32 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION 



We have a good many men in Iowa who are trying to get 

 rich by milking cows that look well and are sort of sociable, but 

 that don't give much milk. Taken as a whole our dairymen are 

 prosperous, but we have too many cows of poor quality. The 

 cow must be of the right kind if we expect to succeed in the 

 greatest degree. When our lands were worth ten or twelve dol- 

 lars an acre, and feedstuffs and farm help were cheap, we made 

 considerable profits, but conditions have very much changed and 

 we are urging our people to get cows of a different character 

 and capacity to produce, that is of better quality for dairy pur- 

 poses. 



We hear nowadays a good deal about the quality of milk 

 and cream. There are a few simple things that are everywhere 

 true about any milk product; one is that milk never gets any 

 better, no matter what atention is given to it. Deterioration is 

 constant and the most we can do is to retard it. We have too 

 many people at home who give too little attention to the sanita- 

 ry conditions under which the milk is produced and handled, and 

 so the quality is not so good as it might be. Care and cleanliness 

 is about all there is to the quality of milk and the right place to 

 begin is at home when the milk comes from the cow. We cannot 

 improve upon what the cow gives us but we can "better" the 

 quality of the milk or other dairy product that goes upon the 

 market by producing better and cleaner milk than heretofore, 

 whether the product sold be milk, cream or butter. 



With us, the quality of our product has at least not been 

 made better by the introduction of the hand separator. There 

 are 85,000 of them in the hands of Iowa creamery patrons, and 

 they are useful and economical in most senses, but we have had 

 to do a lot of work to induce the farmers to use them properly 

 and produce that high quality of cream that means the most 

 money for the producer. Indeed it is not too much to say that 

 the quality and quantity of dairy products depend upon the kind 

 of a man the dairyman is. 



Most of us are in the dairy business for the money there is 

 in it and we shall hardly hope to induce farmers to improve the 



