Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1913-08-14
4 DAIRY.

4 Members of the American cOmmls-
I sion on agricultural cooperation give
I the following account of a cooperative
dairy society which they found at
] kleinkugel, Germany, and which they
Estudied carefully. :,
Members of the society own in all
/ about $50 COWS. Each member is re-
uuired to own at least two COWS and
\ to take out at least one share OF stock
costing 50. However, many OF the
members own more than the. required
two COWS, and purchase n share OF
stock for each two COWS. One OF the
members who received the commits
! sionetK nwned thirty cows and $36
Z worth Of stock.
The milk of the members Is brought
each day to the dairy by the members
themselves. The dairy Is operated to
a small profit, but this margin
Dis simply a guard against losses and
] not a means to pay dividends to the
members. At the present time the So
ciety has not paid of the mortgages
l on its buildings and so the profits, af-
4 ter a portion are placed in a reserve
1 fund. are paid as interest and princi-
! pal on these loans. Members of the
\ dairy receive cash for their milk from
! the dairy. It is bought according to
\ the percentage Of butter fat which 1t
contains. The buttermilk and skim
| med milk ia returned to the farmers
afor cheese making n food Tor nogs.
In another village the commissioners
4 saw a cooperative dairy where the
5hogs were kept by the society, ana
Swhere cheese vas manufactured.
q Because of superior quality of but
ter made at the cooperative dairy, as
compared to butter made on the farm;
the price obtained for cooperative but
Ter averages about Is per cent above
he market price. The cost Of making
& considerably reduced so that the
increased returns to the members are
satisfactory. Dealers in butter are
REQUIRED to pay q local tax, but be-
cause. Of the cooperative and non
proft seeking character of this dairy
n tax is required unless the dairy
!, wishes to purchase milk from outside
Farmers. All members of the dairy
gare required to supply all OF heir milk,
not required for use at home, to the
cooperative dairy.
/ The manager of the dairy who ap-
Y U$1dySU UOlOl0 l1x0 OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES 1NAN
that his salary raj $3.50 a year, with
a free house, free butter and milk al
lowed. Yet he was a trained dairy
| man and a graduate Of one of the Ger
man dairy schools. He told the COM
mission something Of these schools in
(which the Germans place great store.
\ IN every German town there is one
I school in which dairying Is taught.
When the children r fourteen years
old, II they have decided to become
I dairy farmers they enter this school.
THE children are set at their work
Seven at an earlier age for they must
receive a preliminary training at a
dairy before they enter the school.
There was one pupil at the cooperative
dairy preparing himself to enter the
dairy school. 1t is not, of course, child
labor, but simply vocational education
carried on in connection with other
kchool training. The efficiency of the
FGerman agriculturists and artisans is
1 believed to rest largely upon this train
ing, though from the American stand
J point objection might be made to it
on the ground that to train a child
to manual labor from SO early an age
is apt to create classes within a
country.
The Importance of the cooperative
Lredit societies in the development of
Gher cooperative enterprises was
5ade readily apparent to the commits
sioners. The cooperative dairy owns
It's own land but the building was
erected on credit advanced by the To-
,al Raiffeisen society. Three and a
,alf per cent interest is paid by the So
iety upon all loans. The principal
&c the loans is paid back by amortiza-
ion in small annual installments. On
he dairy house this installment ray
lent each year is two per cent Of the
mount of the loan. On the machin-