The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1916-02-24


manager and several of the officers
that they made some money the first
wear on the original investment and
that was more than we expected it
would do the first two or three years.
In fact, the dividend question was not
big one IN the establishment of the
| plant, as it was believed that if il
could pay expenses and buy all the
hogs and cows from the farmers in
the vicinity, it would be dividends
enough, as that meant success on the
southern farms where there has been
failure and that meant success for the
/ southern business man where failure
was staring him fairly in the face,
the business men cannot hope to sue
coed, because our commercial system
| is almost wholly dependent on the
farm.
| The Moultrie plant cost originally
one hundred thousand dollars. It's
machinery and equipment was large
| ~ installed for two hundred hogs a
| day plant. It's chill room and cold
storage for only two hundred and fifty
day. All we had to do when we
wanted TO enlarge it was to add cold
storage units. A fifty thousand dol
/ lar addition was made this last sum-
mer, eight months after it had started
business and now the plant can kill
and store about a thousand hogs a
/ day.
The plant had no working capital
to start with and has none now. It re-
I quired about hundred thousand dol
lars for working capital last winter.
1t is much larger this winter but the
capital was furnished last year by the
local banks. 1t was a nice arrange
ment for them, as it used their money
during the winter when they had plen-
ty and paid it back in the early spring
when they began to let it out to the
farmers. Meat in cold storage is as
good collateral as cotton in ware
house. Hence the local banks made
quite neat little sum out of their
winters loans which they had always
kept in their vault previously. or else
let it out to their correspondents at
low interest.
The effect of the packing house on
the farming interest throughout that
entire section has been practically a
revolution. The farmers are not only
beginning to diversity in real fact, but
they are quitting the credit system.
The coming of the boil weevil and
the skepticism of the banks, is. of
course, helping them in that. But
when farmer wants something from
the store he is learning to have the
pig ready to carry to the packing
house and that makes him a cash
customer, and he has learned that it
also makes him close buyer and he
is beginning to appreciate the fact as
well as the merchant who has loath to
do as further credit until he got his
boil weevil bearings.
There is no trouble whatever in
selling the product. The Moultrie
plant has never sent out a salesman
and they could sell ten times the out
put. The business comes to them and
the products are so excellent that they
practically sell themselves. Many
have asked me about the interference
of the big packers. That is not to be
considered. The big packers have
been our friends rather than our enc
mics. We often sell them meat and
lard in winter time when our coolers
run over and have to be emptied and
the local demand is not that special
kind of meat. There is always a mar
ket for all kinds of meat in Chicago
and often you can get more for it
there in winter time than IN the south.
The big packers have all they can at
tend to and they have learned the
democracy of business is the best kind
of business-to live and let live. The
old squeezing game is past. There are
hundreds of small Independent plants
in the west and they are multiplying
right under the shadow of the big
plants. There is no danger from that
source.
Since Georgia buys forty million
dollars worth of meat annually and
Alabama about twenty-five million
dollars worth annually practically
all of it is coming from the west, it
would seem that there is room for
quite number of plants in these two
states without crowding. No city
could not spend any better money
than for packing plant The Moul-
trie plant paid out last year over
half million dollars to the farmers
for stock. This year it will be near
ly three times that. The largest num-
Der killed any month last winter was
$500. This winter there were 1880
killed in December.
If the south goes into the packing
business she will pay her mortgages
in five years or less. The west did it
in that time, and we can raise stock
cheaper than the west. 1t is the only
way I can see for the southern farm
ers to get out of debt, and therefore
for the business man to get out of
debt.