CARING FOR CREAM AT THE FARM. BY C. V. JONES, STATE DAIRY INSPECTOR. The cream gathering system is fast becoming the popular system upon which to conduct the creameries of this state and in fact of the country at large, and while we cannot hope under this system to produce as fine a quality of butter as we could under the creamery separator system, yet we must not make this an excuse for not doing better than we are. ་ The question has often been and is still often asked, “Can as good butter be made from gathered cream as from cream separated at the creameries?" This question has been the means of arousing many of our best creamery men to the importance of giving the matter much careful study. Many answer "yes," while many answer "no." For my part I am inclined to answer that not until the cream producers are educated as to the best means of caring for cream at the farm, and also to the great importance of delivering the cream to the creamery more often, than is usually the case just now, we cannot hope to produce as fine a grade of butter as we did when the milk was delivered daily to the creameries and there skimmed, and the cream cared for under the direction of one specially trained man with the necessary appliances for caring for the cream. There is no doubt whatever that the quality of the butter depends very largely upon the quality of the cream from which it is made. One man, though not especially trained can and will handle a hundred patron's cream to better advantage than will the one hundred. How much better will a thoroughly trained and experienced man handle all the cream than will the one hundred though possessing equal ability. But the cream gathering system is in vogue, and I fear to stay, and it is up to all concerned to do the very most to make the very best of the matter. If the cream is properly handled at the farm we can yet produce a very satisfactory grade of butter from gathered cream. What is good cream? I am sure that most buttermakers will say that good cream must be clean in flavor, sweet, smooth, and test from 28 to 32 per cent butter fat. There is no doubting that to make the finest butter the cream must be clean in flavor, free from lumps or curdy matter, and should reach the creamery containing not more than two-tenths of acidity by the alkaline test. Cream testing less than 25 per cent butter fat, and more than four-tenths of acidity can scarcely be said to be in the best condition for the manufacture of the finest butter. In creameries where cream is pasteurized, as all cream should be, it should not contain more than two-tenths of acidity, nor less than 30 per cent butter fat. Old cream will never make the finest butter. A short time ago I read from the Creamery Journal, a paper printed at Waterloo, Iowa, the speech of one of the wholesale butter dealers which he delivered to the buttermakers of South Dakota while in convention. It struck me as being very astounding indeed, and if what he said was true, and we have no reason whatever to disbelieve his statement, it is up to the dairyman, and especially the dairyman who patronizes the cream gathering creamery, to sit up and take notice. His speech in part was: "I had an experience last summer such as I don't wish for again. I saw the grocers selling oleomargarine for twenty-eight cents ($.28) per lb., while we had thousands of tubs of creamery butter that could not be moved at sixteen cents ($.16) per lb. The consumers do not want poor butter; they would rather have substitutes." There can be no doubt that most of the creamery butter, to which the above mentioned speaker referred, was the product of gathered creain. We are hearing a good deal these days about legislating the "Oleomargarine Traffic," but it is the judgment of the writer that no better legislating can be enacted than that of producing such a fine quality of both creamery and dairy butter that the consumer will demand our goods. The cream gathering creamery system is here, and as I said before, it is here to stay. Hence, it is up to all of us who are interested in the welfare of dairying to make the very best of the system possible. How shall we go about it? 1st. The producer of cream must see that sanitary conditions around the stable are as nearly perfect as possible. Stables should be kept perfectly clean, free from dust and cobwebs. Stables should have plenty of light and ventilation. 2nd. The milking should be done as cleanly as possible, by washing the udders of the cow just before milking, keeping her at all times well groomed. The hands and clothing of the milker should be as clean as circumstances will allow, and the milker should always milk with dry hands. Utensils used in the dairy should receive especial attention as to cleanliness, by being thoroughly washed in warm water to which some good cleanser has been added. Rinsed in hot water, then scalded, and exposed to the air and sunshine. 