30 ILLINOIS STATE DAIi- y MEN'S ASSOCIATION. 



When I started in the creamery business there was no creamery within 

 ten miles. I had everything as unh gaidy as it could possibly be. The barn 

 was almost eighty rods from the house, and the milk had to be hauled to the 

 house, and the skim milk and buttermilk back again. We set the milk in 

 pans in the pantry, and churned by Land, guessed at the temperature of the 

 cream, and, in fact, did everything in the most idiotic manner. If I should 

 see anyone making butter in the same manner now, I should put him down as 

 an idiot at once. The only thing th at helped me cut was that my cows were 

 nearly all fresh in the fall, and the most of the dairying came when I had 

 the least farm work to do. 



Another thing helped and encouraged me wonderfully, and that was 

 that fresh winter butter was scarce, and brought from ,35 cents to 45 cents 

 per pound. For the last few years we have been glad to get from 20 cents to 

 25 cents for winter butter. If we would count the actual downright hard 

 work, there is as much profit in butter now at 25 cents as there was at 45 

 cents eighteen or twenty years ago. 



The tendency of the age is toward co-operation and consolidation, and 

 the farmer must learn to co-operate with the creamery. The United States 

 government has been making some investigations in regard to the use of 

 machinery in saving labor and expense, and it is stated that machinery has 

 reduced the cost of making 500 pounds of dairy butter from $10.66 to $1.78, 

 and the time from 125 hours to 12 h ours. 



When I speak of the average farmer having ten cows, I mean milk cows. 

 I don't care what breed they are, if they are only milkers. I don't have 

 much faith in what is called a general purpose cow. It is not practicable for 

 a farmer to keep two different breed s of cattle. He will generally be obliged 

 to pick his milk cows from the ordiD ary cattle, and the chances are about 

 one-half of them will be profitable milkers. By careful selection for a se- 

 ries of years, a reasonably good herd of cows will be secured. A fair veal 

 calf can be raised on skim milk at a very small cost, compared with the cost 

 of letting it suck. A better calf for dairy purposes can be raised on skim 

 milk, with a little flax added, than can be raised by letting the calf suck. 



The great trouble with the average farmer is he allows his calves to 



