396 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



serious condition in the dairy business in this state. I don't want to 

 say anything that will offend the centralizing people, but there is one 

 system that has been iuaugerated in this state during the past two or 

 three years that should be condemned in the strongest measure. 1 

 am referring to the so-called "cream station." There are men buying 

 cream in this state, butchers, blacksmiths, draj^men, who have never 

 had any training for that line of work. The result is they are not 

 competent to judge the quality of cream and all kinds are taken. The 

 principal interest the man has is to get so many pounds of butterfat. The 

 result is if we go through this state in the summer months, you will 

 find in some cases where cream is so decomposed and fermented that 

 actually the seals are broken on the cans and the covers forced off and 

 the cream is running along the platform. It is impossible for any7 

 body, no matter how skilled a buttermaker, to produce a first class article 

 of butter from such cream. 



State Dairy Commissioner Wright recommended the adopting of classi- 

 fication of cream, putting the bad in one lot and the good in another. I 

 think that system is entirely wrong. What the creamerymen in this state 

 want to do is to get together and reject all poor cream. I do not mean 

 by poor cream, cream that is a little sour, because we have to sour the 

 cream before we churn it, but I do not believe in a system of taking in 

 bad cream and placing it on the market. We have been for years fight- 

 ing oleomargarine or butterine and In the judgment of a good many peo- 

 ple oleomargarine or butterine is superior to a lot of the so-called "butter" 

 we are making at the present time. I tell you this is a serious question. 

 We have got to get out of the rut and get on a highre plane, and we 

 have to endeavor to make a grade of butter that will go extra at least — 93. 

 1 believe the quality of our butter has deteriorated at least 25 per cent 

 during the past two or years years. This is largely due to the introduc- 

 tion of the handseparator. Now I am not condemning the us of the hand 

 separator, but under the present condition I believe it is impossible for 

 the man with the hand separator (I believe it has been thoroughly demon- 

 strated in this contest) to score as high as the man who has the whole 

 milk. One of the principle reasons for this is that on the farm the average 

 farmer does not have hot water, he does not have steam. Even if he 

 washes his separators twice a day he washes with cold water. That does 

 not destroy the putrefactive bacteria that comes from the cow's body 

 and legs. The result is the milk and cream is inoculated with unde- 

 sirable bacteria. 



I believe it is possible to make a good grade of butter with hand 

 separator cream where it is good and where you have used a large 

 starter to overcome those defects, but at the same time I do not think 

 it possible for a man with hand separator cream to go into a contest 

 and win over a man with whole milk, because the man in a whole 

 milk factory has the privilege of rejecting milk; he has the separators 

 and everything thoroughly cleansed; he knows what his conditions 

 are, so the result is he will beat the other man every time; but if we 

 make butter which will score 93, which is Western extras, that butter 

 will sell to the average consumer exactly as well as butter that will 

 score 95. 



