No. 4.] NEW ENGLAND DAIRYING. 171 



In proportion as New England dairymen, working privately 

 or associated with others, keep their stock, barns and feeds 

 clean and healthy; in proportion to their free use of live 

 steam on dairy apparatus and utensils, the sunniness of their 

 cow barns and milk rooms, and their free use of ice ; in 

 proportion, in short, to their study of economic dairy bac- 

 teriology, — there will follow the enhancement of the char- 

 acter of their dairy products. Such procedure will tend 

 to make their products more uniform, more attractive to 

 buyers, and lead to larger consumption. 



Some time ago a series of questions touching dairy opera- 

 tions Avere sent out by the dairy division of the United States 

 Department of Agriculture to several heads of creameries 

 the country over. One of the questions was essentially as 

 follows : What one thing, if it could be brought about, 

 would, more than any other, help the dairy industry and 

 dairy products in this country? The overwhelming majority 

 of the replies, — not a plurality, mind you, but a majority, 

 — stated that more care in the handling of the milk after it 

 was drawn from the cow and before it reached the factory 

 was the one thing needful. The dairyman himself is mainly 

 at fault in the matter, — a fault which may be remedied by a 

 not unreasonable amount of care. The discouraging feature 

 of the matter, however, so far as it pertains to associate 

 dairying, is that one bad mess of milk drags down the entire 

 lot to its low level, — it leaveneth the lump. And not un- 

 naturally the dairyman says, " What avails it for me to use 

 care, to steam my pans, to ice my milk, to dip it, to aerate 

 it, to jacket my cans, to groom my cows, to feed my dry 

 fodder after milking, to ventilate my barn, only to have my 

 milk mixed at the creamery with John Doe's, who never 

 washes his cans, whose cows lie in tilth and darkness, and 

 whose milk must be well-nigh sour when taken into the 

 factory?" John Doe's milk ought to be turned back from 

 the weigh can. The creamery taking John Doe's milk and 

 making on that account a poorer grade of butter ought not 

 to get a good price for it. Unfortunately, in many locali- 

 ties, notably in my own State, creameries are so thickly 

 located and competition is so keen that generally John Doe 

 can sell milk of pretty tough quality to some one. And, 



