144 Cooperation in Agriculture 



4 



All milk and cream shall be sweet and in good condition ; if 

 any be found otherwise, the operator may condemn the same. 

 The operator shall take for test a sample of milk or cream fur- 

 nished by each member or patron each day. 



5 



Notice of any proposed amendment to the constitution shall 

 be in writing or printing and shall be kept posted prominently in 

 the creamery building and also on the walls of the delivery room 

 for the reception of milk and cream, for at least ten days before 

 such amendment is voted on. 



The Status of the American Creamery 



Taken as a whole, the cooperative creamery^ is one of 

 the most loosely organized farmers' movements in America. 

 The dairy farmers have not understood the fundamental 

 principles underlying a cooperative movement. A large 

 proportion of the creameries have, therefore, been con- 

 ducted along lines that do not hold the continued confi- 

 dence of the members. The dairy farmers as a class are 

 not skilled in business methods. The dairy industry, ex- 

 cept in a few states, is not a special, highly developed type 

 of agriculture like fruit-growing and other branches of hor- 

 ticulture in the irrigated Western states. The dairy may 

 be an incidental feature of the farm. The average dairy 

 farmer is therefore not prepared to inaugurate and sus- 

 tain a highly organized system of cooperative butter- 

 making, or the distribution and sale of the manufactured 

 product. In many sections, the farmers' creameries have 

 not been formed as a result of a necessity that was felt by 

 the dairymen. A large proportion have been formed 

 through the activity of professional creamery promoters 



