176 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 



butter down, so there was nothing to make from gathering the 

 cream. I said to my butter maker, ' Let us pay more for the 

 cream of a certain grade than for others.' He was afraid that 

 would not work, a good many of our patrons would quit. We 

 hesitated for a while and didn't try it as long as he was in part- 

 nership with me. Finally I got the matter in my own hands, 

 and I made up my mind that I would try it anyway even if I 

 lost patronage, and I talked with a few of the patrons about 

 the matter and took counsel with energetic men of business in 

 my neighborhood. I said, * There is a great distinction made in 

 butter, and it seems to me only fair that there thould be a dis- 

 tinction made in the cream.' I said that to one man a patron 

 of the creamery, who does a large business, but had never thought 

 of this idea at all. He said, ' Certainly, that's all right,' and he 

 was one of the very men whose cream graded down low, but 

 he was able to make the improvements necessary to do better 

 and when he found out about it was willing to. I found that 

 the sensible men generally looked at it the right way. One 

 said, for instance, 'As long as a man knows that the rest of the 

 patrons set their cream out in the sun and take no care of it, 

 what encouragement is there for him to care for his, and give 

 you a first-class article. As soon as he knows he will be paid 

 to take care of his cream you will find he will be willing to do 

 it.' I started in then to try the experiment. For cream that 

 was perfectly sweet I paid two cents more than I did for sour 

 cream. I didn't know whether that would make the difference 

 in the price of the butter, although I believed it ought to, and I 

 have proved that it would. Butter made from the sweet cream 

 brings me more money; my commission men in St. Louis never 

 offer less than two cents more, and it moves off at once, it don't 

 lay in the commission men's hands several days before they sell 

 it, and often I am not offered within five or six cents for the 

 sour, what I am for the sweet. Now, don't you think, friends, 

 that it will pay you patrons to take the necessary care of your 

 cream? The creamery man cannot pay more than he can re- 



