. The person charging this material is re- sponsible for its return on or before the Latest Date stamped below. Theft, mutilation, and underlining of books are reasons for disciplinary action and may result in dismissal from the University. University of Illinois Library Ef TNT nee t— en Donia “Jey aia Ane Ne Digitized by the Internet Archive In 2012 with funding from University of Illinois Uroana-Champaign http://archive.org/details/annualreporto9723illl TWENTY-THIRD ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Pinos... State Dairymen’s Association HELD AT DE KALB, ILLINOIS FEBRUARY 24, 25 AND 26, 1897. COMPILED BY J. H. MONRAD, Secretary Stenographic Report by Mrs. R. Howard Kelly. SPRINGFIELD, ILL., STATE REGISTER PUBLISHING HOUSE, f mh © Kh ‘ ni y ; i “ v —s 3 n Oe | Seoct fal in| | Se Be ae eae Ss : Cents JBYEXCH AEN S8 a eee mn eee 942 Gr. Jersey.... 25.15 25.08 3.98 14.3 Wilianaeeesk oe. sae A 909 ae zs seal 21.16 31.05 3.22 17.8 UOMO Mec ees ag 1027 “* Guernsey 21.02 24.44 4.09 13.8 AVOSSICR cate secs ane 9033 “« Jersey.... 16.75 ame 3.98 14.6 IAGVIOMAGC i. Oo eles. oe Mellie: cley wena Cetsacach a ile (Oe 26.42 3.82 15.1 Group IL, comprising the cows in the herd that are only medium in flesh from habit, being quite smooth and rounding 40 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. in form, but not as plump as those in Group L., charged on an average of 15.1 cents for a pound of butter, and required nearly 26$ pounds of dry matter for a pound of butter. The cows in this group were not nearly as heavy as those in Group I., though they were quite as tall; Group I. averaging 1240 pounds, while those in Group II averaged 945 pounds. BETTIE.- Group IIl.—Cows Spare and Angular in Form, but Lacking Depth. Is & Sy @ =o hp Ha ons G8e | Bak agf au =a, G leafy Bais CNS F Side 3 OK Se TEs COW. Weight. Breed. oss ot es > <3 = oO BE 028 oB lea eh oq : ate vas 1S So Ue [oe fe) £ G) tes)\— _ — > JENNIE. 2 Eee eee 1020 Gr. Holstein 22.09 28.58 3.49 16.6 BS tie ce ie 802 Guernsey 23.33 24.30 4.12 13.8 OViviers hs ay aes 805 Gr. Guernsey 23.59 P23}, ta) 4.21 13.4 vera es eit sg) ee 875 | 23.00 | 25.54 | 3.94 | 14.6 — 2 Group III., the spare cows lacking depth through the middle of the body, required 25.54 pounds dry matter for a pound of butter and charged for feed 14.6 cents. Group II. and Ill. are fair representatives of a large majority of the cows we find on the western farms; not being specially adapted for any line of work; doing fairly well under favorable condi: ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. 47. tions; but too often bring disappointment when the margin between the market price and cost of production is close. ei na / 2 SSSSSS= ———— > =——SsSS Se Opp LF, ti 4: as V WEE. Se. WZ SEES ESS Group I[V.—Cows Spare and Angular with Deep Bodies. ra Et yess a Ge Q gee | 8o¢ | seg | 28 ° ° oy iD =| . ct Steaey Gg Noy 5 o Do <= ~ OF oe as COW. Breed. OS ars See} — 23 Pile © ear See ee ena a +0 | | Oo 98 : © 5 S35 0 a > ot ec ee Cents. PACINO R A en toe Ha Me ere Re Jersey 25.80 21.68 4.61 12 8 ROSS hapa is ge eS ea aes a Holstein 22 04 21.29 4.69 12.3 ID OTe es ters sete eater aie hs. oleae Jersey 22.33 18.44 5.42 ile! GROTTO Ry see acts 6 eo Gr. Jersey 23.20 21. 63 4.64 12 3 Houston........... ..e+.--.-| Jersey Guerney 28 24 20.16 4.96 10.8 MERA eRe ok Seale ie Gr. Jersey 22.:0 PONE 4.49 12.6 WATE UC reece (Soe did lo se eos Jersey 24.82 21.18 4.02 12.6 ROS Rese emai tan, Sikhs Shorthorn 17.87 21.37 4.67 12.9 TROS SC Re ee aR Gr. Jersey 23.52 21.91 4.56 12.4 Sweet Briar. ......6......0.5. Guernsey 25.65 23.06 4.33 12.8 ERODSVeee eae Veena Holstein 20.91 20 04 4.99 12.0 METI GIS OY sine oa: Sees Guernsey 26.46 20.88 4.78 11 4 JN AY ETERS ECs el Ee BAe Aer RT SIR ae ee Lao a 23.58 21.15 4.73 12.1 Group LV. contained over half the cows in the herd and is fairly represented by Dore, all being spare and deep in body, though Rosa, Roxy and Sweet Briar were not as spare, but did not carry enough flesh to be placed in Group II. Annie, a heifer, made a little growth which would necessarily be charged to her butter account. 42 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION, Now, this gives us some idea as to the profitable cow. In the group of deep-bodied cows, there are some twelve animals. They charged us from 10.8 to 12.8 per pound. By examining each individual cow as the cost of production in- creased, we found that the additional cost was in every case measured by the amount of extra flesh carried, the sparest cow making it for the least money, and as we found the shoulders a little more filled out and hip points and pin points a little rounder, they charged us a little more for butter, and so on until we reach the style of thigh shown in Group I. In short, the whole secret of economical production, we found to be in the capacity of the cow to digest, in the first place, and secondly, the disposition she would make of her food. We have carried this on for five years to make sure that there is no mistake about it. Cows have been sent to the Minne- sota Experiment Station by people who were interested in certain breeds. We have been very glad to receive them and give them the very best of care, adjusting our methods of handling to their individual peculiarities just as much as we do to our own, with a view of making this a certainty and there is no mistake about it. During the last two winters we have been making a little closer investigation, making chemical analysis of food stuffs, ascertaining the exact amount of dry matter consumed by ~ each cow, and also the exact amount of digestible nutrients taken by each animal; then crediting her with the milk and butter yield, and in all our work we found that the principle seemed to hold good in every trial. The prices given you in the first year’s work were when oats were worth from 28 to 30 cents a bushel, bran from $11 to $12 per ton and other feed stuffs in the same proportion. I give you the price of food so that vou can make comparisons with present prices. The cows were charged $5.60 for timothy hay, 35 cents per bushel for ground barley, 30 cents for oats, $26 for linseed meal, $14 for corn meal, $11 for bran and $3.50 for pasture, although the season was very short, probably less than 90 days. We commenced the year’s record with the Monday near- est the first of January, and we do it for this reason. Every Monday morning we balance a ledger account with every cow ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. 43 and calf in the dairy division. Every animal is weighed and a record made; it is charged with the week’s food and credited with the week’s product, be it milk, meat or growth, or any- thing else that we are,after. The record that I wish to call your attention to now, commenced on the 30th day of De- cember, 1895. I had selected a few typical cows representing the various breeds and various styles of animals. I will take as our first example a Jersey cow, weighing 900 pounds; the daily feed was 8 pounds of prairie hay, 20 pounds of ensilage and 14 pounds of grain, which was composed of 6 pounds of bran, 4 of barley, 3 of oats and 1 of oil meal. I have here the detail, the weight of the morning and evening’s milk and the tests and all those little things, but I will simply give you the weekly summary of the results obtained. i) ee = a ) WS WS Se. SS NG == = HOUSTON. Both cows were fresh about the same time. In fact [ am under the impression that they came in the same week. The first week Houston gave 13 pounds of butter, costing for feed 4 cents a pound. Ethel gave 12.2 pounds, costing 3.97 per pound, but in the chart it is marked 4 cents, because the difference is so slight. By the close of the winter, Ethel charged 11.7 cents, while Houston charged 4.7 cents. AVERAGE COST OF ONE POUND OF BUTTER. HOUSTON’S AND ETHEL’S RECORDS. ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. April 13 to 19. April 6 to 12. March 30 to April 5. March 23 to 29. Mareh 16 to2 22, March 9 to 15. March 2 to 8. February 24 to March 1. Feb. 17 to 23. Feb. 10 to 16. Feb. 3 to 9. Jan. 27 to Feb. 2 Jan. 20 to 26. Jan. 13 to 19. Jan. 6 tu 12. Dee. 30, 1895 to Jan. 5, 1896. Cents. Cents. Oo or) D > =) News be al ar) Qr — — 12 11 COCeNy aao8 Ht td ty Hae A Eaaa Bowe Dobe Gea Bae Gono HB SUEGEESE aso is ea Ethel’s Record, black line, RASS eoaoe BRUGES OSDa Saas SSRs EEA ptt HOO DEO BOOS Sees oo aa cH ae eletsielatai tae PEEEEEEEEEEECEEEEHL CRE Houston’s Record, dotted line, oR = S =) BL — ido) es b> a Se) R m = bo | re ‘ ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. 45 I want to call your attention to one thing. There may, seem to be but a trifling difference between these two cows. Houston and Olive, as to depth of body, but at the end of the year it amounts to a great,deal. The difference between the cows was 40 per cent. additional cost from the spare cow lacking depth over the spare cow with the deep body. The next question is why this difference with cows under the same care and with the same feed. We have had, during the time that we have been carrying on this experi- ment, several cows on the food of support, food of mainte- nance. That is to ascertain how much of this the cow needs for herself, and how much she will have to spare to convert ETHEL. into dairy products. We find after three winters’ work that it takes a pound of dry matter to support a hundred pounds of cow during the day. Now, here we come to the secret of the difference. If that is the case, then this cow requires for herself eight pounds or dry matter for her food of sup- port per day, and whatever she eats over and above that, not putting any fat onto her body, she must necessarily convert into milk, there is nothing else that she can do with it. This other cow, weighing 1,300 pounds, will require 13 pounds of dry matter for her food of support, or, in other words, before she does anything for us, she uses 13 pounds of dry feed for herself. We find in this report that Houston takes per day 20 pounds of dry matter; then she has left to convert into 46 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. dairy products 20 less 8, or 12 pounds. Ethel takes 22 pounds of dry matter per day, uses 13 herself and has 9 pounds left, or only three-fourths as much as the other one. Consequently, we find, other things being equal, the light cow can produce dairy products the cheapest. So you see that the general idea among farmers that they must. have a big cow is all wrong from the dairy standpoint. Let us take up the case of Leggetta, the Shorthorn cow, weighing 1,825 pounds. She eats in round numbers 25 pounds of dry matter per day, deducting the 18 pounds of dry matter that she uses for herself, 12 pounds is left that she can con- vert into dairy products. On the other hand, Fortune, eating the same amount of food, 25 pounds of‘dry matter per day, but weighing only 900 pounds, has 16 pounds left for converting into dairy products. Consequently, she converts 16-25 of the food that we give her into dairy products, while the large cow gives us only 9-25 of the food that she eats. Or, we might divide this up into digestible nutrients, and get the case a little clearer. We can measure the digesting capacity of a cow by the distance through the middle. It always proves true; the space between the shoulders and the hips and between the back and the bottom line simply represents the size of the mill, the larger the mill the more grist it is capable of grinding per day. On the other hand, we find that the other parts of the body of a cow must be supported by this © middle, consequently the lighter the quarters the less this middle has to support. Note the difference in the two cows, Dora and Ethel, how much larger is the relative size of the hind quarter and the shoulder to the middle in one than in the other. Now, we find that a cow with the deeper middle will digest 16 to 18 pounds of digestible nutrients per day. In some of our experiments it is shown that a pound of digestible nutrients is required for the support of 100 pounds of cow, and a cow weighing 800 pounds would use 8 for herself, but, being able to digest 16 pounds, we are equal part- ners in the business, she is able to convert 8 pounds to her own use and 8 pounds for dairy products. But you take a cow of the type of Dido or Ethel and she will use about two- thirds of the digestible nutrients per day for food support and one-third for dairy products, or, in other words, she ‘s ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. 47 a tenant on our place that takes two-thirds and gives us one- third, while the Doras are tenants that give us half and take half. DISCUSSION. Mr. Monrad: Will you explain about this three or four cent butter? Prof. Haecker: Bro. Monrad is always afraid that I will make too good a showing. I find that by having the cows come in in the fall or early winter, that I can keep them nearly in full flow until spring, with proper care and feed. We prefer also to have them fresh in the fall because the boys come to the School of Agriculture and we need the milk for class work and for the dining hall. In Minnesota, the ‘ feed stuffs are rather cheap, and in the fall, when grain is the cheapest and mill stiffs purchased at the lowest figure, I lay in the winter supply for the dairy herd. Then I charge the cows whatever I have to pay for the feed; this is the basis of the work that I am giving you. So the cows were fresh or nearly so when this work was done and these re- sults have been obtained because we have had cheap food and the cows have had the right kind of care and manage- ment. If I should undertake to give these cows an unbal- anced ration, I would not get nearly as good results. I find that in order to have a cow do her very best, she must have just the nutrients she needs in making milk, which is, after all, very simple. If you have a man work for you, you give him the tools that he needs, with which to do the work, and we must do the same thing with the cow; we must not burden her with anything she has no use for; consequently, in the fall of the year I figure out how I shall mix this food to give the cow just the amount of protein, the milk-making material, and just the amount carbo-hydrates, the heat producing material, that she needs, and that she has no surplus of either, because she can use them only in certain proportions. If I should feed my cows a heavy grain ration of corn, they would get too much heat-producing element; they would have caked _ udders and probably the second year they would go dry, or begin to lay on flesh, because they had not enough protein, 48 ILLINOLS STATE DAIRYMEIN’S ASSOCIATION. so I see that their rations are balanced. The ration is two pounds of protein to 13 pounds of carbo-hydrates, and a little over half a pound of fat to each cow. We make the mixture of these grains and then give each cow all that she will eat. These pictures before you were taken after the cows had been fed heavily, this one five and that six years, except for about ten days before they came in. The cows are fed in the morn- ing about 5 o’clock, and 5 o’clock means 5; it is not 10 minutes after 5 nor 10 minutes before 5, and it is the same way with milking. When the boys come into the barn, each cow gets her ration according to her capacity; one cow 12 pounds, an- other 14 to 15, and so on, just as heavy as they will eat. After the grain is put in their boxes, the boys commence to milk in regular order. Then after the milking is over they are given a little roughage, and the boys go to breakfast. After feeding, the cows are let out into a wide runway, and there they are left all day. We don’t let them go out and fill themselves with straw or cornstalks, of which they can make little use, in place of the wholesome balanced ration they should receive when they come in for the supper. So our cows have two meals a day and no more. I find that if I let them pick around and eat straw and so on, they become irregular in their habits and they do not do nearly as well as where they are confined te two simple rations per day, it only takes them 15 or 2 minutes to eat their meals, and when they are through and are put into their enclosed run- way, they lie down and chew their cud and digest their food, and convert it, all that they do not need for the body, into milk. : Mr. Monrad: Do you iet them out every day? Prof. Haecker: Yes, for a little while, if the weather is pleasant. | Mr. Dietz: How do you water them? Prof. Haecker: In the center of the runway is a tank of water, and there is also a box of salt; they can help themselves at any time to either. Mr. Johnson: Do I understand you that the butter only costs 3 cents a pound and the milk only 20 cents a hundred? Prof. Haecker: Yes; you must remember this was from December 30 to May 3. ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. 49. Mr. Johnson: I was wondering, with mill feed $11 a ton and the butter only costing 3 cents and milk only 20 cents, why we have not become immensely wealthy; our feed is only $5 or $6 a ton, and we get from 60 to 80 cents for the milk. I don’t see why we don’t get immensely rich. Prof. Haecker:' You would if the business were carried on properly. Mr. Monrad: You are milking the wrong cow. Mr. Hostetter: Which costs the more, the labor or the food? Prof. Haecker: We can take no account of the labor, because there is such a rariation, and if we should charge for our labor at all, it would not be applicable to your condi- tions, and on that account we leave it entirely open. I simply make a record of the cost of the food at market price. The Chairman: You mean that your conditions are dif- ferent to those on the farm and the figures that you would secure from your labor account would not be applicable on the farm? Prof. Haecker: No, it would not; it would simply be misleading. Mr. Hostetter: What is the reason that the farmer hasn’t grown rich, as Mr. Johnson says? Prof. Haecker: He will close his eyes to facts; he won’t see them. He gets a notion into his head that a certain kind of cow is grand and the kind that he wants, and he will go along year after year milking that sort of cow, when another type would double the balance on the ledger account. Mr. Seeley: What is the roughage of which you speak? Prof. Haecker: In former years it was prairie hay. This winter we are using fodder corn. last winter, while this record was being made up, we used ensilage, and what little hay we used was prairie hay. Mr. Larkin: I represent perhaps a class of dairymen who are conspicous by their absence here today, whose milk is carried to the condensing factory. I notice in all your remarks you have made butter the standard by which you compute costs and prices. Of course there is a great deal —4 50 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. that I can apply, but I would like to ask you a few questions. I want to get at the actual cost of milk by the one hundred pounds. Prof. Haecker: I gave that; it was 61 cents per hundred when bran was $11 a ton, cil meal $26 a ton, oats 30 cents, ete. I find that the style of cow, represented by Dora will produce milk as cheap as any cow; that is, per hundred pounds weight. The moment that we get one of these large cows that give a large quantity of thin milk, it requires so much food support that the net cost per hundred pounds of milk is fully as much as one of these small cows that gives a less quantity. The reason why I do not use the hundred pounds of milk as the standard, is because there is such a variation in milk. Some of our cows give milk that contains two and a half per cent. of fat; other cows give milk that contains five per cent. of fat, normally, when they are comparatively fresh; consequently, it would not be fair to place a cow that has 17 pounds of solids in her milk with a cow that only gives about 13; so, by meas- uring the milk by its fat contents, we get at a better result. Mr. Larkin: In determining the ration ef a cow, you ob- jected to turning her out and allowing her to run to the straw or the corn stalks. Now, in determining the ration of these cows, how did you do it? Prof. Haecker: We have tables. Mr. Larkin: What do you think of the practical idea of feeding the cow richer food; that is, the grain food, and then allowing her to eat all the coarse fodder that she wishes? Prof. Haecker: But she has no judgment; she will fill herself up with husks and with corn stalks and she is travel- ing, every step of which is at your expense, and it is a greater expense than you have any idea of. The average horse ex- pends all the energy in his food simply by muscular action. Mr. Larkin: But in my own case, for instance, I do not allow my cows to go out except for a bit of an airing; now, would it be good policy to feed them their grain ration and then put in such coarse fodder as I may have—straw, hay or corn fodder—and allow them to eat what they want? Prof. Haecker: Ido that way exactly. I feed the grain in the morning before they are milked, and after milking they get their hay, but I only give them just their share, as much ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. 51 as they will eat up clean, and I watch every cow, if she licks her manger a little too hard, then I give her a littie more, increase her ration until I see she has all she wants. My general rule is to give them half grain and half roughage in weight. Mr. Larkin: I have been reading some of your articles and I am told that a ration consists of so much corn fodder or Stover, etc. How is a man to know about the quantity? I ean’t weigh it, and so I allow the cow to weigh it herself. Prof. Haecker: Yes, that is right; but I would never leave the roughage before her. I would teach her to eat her breakfast and quit when she gets through. Mr. Johnson: Allowing one-third for exaggeration, which in the case of the Experiment Stations, men ought to be allowed, and for all their facilities for taking care of the | cows, gauging the proper rations, etc., the Professor’s talk so far is worth the whole cost of this show, and if we, as dairymen,. will take it home and consider it, and find out how much we are losing by not getting the right kind of cows, and by not studying and knowing what is the proper ration and the proper way to feed it, it will be worth a great deal of money to us. Mr. Judd: Please give us your reasons for favoring milk- ing while the cattle are eating? Prof. Haecker: Because it is the most convenient way. Mr. Judd: Ihave had a good deal of experience along that line and I do not like that. If I feed my cows first and then go to milking, as everybody knows, the cow is looking and reaching after a little more and the first thing we know she steps on the hired man’s foot and very likely he will up and hit her with the stool. I think the cow will not give down her milk until she gets through eating. I feed either after I am through milking or long enough before so she will satisfy herself before we begin to milk. Prof. Haecker: Your plan is right enough; it is just a matter of convenience. Mr. Cocledge: Do you find you can feed fat into milk? Prof. Haecker: No, sir; Holstein milk is always Hol- stein milk, no matter how rich food you may give. Of course 52 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. the per cent. of fat in a cow’s milk does vary; if you get the cow out of normal condition you can make her give a very low per cent., or a very high per cent. We have had cows that were given the very best of food and they are still giving two and a half per cent. milk, and they always will. Mr. Judd: But you might feed them so they would not give but one per cent. of milk by poor feeding? Prof. Haecker: Oh, yes; you might kill her and she wouldn’t give you anything. Mr. Wesley: Why.