davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Sauk Centre herald., 1923-01-04

cago to New York, of Ito cents per
pound of butter, the actual difference
between the quotation on 90 scoring
butter from the smaller creameries and
on 80 scoring butter from the large
plants was only the exceedingly small
fraction of five-one hundredth, or
one-twentieth, of one cent per pound
in favor of the 92 scoring butter,
averaging the two quotations for the
whole month. If we include in the
freight rate the icing charges on the
carload lots, as they should be, the
two quotations were practically alike.
Now, why will buyers of butter for
cold storage purposes pay for butter
made from the kind of cream the CEN
tralizers get and scoring only 80 the
same price they would have to pay
for 80 scoring butter made from bet
ter cream in the smaller creameries?
Because to them uniformity and keep
ing quality are all important, and
because they have found by experience
that they cannot depend on the 90
scoring butter from the smaller cream
cries for these qualities-just like
Blue Valley found years ago.
That is why Blue Valley never could
buy butter from smaller creameries.
Be that butter ever so good, it isn't
Blue Valley Butter, doesn't match it
and the fact that such supply would
have to be made up from number of
smaller creameries makes strict uni
formity impossible. And on top of
that, the keeping quality of all these
different lots would be doubtful.
Whenever the consumers demand
more Blue Valley butter than our Blue
Valley creameries can supply, as hap
pens occasionally, the only way that
gives any satisfaction at all is for us
to make a contract with a large manu-
facturer whose plant is properly equip
ped, to make butter for US ac-
cording to our rules and speci-
fications throughout. In such cases
we supervise the manufacture by
inspection as well as by lab
oratory examinations. But even
this arrangement, better than it
is than any other method, is not en-
tirely satisfactory If the shortage
proves of more than temporary nature
the only satisfactory way in which
Blue Valley can and does meet it, is
by establishing more Blue Valley
creameries and making more Blue
Valley butter
The Sauk Centre herald., 1923-01-04

just as we were when we undertook to
cut out the middlemen and sell Blue
Valley butter in labeled packages
direct to the retailers. Both Blue
Valley undertakings proved success
full. NJ
| There are many farmers in this part
of Minnesota who remember how the
creamery men here, their papers,
! their meetings. their leaders and GER
tain dairy officials fought against
: the hand separator system anu con-
demned it.
They called it ga menace. and said
it would ruin the dairy industry of the
state. The farmers decided otherwise,
for they could see that the hand
separator meant more money to them,
and they bought hand separators by
the thousands, in spite of all the talk
against them. In many places in Min
nesota the farmers practically had to
force buttermakers and creamery
boards to accept hand separator
cream, and it was years after the Blue
Valley had mastered the art of hand
ling hand separator cream to best
advantage for the farmer, that the
patrons OF many Minnesota cream
cries succeeded in getting their factor
les to pay serious attention to that
problem.
The Farmers Approved
Blue Valley took up the hand sep
arator system, when to do so meant
the hardest kind of pioneer work, in
order to overcome accepted customs,
suspicion, prejudice and the selfish
propaganda of those who believed
their particular interests would be
hurt by the new system. Like other
pioneer work Blue Valley has taken
up, we did not adopt the hand sep-
arator system until such experiments
and Investigations as we could make,
had convinced us that the farmers
themselves would approve, because
they would benefit. They did approve.
How Blue Valley went about it,
what obstacles had to be overcome,
what mistakes were made and how
the Blue Valley Creamery System was
made to serve the actual needs of the
farmers will be told next week.
The Sauk Centre herald., 1923-01-04

