438 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
June 29 
been remarkable. Ten years ago, not more than a 
dozen creameries existed in the State. In 1892, there 
were over H)0 in operation, and now there are nearly 
twice that number, handling about three-fourths of 
the milk in the State. In the smaller towns, coopera¬ 
tive creameries have been established ; in the larger 
towns they are conducted as a proprietary business. 
The tendency is towards concentration of the dairy¬ 
ing interests. The success of the Franklin County 
Creamery Association has given this tendency to con¬ 
centration a great boom. It is prophesied by intelli¬ 
gent dairymen that before long the entire output of 
butter in Vermont will be made in a few of these 
mammoth creameries. By this means the cost of pro¬ 
duction will be reduced to a minimum, a more uniform 
article produced, and by shipping in large amounts or 
holding in cold storage, the product put on the mar¬ 
ket to better advantage than is now possible. In this 
way, the producer would get larger net returns than 
even the best arranged smaller creameries can give 
him. c. w. SCARFF. 
R. N.-Y.—A picture of the exterior of this great 
creamery is shown at Fig. 138 ; also views of the cream 
and separator rooms at Figs. 139 and 140. In the 
cream room observe the curved trolley road on which 
a cream car can be run over the vats. The picture 
of the “separator station,” Fig. 141, shows a novel 
feature of this creamery. Milk is brought to these 
outlying stations and separated, so that only the cream 
need be sent to the central creamery. 
EDUCATION FOR THE DAIRY. 
WHERE SHALL THE YOUNG MAN OBTAIN IT? 
Shall It Be College or Creamery? 
THE QUESTIONS. 
L What should be the qualifications of a successful butter- 
maker ? 2. What should be the first steps toward obtaining such 
qualifications ? 3. Would a six-weeks’ course under some pro¬ 
fessor at an experiment station, be advisable as a beginning? 
4. Or could the necessary knowledge be gained by entering a 
creamery as a helper ? 
Learn the Scientific Side in Dog Days. 
A good buttermaker should be naturally a very care¬ 
ful, particular, and observing person. It is a business 
that must not be neglected, hence, is rather confining. 
A young man might learn the practical part by assist¬ 
ing in a dairy, but not the scientific, which should be 
a part of his education, so that he can work with a 
full understanding of the business. A six-weeks’ 
course at an experiment station would be very desir¬ 
able, and it ought to be during the dog days, for that 
is the hardest time of the whole year to make good 
butter. A much longer time than six weeks, would 
be advisable, but that time would be better than not 
at all. In my own case, I do not think that I would 
have been any more successful if 1 had worked in a 
creamery, or spent time under some professor at a 
dairy school ; still, either of those plans would be a 
good way to acquire knowledge and experience that 
would be necessary to any one starting in the busi¬ 
ness of making butter. 
1 believe that the buttermaker is responsible for the 
flavor—unless the cow has been eating garlic—for no 
two persons make butter to taste alike, and that is 
the reason many men have private customers. When 
they get accustomed to any good make, they are 
likely to think it the only good butter there is. 1 am 
sure my butter does not taste like my next neighbor's 
;#ud we make it exactly alike ; in fact, he taught me a 
good part of what 1 know about it. 
Chester County, Pa. benj. sharpless. 
The Opinion of a Dairy Veteran. 
1. The successful buttermaker to run a creamery, 
must know how to run an engine, be machinist enough 
to operate properly a separator, churn and butter- 
worker ; should know how to sample correctly and 
test the milk of each patron. He should also know 
how to test the skim-milk and buttermilk so as to 
know when he is doing good work, and should know 
how to handle and temper the milk. He should know 
how to keep the booksso that dividends and statements 
can be properly made out. Besides this, he should 
have by nature and training, a disposition to be 
cleanly, neat, careful and accurate in all his work. 2. 
The first step toward obtaining these qualifications, 
is to be born with the right nature which should be 
strengthened by early training and education ; for no 
slovenly, careless or dishonest person can ever be a 
good buttermaker. 3. It would be advisable to take 
a course at some dairy school where there are compe¬ 
tent teachers. In these schools, the student is not 
only taught how to perform the different operations 
iu the best manner, but also is taught the scientific 
reasons why certain things should be done, and why 
they should be done in a certain manner. 4. After 
this, I would advise working one season as helper in 
a creamery under a first-class, successful buttermaker. 
