Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1906-03-15
George Thayer Sees Them Every
where Else and Wonders
About Marshalltown
BIG DEMAND FOR BUTTER
A Rural Route Traveller Believes a
Successful Creamery Would Net
Nearby Farmers as Much Cash Profit
as the Pay Roll Of One of Our Lars.
est Factories.

Why does Marshalltown not have s.
with the same general farming coun-
try have them, and upon talking with
number of grocerymen in the city l
find this to be their explanation: That
the city trade demands country but
ter; that the price Of creamery butter
is prohibitive most of the time, and
that there is not enough milk produced
around Marshalltown to supply the
wants of this city, to say nothing of
supplying creamery. 1t seems that
there has never been creamery in
Marshalltown, but that a cheese fac
tory or two has been tried and failed
for want of a milk supply.
Now, it would seem to me that if
towns like Mason City, Waterloo
Sioux City and Des Moines can OPP
crate creamerles Marshalltown can do
likewise. If we have not the cows to
supply the milk and prices go high
enough people will get more cows. For
instance, consider the Soldiers Home
1t is a large institution and consumes
q vast quantity of milk and it requires
one hundred cows to furnish the milk;
when the demand came the cows were
found. 1t is estimated that it takes
fifteen hundred cows to supply this
city alone. Sioux City has cream
%1,ok IT, 1,1 80
cream per day. Does it look as though
there was a shortage of cows up that
way? Grinnell is handling 1000
pounds per day at an average price
of % cents, or doing a business of
about $1,000 per day. To be sure the
milk is not all produced by the farm
ers around Grinnell alone, in fact they
have an agent right here in MARSHALL
town, who is shipping them cream
brought in by our own farmers every
day. One business man said to me,
you can't get farmers to sell their
cream when they can make it into but
ter and get % cents per pound, our
price today. But if that same farmer
could bring his cream in and get 70
cents per pound and not do the work
Of churning, think he would do So
which he can, as the: Grinneu creamery
agent is paying % cents for anything
that tests better than 80 and its poor
cream that won't do that.
The creameries at Roland, Gearing,
State Center and in fact all these
towns depend entirely upon To-
cal farmers for their supply OF milk,
while the larger towns reach out for a
hundred miles in every direction Tor
their supply. The creamery at Rolano
has it is said, over 800 patrons, some
milking as high as forty COWS. Tue
farmers have grown rich from milk.
If we had creamery here it would
be necessary to have large number OF
farmers take an interest and agree 70
milk stated number of cows. AT NC
Callsburg they are starting farmers
creamery. They want at least 6oo
cows to begin with-a small NUMBER.
One t11ousand could be found close
enough to Marshalltown to be be used.
Now it is a poor COW which will not
net her owner "a a month. This on
1 900 cows would pay to the farmers
around Marshalltowm close to $4,000
per year, more than the pay roll OF
some of our largest factories like the
I.ennox Furnace Company, the Short
hill Company and others. This money
would most of it find dts way back TO
our merchants.
If our Commercial Club could find a
factory that would pay out in wages
such sum of money yearly they would
move mighty lively to locate it here.
For a small outlay creamery capable
of handling this amount OF business
could he built complete for close to-
$4,000. The stock would tbe largely
taken by the farmers themselves.
Most of the merchants talked with
favor of a creamery here at home and
would gladly help such move along
Every store / called on, is handling
creamery butter made in the smaller
towns around us-the condition of the
roads making it hard to get country
butter, SO we are paying our money to
the farmers, around State, Center and
Grinnell, that, had we q creamery,
would be going to our own farmers.
It Is not every farmers wife who can
make good butter-in fact the mer-
chants say that only so per cent can do
so. I asked what become of the balance,
he said, some quit making, others take
4 lower price and it goes to the renovator
and is sent back Here is some of it,
but to the creamery it is not a ques-
ton Of ability to make butter but Of
making cream which one farmer can
do as well as another.
The county fair proposed is a good
suggestion and should be followed up,
but it would seem to me that a cream
cry which would run every day in the
year, would be of far greater benefit to
the town as we'll as the farmers