The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1896-02-13
A BELIEVER IN cREAMERIEs.

e. e. Paddock. after spending several
months among relatives in the east, is back
in Oregon and is looking for place in
which to locate with view to engaging in
some merchantile pursuit. He says, if any
thing, times are better in Minnesota and
Wisconsin than in Oregon. This he ac-
counted for by the diversity of productions
in that portion of the country in which he
has been visiting. That section he says has
developed wonderfully during the past few
years. Land that sold for $50 and $40 per
acre, five and six years ago has doubled in
price.
Mr.. Paddock spent several weeks in Data
ma, Steele county, Minn., and it was there
that he noticed the most Improvement. The
town had increased in population from 8 800
to 5000 within the last five years. One of
the principal industries is that Of dairying.
In Steele county there are. aow no less than
fifteen or twenty creamories, which are con-
Quoted on the cooperative plan. Their out
put commands good prices. creamery butter
seldom bringing less than twenty y-fve cents
per pound. Stock and grain growing are
also given attention bv the farmers there,
but there arc very few indeed, who devote
their energies exclu>ively to single pur-
suit. That is what Mr.. Paddock believes to
be tho trouble with many Oregon farmers
today: They raise too much grain and too
little Of other produce.
A few years ago in Steele county, Mr..
Paddock says land was cheap and most of
the farms were heavily encum bored, but
those farmers who have diversified their in
terests, and especially those who have given
considerable attention to dairying, are now
mostly out of debt, and prosperous. In
Oatana the two banks have deposits aggrega-
ting over 100000, more then one half Of
which belongs to well-to-do farmers in the
neighborhood.
People will Of cource argue that the busi-
ness of dairying can be overdone, but these
are groundless fears. There ought to be at
least fifty creamerics in the Willamette val
ley, Mr.. Paddock thinks. Itwould then be
possible for Oregon dairy products to find
an eastern market. There is no reason why
Oregon butter should not com mand as high
price as that manufactured in the north
west. Good creamery butter is always iii
demand in Boston, New York and other
eastern cities, and throughout the year sells
readily at from 25 to 80 cents per pound. II
the business was gone into quite generally, it
would thon be possible to market our dairy
products in the far east in carload lots. OF
course three thousand miles seems a long
distance to ship butter, but we are market
ing our fruit in the east, and there is no
plausible reason why other commodities can
not be disposed of there as proftably as
prunes, piums, pears and cherries. Products
that can not be disposed Of in tho local m ar
kets must be raised in sufficient quantities to
parmit of their shipment in car loads, other
wise the freight will eat up q large share of
the profits.
In this connection Mr.. Paddock spoke OF
the advantages that had accrued to shippers
Of green fruits during tho past season in To-
calities where large quantities were grown.
This was practically illustrated in Corvallis
last fall when the first car load of green fruit
was shipped from this point. No single
grower had tho necessary ten tons Of fruit
for car. and it was only after considerable
solicitation that local growers were induced
to form pool and chip together and thus
take advantage of rates offered on carload
lots. Had less fruit been grown, there
would not have been car load to market,
and consequently no shipment would have
been made from Corvallis. Thus it is plain
to be seen that the more fruit grown in any
locality the batter will be tho facilities az
forded for shipping and marketing same;
and what is true with regard to the fruit in
dustry is a'so true of darying.
Mr. Paddock says that the Willamette
valley is naturally better adapted to stock
raising and dairying thaa any portion of
the east that he visited. Corn, clovor, and
the various grasses used for feed, grow more
luxuriantly in Western Oregon than per-
haps in any other locality in the United
States, while the mild winters and cool sum
mers Of this section reduce the expense of
carrying on the business to minimum.
When this Willamette valley turns its at
tsntlon more to dairying, stockraising and
fruitgrowing and less 10 grainraising, Mr..
Paddock remarked, it will begin to prosper
as never before and will eventually become
one of the wealthiest and most populous sec
tions of the United States.