When the good wife buys sack OF
flour, she asks for the name of cer-
tain brand and is prepared to pay its
price, because she has learned from
experience that this particular brand
suits her. If some day sack of that
brand of flour doesn't have just the
same qualities, and if perhaps the
next sack also disappoints her, then
she turns to some other brand. She
wants the brand that is uniform and
dependable; that's why she asks fol-
it.
So with the man buying gas for his
car. He wants the brand which suits
his engine and gives best results.
Therefore, he drives to the filling sta
tion of that brand, prepared to pay
the price asked. But if that gas is not
always up to- a certain standard and
disappoints him once or twice, he
buys some other brand. 1t is the un-
iformity of the brand that makes him
fill up his tank with it again and
again and pay the price.
So with names and brands of can
ned goods, tobacco, baking powder,
SOdp, ONCIdllS, OlCdhldSC lOOuS, IilclI-
ches, bread and many other things
used every day. 1t is the uniform quail
ity of the brand that makes US buy
that brand again and again and pay
the price asked. If the quality changes
from one purchase to another and the
brand does not keep its quality until
used, then we become dissatisfied and
try some other brand.
Few men are experts in judging
smoking tobacco, but if they smoke
at all, they usually stick by one GER
tain brand and pay the price because
it suits them. But if that brand is not
always the same, if the uniformity
isn't there, then it suits no longer and
another brand will be tried.
So with butter.
When Blue Valley first developed
its system of selling Blue Valley pack
age butter direct to retailers and cut
ting out the expensive middIemen and
the losses caused by wholesale market
ing of butter in unlabeled tubs, as
told in our advertisement last week,
we found the uniformity and keeping
quality of the butter in the Blue Val
ley packages to be of enormous i'm
portance in building up the consumer
demand and the repeat orders.
Blue Valley butter always was good
The Sauk Centre herald., 1923-01-04

But the people who organized the
Blue Valley Creamery Company had
heard of them and while before the
company was organized had found a
few in use on farms near st. Joseph.
In order to find out if it would be
practical to operate creamery on
hand separator cream, the Marysville
Creamery rented additional space
next to its butter depot in st. Joseph,
/, fixed it up with secondhand mac.1in-
cry for a creamery sent in helper
from the Marysville plant to make the
butter and churned what little hand
separator cream it could buy. This
crude experimental hand separa-
tor creamery convinced Blue Valley
that the hand separator was practical,
that just as good butter could be made
from the hand separator cream as
from the whole milk and that the hand
separator system would meet the act
ual needs Of the farmers far better
than the whole milk system.
This Blue Valley conviction has been
proven entirely right by the farmers
themselves, by millions and millions
of farmers. Blue Valley saw then,
what the whole dairy industry now
agrees on, that the hand separator,
the hand separator creamery and the
whole hand separator system had
these advantages to the farmers:
A small volume Of cream instead of
the big bulk of whole milk.
A small volume to cool and care for
instead of the bulky milk.
AS cream keeps better than milk,
there was no necessity of bringing the
cream to the creamery quite as often.
That meant time and horse power and
equipment saved to the farmer.
There was no long wait at the
creamery to get the skim milk back.
A light rig, one horse and boy or
a girl could take the cream to the
creamery or to the railroad station
and come back to the farm at once.
Hauling whole milk took half a day;
hauling cream took an hour.
The skim milk was produced on the
farm and could be used while it had
it's greatest food value for the stock
The small volume of cream coud be
The Sauk Centre herald., 1923-01-04
About Blue Valley
Uniformity Keeping Quality and Butterfat Prices

Such butter, right after it was made
was probably just as good as our Blue
Valley Butter, but it was different anC
it didn't have the keeping qualities o,
the uniformity.
Buyers Of Butter For Cold Storage
Know
Our experience with the uniformity
and keeping quality of butter from
the average smaller creamery in
those early days is confirmed over and
over again every year during the
season when large buyers purchase
butter to put away in cold storage
Such buyers must have uniform butter
in order to sell long lines out of stor-
age, and they must have butter of long
keeping quality, in order that the but
ter may be as good when it goes out
of storage as when it went in.
These experienced buyers who risk
large sums of their own money every
year to a great extent prefer the car
lots of centralized butter scoring 80
as against the better butter from the
average smaller creameries scoring 92
Why? Because experience has taught
them which kind of butter to depend
on for keeping quality.
Anybody who wants to convince
himself of the truth of this statement
only has to look up the butter quo
tations during the storage season for
"Chicago. Standards" meaning carload
lots of butter from central plants and
scoring 80, and the quotations for
"New York Extras, which quotations
usually govern the price paid for but
ter made in the smaller creameries
and scoring 92.
The difference between. these two
quotations is usually substantial
one, the one for 92 scoring butter
(New York Extras) being higher than
the one for 80 scoring butter (Chicago
Standards). For the week ending
December 18th, 1922, the Extra quo
tation was 1-2 cents higher than the
Standard quotation. For January
1922, it was 5.74 cents higher. But
during the storage season, this diff
ference becomes very small. For in
stance, in June, 1922, when most of
last years butter was put away in cold
storage, the difference between the
two quotations was only LIS cents
and figuring in carlot freight rate
(including the packages) from Chi
The Sauk Centre herald., 1923-01-04

