ILLINOIS DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 57 



that were made during the summer and autumn were the half skims, which, 

 as we generally know, were made by mixing the night's milk with all its 

 cream with the skimmed morning's milk. 'No one thought of holding milk 

 forty-eight hours and skimming from it four pounds of butter to the hun- 

 dred, and then using the blue skimmed milk for cheese making. That is a 

 modern thought, and arises from the adoption of the motto : " Whatever is 

 worth doing at all is worth doing well." The old-fashioned half-skim was a 

 pretty good cheese, and suited a certain trade well ; but the standard half- 

 skim has practically vanished as a commercial commodity, as there are not 

 enough of them made at any time of year to be worth noting. Occasionally 

 a factoryman will strike in and make a few good part-skim cheese, but not 

 with sufficient constancy to establish a trade for them at paying prices, and 

 the result is he is often " left " in his dividends by such a venture. 



A survey of the field shows that it has paid to make skim cheese at six to 

 seven cents per pound in the summer, and eight to ten cents in the winter; 

 but I firmly believe the time of such summer prices is past. The summer 

 of 1883 showed us prices which are convincmg to the most skeptical. With 

 cheese selling for three months at one, two, three and four cents, and a large 

 part of it barely paying the manufacturers' commission, leaving nothing 

 whatever to the dairyman for the value of his skimmed milk, is startling 

 enough to cause all parties to the transaction to stop and consider. W ere 

 this an exceptional year, and prices low because of the depression in the 

 commercial world, we might reasonably hope for a revival of the old figures. 

 But such does not seem to be the situation, as illustrated by the prices of 

 butter and full-cream cheese. They have found a ready outlet at figures but 

 little below those of former years. No, the trouble does not lie in commer- 

 cial depression, nor yet in our over-production of dairy goods. It is a solid, 

 indisputable fact that our skims have become so bad and worthless that 

 there is no longer an outlet for them during the summer, when good cheese 

 are plenty at prices that will pay to make them. 



The southern trade is limited in the summer and don't want them any- 

 way, having learned the difference between a good quality and a poor quality 

 of cheese. The export trade has tried a good many of them the last few 

 years, because they were cheap, and has become sick of the bargain. No 

 more are wanted across the water except at prices at which we cannot afford 

 to make them. 



The writer lately received account of sale of fifty- one boxes of flat June 

 cheese weighing 1,650 pounds shipped to Liverpool in August last. Net 

 proceeds of the lot, $3.02, the commission man in Chicago, to whose house 

 they were first shipped, making no charge for his trouble in handling them. 

 This is quite a fair illustration of many shipments made to Europe during 

 the past season, all of which goes to prove the point made above. 



No greater insult can be offered to the home trade than a proffer of skim 

 cheese. No one will have aught to do with them, not even with tolerably 

 good skims. The word " skim " at once raises a suspicion of theft and puts 

 all such cheese under disgrace. 



In viewing the field I am unable to see any outlook for the better, and I 

 think it wise to accept the situation in 1883 as a criterion for the future. 

 That being settled, what should be the future policy of butter and cheese 



