THE PATRON AND THE CREAMERY. 



BY HON. W. D. HOARD, EX-GOVERNOR OF WISCONSIN, PRESIDENT OF THE 

 NATIONAL DAIRY UNION AND EDITOR OF ''HOARD'S DAIRYMAN." 



Fort Atkinson, Wis. 



The real foundation of the creamery business is the patron. The first 

 chief care should be to so equip the patron with knowledge and under- 

 standing concerning his share of the work that he may make the largest 

 profit possible. A very large proportion of the creamery patrons make the 

 serious mistake of supposing that their profits must somehow come from the 

 creamery end rather than the farm end. They are all the time looking at 

 the price paid for making the butter, thinking the great expense lies there, 

 This is not true. The real and most serious expense lies at the farm end 

 in producing the milk, and getting it to the creamery. There seems to be 

 a most serious lack of knowledge and study concerning the best economy 

 and methods of producing milk; concerning the right kind of cows that shall 

 produce milk in sufficient abundance to make the cost low per cow; concern- 

 ing the right methods of field and stable management so that the cow can do 

 her best; concerning farm management in producing the right crops and so 

 handling them that they shall stimulate milk secretion to the largest ad- 

 vantage; concerning the science of feeding, how to compound a ration that 

 is adapted to milk production. All these points require reading and study, 

 and every creamery should be a dairy school where the patrons may take 

 advantage of their co-operation together to increase their knowledge. 



How many creameries are there of that sort in the country ? But very 

 few. A prominent creamery company, comprising over one hundred 

 creameries, keeps an expert dairy farmer to travel from one creamery to 

 another instructing the farmers on all these points to the best of his ability. 

 Some of the patrons are quick and anxious to learn. They realize the neces- 

 sity of such training and education. They purchase books and papers that 

 treat of these questions, and it is a fact that their profits per cow are many 

 times greater than those of their neighbors, in the same creamery, who place 

 no value on such knowledge and study. But few, comparatively, realize 

 the tremendous difference and increase in profits which such intelligence 

 brings. 



I will give one illustration taken from the Hoard Creameries at Fort 

 Atkinson, Wis. To one patron, who has a herd of nineteen cows, was paid 



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