The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1890-08-15

the start % cents per pound. st the end
of July the wholesale price was 2S cents:
in August. 80 cents; September, 81 cents.
October 9th it rose to 40 cents, and on
the oath Of November Mr.. Duel was
charged At cents a pound, and it held that
value until the last Of April, 1882, when it
stood at 40 cents. In the months Of De
cember, '83, and January, 81, the whole
sale price of creamery butter was 40 cents.
Cheese was then a profitable dairy pre-
duct, which, together with the prices re-
allied for the butter, enabled the a~ssocia-
ton to pay its patrons good prices for their
milk. Persons not members Of the asso-
citation were allowed to deliver milk at the
factory, bit the applications were so nu-
merous that many were refused.
About the time the milk-separators, or
milk-splitters as termed by some. come
into general use in creamerics, SKINNED
milk cheese became valueless as a dairy
product. The first separating machine
used in the Pilesgrove creamery was put
in operation April "a, 1885. The creamery
business was then a paying industry. BY
excessive competition, it would seem, the
business has been %oyerdone. Creameries
have sprung up in numerous places, and
almost every farmer has turned his atten-
ton to raising milk to sell to these cream
cries. As a consequence the supply of
butter has been enormously large and
prices extremely low.
The farmer wants a dollar a hundred for
the milk he sells in summer, and should
have it, but as the value of milk sold to
creameries is regulated. by the price of
butter, tie patrons do not always receive
as much pay as they expect. The farmer
knows what he will be paid for his grain,
potatoes and other farm products when
they are delivered into the hands of the
purchaser; but for the milk he takes to
the creamery there Is no fixed price. The
same rule established by the P~iIesgrove
Dairy Association from the time it com.
menced business, is, [ believe. praeticed
by every creamery in this part of the State.
The rule is that the patron shall wait if
teen days for his check after each months
delivery. In the meantime a careful sum-
mary is made of the sales of all the butter,
cream, whole and skinned milk disposed
of from the previous months delivery.
From the total sum is subtracted the labor
bills, supplies and fuel; then the account
ant prepares a payroll at the highest rate
per hundred weight the balance " i'll allow.
If the rate is 81 during the summer
months and $f.10 or s1.f5 through the
winter, the patron is satisfied. but if in
summer he is paid 70 or 20 cents per hun
dred he complains that it is not enough,
and some may entertain the idea that the
creamery owner is taking advantage of
his patrons.
Not long ago the writer heard a proml-
nent Salem county dairyman and creamery
patron remark that 1.-THE creameIies keep
their hands under all the time and pay the
farmer what they choose to give Let
us for a little while look into the business.
The milk from some diaries will yield five
pounds Of butter to a hundred pounds of
milk. Other diaries will not make over
three pounds. The creamery receives and
pours into one vat the best and poorest.
Four pounds to the hundred is considered
a fair yield from creamery milk. At 25
cents a pound the factory realizes 81, and
a few cents more for the SKINNED milk.
When butter nets the manufacturer 30
cents per pound, if the milk supply is
good. be can make the hearts of the farm
ers glad as we'll as his own. But when
the returned bills of sales show only 16
and II cents, and small sales of cream,
how can the creamery satisfy its patrons?
This summers supply of butter and cream
has had a bad influence on the creamery
business in this section. 4 Philadelphia
commission dealer writes that never be-
fore was he so oFerrun with butter as in
the months of May and June.
Ten years ago the milk raising industry
had not attained the proportions it has to-
day. Ten years ago the Salem ice cream
manufacturers would drive ten miles Oh
a Sunday for a few cans of cream to keep
up with their orders. Ten years ago. when
creameries were not so plenty, they made
money. In the last ten years they have
rapidly multiplied. The farmers have
thrown the churn in the garnet and the set
of tin milk pans are rusting from want of
use. They are raising milk to sell and
constantly increasing the capacity of their
dairy. John Q. Davis, one of Salem's ice
cream manufacturers, in a late letter to
the Salem papers, says that the milk in
dustry is being overdone, and the farmers
have got the Cow craze" Growing COM
petition in the ice cream business in diff
ferent parts of the country has perceptibly
affected the creameries in Salem county
and else W here.
In a word, then, if the farmer is not sat
isfied with the current creamery prices, he
should not cast censure upon the manager,
who, if unable to pay a dollar. will do the
next best thing by fixing the rate as high
as the sales OF his products will allow.
PANTsINRooTs.