The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1897-07-21

| June .12h c 12c
The farmer who milks his cows and
| hauls the product five to eight miles
every day will never realize fortune
at these prices. 1t is too narrow mar
| gin and is directly due to the vast in
| crease in the output and the building
! of new creamerieS all over the west.
| Colorado was once the Kansas cream
| cry product market. Butter sold for "a
cents on board cars in central and west
| ern Kansas eight years ago; now it
sells a 16 6cents a retail and butterfat
| instead of being So cents a pound as it
was six to eight years ago is little more
| than one-third as much Scarcely a
pound of Kansas butter is shipped to
Colorado. The creameries of the state
are rapidly increasing and are supply
ing the home need. The Kansas product
must seek market elsewhere and is
shipping south and eaSt-and hopes to
ship to London. Texas is taking great
deal.
A young man who went to Galveston
a year ago without money to pay
weeks board, began taking Kansas
butter to the houses and selling 1t out OF
basket. He now has horse and cart
and is making a nice income. He is
contemplating adding bottles of Pas
teurized cream from the northern
creameries to take the place of boiled
milk served with coffee and oatmeal. 1t
ought to be an appreciated innovation.
One of the mysteries of the Kansas SyS-
tenn of buying milk from the farmers
is the test.
1t causes a constant friction between
the creamery manager and the patron.
1t has been in operation but four or five
years. Before that the milk was paid
for by weight. The price reached as
high as 1.20 for 100 pounds in 1892 and
was once in 1889 as low as As cents per
hundred. It was found, however, that
farmers were raising cows that supplied
a vast amount of poor milk and also
that some dishonest ones water the lac
teal fluid. Then the test system was
I'd cd
tube into which is put sample OF milk
brought in by each patron and it ind1-
Gates what per cent of the milk is put
terfat" or the unSalted, unwOrked eS-
sence of butter Each days milk is
weighed and tested and at the end of
the month the number of pounds OF
butterfat averaging to the pounds of
milk is paid for at the price fixed by
the creamery company.
1t is said by the creamery men that
the test is gra dually raising in Kansas,
showing that better cows are kept. The
average test of the Belle Springs
creameries one of the largest in the
state was in 1895 3.91, or 3.91 per cent
of the milk was butterfat; in 1896 it was
g 95: in June, this year. it was 3.91, max
ing the price paid for last months milk
by weight 1854 cent per 100 pounds. But
the patron objects to the creamery man
both fixing the price to be paid and
and ma king the tests too. Several plans
have been proposed to make this test
satisfactory, one being to elect a coun-
ty tester and another to have
all the crea meries of county
choose a test inspector. like a railroad
watch inspector, who should see that
the workings of the test are correct.
Many farmers have purchased testers
and keep their own record, many test
ing each cows milk to see if she is
profitable or not. This kind of farmers
are succeeding.
The cooperative creamery idea is
growing rapidly, the farmers thus
having a direct interest in the manage
ment. The margin of profit is so low,
however, that the expense of a single
cooperative creamery is proportionate-
ly larger that that of a station which is
one of a large number managed by a
single company and the latter is fire.
quently able to pay more for milk than
the former on this account.
The eastern states have most of their
creameries run on the plan of great
chains along a line of railway. The
most notable example is proba bly, the
St. Adams creameries along the Yer
mont Central railroad. A special milk
train is run over the road to carry the
cream from the outlying stations to the
churning stations, and to take the hard
yellow butter to the Boston markets.
This product goes to the hotels and
club rooms and that manufactured in
the evening is on the breakfast tables
of the epicures the next morning. A
speciality is made of fine goods and the