338 CATTLE. 



butter, made up in a small way in a private dairy, than is giveu for the 

 very best grades of creamery butter. Indeed, from the fact that the 

 private dairymen can control the cows, their feed and care and the milk 

 from the time it leaves the cow until the finished product goes to mar- 

 ket, he should be able to make a finer and more uniform product than 

 the factory man, who can not control these important conditions. Not- 

 withstanding the possibilities of the case, the facts are, that to-day the 

 great mass of butter made on farms is sold for a less price than that made 

 at creameries. lyCt us look for a moment at some of the reasons for this 

 condition of affairs. 



In the first place, there is a large amount of butter made on farms that 

 is not good to begin with, and justlj' should not bring any more than it 

 usually does. This sort of butter is made where the cows ^nd butter- 

 making are a sort of side issue of the farm, while the milk and butter 

 must await the demands of all the other farm and housework before they 

 receive attention. It is made where the maker is ignorant, careless and 

 dirty. The cows are milked at the convenience of the hired man, and 

 the milk is strained and put into the creamer at some indefinite time 

 thereafter when the hired girl gets ready. Sometimes the cream is re- 

 moved in twenty-four hours and sometimes not for four days. In hot 

 weather the cream gels too sour and in cold it sometimes never gets sour 

 at all. It is churned sometimes at a temperature too low, but often too 

 high, and never twice ahke. The buttermilk is not completely removed, 

 salt is added by guess, and it is worked by main strength till the dairy- 

 maid gets tired. During the whole process it associates more or less 

 intimately with the cooked and uncooked food in the family pantry, 

 and the wonder is not that it is bad, but that it is so good as it is. 



Secondly, some farm dairy butter sells at a low price, not because it 

 is in itself bad, but because it is made to suit the maker and not the cus- 

 tomer. A study of the kind of butter liked best in one's market is 

 quite as essential to high prices as a knowledge of the principles under- 

 lying good butter-making. Again a large amount of first-class farm 

 dairy butter is spoiled on the way to market, through contact with poor 

 butter of all degrees, and by association with "choice family groceries" 

 in the cellar of the country store. 



Another great disadvantage that farm dairy butter has on the market 

 is that it is not made in large enough quantities at a time, so that the 

 maker can afford to spend time and money in looking up and holding 

 the best class of customers, but must depend upon commission men in 