-is it that you feed grain first in the morning? Prof. Haecker: I don’t know of any special reason; I am simply telling you what we do and the results. One ad- vantage in feeding the grain is that you put it in the box right close by and the cow is not reaching for anything; she is simply standing there perfectly quiet and contented. Mr. Wesley: Why not feed hay? Prof. Haecker: Then, as Mr. Judd says, she will be reach- ing for it. Mr. Wesley: Our cows have to be milked at 4:30, on account of the railroads in this neighborhood. | The Chairman: We are going to change that. It is a bad thing. Mr. Hoard (of Aurora): According to a statement sent me some years ago by Gov. Hoard, it was said that wheat bran contained more nourishment than either corn or oats. I want to know if that is advocated by the Dairymen’s Asso- ciation? Prof. Haecker: Well, I don’t know about advocating. We don’t advocate anything. The office of the Experiment Station is simply to hunt for facts, and when we find a fact, to give it out. Mr. Hoard: Nine out of ten farmers will say that there is nothing in bran. Gov. Hoard said it contained 25 per cent. more nourishment than either corn or oats.. I would like to know about that. ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. 53 Mr. Dietz: A farmer told me the other day that a certain mill man had told him that rye bran came nearer to being an ideal dairy food than anything else. I took the trouble to look up the reports in the Department of Agriculture, and I found that the proportions of protein to carbo-hydrates in rye bran come as near to the standard established by Prof. Wohl and others as any food we have. So there may be something in that statement. What do you think of it, Professor? Prof. Haecker: We cannot measure all our food stuff by the chemical analysis. Cows don’t like rye; you can feed them a little rye with impunity, but when you come to feed them a heavy ration they rebel. Besides that, rye bran is not produced in sufficient quantities to supply the market, even if it were good. Now, a word in regard to the food value of bran. I have a table here prepared after our five years’ work with different kinds of feed stuffs that gives the comparative value of the different kinds, and [ find that if it is palatable, then the cheapest ration that we can produce ot the different kinds of nutrients properly balanced is the best food for the cow, no matter whether it is bran, corn, wheat, oil meal, cotton seed meal or anything else. What is the value of bran here? The Chairman: About $9; $10 in sacks, I think. Prof. Haecker: If bran is worth $9, then corn is worth 21 cents a bushel; oats 12 cents a bushel; rye, 24; wheat, 25; that is the feeding value for the dairy cow. Mr. Larkin: Do you mean to be understood that we might throw out bran and feed 21-cent corn without bran? Prof. Haecker: No; we must have the proper ration. When timothy hay is worth $8 a ton, fodder corn is worth $6.12, prairie hay, $8, clover hay, $17.88, over twice the value of timothy hay. Mr. Larkin: I notice in your diagram the fact that these two cows, Ethel and Houston, ran along nearly parallel for a given time. Now, have you any experience along this line to give us. Supose I owned those two cows, and at the end of three or four months, or any given time, when they began to diverge in the results, I had turned off the Durham cow, weighing 1,300 pounds and bought another. The difference a ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. in weight is what I want to get at; whether you have any knowledge of the facts as to whether it would pay to make that exchange. Would it be more profitable than to keep the one cow. We can’t always get just a special kind of cow. Suppose I have one weighing 1,300 pounds and she is: going to do very well for six,weeks or two months, and then I can sell her say for 3 or 34 cents a pound, and buy another, and go on with the other two or three months. Have you any practical experience along that line? Prof. Haecker: Yes; after this cow got along to the second or third week I would sell her; $35 or $40 would be a fair price for her, and then I would buy a cow like Topsy for $25. Mr. Larkins: Supose in my herd of cows, one has got lame, or, for some reason, I want to get rid of her, and yet keep up my herd, what shall I do? | Prof. Haecker: You will have to begin to hunt for cows where the distance from the tail to the rear line of the thigh is great and the body deep through the middle, paying no attention to anything else; or else you will have to buy a cow like Ethel, where the is hardly any distance between the tail and the thigh; milk her a few months and sell her to the butcher. Now, I selected a cow something like the first and paid #25 for her; she was a homely old thing, and the farmer thought it was a good sale.’ I had her five vears, and this is her record for five years: Topsy’s Yield for Five Years. = w < a < ze Q Z = 2 2 =. =, 2 & © x et S B S 2 ot Sh ; S o 2: C e © Ee 7 ° 5 . = 5 w tna) S YEAR. : = : 2 S S : 4 o cS is} = D EA fs 5 SSO penta Are eigen af Ste 375 =| $ 93.75 6300 $12.60 | $106.35 $43.00 $63.35 IVE ao ueRene 10.287 476 119.00 8230 16.46 135.46 42.56 92.90 10): CelyygHi aee 7.769 355 88.75 6215 12.43 101.18 34.83 66.35 SOR eMart: 12.525 554 138.50 °| 10020 20.04 158.54 39.31 119.23 SOG aa ees 11.728 520 104.00 9382 18.76 122.76 32 55 90.21 Average... 10.037 456 108.80 8029 16.06 124.86 38.45 &6.41 It is an easy matter to select cows if you will shut your eyes to the old-fashioned notions of points, yellow skin, fine ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. ays) hair, thin skin, long face, long tail or any of those things, just let them all go and simply measure the distance with your eye as stated. This is the idea. I look at the thigh to ascertain what disposition the cow makes of her food. A cow that has such a cat-ham as that is not in the meat busi- ness. Then I say that is my cow, because she won’t convert the food into meat. Then the next question is, How much per, day can she eat over her own individual wants? Because then she begins to work for me, and the deeper she is through the middle, the larger per centage of the food she eats will go to dairy products. Mr. Larkin: What do you do with that class of cows when they get to be old? Prof. Haecker: I bury.them and raise up a tombstone. Mr. Ford: JI notice that in your later rations:you did not mention ensilage. Don’t you consider it good roughage? Prof. Haecker: Yes, I do; but I feed also hay in con- nection with it, and I think with better results. I cannot ' get my cows to eat as much ensilage as some people:can; the very largest amount of ensilage that I could feed to a cow was to this Topsy; she took 30 pounds, but she gets 21 pounds of grain. 3 Mr. Ford: My whole dairy is eating an average of over 40 pounds of,ensilage a day. Now, speaking about balanced rations, ordinary farmers cannot figure out the matter as you do. I wish you would give us an idea of it as we would mix it with the scoop shovel instead of your pencil. Prof. Haecker: I would be delighted to send any one this table that gives the amount of protein in each kind of food. Mr. Ford: TI have the full table that comes with Hoard’s Dairymen, and I have the German standard. I think we could get at it better if we could do it with the scoop shovel. Prof. Haecker: I don’t do it in that way; I can’t afford to. I can better afford to hire a man to mix them. We are feed- ing more bran now because it is cheaper in proportion to the food value; we give the cow all the bran she will take, but we have to put a little barley and corn meal with it to make it palatable and not quite so bulky. Our ration still retains the ratio about 1:6.9. 56 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. Mr. Soverhill: Would you like to run a dairy without bran? Prof. Haecker: No, sir; bran is the cheapest food that we have. Mr. Johnson: After all that is said, wouldn’t you advise us all to depend considerably upon the taste of the cow as to the ration? Prof. Haecker: Ido not find any cows that dislike this ration and never ,jhave found any in my five years’ work. I do not think it would be safe to leave it to the cow, because she would fill herself half full during the day with corn stalks. : Mr. Ford: While I fully appreciate the value of bran, I am milking fifty-five cows at the present time, and I am getting twenty-five eight-gallon cans of milk, and I am not feeding a mouthful of bran. Prof. Haecker: That doesn’t show anything. What are you feeding? Mr. Ford: I am feeding ensilage, a little corn and cob meal, brewers’ grains and beets, twice a day. The brewers’ grains are wet and are rich in protein, I believe. Mr. Hostetter: What do you do with the calf? Prof. Haecker: I let that calf suckle once, than I take it away from the ,cow, and if the cow gives very rich milk I do not let it suck at all, because there is too much solid - in the milk and the little stomach cannot digest it, and by the second day the ,calf will lhe down and by the third day it will be dead. So, if the cow gives ordinary milk, I let it suckle once, take it away from the cow, skip one meal, and then the next meal I give it three to four pints of its mother’s milk, and for a week I give it mother’s milk, three or four pints at a time. The next week I give half whole milk and ‘half skim milk and,the next week I give skim milk and a teaspoonful of ground flax seed meal, and from that on it has nothing but skim milk and flax seed and a little roughage when it is old enough. : Mr. Hostetter: How does that calf compare with the mother after it grows to be a cow? Prof. Haecker: JI have cows that I raised that way which are twelve years old and very fine. ILLINOIS STATH DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. ay) Mr. Hostetter: The point I am after is, how long is it going to take us to improve our herds if we keep killing the calves and buying cows of persons who raise cows to sell? Prof. Haecker: I hardly feel like answering that ques- tion; it is not for me to answer. If you,want to know whether I think you had better breed the right kind of calf and grow it instead of buying cows, I can tell you that, but I will tell you more about it tomorrow. A Member: I find. that if a farmer feeds hay it im- proves the flavor of the milk. What is your experience in that? Prof. Haecker: I have not found that it did. Any feed that is well cured will give a good flavor to milk. The Member: Don’t you think a cow needs hay once a day at least? Prof. Haecker: I think so. The Member: Sometimes, when hay is very high, they sell it and don’t feed it at all, and I have noticed that the flavor of the milk is not so fine. Prof. Haecker: I have not made any experiments along that line at all. Many people think because I have been at the Experiment Station five years I ought to know all about these things, but I do not. I see no material difference in the flavor of the milk or butter, no matter what the roughage food has been, as long as it is well cured. Mr. Ford: Is it not a fact that bad flavor in milk comes from the bad smell in the stables rather than from the food that the cow eats? Prof. Haecker: Yes; that is right. A Member: You state that you turn your cows out in the day time, and that there is a tank of water there. Is this water warm? Prof. Haecker: No; it is cold well water. The Member: When it is not pleasant, do you keep them in? 58 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. Prof. Haecker: No; they are always in this covered run- way during both the day and night. They are only in their stables while they are being fed and milked. If it is warm and pleasant during the day, they are let jout of this runway into the yard for a while. Mr. Johnson called to the chair. CARE OF OUR GOLD MINE—THE CORN. H. B. GURLER. I think that is very nicely put—corn, in my estimation, is the king of crops with us. There is no question that if we will save our corn crop, the corn and the fodder, there is no crop that produces as much food per acre. Now, the question is, How can we save it? Iam not arbitrary about how we do it as long as we do it well. Ihave had a silo for, I think, twelve years, and have studied the question. In fact, I studied it seven or eight years before I reached the point of building a silo. My faith in the silo has had a graduai growth, and I am nearer to be an enthusiast today than I~ have been at any previous time. There are some points with the silo where we have made mistakes. In our early experience the mistake was made of putting the corn in the silo before it had reached its best stage, the proper stage of maturity. I remember talking with a party in New England, who had put his corn into prac- tically a cistern below the ground, and he told me that when he got down into his silo, in feeding out, that there was three feet of this bottem that had been spoiled from that immature corn. Most of us have learned, at our cost, to do better than that now; some of us have learned by other people’s experience, fortunately. I think some of us have gone to the other extreme, and now allow our corn to become so mature and dry that there is not moisture:enough to make sufficient weight to cause it ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. a9 to become close enough to exclude the air and prevent fer- mentation, which will injure it as a food. Kvery one must settle for himself as to how he shall grow his corn crop, whether he will shock it in the field, and let it cure out, or put it in the barn or the stack or in ricks or in some way to protect it from the weather, or whether he will allow it to stand in the field until the time when he wants to use it. This last fall and winter have been discouraging with the corn product. In September we had half as much rainfall as we had in the whole of the year 1896—something over eight inches, if I remember right. I know I took more pains with my corn that I was shocking than I ever did before, but the water went through my shocks and the corn was damaged, not fit to feed my cows. We fed it to young cattle that were not giving milk, but I was disappointed. That is one good thing about the silo, we are independent of the weather. Our silos are built with the walls, tight so that air does not penetrate; then we have the corn in the proper condition, and we pack it closely, so as to keep the - air out; even in putting it up, if it rains we can quit today and go right ahead tomorrow. We need not necessarily stop for the dew to dry off, nor even a little rain. We can keep right along with our work. We are really more independent . than we are in handling our corn in any other way, trying to cure it dry. I find that it is not wise for me to try to grow corn more than three vears. Two years is enough. It is better to keep up the rotation, which is not always easy when you cannot get a hay crop. I have found that after growing my corn two vears that this little root worm comes to bother us. It commences on the end of the root and follows it up, and you ean take hold of a hill of corn and pick it all up with one hand. roots and all. The Professor at the University explained to me about this little grub. He told me that this worm lived entirely on corn roots and that if we would drop off the corn for one year, we would starve the grub out, all that were in that ground, and then we are safe until they came again in two or three years. 60 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. I might say a few words about the stage of maturity. I find that I get the best results to let the corn mature to the point that the kernels are nicely dented, and perhaps the very earliest of them are beginning to glaze a little. If think that if we cut any earlier than that, we fail to get the most of the nutriment from the corn, and if we grow much past that point the corn will not all be digested by the stock that consume it. This point comes up right here. It perhaps is not safe to be governed entirely by the chemical analysis cn this point. It is a question in my mind whether corn has its greatest value at the time that the chemist will find the greatest amount of nutrition. JI think that the cow should be taken into consideration and we will learn at what period we can get the best results from it. The question of palpa- bility enters in here, and that is one of the vital questions all along this feeding line. J think any of us who have done any thinking must have discovered that the food must be pal- atable to get the best results from it; if it is not, they will not consume enough. Even Prof. Haecker, if he had given that food and they didn’t like it and would not consume it, could not get his profit out of them. There are some other points where we have stumbled with the silo. Manv have built their silos or their compart- ments so large that they were not able to feed down fast — ‘enough to keep ahead of decay, or they have been careless in cutting off the surface, cutting it unevenly, they have not gone ail over the surface with regularity, so that they have kept the surface fresh. I think a safe rule is to have your silos built so that you have not over six surface square feet per animal to be fed. For instance, if you have a silo 10x12 feet, that would be 120 feet surface; six goes into 120 twenty times, so that would be all right for twenty cows. You must feed down fast enough to keep ahead of decay, and the ex- treme limit should be eight surface square feet per cow. If we get beyond that there is liable to be trouble from decay commencing. T am satisfied that the greatest objection to ensilage has come from a lack of intelligence in putting it up and in feed- ing from it. I remember one time I found trouble with the cream at one of my creameries. I run the thing down and ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. HL found it was with a single dairy. I went to the premises and found they were feeding, I think it was twenty-five cows from a silo that was 20x25 feet, and they could not keep ahead oz decay with the amount of stock they were feeding. Now, feeding in that way will make bad milk. I have heard gentle- men say that a cow will take care of unsound food, but how long will she keep well, eating that kind of stuff? Mr. Cooledge: Isn’t it a fact that the condensing factories at Elgin will not receive milk from silo-fed cows? Mr. Gurler: Yes, and I admit that there is more risk where you are feeding ensilage than where you are feeding dry feed, and I presume if I was running a condensed milk factory I should do the same thing that they are doing, be- cause there is more risk in it. [ am not getting up here to advocate the silo in particular. I do not care whether a man puts his corn in the silo or in the shock. I am advocating corn. Of course the feeding of ensilage is comparatively new with us and we have got much to learn yet. While I acknowledge that there is more risk in feeding ensilage, on the other hand, I visited only a short time ago, a dairy that furnishes milk for a milk laboratory in one of our large cities. That farm was being managed by a college-educated man, one of the brightest men I have ever come in contact with, and his coarse fodder was ensilage entirely. I know of other instances where ensilage is being fed in a similar way and where the milk goes into a more delicate trade than it does at the condensing factory. I find that I keep my cows in a little better condition when I feed them ensilage—their condition is almost perfect. My herd will go out in the spring and they will he 911 ched off by the first of May, whil2 my neighbors’ cows will run along till the first of July. it is nearly like a grass food. I think sometimes that a fair comparison is to compare it with dried fruit and canned fruit. Of course the silo does not do as perfect work as we do in canning our fruit, neither do we do as perfect work with our dried corn as with our dried fruit; but you take a year like this, and we we have a great advantage with the silo. Our shocked corn is damaged much more than the corn that we put in the silo this year. 62 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. Mr. Larkin: Where did you bind the bundle of corn that spoiled, above or below the ears? Mr. Gurler: Below the ears, if I remember right. My first work was done with the McCormick ends, later on I used the Deering. Mr. Judd: They bind below, both of them. When { bound above J found I met with same difficulty. When it is bound below it is reasonable to suppose that it gets more air. Have you had any experience in cutting your dry fodder and then dampening it and allowing fermentation to start? Mr. Gurler: No, I have not. I have been a good deal interested in the different results in cutting and filling a mow with corn in the fall. Some parties have had good success and some have made a failure of it; the fodder would spoil. i have come to the conclusion that one great cause of the trouble is that the corn soaks up the dampness from the ground, and the effect will be the same as when we put our hay in wet. I just get in, twice a week, enough corn to last three or four days at a time.. Do not bring in any large amount. Mr. Larkin: In putting in corn I have found good rea. sults in putting it in a large barn on top of the hay mow, and we set the corn all upright; then on top of that another row upright. It kept in good condition, while that that was laid down was not in first-rate condition. I think the ques- tion of ventilation is quite an essential one and comes in here. Mr. Hostetter: Has your silo rotted out at the bottom yet, the one you put right into the ground? Mr. Gurler: I have had no trouble. My first silo I built with a single wall inside, selected good lumber and only put one thickness of lumber inside. The one that I built two years later I put on common surfaced lumber, and then tarred paper and then matched lumber, and that one is going to decay more rapidly than the first one. The one that was built twelve or thirteen years ago, with just one thickness of lumber inside I examined a year ago and there was no decay to amount to anything yet. I have kept close watch of both my silos. I think it is a vital question for us to con. sider whether we want to build in the old way at all. If I ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. 