Vol. LXV. No. 2970. NEW YORK, DECEMBER 29, 1906. weekly. «i.co per year 
SUGGESTIONS ABOUT CREAM GATHERING 
The cream-gathering business is on the increase, and 
the question now being discussed is what means shall 
be employed to insure a better and a more uniform 
product. In the first place every butter creamery 
should have regulations by which their patrons should 
be governed, and each one should be held to a strict 
accountability for any failure, and be made to under¬ 
stand that any failure to comply with these rules would 
cost him money. It would soon bring each patron to 
a realization that the prolit of the business in which 
he individually is interested would largely depend upon 
his own carefulness and attention to the business. 
Secondly, the creamery man should be an example of 
neatness in appearance and in his work; so that when 
the dairyman comes to see him at his part of the 
business he will have a living example of what he 
preaches to others. 
In order to make this 
lesson effective it 
must be in operation 
daily; no let-up. It 
requires great care 
and much skill to 
produce a first-class 
article of crea m, 
cream that will make 
fine butter. This care 
should begin in the 
dairy. No milking 
should be done in a 
slovenly way. T h e- 
milking stables should 
always be neat, kept 
clean, well lighted and 
ventilated. The best 
way to enforce these 
very essential regula¬ 
tions is to grade the 
cream, which should 
be done by the 
gatherer, if possible. 
High-grade butter 
cannot be made from 
•low-grade cream. The 
careless m a n who 
produces a low-grade 
cream and gets the 
same price for it as 
his neighbor, who is 
careful and produces 
a first grade cream, 
receives a premium 
on his dirty ways, 
while the latter is in no way rewarded for his cleanli¬ 
ness and care. 
Cream should be graded into three classes and paid 
for as per quality, as regards flavor and acidity. It is 
not easy to test for acidity by the “gatherer,” as time 
is a factor in the cream : gathering business. The price 
should certainly be made by taking the flavor into con¬ 
sideration. If the gatherer was able to tell the patron 
the grade of this cream as he takes it up each time and 
suggest the care necessary to produce a No. 1 article 
there would soon be an improvement. Touch the dairy¬ 
man’s pocket and you will get a response quickly. The 
average dairyman will soon learn to care for his 
product if the size of his cream or milk check depends 
upon his doing or not doing good clean work. This 
is the principal object to be had by grading. Let the 
difference in price between first and second grade cream 
be distinct and large enough so the careless ones will 
work up. Soon every patron will be anxious to know 
how his cream grades, as it means dollars to him. 
Let this grading be done without fear or favor. You 
would better lose a few slovenly patrons than keep them 
with their unclean ways. Let the other fellow have 
them. Another very important thing in the cream 
gathering business is keeping the cream too long a time 
before delivering it at the creamery. Some patrons who 
deliver their cream insist that if they cool it well 
and keep it in cold water it will be good for a week. 
No such slip-shod methods as this should be tolerated. 
Cream in the warm months should be aerated and cooled 
down at once, and delivered daily to the creamery. In 
cold weather every other day will do. Where the 
“cream gatherer” gets the cream and grades it, he 
should be required to take it up daily for two reasons. 
First, it will grade better, and thereby give the patron 
more money; secondly,'it will test better, thereby produc¬ 
ing more fat, consequently more money to the patron. 
The “gatherer” should be very careful about taking his 
“sample”for testing, and also careful in grading if differ¬ 
ent patrons’ cream is to be put into the same can. All 
cream should be made to test not less than 25 per cent of 
fat, as better results are obtained in churning. Sour 
cream or cream with a very poor flavor should not be 
accepted. It is not possible to churn clean where cream 
has been held over long, and it is a poor practice to mix 
such cream with good cream. Cream should be tested 
by weighing w-hen testing for fat. When grading cream, 
if practicable, its acidity should be tested as well as for 
flavor. w. m. peck. 
Another Side to It. 
The New York Produce Review, under the heading 
“Why Poor Cream Is Accepted” says: 
“The ‘Stroller’ in Chicago Dairy Produce gives an 
interesting and lively account of a trip with a cream 
gatherer, in which a 20 -gallon patron with John L. 
Sullivan arms figures as curing him—the ‘stroller’— 
of any desire to preach better methods—on that farm 
anyhow,—by ordering him off the farm. Incidentally 
the ‘stroller’ also learned to understand why the 
peaceable cream-gatherer took all cream as it came. 
It is not only a question of fear with cream-gatherers 
that makes them peaceable; why on earth should they 
be fighting the battle of the creamery by quarrelling all 
day in addition to the long and tedious drive, rain or 
shine, on a salary of $1 a day or even $2 a day? A 
hundred dollars a month would not be too much for 
such work to the right man who had the knowledge 
and the tact to handle the various patrons. But the 
‘stroller’ also claims to understand, by his experience 
with the John L. farmer, why the buttermakers and 
creamery managers are reluctant to discriminate against 
some cream coming to their creamery. This we doubt 
is the true explanation, because a man who resents being 
told he is dirty in his ways of handling cream has no 
excuse for resenting a polite refusal to buy his cream 
at all. 
“But the whole trouble is that same old story of 20 
years or more ago, when gathered creameries reigned 
supreme. The creamery owners do not want to refuse 
any kind of cream so 
long as they can 
make a profit 011 it. 
They would rather 
have a good cream 
’tis true, but rather 
than reduce their pro¬ 
duction they will ac¬ 
cept any kind of cream 
that can be handled. 
Nor do we blame 
them; they are not in 
the business fropi al¬ 
truistic motives, and 
if they can make a 
cent a pound on the 
butter made, it mat¬ 
ters but little to them 
whether the quality 
is reduced or whether 
the farmers make less 
on their cream. No, 
we do not belieVe it 
is the fear of the 
revenge of discarded 
patrons that induces 
the policy of accept¬ 
ing cream which they 
ought to refuse. As 
regards the butter- 
makers, but few are 
in the position to 
throw up their job 
because they are told 
to accept inferior 
cream and make the 
best of it. As we 
have said before, it is co-operation that should teach 
the farmers their own best interest, and in order to 
learn co-operation there is nothing better than starting 
cow test associations.” 
THE AWFUL PROBLEM OF “FARM HELP.” 
What It Means in Hill Towns. 
I have read all these opinions and suggestions on 
the hired help question till I can no longer refrain 
from adding my own. The proverbial “last straw” was 
an article on page 793, stating that farmers did not give 
steady employment. That does not fit farm conditions 
here in northwestern Connecticut, nor anywhere that 
cows are milked. Perhaps I can do no better than to 
state our own case. We have a fine farm of 200 acres, 
and keep a dairy of 30 cows; make butter and sell to 
private customers. We have engine for churning, sepa¬ 
rating, etc. My husband and I are both farm-raised, and 
love our hills, our home, and our business. Our help 
eat with us, and share all the home privileges of books, 
papers, games, church -going, and all social gatherings, 
and are welcomed at the local Grange if they choose to 
THE CREAM GATHERER ON HIS ROUNDS. Fig. 431. 
