TWELFTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART VIII 357 



factories were built some 10, 15 or 20 years ago the hand separator 

 was unknown and the whole-milk was delivered to the creamery. 

 It took strong power to operate those five, six and seven large sepa- 

 rators, and no creamery was equipped with less than a 20 or 30 

 horse engine. The same proportionate amount of steam and power 

 is required in creameries operating separators today, but this steam 

 and power can be supplied at a materially less cost, and this fact has 

 evidently been overlooked heretofore by the majority of creameries. 



As the cream system came on, the factory separators were taken 

 out, but the same boiler and engine continues to furnish steam, run 

 a churn an hour or so, a cream vat about that length of time, a 

 starter can perhaps and pump water. The thought never occurred 

 to them that less power was needed, and those who did think of It 

 concluded that so long as the boiler and engine were already in and 

 paid for they might as well use them. And so, many managers have 

 thought and still think. They could not and can not see the economy 

 of spending more money in order to save on fuel. 



The idea that anything else but a big boiler and engine was prac- 

 tical escaped my serious attention until I became proprietor and 

 manager of a creamery. As soon as I had to write checks for coal I 

 began to wonder if it was necessary to feed a 30-horse power boiler 

 and run a 2 0-horse engine just to run three separators a couple of 

 hours a day, operate a medium sized churn and the few other ap- 

 pliances requiring power. I realized from the first that my power 

 was costing me too much, but upon observation I saw that every 

 other creamery was doing likewise. At the end of my first business 

 year, however, I found that I had spent $471 for coal, or an average 

 of $39.25 per month, and we only manufactured 101,508 pounds of 

 butter. And at that I bought my coal by the car load direct from 

 the mines at an average cost of about $3.90 per ton delivered to 

 the creamery. 



I began to look around for leaks. We relined our fire box, put up 

 a new smoke stack, put on new valves and new packing. The result 

 of this overhauling, of course, proved to be a considerable saving of 

 fuel, but it did not relieve the continuous fire which had to be car- 

 ried, and from which we were deriving little benefit. It did not shut 

 off that smoke and heat I" could see going to waste up through the 

 stack. 



And right here let me say that a great deal more fuel is consumed 

 than necessary on account of defective stacks, poor draught, broken 

 grates and boiler fronts which permit air to flow in and chase the 

 heat out unused. I do not pose as an engineer, but I have found 

 out a few things by experience which a great many buttermakers 

 neglect. They know the difference, but they do not take sufficient 

 interest, or the board of directors do not, to exert extra effort to have it 

 otherwise. There is a knack to firing a steam boiler, and the butter- 

 maker who simply throws in the coal and scoops out the ashes is 

 causing the creamery company to pay abnormal prices for their fuel. As 

 an instance to illustrate. I happened in on a buttermaker not long ago 



