Frederic Sumner says "There is no more use in trying to run a dairy without a good tested thermometer than there would be to attempt sailing a vessel without a rudder," and I heartily agree with him. A good thermometer can be purchased for from fifty cents to a dollar, and at these prices is certainly within the reach of every dairyman. Too much depends upon the temperature of the water in which we cool our milk, the room we ripen our cream in, do our churning in, and the temperature of the milk, cream, and the butter itself, to attempt any guess work. Our grandmothers used thumb and finger to ascertain the temperature of milk and cream, but in these days of fifty cents, seventy-five cents, and a dollar a pound butter we find "thumb-rule" will not work. An illustration of a thermometer made expressly for dairy use, is given; they are made of glass and float upright in the milk or cream. The churning and cheese points are marked for the convenience of new beginners; they retail at about fifty cents, and can be purchased from any dealer in dairy goods. [Illustration] MAXIMS For A B C Butter Makers. Test your cows. Never fill the churn over half full. Never touch the butter with your hands. Cream rises best in a falling temperature. Never churn fresh unripened cream with ripened cream. After cream becomes sour, the more ripening the more it depreciates. The best time for churning is just before the acidity becomes apparent. Never let your butter get warm; when once warmed through it will lose its flavor. Excessive working makes crumbly butter, spoils the grain and injures the flavor. Never mix night's with morning's milk, as the warmth of the new and the coldness of the old, hastens change and decomposition. All kinds of disagreeable odors are easily absorbed by salt. Keep it, therefore, in a clean, dry place, in linen sacks, if it is to be used for butter making. The best butter has the least competition to contend against, while the worst dairy products have the most. The better anything is, the more rare is it and the greater its value. A butter maker that uses his fingers instead of a thermometer, to find out the temperature of milk or cream will never make a success. Cleanliness should be the Alpha and Omega of butter making. Absolute cleanliness as regards person, stable, utensils and package. Faults--The quickest way to find out the faulty points in your butter, is to send a sample of it to some reliable butter buyer and ask him to score it. The difference between the dairyman who makes $50.00 a year, per cow, and one who makes $30.00, is that the first works intelligently, the second mechanically. Details--The price of success in butter making, as in all other classes of business, is strict attention to the little details; it's the sum of all these little things that determines whether your butter is to be sold for ten cents a pound or as a high priced luxury.