132 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 



CREiVMERY MANAGEMENT. 



LOVEJOY JOHNSON, STILLMAN VALLEY. 



I do not understand what the Secretary meant by putting 

 me down for an address on this subject. May be he expected 

 I was coming here with a diatribe — is that the word you use 

 in Denmark, Mr. Monrad — against the patrons of our cream- 

 ery. I am not in a position to do that, because my bread 

 and butter depends upon those very same patrons. 



Ever since my connection with the creamery business, in 

 the neighborhood of twenty years, there has always been a 

 rasping between the patrons and the parties that we accus- 

 tomed to call the creamery men, the men who either own the 

 creameries or run them by invitation of the patrons. There 

 has been a wide gulf there and I have been trying for twenty 

 years to bridge over it and have not yet succeeded. 



The all-important thing to be considered after one has de- 

 cided to build a factory and got it started, is to control the 

 relations betweeen the man who does the business and the 

 men at the other end who furnish the supplies. Creamery 

 men are sometimes charged with wanting the whole earth. I 

 don't think that is true. On the other hand, the producers of 

 the milk are not always satsified unless they get a little more 

 than they do get, and, perhaps, somewhat more than the 

 neighboring factory gives. Now, how can we arrange it so 

 that both parties will be satisfied? I frankly tell you that I 

 don't know. As long as humanity remains as it is; as long 

 as creamery men love gold and patrons love gold and silver, 

 this thing will continue. There is one thing I will say, how- 

 ever, and that is that I think that our patrons do not fully 

 realize that the success of the enterprise and their own profit 

 depends very largely upon themselves ; that they are not aware 

 of the difference that a few pounds of bad milk makes, or a 

 little inattention to the details of their work, how largely 

 this cuts in upon their own dividends, as well as the profits of 

 the factorymen. I will let some one else tell what the factory 

 should do, and will give a little advice to the patrons. When 

 you join a concern like this, whether the man who is running it 

 is running it on his own account, or is hired to run it, every 

 patron should consider himself a partner and should work for 



