Idaho County free press. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho Territory) 1886-current, 1895-03-29
The Packing House Project.

Mcssrs. Durham and Ferris
were in town Monday, and by re-
quest met few of our representa-
tive business men in the parlors of
the Jersey House in the evening
and explained the plans connected
with the establishment of pack
ing house on Camas Prairie. Mr..
Dunham states that company
has been incorporated under the
laws of Illinois, with himself as
manager, with fully paid up cap
ital stock, and that they intend to
erect building and put in ma
chinery, the total cost of which
will be about 81 800. This plant
will have capacity of pack
ing 10000 hogs per year; but it is
not expected that the demand will
run above 5000 hogs the first year,
and this is the lowest number they
expect to handle. A cold storage
warehouse for beef, etc, cream
cry, soap factory and general can
ming business will be added to the
plant later. Considerable cash cap.
ital will be required to inaugurate
the business, and this is already
subscribed, so that they will pay
cash from the start for everything
they buy.
Mr.. Durham has been in the
packing business for twenty-five
years and knows what he is
about. He is highly pleased with
the advantages Of Grangeville. with
water power, distributing facilities
and ample feed for his hogs from
our two roller mills. and a third
mill at Mt. Idaho; and as he has
abandoned the idea of putting UP a
flour mill in connection with his
packing house, he may yet be in
duced to locate his enterprise in
this thriving metropolis. Such an
institution will be of great advant-
age to Camas Prairie and no mat
ter where located, it should be en-
couraged and supported by every
citizen in every locality.
Each community. especially an
isolated community like this, should
as far as possible produce all the
articles consumed in that COM
munity. We ship our wool 5000
miles to get it manufactured, and
then buy it back again in ready
made clothing. We ship our live
stock to a distant market to have
them slaughtered, and then buy
the meat back again, and the
hides in ready made boots and
shoes allowing the foreign manu-
facturer and dealer to fix prices
both ways is the surest way to
poverty and want. Under such a
system. no matter how much
money there may be in circulation,
those who follow this suicidal pol
icy will never have enough of it to
buy more than half the bare neces-
saries of life needed for a comforta-
BILE living. This mode of doing
business suits the wealthy manu-
facturer it suits the railroad COM
panies and suits the local mer-
chants; for all these make profit
out oft. The poor producer has no
recourse. He is the lamb to be
shorn. Only forty or fifty years
ago our mothers spun their own
wool, made their own cloth,
hacked their own flax and made
their own linen. Here and there.
even on Camas Prairie, some of our
aged mothers and grandmothcrs
still retain this formerly indispen-
sible art +; but it is unhappily dying
out, displaced by the machine
made product. Therefore we say
the packing house is as much a
step in the right direction as a
-four mill; its establishment should
be generally encouraged, no mat
ter where its management elect to
locate it.