63 was going to build I would build a circular silo of some form, whether it would be like a big cistern, or whether I would use four-inch studding and spring around my lumber. If I did, of course, the same point would enter into it about the wall as in the square one. I have sometimes thought that perhaps if steel or iron was cheap enough we could build one like a stand-pipe, but I have not investigated. Mr. Cooledge: 1 know of one that is constructed the Same as a stand-pipe. It is round, about 30 feet high, made of the refuse from a canning factory. Mr. Gurler: It certainly should be circular, whether it be of wood or iron. Mr. Glidden: If a man was going to build a silo now and should ask your advice as to the material he should use, what would you say? | Mr. Gurler: I think if I was going to build and had to decide now, I would investigate this question of iron or steel built like a stand-pipe. I don’t know as we could afford to do it, but if I had to decide right today, I would build it like the water tanks of the railroad companies are built. I would use the stave. Mr. Glidden: I never would recommend a man to build one of wood. I would either build it of stone or brick. f don’t know about iron or steel, but ten years will use up a wooden one, and a man can’t afford to put up a building like that once in ten years. I built silos big enough to hold 2,000 tons and used them for two years, and since that I filled then with dry feed. They are built with 2x4’s, 16 feet circular, 20 feet high. I lined them and plastered them and everything else. Mr. West: I think it has been demonstrated that the acids corrode iron and steel and it is not practicable. Is it not true that corn going through certain stages of heat in the silo loses certain qualities more than in the stack? Prof. Haecker: The losses would be no more than in fodder corn. Mr. Glidden: How are you feeding your corn this win- ter? In what shape, Mr. Gurler? Mr. Gurler: I am feeding part from the silo and some hay and then [ am cutting some shock corn. I put fifty acres 64 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. of corn in the silo and I had eighty acres shocked in the field, Iam putting that through a feed cutter, ears and all, and feed- ing it in that condition. Mr. Judd: You have had experience, haven’t you, in feed- ing fodder corn whole right from the shock? Mr. Gurler: No, sir; I never did. Mr. Judd: Does it pay to run it through the fodder cut- ter? Do they eat any more than when it is whole? Mr. Gurler: I could not very well feed shock corn with my style of stall. I have the Bidwell stall, individual stalls, and those mangers are not long enough to feed whole corn in, and J don’t want my cows out in the yard some days long enough to eat corn. | Mr. Johnson: Wouldn’t you be ashamed to have your neighbors see you feeding the whole corn, anyway? Mr. Gurler: I don’t do it, and I don’t need to answer that question. Last winter I used a sheller attachment to my feed cutter, but I was doubtful whether it paid, as cheap as corn is. Mr. Johnson: I should think you would have to keep a great many hogs after your cattle? Mr. Gurler: Not so many. I don’t. wait for my corn to get dead ripe. I cut the corn as early as I would if I was going to put it in the silo. Now, as to the question of loss of quality in the silo, perhaps Prof. Farrington can help us out. Prof. Farrington: No, I cannot. I don’t think there is any material change in the food by the fermentation in the silage more than in the cured corn. Mr. Judd: I think it is generally conceded by the best authorities that both ensilage and fodder corn lose about twenty per cent. of their natural feeding value in any way that you fix it, when they are properly put up. Mr. West: While in lowa a few years ago, I noticed my brother went around picking the corn and my idea was that he did that because he thought he saved the full value, be- cause, if he put it in the silo a certain per cent. was lost. Mr. Footh: My experience has been that when I have been feeding ensilage that had corn in it and went to feed- ing ensilage that had not corn, there was a decided loss in ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. 63 the milk pail; the cows would shrink in their milk imme- diately. Mr. Gurler: Did you find by the addition of more ground feed or other feed that you could make up that loss? Mr. Footh: Yes. My experience with ensilage is this: I don’t consider a stalk as really fit to put in the silo until it has developed the suckers. If you could keep the suckers out, you would gain, I believe. My experience is that a bushel of seed to five acres will give me the best result, not only for yield, but for quality. I planted not over a bushel to five acres this last year and my ensilage went about nineteen tons to the acre. My silo holds between 1,900 and 2,000 tons, and I filled it with fifty acres. I plant both the Red Top and the B. and W. The B. and W. does not mature early enough to give us a chance to go to work as early as we ought to. I filled my silo last fall with one extra man. We commenced on the Red Top on the 20th of August. I believe that the gentleman is right who said that the acids would eat the iron silo. My silo is round, made of two thicknesses of boards, with oil paper between, and after the third year I found it was commencing to decay a little, and I plastered it with a common scratch coat and then faced it with Portland cement, and it stood over three years, and is there now, the cement is all right where the boys haven’t stuck the pitchfork into it, and I don’t believe it will rot. Mr. Oatman built one last year in the same way, I think. Mr. Wyman: I want to ask Prof. Haecker a question in regard to the value of clover. How much did you say it was worth in the production of milk? Prof. Haecker: About $17. Mr. Wyman: And corn stover was $4.00. Now, that ‘ being the case, wouldn’t it be a good deal cheaper, and wouldn’t there a good deal more money made in raising clover to feed cows at that price, or comparatively that, than there would be in raising corn stover or in raising corn and putting it into the silo? The Chairman: You get twenty tons of corn to the acre ~ and about two and a half tons of hay. Mr. Wyman: Even then you have got more money count- ing by the acre. —d 66 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. Prof. Haecker: It would be a yvety good investment to put part of that ground into the clover to use for balancing the ration. As Mr. Gurler says, corn furnishes the most feed per acre of any feed we have. | Mr. Wyman: [f you balanced the ration, can’t that corn bc husked and ground and the ration balanced in that way, and wouldn't it make a cheaper feed with the clover? Prof. Haecker: You could not balance it with clover; it would require too much bulk; you would have to use oil meal or bran or cotton seed meal, but vou could use it to a certain extent in balancing the ration so far as roughage is concerned. Mr. Wyman: How would it be then where it was put into the stover, worth only $4 a ton? The question is whether it would be cheaper to let the grain go and feed the clover. Wouldn’t there be more money in it? Prof. Haecker: Only to a certain extent; only to the extent that the clover would balance the fodder corn; but it would not do it. For instance, with corn fodder entirely ex- cluded, and substitute the clover. Mr. Plank: I built a silo two years ago, and we find if we lack that we don’t get good results. We feed to every- thine—calves, horses, colts, cows, everything—and I don’t know but we will have to feed to hogs pretty soon. I fed a bunch of steers two winters. I did not weigh the silage. We gave a good big steer a scoopful and a half three times a day, and about four quarts of meal. After we got through with our ensilage, we undertook to keep our steers a little longer and feed them good timothy hay, but they gaunted right up, wouldn't eat hay. I found that we could not feed the ensilage and then drop back onto hay. I had to get some ensilage from my son-in-law. There is no lttrunbdle feed- ing corn with ensilage. They hardly eat any hay; they cannot eat straw just as well. They take only about one-third the amount of grain that they would if they were eating hay. Mr. Gurler: Your silo is partly built of brick mason work; what would you build if you were going to build again? My. Plank: I was experimenting. I never saw but one or two silos before that. I dug about three feet in the ground, then cemented the bottom and laid a three-foot wall on if, put staves on and made a round silo—or, kind of oblong. If ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. 67 I would build again I would dig into the ground as far as I could go and cement it; then I would brick it up, and J wouldn’t care whether [ had any roof on or not; just a light roof. I would build the top entirely of brick. I do not think the lumber keeps well, the acid or something rots it. Mr. Gurler: How would you hold a brick silo together? Mr. Glidden: Put on a hoop about two or three inches wide. Mr. Johnson: Wouldn’t that make it very expensive? Mr. Glidden: I don’t know that you could fix it with anything any cheaper. Mr. Hostetter: How thick would your brick wall be? Mr. Glidden: If I was going to build it eighteen or twenty feet in diameter, 1 should make it eight inches. TI would cement it right down on the ground, plaster it inside on the dirt, and nothing on the brick; that is the way ours is. The first year we filled it with dry fodder, because we could not get a machine to cut it. We started the mill running and kept pumping three days, put it onto the silo. MR. GURLER RESUMED THE CHAIR. The Chairman: I would like to ask Mr. Wheeler in re- gard to the comparative expense of putting corn into the silo and cutting it in from the shock. Which do you think is the most economical? Mr. Wheeler: I think putting in the same amount of feed for, say, thirty head of cows that I would just as soon fill the silo as stack the corn. I have filled five years. I have not been satisfied with last year. I shall try to build, but I don’t know how vet. I shall certainly build round in preference te square. If have a little doubt between wood and iron. I have rods going through my silo and after being filled five years those two rods are pretty nearly eaten off with the acid. The Chairman: I have rods that have been exposed for ten years and they are doing their work yet. Mr. Wheeler: I filled with different kinds of corn. One year I put in quite a little sweet corn, but I didn’t like that as well. It seemed to do more damage to the silo than any- thing else I had. The wood of the silo looked all right last 68 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. year when I filled it, but when we came to feed out, if we took a bit and bored through the wood, it showed that these 2x4’s were rotted. Mr. H. L. Bowen: I have had a little experience in the silo business; this is my fourth year. I built my silo a little differ- ently from others, because I did not have the means to build it so nicely. I built a round silo about eighteen feet across and twenty-four deep. I boarded it around with what is called parallel siding, double boarded, used no paper what- ever. The outside was boarded right the same way, with common siding, and I used six-inch studding, set eight inches apart. I have had good results in keeping ensilage. Com- mencing at the bottom I laid a wall and made it heavy enough so it wouldn’t crowd out. I laid up about a foot and a half of wall. Then I laid my studding and I commenced to board or the outside of the studding. After I got that boarded up a foot and a half then I laid my wall up, so that I had a foct and a half of boarding on the inside of this wall, then I com- menced and just double-boarded it. The outside is in bad shape at the present time, but as far as rotting is concerned, there was no rot at all, only down where these studs set and where it was backed up by this wall, those boards rotted in two years. I took them off last fall, up as far as the wall came and plastered that right up. Above that there is no decay whatever. Now, in regard to feeding it, is there any one here that has fed ensilage alone, no grain ration and no coarse food. I have fed that way, though not for milk. My cows, most of them, come in in the spring and summer and they are mostly dry in the winter. I fed nothing for the last three winters but just ensilage, and I have good results. Mr..Footh: JI have done it for two winters, and did it because they would not eat anything else in the way of coarse fodder. I let the cow choose for herself, and if you give her ensilage enough, she won’t eat hay or anything else. But I would not adivse anybody to feed ensilage very heavily to cows for anywhere from four to eight weeks before they come in. I should shorten it up then and put them on some other rough feed. I believe it creates a tendency to too great a flow of milk at that time, and you will have trouble with caked udders. J ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. 69 Mr. Judd: John Gould says that forty pounds of ensil- age to nine pounds of gluten meal is his ration, and he says that it does the business for him. Mr. Johnson: What does he mean by gluten meal? Mr. Judd: It is dried brewers’ grain, as I understand it. Mr. Footh: No, there are two kinds; there is one that comes from the glucose and starch factories and there is an- other kind that goes under the name of grano-gluten. One is a good deal richer in proteine than the other. That from the starch or gluten factories is the best. Chicago, Feb. 24, 1897. Mr. J. H. Monrad, Secretary: My Dear Sir: I regret very much that I am unable to attend your meeting, owing to a press of business, which was unforeseen. Iam fully aware of the fact that I am the loser, but it can not be helped. You know my views on the silo question. I do not hesi- tate to say that from my experience with and without a silo, that I am in favor of maturing corn, husking and shredding as against the silo. Very truly yours, 3 JOHN BOYD. The convention adjourned till 7:30 p. m. EVENING SESSION. The convention met at 7:30 p. m. Mr. Gurler in the chair. The hall was crowded to overflowing by an appreciative audience, enjoying the entertainment provided. Song, “I Fear No Foe,’ J ules Lombard. Recitation, “The Facial Family,’ Miss Neltnor. 70 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. DAIRY EDUCATION IN ILLINOIS. PROF. HUGENE DAVENPORT, URBANA, ILM. I find this an immense subject, both because [llinois is a big thing, and education is a big thing; and dairying is a big thing, too, and representing the institution that I do, L find myself considerably involved. It would not be fair to treat the subject from the standpoint of the University, for that would be dairy education at the University. At the same time, it is not within the range of human possibilities for a iuan standing here and representing the institution that I do, to treat the subject without mentioning the University, and so I have done both. In what I have written and in what IT shall say I shall occupy most of the time upon the general question rather than upon the particular, and if I have omitted to say anything that I onght to have said about dairy affairs at the University of Illinois, it must be credited to my extreme modesty. We of the United States occupy a virgin continent with the accumulated fertility of centuries, and unquestionably nowhere else and never since the morning of creation has nature yielded her stored energy so generously as here in America within the memory of men yet living. Although not agreeable to our vanity it is well within the truth to say that we of this country have grown rich and prosperous, not so much by knowledge and skill as by the spontaneous pro- ductions of a virgin soil. As the superabundance of fertility fails, and we begin to hear of it, more and more will technical ability be required to compensate for the lessened natural productiveness and to make the most of the conditions of life. The time is coming and now is when technical ability will pay, nay more than that, when nothing else will pay. Somebody has re- cently said that Germany is destined to be prosperous and powerful bevond her present measure because she has laid the foundation in her technical schools. The conditions of life have been so easy and food so abund- ant that many of our people have lost sight of the economic importance of the food supply of a great nation, and with the multitude of fine arts and “higher occupations,” and with the - PROF. EUGENE DAVENPORT. ILLINOIS STATEH DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. 73 increasing leisure class relieved by the success of ancestors from the necessity of personal exertion—with all these accom- paniments of national prosperity, it is little wonder that a sentiment of indifference, if not contempt, should have arisen regarding the whole matter of the food supply, and those en- gaged in so prosaic an occupation as its production. If, as a people, we grow careless of these things, as a nation we shall suffer, and the young in this country of both sexes, and of all classes need nothing so badly as a realizing sense of the importance of productive industry and the necessity for tech- nical skill in what are called the common things. This lengthy introduction was written to make it easier to say that the public more than the individual is interested in technical training. It means prosperity to the individual: it means life to the public. Without it, in a few generations, we shall be forced into degeneracy by sheer poverty ensued from lessened productiveness of our lands. The exigencies of circumstances, the needs of an increasing population and the demands of an advancing civilization all demonstrate the need of technical skill of a higher order and generally diffused among the people, stimulated by public sentiment and sus- tained by public enterprise. Dairying is and will remain for all time one of the chief contributors to the refined appetite of an elevated common- wealth. This being true, it is and will remain a productive industry for these individuals that are able to supply the grade of goods that is demanded. Ranking among the lux- uries of life, dairy products must be faultless to be valuable to an epicurean public, or remunerative to the individual pro- ducer. The successful preparation of foods so delicate as the dairy products amounts to almost a fine art, and requires a high degree of technical skill, combined with the finer natural instincts of order, cleanliness, precision and dainty manipulation. We are often asked why it is that dairying asks so much. favor in the way of free instruction at public expense. It is held to be simply an occupation like thousands of others, and like them ought to be left to work out its own salvation within commercial circles, and from commercial stimulus only. 74 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. Commerical products requiring but few people in their preparation may well be safely left to the stimulus of com- petition. Those that are manufactured at a few great cen- tral factories, mainly by means of machinery, representing great capital, will rapidly improve under the stimulus of trade. But here is a class of articles, and there are others, that are the product of labor rather than of capital. From their nature they can not be controled and developed by the iron hand of commerce through the medium of a few master minds. This class of products represents the industries of the people and for their successful prosecution we must depend upon general training of the masses. Germany has under- taken by her technical schools to increase and to develop, and to make more acceptable and effective the productive energy of her people. And in this she is wise. Commerce will never develop all the energies of a people. That they should develop is of public importance, and that the commonwealth should under- take the training of her citizens in these difficult industries is not vicious patronage, but sound public policy. All the world consumes dairy products. They are produced by the great masses of the people and both consumer and producer need educating. There is no need in educating the consumer to a taste that the producer can not or will not satisfy, when the verdict of the consumer upon goods produced by the masses is negative, the individual producer has little means of judg- ing why he has failed to please, and the last thing he will do is to blame himself and then to learn to produce a better article. Education must always begin with the producer, leaving the consumer as the responsive agent. Say what we please about oleomargarine—and when it poses as butter it ought to be branded with a devil rampant—the fact remains that its introduction into our commerce has improved mar- velously the quality of genuine butter. ‘The public is interested that these products of the people shall be of a high order. When a hundred pounds of good milk made by an honest cow out of God’s green grass is made by an unskilled workman into two or three pounds of rancid four-cent butter, it is a public calamity, and the ILLINOIS STATH DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. 75 public that will permit it ought to eat oleomargarine—or the ‘butter. Shall we say, can we say, that the public is meddling with private enterprise when it appoints inspectors, or traveling ex- perts to visit factories and give assistance, or when it estab- lishes schools for the education of the voung stockman and the milk-producer or for the training of skillful operatives. Shall We say, or can we say that the outlay is squandered; that it is a waste of public funds; or that to impart technical instruc- tion at public expense is unfair discrimination between indus- tries, or that it institutes a vicious system of governinental patronage? By no means. When the public does these things it is attending to its own business; it is legislating for its own advantage. What though the individual does profit by the system. Is he worth less to the world because he can serve it better and because he is worth more to him- self? Years ago Canada employed an expert cheese maker to study the problem of cheese production in that country and to go about from place to place teaching the best methods in the factories. Result: Canadian cheese is sought after in the markets of the world. We have employed what might be called the independent system with a steam churn in the cheese factory and a curd tank in the creamery and the out- come of it is suggestively recorded in the popular names skimmed and half-skimmed, white oaks and car wheels. Here was absence of government patronage, and there has come to be little of any other sort. What we need is educa- tion, training all along the line and a strong popular sentiment favoring it. We, the producers, must take high ground in this matter. With the advent of improved and expensive machinery, the manfnacturing business has been taken largely from the hands of individuals and placed with companies. The result has been a better and more uniform product, which has edneated the public taste and by creating a demand for goods of a superior grade has practically driven from the markets the products of home manufacture. In nothing has the change come more rapidly or with a more pronounced effect 76 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. than in butter. The last to surrender of all the list of house- wifery manufactures, that compound of a hundred secrets and a thousand odors, known as dairy butter, is about to be- come a thing of the past. We rejoice with our ladies that they are to be freed from the drudgery of making it, and with ourselves that we are to escape the danger of eating it, for all the care of the most painstaking and skillful private butter- maker availed for nothing when her nicely marked and daintly noulded rolls were unceremoniously dumped by the local storekeeper into the midst of the frowy mass or rancid corrup- tion known as store butter. We shall not need to educate the general public to make fancy butter or cheese, but have and shall continue to have need for a comparatively large number of skilled operatives for the factory work. it is doubtless true that always the very finest dairy products, whether in butter of cheese, will come from some of the extensive private dairies, but that the great mass, while not the very first in quality, will be uni- formly fine and will be made in factories. Now, as always, the great supply of milk, either for the trade. or for butter, or for cheese, comes from thousands of farms. This must always be, and in the economic production of milk, and in its proper handling and delivery is crying need for popular instruction. I will not in this place or at this time discuss what the State might, or ought to do, by way of legal standards, officiai - ipspections, expert supervision or itinerant instruction to im- prove the quality of our dairy products. Doubtless some or all of these methods might be employed to the education of the public, and therefore to the benefit alike of the consumer and of the producer. I would speak more especially of such instruction in connection with our great educational institu- tions. Education is coming to have a new meaning in the world. It is coming to mean a training in any or all of those things that the world needs, whether it be to know, to think, ‘to teach, or to do. With