386 IOWA DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE. 



America. Why then did the Englishman look east and not west for his 

 butter? The answer is simple, because Denmark made a better article. 

 The dairyman of Iowa do not have to supply milk to the large cities, 

 few in number but with immense populations. On the other hand they 

 do cater to the wants of a large number of cities of smaller size. You are 

 all interested therefore in the question of a pure milk supply. What 

 shall be done to foster the milk trade, to increase the amount consumed? 

 The answer to both questions is the same. It is quality that the con- 

 sumer demands. Canada is taking the market from Denmark because of 

 the superior quality of the butter made. We are getting none of the 

 butter exports increase 56 per cent for the same period in a single year. 

 This means that it will increase in the same proportion next year, and, 

 having secured the trade that Canadians will hold it against all comers. 



It is this fact, among others, that has made me elect the topic of 

 quality as my theme for consideration with you at this convention. I 

 recognize that in a discussion of this subject a fair division of the re- 

 sponsibility between the producers of milk, the butter makers, and. the 

 distributing agencies ought to be first considered. Time does not allow me 

 to discuss this phase of the subject at length. The distributing agencies, are 

 not altogether guiltless. The railroads do not keep the tubs clean and^ 

 bright nor is the utmost care used at the terminals to keep the butter cold 

 and in prime condition for the buyers, but we have not those people here 

 to deal with nor are their sins so flagrant. 



The commission men are sinners as we shall see. We have dairy schools 

 in almost every state to instruct the butter makers and I am sure that the 

 America butter maker is not behind his Canadian and Danish competit- 

 ors in his ability to make a good article of butter from clean milk or in 

 correcting the defects on imperfect milk. There was much to be done 

 along this line and much yet remains. There is much unevenness in 

 the products of our creameries due to carelessness, a lack of cleanliness 

 or a lack of skill on the part of the buttermaker. There is much for our 

 dairy conventions, our dairy schools, and our dairy press to do to bring 

 up the laggard butter maker, the careless, the indifferent, and the ineff- 

 cient generally, to the standard of the examples set by our best men, such 

 as attend our dairy conventions and constitute no small part of the pres- 

 ent audience. 



The method of caring for the butter fat from the time it leaves the 

 cow until packed in the tub for shipment, has much to do with the quality 

 which the consumer finds in the product. While I lost some friends by 

 my over-frank statements last year 1 am still convinced that the gathered 

 cream system has some diflBculties well night insurmountable. Theoreti- 

 cally the sooner the cream is taken from the milk after it is drawn from 

 the cow, the less the danger of contamination. Why is it not best then 

 to give every herd owner a separator? Note that we have a dairy school 

 which teaches annually perhaps a hundred buttermakers showing them 

 how to handle milk and cream, finding them ignorant in some important 

 details at least, and leaving them fitted to handle so delicate a material 



