ILLINOIS DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 91 



and power of the stomach. There are other points, but this serves to illus- 

 trate the importance of commencing with the calf to secure the valuable cow. 



It is not my purpose to discuss science as applied to the production of 

 butter, but to drop such practical hints as will aid the average farmer to 

 condense cheap food through a low priced and economical machine into 

 products valuable for the general market. 



Protection from cold and storms. It is unnecessary to discuss the import- 

 ance of barns and sheds, as no intelligent dairyman will do without them. 

 Sufficient care, however, is not exercised to have the barns so comfortable 

 and convenient that the cattle may be kept in during stormy days, and in 

 the morning during extreme weather. 



A matter to which still less consideration has been given is protection 

 during the day. 



Frequently the thoughtless herdsman turns the cattle out from a warm 

 stable to shiver in an atmosphere below zero, with a cutting wind. Some 

 experiments at the Iowa Agricultural College farm indicate that a day of 

 such exposure will shrink the flow of milk ten percent, and that this shrink- 

 age is more or less permanent. The direct loss to the farmer in milk is not 

 all. It increases the consumption of food, decreases the power of digestion, 

 saps the vitality of the animal and induces disease. It is a common remark 

 that lumber and shingles are cheaper than corn ; it is still truer that good 

 shelter belts are cheaper than hay at ten cents ner ton. 



A single row of willows does not constitute a good shelter belt : it should 

 be well interspersed with evergreens to form a perfect wind break. At a low 

 estimate such a protection will save two dollars per winter on each animal 

 in food consumed to secure equal returns in butter or beef. 



The general farmer must soon understand what the scientific dairyman 

 has long since known, that for the products of the dairy to command the 

 highest prices in the markets of the world, three things are necessary : 



1st. Milk of the highest quality in purity, substance and flavor. 



2d. That the processes by which solid substances in milk are manufac- 

 tured into butter or cheese shall be of the most improved character, scrupu- 

 lously exact and prudishly neat. 



3rd. That it shall be transported like a Chinese emperor, without coming 

 in contact with the world, and be placed upon the market as fresh, rosy and 

 fragrant as when it left the skilled hands of the dairy maid. 



To secure this high order of milk it will be necessary to have the best cow, 

 the best food and the best care. Scrub cows, having failed in the milk busi- 

 ness, should make an assignment and go west to grow up with the country 

 or go east to contribute to the manufacturing of pressed meats and cheap 

 sausage; scrub pastures must be drained and seeded to the improved grasses; 

 scrub hay must be relegated to a past barbarism, and scrub management, 

 like the leprosy of Naaman, must be cured by seven times dipping. 



In the manufacture of butter I am confident the present factory system 

 must in part be superceded by some better plan, l^o farmer can afford to 

 sell his milk, nor can he afford to pay ten cents per pound on the butter for 

 the collecting of the cream and the manufacturing and marketing. Besides 

 in neither of these ways can the first quality of butter be made. 