the advent of the new education, labor is becoming respectable, if it be good labor and directed to a worthy end, and the labor and the man will be judged by the quality of the product. Do you say that this is materializing ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCATION. Gu education? Then let it materialize. There is no longer to bea distinction between thinkers and workers. We are demand- ing that the thinkers act and that the workers think, and that is right. The schools are where the young receive their impres- sions of what the world is going to be like and of what is to be expected of them. More and more they are looked upon as places in which to get ready for the serious business of life. Jeer at the schools as we may and reproach the graduate with the list of self-made men, and that of valedictorians, who have never been heard from, the fact remains that in the highest technical work it is acknowledged that the graduates fresh from the schools are sought for their up-to-date information and advanced instruction. The day is passing when it is seriously asked whether after all a College of Agriculture is a dream, a theory, an illusion, or a fact. Sufficient material for careful and useful instruction along agricultural lines has already been collected and methods of instruction fairly well worked out, although the idea is less than a generation old. I am able to say that. IT am one of the older graduates of the earlist established Col- lege of Agriculture in America, and this will serve to show how new is this field of education. Two prominent facts have developed in recent years in the problem of agricultural education. One is that we are sadly lacking in knowledge of fundamental facts and essential principles, and that experimentation, original research to de- termine precisely where truth lies, must go hand in hand with instruction; that the teacher must be himself a student, and that both teacher and student must be experimenters. As the sum of human knowledge increases its need will be increasingly apparent, and its possession will lend a con- tinuously augmented advantage. In the days that are to come the knowledge of the past will not avail. Investigators must be alert to discover, and he who would succeed must be keen to learn. Therefore, should experimentation and in- ° struction go hand in hand in our schools, and because of rapidly rising standards all men must become learners. The second fact that has stood clearly out is that this sort of learning is expensive. It is laborious and costly in 78 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. time, apparatus and especial equipment. These things can not be learned from books, evolved from the inner consciousness, nor can they arise spontaneously from that general ability which is the conceit of ignorance. There is no royal toad to its possession. | Original research is too costly for private enterprise. It is too uncertain of results to be commercially profitable. In- struction is expensive of apparatus, and, at the best, of the student’s time. The best of schools with the best of equip- ment for advanced work are none too good, and this is be- coming better understood in the more progressive sections of our country. Illinois has not acted either generously or early in the matter of agricultural education. With a soil capable of marvelous yields of raw material she has not felt the need of special training. The position was natural, but persisted in is disastrous, and will place her by default among those states that are inferior by nature. Mlinois will never realize the full measure of her natural resources as an agricultural State until she educates her sons and daughters te avail themselves in full of the advantages they possess. Speaking definitely, how much should be done at the Uni- versity regarding this matter of instruction and experimenta- tion in agriculture? It is eminently fitting that this question receive careful consideration at this time because the proposi- tion of an agricultural building, a portion to be devoted to experiment and instruction along dairy lines, is before the General Assembly for action. Coming to Illinois froin a State that was the first to move in the matter of agricultural instruction, and as Dean of the College of Agriculture, and Director of the Experiment Sta- - tion, I should have been recreant to my high trust had I not very early, as early indeed as seemed compatible with due deliberation, called the attention of the Trustees, and of the people of the State, to the necessity for a larger conception of the position that ought to be taken by a great public uni- versity regarding instruction in the ruling industries of the people of the State. I should have been guilty of obtuse per- ception, or of gross neglect, had I not urged incessantly from the first for a stronger organization, and a larger teaching force that should compare favorably with those of our sister ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. 79 States and that should be compatible with our unprecedented agricultural interests. I should have been guilty of the gross- est professional negligence, and of treason to the State, had I not in season and out of season, at home and abroad, with organization and with individual, labored industriously to show the necessity for a building and equipment suited to the needs of agriculture, for a plant with which to work. Stand- ing before you, I am here to say that while I am in Illinois, I shall continue to labor till we get it. It is reasonable and necessary, and good work cannot be done without it. It is the cheapest way to train the rising ceneration, for every well-trained man is a nucleus for the dissemination of better knowledge among the people. Other states have moved ahead of us, and are drawing upon our * students. The Trustees have done much, how much there is not time to say, but the end is practically reached until the people will establish a plant in which technical instruction of our kind can be imparted. ; | Specifically what ought to be done at the university con- cerning dairy interests? JI hope to hear discussion on this matter, but am free to say that four great lines of work stand clearly before me as seeming to demand attention. They are, First, to do our share of the vast amount of experimental inquiry yet remaining before we shall learn the most economi- cal method of producing milk, and the most successful pro- cesses of manufacture of dairy products of high grade. Second, to teach to every student entering the College of Agriculture, and as many others as will come, the essentials reyarding milk production and its proper care bacteriolo- gically and otherwise to insure a perfect article for manufac- turing purposes. Added. to this I would that every student should know how to use the tester and the separator and understand the general principles of creaming and butter- making, with opportunity for further instruction by election, and I would place in his hands the best known modern appa- ratus. Third, I would have a piant in which those contem- plating the business of manufacturing can learn by thorough and experimental methods the best processes of manufacture of both butter and cheese to the end that standards and products may be improved; that is to say, I would have a dairy $0 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. school wherein specialists may learn the art of producing the best quality of dairy manufactures. All these will require special apparatus and suitable buildings. When will the State provide them? We are ask- ing for these now. How much behind our neighbors is Illi- nois willing to remain and why? It shall not be said that she remains behind because nobody reminded her of her neces- sities. She will not remain behind. I have faith in so great a State peopled from the best stock of the new world, and [ have courage. Fourth, and lastly, the organization representing dairy interests at the university ought to be strong and aggressive, alert to the well-being of those interests within our borders, willing and able to co-operate effectively with this body here in convention, always and everywhere for the good of dairys ing. This is not mere wordiness. I mean it. I have talked it at home, and I talk it to you because I feel it, and because I believe it is the only sound policy. Expensive? AlJl good things are costly. We have al- ready covered that ground. Whatever at any cost will in- crease by never so small a fraction the quantity or the quality, or the ettectiveness of the productive energies of a great people is cheaply won. If this be not sufficiently specific, I will cal] attention to a single instance. I know that every man here will agree with me that the Babcock test is worth more to the world in dollars than all that the Wisconsin Station and equipment, and all the other Stations, ever have cost or ever will cost. All that the government puts into both agricultural edu- cation and experimentation in all the States for a year is jess than the cost of one iron-clad. Let the energies of pro- duction at least keep pace with agents of destruction. This is not to draw comparison, because we need them both, but it is to show that what we are expending for public education and advancement of knowledge is not such an extravagant sum after all, and that it is an investment that returns a revenue. Violin Solo, Miss Neltnor. ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. 81 THE FARMER’S WIFE AS A PARTNER. MRS. VENA M. BEEDE, CHADWICK. Doubtless every nation owes a large share of its pros- perity to good household management. Certain it is, the power is in the hands of the home-maker—whether she be the wife of the millionaire or the man who works for one doliar per day to help ov hinder financially. The work of weman on the farm necessarially reaches farther than the home-making—she must belp earn the bread. When youthful farmer John and Elizabeth enter into that “till death do us part” partnership not only is it a part- rership of ordinary joys and sorrows of life, but a business partnership, only we do not usually think about it that way, but it is truth. Elizabeth must keep up one end of the line of farm work or John can not keep up the other. Unless your John is already the possessor of a farm home free from incumberance, which case is so rare that it scarcely belongs to the story—the real every-day story reads: “We began with nothing; but we were young.” Have you noticed that no difference how sagely we speak to young people of the wisdom of putting off the marriage day until there is ‘some provision for the future, “just as of old,” wisely or un- wisely, there will be Johns and Elizabeths begin life together while still in the verdancy of youth. Said a mother to me—so mournfully that congratulations over the new daughter were entirely out of order—“I tried to get James through the green age without getting married, but I couldn’t.” I think we need have no fears of these early partnerships, if only these Johns and Elizabeths possess strong, healthy bodies, clear minds, good habits, hands willing to work and brain ready to think—an abundance of hope, that blessed Special quality of youth, its best equipment for battle, and better than all, a love for each other so strong and deep that time with its wrecks strengthens and deepens. On the basis of usefulness in society, such take precedence over all the successful money manipulations of the world. is 82 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. “The richest of the commonwealth Are free, strong minds and hearts of health, And more to her than gold or grain The cunning hand, the cultured brain.” Upon the success of such depends the present and future prosperity of our nation; and any condition of society or government that tends to bind or lessen the chances for pros- perity to this class of citizens by other than natural causes, undermines the foundation of our free government. I will think over the people of the farming communities where { have lived and those of them who have heen finan- cially suecessful, and you may think over those of your acquaintance. I know we will agree that the success was due te mutual ability and helpfulness of farmers and their wives. The scales about balancing with the down weight in favor of the farmers’ wives. My mother’s work on the farm comes to my mind forcibly as an example of how woman is a business partner with her husband in farming. She and my father began life in the old. fashioned way, planning as they went. Besides doing or look- ing after the thousand and one things incident to a growing household, she managed the dairy, poultry and garden. The family table was supplied with the products of these and the surplus exchanged for groceries and clothing for the family. All indoor work was arranged to meet the needs of outdoor work. If my father wanted dinner earlier for some reason on wash day or any other day, it was ready. If there were men for extra work on the farm, as was often the case, she pre- pared wholesome food for them and beds for them to sleep on. All business matters were discussed. She seemed ready for every emergency, often without efficient help in the house. All this time she had the greater share, as mothers generally dc, in looking after the temporal and spiritual wants of a large family of children. She worked in this way, not because my father demanded it or asked it, or even expected it, for her welfare was ever at his heart, but because her aim was the same as his—they lived for a common purpose. It was their home, with its growing comforts, to be made secure. It was their children to be fed, clothed and educated; it was their old age that must be free from want, if possible; no interest of ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. 83 his, but was hers. She knew that year by year the fields must be prepared, sown, cultivated, harvested, and products sold te reach the desired result; so she planned accordingly, put- ting hand and head heartily into the work laid out to do, the same as my father did. My mother’s example is one of many |. that I think of. According to the account history gives of the first farm home, this seems to have been the divine intention—the man was placed in the garden to dress it and keep it, and the woman was to help him, only I do not believe Adam’s garden was so large that Eve needed to help as much as many of our American farmers’ wives do their husbands. In the rush for wealth characteristic of our nation, we un- dertake too much. To one unaccustomed to physical labor it is simply appalling the amount of work women do on the farms. Work is one of the farmer’s wife’s unlimited, undis- puted rights, and yet I do not know any happier class of women. Work is a safer extreme than‘idleness. “The honest, earnest man must stand and work, The woman also; otherwise she drops At once below the dignity of man Accepting serfdom. Free men freely work. Whoever fears God fears to set at ease.” We are told that hard work is the cause of the large per centage of insane women from farm homes. I believe it is not so much hard work as worry, injustice, too close applica- tion to every day duties without any outside interests to break the monotony of regular work, which troubles could be avoided in many instances. : A part of the business of husband and wife should be to aim to lessen labor as they can afford it. There is labor-saving machinery to be had for indoors and out. Employing help that board themselves is a farm luxury. Many farmers do this. Good help in the house is a greater luxury. Own a good family horse. Live on plain, wholesome food. These are some of the comforts of farm life that are a hundred per cent. better than their money value deposited in banks. I do not know that there is any question about farmers’ wives helping to earn the farm income. 84 ILLINGCIS STATE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. In a business way Farmer John finds it the cheapest way as well as the best to look up a thrifty Elizabeth to do the work, particularly in these days of “restored confidence.” Asarule the farmer’s wife is no spendthrift—not so much so as her husband. She has her likings, like other women, but fine linens, laces, dishes and house furnishings are not usually purchased until she can honestly pay for them. Incidentally, I want to tell that in our dealings with the girls we employ in a special industry on our farm, we have found that almost invariably they keep correct_accounts and give good measure. I am also told by merchants that working girls seldom abuse their credit, which speaks well for future business women. Our farmers’ wives boast of good habits. Personally i am not acquainted with a farmer’s wife of American birth who will touch a drop of intoxicating drink as a beverage, let alone go to a saloon, and only a few of foreign birth. Sorry I know many of their husbands that do. I know only one woman who uses tobacco. She is a young woman of Ameri- can birth and smokes a cob pipe. Ido know more than one man who does not use it. The farmer’s wife finds no time to patronize the store boxes and street corners; nor is she giving to treating and tipping, all of which means thousands of dollars saved where men worse than waste it. Now tell me why in the name of common honesty, there should be any question about the right of the farmer’s wife to have a share of the common earnings for herself, or a say in how they Shall be spent. Law and custom say these common earnings are the husband’s: but by that broad, unwritten law of right, they are not all his any more than all hers. The hard work- ing farmer’s wife should be the last woman on earth who should beg for money of her husband for the necessaries of life. It would seem strange to hear a hard working farmer beg of his wife for money to buy a pair of new overalls, a new pitchfork or a modern plow; but it would be as just as the wife begging for money for a new dress, a new wash- board or an improved wringer. Sometimes I think that farmers’ wives are themselves to blame for not placing more value upon their labor. Tears are said to be the natural solace of women, and I would not stay them if I could, but with these tears over thoughtless | ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. 85 injustices, I would reason that men could not get along with- out us on the farm any more than we could without them. Then talk it and act it; not fight it, on the theory that men can be educated as well as women. History does not record that Eve did not help Adam spend the garden proceeds. _ Ido not think there is so much question about money rights of women as even twenty years ago. The world moves on. At one of our Farmers’ Institutes last year I was fully convinced we are living in a new era for men and women. A woman who is a business success at poultry raising gave a paper on her line of work. One thing she said, and the best of it all is, when I go to town I don’t have to ask my husband for money. I have my own money to spend. This remark led to a talk by the farmers that would convince the pioneer woman suffragists that the battle was more than half won. A farmer who had been denied his wife’s help for many years because she was an invalid, said farmers did not realize how much of their success was due to the help of their wives. This sentiment was echoed by another, who added that on his farra all the proceeds of the dairy and poultry belonged to the women folks. Another said he and wife used the same pocket- book and it worked well, and another that he found it profit- able to let his wife handle the pocket-book. So it went on— a simple, honest recognition of the financial help of their wives. Perhaps most men would laugh to know that these few remarks touched the heart-strings of some of the women present, but “he jests at scars who never felt a wound.” Just how farmers and wives can adjust money matters between them can only be arranged by themselves; no two families have the same needs or desires; but a good understanding to start with, recognizing the rights of both husband and wife, will avoid much friction. on general principles I think that we do not let our patrons ino the business enough. Mr. Artman: TI would like to ask you, if the butter is sold and brings a premium, should the patron know that? For instance, if you had a co-operative creamery and you ship your butter to a certain market, and it had an outlet, which en- abled it to bring a premium, should the patrons know about that? Mr. Johnson: No, sir; because the neighboring factory would investigate the factory and find out where that butter went and they would step in and try to beat him. When the patron gets his dividend he will know that that butter got the premium, because they will participate in it. Mr. Judd: Dont you think that the creamery managers ought to insist on a regular system of handling the milk at the farm to insure a good product? Mr. Johnson: I do, most certainly. In theory that is a very good thing; in practice, it is very hard to carry out. If ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. 135 you had from four to six hundred patrons, as I have had, sometimes, it is quite an urdertaking. Mr. Judd: But don’t it pay in the end to keep a man whose business it is to visit these farms and see that things are carried on right, and if they are not right, that they are corrected? Mr. Johnson: There comes in another difficult task. That man goes to your barn, looks at your cow stable, looks at your strainer, and tells you, ‘Here, Judd, that won’t do; you must take better care of your milk.” You say to him, “Mr. Smith has a factory right over there. Get right out of this barn, if you don’t want that milk; Mr. Smith will take it.” Mr. Judd: Mr. Smith ought to have a man doing the Same business. Mr. Johnson: But Mr. Smith would not have. Mr. Judd: But wouldn’t it pay if all factory men would insist on having an inspector to visit each one of their patrons, make it part of the creamery management? Mr. Johnson: I understand that the condensing factories do this, and they succeed, because they are paying enough more so that they can abuse the patron and the patron won’t kick. Now, you may turn around and say, that the factory should be in that same position. That is impossible. I don’t want anybody to misinterpret this, but, as soon as a man succeeds in working up a dairy interest, if he will go and buy cows and trust the farmers for cows and build a factory, and put four or five thousand dollars into it—I won’t say in every case—but there are too many cases where some patron thinks that if he happens to build a new house he is getting too rich, and if they club together and ride over in an adjoining neigh- borhood and start another factory, and that knocks the man out. Competition is all right, but it does prevent factories carrying out their ideas. Mr. Judd: Do you think that this system, where they insist on every man who takes milk to a creamery taking out at least one share for each cow that he has, is a success or not? Mr. Johnson: I couldn’t answer that. In theory it is all right, but I know humanity well enough to know that it might run for a year or two, but I question whether it will 136 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. last a great while. I know the ability of the average man to kick. Mr. Chapman: Is not this a good time to make it known that Mr. Monrad is a United States officer, and I want also to suggest, wouldn’t it be u good time to have a State officer appointed to help fix up this difficulty between the creamery man and the patron? ue Mr. Monrad: JI think it would be a preity hard thing to stand between Mr. Johnson’s kick and the patron’s kick, but Tam glad to say what some creamery men here may not know, that the National Government has a dairy division of the Agricultural Department, and I have been appointed for six months as field agent, as it is called, and any creamery that wants to have a meeting of their patrons and discuss matters, or any patrons who want to have a meeting and discuss matters with the creamery men, can call on me to attend such a meeeting and try and help them out. Mr. Johnson: Which side are you on? Mr. Monrad: Iam on the right side. All it will cost you is my expenses while | am away from home. The Chairman: If no one else wants to talk, I will do a little talking myself. I think there is a great deal that might be done by the creamery men in the line of educating their patrons. There are many things that the patrons do not fully understand; there arc comparatively few, I believe, who realize the susceptibility of milk to absorb odors from sur- roundings. I have had milk that I could detect the odors of the hog pen in and we have traced down and found it con- tracted that odor from being set in an open vat over night to cool near an open window where the air passed in from. the hog yard. This was in the Dairy School, and we were able to de- tect that odor and tell just what it was. Not simply to say that it was bad, but able to tell what it was. These things show the necessity of great care and also show how little we know. This experience was a great surprise to me, because I did not realize previous to that that there was so much danger along that line, and I am sure that there is danger also from the animal being in unsanitary conditions: or surroundings. While I do not know that I could bring proof that would stand ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. 