Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1873-01-17

AT this time the prevailing prices
of dairy products, especially butter,
are little more encouraging than
during the spring and summer,
when there was general feeling OF
depression and distrust throughout
the entire dairy regions. Probably
this feeling has been little more
intense among the butter-makers
than among the cheese-makcrs.-
We cannot avoid the conclusion,
however, that it was not well found
ed in either case, for it is undenia-
bly, the truth that good butter and
cheese have been as remnnerative
as any OF the other great staple pro-
duets Of the country; and yet, so
very profitable had their production
been for whole decade, that dairy
men had come to look upon high
prices as an unquestioned prcroga-
tive Of theirs.
1t is true that, for little while at
a time, there have been periods of
depression in prices, but not for
many years has there been one of
such long continued depression
without 4 single rebound.
In 1871 the production of butter,
espec ally in New England, was far
more profitable than that of cheese.
The effect was to cause very cou-
siderable number Of our larger dali
rymen to abandon cheese-making,
and, as is nearly always the case
with those farmers who pursue a
fluctuating course, this year they
have hit wrong.
In times of high prices and quick
sales it does not make nearly as
much difference with the agents who
make the purchases in our country
markets what the quality OF the
product is, so that they get enough
of the better quality to cover the
loss on the poorer when 1t gets into
the city markets, and they often
pay nearly the same price Tor ev-
cry grade. But in periods of de-
preston, and with an abundant
stock upon the market, they dis
criminate much more closely, and,
of course, give better satisfaction to
their principals.
There has been greater differ
ence in the prices of butter this
wear than ever before in our recol-
lection, and this is due not so much
to the fact that there is a greater
difference between the two extremes
of quality than heretofore, as the
fact that the best qualities are be-
coming more appreciated year by
year, and that, in seasons of abund-
ance, ard low prices, the low grades
accumulate more rapidly. 1t is a
most astonishing feature of the bus
mess, that producers cannot be
made to sec that the demand for the
best, the Gerry best, has never yet
been half supplied, and that the de.
maLd comes from such source that
it matters but little what price is
put upon it, SO that it does not sa-
vo: OF sheer extortion. With an
average price of twenty-five cents
per pound for a good, staple article,
many diaries have this year brought
from spring to fall, right through
the worst summer weather, forty
cents pound; some others have
brought sixty cents, some few at
seventy-fve to eighty cents, and
others for still more. But what
shall we say of those which have
brought only ten cents, and up to
twenty-five cents? Any person who
has kept the run of any of the large
markets does not need to be told
that this division is by no means
meager in quality.
We would not be understood to
say that there is more poor butter
produced at the present time than
heretofore, but that the improve
ments in the manner Of manufacture
do not keep pace with the demar d
for better quality than has hereto
fore answered the requirements OF
consumers.
One great fact that producers
overlook is, that the standard of ex-
cellencc among consumers is not
stationary. No sooner is their
standard of to-day reached by
the intelligent and painstaking pro-
Queer, than they are prepared to ask
for something still better, and, more
over, they are willing to meet the
producer half way, and pay him for
it. 1t is most consummate folly for
the producer to undertake to dictate
or control'the public taste. Call it
fancy, or fastidiousness, or folly, or
what you may or will, it is infinite
ly better to cater to it, than to at
tempt to establish any other stand
ard, and bring the public to accept
of it.-Cor. Live Stock and Farm
Journal.