216 ' IOWA DEPARTMENF OF AGRICULTURE. 



meeting, set date. etc. We believe there is a great future ahead of the 

 dairy industry in this State, and we believe it is the business of the dairy 

 department (both the dairy department of which I am the head and the 

 dairy department at Ames) and the dairy association, to help the farmers and 

 instruct them (if that is the right word), at any rate to push on the business 

 along the right line. 



So we propose to continue the meetings we have had which Mr. Shilling 

 has mentioned. I think last year we had perhaps fifty or sixty such meet- 

 ings, besides farmers' institutes. This year we hope to double that number. 

 We have quite a force at our command, not only^ our department, but the 

 school at Ames has three or four men who are good speakers; there are a 

 number of men on the road in one capacity or another, Mr. Anderson, Mr. 

 Nichols and Mr. Shilling, and some others from whom we expect assistance 

 at those meetings. 



And there is still a third thing which we are going to attempt, and from 

 which we expect great' things. You know there are about six hundred 

 creameries actually in operation in Iowa, You know also there are two 

 men whose business it is to circulate among those creameries and tender 

 such assistance as they may be able. You can see it is impossible to get to 

 even a majority of those creameries in a year. We propose, in order to help 

 us to get State dairy inspectors to creameries that need the help, instead of 

 letting them go out hit and miss or only when asked for, we propose to in- 

 augurate a monthly scoring of butter, and we are confident that we will 

 reach all the buttermakers interested in good butter in that scoring each 

 month. We expect to have some of our boys score the butter, and other 

 judges at other times, as many different judges as we can secure, so that we 

 may have the advice and expert knowledge of all of those people to point 

 out the faults in the butter. Of course the buttermaker will be informed of 

 his record by mail, for we expect to use that largely to assist the dairy com- 

 missioner in getting to the fellow who seems to be needing the help the 

 most and help him to raise the grade of his butter. 



We propose to do this without other expense to the buttermaker than 

 the expense he will be to in shipping his butter. We intend to hold the 

 scoring about the first of each month, the exact dates to be announced later 

 in the press. We intend to have some scorings at Manchester, probably 

 some in this town and elsewhere. Scorings of that kind each month from 

 now until this time next year, with one exception. That is the scoring for 

 September, we will let the State Fair take the place of that. We want these 

 scorings to be educational entirely, not giving prizes, gold medals, pre- 

 miums, diplomas or anything else. We believe the fellow that is interested in 

 raising the quality of his butter will go into this game without any reward 

 at all at the other end in the way of medal or premium money or something 

 of that kind, and the expense, other than the expense of the butter, will be 

 extremely light, possibly nothing at all. We will sell the butter and remit 

 to the owner of it. There will be no premium or prizes, except such as may 

 be voluntarily awarded by somebody outside. We will have nothing to do 

 with that. If anyone chooses to offer prizes, that is his affair. 