137 in court, I think I can bring proof that will satisfy any reason- able person that unclean surroundings injure the milk. I know some will take the position that the milk takes it in during the process of miiking and that it does not come through the animal, but I remember a case of which old Dr. Taft told me years ago, where the milk of a herd became bad and they traced it down and found the carcass of a dead animal in the pasture, and the carcass was removed and the milk was afterwards all right. Of course in that case the milk could not have absorbed it, for the reason that the cows were not milked within eighty or a hundred rods of where the carcass was. It was the cow herself that was exposed to it. There are many things along this line to be learned, and if a person wants to satisfy himself let him set the milk in an open vessel where it will be exposed to undesirable surround- ings and you can soon convince yourself on that point. Set it in the vegetable cellar or out by the hog pen, or any place where there is a strong odor, and then take and warm up that milk to 110 or 115 degrees, so that there is a vapor passes from it and. you can get it by the nose, and tell where that milk has been exposed. Our patrons do need to be taught along this line. There are many of them who really believe they are doing all right, the best they know how, and there are many more who fail to do as well as they know how to do. Of course, there are two sides to this question. There is the creamery man’s side and there is the patron’s side, and there are rights on both sides. We have heard from some of the ereamery men. I hope the patrons will take up the subject, and eventually we will get closer together, make a stronger team, accomplish better results. We would certainly be able to make a higher grade of butter, and we must do that. Six years ago, Dr. Bernstein, the inventor of the DeLaval sep- arator, said to me, “When you people learn to make as fine goods in the United States as we do in Sweden, you are going to be able to throw us clean out of the English market.” If he had thrown a bombshell in front of me I could not have been more surprised. I asked him, “What is the lowest price you get for your butter in the English market.” This was in the month of June. He says, “Twenty-five cents.” Our Elgin market at that very time, I think, was eighteen or nineteen 138 ILLINOIS STA'TE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. cents. Now, if we can get clear up to the front, I believe we can get that market; we have certainly got a field to work in, and we must not sit down with the idea that we as cream- ery men and butter-makers have reached perfection. For that reason I do not like these one hundred scores; they are dan- gerous. AS soon as we get the idea that we have reached perfection some fellow is going past us, because when we get into that condition we fail to progress, and when we come to a standstill, it is a very short time before somebody goes past us. We must progress, and this is one of the lines in which we can do it, by working with our patrons to bring us a better quality of milk, and then we can make a higher grade of butter and get a better price for it. Mr. Soverhill: I think sometimes the charge is laid on the patron where it should be on the creamery man. Mr. Johnson: I want to make one suggestion to people who bring milk to factories. If I were you I would carefully observe what my milk tested; then I would know the yield, keep track of the average test and of the average yield of milk and of butter. I would know the price of the butter, and then you can come very near telling whether your factory is using vou right or not. When you take pains to investigate those four points, then you can go to the manager of the factory, without embarrassment, and ask questions; if those things are not put on your statement, you have a right to go and ask for them, and when you have found those things out, you will know whether the proprietor of that factory that you patronize is doing as well as the other fellows do. Mr. Post: Iam not now a patron of a creamery, but I have patronized Mr. Gurler’s factory for a good many years, and I want to speak of the dissatisfaction that arises on the part of patrons. My surroundings. at present are such that I get the views and the sentiments and wishes of patrons of creameries, because my business is mostly bottoming chairs, and I have ample opportunity to hear the views of patrons in my own locality and in neighboring localities. The great dissatisfaction arising on the part of patrons is simply this: The inside workings of the creameries are not known to the patrons. As this gentleman remarks, if three or four points could be thoroughly understood on the part of the patrons, TLILINOIS STATH DIAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. 133 I think there would be more harmony and a greater degree of satisfaction on their part. I know that was my case when [ was farming and was drawing my milk to Mr. Gurler’s fac- tory, there were many things that I did not understand, and I had no means of finding out about the workings of the factory. Let us go a little farther. Through the summer seasons some of our restaurant men have been in the habit of going to our factory and getting two, three or four quarts of cream at a time, and repeating that twice or three times in the course of a week. Some of the inhabitants of the village go there and get their butter; many of them go there to get their milk for their family consumption. Now, there is nothing that appears upon the bill to show that there is any account made of this whatever. Very likely there is an account. Ido not wish to charge our young man there with doing anything that is not right or being dishonest, because I believe he is an honest man, but we have nothing to show upon the face of those bil!s that there is any record whatever made of those things. Now, any man that is interested in a transaction wants to know whether the thing is running smoothly or not, and unless he can know these things, he thinks, as the saying is, “there is a nigger in the fence some- where.” I was talking some time ago with Mr. Lane; he has been a patron at Mr. Gurler’s factory ever since it was started. He is an able farmer, a shrewd, close thinker and reader, and he said to me ,“I know nothing about this trans- action whatever. I think the farmers are numbskulls to let this thing go on, and not understand it any better than they do,” and I think so myself. The Chairman: You are aware, are you not, that I am not interested in that creamery any more. I want to be put right on that. I have no interest there at the present time. Mr. Johnson: J am glad to hear that question brought up, though there are very few of my patrons present. This Mr. Lane is a stranger to me, but I think his position is en- tirely wrong. It would require another clerk to do the work beyond what any creamery man could do, and, of course, no creamery man could afford that. I have often told my patrons, “Tf you wish it, I will print the ten commandments on every statement, so that you can read them at the end of the month; 140 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. anything that you want.” But as to putting the whole thing on a statement, it would be impossible. But now let me ask. Did Mr. Lane, or any of these gentlemen, ever go to Mr. Gurler, or the proprietor of that factory, and say, “Will you kindly show me on your books where the proceeds of that milk - or the proceeds of that cream that the restaurant man got, went to, how it is accounted for?—then if Mr. Gurler or Mr. Smith, of whoever it was, could not show you on his books, they should be arrested for swindling. It is im- possible to put all those things on any statement to reach every patron, but it is possible for every patron to go to the office and find out those things and every honest creamery man will be glad to turn to the page where those things are noted. I do not know of a single factoryman among my acquaintance that I think is so dishonest that he would not show those books. If he won’t show them, then and not till then, you have a good excuse for going to the other factory. Mr. Carlson: I have about eighty patrons at one of my factories right through the year. At that factory I live in the factory myself. I keep all the books there and have everything to say. About a year or two ago one of my — patrons came to me one afternoon and begun to ask me some questions about the yield and the test and one thing and another, and he had the appearance of not being satisfied. I asked him to come down to the factory. I met him out in the field. “Oh, no; he didn’t want to come to the factory; he wanted me to explain it all to him right there. Well, I simply would not talk with him at all. I told him if he came down to the factory I would talk with him, so at last he went. I took him down to the factory and showed him. He was a man that was educated; could read, add, substract, do any of the figuring, and I kept my books in a shape that shows it up in as brief a method as possible. I have the names of the people that my butter is sold to on one page. I showed what butter I have used, what milk I have used myself, and how much it brings. JI add up my column of butter and take out my pay for making it up. The balance of the money that the product has brought is the farmer’s, and that is all on one page, and it is all plain. Then in another book I have the test. I take a one-third sized sample each morning and put it into bottles, and every third day I test. Then at the end ILLINOIS STATH DARYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. 141 of the month I make the average of it. In another column on this book, all right before their face and eyes, is the milk and the money that each one has. If he has had any butter or any cash, that is placed right in the same column, and over here, the same side of the book, is his butter yield, and there his test. It foots up and shows whether the patrons, all of them together, have had what the other book shows that the product brought. Now, here is the statement which I give my patrons. I have left out the oil test, I put on the butter yield. I found it hard to get into the farmers’ heads that there was any difference between the butter fat and the butter yield, the yield of the churn, and the consequence was that from the test they got the idea it was low, so I said to them, “I will change my base of figuring and put on the butter yield only.” I also put on my average yield and the average price at the bottom. Well, this fellow, after he could see my books, and see how much butter there was made there and what it brought and what I had taken out for making it and all those things, that was the end of him forever more. He is my patron today and will be as long as I run there, and he is an influential man amongst the rest of them, but if [ could not have persuaded him to come and look at my books; if we had settled this matter off away from the factory, I could not have done anything with him. Invariably those people who are dissatisfied are of that class that will not come and investigate a man’s books, and in many cases no matter how simple it is, they cannot understand it anyway, and what are you going to do in that case? There are a few farmers who have asked me to add to my report two more items which I write on their statements every menth; that is the average oil test of the factory and his own individual oil test. Mr. Johnson: I wish that it could be understood and agreed that all factory men would pay on a certain basis; that is, figuring so much per hundred of milk, or so much for so many pounds of butter or butter fat. It makes a great deal of confusion otherwise. A patron came to me not long since and says, “What is the matter, the other factory paid three or four cents a pound more than you did one month?” I said that can’t be a fact. He said, “I know it is so.” He was a 142 ILLINOIS STA'TE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. large man, and I said no more, but I accidentally found out that they were paying such and such a price for butter fat. Of course, that would make the price per pound three or four cents more. Now, I could not explain it to that man, al- though I have talked to him ten or fifteen minutes at a time. There is another way of reasoning that patrons have. You may think a man can’t have very much sense to reason that way, but this thing occurred only last week. I was sent for to go to one of my factories because there was a little trouble. I went over and found the man and asked what was the matter. “Well, [ wasn’t satisfied with your dividend.” “What is the matter with it?” “I didn’t get my full amount of milk.” Tasked him, ‘Were not the weights called off every time?” Yes, I remember that; but then my check amounted to $50 in November, when I was taking to another factory, and in December it only amounted to $35, therefore, there is something wrong.” You may think that is very foolish, but there are hundreds of men who will reason exactly in that way, and they are always the kind of men that you can’t get out to our meetings. hey won’t come. Mr. McCormick: J am a farmer here and a member of — the party that seems to be the under-dog in this fight, and I desire to express my satisfaction at the great number of people here. It evinces an interest in this industry, but the farmer element has not been heard from. It seems to me that the great difficulty in bringing the patron and the factory man together is discovered to us by the leader of this discussion. He goes to this man’s farm and insists upon a certain sort of management, which is necessary to produce good milk and good goods, and the man orders him out. “Ah,” he says, “this won’t do, because it will lessen the number of pounds of milk and lessen my dividend; the struggle is too severe here and I cannot do it, so that factory men are making the desire for more hundreds pounds of milk to manufacture paramount to everything else. Now, the desire is mutual, but until the factory men insist that the farmer shall produce good goods, the farmers who are under the present manage- ment of affairs, struggling for existence, are going to find their bread and butter along the easiest lines, and take as little time as they possibly can to get that milk to the factory. * ILLINCIS STATE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. 143 Now, if the milk manufacturer would insist upon it that the product should be better, the results would be better and the dairy interests of this country would progress. As it is, Can- ada will go into the Kingdom and the United States will re- main outside so far as the British markets are concerned. Mr. Gilbert: You spoke about the odor that could be detected by warming up the milk. Now, why not warm it up more and be sure and throw it all off, if by warming it up it throws off a certain per cent.? Mr. Gurler: Wouldun’t it be better to go back to the other end and not let it contract that odor? Mr. Gilbert: I know, but when you have that odor. Mr. Gurler: That is right; but it is all wrong to go to work to teach a man how to overcome things that he should not have committed in the first place. I think it is better to go back down that line and find out where the man has done wrong, and show him how not to do so any more. Then, again, you may do all you are a mind to after milk has been contaminated in that way, and you never can make a product as good as if it had not been contaminated. We can help it a little, but that is just what is wrong with it, that lack of back bone to stand up to things. Too many of us are afraid of this competition to do as we ought to do, for fear the patrons will go off to the cther fellow. You are in the same boat, I will warrant. Mr. Gilbert: I know it. RECEIVING MILK AT THE WEIGH CAN. R. G. WELFORD, RED BUD. (Read by E. Sudendorf). In. considering this subject, on which I have been re- quested to read a paper at this meeting, I am led to say from a practical creamery man’s point of view, that there are several qualifications that are requisite to become proficient at the weigh can. 144 ILLINOIS STA'TE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. First, and not least, a man must be neat in his appear- ~ ance. Second-—Quick of perception. Third—A good judge of human nature. Fourth—Gentlemanly. Fifth—Have a good palate and a quick sense of smell and strictly honest. It is a fact well-known by all expert cheese and butter- makers that good and bad results commence at the weigh can. When a man is neat in his appearance he sets a good example to his patrons, so when he tells any patrons that their cans are not in proper condition, they believe him, and more especially when his weigh can shines and his receiving room or stand is sweet and clean. If he is quick of perception he will be able to notice any defect in patrons cans, clean on the outside and more so on the inside, seams in cans and covers. If he is a good judge of human nature he readily knows just how to handle his different patrons, as this is a good point to aid him in getting good milk and in looking for poor milk, when he may have had some trouble with his cheese or butter. When he is gentlemanly, he commands respect fra all his patrons, and, in fact, from all with whom he comes in con- tact with, more especially his employer. He should especially have a good palate and in Biiee milk never swallow a particle. He will find this greatly to his benefit when sampling a great number of cans of milk, and more especially if the milk should be for city trade. He should have a good smeller and be able to detect any improper odor immediately on removing the can cover. In regard to honesty, he should be honest in nature and in all his dealings, weigh the milk as correct as the scales, and never try to make a large yield of cheese or butter at the weigh can. Let the proper management of the separators or perfect manipulation of the curd do all that. He should inspire his patrons with his;confidence and have a good set of rules, as simple as possible and require every patron to live up to them. ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. 145 Treat patrons that have a small amount of milk the same as those that have large amounts. We should never accept any present (such as apples, etc.), ‘or any favors, when in his opinion a return favor is expected at the weigh can, for if he does he is pretty sure sooner or later to get some off milk. A man at the weigh can must remember that milk is very sensitive and perishable, very susceptible to changes of weather. Dirty milk is dangerous as well as disgusting and milk having an unnatural appearance should be rejected, and if he is not entirely satisfied he should set it to one side for future references. He should also be able to teach every patron how to prop- erly care for their milk and the different effect the different kinds of feed have on milk, and when the milk is not good he should be able to explain the reason why and be able to tell just how the milk can be made good. SOME LITTLE THINGS IN MILK TESTING. PROF. E. H. FARRINGTON, MADISON, WIS. The subject which has been assigned to me is one that interests a constantly increasing number of the inhabitants. of the globe every year. Only six years ago the analysis of milk was almost entirely confined to the chemists laboratories, but at the present time, thousands of people, who possibly would not have a clear understanding of the expression “milk analysis,” not only comprehend what is meant by “milk test- ing,” but can make the test for you, and from their own experience in testing milk find it an interesting subject of conversation, as well as discussion. At nearly every meet- ing of cow owners or dealers in milk and its products, some of the persons will be seen comparing notes with each other on their own practices:in this work. Of the 205 students connected with the agricultural de- partment of the University of Wisconsin during the present winter, only one has been reported as having never heard —10 146 ILLINOIS STATH DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. of the Babcock milk test before coming to Madison. Other institutions could doubtless report the same familiarity with the subject among their students. A thorough course in milk testing is generally considered an important part of the instruction now given at all dairy schools, as well as in the agricultural department of all Ameri- can Universities. At the Wisconsin Dairy School, about one-third of the students’ instruction is devoted to milk testing or laboratory work, of which this subject is the principle feature. It con- sists not only of the twenty-four lectures given by Dr. Bab- cock, the inventor of the process, but about six hours each week of actual work in the milk testing laboratory. The ‘student’s work begins with all the apparatus, acid, etc., in’ as nearly a perfect condition as we can supply them. After they have become acquainted with the eight different testers, which we have this winter, and are sufficiently familiar with the operations to become confident that they can make accur- ate tests when everything works right, they are given a drill in the various conditions, which are found to give inaccurate tests, with instructions regarding the best way of overcoming milk testing difficulties. — | In this department of the Dairy School they are also taught how to use the lactometer in connection with the milk test, and by its use to determine the total solid substances in “milk, and to detect the adulteration of milk which has been either skimmed or watered. This, together with the instruc- tion in testing the acidity of milk and cream, occupies, as previously stated, about one-third of the dairy student’s time at the Wisconsin Dairy School. The remaining two-thirds of the instruction is given in practical and theoretical butter and cheese making. SAMPLING MILK FOR TESTING. The necessity of thoroughly and properly mixing a sample of milk before testing it is clearly demonstrated by comparing the test of the top and bcttom of a quantity of milk about ten inches in depth that has stood quietly for about fifteen minutes. If a ten quart pail is filled with milk and allowed to stand undisturbed for about one-quarter of an hour, it will FARRINGTON. Jal PROF. E ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. 