318 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



want men who understand feeding, breeding and who have a thorough 

 knowledge of the best sanitary methods of caring for millv and cream. 

 I would have such men inspect milk and cream as delivered to our 

 creameries, then I would have them visit those patrons that were send- 

 ing the poorest milk or cream and instruct them how to improve their 

 goods. It might be necessary for a man to spend a few weeks at one 

 creamery, but such work would have a lasting benefit on the community. 

 There is no denying the fact that since the introduction of the hand 

 separator the quality of our butter has greatly deteriorated. Now the 

 hand separator is here to stay, and the sooner we adopt methods to 

 meet these conditions the better it will be for the dairy industry. H. R. 

 Wright, State Dairy Commissioner, and I took up a correspondence with 

 the different creameries to ascertain their views about paying such a. 

 tax. Possibly about four-fifths of the creamery men responded favorably. 

 Among this number were practically the best creamery men of the state. 

 A. few, however, opposed the proposition quite strongly, therefore we 

 deemed it unwise to press such a measure. It is quite a common thing 

 at the present time to find a variation in the price of butter from 1 

 cent to 3 cents per pound, therefore the fraction of .2 of a mill would be 

 so small that it would not be missed by any creamery in the state. If 

 the creameries are willing to contribute this amount the state should 

 contribute an equal amount. 



Place fifteen instructors in the state and divide the state into districts 

 and I believe the work of these instructors would increase the revenue of 

 our dairy industry from $5,000,000 to $10,000,000 annually in five years. 

 To some this statement might be considered a great exaggeration, but 

 in my judgment it is a very conservative estimate when you take into 

 consideration the actual amount of butter, per cow, produced in our 

 state. It is our boasted pride that we make more butter than any state 

 in the union, but if this butter is not made at a profit it avails us noth- 

 ing. Our agricultural resources are equal, if not superior, to any state 

 or to any country. Why, do you know that in some of the European 

 countries they are dairying successfully on land worth from $300 to 

 $1,000 per acre? The difference is right here; they are dairying in- 

 telligently with good cows. Their average is nearly 300 pounds per cow, 

 .while ours is about 140 pounds per cow. We need a great awakening, 

 among the producers of this state along intelligent lines of dairying. 



The test associations, for the weeding out of poor cows, have wrought 

 wonders. These associations originated in Denmark some twelve years 

 ago; since then they have spread rapidly over European countries, Canada 

 and some of our own states. In Germany they have 67 test associations 

 and their average milk production is 7,600 pounds per cow, or a gain 

 of 1,380 pounds per cow in five years, or a difference in profit of $14.00 

 per cow. This is the result of intelligence. The milk production of Ger- 

 many, where they have test associations, is a little more than twice the 

 amount received by the average Iowa farmer per cow. An increased 

 profit of $14.00 per cow would mean to Iowa an increase of over $14,000,- 

 000. We have in this state, it is estimated, 1,250,000 cows, therefore it 

 is reasonable to suppose that at least 1,000,000 would be giving milk. 

 It will be seen from the German statistics of the work of the test associa- 



