Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1910-09-27
COOPERATIVE cREAMERIES.

The following article on "Co-opera-
tive Creameries" in South Carollna'
has lust been received from Prof. d.
y. Barrow, of Clemson college, and is
published for what 1t is worth:
"The creamery promoter sharks
have invaded sections of the Piedmont
heIt of this state and we understand
have succeeded in organizing at least
one creamery company and are now
at work i'm other communities. In the
sections in which they are working II
is safe to say that there are not enough
COWS to supply the local demand Ior
milk, cream and butter, ana yet the
people have been led to believe that a
plant depending upon a good milk
supply for success. can be prohlapiy
onerated To mislead people into
siIch an enterprise is nothing but de-
ceit and graft and the people In eV-
ery community of the state should De
on guard against such dealers IN
gold bricks"
Georgia has just passed through
q sad and expensive creamery eXpe-
ience. During 1908 creamery promo
ters of Chicago organized seven
creameries i'm various parts of the
state costing from $4.950 to $4,000. Or
these seven creameries only one Is
now in operation and it is financed by
a capitalist All the remainder nave
perished from lack Of support. AL
some of these plants not more tnah
forty or fifty cows supplied milk while
for profitable operation the milk from
five hundred cows of average quality
is required. One of these creameries
lost seventeen hundred dollars in a
few months time while the failure OF
others showed either that no money
was made or there was loss.
The establishing of creameries in
sections where there is practically no
dairy interest and where local markets
paw more for dairy products than a
creamery can possibly pay is absolute
folly as is witnessed by the experience
OF Georgia Kentucky and other
states. Yet the people are being mis-
led and deceived by smooth toneueo
sellers of machinery who charge about
fifty per cent more for their machln-
cry than it can be purchased for else
where.
THAT creameries are profitable no
one denies and that samples cited by
promoters in proof of this prOht may
he true. but it should be taken into
consideration that these prohts were
made in dairy localities-placeS where
the dairy is the money crop and where
most every farmer has a herd Of COWS
and understands how to handle those
cows. In such sections creameries
are necessary to handle the milk from
these cows and to find a market for
the products. Such conditions do not
exist i'm South Carolina. Cows are
scarce and poor in quality and more
than that they cannot be bought in
for milk cannot be supplied even at
good price and farmers know very
little about how to handle COWS to the
best advantage and most often do not
care to learn. 4 creamery cannot af-
ford to pay more than one and half
dollars per hundred pounds for
milk and until the farmers learn to
produce ii at a profit for this price 1t
is foolish to expect Il creamery to be
a. success
"If any section of the state is in
tereSted in Il creamery 1t should care
fully investigate the milk supply first
and then form Il company of interest
ed men, buy the machinery necessary
to equip it at Il reasonable price ana
begin operation on practical business
basis and not be rushed into an en-
tcrpriSc pushed forward by set of
men who have no interest in its sue
cess further than the sale of the ma
chinery at cXOrbitant prices. Banks
and other business undertakings first
the possibilities Of success
before offices are erected. but the doc
trinc of the creamery promoter is to
get the building and equipment first,
regardless of other conditions.
The extension department of Glenn
son college will be glad To visit any
community interested i'm creameries
and advise them as to the require
mcmts for successful operation and as
SSt them i'm every way in establish
ing such an enterprise should the out
look for success prove favorable. Plans