MILK 251 



much as can bo obtained by private marketing. In most localities, 

 particularly during the summer months, the markets are flooded with 

 farm butter and the prices are very unsatisfactory. The maker who 

 is depending on the stores for the sale of his butter usually has to 

 accept the current price, while if he has worked up a private trade the 

 chances are that he has a market that will give a uniform price 

 throughout the year, which is a great advantage. There is little op- 

 portunity for the farm butter maker to ship his butter to distant 

 markets, unless he is acquainted with the dealers or brokers who are 

 to handle his product. 



Patronizing Creameries vs. Making Butter. Should the dairy- 

 man be compelled to take the average store price for his butter, he 

 can generally do better by selling his milk or cream to a creamery, if 

 there be one in easy reach, as the price for farm dairy butter is 

 usually lower than the quotations for butter fat. In sections where 

 creameries abound it is a question whether or not the dairyman can 

 afford to make his ow r n butter and spend the time looking for a good 

 market in which to sell it. By the time he has added to the cost of 

 his butter fat the work and worry connected with the making of the 

 butter, which is too frequently done by the housewife, the amount 

 actually saved is very small, and even though it is gain in dollars 

 and cents it may not be worth the time and labor expended. Only 

 on dairy farms where there is ample help to do the work can there be 

 profit in making the butter at home. 



Storing or Holding for Market. The amount of butter that the 

 farm dairyman can store or hold for any length of time for market 

 is necessarily limited. The old methods of packing butter down in 

 brine or salt, such as were followed by our grandparents, has prac- 

 tically no place in modern methods of dairying. Cold storage such 

 as the dairyman would probably have is not suitable for keeping but- 

 ter any length of time, because such storage is not cold enough to 

 answer the purpose. Modern storehouses for butter have tempera- 

 tures from 5 to 10 below zero. It is now considered that anything 

 above that temperature is not cold enough to properly preserve the 

 butter and check the development of bad flavors. These tempera- 

 tures, of course, are out of the reach of the dairyman. If ice is at 

 hand and a good refrigerator or cooling room is available the butter 

 may be stored for a short, period with more or less success. The tem- 

 perature of a good ice-storage room would probably not be below 

 40 or 45 F. unless special and expensive construction is made. It 

 is sometimes necessary for a dairyman to keep the butter until a suffi- 

 cient quantity has accumulated for profitable shipment. When this 

 is done the butter should be packed in the ordinary way and kept as 

 cold as possible until delivered to the market. 



Rooms that are used for purposes of storing butter should be dry 

 and free from mold. Too frequently ice-storage rooms are just the 

 reverse; they are excessively moist, which condition is favorable to 

 the production of mold. Butter placed in a room of this character 

 becomes quite moldy after a few days, which of course destroys its 