149 be found that tests of the top layer of this milk will be per. ceptibly higher than those made of the last inch of milk left in the pail after the bulk of it his been poured out. Negleet of a thorough mixing of the sample before test- ing, as well as failing-to remember that some of the fat globules will rise to the surface very quickly, is the cause of many surprises in milk testing. Any one familiar with milk will also understand the necessity of pouring it from one vessel to another in order to evenly mix the fat globules throughout the whole sample. If milk is stirred with a dipper or put into a covered vessel and shaken, for the purpose of evenly mixing the fat, it very often happens that some of the fat is separated by this churning process, and an accurate test of such milk is impossible, as any amount of pouring will fail to evenly distribute this churned fat throughout the milk. This property of the fat, to separate by agitation, should always be remembered by persons sending samples of milk by mail or express to be tested at some other place. We have received many such samples and almost always find a lump of butter floating on its surface when the samples arrives. If the test of such a churned sample is very important, and another one cannot be obtained, this lump of butter can sometimes be dissolved and mixed with the milk by adding a teaspoonful of ether to the milk; then by corking the bottle and shaking it until the butter dissolves in the ether, this ether solution of the fat will mix fairly well with the milk, and it will probably represent more nearly the original mix- ture of the fat in the milk than the churned sample with a lump of butter floating on its surface. The dilution of the milk by the ether introduces an error in the testing, and only the smallest quantity of ether necessary to dissolve the lump of fat should be used. All this trouble of churning samples in bottles could be avoided if sender would fill the bottle full of milk. The agita- tion by transportation will not churn out the fat when the bottle is full. This simple precaution of completely filling a bottle when milk is sent to other parties for testing, will pre- vent its churning and save many a disappointment to the sender. 150 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. A similar churning »f the milk sometimes occurs in the cans in which milk is delivered to a factory. This is especially - true when the milk is frum fresh cows. If such milk is poured into the factory weighing can, the butter granules rise to the surface and it is impossible to fairly include them in the sample taken for testing. ‘These butter granules are generally caught by the strainer and so lost to both the patron and the factory. This loss can be prevented by sending the milk to the factory in cans that are completely filled so that there is not sufficient agitation of the milk to churn it during trans- portation to the factory. METHODS CF SAMPLING MILK. The method of taking a sample of milk from the weigh- ing can, at cheese factories or creameries, is something that has received considerable comment since the practice became general. The milk thief cr similar tube which takes a small portion of the milk through its entire depth, is a method of sampling whose fairness is comprehended by nearly every one. Many samples of the patrons’ milk are taken at butter or cheese factories by using a small tin dipper. The milk brought by each patron is poured into the factory weigh can, after weighing it the factory operator fills a one-ounce dipper with the milk before there can be any perceptible separation of the cream. The dipperful of milk is then poured into the bottle or jar containing the composite samples of that patron’s milk. This method of taking samples is considered suffi- ciently accurate because of the thorough mixing which the milk receives when it is poured into the weigh can and the immediate dipping of the sample from this mixture before there can be any change in it. The general use of this way ‘of sampling milk is a good guaranteee of its fairness, and that it is satisfactory to all parties interested in it. Composite samples that are composed of small quantities of milk contributed to it daily for a week or more, are often troublesome to mix thoroughly when it is desired to test them. The usua! difficulty with such samples is the stick of the cream to the sides of the sample jar. When the cream ad- heres to the sides of the jar above the milk it soon becomes dry, and in some cases it is nearly impossible to evenly dis- IULINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. 151 tribute this dried cream with the sample so as to make it a fair representative of the patron’s milk. All this trouble can be avoided if the persons taking the samples will use a little care each day in handling the composite sample jars. Every time a new portion of milk is added to it, the jar should be given a horizontal, rotary motion. This will mix the milk already therein and rinse off the cream that sticks to the sides of the jar. It also prevents the surface of the milk from becoming covered with a partially dried layer of leathery cream. Composite samples having patches of dried cream on the inside of the jar are the result of inexcusable carelessness or ignorance on the part of the operator, who does not take ad- vantage of this simple way of preventing it. The cream which rises on composite samples each day can be evenly mixed again with the milk, so that it will fairly represent the different lots contributed to it for a week or more, if a little careful attention is given to the daily handling of them. THSTING SOUR MILK. Samples of sour milk can often be satisfactorily tested by adding to them a very small quantity of powdered alkali. This will neutralize the acid of the sour milk and dissolve the’ coagulated curd so that the milk becomes thin again and can be drawn into the milk measuring pipette. The complete action cf the alkali on sour milk requires a little time, and the operator should not try to hasten mat- ters by adding too much alkali. An excess of alkali will cause a violent action of the sulphuric acid on the milk to which the acid is added that the mixture will often spurt out of the neck of the test bottle when it is shaken for the pur- pose of mixing the milk and acid in the test bottle. Satisfactory tests of sour,milk can only be made by using a very small amount of the alkali and allowing the milk to stand some time with frequent stirring until the curd is all dissolved and the thick, sour milk becomes thin. Such milk may become dark colored by the action of the alkali, but this color will not interfere with the accuracy of the test. The most important thing to be remembered in sampling milk is, the fact that the fat has a tendency to rise to the 162 ILLINOIS STATH DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. top, and that a fair sampie is one in which the fat is evenly distributed throughout the whole sample. It should also be remembered that in mixing a sample of milk for testing, the fat has a tendency to separate or to be churned out by any violent agitation during its mixing. SOME MILK-TESTING DIFFICULTIES. As perviously stated, the dairy student often finds that although he may have tested milk at factories for some time, he has not detected the cause of certain difficulties that he may have met within his work. A little investigation in milk- testing will often show that, as in other departments of science, there is always a cause for an effect. A correct graduation of the neck of the test bottle in which the fat is measured, and the exact measuring of the milk with a pipette of proper capacity are two of the funda- mental principles of accurate milk-testing. The necessity of these two standards being exact is so obvious that their dis- cussion is superfluous. These points should be forgotten, how- ever, in case there is a disagreement in the results obtained by two operators. ; Assuming that the glassware has been correctly made, the next point worthy of inspection is its cleanliness. The film of grease that clings to glassware becomes most apparent in test- ing samples of very thin skim milk. Before testing a sample of skim milk it is often instructive to make a complete test of a sample of clean water. The operator often finds that a few drops of fat will collect in the neck of ,the bottle and that this is sometimes enough to condemn a separator, al- though the water which has been tested has not been near a separator. The natural and proper inference for such a test is, that either the pipette or the test bottle had not been thoroughly cleaned of every trace of fat before they were used. The unseen fat that clings to glassware is generally not sufficient to be noticed in the results obtained by testing dif- ferent samples of whole milk, but in skim milk testing it plays quite an important part. Boiling hot water will gen- erally clean the grease from glassware for a while, but all ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION 153 test bottles should be given an occasional bath in some alkali or grease solvent solution. Persons who desire to make accurate tests wil find it profitable to provide themselves with a small copper tank, which can be filled with some weak alkaline solution in which the test bottles can be put to soak after they have been cleaned with hot water, leaving them completely covered with this liquid until they are to be used another time. This liquid should be warmed, and if the tank is pro- vided with a small faucet at the bottom the liquid can be drawn off without the trouble of fishing for them in the tank. The writer has been able to clean test bottles in a very satis- factory manner by adding about a tablespoonful of ‘“‘savogran” to about two gallons of water and then soaking the fest bottles in this hot solution. Sal soda, gold dust or Lewis lye are about as efficient for this purpose as “savogran,”’ but the cleansing properties of any of these substances are increased by warming the liquid. It is probably unnecessary to state that the test bottles should be rinsed with hot water after they are taken from this bath and before they are used for testing milk. The black stains that sometimes stick to the inside of tést bottles that have been used for some time can often be removed with a little muriatic acid. In our daily tests of separators the student takes three samples, one of whole milk, cream and skim milk. One pipette is generally used for measuring each of,these samples into the test bottles. It sometimes happens that a very rich skim milk test is reported because the whole milk or cream is measured into the test bottles before the skim milk is measured out. cream is very thin in butter fat; there is lots of milk in it and it would be very difficult, indeed, to churn it at a low tem- perature; it would take an immense amount of churning. I have Jersey cows and it would be very difficult to gather the butter, even after the granules have formed. Mr. Brown: Is it possible to get a distribution of salt through butter working it immediately into a jar, as possible as it would be if you would let it stand until that salt has dissolved and then work it again? Mr. Hostetter: You would have to use more salt if you worked it the second time. I at one time used to work my butter twice, slightly when it came out of the churn and then stand it in the refrigerator and work in a few hours again. But you are apt to work out more salt in that way, and the first working should be only just enough so as to get the salt in; you would generally have to add a little more at the second ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. 217 working, or else you would have so much at the first working that it would injure the grain. Prof, Farrington: What does your buttermilk test ? Mr. Hostetter: About two-tenths of one per cent. Mr. West: What is your mode of getting your cream? Mr. Hostetter: I have the Cooley cans. As soon as a ten-gallon can of milk is milked it is carried over to the dairy house and put in ice cold water; not water fresh from the well, but water with ice in it. | Mr. West: You like that better than a separator? Mr. Hostetter: I have never tried a separator. Mr. Post: I would like to submit a proposition. I have a cow supposed to be a grade Jersey, and the conditions re- sorted to to raise the cream are entirely different from what has been represented in the paper. I understand Mr. Hos- tetter to say that by his system of emersing his milk in cold water that twenty-four hours is sufficient time to raise all the cream. This cow that I am describing, her milk will stand many times thirty-six hours; then I skim it, and, if the weather is cool, I skim a second time, twenty-four hours later, and the second skimming will be much thicker than the first and the © milk seems to be of a fair grade, a superior grade of skim milk; it doesn’t possess that blue cast that milk does many times where the cream is all taken off. Now, what do you suppose brings about this state of things? Mr. Hostetter: I know very little about the workings of the milk from an individual cow. My milk, you understand, is from a herd of cows, mixed milk, and it would be more uni- form than the milk from one cow. The Chairman: How is this milk set for raising the cream? Mr. Post: In pans, sometimes in cold water. I have set milk from other cows in the same way, and twenty-four hours is all right, but this cow seems to require a long time to get the entire amount of cream to raise. Mr. Hostetter: TBUIMON uuor ° ° ° eocee 19j3usdIeO ‘g ‘YW ee cece sone eoce aleyeqd see ere ee sees cee eee © oe te wee eee IapTIny |g 5 ee ee ee ee ee eee e cece eee pavyory “(p ‘H eceee coer see cece cen cee ‘qe ed eect se ee ee ee ce ee Co ee ee oe es Door pre) puals) ‘gg “Ty ee ec ee ececee oo UeU OR “aA oW e2ccesee «ee ee er oe e ccee OD seem er ce ee ec eee et tees weer eee se ones weet sees set eee ef esee peee ese “To TOISN YY a neden a | wpeeee sees cee eeeee sees eee mows A ee ceesess Ce ee oe ee oe ee ee oo Jo[suy A “MA eoeerssee ee ee et ose es “T[l1OA VY ‘A ‘A eo eece eee e etree eee co ve oe er qieysed e eee coe ee eee eose sees coe es ee ee royany 25 | 29) seee 2 eee wee een er es cee e UOSTON a see esses es ee ° wecescee ESOT AG (| ee ee ss et oo ee cece --"9*"TOG ® XOOTIAL a "aT eeeece eee eee . ""XOO[TAL | "ay eco oeeee eee ce ee oe fC toe te we ‘UePLV ce eee ce oe oe oo oe "Auvdwo0p ALOWIBOID UdsPLV . eee seer ce oe eee SUIMLO| A “M “TO MA Co i or e eco re "QTR yoq eosoe C2 ee es eeee' eee ‘sulydoH Y Lep109 ee ee ceee oes sass iO IULOYAN me | 26 ° erece coe e eeceeoses ‘AQT POUL eee ps eees cease ese ee ee eo “surTydoy ‘A “A eece eee eoeoees eo tees Uvogsey ‘A eoeess ce era Pe oee eres teow Adj youl eee eeeee eer cace ee “sulydoy ‘H ‘H eevee ee Ce -* cee eee os coer sess SIO AT ‘oO eocee e@ e200 cece SIE EET NOLO Sf OS Ee Oe ee ae es SOOM a ‘Vv ecco ec eet cee “ee e9"*SQ]OIUNYY poi @ oper ceecoee ee ee ecco esn ees * e1loIny ee eee eee ecose ‘ALOWBIA BO aovyRd ceo e eeee pislotetexsiiai eree ese jTjeng “yy ‘HH e282 e ceeee 28 eee Fe eo eee eee se TOVOT A seers eeeorv0e ae 088 eoeeee *KOYOry ial Al eos ser coerce ° Sees. STAN Oy ‘TAL “TAL 224 DAIRY BUTTER SCORES. ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. STANDARD. < = oS oo —_ ct fe) 5 5 & eS = : : p <4 3 Name. Address. : c : : © ; : ~ |: 0 5 & : a el . . . (qo) . 50 | 25 | 10 | 10 | 5 | 100 Mrs. 8. H. Woods......... poe BA Ace Ee 45 25 10 | 10 5 95 SHise MO Wain inaeeccmanpoees all im nome sonareco an adoe 46 25 10 10 44%, | 95% Mrs. Ed. Heagle......... Siilean Maley, aan GEhAr 4414/ 25 9%! 10 5 OF Mrs. Ellen Blakeway...| Ridott .... 454%4| 25 9 10 5 9414 W.R. Hostetter.......... Mt. Carroll. ..........-. 44 25 10 10 5 94. eA a GeOmMiyac cece lalehmineh Cilliny goon codccdae AY 25 10 10 5 97 S.S. Footh . Spa ceoe||: RMOMENROISOIN. 5450 e000 s40¢ 4344) 25 10 10 5 93% Mrs. Chas. Beede . Ae eee (Olneyehwaele 24 b46600 sacees 4414) 25 10 10 5 94% 135 1s MVNA OY aoco cosa ode SNACEWENOME: 5 ndod bo secos 45 25 9 9 5 93 Edmund Waite.... ..... Sycamore SR ekateed 45 25 9 9 5 93 TRAN Case Stee vees Byedrel vil GE oe loses sete 45 25 10 9%| 5 9444 Pee Miaitlo@ kisses ee Morlkevillle ae sen et 44144} 24%] 10 10 5 94 Mrs. F. H. Good.... ..... Geailivi ais aiiss eee aes eee 45 25 10 10 5 95 Only one entry scored below 90 points. CHEESE SCORES. STANDARD. H|o|4 | a|a2 | 4 ep ib etele ley ce Sh os Ss er a be Name Maker. Name of Owner. Address. S = Sealers = : Sal SPIE ca | Bi u0| 20 20 | 10 | 10 | 10 Seen ae ee ee W. Doane......- St (Eb SAKE PLM ge gad boedosbag6e- Tiskilwa....|28 | 30 |1914) 10 | 10 |97% W. Doane.. W.H. Frisbie(complimentary) Tiskilwa....|26 | 29 |18 | 10 | 10 |93 J. R. Biddulph. Co-operative. .:.....2..2.- o05. Providence.|27 | 30 |19 | 10 } 10 |96 J.R. Biddulph.|Complimentary................ Providence.|27 | 80 |19%] 10 | 10 |96% J. R. Biddulph. |Complimentary.. 35 ../|Providence.|26%| 30 |19 | 10 | 10 |95% FGA NENC DCO Bits igure e Baba den. osdasGoge paopoaddn ¢ . |wariville...]/25%] 28 |17 9 | 10 |89% Mr. W. J. Grover, of Irene, Ill., showed a box of square cream cheese which the judges refused to score, not being ‘acquainted with that kind of cheese. ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. 225 In the absence of Mr. W. D. Collyer, who had acted as judge of the butter on exhibition, Mr. Patch, of Boston, was called upon to speak about the exhibit. Mr. Patch: Mr. Collyer went away without leaving me any pointers, so I will have to tell you merely what I have learned in a casual way. I wish to say to you people who had butter at this exhibit here that you can well be proud of every tub of it. Iwas with Mr. Collyer in the afternoon, and there was only one tub that had any appearance of being unmarket- able or out of order, and our attention was so closely called to it that we made a little closer investigation, and it certainly had been tipped over some time and the cover, not being nailed on, the cover had come off, and the express people, in picking it up, had put in more dirt than was necessary on top of the cloth, so that that party having that butter would have lost nothing if a little attention had been given the package. As far as the general quality of the butter exhibited is concerned, it certainly was fine. J remarked to Mr. Collyer yesterday afternon that there was not a tub of butter there except that one of which I speak but what either one of us would have been glad to have in our stores, and we would have been able to get very near the top price. I feel like saying to you gentle- men that any butter at this season of the year that scored above 93, you may well be proud of, and anything that scored less than 98 you must consider was something that might be off in this individual case. You may have just as good a butter maker as another, but in this case, he might have been a little careless; for instance, there were one or two tubs of butter there that almost tasted as if there was no salt put in it; there was a lack of salt and a lack of flavor, of course. There was now and then a package there that the grain was off, but very few, and any of you whose butter scored 95 up to the highest, 984, you may all be mighty proud of. In scoring butter, of course the first thing the judge has to get at is the flavor, and there are some tubs which have a very quick flavor, and a little closer investigation by the mouth will reveal a little too much salt. Sometimes we can discover that salt at once, sometimes it will be after holding it in the mouth and sometimes again by biting into it as we would be —15 226 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. forced to do if we were eating it on bread or potato, and while we, in our city, like butter a little saltier than most of the others; we do not want it gritty. I think the color asa rule was ahead of most anything J have ever seen; there was less highly colored and less of the lighter colored. I think your makers are all right on the color score.’ Of course, you will find on your score cards a little variation. J think that covers about all the points that a judge would be apt to look at in scoring butter. | A Member: What is imitation butter? We see it quoted that way? Mr. Patch: You see imitation creamery, don’t you? There are two or three kinds; in some parts of Iowa where the creameries are very thick there is some very nice dairy butter made, and there are some men who make a specialty of work- ing over butter, what we used to call hash butter. Now, they will buy this butter as made by the different farmers’ wives and it is an excellent grade, what we call fine dairy butter; they bring it to their stores and it has not been salted; they will pack it into tubs and salt it, and brand it “Imitation Creamery,” and it will grade very fairly with good dairies. Of course, you will see imitation creamery branded on circulars that you receive, that is made up of butter that is gathered at the stores and the very best is sorted out by these butter workers and sent on, and that meets a very ready sale. Then, if you want further explanation, you can go farther away. If you want to talk right plain, this gentleman at Owosso, Michigan, with his new process of butter making is producing an article that would come exactly under that head. He has got a patent process; he buys.a lot of store butter and melts it, blows air through it, then cools it and works it with fresh eream; I don’t know exactly how, of course. It is quite a process, and he makes a very fine article I am told, but I have not seen any. But to answer your question directly, imitation creamery that you see on sale is not imitation butter, it is practically this unsalted butter that is made by what you would call a fine dairy maker. ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. 