butter, and the Marysville Creamery
made every effort and succeeded in
making it uniform and of long keep
ing quality. The retail trade soon ask
ed for it, for that's what the consumer
wants-good butter. uniform butter
and butter that will keep until it is
consumed.
Uniformity
Uniformity in butter means that the
pound of butter the consumer buys to-
day is just like the pound of butter
she bought last week. That's why she
asks and pays the price for the same
brand week after week. The butter
must be the same, not only in flavor,
but in body and texture, in salt and in
color. The pound this week may be ex-
actly the same as the pound last week,
except that brine or water is showing
in little drops, while last weeks but
ter was dry and solid. Right away the
brand loses standing with customers.
Or, one pound may taste just little
saltier than another. Or, one pound
may be just a little more yellow than
another. Whatever the difference, be
it ever so small, it hurts the brand;
the consumer becomes less willing to
pay the price asked, and the creamery
patron at home gets lower butterfat
price.
Keeping Quality
Keeping quality in butter means
that the last slice of the print kept in
the consumers ice box must be just
as good as the slice she cut off, when
she first opened the package. For but
ter to keep that well, it must be just
as good the day the package is opened
as the day the butter was taken out
of the churn.
Ever since the Marysville days,
Blue Valley has worked hard for uni
formity and keeping quality in Blue
Valley Butter. Our trade proves to us
that we have gradually developed
manufacturing methods that will pro-
duce uniformity and keeping quality
in Blue Valley Butter. The Blue Val
ley system of factory reports, of
checking up our buttermakers and of
scientific laboratory examination of
every churning insures these two all
important qualities in our butter. The
discipline so readily enforced in a pri-
vate enterprise, makes our butter
makers use the methods laid down for
them by our laboratory to the small:
The Sauk Centre herald., 1923-01-04

est detail. The large volume handled
in each Blue Valley creamery in itself
tends to uniformity in the butter. Tae
great volume handled by Blue Valley
as whole makes possible the employ
ment of experts, of research labora-
tories and of checking-up systems be-
yond the means of smaller creameries
or groups of creameries. All to the
end that the Blue Valley package of
butter will be asked for again and
again by the consumer at little bet
ter price than other butter, and the
patron at home get better price for
his butterfat
Why Blue Valley Must Make Its Own
Butter
You can readily see now, why Blue
Valley must make its own butter
Otherwise we could not employ our
own manufacturing methods and be
sure of selling Blue Valley Butter of
uniform and long-keeping quality.
You will remember from our adver-
tisepaent of last week that the sale
of Blue Valley package butter in ST.
Joesph, just before the Blue Valley
Creamery Co. was Incorporated, in
creased to such an extent that the
Marysville Creamery could not sup
pl..- all the demand, and we had to buy
butter in Chicago and ship it to st.
Joseph to make up the shortage. Right
there and then we found out that it
is very difficult, almost impossible,
to buy small, promiscuous lots of but
ter from different creameries and place
it in a brand of package butter such
as the Blue Valley and not have the
brand lose in it's standing with the
consumer. And lost standing means
lost sales price and lower price to the
patrons for cream.
1t caused trouble right away. We
could tell whether the butter we
bought in Chicago in those days was
good or poor, but the many different
lots were not uniform and didn't
match our own Marysville but
ter. AS to the keeping. quality of
these different lots most of them
didn't keep and, anyway, there
was no way for us to tell be-
forehand, whether or not this or
that lot would keep. Practically all of
that butter which we tried again and
again was from what we would now
call smaller creameries, for that was
about the only kind in operation then.
The Sauk Centre herald., 1923-01-04

