NINTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART VII 287 
Chairman : The next is an address by F. A. Leighton, of Des 
Moines. 
BETTER MILK AND CREAM. 
F. A. LEIGHTON, DES MOINES, IOWA. 
So much has been written and so many discussions have taken place 
on the subject of better milk and cream that it is somewhat difficult for 
one to add anything new. But it is the one vital problem today which 
all dairymen are interested in and a subject upon which all up-to-date 
dairymen and buttermakers can agree. 
I do not believe there is a person engaged in the manufacture of 
butter who does not desire a better quality of cream or the best quality 
of cream that can be produced. The amount of butter which he manu- 
factures does not change tnis desire. The man who manufactures sixty 
pounds of butter a day is just as anxious to produce a good quality of 
butter as the man who manufactures six thousand pounds a day. 
One of the most discouraging features in the creamery business is 
the poor quality of raw material, which the manufacturer receives 
from a certain percentage of his patronage. In every community there 
are a certain class of dairymen who do not care what kind of product 
they deliver to the buyer, providing they get the price. This is not 
only true with milk and cream, but it is also true with the selling of 
eggs. These people will deliver eggs to their buyer that they would not 
think of using on their own table, possibly never thinking and probably 
never caring whether the poor laborer, working in the sewer and try- 
ing to support a family on a small salary is liable to purchase these 
bad eggs and be compelled to stand a loss when they can ill afford it. 
The men or women who offer these stale eggs for sale are, nine times 
out of ten, the identical people who offer old and stale cream or milk 
for sale. I will guarantee that the farmer who gathers his eggs fresh 
every day and brings them to his buyer in a clean and sanitary condi- 
tion does not offer for sale any old, stale or undesirable milk or cream. 
Now, this latter class of farmers do not need the attention of the dairy 
authorities nor do they have to be watched by the buyer of their product. 
Neither does the patron who reads Kimball's Dairy Farmer and other 
dairy journals sell the bad cream. You give me a thousand patrons who 
read these papers and I will guarantee nearly a thousand farmers who 
will not need radical dairy laws. The other class of dairymen are the 
men who are causing the mischief and these are the people whom we 
must regulate in some manner. 
Undoubtedly the best plan whereby to compel this class to furnish 
a good article is through their pocketbooks, but this is not always suc- 
cessful. We have patrons who tell us that they would rather accept 
two or even three cents a pound less for their butter fat and deliver 
it once a week than to get the better price and deliver it three times a 
week. I do not look for very much relief on the quality proposition 
or on a plan of buying milk and cream on quality until some law is 
passed which will compel the seller to furnish a first class article, as 
