Middletown transcript., 1904-10-22
COOPERATIVE CREAMERY
Communicated
BrNGmAMToN, N. Y, Oct. 10th, 1904.

| Communicated.
| BINGHAMToN, N. Y, Oct 10th, 1904.
EDITOR OF The TRANscRIPT.
DEAR SIR On September 29th the
Nep Era o' I;ddletown, published two
column az !: Z which evidently was writ
ten by C,o6 & Brady's butter maker.
sent copy Of the article to Mr.. E. R.
Hardness, Secretary and Treasurer of the
Delhi, N. Y. Cooperative Creamery
Company, plant which L built four
years ago. Mr.. Hardness replies to the
article under date of October 4th, and l
send the same to you for publication if
| you have space in this weeks issue of
1 your paper for it.
In addition to the SIS, 900 paid in cash
to the patrons | beg to state that on
account of the large amount of business
that the cooperative creamery is doing it
was necessary for them to increase the
capacity of their plant. In doing this
they added an addition which cost them
little over 1000 together with the
purchase of land which cost 81, 900 more ::
this with other Improvements together
with nearly $1,000 worth of milk cans
you can see that the value of the plant
has been doubled. This has all been paid
out of the earnings of the plant, excepting
about $1,000 OF extra stock which the
Company issued which gives the inyes-
tors 30 per cent. dividend per annum on
his original investment, besides the extra
amount of cash that he received for his
milk more than he would have had he
taken the same milk to the Borden plant.
Hoping that you will kindly publish
Mr. orly cfa thar xuith
this explanation and thanking you in
advance for so doing, l remain
Yours truly.
T. B. FLOYD.
To 7. B. FLOYD Il notice an article
published in the NeD Era in the issue
dated September Goth, 1904, entitled
Looking into the Creamery Question"
in which the writer quotes the manager
of the Delhi Cooperative as his authority
for many of his statements. Almost all
of these statements are SO far from the
facts and are SO misleading as to demand
a statement of the real facts involved.
In the fall of 1900, the patrons OF Bor-
denis plant at Delhi. N Y, demanded
raise Of five cents above the price offered
for the Winter milk this demand was
refused, and as result the Delhi Coop
erative Creamery was built. The plant
as originally built, was 100x32 feet, and
an ice house of the same Dimensions,
equipped with all modern appliances for
making butter and also one of the largest
bottling machines and sterilizing ovens
were installed, making the cost of the
plant much greater than that required
for butter factory alone.
This plant opened for business on April
1st, 1901. with 4S patrons and was in
creased to 50 patrons by October 1st, and
at the end of the first year had reached
120 patrons and had actually paid to its
patrons the sum OF S., ,3l5. 60 more for the
milk than it would have brought at Bor-
den's price, At the second annual meet
ing in January, 1903, it was apparant to
the company the plant was too small to
accommodate those who had expressed a
desire to become patrons, and an addition
of Sc feet was added to the original build
ing. Judging from the amount the addi-
tions above mentioned cost, and it was
all done by the day under competent
and practical carpenter, the Company did
not pay an exorbitant price for the orig
inal plant.
The article referred to says, "This past
Summer they had to go back and begin
replacing the promoters work by putting
in new boilers in place Of those, only
three and one-half years in use," when
in fact we are using to-day the same boiler
the same separators and the same churn
and they are all doing first-class work.
The number of persons employed by
this Company the past season was Is, as
stated, but we took in for the first half of /
June over 10000 pounds of milk daily,
and when Borden's plant handled 20, 1000
pounds of milk less daily, they had over
so persons. The same article says, This
Cooperative Creamery Company is now
several thousand dollars in debt and has
never yet paid dollar in dividends on
their stock" while the facts are we owe
81 900 OIL the site for which the Company
was compelled to pay 81, 900 for five acres,
because some one who wanted the milk
tried to prevent us from buying any site.
As to dividends this Company has paid
its patons over S75, 900 more for the milk
it has taken than Borden's would had
paid. This Company had lSO patrons
for the past six months and only IL have
gone to Borden's for the Winter. and not
one of these had check for $500, as
SIdbGu ny tllo cPOhoOhes
Borden's only claim to have "a dairies
on contract after two weeks of hustling
around among the farmers instead of 80
on contract day at noon." If this corre-
spondent had extended his tour of in
spection a little farther and taken in
Boyina Creamery, Bovina Center Cream
Aimeda and half dozen other creameries
a. e. nato - ho
would find them all doing successful
business, 80 that the Cooperative cream
ery movement has not been financial
bubble bursting over the milk producers
heads, but has proven real bonanze
as a comparison OF the prices paid by
Borden's before these Cooperative Cream
prices to-day will prove.
Why have these prices gone up 25
cents per 100 pounds of milk? Let those
who have been eye witnesses to these
things answer and the response will be
"Co-operative Creameries have compelled
this advance"
that they are not different from any other
Trusts when they have the milk produc-
ton in their grasp or when there is no
other place to dispose of this milk pro-
duct except to these stock Companies
who can arbitrarily fix price and make
regulations as to feed to suit themselves.
The old maxim, Competition is the
life of business" is as true to-day as even,
and the average business capacity Of the
American farmer is very much above
what it was generation ago, and every
community has some farmers whose busi-
ness capacity has been tried put such
men at the head of the Cooperative
Creameries and success is sure.