The Farmville herald. [volume] (Farmville, Va.) 1890-1934, 1907-01-11
THE REAL VALUE OF MILK.
Argument TO show That the Butter
Fat IL Contains Should Deter
mine Its Worth


Much is written and said aea.ust %
fat standard for milk. and as 90 the
aiyiabli.ty of buying and selling milk
on its fat value Most of lhe oplosi-
tion comes from those WHO aye not
practical milk producers. and from
breeders of low-test.ug breeds of cate
tlo Just for au Illustration oI what
this method can accomplish and ass
proof .0 sustain 30. we wl give. says
Country Gentleman. the results found
u some sections 0f Sew York within
f.. fw weeks. all of them In
place. where there is barge PATRONAGE.
40 0a. place. with @ patronage of
So. where USE years ago. when tee iat
test v introduced. not ten per cent
of f.a 0.n would show four per cent
Of fat af ur. sent of The So patrons only
eight haze mills under four per cent.
and the we sheet shows that with
an increase of rear'y one per cent in
faL there i- little f amy difference in
the amount o. milk produced per COVE
The facts at tns plant are true of the
others. on TIE other hand. wo have
found other plants with about tlo
same patronage that are sim on tle
lowest limit of fat where they have
been and stil are paying s0 much per
100 pounds. regardless of fat, and their
milk sheets Go not show very much
If any greater yield of milk per COW.
This is an object lesson tO amy proc
gressiYe daluman. and ought ,o he
sufficient evidence in favor OF the faf-
test plan of purchase and sale of m.Ik
If &c necessitated the outlay ol large
amounts of money or any great trol-
bic. it might be reasonable 90 say tiot
ID would not pay TO build mp herds
that would test four per cent and oot-
ter But this is not necessary. AN
that one has 10 do is simply 90 do .n-
diridual testing. and weed out alI COWS
that run low in fat Having done this
you have accomplished what we are
advocating. and one w.il never know
where the cost of the change comes
in. 40 one win maintain at this date
that the food TO produce four TO five
per cent. of fat in milk costs amy more
than that which produces from three
t0 four pen cent Besides. it does make
dairyman feel rather ashamed when
the months prices come out Go find
that his milk has brought him perhaps
% cents TO 81 per 100 pounds. while
his neiehbor may take Sl10 t0 Sll5;
and when that ratio Of difference pre-
walls ON the thousands of pounds do.if-
cred in a month. it amounts t0 quite
sum. ass compared with the sale oi O.
single 100 pounds.
40 one viii dispute that ln Che sale
of almost any other commodity and
especially SD in everything except
foods. we never consent to sei other
than on the basis of quality and we
are satisfied that none of those who
are opposing the fat-test proposition
would consent 90 buy or sen anything
else ass they demand milk should Doe
sold that is. an qualities at the same
price which method is one chat cane
not encourage anyone 90 The doing Of
/ better work. We have never found q
single instance where The fat-tost plan
of purchase has not raised the quality
To carry the reasoning farther and
illustrate the unfairnoss of selling all
qualities at one price, how many mon
can be found who win sell a horse
or cow for a price that one man may
have sold an inferior one for-or sim
more TO the point sell each for $50
much per 100 pounds?
We know Of one company that han-
died milk 60 the year 1905 90 the
amount of more than 100000, ali
which was purchased ON the plan of SD
much per 100 pounds, regardless of fat.
and we are quite sure that very little
If any dividends were paid TO The
stockholders. 90 whom it was a great
mystery that on that large business
something could not be made beyond
the expense of operation The loss
came from the fact that every month
/ they took in thousands of pounds of
/ milk for which they paid much more
/ than it's actual value in either butter
or cheese. and 70 took from the profit
made ON the good milk (0f which they
had CONSIDERABLE go much to logel up
the poor quality that there was moth
ing left for dividends on The stock of
the company Does anybody really
want 90 do business on that p'an or
ask other people 90 do sol!