The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-12-13
CREAMERY AGENT FINDS NEW FIELD Succeeds In SwindIing South
 ern Farmers OTHER WELLS PUMPED DRY Game Is To Get Binding Subscriptions To Build Creamery at About Dou-
 bIe Real cost-Imports
 Manager.
OTHER WELLS PUMPED DRY
From the New York Sun.

From the NeW 1oTh ouil.
 Experiment, Ga.-The creamery promot- ing shark is busy again, this time in the southern states where the efforts toward greater diversification of farming have re- suited in a large interest in dairying.
 Slow to take up the improved methods of cultivation, the southerner was shun- ned by the creamery promoters. who had all the business they could attend to else where. Now the older wells have been pretty well pumped dry. but a new one opens; so hitherward have come the clever men who get farmers to build creameries in sections which do not have enough cows to make the operation of a dairy profitable and equip them with machinery worth about one-half what 1t costs them.
 Representatives of the United States department of agriculture and of the ag- ricultural experiment stations in the various southern states have determined to put a stop to the operations of these awindlers-that's what the officials call them. Prominent among the crusaders is c. L. Willoughby, head of the depart ment of dairying in the Georgia experi- ment station here.
 Tt seems that our southern farmers are determined to be humbugged," says MT. willoughby. ''in spite of all the present day agencies that are honestly endeavor- ing to educate and uplift them and lead them in the pathc of peace and plenty. The various state departments of agri- culture the state agricultural colleges and experiment stations, and even the federal dairy division all stand ready to give advice and help in such matters but evidently the people do not choose to hear
 Some of us have thought that the era of the creamery promoting shark was for ever closed in the United States, but in Georgia at least these confidence men are once more conducting their disgraceful work and finding many communities as gullible and responsive to their wiles as if the game were new in the worlds his- tory"
 Mr. Willoughby has made careful study of the wildcat creamery fnancier- ing in the south and knows all the tricks of the promoters.
 Tt is hardly necessary to say" MT. Will loughby explained It a paper which was read to the commissioners of agriculture of the southern states at their recent con vention in Nashville, Tenn, that the principal object of the promoter is to get all the money he can from any commit nifty that will take hold of his propo- sition It is difficult to find many local ities which have as many as 300 cows in milk (that many are needed to make creamery prohtab<e), but this does not 4l,1 r,11fa nf the plants built this year have from 75 to 100 cows for support sending from 500 to 800 pounds of milk per day, yielding about 50 pounds of butter dally.
 "The promoter is quite willing to spend his valuable time canvassing among the farmers securing subscriptions to stock of the creamery, which later turns out to be promissory note for hard cash at the bank. You may be sure that he does not do this for mere glory, although he paints wonderful pictures for the far mer of a large weekly pay check, in- creased fertility of the soil by keeping cattle, etc. As a matter of fact, he gets a higher price for his time than a life insurance agent writing 900 worth of business daily, and has less mercy when pay day comes around than the most cal culating pawnbroker of New York city.
 The principal mode of graft used by these sharks is in the lies told about the cost of building the creamery and fur nishing the proper machinery ready for operation. They invariably put in more machinery than the plant needs and rate it at prices nearly double the actual cat alogue price. For example, in a cream cry recently built the building and ground are worth only $2400. yet the stockholders are under contract to pay $495O for this little outfit. A new creamery with bet ter building and a somewhat more expen- sive plot of ground could be erected for about $3500, yet the price set by the pro- moter is $6000
 Another ingenious method of parting the stockholders from their money is to p assure them that a butter maker from the Elgin district is absolutely necessary, So they send down a high-priced man, costing from $75 to s100 a month, to make 75 or 100 pounds of butter a day, when he could just as well make 600 pounds. As result the cost of making butter runs from or up to or cents a pound when under proper conditions it might be reduced to 1 or 2 cents.
 "As already indicated, the dishonest and interruptions promoter Is the origi- nator of the trouble. But it does seem that these men have the backing of the supply houses that furnish plans and ma chinery. If this is true, I would con- sider the firms that send out secret agents of this sort as even more deserving of contempt than their hired tools. Such business methods must result in their own discredit in the end, from having their machinery returned or sent to the scrap heap"