32 ILLINOIS dairymen's association. 



tions, and you dairy farmers who have read it from the printed instructions 

 given by the man who has put his money into your factory and is working for 

 your interests (next to his own). Now do not understand me as holding up the 

 average creamery man as a saint or as being possessed of more honesty to the 

 square inch or more love for mankind than the average mortal. Belonging to 

 that class, I have special means of knowing, and I have never yet discovered 

 one who I believed conducted his business as a missionary, but possessing a fair 

 amount of business intelligence we believe that we can help ourselves by help- 

 ing you. I shall not weary you with figures to persuade you that my pet plan is 

 best. 



We should keep this fact before us constantly : "Fine Dairying is a Fine 

 Art." To make fine butter or cheese we must have fine milk, and to make fine 

 milk we must have the right kind of feed and the best of cows. If you raise your 

 cows as every farmer should do, no matter what breed you fancy, select the best 

 milking strains. I am not sure that the Jersey or Holstein are absolutely essen- 

 tial to success. I believe and I am sure many of you will agree with me that if 

 we look after the best milking strains among our natives, or Short-horns even, we 

 can get something for the general purpose cow that will eclipse the coarse Hol- 

 stein or the steakless Jersey. When you get this good cow, take care of her. 

 Just here is where more failures occur than anywhere else. It is not natural for 

 the average Western man to milk or care for cows. He prefers a horse, and too 

 often the cow barn is under the care of shiftless help, whose chief end in life 

 seems to be to have an easy time and get through the chores as soon as possible. 

 She should have an abundance of nutritious milk-producing food. Keep her 

 warm, clean and comfortable. A cow will appreciate and respond to kind treat- 

 ment as quick as a horse. Don't look after cheap help. Never allow a man to 

 swear at a cow ; nothing will spoil her disposition quicker. Secure men who 

 can keep their temper, and who have enough sense of the fitness of things to 

 keep their persons clean and neat when near the cow or milk. Were I to hold 

 up a photograph of some of the milkmaids in our dairy districts you would say, 

 ' ' Give me butterine, oleomargarine, suine or any other ' ine ' if it is made of 

 cotton-seed oil and glycerine." 



Having secured your milk in the way suggested, let the first treatment be in 

 the way of cooling it. Mrs. Beecher, in her recipe for cooking steak, says, "Turn 

 it, turn it." I would say of milk, "Cool it, cool it." If you deliver it to the fac- 

 tory this is absolutely essential every month in the year. More poor butter and 

 cheese can be traced to this failure than to any other. Clean, cool spring or well 

 water is best for this purpose. If you have neither, use ice, but cool it. 

 Remember, too, that milk while cooling is wonderfully sensitive to odors that 

 are floating around. I was inclined to think before I looked into the matter that 

 a butter-maker in my employ exaggerated a little when he said that he could tell 

 what a certain family had for breakfast, dinner and supper by the different 

 odors he found in the cream. After cooling do not try to "monkey" with your 

 conscience by persuading yourself that it is right to steal even a little cream from 

 the can for company coffee. Having delivered your milk or cream in the man- 

 ner indicated, the responsibility is with the butter or cheese-maker. Hold him 

 to it. Stand by him in his attempts to correct abuses. You have a right to know 

 how much he is getting for your goods ; but never ask him where he finds a mar- 



