THIIM> ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART VIII. 469 



year has been nearly sixty per cent, a result which could not have been 

 achieved if former users of hand separators were dissatisfied with them 

 ?nd were discarding them, as alleged. 



The ideas of the creameryman in regard to the hand separator sys- 

 tem are not quite the same as those of his patron. The question in 

 regard to the quality of butter brings forth answers which seem to in- 

 dicate very clearly a majority opinion that butter makers have found 

 themselves unable to make from hand separator cream a quality of butter 

 equal to that which they are able to make from whole milk. However, 

 most of the butter makers who confess to making a poor quality of butter 

 from hand separator cream assert that they are still getting a "half 

 cent above" and a uniform score of extras or better on the market to 

 which they ship, and that it is only occasionally, usually during the 

 warmest weather, that their butter is off flavor by reason of their hand 

 separator cream. They further assert that complaints of the quality 

 of the butter by the commission man are very rare, and yet, they freely 

 admit that the butter is not so good as it ought to be. Several of the 

 larger hand separator creameries are selling their butter on a contract 

 which requires them to produce extras, and a number of the creameries 

 of the state are making &n excellent quality of butter from hand separator 

 cream, but the majority of creameries receiving hand separator cream 

 are not making so good a quality of butter as they did under the whole 

 milk system. A good quality of butter can be made from hand separator 

 cream, but most butter makers are unable to accomplish this result. 

 This is the difference between theory and fact, and the small quantity 

 of first-class butter made from hand separator cream proves only that 

 (he theory is correct as a theory, while the larger quantities of lower 

 grade butter made from hand separator cream prove that the theory 

 s not easy to put into practice. 



If the creamery patron could be induced or compelled to take better 

 • •are of his cream and deliver it to the creamery every day, the butter 

 maker would be able to make from it a first-class product, but in the 

 majority of cases it is seemingly impossible to get the cream to the 

 creamery in a reasonably good condition. 



Naturally the operators of hand separator creameries think that 

 their patrons receive more net returns for their butter fat than the 

 patrons of the whole milk creameries receive, and even some of the butter 

 makers in the whole milk creameries also assert this fact. They add 

 as an explanation the statement that they pay the same price per pound 

 for their butter fat to their milk and cream patrons and that the cream 

 patron has less expense in getting his product to the factory. They 

 assert that it costs two and one-half cents per pound of butter fat to 

 haul the whole milk to the creamery, while the cost per pound of butter 

 fat for hauling cream is about one cent, and that this is the only saving 

 That the hand separator patron makes. Some of them suggest, on the 

 other hand, that there are losses in the skimmed milk from the farm sepa- 

 rator which more than equals the difference in the cost of hauling. All 

 of the butter makers, however, who express an opinion on this point, 