There is a great demand, and always will be, for 
first-class buttermakers at good wages. Any honest, 
capable person who is really in earnest to learn, 
ought to become first-class. But there is in this busi¬ 
ness, as in any other, plenty of room at the top. I 
know of young men running creameries and getting 
$100 a month, and making it very profitable for their 
employers. I know of scores of other young men 
who have worked in creameries for years, and are now 
out of jobs who could be hired for $40 a month, and 
would be unprofitable hands at that. If a young man 
has the right qualifications, and thoroughly under¬ 
stands the business, he will not have to wait long for 
a job after it becomes generally known that he is 
competent. The best passport that I know of to a job 
in running a creamery, is a diploma from a good dairy 
School. C. P. GOODRICH. 
Jefferson County, Wis. 
Student Better than Apprentice. 
The first requisites of a successful buttermaker are 
integrity, cleanliness and push, with a fair amount of 
native ability. A short course at an experiment sta¬ 
tion would be a great help to a beginner in getting 
the elementary science and theories of buttermaking. 
Few will put themselves to the trouble of telling the 
whys and wherefores to an apprentice, and many are 
not able to give such instruction, even though they 
have the requisite knowledge. It is one thing to 
possess knowledge, and another to be able to impart 
it. People that have those two qualifications are 
seldom found in a creamery. Taking a short course, 
and then going in as helper, would be the safest and 
shortest road to the desired end. I never learned the 
trade of buttermaker in a creamery, but I have found 
that science, practically applied, will give greater re¬ 
sults than what is called practical education in all 
lines that I have ever tried. Life is too short and 
time too valuable in this age of the world, for one to 
be trying to find out everything by individual experi¬ 
ments. We must profit by others as much as we can, 
or we shall be left behind in this neck-and-neck race 
for success. H. w. G. 
Palmyra, O. 
He Must Be “Clean.” 
1. Above all, a habit of cleanliness of person, cloth¬ 
ing and surroundings ; a neat person. People are 
paying fancy prices for dairy products because they 
are assured of their purity. He must be observing 
and intelligent enough to deviate from rules when the 
slight changes which are constantly occurring, make it 
necessary. A desire to work at dairying, and a feel¬ 
ing of dissatisfaction when obliged to do anything 
else. 2. The first qualification is born in some per¬ 
sons, may be acquired by others, and a few never will 
or can be orderly. The second is God’s best gift to 
man, and all the theory in the world will not help, if 
one is lacking in that. The third is a matter of choice. 
3. A six-weeks’ course at Cornell—I am not acquainted 
with other schools—would give a better foundation 
for success, more of both theoretical and practical 
knowledge, and more money could be earned the first 
year, than the creamery. At Cornell, the student 
would be drilled in the use of several kinds of dairy 
utensils ; would be instructed in the processes of mak¬ 
ing both cheese and butter ; the testing of milk with 
precision, and, best of all, would be inspired with a 
spirit of investigation, observation and study without 
which man is a machine. 4. A man could get a knowl¬ 
edge, good or bad, according to the maker under 
whom he worked in a creamery ; but in these times it 
pays to employ the best teachers, and take all neces¬ 
sary time to acquire the best knowledge. The first 
season’s wages will be enough greater to make up all 
additional cost, and the situation is easier to obtain. 
Tompkins County, N. Y. c. e. chapman. 
Will Science Cure the “ Bighead ” ? 
1. He should possess a practical knowledge of the 
business, should be honest and neat, use neither to¬ 
bacco nor whisky, most assuredly the latter. The 
fact is, so many qualifications are useful, and each one 
a help in the business, that space will not permit 
enumerating all. One thing to be avoided is the fel¬ 
low with the “ bighead ”, or “ I know it all” kind. A 
person too smart to learn any more, is a fit subject for 
a funeral. 2. The first steps toward obtaining these, 
should be to begin as helper in some good creamery. 
3. A six-weeks’ course or more under some able pro¬ 
fessor would be an excellent addition to his practical 
experience. But if he is of the “ Smart Alec ” type, 
the result may be similar to that of a young man of 
my acquaintance who had worked one year in a 
creamery, and last winter decided to attend the six- 
weeks’ course at the Pennsylvania State College. 
