Imperial Valley press., 1922-05-10
CRIAL RESEARCH
SHOWS COST OF
BUTTER FAT
BY E. O., ADAMS
Department of Agriculture, Ell Centre
HIGH School /.


Strange as it may sound, very little
bookkeeping has been done by the dairy
men anywhere to put him in position
to answer what it costs to produce a
pound of butter fat.
Henry Ford knows to a mill what it
costs to cut the threads used on his car.
Mr.. Armour knows what pigs tail
costs. Mr. W.. l.. Douglas knows what
it costs to drive a nail in a heel of q
shoe and most merchants know what it
costs to sell box of toothpieks. Prices
charged for articles of trade are based
on cost plus a few other items not nec-
essary to mention except the law of
supply and demand and this law is not
universal. $
When the demand for bananas slack
ems the American Fruit company has
been knowngto dump shiploads of them
overheard and wait until the people
were willing 20 pay their price. Even
nearby San Diego dairymen bought a
creamery and controlled the amount Of
milk offered for sale in the county
metropolis and fixed its price and main
tanned it.
From ocean to ocean dairymen have
appeared before city commissions and
wholesale buying agencies and begged
for better prices and then told the pub
lie they could not buy any more. When
pressing their demands further, backed
with threatened legal procedure, the
dairyman has slowly dropped the fight
because in the showdown he could not
prove that the cost of production was
a definite sum. We admit at the out
set that milk is the hardest commodity
of the whole food supply to fix price.
Two sources of relief for the under
paid dairyman are within reach after
he has done all he can to produce cf-
ficiently viz. campaign to promote
greater use of dairy products, and see
ond, to demand better return for his
time, money and skill. Several years
ago movement began for the purpose
of educating the people in the use OF
milk and milk products as food. Teach
ers in domestic science, hospitals and
schools of nursing, in the medical pro
fession and many other agencies have
kept news columns with articles sound
ing clear notes as to the indispensable
value of milk to human welfare. Only
recently skilled experlmenters have
demonstrated that milks contain a fooC
principle called vitamines without whicl
no child grows TO normal maturity. Al
this has helped the dairyman to furthe
his cause.
Some dairymen in San Joaquin val
ley sponsored bill which became I;
law recently authorizing the state uni
versity to obtain facts whereby the cos
of production of quart of milk and ;
pound of butter fat can be known. II
this end year S collection of data owe
20 counties is now under way includin;
Imperial. Other states are now work
ing out this problem and when it i
solved, as we are confident it will be
it will prove the dairyman has bee
donating much of his i'll paid wages t
the cause of humanity
In the farm science department of tn
Ell Centre high school q careful stud.
resulted in finding the cost Of a poun
of butterfat under average condition
to be 80 cents. This cost leaves a ne
profit of four cents on pound at tn
present prices or less than a dollar
day to the average dairyman. The write
has been appointed by tks gate Y2ivsl
sity to carry out this ceESfudy