The islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1891-1899, 1895-06-13

Every morning at these crean1erleS may
be seen long rows of farmers wagons
each with from six to twenty milk cans
tall tin jars holding IL dozen or more gal
Ions each Some of the wagons represen
single farms and are driven by girls o.
boys, or perhaps by the wife 1erself.-
Others have gathered up the milk from ;
whole neiohbOrhood and the driver j:
carrying out his agreement to haul thu
milk to market for week, taking hi:
turn with the rest.
| One by one the wagons drive up to tht
platform and the CANS are einptied Into /
| large receptacle, which is rolled upCi. &
pair Of scales and weighed. A compl;ca
ted apparatus is plunged in and the quail
! ity of the milk is tested, The figures o.
| weight and test are recorded and the milk
is poured into huge vat.
After this is done the churning, OF
Separating" as il is called i'm these days
! begins. The separator is a small machine
about the size of y half bushel measure
! Through it the milk passes and the CEN
trifugal force generated by the rapid mo-
ton of the machine throws the liquid &c
one side and the cream to the other. 20 be
aiterwaid churned, ooiored and pressed
into handsome yellcw bricks ready for
the fashionable trade o.. the large cities,
where it commands the highest prices.
Kansas City is a generous n, Ill et, Denver
and the mountain towns take large pOr-
ton and it goes also through the south
"a
There is always q market for it and the
express companies agents in every town
handle it more or less as ''sidc line"
Pure, sweet, deiicately favored, it can
not lie surpassed Ivy any home dairy on
earth. Tie ''skim milk" goes back to
tho farmer as hog feed.
The system Of payment is one of nearly
pure corporation. The creamery mana
ger, usually employed by a stock COM
pany, which includes most of the farmers
of the community, keeps a strict account
with each patron ana sells the butter TO
Of the month the receipts are pi opoi t oned
pro rata AIMING the milk producers, a
deduction having been made for expenses
and commissions.
Dickinson county, which leads the state
in the creamery business, has one firm
operating six rieamary stations for col
Letting ard separating the cream, which
is then sent to the central factory at Abil-
enc. These creameries pay out TO 600
farmers Sl2,00 TO Sis, 600 Il month, max ing
nearly 500, O02 in cash as an income from
the farm COWS that heretofore had pro-
duced probably not one half that amount,
because of lack Of market for the butter.
Probably no other class of creamery
patrons make so great success as the
River Brethren, the Cuaker-iike sect in
central Kansas. They we're in fact the
promoters of the industry and their line
of creameries is the largest in the state.
The women tase nearly al the care of the
COWS and the milk. In their trim white
caps and neat dresses they are the verit-
able milk maids of tradition, and not even
those of lands acToco the sea could present
q neater appearance. They handle the
milk with the skill born of long genera
tons CT successful ds.irying, fol before the
creamerics were started they We're the
producers OF the finest butter sold in the
state. Many Of the farmers among them
still have privatc creameries at their own
homes ill which they r,ake the finest OF
gilt edge butter. q. commodity that COM
mands the very highest price the year
around at the best hotel and home tables.
Fine creamery butter always finds a
market.
The one great secret and benefit of the
creamery industry is that it gives pern.a-
| nent and steady income. Drought OF
grasshoppors cannot interfere with it sc
long as enough food can be secured fol-
the COWS. With alfalfa and Kaffir corn
for fodder many farmers depend got al
all on hay Or corn, but SO Ga with theil
milking, making a steady increase in theil
bank accounts. To be sure creamery
would probably have lizard shedding il
western Kansas" but all through th.
eastern part of the state, particularly
where pasturc is more abundant than farm
land, tho COW can be made money maker
by this means.
The rules of the managers of the cream
cries are good for the farm, erss They com
pei cleanliness and good care in the stable!
regular milking and strict honesty il
the quality of milk. Whom quality as vel
as quantity is tested the pump-cow is a
a discount.
This syGtein encourages improv efnen
in stock and bnsiness-like methods il
farm oEarations-two eonsidera bic advan
tages. The varying results attained by
diffeiol farmers are seen in the record o
Dickinson eouHty's leading creamery TO
single month. Of its s25 patrons VIII
brought in milk, one received 97t cent
per hundred weight; four received 821 b
e5, ssven received S. Is: S7A; forty eigh
from S7i TO so; i0l from 80 TO S21, 12l fron
a24 to 95: leo from 90 to OF. l52 from 81 t
Si.25. and two went still higher, LAO ant
) SI.52 Per hundred pounds of milk. 1t 5
a hundred farm, or can make fine prof
and the fifteen ereameyies OF Dickinson
county witt, their total payment for mill
Of nearly o.000 year have no SINAI
influence on the county's prospefit
Their influence is spreading to neighboI
ing coa:Hiee a. d central Kansas is beeom
ing yell sprinkled with these institwtion
The, constant struggle OF the Kansa
: farmer has been toward a permanent in
! rome bringer The raising of cows an
the attendant cream cry industry give hiI