3rd. As soon as the milking is done the milk should be taken away from the stable and separated. The separator should never be in connection with the stable, nor in the kitchen. The cream screw of the separator should be set so as to skim not less than a 30 percent fat cream, not more than 40 percent fat cream. As soon as separating is done, cool the cream as low as 50° F. or lower and never add warm cream to cold cream. From the time cream is separated, until it is delivered to the creamery, it should be kept at a temperature not to exceed 50° F. For at least five months of the year, most of the dairymen will need to use ice, and the dairymen who does not own a good ice house and see that same is filled during the winter months with good clean ice can scarcely be said to be up to date. Every dairyman should build himself a good cement milk house, with a good cement tank that will hold from 5 to 10 gallon cans. The tank should be constructed with a water release so that water may be readily changed. The water tank should be kept around 40° F. With the use of ice this may be readily done in the hottest season of the year. Milk house must be kept perfectly clean and sweet, should have at least two windows with shades. Separator should be taken apart, washed, and scalded each and every time it is used. This fact cannot be too strongly emphasized. 4th. Cream should be delivered to the creamery not less than four times per week and for the months of July and August, cream should be delivered to the creamery daily, and should be delivered early in the day so as to escape the heat of the mid-day sun. All cream should be delivered in individual cans, that is, each patron's cream should reach the creamery separately, this practice will give the buttermaker a chance to determine who is producing tainted or defective cream, and thus enable him to instruct such patrons as to the best methods of caring for the cream. If we are to reach the zenith of the butter market, we must have continually ringing in our ears four words: "Be clean." "Keep Cool." MICHIGAN ADDRESS ON DAIRYING DELIVERED AT THE BY J. W. HELME, DEPUTY DAIRY AND FOOD COMMISSIONER. If I were asked to produce some testimony or to show how dairying had helped Michigan I could do no better than to point to the bright and intelligent audience here present; a majority of whom were un doubtedly reared from infancy on the life-giving, health retaining, lacteal fluid of the meek and lowly cow and to a minority of whom even now (especially in the dry counties of the state) the milk of the brindle cow furnishes their strongest beverage. From the milk shake of the dry counties to the milk punch of the wet ones, all classes of citizens unite in the consumption of the old cow's products. But I am to talk of dairying as a factor in building up Michigan and I want to say that there is no one interest in the state of Michigan that has brought such development to this state as the dairy industry. I will not even except those copper mines above the straits that are the wonders of all ages, one of which has produced more wealth than any other mine in the history of the world whether gold, silver or diamond. I will not except our iron mines whose control by the steel trust gives it the dominating power in the markets of the world. Neither will I except our great automobile industry which has put mortgages on hundreds of homes in Michigan which the old cow will have to redeem. There are four ways in which dairying is building up Michigan. First: It benefits the farmer and likewise the community financially. Second. It benefits the dairy man intellectually and likewise the community in which he lives. Third: The dairymen today are the only class of farmers who are not depriving future generations of their inheritance by robbing the soil. Fourth And last. Dairying builds up a community morally. It makes for better manhood and better womanhood and higher ideals. AS TO FINANCIAL BENEFITS. The recent census returns show that Michigan is now the second state in the union in dairying, being exceeded only by the great state of New York whose immense urban population creates an immense demand for dairy products. Scattered all over Michigan can be found on every hand the creamery, the condensery, the cheese factory, the milk depot. You who live in the town where these things are found know full well how the monthly milk check helps the town. In the county where I reside three condenseries pay the farmer monthly over one hundred thousand dollars. Lenawee county is the oldest and largest dairy county in Michigan. As shown by the figures of the census of 1900, (those of 1910 not yet being available), Lenawee county not only leads all other counties in Michigan in agricultural wealth produced, but exceeds every county in the union of equal size in the total amount of agricultural wealth produced and in fact every county in the union without regard to size, with the exception of a few western counties which have an area the size of some eastern states. The prosperity of Lenawee county comes from the large bovine population within its borders. AS TO INTELLECTUAL BENEFITS. There is no business in the state of Michigan that requires the