After staying three weeks, he came back saying that 
he knew everything they were teaching there. He 
got a position this spring in a creamery, and his first 
shipments of butter were streaked or mottled, show¬ 
ing it to be his fault, and probably money enough was 
lost on these goods to pay the extra cost of a No. 1 
man for the whole season. 4. Of course nearly all of 
the buttermakers of the country have secured their 
education by practical work, and interchanging re¬ 
ports of successes and failures, through the many 
papers and conventions, etc. The dairy school in the 
United States is a modern venture, and the sooner the 
better when any and every buttermaker must produce 
a certificate of competency, before he is employed in 
that capacity. A. l. wales. 
Pennsylvania. 
Go to the Dairy School First. 
The qualifications for a successful buttermaker are, 
first, a neat, careful man (or woman) ; second, a love 
for the work and a pride in it; and, third, as com¬ 
plete a knowledge of the nature of milk and the 
changes to which it is subject, as our present limited 
learning can give, combined with a knowledge of the 
methods and practices of the most successful dairy¬ 
men. In no way can this third condition be so well 
met as by a course in dairying at some agricultural 
college. Here the professors can and do keep up 
with the best, as well as newest, practices, in han¬ 
dling milk, cream and butter, besides being able to 
give one the benefit of all the latest scientific re¬ 
searches of value without the unimportant. In addi¬ 
tion, a beginner nowhere else can have such oppor¬ 
tunities to gain a knowledge of the practical handling 
of milk, cream, butter and cheese ; as these things 
are put in his hands to handle as he would have to 
handle them in a factory. When he gets into trouble, 
there arc competent instructors on hand to tell him 
just what his difficulty was, and how to overcome it. 
One could gain far more as a helper to an average 
creamery man, by first having had the college work, 
and then starting as a helper with eyes and ears open; 
as he then might become an expert almost before one 
starting as a creamery helper would be grasping the 
fundamental truths. By all means, get the six or ten 
weeks of dairy instruction at some dairy school, and 
let them help decide what is the best line to pursue 
afterward. F. L. m. 
Bucks County, Pa. 
Get the Science First. 
1. First of all, I would put interest in the work, 
and an enthusiasm for it. Then I would advise the 
young man not to be satisfied with just ordinary suc¬ 
cess, but to have a high ideal, to be resolved that his 
butter shall not be “as good as any,” but “ the best 
in the world.” There is more need of thought and 
skill, and exact science in the making of good butter, 
than in almost any other branch of the husbandman's 
art. 2 and 3. The first steps toward obtaining such 
qualifications should be attending one of the regular 
dairy schools if possible. First get the science of it thor¬ 
oughly An mind, then when you come to learn under a 
practical and successful buttermaker, you will learn 
easier for understanding the reason for the various 
processes. You may also be saved from copying some 
of the expert buttermaker's mistakes. 4. The neces¬ 
sary knowledge may be learned in a first-class cream¬ 
ery if the previous study can not be given. I would 
choose the one having the highest reputation for a 
first-class product. j. e. wing. 
Ohio 
SOME FACTS ABOUT FRUITS. 
AN INTERVIEW WITH GEORGE T. POWELL. 
[editorial correspondence.] 
^etv Problems for the Eastern Farmer. 
Every one who has ever attended or read about a 
farmers’ institute, knows of George T. Powell. For 
several years, Mr. Powell had charge of the New 
York State institutes, and he has been called as far 
West as Dakota, and as far South as Tennessee in 
lecturing at other State meetings. Mr. Powell’s 
favorite topics are dairying and fruit culture. His 
farm, at Ghent, N. Y., affords ample evidence that he 
understands these subjects thoroughly. On my recent 
visit there, it was interesting to see how the observa¬ 
tions of practices in other parts of the country, had 
modified home methods. Here was an idea obtained 
in Missouri, or a fact learned in Minnesota, worked 
out in practice on this New York farm. It was a fine 
illustration of the benefits of travel to an observant 
mind. Every successful farmer owes much of his suc¬ 
cess to some special practice which he has either 
originated or adapted to the peculiar condition of his 
locality. That’s what makes him successful, and it is 
by studying these practical successes, rather than the 
general rules of farming, that others may hope to 
succeed. 
“You have learned many things from Western fruit 
growers, have you not ? ” was asked Mr. Powell. 
“ Yes, indeed! Western farmers are sharp and 
enterprising. They are proceeding in a careful and 
orderly way, and before many years, competition in 
many farm products will be very fierce, because West¬ 
ern men will learn how to produce them at the cheap¬ 
est rate. Our Eastern farmers must wake up, or they 
will lose their markets.” 
