Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-10-26
BY WILLIAM E. CURTIS.
pecial Correspondence Of The Star and the
Chicago Record Herald.

i BY WILLIAM E. CURTIS.
Special Correspondence Of The Star and the
Chicago Record Herald.
II ST. PAUL.
I Minnesota loves to be called the Bread
and Butter state, and is certainly enti-
tied to that distinction She has been
the banner butter state for a long series
of years. Seven times out Of nine she
has won the silken banner for the high
est score in the competition with the en-
tire world at the national butter makers
contest. In 1910 at the national dairy show
Chicago she not only won the banner
| for the highest quality butter. but the
highest scores for milk and for cream
also. and now it has become a struggle
among the other states for the second
place, because they concede the first to
| Minnesota.
The authorities at the Agricultural Col
lege here declare that Minnesota stands
first not only in the United States, but
in all the world for her butter as we'll
as for her flour, and therefore is entitled
| TO be called the Bread and Butter state.
According to the statistics given me at
the Agricultural College. the development
of the dairy industry has been more rap
| id I'm Minnesota than anywhere else In
| 1856 there were only % creameries in the
state; in 1894 there were 26l. in 1897 there
were 445. About that time the co-opera-
| tive movement began to develop and Oc-
| tober /, 1898, there were Ga creameries.
Today there are sos creameres. with an
| output valued at S22.29 900 last year Tor
| creamery butter alone.
Value of Butter Product.
| The large quantities of butter produced
by farm dairy. so far as reported, brought
| the total up to $42, 10000. 1t is believed
that at least 81 100000 of farm butter es-
| capped the statistician, and therefore the
estimate as to the total value of butter
produced in Minnesota in 1910 is $5O,OOO,-
600
\ The satisfies show that there are 1,125,-
1 OOO cows In Minnesota, and that they
earned average OF $3S each last year.
The increase in the number of cows has
4 been 81 per cent during the last ten
years. The increase in the average earn
| ings has been So per COW during the last
! twenty years, which Is accounted for by
| the improved methods of feeding and of
extracting the butter fat and also be-
cause of the increased price of butter.
| This is very interesting subject. and
| at the State Agricultural College the
dairy sharps will discuss it hours and
even days at a time without firing.
/ Last year the value of the wheat crop
| in Minnesota was SIS, 49,. 900, the value of
| the dairy products was $JO,UOO.OOO; the
crop was worth $25,OOo.OOO. and 100000
hogs valued at S35,OOO,OOO were raised and
/ sent to market.
The farmers are going in for hogs more
| and more, not as a by-product any longer,
| but equally important with wheat and
1 butter Mr.. F. +. Marshall of Grove City,
1 who is a practical farmer and has been
1 very successful, says that Minnesota can
/ raise thirty-five million dollars worth of
hogs every year for practically nothing.
Hog Consumes Skim Milk.
THE hog is the only market for skim
med milk" he says. 'the main market
1 for shorts, corn, clover and roots which
are the ideal feed for pork and cost little
| or nothing. Last year, on an investment
OF 500. l realized Sl,SOC in hogs. or this
/ $500 was the actual cost of production,
while $1,000 was the net profit. We can
/ trace 80 per cent of the cost of production
/ TO the feed / have spoken of and find also
| that the state is the better off because
| the piggies have used it,
| Prof. T. L. Hacker of the department
of animal husbandry at the university.
| who has oeen very active in developing
| the dairy industry, says: In the early
days there were few cows in Minnesota.
| Their milk and butter were used by the
| family and the surplus was exchanged at
| the store for groceries and other things.
No one thought of employing the COW as
a medium for converting farm grains and
| forage into more concentrated and more
valuable product. But when the grain
fields were invaded by grasshoppers and
| chinch bugs farmers were forced to give
more attention to divers fled farming. A
few crop failures resulted in deferred
payments of obligations, mortgaged
! farms, shrinkage in values and general
depression, and the COW became the chief
reliance for the support of the family
This stimulated the rearing of calves with
| better care and more generous feeding.
Gathered Cream Plants Established.
ZIP to this time the milk was set in
pans which entailed a great loss Of but
ter fat. Most of the dairy products were
made on the farm and sold or exchanged
at the local stores A few so-called
| gathered cream plants were established
| in the southern half of the state. A man
with team drove from farm to farm
collecting cream and taking 1t to the
churning plant AS might be expected
the cream was of very inferior grade.
being raised in the kitchen, pantry wood
shed or cellar. and partaking OF the COM