intel· lectual force and ability to succeed as a good dairyman. Dairying is a scientific occupation. Science has done wonders for the cow owners, it is doing wonders yet. The up-to-date dairyman must be a reader, an investigator, a thinker. He must take and read newspapers and he does. Something like twenty years ago a tramp printer came to Lenawee county. He started a paper in that home of dairying. His paper pros pered. He sold out a few years ago for a sum that took five figures to express. He told me that he was going to go somewhere else, buy a paper cheap and do the same thing over again. After traveling oyer the country for a year he told me that he was afraid he had made a mistake in selling, that there was no community he had visited where the farmers read as many newspapers as in Lenawee county. He finally settled in the next county to ours which is catching the milk fever from us. In a somewhat strenuous existence of half a century I have followed the occupation of lawyer, editor and statesman, (politician they call it while you live) and none of these requires the brain and executive ability for success that is necessary to run my dairy farm. Not by the brains of the few but by the intellectuality of the masses will Michigan be lifted up in the future. Dairying develops the intelligence and business ability of its followers and so benefits the entire community intellectually. CONSERVATION OF THE SOIL. All intelligent men now realize that the biggest subject not only before this country but the world is the conservation of soil fertility. We have been over-running a vast fertile new continent. We have practiced the most shameful and wasteful methods of agriculture the world has ever known. We have been soil robbers not true farmers. Go with me to any part of Michigan and I will show you run down farms and worn out lands. While our population is increasing our yield per acre is decreasing. This condition spells disaster if it is not remedied. In this field the dairyman shines supreme. If a man sells a ton of timothy hay off the farm he sells elements of fertility that must eventually be replaced and will cost him $7.00 to do so for each ton of hay sold. The man who sells a ton of butter off the farm sells fifty cents worth of fertility and this is replaced ten times over by the feed that every good dairyman buys. The dairyman with his clovers, cows and calves is the true conservationist. Ruins of ancient cities and dead civilization show what happens to the soil robbers. When our soils cease to produce food at a reasonable price for the masses, what will happen to your great factories and business houses in this magnificent city the pride of Michigan. The Michigan dairyman today stands between you and a future food shortage. The last census shows that while our population has increased 20 per cent, hogs, sheep and calves show heavy declines in numbers over ten years ago; only dairy cows holding their own. THE MORAL UPLIFT OF DAIRYING. No person can associate with cows and be a successful dairyman without broadening out in human sympathy and affection. It is the sentimental side of dairying that has always appealed to me the strongest. It is the oldest and most important occupation in the history of the race. It is not recorded Adam was a dairyman or in fact did anything else except to get into trouble but Cain and Abel must have done some milking. When Moses sent spies to investigate the promised land they reported it to be flowing with milk and honey. Notice that the milk comes first. What could have been more appropriate than that the Savior of our race was born in a cow manger. Is it not possible that that great broad love for the human race was acquired when the infant Jesus looked into the great brown eyes of the meek and lowly cow in that Judean dairy. For the cow is the great foster mother of the human race. From the dawn of history the cow has been with us, she has generously furnished enough milk to bring up all of her babies and part of ours. When our Aryan ancestors dwelt in tents she was with us. Of all God's greatest gifts to us she is the greatest and most important, to her we owe the most. Blot out the cow from human industry and grass would grow in the streets of our great cities. 75 per cent of our freight trains would cease operation, 50 per cent of our laborers would draw no pay on Saturday night and our tables would be bare of the greatest luxuries we now enjoy. For there is not a thing about the cow living or dead that we do not utilize. We use her horns to comb our hair, her skin clothes our feet, her hoofs make glue and her tail makes soup, her blood makes our sugar white and her flesh is the greatest meat of all nations. She has gone with man from Plymouth Rock to Golden Gate. It was her sons that broke the first sods in the settlers clearing. It was her sons that drew the prairie schooner of the sturdy pioneers when they pushed the star of empire westward, and the old cow grazed along behind and when the day's march was done she came and gave the milk to fill the mother's |