Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1882-05-18
The Butter Industry.


/ Kansas Farmer.
The butter made in Kansas in the
year ending March /, 1881, as returned
by the local assessors was: By facto-
ries, 66,724 pounds; by families &c.
611,315 pounds, making grand total
of nearly 100000. Most of this
large quantity would not have sold as
town markets for more than ten or
l twelve cents per pound on an average.
When the summer, with its verdure
and heat CONES, the farmers wives
get less and less for their butter till it
runs down to six and five cents a
pound, when they cease to make for
market and feed the milk to pigs and
chickens, or throw it away. S)me
families, here and there one, have con
tracts to deliver butter weekly or
daily to purchasers at a fixed price per
pound for the year; but these pun
chasers are private persons who buy it
for their own use and not to sell.
We speak in general terms, of course.
and state, as fact, that millions, yes,
millions, of dollars annually, are lost
to the people of Kansas in this one
item of butter. Along the water
courses, and often by the bluffs and
ridges, good springs are used in the
preserving of butter, but on the rolling,
high prairies, where wells are the
only sources of water supply, the con-
veniences for making and preserving
butter are necessarily limited. It is
also true that many women do not
know how to make good butter; and
the general lack of encouragement be-
cause Of low prices, does not stimulate
them to efforts toward Improvement.
Given the same kind of feed, the same
grade of cews and similar con-
veniences, different persons will pro-
duce different grades of butter. This
rule obtains in all trades. Butter max
ing is no exception; but our attention
is now directed to that only. The in
ferior quality of the article taken to
market has much to do with the price:
but it is not all. Many purchasers do
not know good butter when they see it,
so that SO long as there is n demand,
all grades will find some price.
The most serious obstruction in the
way IS that our markets for butter are
almost wholly local. Not one country
merchant in a hundred in this state
thinks of shipping butter in the hot
months. In late fall, in winter and
early spring, he sends away some home
made butter, but not in the summer.
If he did. then our Kansas butter-mak-
ers would share in the foreign maket.
This is all because the butter generally
is not fit to ship; and that brings us to
the object in view in writing this ar
ticle
We want to suggest that if farmers
could or would arrange necessary con-
veniences about their premises for
making and preparing butter, so that
they could have the benefits of markets
away from home, at those times when
they are highest, it would be found a
great saving. It is difficult, we know.
in an open prairie country like Kansas
but we believe it is not impossible.
Trees, earth, rock and wells may be
had every place in the state. Butter
needs to be cool to be preserved. 1t
needs to be placed in clean, alright
vessels, where good ventilation main
tains a pure atmosphere. The butter
must be made properly, or it is not
worth preserving; but when it is so
made, and good place is ready to re-
ceive it, we believe that everywhere in
Kansas it may be saved good long
enough to be available when high pric-
es come.
We present the subject to elicit
thought. We are so far from the great
marts, that the cost of transportation
often cuts us off entirely; hence it be-
comes important that we waste moth
ing. Think of the value of 100000
pounds of butter at twenty-five cents
a pound. 1t makes four and quarter
millions Of dollars, more than the total
value of many single counties in the
state. Coming down to small sums.
one hundred pounds of butter is a low
average for even common cows in one
year. Five good COWS would give
milk enough for one thousand pounds
and that, at twenty-five cents, would
bring $3.50. Increase the number of
cows, and we increase the quantity of
butter. The subject is we'll worth
thought. Give the good women of our
state cows and conveniences for max
ing butter and they will furnish their
families with every needed comfort and
have a surplus for another cow or
horse every year.