227 MARKET TERMS AND THEIR DEMANDS. GHO. W. LINN, CHICAGO. “Market Terms and Demands,” being assigned to me for elucidation, I will first mention the terms used in the commer- cial world. | These terms have changed somewhat during the past few years as the make of butter has been improved, but this is a fact which applies to almost every article of commerce. The highest grade of butter we term extras, and to pass inspection as such they must be of the very highest for that season: that is, during the winter months, it is not expected that butter will have quite the high flavor or aroma of butter made when the grass is in its most perfect state in spring and summer, but in all other respects it must be equal to the best June goods the year around. © The flavor must be quick, fine, fresh and clean. The body must be firm and solid with a perfect grain or texture, free from salviness. The color must be uniform, neither too light nor too high. The salt must be well dissolved, thoroughly worked in, not too high or too light salted. Package must be a standard five-hoop, white ash tub, hold- ing sixty pounds of butter. Should there be a failure to meet any one of these speci- fications it lowers the grade. The next grade is called firsts, and must be but just below extras, lacking somewhat in flavor, which, however, must be good, sweet and clean. All other requirements being the same as in extras. Seconds consist of a grade just below first and the flavor must be fairly good and sweet. The body must be sound and smooth boring. The color must be fairly good, although it may be some- what irregular. There may be some defects in salting, it being high or light salted. Thirds consist of butter below seconds, defective in flavor, showing strong tops or sides, may not be smooth boring, may 228 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. be mixed or streaked in color, irregular salting and miscellan- eous packages. Grease butter consist of all grades of poor and rancid butter below thirds. The same classification holds good for dairy butter, with the exception of the package which may be of reduced size. You will find, however, that a very small package is not desirable even for dairy butter, and we would recommend tubs for dairy holding—either 30, 40 or 50 pounds net. The above applies to all of the Northern markets in the United States so far as I know with one exception, and the exception is that the Boston market uses the Spruce tub cf assorted sizes to a great extent and that for creamery butter as well as dairy butter. We have much reason for congratulation for the improve- ment made in the dairy school during the last twenty years. We can, many of us, remember when it was an exceptional case, if a buyer of butter could find in one market 100 tubs of fine butter all packed in tubs of one size and of uniform appear- ance. Today the buyer accepts nothing as first-class except it be of a very high grade of butter and packed in standard packages of uniform make, every hoop in place, every cover perfect, the tub evenly filled, covered first with a cloth neatly cut and sprinkled with a very light covering of butter salt. The cover must be secured with three or four neat tin strips, the smaller number is preferred, and no dealer ever wants to see the wire hooks used for this purpose. In shipping a small stencil should be used, and that on the top where it may be easily erased in case the goods are sold to a dealer for reshipment or for storage. Very much depends upon appearances, and this point can- not be emphasized too frequently. We have been told that cleanliness comes next to godliness in the category of virtues, and this can be no better exemplified in any direction than in the case which should govern the packing and shipment of butter as we have taken it for granted that you have butter to sell, and that it is of the very best quality. Do not overload your butter with brine. No man wishes to buy butter and then find that he has paid for one or more ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. 229 pounds of brine and if you are an honest man you will not ask it, and should he be a shrewd buyer he would not buy your butter the second time except at a greatly reduced price. Of course, there are tricks that work for a few times, but they lose the trickster money in the end. Pack your butter solidly in the tub that there be no vacant spots when the butter is turned out on the testing board for ex- amination. Do not put salt in the bottom of your tub. We not only recommend, but we urge the use of a heavy parchment paper for the bottom and the sides of the tub. It costs but little and always pleases the would-be purchaser, often making a difference in the price realized. We have known retail dealers who have made it a practice to never take butter from the tub that had come in contact with the wood, in serving their customers with table butter. This would leave them about five pounds in each tub to be used as cooking butter. When parchment paper of a good quality is used, they use for the table the entire amount. DISCUSSION. Mr. Hostetter: Mr. Patch, do you ever have any trouble with the parchment paper going to pieces when used in the bottom and sides? Mr. Patch. No, sir. A man takes perhaps a little cour- age in advocating parchment paper. For myself, I think it is one of those things that have come to stay. I think it is gaining ground every day. If a man was starting a creamery teday and was puchasing his material, I would say, buy parch- ment paper; it is one of those things to please the eye and there are those in all lines of business. I could illustrate that by telling you a little story, but I will simply state the fact that in my own firm we run two departments, two different stores, and for a month we have been obtaining 75 cents a barrel for the same apples packed only a little differently. There is no trick in it at all; it is simply the same apples taken out of the same bin and the good looking apples, the bright red apples put in one barrel and those that are dark red, or 230 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. a little greenish put in the other barrel. You could eat from either barrel with your eyes shut and not tell which barrel the apple came from, and we sell them readily at 75 cents more. Now, to come down to the paper. You take a cloth on top of the tub—we could have shown you yesterday—the cloth is wet, you know, and sometimes it will perforate the top of the butter so that when you lift the top of the cloth up, you can see the whole imprint of the lid on the top of the butter. I never have seen that where I used parchment paper. That, of course, does no harm; the butter tastes just as good; at the same time it does not look quite so well as when it is smooth, and round the sides and bottoms I think it is a good thing to have, because it might keep away mould and I should use parchment paper if I was going to put up butter. Mr. Hostetter: How about parafining? Would you use both? Mr. Patch: No; parchment paper is enough. Mr. Hostetter: Would you soak your tub if you were going to use parchment paper? Mr. Patch: Iam, individually, rather inclined to soak the tub at all times. Mr. Artman: Do you prefer the cloth without the paper cap or both? Mr. Patch: I think the paper is sufficient. Mr. Artman: Have you ever-had any trouble with blue - mould getting under it when you just used the paper? Mr. Patch: There may be something come up. My own firm are rather going towards parchment paper. I want to say that Bro. Linn’s talk about Boston insisting on spruce tubs is not quite right. That is all done away with. If five cream- erymen here would say they would ship their butter for ten months, I would not ask them to put it in spruce tubs. We had butter sent up last year from several creameries and we had several letters inquiring, ““How much more can you get us in spruce tubs? We can produce them just as easily,” and every time our answer went on, “Keep on as you are, we can sell it just as easily.” I think every man in Boston would say he did not care which it was in. Of course we have always: have had spruce tubs from Northern New York and Vermont, ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. 231 but we have gotten out of that habit. At Owottanna there was a gentleman that brought butter from California. His highest butter score was 95. I don’t know how low the lowest was. That man came here with the impression that he was going to take the prize, because he came here with grass butter, and he was surprised to see the flavor and quality of butter that could be produced in this country on dried grass as compared with what he nade on fresh grass. So muck for Tlinois. Mr. Judd: Is the square package coming into favor? Mr. Patch: Well, if you are going to cater to the Eng- lish market I should say, yes. We don’t know how much our markets here—and that means New York, Philadelphia and Boston—may be overloaded and how much we may have to depend on the export trade. If your butter were in the square boxes, it would always be ready to export and to sell at per- haps a little higher price than if in tubs. I notice our ex- porters in buying samples, they say, we will give you a half a cent more or a cent more if you will have it packed in square boxes. As we enlarge in our make of butter it would seem as if we should be prepared to place our butter in any market, and perhaps we Eastern people can accommodate ourselves to handling it in square boxes for the sake of being prepared to sell to foreign markets. That would be the only advantage. Mr. Judd: What wood could be used to make those Square boxes? Mr. Patch: That never had occurred to me. Mr. Judd: They are making them out of the same wood as butter tubs. Mr. Knight: No; ash boxes won’t go. OUR BUTTER EXPORTS. CHARLES Y. KNIGHT, EDITOR CHICAGO PRODUCE, CHICAGO. I shall go very briefly over a few points in connection with this subject. We have been very much interested in the ex- port butter business this last year, because we thought we 232 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. were producing more butter than we could consume at home. We expected that we must either export butter or some of our dairvmen would have to go out of the business. The question of our export outlook for our butter is one which has justly been attracting considerable attention of late: yet, it is one for which we find no really satisfactory solu- tion. With us the problem is a complicated one; we are a heavy consuming nation; a very slight variation in supplies makes a scarcity in our markets, so small is our surplus when compared with our gross production. Yet, we feel that our surplus should be exported, and that we ought to build up a regular trade. This season’s exports have been almost double those of a year ago, 298,000, against 160,000, and yet to an ad- vocate of the export business, it has not been satisfactory. We have not exported our butter on its merits, but because certain countries had to have something, and we appeared to be the only nation that had a surplus. The quality of our butter is not such now as a rule that the exporters want it, but, as I said before, they take it, because thy cannot get anything else, and yet I think we are gradually drifting towards a quality that we can export. As has been said here we are constantly coming in conflict with home consumption when we attempt to export butter. For instance, our local or domestic trade does not want boxes; the export trade does want boxes. If we make up butter for the export trade, and the demand does not happen to be such that it will be taken at a price that will be on an equality with our domestic markets, then there is dissatisfaction and the boxes must be unloaded, as a rule, at a lower price than the tub butter would be. So you see that if there is the slightest variation in the demand for butter to go abroad and we have butter made up to go abroad, we have got to sell at a loss. You take, for instance, the Canadians; they have made a great deal more progress in the exporting of butter than we in the last few years, and for this reason: The Canadians are very small consumers compared with the United States. They have gone into the export business as a business; their butter is made for the export business largely, they make it with the view of selling it abroad and make the home consumers take that butter; the home consumers have got to take it, whether they like it or not; colored and ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. 233 salted for the foreign market. We cannot do that, because our home consumption is too large a proportion of the produc- tion, and you really might say that it is only in an emergency that we export any butter at all. Now, regarding the amount of water in butter for export. I do not think that we have had very much difficulty during the last year regarding that. There have been a good many lots of butter shipped from both the English district and from Iowa and from Kansas in packages, and Mr. Sands, who has done a good deal of that exporting, told me that his fine butter trade had not mentioned the matter to him, and that he had no complaint; at the same time, our butter does not grade up at all with Danish butter; it simply goes alongside with the Canadian and scarcely up to the Australian. The thing that the foreign market wants, if they take our butter, is uni- formity, more than anything else. I had a long talk with an exporter who had spent six months in foreign countries build- ing up a demand for his butter. He said he had no difficulty selling American butter at a fair price by sample. He would sell, for instance, one lot, and it would give satisfaction; then send back into this country for a duplicate of that same order, and it would come over there and it would be different. The consequence was that the Englishmen are very much dissatis- fied with it; they told him that if they could not get a uniform grade they didn’t want it. There is another obstruction in the way of this country’s building up an export demand for butter, and that is in the matter of ocean freights. We have not at present the re- frigeration capacity for any large amount of butter. In the Summer time or in the time of our heaviest production, the lines from New York cannot take care of more than seven or eight thousand packages a week in their refrigerators. They have refrigerator capacity, but it is taken up with dressed - meats and other articles, fruits, apples and even California fruits have crowded butter out of the refrigerators, and they are not increasing their capacity; will not do so without a guar- anty. The dressed meat exporters guarantee the steamship lines a certain amount every week, and that is the way they get the capacity. Last summer the butter men of New York got together and made a guarantee that they would export 234 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. a certain amount of butter each week if the ocean lines would give them the service. That was done, but they never could get any great amount; I think ten thousand tubs was the largest amount ever taken in the refrigerators. Later on, when the weather is such that they can carry butter outside, it is an easier matter to get butter out of the country and during the winter months our exports have run up as high as 15,006 tubs in a single week. Our exports up to the middle of this month, from New York from the first of May, were 298,000, against 160,000 tubs for the same time the year before, almost double. DISCUSSION. Mr. Schamme!i: To what countries do our butters 20 chiefly? | Mr. Knight: The only demand we have for fine butter is from England; very little goes any other place—the United Kingdom I should say. It goes into Liverpool, Manchester and London. The lower grades, such as ladles and imitations, will go te Hamburg and Copenhagen. This matter of export- ing butter to Copenhagen is interesting. The Danes sell their butter at prices, I believe, something like 27 cents last year in Copenhagen; then they buy poor butter from us at 12 to 15 cents, and work it over for home consumption. They also. use sixteen million pounds of butterine and oleomargarine, L understand. Mr. Monrad: Take our Northwestern country. What would be the most advisable wood in the way of boxes for them to use? : . Mr. Knight: As far as I know the only success they have made with wood was white wood; either white or yellow poplar. We have had a great many packages brought up to the Chicago butter trade for examination made of other woods. For instance, ash—one manufacturer made some very nice things in ash, but it would not do at all, because the box is not practically an imitation of the Australian box and they want it as near like the Australian box as can be gotten. PR | ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. 23: They do not feel that we have got time to work up a reputa- : tion for our butter in different boxes. The Australians started that style of box and it is like all other packages, when it gets started, they want uniformity. Mr. Judd: Is the Australian box white wood? Mr. Knight: No; it is a kind of spruce that does not grow in this country. White wood is as near as we can get to it. A Member: Joes not poplar have a peculiar oil in the wood that would give a taste to the butter? Where I came from poplar has a decided odor. Mr. Knight: Poplar is about as odorless a wood as we can get. Mr. Tripp: Would not ash warp? Mr. Knight: Yes; hard wood of any kind will warp more than poplar; maple, I guess, will warp more than ash, they get very curly. ‘There is another thing in regard to the ex- port business in packages. I notice that Mr. Kennard, who did a great deal of exporting from Chicago during the last year, showed me some of the footings that he had regarding the shrinkages in weight. The shrinkage of weights of butter packed in boxes was something startling; something enormous, ° compared with that in tubs, and it is a very serious matter, and something that we are going to meet more as we use more square packages. I have not investigated the question enough to know why it should be, but it was a rule right straight through that the same butter packed in boxes would shrink a great deal more than that packed in tubs, even though they were all parchment lined. Mr. Judd: Is there a metal package made that is close? Mr. Knight: That might do in a very small way, but it does not find favor anywhere that I ever knew. Mr. Tripp: Would not that butter shrink less if they made those boxes tight, instead of just nailing them together, as they do? t Mr. Knight: Ido not believe a box could be made to hold . the brine and keep tight. It is not like a tub. Mr. Tripp: You could make them, but it would cost more money. 236 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. Mr. Knight: If they swelled the least little bit it would open the seams some. I do not think that anything has ever been a success in closing up a package except the swelling and making it tight. The wax and parafine lined packages have never been a success. The Creamery Package Company spent thousands of dollars trying to make a package with a waxed lining inside. They would get it so you could fill it with water for a week, and it wouldn’t leak, but you put butter into it and handle it, jar it on the cars and it would break the seams. I do not see how a box can do any differently from that. | The Committee on Nominations reported as follows: Your Committee on Nominations would respectfully sub- mit the following names for the offices of the Association for the coming year: President, George H. Gurler, De Kalb. Vice President, A.G. Judd, Dixon. Directors, John Stewart, Elburn; George Reed, Herbert; 8S. G. Soverhill, Tiskilwa; George H. Gurler, De Kalb; J. C. Brown, Sparta; A. G. Judd, Dixon; R. R. Murphy, Garden Plain. LOVEJOY JOHNSON, O. H. LUCAS, GEO. REED, Committee. Mr. Brown declining to act, Mr. J. E. Miller, of Belleville, was later elected by the Directors to fill vacancy. The report was laid on the table to be taken up in the afternoon in its regular order. Adjourned till 1:30 p. m. AFTERNOON SESSION. The convention met at 1:30 p. m. same day. The first business taken up in the afternoon was the draw- ing of the lots for the several premiums offered. The first ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. 237 drawing was made by thirty-six creamery butter exhibitors, scoring 95 and above, among whom the following named six drew the following prizes: Nolting & Daniels, Elgin, I1l., table butter printer, donated by A. H. Barber & Co., Chicago. Grant Mallory, Freeport Ill., Sharples Russian tester, do- nated by P. M. Sharples, Elgin, Il. L. P. Harvey, Clare, Ill., 32 bottle Ideal Tester, donated by Creamery Package Manufacturing Co., Chicago. Albert Winter, Waterman, Ill., Barber-Colman Check Pump, donated by Barber & Colman, Rockford, Il. H. R. Duell, Franks, Il., Fairbanks, Morse & Co.’s Scales, donated by that firm in Chicago. J. Sherman Budd, Millbrook, IU., milk heater, donated by Cornish, Curtis & Greene Mfg. Co., Ft. Atkinson, Wis. The following dairy butter exhibitors, scoring 95 and above drew four prizes as follows: Mr. R. A. Patten, Hanna City, Ill., P. M. Sharples, Elgin, No-Tin Test. Mrs. FE. E. Good, Gardner, Ill., A. H. Barber’s 10 Bottle Babcock ae Mrs. 8. H. Woods. Creamery Package Mfg. Co., 8 Bottle Ideal ae Mr. 8. 8. Merritt, Henry, Ill., Cornish, Curtis & Greene Mfg. Co., 4 Bottle Babcock Test. Mr. R. A. Patton, of Hanna City, Ill., drew the Mikado Separator donated by D. H. Burrell & Co., Little Falls, N. Y., for the butter makers using the Hansen’s, Danish or Colum- bian butter color scoring 95 or above. hae DE KALB PRORATA PREMIU MS. Score. Nam Location. 95 Sie Baea ls See TONE Th_ 2 A roltly DNS eo tT) O00) a ae cn eae oes 26 OG a. George A. Cutler........ ......... BelWiGeness fy ikhs cae am ee aan noes 2.52 OB aye .- Albert Soe Walinib eres isis co. sasi ack: NWONG remain ras (2a aie hat ae te 1.26 OG cures? Wm. Bote.......... PU OAR LEO EM GlOMNO MG es 2). oe cl eae Neate oe 2.52 O54... .20- Peter Oise SOS ae Ee McConnell . Petey eu ooey abr Mie chem Peta ane 911940) OSes Vig © mV se ave se ehe oie o/cisidieieielsle airs GIOVANNI A485 Sige et sess bw eee Ee HE? 5.35 Oe AC NOM PSOM rcs iacice cic) sielss Hebron.. PEE a ae SOLS 95... 00s W. H. Taylor +++. Stillman Valley. Bey eee PCa: Bae |'501)) 061%4...... Geo. W. Hopponateadt AO Op UN KOi sss aiieis ctv ae weet ine & 3.15 06%...... ORG VASO ee arene cle el eretiee vite Compton ol) hae wa a Aiea RY Ce 3.15 951%4..... SOLAN Vice SHO Miss tartans cscs ease aloleais aletere avers SPL S GLOVE ees soso ie sera nee eae le 1.90 OR ie eee Geo. Boesenberg soe PW OESPrid) Aa eNO EVIE sie tae ce CORA Read 1.26 951% 2Nn IalGii@siepacodre semana deene eke SOO) CHUNG oe Gn NSB mandobemnan week alocoues 1.26 97% ..0.- 1 BRE Boe DTIC eite beers Bis eye are MN ES eR LTH al Ua aeee nae a etal on nl Maret a mated AER 4.41 eA Cece pie GM DENS Dae ha RRS AA NOOR OMmspo rier occere DUS Wray e 2h va craepraceteraccen Save seetere deste tte Mera alr? 95 ......J. B. Wendell....... LN RL Ae Aa Nieg Pe. Beas Shaiona Groveressesssc. en son ase Soe elt OG tia Ae aio: WAG Ne muinerie cascade AN OeM,.. 5.25.5 Ae esate tet rete ia ihos ratata sisters ooh 2.52 Oe eae eS ECOL WELL GONE tealoks wit elo catisierek te sueise nid 4 I Wier Oe cts StI ata esac aac ees eae OWT 238 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. 1897, DE KALB PRORATA PREMIUMS.—Continued. OP be BAIN Gl SOME tes deees cays ete ieee ees Creston, were) verse ieiesa ann Sat seater dita am 3.78 OD eee BrankRaeler ects eee i) VV eG OMe aie alu tat Mae RT ee 1.26 ODN eA ly ees NE Deu a KOU ANEW I MoO Sh ca Boe Son Ane aE Deal ey ie sei eM Tae a 1.26 OG ria K, (Be Carpenter eee siencs co .s | LL DOMIDSOR) eR oon es eee eae Peay 06) i RSD Clarkes are eet Me ee RL sels oN HMatirvcliawiemai i. coe ay Ne ee 2.52 95%... 26. NEON Mert co Ulla enna Recent ER oe aaa ae a ae Borme rs eee oko), eee en nee 1.90 O54 ...... Geo. E. Waterman..........-....-. Garden) Praivie.: i... secede eee 1.90 OG) eee GranbaMallonyieeeeemecceurmen ones Free porte ee an eee eee 2.52 OG KPI eee Geos MOOG YR eer Geena enic Richardsowmiee. ok sce. wee eae eee eee 3.78 LO iat Rieko Chris !Vorensenkeearee wee ees nee ROCKO ee Aa ee A eee 1236 QD en a Hep SK events Wl Gane areal hy Cer rua May ie Pecatomicaige) coo. vee ae eel ae eee Le Gy O51, ee Chaseub alana eee ein ee eee GOOGENO We eee INO ale Ae ran aR 1.90 OGY) esos Ge Bhitiletrel days. wen sacs eee ae Sav anainay een ener RCE otis oo er ono Oat REO BeBe iS mittha cies datos oiecare wate a Chi VAL GEC eaen ye to AEE MORN ates ee 1.26 OD istic: Amton/ BuCleLe eee eee eerie Bemis. PIO EAE ae es 1.26 05) ae LS WO aie eee apes py at vase rida uh esse. ea . 1.26 06%...... PEL am ViVi sonia cit ee aeieees HOVBRC cb 6 eek a toe ne a 8.15 0614 FMA Mic DOnOUShee era aaeeean son Davis SUNCOM? 45 es ee eee 4.10. Wi Ane sepa Joseph Relvere ince Oe Batavia eee ee, Si 1.90 Oe Se NN ETC SS TOG Fale eepetare en tte wel Caen raya Sana wich sce oes fn I rae eee ee 1.26 Obe pases Mrs. She Wo00dSe. 22. oe ses venee nts Gardneriise. So. nsed sin odes ee ee 1.26 OSA Te casa tse MCP OUR a cane ods da duimidos-oced oul Henry .. SNe anee aigeatc hss s555) at G0) OF ee AL ab COM sane sean cera eee Hanna City... CAME ae TAS Sty Slt Gis 1 3.78 OB ies eas Mer Seabee GOO Gate erry iene erties Gralivealcns aie eo Re Ae See 1.26 $99.30 ASSOCIATION CASH PREMIUMS. Cheese. Name. Location. 