184 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION 



CARE OF CREAM ON THE FARM. 



By F. A. Jorgensen, University of Illinois. 



The introduction of the hand separator seems to have result- 

 ed in a general decline in the quality of creamery butter with a 

 slight, though not corresponding, improvement, in the quality of 

 dairy butter. More than half of the producers of cream and 

 dairy butter in Illinois are at present losing from two to ten cents 

 per pound of butter because of poor quality. The point has final- 

 ly been reached where there is not only a greater discrimination 

 in prices between a good and poor grade of cream, but many 

 buyers are refusing to accept poor cream because the market is 

 flooded with undergrades of butter directly traceable to this 

 cause. The undergrades cannot be disposed of advantageously, 

 except when there is a shortage of butter; they do not keep in 

 cold storage and, therefore, must have a ready market ; and they 

 cannot compete successfully with oleomargarine, except at very 

 low prices. All of this means a loss to the producer. 



Where To Place the Blame. 



Often the separators are unjustly blamed for the lowering of 

 the quality of cream and butter, when it is due to carelessness 

 and thoughtlessness on the part of the users of the machines. 



It is true that it is almost impossible to clean some imcnir.cs, 

 but there is no necessity for buying them, as there are plenty on 

 the market that can be kept clean. Many agents have insisted 

 that their make of machine need not be cleaned every time it is 

 used, and have by such false representation led many users of 

 hand separators to employ slovenly methods to the detriment of 

 their own interests, and to those of their respective separator 

 manufacturers and the dairy industry. These condemnable argu- 

 ments are usually traceable to agents representing inferior makes 

 of separators, and farmers and dairymen should therefore avoid 

 an agent representing a machine that does not need to be cleaned 

 every time it has been used. 



