THIRD ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART IX. 513 



But one of them came to me afterwards and said I had been quite fair in 

 my talk and hadn't said much against them. I had made the assertion 

 that we only had two separators which would skim a 30 per cent cream. 



Up to a year ago last June I hardly knew what a hand separator was. 

 I was up in Palo Alto county then, and while they would not object to tak- 

 ing hand separator cream no person in the district had a separator. The 

 manager aud secretary of the Alden creamery came to Ayrshire and wanted 

 to hire me. I asked about the conditions over there and they told me 

 things were in bad shape. They had a skim station. I hired to them and 

 came there on the 25th day of June, and if I had been back in Ayrshire on 

 the 1st day of July I would have been there yet. The second day I was 

 there a great big Irishman came in. Now I'm Irish myself, but I wasn't as 

 big as this man. His milk was sour; it was bad. Now I had guaranteed 

 the company to make western extras. I said. "I can't take that cream." 

 He said, "You will have to take it; I am one of the stockholders." I said, 

 "Mr., I am afraid I can't," He said, "I will see the president." I said, 

 "All right, but he told me not to take anything that wasn't fit and this cer- 

 tainly isn't fit." Now I am going to say something about the hand sep- 

 arator agents. One of the agents had been through there selling separators 

 and had told the buyers that if they separated at home they wouldn't have 

 to bring their cream but once a week and it would be all right. That is 

 what the agent had told this man. He didn't care; he was making his 

 $25 or $30. I don't know just what they do make. This man told me what 

 the separator agent had told him. that he could bring his cream once a 

 week. "Well. I didn't take his cream and that man got real angry. He 

 didn't come again for about four weeks, and finally he quit me altogether. 

 He tried making butter at home and made a complete failure of it. His 

 neighbors all came to me and he had to go to Williams all alone. He 

 hardly speaks to me now. I tried to get the board to pass a resolution to 

 compel them to bring their cream every other day in the summer time and 

 three times a week in the winter. I had guaranteed to make Western 

 Extras. I had been getting a good price for my butter where I came from, 

 and they wanted me to get the same price here. I told them I couldn't do 

 it unless they restricted the hand separator business, but I finally got 

 them to bringing good cream. A week after I got there we got three-fourths 

 of a cent below. We had forty hand separators when I went in; we have 

 forty-peven now and I think we will have more. We are taking in milk 

 also. We are improving in the quality of the butter, although some of 

 them insist on coming only twice a week. We hadn't a starter can and I 

 ordered one the first day. I commenced getting after the patrons too and 

 finally they got to bringing pretty good cream. The cream they brought 

 tested from 10 to 25. Our dairy commissioner says we ought not to take 

 less than 30 per cent cream and ought to insist on 35 per cent. Now I am 

 not going to mention any separators, but the average separator doesn't 

 skim that way. A separator man came to me and said that his separator 

 would skim all right if the farmers knew how to use it. I asked him why 

 he didn't educate them to it. He says the farmers won't do it. He had sold 

 one of our patrons a separator and that patron was bringing 16 per cent 



