Los Angeles daily herald., 1889-10-19
A STEADY DRAIN (.
The Dollars Sent Away An
nually for Butter.
ABOUT TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND
The Country Produces Only Small
Fraction of What it Uses-Rea-
sons Why This is So.


bill he finds that butter forms q very
conspicuous element in it. If he is re-
cent settler he will recall the price that
he paid in the East and will discover
that here it is just about double what it
was there. He will console himself with
the thought chat the money he pays out
will 60 to help the farmers Of the vicinity,
who are the country's best developers.
If he really knew just where the money
which he pays out for this article went,
and how little good it did to the locality
in which he lives, the citizen would
lament more bitterly the high price of
butter.
OF all the butter used in Los Angeles
and vicinity, it is estimated by commits
sion men and railroad authorities that
not more than one-thirtieth, or perhaps
e-iftieth, is produced in this county.
The rest, which is such large part that
it is practically all, comes either from the
East or from the North. What is quoted.
as California. butter comes for the most
part from Lompoc and Santa Maria In
Santa Barbara county, or from San Luis
Obispo county. 1t is manufactured by
trained Swiss and German butter makers
in creameries, which use the milk pur-
chased from the farmers of the neighbor-
hood.
Since the 1st of August the Southern
Pacific has brought 179,224 pounds of
butter into the city. The Santa Fe dur
ing somewhat shorter period, from the
LIST of August to the 1st of September,
has brought in $50 pounds, making
a total Of 321, ,804 pounds in space Of
two months. For this butter the whole
sale dealers pay an average of 20 cents
pound. During this space Of time it
may be estimated that the people of Los
Angeles have paid out about $65, 900 for
butter shipped in here for the most part
from the East. 1t would seem
that the total annual outlay would be
something over $500 900, but the months
of July, August, September and October,
when feed is scarcest in Southern Cali
fornia, are the months when most butter
is imported. The total importation to
September LIST during 1889, over the
Santa Fe, was $4,000 pounds. The
Southern Pacife's figures for this period
are not at hand, but supposing that they
are about the same, total for the year
will be about 500 600 worth of butter
purchased by Los Angeles from producers
living, for the most part, east of the
Rockies.
Here is illustration of the state
of things prevailing in this vicinity with
regard to the manufacture of butter: !:
Tustin is in the very heart of tha best
farming country in this section; yet q
certain storekeeper in that town pays q
well-known commission firm of this city
about 500 month for eastern butter,
which he sells to the farmers of Orange
county. There could scarcely be more
trenchant commentary on the situation
than such fact as this. 1t might also
be added that hay can be bought in the
vicinity of Tustin at the absurdly low
price of SO or 81 ton.
Producers who have made careful
study of the situation, declare that it
would be perfectly possible for Los An
geles and Orange counties to make
every pound of butter which they have
occasion to use. Three elements enter
into such a calculation-the stock, the
feed, and the manufacturing of the
butter. There is probably no place in
the United States where, emitting for
the present the question of feed, cows
could be maintained and cared for more
easily than in this section. Light struc-
lures will suffice for barns; they
need, in fact, scarcely any pro-
lection from the inclemencv of the
weather, and they will be free from many
of the diseases which will beset them in
the East. As to feed, en- acre in this
country can be made to produce three or
four times as much as it will in the East.
Facts of this sort are too well known to
need repetition. On these points there
can be no question: The stock can be
readily obtained, and the feed for it the
manufacture of the butter is q different
matter.
For this the establishment of large
creamerieg with the cooperation of the
farmers of district, appears to be alb
solutely necessary. The method which
is at present in vogue among the pro-
ducers of the county, that of each one
working by himself with his oVn mach
inery and labor to manufacture butter
from the milk of his cows, no longer
exists in the localities of the Coast where
butter ia made on any large scale. Butter
making has become science and is not
within the reach of a careless and
hasty experimenter. To it's success ex.
pensive and complete machinery is nec-
essary. The farmer who tries to work
up the milk produced on his own ranch
into butter will not only fail to make q
profitable job of it, but he will not make
good butter. OF the butter manufactured
in this county large part is not well
made. The farmers are not supplied
with proper machinery, and they cannot
hope, except with the expenditure
of an infinite deal of pains and
of labor, to equal that made in
the eastern and northern creameries.
What is needed under the circum-
stances is cooperation among the farm
ers for the building of these creameries.
Several places seem by their location
with respect to one another peculiarly
fitted to enter into such cooperative
plan. Downey, Norwalk and West
minister, for example, form district
where creamery might. profitably be
located, and Santa Ana, Tustin and Or.
ange form another. AS soon as these
creameries are built there will be
an increased demand for the milk,
and the farmers will begin to add
to their stock of cows, and provide for
more feed for the dry season of the year.
The time will come beyond question
when the producers of the section will
wake up to the opportunity which
they are leaving neglected, and will CO.
operate in the way that is needed for
success.
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