ILLINOIS DAIRYMENS ASSOCIATION. 35 



lated to convince any person at an early 'period ;that man has not yet com- 

 passed all knowledge. 



The very fact of these meetings of dairymen is founded upon the principle 

 that there is much yet to learn, and our attendance confesses that we are 

 never too old to learn. We assemble for that purpose, to compare notes, 

 exchange ideas, discuss disputed points, and go home better educated for our 

 business than we were before. 



You will pardon a personal allusion if I say that, being a butter maker in 

 the famous old dairy county of Orange, New York, adhering (for what I be- 

 lieve to be good and suflficient reasons) to the old style of private farm dairy- 

 ing, I am nevertheless greatly interested in the creamery or factory system 

 of the west in its various forms, desire its extension eastward, and am here 

 mainly to learn what I can from the essays and discussions of your meeting. 



Yet in a spirit of equity I am ready, when able, to give as well as receive, 

 and at the request of your officers will contribute my mite to subjects under 

 consideration. 



Your attention is therefore asked to a single point, but one of essential 

 importance to butter makers. At the outset, let me disclaim any pretension 

 to establishing or even asserting a new theory. One swallow does not make 

 a summer, and I only desire to present a matter in the nature of a suggestion^ 

 asking the interest and co-operation of others in determining its truth and 

 full import. 



The subject to be briefly presented is : The effects of varied food for the 

 cow upon the churning quality of the milk. Not the effects of food on the 

 quantity, nor on the richness of milk, but on what I call its ''churning 

 quality." 



This matter has been specially studied by me during the last year or two, 

 from the standpoint of the practical butter maker, partly by accident, and 

 partly through careful investigation in the dairy of the Houghton Farm— an 

 establishment whose operations I have the responsibility to direct. 



As dairymen, we probably all agree upon knowing the value of the cows 

 we keep, as dairy animals, (if for butter, then as butter cows), and the im- 

 portance of keeping the best and getting better ones. To this end we accu- 

 rately test the batter-producing powers of our cows individually, and of every 

 herd as a unit. 



The richness of a cow's milk, as determined by the lactometer or meas- 

 ured by the visible portion of cream in the glass gauge, is no longer regarded 

 as of value, and complete analysis, or the different chemical short-cuts for 

 detetmining the actual percentage of butter fats, fail to satisfy the practical 

 wants. It is the quantity of merchantable butter, actually produced in a 

 given time, that alone meets the demands. Kothing will take the place of 

 the churn test for fixing the real merits of butter cows. 



It has long been our custom at Houghton Farm to make frequent churn 

 tests of the milk of every cow in the herd, as well as of the mixed milk of the 

 dairy. We had one cow of special excellence, called " Clover," good for 16 

 or 17 pounds of butter a week when at her best, and usually fresh in the 

 spring. I had several of her May and June tests of over 2 pounds of butter 

 per day. Two years ago she failed to calve in the spring and became fresh 

 on dry feed. Testing her at the usual time after calving, when she gave as 



