The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-05-08
THE DIARY BUSINESS.
Pays Only Seven Per Cent, on the In-
vestment, SO the Farmers Want a

Trust.
From the New York Sun.
IF, as they persistently declare, the
dairy farmers of this country are los
ing money every year in the milk busi-
ness, owing to the way the are ground
down in prices, a business of gigantic
proportions is going to pieces" said a
milk dealer. "They have the neat sum
of $4,000, 900, 900 invested in farms, stock,
etc. About 60, 900, 900 acres of this fair
land of ours are given up to the pas
turing OF their $4,000, 600 cows, and as
many more acres are necessary to sup
ply those cows with hay and fodder.
To do the work about the dairy farms
requires the services of 100000 men and
more than 100000 horses. The dairy
farm stock bovine and equine, eat 30,-
| 100000 tons of hay, 10000, 900 bushels of
corn, 100000 bushels of corn meal.
S5,000,000 bushels of other meals, and
100000 bushels of bran a year, to say
| nothing of the 275,00O, 900 bushels of
oats that horses alone eat. The prov
ender for all that live stock costs $780,
900, 900 year, and the 1901 900 laborers
on the farms receive $175,0 900 a year
for their work. The machinery and
| implements used in the dairy business,
! just as they stand, new and second
| hand. represent an investment of $780,
| 900, 900.
Now. of course, the farmers ought to
| know whether they are losing money or
not in the dairy business. They say
| they are. Statistics say that the aver
| age COW will yield 450 gallons of milk
year If that is so, the cows of this
country are giving down $3.50, 100000
| gallons every twelve months. Of course,
a good share of this goes into butter
and cheese, but the receipts from that
| are calculated to be about the same
| per gallon of milk used as If it had
| been sold as milk. / guess Il cents a
| gallon is fair estimate of the price
| the farmer receives for that milk
which will figure up return to them
| of $Sl0,000,0 900 a year. Help and feed
| not counting the sweet-scented brew
cry grains which the honest farmer
! gives his stock by way of change
cost $575,OO0,0O0 q year. Throw in $lO,-
100000 more, say, to cover the cost of
brewers grains and incdentals, and
the dairy farmers spend $5S5, 100000 a
year to keep their farms running and
get their produce to market. Accord
ing to the figures this leaves a trife of
S?25, 900, 900 to their credit for the year s
| business This isn't much, of course,
1t is only a little more than per cent.
on the investment, but even at that it
| doesn't look as If the dairy business
was going to pieces very fast, or that
| the farmers were knocking very hard
at the pOorhouse door for admttance.
by the way, isn't it the farmers
who are doing so much calamity shout
ing against trusts? Seems to me it is,
but then how is it that they are busy
just now getting up a trust of their
own? The dairy farmers, l mean-es-
pecially the milk farmers who supply
New York with milk. They are at it.
They are holding meetings all through
the dairy regions, and their trust is to
be known as the Five States Milk Pro-
ducers' association, and the avowed
purpose of it is to control all the milk
that is shipped, with a view to enforc-
ing higher prices" The five states are
New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey
Massachusetts and Connecticut. Those
terrible bugaboos to the down-trodder
farmer, the sugar trust and the OF
trust, reduced the prices of their pro-
ducts 80 or 100 per cent, and here the
farmers themselves are combining tc
increase the price of theirs. Where is
| LeXOW?"