ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 93 



inating influences of horse blankets. Be sure that everything with 

 which the milk comes in contact is scrupulously clean. Then if your but- 

 ter still continues "off" get after the buttermaker, but not until 

 then. So much for the mistakes 1 of the patron in this particular. 



Again, the farmer makes a "mistake when he accuses the buttermaker 

 of cutting his test when he has no stronger proof than supposition to bear 

 out his accusations. We as butter makers often have this question pro- 

 pounded: "Why is it my test varies so much? Last month it was so 

 and so, but this month there fe a falling off of three-quarters of a pound 

 per cwt." Fellow buttermakers, what answer do you submit? We have 

 ventured to say perhaps he was milking a greater number of fresh cows. 

 No. Same cows as last month. Or probably he was feeding different 

 rations. No. Same feed. And so we might go on enumerating several 

 agents that might have had a hand in lowering his test. But no, none 

 of these. He desires us to know that he believes the man who did the 

 testing and he alone is responsible for his low test. 



Let your thoughts revert to the past for a moment. Go back a few 

 years when you, or rather your wife, was making butter in the good old 

 way, making butter by the milk-pan process. Do you remember that for 

 some unaccountable reason you could not get the same amount of butter 

 at every churning? Did you stop to consider what might be the difficulty? 

 Did you accuse your wife of practising dishonesty? Did you come to 

 the conclusion you were careless about the care of your cows, or in the 

 milking of them? No? Yet you were aware the yield of butter varied 

 from time to time. What was true of the cow in this particular, then, 

 is equally true now. Her peculiarity in this respect remains about the 

 same. The creamery operator may have the milk just the right temper- 

 ature. The separator may be running up to its standard both in motion 

 and capacity. The tester may show but a trace of fat on the skim milk. 

 Yet when he comes to weigh the Id utter and compare it with the amount 

 of milk, there is a shortage in the yield for which he cannot account. 



So, my farmer friend, if you are patronizing a creamery and your test 

 is not just what you think it ought to be, unless you know it should' be 



