iLLmois dairymen's association. 41 



from .25 to 1.2 per cent, of weight of the whole milk, and averaging .6 per 

 cent., or about 9 ounces of fat to 100 pounds of milk. This leaves too great 

 an opportunity for loss. It is true this common loss is in the form of the 

 smallest fat globules of poorest butter quality, yet as they are capable, when 

 secured, of conversion into butter, they should not be ignored. 



The centrifugal separator, or dairy centrifuge, is the appliance which more 

 completely separates the fats from milk than any other yet devised, leaving 

 an average of only .29 per cent, fat (of the weight of the whole milk) in the 

 creamed milk. " Skim milk " from a centrifuge has been analyzed which 

 contained but .05 per cent, of fat ; in other cases .07 and .1 per cent. 



It would appear, therefore, that the ideal method for cow tests, is to first 

 cream the milk by centrifugal force and then churn the cream. For this 

 purpose a dairy centrifuge is needed which will handle a single milking, or 

 one day's product from a cow— say 20 to 80 pounds of milk, and operated by 

 hand, foot or some light power. 



Allow me in conclusion to repeat that these two points in the details of 

 butter dairying, the uncertainty of churning whole milk, and the effect of 

 the kind of food a cow consumes, upon the churning quality of her milk and 

 cream, seem to justify further investigation. The experiences of Dr. Stur- 

 tevant at Geneva, and my own at Houghton Farm, at least warrant the sug- 

 gestion that a new, interesting and important field has been opened for dairy 

 experiments. You will doubtless agree with me that such dairy studies 

 cannot well be conducted by private parties with ordinary farm accommo- 

 dations. We have here, therefore, another good reason for urging the estab- 

 lishment of an experiment station for the benefit of farming— certainly in- 

 cluding dairy farming— in every state. 



I shall be pleased to answer any questions that may be asked, so far as I 

 can. 



Mr. Broomell : It is a known fact among our gathered cream men, or 

 men running the gathered cream system, that, while with the standard 

 measure they have no great difficulty in having their cream '' hold out," as 

 they term it, during the summer, or in other words, that a certain number 

 of inches of cream on the average through the summer will produce a cor- 

 responding number of pounds of butter, and there is likely to be a surplus- 

 age, yet, as a whole, the reverse of this is true in winter. And I would like 

 to ask the gentleman this question, whether the facts that he has presented 

 this evening in regard to the value of succulent feed on the churning quality 

 of the cream does not in a measure explain that difficulty ? 



Major Alvord : I should think it might help, but rather than accept 

 it as the explanation, I would make this suggestion: My belief is, from my 

 own experiments, that the butter is there in the winter time as much as in 

 the summer ; that it is simply a failure in the handling of the cream to ob- 

 tain all the butter. Of course this depends in a great measure upon the 

 handling of the stock, but taking for granted the fact that the cattle are 

 reasonably well cared for in the winter time, I have always found that at 

 that season the milk of cows of an average herd at all stages from calving 

 down has a greater percentage of fat in cold weather than in summer. This 

 I have ascertained to such a certainty that in our own herds we do not want 

 to make milk in the months of July and August, or at least from the 10th of 