97% ...... Sy J Sowenlilllescc acute ee ioe TES Kawi We ae caterers Seema Ohl) OG eee IR ECG liars ce aeosetny ape Lec Broviddenicesniicatacs fee a ee eee 3.00 891%...... Bey UR OR ICTey Rash untae a vee: Te Harlvilliee yoy s3e ea eee ace eee 2.00 $10.00 Road Paper—A. B. Hostetter, Mt. Carrol] ......... 0.0.00. ccc ce cence ence cece enenes $16.00 - The following premiums were offered and given to parties whose names may be found by looking at the scores: The Farm, Field and Fireside and The Dairy World will be sent one year to each exhibitor whose butter scores 95 points or better. The Orange Judd Farmer will be sent one year to the first six ladies who make entries for butter of cheese. The Farmers’ Union will be sent one year to the four exhibitors of dairy butter who score next highest to 95. The Farmers Review will be sent one year to the first ten who make entries for dairy butter. The Elgin Dairy Report will be sent one year to all makers of dairy butter scoring 95 and above. The New York Produce Review and American Creamery will be sent for one year to all those who score 96 points or over. The Farmers’ Voice one year, to the first six unmarried ladies who enter butter for exhibit. The next business in order being the election of officers, the report of the nominating committee as amended, was taken from the table. Mr. Hostetter moved that the Secretary of ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. 239 the Association be authorized to cast the ballot of the Asso- ciation for the nominees named therein. Motion second and carried. Whereupon the Secretary cast the vote of the Associa- tion for the gentlemen named in said report and they were de- clared the duly elected officers of the Association for the en- suing year. Mr. Judd submitted the report of the Committee on Reso- lutions, which, on motion, was adopted as a whole, as follows: Resolwed, That we favor the bill known as the trade-mark bill, introduced in Congress by Hon. E. Sauerherring. Resolved, That we heartily support the bill providing for an agricultural building, with a dairy equipment, for the Col- lege of Agriculture at the University of Illinois and that we earnestly request the General Assembly to provide a gener- ous appropriation thereto to the end that [linois may com- pare favorably with neighboring states and be enabled to offer Superior instructions in the great science of agriculture. Resolved, That we favor the bill now pending before the Legislature placing the Farmers’ County Institute system un- der the supervision of the Trustees of the University of Ih- nois. Resolved, That we extend our thanks to the citizens of De Kalb for the pleasant manner in which we have been enter- tained during our stay among them. | Resolved, That the thanks of this Association be extended to Professors Haecker, Farrington, Davenport and others for their kindness in being present and disseminating so much valuable knowledge along the kine of profitable dairying. Resolved, That we also thank those who have furnished music and entertainment during the evening sessions of our meeting. It is with a feeling of sorrow that we record the death of our friend and co-worker, Edwin E. Garfield, of St. Charles. He conscientiously tried to promote the welfare of the dairy- men and dairy interest of the State. He was honored by this Association as a member, trusted as an officer and respected as a man; therefore, be it 240 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION, Resolved, That a page be set apart in our printed report to his memory and that the Secretary be instructed to send marked copies of it to his wife and children. Resolved, That in the death of Col. Robert M. Littler the dairymen of Illinois have lost a true friend and patriotic citi- zen. In his early manhood he defended his country on the battle field; in his mature years he defended our citizens against fraud; in one he lost an arm, in the other he lost his eye sight, but he never flagged in fighting for right and justice to all. May the youth of our country follow his example. Resolved, That we thank W. D. Collyer for the satisfac- tory manner in which he scored the butter and cheese. Resolved, that we favor the bill known as the Trademark Bill introduced in Congress by Hon. E. Sauerherring. E. E. GARFIELD, LATE TREASURER OF THE ASSOCIATION. BIOGRAPHY. HKdward Everett Garfield, son of Timothy Powers and Harriet Frost Garfield, was born it Mt. Holly, Rutland Co., Vt., December 8, 1835, and died in Campton, II1l., August 4, 1896. He was a descendant of one Edward Gearfeldt, of Chester, England, who came with Governor Winthorp in 1630. Gearfeldt signified ‘‘Field Watch,” and the significance was not belied by the succeeding generations, Edward EH. being no exception.. In 1841 he came to Illinois with his father’s family, and in 1842 they set- tled in Campton Township, where he henceforth made his home. He was a practical surveyor, and served in many local town offices. Having a liberal knowledge of law, he was employed in many capacities in that line, though preferring never to become a member of the bar. He was a consistent member of the First Christian Church at Elburn, Ill., in early life; later he became a member of the Unitarian Church at Geneva, I1I. Edward HK. Garfield was married October 7, 1857, to Frances Harriet Wing, daugh- ter of Dr. Seneca and Jane (Ewing) Wing, of Rutland Co., Vt. There were three children, Edward Ewing, Mary Frost and Harle Wing, of whom the two latter, with his wife, survive him. Bing mie Wee av bah et ) ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. 243 The Chairman: I would like to speak a moment and supplement the resolution offered here with reference to the death of Col. Littler. I have known the old gentleman for a good many years, and he was in the front of the fight at ail times, whenever the dairy interests were at stake. I never will forget the last time that I saw him doing any work in this line. It‘was in our Legislature two years'ago. It was after the old gentleman had lost his eye sight. He could not see anything. The Chicago men took him to Springfield and he was taken before the committee and made a great effort, one of the best that I have heard him make, for our cause. Mr. Hostetter: I have known Col. Littler for a great many years. My first acquaintance with his was at Cedar Rapids, when the National Butter, Cheese and Egg Associa- tion met out there, probably some fifteen or sixteen years ago. Then was the fight first started against oleomargarine; he was one of the leaders in the fight at that time. I have known him ever since, and he was always fighting with all his streneth and doing everything he possibly could for the dairy- men’s interest. On motion of Mr. Waite, the Secretary was directed to send a copy of the resolutions touching legislation to all mem-. bers of the State Legislature. Doubt being expressed as to the funds of the Association being sufficient to cover this and other expenses, Mr. Judd _ moved that a collection be taken up for that purpose, the bal- ance to be used for incidental expenses. The motion prevailed and the result was a collection of $11.93. The following telegram was read: Secretary State Dairymen’s Association: The Association is cordially invited to inspect the dairy equipment of the Hospital at Kankakee, including pasteuriz- ing plant and milking machine in operation. CLARK GAPEN, Superintendent. 244 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. WHY DON’T WE MAKE MORE FULL CREAM CHEESE IN ILLINOIS. S. V. SOVERHILL, TISKILWA. Shall I say because it pays better to make butter, or has it paid better to make butter and filled or skim milk cheese? Has there been more money in it for the owners of the factory to make butter than full cream cheese or is it more profitable for the dairyman who furnishes the milk to make the butter than the full cream cheese? Full cream cheese of good quality is in demand all the time and if there had been no filled cheese made to spoil people’s appetite for cheese, there would have been twice the demand there is at present at home and abroad. We were all too eager to get the mighty dollar there -geemed to be in the filled cheese business, but when too late we discovered we had killed the goose that laid the golden egg. I have asked the question many times at our Associations, What cows were paying patrons of creameries a piece for the season? Some could tell me what they got for the last month’s milk, but what their cows average for the year I never could find out, so as to judge if it paid better than ° making cheese. Now what we want to get at is which will pay best to make butter or cheese of the best we can make. I have been a patron of our factory for twenty-six years, keeping on an average of about thirty cows, raising some calves and feeding all off of what I raise on the farm mostly. I buy some bran, a little oil meal, get some grain ground, but when it is cheap as it now, it don’t pay to get it ground, so I feed corn, oats and a little bran, let the shoats clean up the waste. I never have fed as well as I ought to make the most from my cows—am satisfied; will give a few figures of eross receipts: | ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. 245 1894. Cows No. Cheese. Price. AS OTe eam eiehY ic ecus ys, Cee DQM Reape etry dale pee CO NOG ahh as otatas ee ee ee eee Seer $162 20 May..... SR Mn ne WED Gin ) nA A Fee aaa ie @ WNC? cescoue mca MO XU) IDACEmMMOE IE Moet CAIN Ono ae in aed AOD @ OCT iis Meron 2 sees 49 50 WOMAN eer can wera Se. GOO. HOS: $948 15 Fed no extra feed from May Ist to October. Then some pumpkins and turnips fed in the barn twice a day. Now, if butter makers are getting more money from their cows than we cheese makers on the same feed, that settles the question. One reason there is not more full cream cheese made, there is so much cheese made that is not fit to eat that there is not the demand for cheese. And why? Because there isn’t enough of it that tastes good. There isn’t any use trying to build up markets for such products except by tickling the palates of consumers. It must be good and the reason must be ap- parent. Why skim filled and all poor cheese, from what- ever cause, tends to check the consumption. There is one great difference between butter and cheese, so far as de- mand is concerned. Butter is considered by nearly every one 246 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. a necessity, and few people care to eat a meal without it, and it is this that has continually increased its consumption in spite of all the abominations of its kind. There are but very few who consider cheese a necessity. If a man buys poor butter he doesn’t cease to be a consumer: he simply tries again, because he must have it. With cheese it is different. The consumer asks, Have you any good cheese? If he answers, yes sir, cut me off three to ten pounds is the answer. If he answers fair or very good, he then tries it, and says, cut me off a small piece; a pound will do. We don’t eat much cheese; wife looks at it and tastes it and says never mind about getting any more cheese, we can’t eat it. That must be skim or filled. This is certainly one great reason there hasn’t been more full cream cheese made in [linois. We have lost our market trying to deceive the people with bogus stuff. Now, there is no doubt but that the consumption of cheese can be greatly increased by making good full cream cheese, and compelling the sale of all other, such as skim or filled cheese to be made or marked in such a manner that the con- sumer will know just what he is buying. If a man wants skim cheese, let him have it. If some markets demand such, allright. We won’t object; but the man that wants the best and calls for it, he should have it and the time is near when he will get it and know it is full cream cheese and made in Dlinois, some of it. Mr. Gurler, the presiding officer, called to the Chair the newly elected Vice President, Mr. Judd. Mr. Judd: Ido not think any introduction is necessary. 1 assure you I am not an off-hand speaker; 1 am simply an every day farmer like the rest of you, and [ thank you all for the hearty manner in which you have complimented me by making me Vice President of this Association, and I am in hopes that we can, by united effort, and by working in the younger element of this State, raise this Association to a great deal better position than it is occupying at present. I do not wish to cast any reflections upon the position it occupies or has occupied. A thing of this kind is a growth from start to finish, and while the circumstances may have been such in the past that it has not prospered with the success that we ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. 247 would have all been glad to see, times and conditions may change so that in the next year we may see a very much more rapid development, and, if so, it will be due as much to the colder members who will continue in their loyal service to the Association and their active support, as it will to any action that the younger members will take. It is by a united action that we may succeed all along the line, and we must have the support of both classes in order to make the most success pos- sible. DISCUSSION ON MR. NOVERHILL’S PAPER. Mr. Gilbert: How much did your cows pay you this year? Mr. Soverhill: Forty-seven dollars and fifty cents, I think. I know I do not feed as well as I ought tu. There is no extra feed from May to October. That $47.50 is the re- ceipts from each cow. Mr. Monrad: What does it cost you to feed a cow? Mr. Soverhill: I can’t answer that question. I feed only what grows on my farm. The Chairman: I think you can put it down at $20 with your way of feeding. : : Mr. Gurler: Do you know how much milk your herd averaged per cow? Mr. Soverhill: No, sir. I can tell you the number of pounds of cheese each month; the pounds of milk would be on record. Mr. Hostetter: Is yours a co-operative factory? Mr. Soverhill: No, sir; I take my milk to the factory and pay a cent and a half a pound for having it made up. I have been one of the owners of the factory; a stock company built it; it burned down, and I was one of the partners build- ing it over again, and then I sold out. JI am now only one of the patrons. We pay him for making the cheese and each individual takes his cheese on the shelf at the factory. Mr. Monrad: Do you cure it in the factory? Mr. Soverhill: Yes; thirty days from the receipt of the milk it is weighed, and we have thirty days after that to do as we are a mind to. If one man wants to sell 500 or 1,000 pounds of cheese, he gives notice in the morning, and if he 248 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. don’t want to attend to it, there is somebody else ready to buy it. Our demand is such that most of the year we do not have enough to fill the demand for retail customers. Mr. Hostetter: They take care of the cheese during the thirty days. Mr. Soverhill: Yes, sir. Mr. Hostetter: Then you have to sell? Mr. Soverhill: If we are not crowded too much for room, we do not. We are usually kept pretty middling close, prob- ably two-thirds of the time. There isn’t one-fourth of the cheese in the factory thirty days after it is made. Our cum- tomers take it from fifteen to thirty days old. Mr. Hostetter: Does the manager ever assume the sale for the patron? Mr. Soverhill: No, sir. The best satisfaction is for each man to handle his own cheese and do what he is a mind to. We have had no trouble since we adopted that rule. A Member: How is the milk paid for? Mr. Soverhill: By the test. Every man’s milk gets his cheese according to the test. A Member: What does your milk average? Mr. Soverhill: It ryns from 3.25 to 4.10. A Member: Have you ever estimated as to how much butter you might make out it? Mr. Soverhill: No, sir; I have not. A Member: What was the average price of your cheese last year? Mr. Soverhill: Not quite ten cents; a little over nine; two months of the year eight and a half. The man that owns the factory makes cheese for the sixty or seventy patrons, and takes care of it for thirty days. The Member: Does he box them? ‘Mr. Soverhill: No; each furnishes his own boxes. This year we have started in to go through the year; we have gen- erally run about nine months. The Member: Isn’t it a fact that milk that will make one pound of butter will make three pounds of cheese and you are getting thirty cents for three pounds of cheese and the market price of butter is only eighteen or twenty cents? ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. 249 Mr. Monrad: Do you mean to say that your cheese maker averages three pounds of cheese for every pound of butter that he could have made? Mr. Soverhill: Very nearly, I guess, taking the season through. Ihave not had much experience in the butter busi- ness. Mr. Monrad: That is too much. The Chairman: Mr. Soverhill is one of those gentlemen who does not believe in changing around every time the market changes. He started with cows when he was a young man and he has got cows yet, and he has two or three farms to show for it. The Chairman read a letter containing an invitation from Galesburg, to hold the next meeting in that city, which was referred to the Directors. On motion of Mr. Hostetter, the paper of Mr. Thurston, read at the evening session of the day before, was taken up for discussion. Mr. Monrad: AsTI understand Mr. Thurston’s suggestion, there shall be no membership fee, except a voluntary one. He suggests that the agricultural press would help us to solicit membership, and that by having them as members without paying that there would be a large percentage that would become interested in the work of the Association and become paying members. Mr. Schammell: He also suggests that he has had ex- perience in several associations and that the plan has paid | admirably, having what he calls a sustaining membership, which pays the dollar. These were religious and political organizations. Mr. Hostetter: Something ought to be done to get more members for the Illinois State Dairymen’s Association. I am in favor of any plan that will get the dairymen to work together. Your Secretary has 200 members, the largest mem- bership it has had for a great many years. We ought in some way to raise money so we could pay our Secretary at least a fair salary. Mr. Monrad: I told my friend Thurston, that I liked his plan first-rate, if he would only solve the problem of getting over the bridge in the first place. Let us suppose that the 250 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. agricultural press helps us to get two or three thousand mem- bers during this year; the printing and sending out of the reports takes a great deal of money. The Secretary ought to be able to travel around and hold some meetings. We have got to put $1,000 into these books and they are good books, but we must reach the farmers; the ones who need preaching to. This Association ought to spread its work more. It should send out instructors and possibly engage the full time of the right kind of a Secretary and have him go out into the school houses and other places. The Chairman: I think our best plan is to have one good meeting and try and have money enough to make it the best thing in the State and put it into a book that will be of value to the farmer to take home and study. One man told me last year that if he could have had that book a month after that meeting was held, it would have been worth $50 to him just for raising his season’s calves. Mr. Reed: It might be better to have this organization a State institution and let the State print the books, as it does the horticultural reports. Mr. Monrad: In that case we would never get them out. Mr. Perriam: This organization ought to be supported because it represents an industry that is a great industry and a most important one, quite as much so as the horticultural or any other society. Mr. Schammell: We must remember that the horticultur- ists get their strength from the fact that they are spread all over the State, and the dairy interest would be stronger if we could introduce it into districts where it does not exist. Ilive in the grain section of the State; a few men have come in there with their small separators, and their example is being fol- lowed, and I believe that if we could only introduce dairying more generally it would be taken up all over the State. In the Farmers’ Institutes that are held in that part of the State we usually have one paper during the session on dairying, but it is generally not discussed very much. If this Association . would send around to the institutes a few first-class dairy speakers who could talk this matter up, I believe it would take immensely. A special friend of mine has bought a Baby ILLINOIS STATE DAITRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. 251 Separator, and he is furnishing butter to his neighbors, pri- vate customers, and there is room in my neighborhood for three or four more, but they simply don’t know how to go at it. I believe that would be one of the best ways of increasing membership. So far as it has been introduced, it has been the very best thing and [I have no doubt that in almost any of our institutes, one man could build up a first-class trade and bring in a half a dozen members. Mr. Hostetter: It has been my idea for a good many years to have this Dairy Association furnish a speaker for each County Institute in the State. If we had the money to do so, we would send a man who would speak on dairy topics and they would be glad to have us come, and furnish such a speaker, and it would do an immense amount of good; but it takes money. I believe that would be a wonderful help to our State Dairymen’s Association and the dairy interests of the State. There being no further business, on motion, the conven- tion adjourned sine die. 252 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. SECRETARY E. E. CRITCHFIELD’S REPORT. 1895. EXPENDITURES, December 18; Distributing 1895 report... c2 9555 ..seaee eee $28 87 1896 March 4, Preparing for and expenses of Princeton meeting.... 202 78 Mayo, Statlonerysand postage nek. sae ee sae ee 39 55 June 29) Mrs. Rh. Howard Kelly. reports) 050 ke oe ee 96 76 Meroe 6, Prorata Reming ye ner Brose ani 49 95 1897 January 6, Printing and binding 1896 report................... 521 90 January 6, Hditing and prooiereadine no sy ee ee ee 150 00 Oo) ie Me ere ny ate can dln Ril eent riick MAU as tel TVA E et $1,089 81 1396 2 RECEIPTS. March 4, Received (eross) for advertising. 7 .5..,.74.......2.. 5. $100 O Mareh 4, Princeton contribution... 22.2 Ye, a Mareh 4, Membership dues for 1896.25 (25. yes 1 ee 49 0 Juue 29. Drawn on Treasurers. ci. (ee eae ae 96 76 November 6, Drawn on Treasurer 15 at $3.33................. 49 95 November 11, Drawn om TMreasuneti 060 0) ko ee 25 00 ‘December 11, Drawn on, reasurer.: 0h. 20 ya eee 18 25 1897 January 6, Drawmion Mreasurers i. ol ie 8 oo oe ees 521 90 Pebruary 24, Balance:due:. jee: ee ee ee eee 78 95 DO Cah esi as hc kei: wea ae Ree et Sad EN ell lenegl ait, ced lees eI yee $1,089 81 E. E. CRITCHFIELD, Secretary. SECRETARY J. H. MONRAD’S REPORT. 1897, EXPENDITURES. January 5, Matling 1896 report. a1 oe Pee ee ae Aes $ 31 86 February 26, Preparing for and expenses of DeKalb meeting.... 242 09 February 28) Premiums paid eos ayo ose kc os sees Gch pee 119 30; % March 6 statlonery and Stampin. eevee eee ee ee 18 00. Mareh 11, Trip to Directors’ meeting, DeKalb........:. ...2.5.2 2 90 March ie Cheese prom lumis fOr 13900 ef -ee eee ee ene 5 00 March it Mrs. R. H. Kelly, report of DeKalb meeting.......... 86 70 Mareh ih. EK. Critehtield, balance pads... oe ee 78 95 March 11, Engravings for 1897 TOMOMG eas sea aan te tree ee 7 50 Mareh, 11.3. ae) Monrad, omiaecomimbany i S52 ee ace eae ae 50 00 POC eich hos Eee tall Soa MG eg ecu OI Can cae $642 30 1897. RECEIPTS. January-to May tl, Membership dues). 37.