300 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
At the present time, the merchant buyers of cream are the greatest 
menace to quality with which we have to contend. Before we progress 
much in quality, this practice of buying cream in stores will have to be 
done away with. It is unreasonable to expect a merchant, who has a 
business of his own, to give proper attention to another branch of busi- 
ness with which he is unfamiliar, especially with such a perishable prod- 
uct as cream; so the result has been disastrous to quality, as might have 
been expected. The farmer is not going to cool and care for his cream 
as he should when he sees the unsanitary methods by which the cream 
is handled by the merchant, where practically no attention is given to 
controlling the temperature of cream and to keeping the surroundings san- 
itary. If cream is properly cooled and cared for, it can be shipped quite 
a distance with practically no injury to quality. When we used to make 
butter under the whole milk system it was quite a common thing with 
many creamerymen to separate the cream Saturday morning and cool it 
down to a low temperature and churn it Monday morning with the best 
possible results. 
The question of improving the quality of cream has engaged the atten- 
tion of the dairy press and dairy experts for the last few years, and 
among the latest suggestions we find federal inspection of cream- 
eries. This, of course, would mean a federal law to control the inter- 
state traffic in butter and cream, and such a law would have to be en- 
acted by congress. Personally, I am in favor of most anything that 
would aid in improving the quality of our cream and thus raising the 
standard of American butter, so any practical plans that my friend 
Chief Webster may formulate in regard to government inspection will 
certainly receive due consideration from me and from our association. 
When it comes to the government having entire supervisipn of the 
dairy business, I am a good deal like the Irishman. You know Irishmen 
are all politicians. Pat was shipwrecked and after clinging to a mast 
for nearly two days, was washed ashore on a little island. One of the 
natives saw him and came to his rescue. About the first thing Pat asked 
was, "Have you got a government here?" When the native answered 
in the affirmative, Pat rejoined, "Be gorra, I am against the government." 
Now, I am against the government's taking entire control of the dairy 
business of the country. If the object in appointing inspectors is to 
prevent the spread of disease by dairy products, an army of trained bac- 
teriologists would be necessary. Even a microscopical inspection of the 
cream would not be sufficient. It would be much easier to find a needle 
in a haystack than to find certain specific germs in cream with a microscop- 
ical examination alone. Every creameryman that has a knowledge of his 
business understands the grading and caring for cream now. It seems to 
me like the old question of trying to purify a stream by working at the 
lower end when the source of contamination is at the head. Cream at the 
farm may be kept under very unsanitary conditions and may contain 
germs that possibly may be injurious to health and yet might pass a 
microscopical examination all right. We had a typhoid epidemic at 
Ames some years ago that resulted disastrously to a number of our 
students. Upon close investigation, it was found to come from contami- 
