The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1909-11-20

1 ulllh OF cream until the venture
proved success. This attitude was
} of course, obstructive il depriving the
new enterprise of patronage at tn,
time most needed. Here and thert
We're exceptions to the usual failures
which the first lesson brought. These
exceptions served only to prove thu
rule that, where there were few cows
no experience in the business, an(
little inclination to become dairymen
a cooperative or. stock compan,
| creamery could not live. The few ex
ceptions were in neighborhoods where
the farmers went to milking anc
stuck to it. These earlier creameries
were operated on the gathered
cream plan. method in which every
step was ruinous under Western con
ditions.
Along in the early nineties the
Swimming station began to make g
lsweeping change in creamery practice
in these Western states. new i'm
petus was given to the business, and
again the farmer was urged to put
up his dollars for another lesson. The
idea had been conceived of Swimming
the farmers milk at a station and
shipping the cream to a central point
for churning. This lesson usually cost
the farmer about $25 and the result
| was much more satisfactory for a
time than the first had been. a sta
ton was built which the farmers
! owned, and creamery was leased.
| The farmers hauled their milk to the
| station and hauled their skim milk
home The average distance was not
| less than six miles One thing that
helped the industry at this time was
a general period of depression, the
cow seeming to be the only thing
which would yield an assured income.
| Although prices of butter were COM
paratively low, the business doomed.
| Following this a few prosperous years
came and the farmer wearied of the
| long haul and the small returns he
was getting. He hired the hauling
done; this ate up the profits. With
easy money in other lines of farming
and but little profits in the milk BUSH
ness, dairying again had setback.
Swimming stations became expensive
to operate because of the small
| amount of milk handled, and it looked
as though many of the small central
izing plants had met their doom. For
mutual protection. and with a hope
of building up the business again.
many of these smaller creameries con-
solidated, forming large companies.
"A few enterprising men had by
this time taken up the crusade for the
farm separator. They were frowned
upon by all conservative creamery
men. Separator agents multiplied,
however, and began to pile up evil
dence that the farmer could cut off
the great expense of hauling milk
both ways, and farmers began to buy.
at soon became evident that the
farmer was going to have a separator.
The conservative creamery man now
began to see that if the farmer bought
a separator and was opposed by his
creamery in SO doing, the cream
would go somewhere else. This
opened up the whole territory west
of the Missouri river, and the cream
cries large and small, began to push
the farm separator. The separating
station dropped out of view almost
as suddenly as it had appeared scarce
ly ten years before. Separator com
panies could not keep up with their
orders. Farmers could hardly wait
until a machine could be delivered to
them. To be sure, this great demand
was not created in day The pioneer
slow and discouraging to those who
were carefully fostering its interests.
The farmer had already bought a
creamery and then STUNNING sta-
ton. and it was almost the last
straw to ask him to buy a separator.
Here and there machine was sold,
and the leaven began to work. To-
dav the creamery business of Kansas
and Nebraska is on the cream gathef-
ing system, and the farmer has the
separator in his home. In the more
thickIy settled portions a few skim
ming stations still remain. but their
days are numbered.
That Table of Prices.
Now as regards the table of prices
paid in Kansas and other western
states for butter fat. This table
formed part of the last article pub
lished by the board in its attack on
the Continental and it purported to
show that Kansas farmers were pald
less for their butter fat than the
farmers of other states by some five
cents per pound. President Borman
of the Continental Creamery answers
this alleged argument of this table as
follows:
whole milk to the creamery, making
a trip every day, in summer and
trip every other day in the winter,
which further means that the farmers
of Minnesota made three trips 10 the
creamery to at least one trip maze
nv the Kansas farmer in delivering
hand separator cream. The farmers
Of Minnesota in delivering this whole
milk take home from the creamery
cold. sour milk for the feedlng OF
their pigs and calves. whereas under
skim milk is separated after each
milking and fed to the calves and pigs
while still warm and sweet
"It will be noted that Mr.. Whites
statement that the creamerles OF MIN
nesota paid twenty-four and a frac-
tion cents per pound for butter fat
in 1906 is not supported by the de-
tailed statistical statement OF the
dairy commissioner of Minnesota
wherein it is stated that the cream
cries of that state paid an average
price of 22.4S cents.
"From the above statistical state
ment it is likewise worthy OF note that
the average price for the year 1906
for all creameries of one county in
Minnesota was as low as 10 cents.
while the highest price paid by the
creamer;es of one county, and which
county had only one creamery. was "a
cents This creamery paying 81 cents
handled 12,465.200 pounds of whole
milk. One other creamery handling