Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1898-04-21
Extracts from the Forthcoming An
nual Report of Dairy Com
missioner Boardman.
STATISTICS ARE FULL OF SUGGESTIONS.
preparing to Go to War If Necessary
No State Fair This Year-COn-
troversy Over a Safe for the His
torical Building =. other Notes OF
General Interest.
1snental correspondence

is nearly ready for dis
itribution. 1t contains much that is use
full and instructive, and its statistics are
full of suggestions. One OF the most
significant is the fact that the value
of creamery property has decreased
S50O,O0O during the year ended June
80, 1897, Notwithstanding the increase
,of 81 in the number of creameries. This,
says Commissioner Boardman, indi-
builders from the creamery shark"
the fellow who went around organizing
creamery companies and contracting to
put up the creamery and equip it at
very high price. Farmers desiring to
build cooperative crcameries have been
learning how badly they were swindlcd
by these spectators and have quit pat
ronizing them. The prices of creamery
machinery have gone down and the cost
of erecting the buildings has been re-
duced to business basis, so the value
of the creameries has been estimated
for this report at what it would cost
to replace them, which for the 773
and 11S skim stations is 3d.
$50, 149.
The reports show that the average
Iowa creamery is operated 1912 months
in the year and that they average 113
patrons each, owning 064 cows, or S.5
COWS to each patron. Compared to 1896,
this shows an increase of 9,049 patrons
and 78,647 cows. Basing his estimate
on reports actually received from AT
separator creameries, Mr.. Boardman es-
Inmates the average receipts of milk in
the separator creameries of Iowa at
=, 442 ,225 pounds, and an average pro-
sduction of 109,911 pounds of butter,
which would show a total for the 705
separator creameries of 1,722, 721, 1875
pounds of milk and 77,4S7 1855 pounds of
butter, an average of 22.2 pounds of
milk to the pound of butter. Adding
to this the total of the gathered cream
plants, and the total production of
creamery butter in the state is $780,
355 pounds, of which only ten per cent.
is consumed in the state. There has
been q net increase of 1880, AL pounds
in the amount of butter shipped out of
the state for the year ended September
30, 1897, as compared with the previous
year.
Mr. Boardman makes some interest
ing observations upon the statistics he
has gathered in regard to the patrons
of the creameries and the cows that
furnish the milk. He says:
THE additional number of cows contrib
~uting to the production of milk to be man
featured into butter at our creameries is
made up from two classes of farmers. One
that has not been engaged in the dairy
business heretofore, and the other that has
manufactured butter on the farm. Thus
the creamery system is fast decreasing the
quantity of butter manufactured on the
farm, and by modern improvements is
increasing the quantity as we'll as the quail
ity OF butter throughout the sections that
have been without creameries hitherto.
AS the number of cows has not materially
Increased in those sections of the state
where the creamery has been established
for some time, and as a general increase
in production has taken place, this in
crease must be attributed to one of two
things, or both. They are, that the patron
has been disposing of his Improbable COW
and replacing with better one, or that he
has learned better how to feed for the pro-
sduction of milk. There is no branch of the
dairy industry to-day that is as important
as the one here referred to, The Cow and
How to Feed Her. The reduction in the
cost of production is almost entirely IN
the hands of the patron. The cost of man
ufacturing may be slightly reduced in the
future, through improved methods and con-
.solidation of creameries and creamery ter
ritories, but a reduction in this direction,
though representing in the aggregate much,
cannot in any way be compared with the
amount that might be saved annually,
through the improvement of dairy herds
and feeding along scientific lines
No state Fair.
No state fair will be held this year,
but the business men of Des Moines are
trying to get up an entertainment, or
carnival week, to take its place. They
have not decided what it will be, but
they hope to raise about $4,000 TO
spend in some new spectacle. repre-
sentation of the blowing up of the
Maine has been proposed. The eXecu-
tive committee of the State Agricul-
tural society met April IL and 13. The
business men of Des Moines had been
given until April 12 to raise the guar
antee fund of $4,000 required by the di-
rectors of the fair to protect them
against loss. The raising of this money,
with sufficient to give the Semi ON Sed
carnival, was far from complete by
April IL, and the Des Moines business
men wanted more time. They did not
appear before the executive commit
tee of the fair, however, on the time
fixed, SO the committee, supposing the
money was not to be raised and glad to
lie freed from the obligation to hold
fair, declared it off and refused to re-
consider the decision when the Des
Moines men assured them the guaran-
tee would be forthcoming. The Off
,cials of the fair had heard so much op-
position to the idea of holding fair
this year that they felt it would be ex-
tremely foolish to go ahead in the face
of such opinion. From all over the
state it appears that the people are go
ing to the Mississippi exposition
in Omaha, and they will not go to that
and the state fair also.
The Legislature appropriated $1,000 to
help the State Agricultural society
through the next two years, with the
understanding that no fair should be
held this wear OF This sum CT 000 is