470 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



suggest that the skimmed milk from the farm separator has more value 

 than the skimmed milk from the creamery. Generally speaking, this 

 must be true, because the skimmed milk from the farm separator is fed 

 usually before it has time to sour or become contaminated, while the 

 skimmed milk from the creamery is from twelve to twenty-four hours 

 old. This fact is one of the chief reasons why the owners and users of 

 farm separators are so uniformly satisfied with their machines, not- 

 withstanding the allegations of losses of butter fat in the skimmed milk 

 and of losses at the creamery because of poorer quality of butter made. 

 The fact that the farmer reckons the value of his skimmed milk more 

 carefully than he did several years ago is one of the good signs in the 

 present dairy situation. Another is that nearly all the butter makers 

 report that their patrons take better care of their cream than they did 

 when they first began to use a separator. 



There seems to be no question but that the hand separator has come 

 to stay. The average number of cows per patron for the state is about 

 seven, and a moment's thought will show that the number of creamery 

 patrons who have a number of cows sufficiently large to warrant the 

 expense of a hand separator is very much less than the total number 

 of creamery patrons; hence, the number of farm separators now in use, 

 which is about ten per cent of all the creamery patrons, is probably 

 twenty per cent, possibly thirty per cent, of the creamery patrons of 

 Iowa who have twelve or more cows. The rapid increase in the number 

 of farm separator creameries is also an indication of the faith in the 

 system which the builders of these creameries have. Considerable sums 

 of money have been invested in central plants, to which it is expected 

 the hand separator cream and other cream will be shipped by rail, and 

 the success such an enterprise depends upon the continuance of the hand 

 separator system. Certainly these investments would not have been 

 made unless the investors are reasonably sure that their system will 

 continue. Despite all reports to the contrary, there is no locality in the 

 state where any large number of farm separators have been abandoned; 

 and on the other hand, there is no locality in this state where any reason- 

 able number of separators have ever been owned and operated in which 

 the separator system is not increasing with great rapidity. It is also 

 true that manufacturers of hand separators are enlarging their plants 

 and making every effort to produce enough separators to fill their orders. 

 All of these facts indicate a future increase in the number of hand sepa- 

 rators used in Iowa corresponding with the respective increases for the 

 last four years. It is, therefore, a waste of energy to spend our time 

 only in condemning the hand separator system and not making proper 

 efforts toward educating the users of the separator system so that they shall 

 send to the creamery a proper product. The butter maker is equally to 

 blame with the farmer when he receives cream that is too old, or that 

 has been contaminated by a filthy separator, or by being kept under 

 improper conditions. For business reasons he may not be able to refuse 

 outright to accept such cream, but he ought to insist that the cream be 

 better in the future, and he ought to point out to the farmer the way 

 to make it better. The hand separator system will certainly continue-. 



