204 ILLINOIS DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 



wished that I would devote some time before I read my paper to 

 the subject of dairying in Nebraska. 



The dairy conditions in Nebraska are very pecuhar, differ- 

 ent from any thing east of the Missouri river. West of it there 

 is a similarity. For example, we have passed through three 

 very marked periods of development. From the old shallow pan 

 and dash churn to the gathered cream creamery, made possible 

 through the introduction of the deep cooling can and then to the 

 whole milk creamery by the invention of the centrifugal separator 

 which revolutionized dairying all over the world. We took up 

 the creamery system and we now have it all over the country. 

 That is where a dairyman brings in milk to a central place where 

 it is skimmed and the cream made into butter on the factory plan. 

 In Nebraska it was possible to establish 40 or 50 creameries on 

 this plan. We had a hard time for we lived further apart, larger 

 farms and not too many are in the dairy business. We didn't 

 have quite as many milch cows, and what we did have were not 

 very good. So that it took a large territory to supply this plant, 

 and so I say we got along with great difficulty. 



About 120 or 130 skimming stations were built in Nebraska. 

 What did it do? It brought relief to a struggling home dairy 

 country. I have been in parts of Nebraska where butter was sold 

 for 6 and 7 cents a pound and they had a regular currency of 

 their own, by tags and chips of 5, 10, 15, 20 or 50 cents. Butter 

 was brought in and exchanged for this money. 



Nebraska is only 400 miles long, and when we talk of Ne- 

 braska, we are talking about a state that has a great deal of 

 difficulty not alone in its climate, but in general methods and 

 tendencies of farming. 



In the western part of Nebraska it is different sloping to- 

 ward the east. It rises from an elevation of 1,000 to nearly 

 6,000 feet, or nearly a mile. Here in this slope one end is set up 

 a mile high. From the eastern edge of the state you can travel 

 westward and every mile you go toward the west you get a cli- 

 mate that has less and less rain fall. The rain fall is reduced the 



