gentlemen's 

 agreements, drafted in sectional and national conferences of 

 creamerymen to grade cream, proved futile. Attempts to place 

 legislative measures on the statute books, requiring the grad- 

 ing of cream, proved unconstitutional, and Government inspec- 

 tion of the creameries for the purpose of compelling nation- 

 wide cream grading did not materialize because of the enor- 

 mity of the proposed undertaking. 



While most of these proposed and apparently ideal plans 

 failed to materialize and were automatically abandoned, one 

 after another, the constant agitation of the subject did not fail 

 to have its good effect. While it became clear to all practical 

 creamerymen that the industry was not ripe as yet for an organ- 

 ized state- or nation-wide plan of cream grading by mutual 

 agreement between creameries, farsighted creamery-men real- 

 ized that this complex and difficult matter was a problem to be 

 solved independently by each individual creamery and that it 

 was to the unquestioned advantage of each individual concern 

 to introduce cream grading in their own plants. 



Today most of the really progressive creameries, large and 

 small, are grading their cream and many of these creameries 

 pay the farmer on the basis of quality. Those who have taken 

 this important step are already convinced of its permanent ad- 

 vantages and it is only a question of time when all creameries, 

 for their own protection, will adopt a rational system of cream 



