Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-07-27
WEST MAKING BUTTER
Banner Wrested From New
York as Greatest Producer.
INDUSTRY GROWS FAST
Cows Need Little Labor to Produce
Good Profit.
GOOD MONEY ALSO IN EGGS
Chicken-Raising Also Begins to Ap-
peal to Farmers of Nebraska, Iowa,
Wisconsin and Minnesota.
FOOD MONEY ALSO IN EGGS
BY WILLIAM r. CURTIS.
Special Correspondence of The Star and the
Chicago Record Herald.

LONG PINE, Neb., July 70, 1913.
| Nebraska is gradually becoming great
| butter state, and produced s5,N0o,O 900
pounds last year. Wisconsin, Iowa and
| Minnesota are greater producers and
send a hundred million pounds each to
| the market.
| New York, formerly banner butter
state, has dropped down several files, not
because her dairymen make any less
than formerly, but because those OF the
western states make so much more.
| There are fifteen great creameries in
Nebraska, owned by ten Independent COM
| panies. One is cooperative affair. and
stock is held by the farmers who furnish
| the cream to run 1t.
! Seven OF these creameries are in Oma-
ha, two in Lincoln, one at Beatrice, one
in Crete. The largest plant in the state.
capable Of producing $1,000 pounds of
| butter day, was opened at Grand Island
June L.
| The Omaha creameries produce from
$4,000 to 10000 pounds of butter day
| the year around and arc increasing their
product as fast as they can get addi-
tional cream. In 1908 their output was
100000 pounds, valued at $4,43OOoV,
while in 1907 it was II 200, 600 pounds.
| The largest company in the state gets
it's cream from 400 different stations and
from 1900 different farms-9,0OO in Ne
hraska and the rest In Iowa. Missouri,
| South Dakota and Kansas. Some of the
| cream Is shipped 100 miles
The farmers who furnish this supply
| have an average of only eight cows each,
| but are increasing them every year be-
cause they find the butter business much
! more profitable than any other kind OF
farming.
This is naturally corn and hog coun-
| try said Mr.. Rushton, manager Of one
| of the creameries, land until recently
] has been almost entirely given up to cat
tie. The dairy industry is In it's infancy,
but is increasing with the strides of
| giant because the farmers are learning
| that they can keep a bunch of cows and
| hogs without practically any increase OF
| labor and large increase in income
Shipped All Over World.
| Nebraska butter is shipped all over the
United States, but very little is exported
to foreign countries. For the export
| trade butter has to be put up with special
| care. and there are creameries in Iowa
which make a speciality of it.
There Is an establishment at Monticello.
in that state. which does nothing but put
| tropics. 1t completes successfully with
Danish butter. which had a monopoly Of
the tropical trade until the Monticello
people entered the field. Danish butter
is manufactured with such care that it
will keep longer than any other and
preserves its sweetness in any climate.
The contents of tin will melt and
harden again and again several times
without injury. But 1t requires great
| deal of care and labor to make butter for
the tropics and most of the American
| manufacturers think it does not pay.
| The dairy business in Nebraska is con-
Quoted quite differently from that in other
states Formerly the farmers wife
| SKINNED and churned her milk by hand
at home and traded 1t at the country store
for sugar, coffee. tea or dry goods at the
| rate of II or Is cents a pound. Next
came the neighborhood dairy, where the
| milk was hauled every morning and every
| night, "set' in large pans, skinned by
| hand and churned by machinery. while
| the skinned milk was fed to a pen full
| of hogs or calves in the back yard.
These neighborhood creameries were
usually cooperative and each contributor
| received credit on the books for the
amount of milk he delivered daily. They
| have been very much improved by the in
vention of the separator which. by the
| turning of a crank, will extract the but
ter fat from the milk in very few
| minutes.
In illinois, Wisconsin and in the older
| states farmers usually bring in their
milk by wagon twice day. pass 1t
through the separator. receive credit for
the butter fat. and haul the SKINNED
milk in the same cans back to the farm
q settlement every month for the cream
delivered.
Centralized Butter Making.
In Nebraska the distances are SO much
longer and the settlements SO much
farther apart that different system has
| been adopted and centralized" butter
making is the rule The "centralizers."
as they call the big creameries ! have
mentioned. receive cream by the railroads
| by every train which picks it up from
station to station and carries 1t In
| baggage car.
| The farmers have their own separators
ard extract the butter fat Immediately
after milking. The skinned milk is fed to
| the calves and hogs and the cream is put
! in ten-gallon cans and hauled to the
nearest railway station. where the agents
of the creamery are waiting to value the
| cream by the Babcock test, by the ap-
plca ton of sulphuric acid to small
sample. which liberates the oil from the
| casein or curd, and enables the inspector
to estimate the proportion OF butter fat
in the cream.
The total delivery is then weighed and
ticket, which is as good as cash at any
of the stores or banks. Thus he practi-
cally does a cash business and usually
gets his money for his cream within three
hours after every milking.
No producer in any other occupation re-
ceives his returns so promptly.
Those who are situated at a long dis
lance from a. railway station do not de-
liver more than twice a week, for butter
fat will keep three or four days without
deteriorating after it has been separated
from the milk. That is the great adj
vantage of the system, because farmers
who formerly came to town seven times a
week with milk. need come only twice
now with cream. This is a very large
saving in time and the labor of assem-
bling.
The hand separator has thus revolution
lied the business and has made dairying
possible in communities where the farm
ers are widely scattered. And it has
made skinned milk worth 80 cents
hundred pounds for feeding calves and
pigs, where 1t was formerly worth not
more than 10 cents at the creamery.
Territory Is Divided Up.
The creamery companies work together
10 a certain extent in dividing territory.
regulating the trade. fixing prices and
other details of the business to promote
economy and prevent confusion although
there is no trust common interest
Each dairy company owns its own cans
which can be identified by the color of
the tops. some of which are painted
green, others yellow, red, blue and black,
lance.
Eevry train coming into Omaha carries
a carload of them. 4 car holds three
hundred or more cans and the wagons
of the creameries are always awaiting
their arrival. The cans are sent back
to the stations by the return trains
and the farmers pick the eInpties I'D