1t was to meet all the conditions de-
scribed and so give the farmers the
best possible service, that the Blue
Valley Creamery Company was organ
lied and incorporated in st. Joseph
Missouri, in 1900. All these conditions
were not as clear to US then as now,
and the methods of meeting them sue
cessfully were not developed on paper
over night, but we had certain objects
in mind, certain experiences to draw
from and certain ideals and principles
that we believed would, if followed
make it possible for the Blue Valley
Creamery Company to give producers
and consumers service so satisfac-
tory that the labor and capital for the
enterprise would earn fair return.
To Meet Farmers Needs
AS briefly referred to, agriculture
in Kansas and Missouri in the late
Nineties was undergoing a change,
and in those districts where consider
able milking had been done, the
change was a radical one. Even at
Marysville, where butterfat prices had
ruled higher than at any other point
in that part of the country on account
of the Blue Valley system of selling
it's own package butter direct to re-
tailers, the milk supply was getting
smaller and smaller. Corn, beef and
hogs were higher in price. Butter was
lower in price. The soil and climate
were favorable to raising corn, beef
and hogs and to wheat too. The time
and work of milking and of hauling
milk became expensive, when that
time and work could be spent so much
more profitably on the other crops. So
it would with the farmers of Central
Minnesota, if all at once there were
other crops just as good for their soil,
much easier to raise and much more
profitable than milking cows. The
farmer down there kept fewer and
fewer cows and no longer took the
time and labor to haul their milk to
the creameries.
After all is said and done, it
is neither local business such
as a creamery, nor farm leaders,
nor farm papers or newspapers,
nor agricultural schools, nor state
The Sauk Centre herald., 1923-01-04
Pioneer Hand Separator Creamery

transported economically long distan
ces compared with the bulky whole
milk. In this way it was made possible
for every farmer, no matter how few
cows he had or what his neighbors did
to find a good market for his cream
No longer was it necessary for whole
neighborhood to go into dairyine
heavily in order to support cream
cry and so have market for the
cream.
The product of the cows of thous.
ands of farmers whose main business
was raising, corn, beef and hogs
could be handled at one place in vol
ume large enough to do so at great
economy, produce butter of unsurpas-
sed uniformity and of good keeping
quality and thus meet all requirements
of the system of cutting out the mid
dlemen and selling the butter direct
to the retailers in labeled packages
the system which gives the patrons
the most money for their cream.
They Called 1t "a Menace
AAAS tieShu oOPAA AoCOI tiIC lldIlO
hand separator system have proven a
great boon for dairying. 1t has done
away with most of the uneconomical
buttermaking on farms. 1t has made
it possible for whole states to get into
dairying gradually by giving every
farmer, whether he MIXED one cow or
ten, a market for his cream.
In sections where dairy production
is heavy, it has saved the farmers an
enormous amount of time by relieve
ing them of the drudgery of hauling
whole milk and it has given the farm
er sweet skim milk for his use instead
OF the sloppy, sour creamery skim
milk.
Today every farmer, every cream
cry man, every creamery journal and
every state and government official
takes the hand separator for granted
and acknowledges its great value. But
when Blue Valley began the pioneer
work of introducing hand separators
on the farms and of making butter
from hand separator cream, we were
laughed at, sneered at, pooh-poohed,
The Sauk Centre herald., 1923-01-04

BUTTER-Creameries, extras. SOC;
firsts. Acc; seconds, 41c; storage ex-
tras, SOC; packing stock fresh, sweet,
26c; stale goods, sc; grease, 1c.
EGGS-Country receipts, rots out,
per crate, $10.50; No. condled, good
cases, free from rots, small, dirties
and checks out, per dozen, 3Sc; fancy
storage eggs, dozen, soc; seconds,
small, dirty and held stock, rots and
1eakers out, per dozen, 18c; checks,
rots and leakers out, per doz., TIC.
Quotations on eggs include cases.
The Sauk Centre herald., 1923-01-04
HOGS DOWN SC TO 1OC
Grain Market Unsettled; Buying
in Excess of Selling.

o. s. Bureau of Agricultural Economies.
For week ending Dec. 29, 1922.
GRAIN:-Grain trading during the
week was of holiday character and
the market was somewhat unsettled
with selling in excess of buying. Chi
cago May wheat declined 2Ac; Chi
cago May corn down &c. Wheat
prices made further declines at the
close Influenced by bearish statements
regarding World wheat situation,
weakness in Liverpool and decline in
foreign exchange. Corn met with
better support and showed strong re-
sistance to pressure. Closing prices
In Chicago cash market; No. 2 red
winter wheat $1.31; No. 2 Hard win
ter wheat $1.27; No. 2 mixed corn
74c; No. yellow corn 74c; No.
White Oats 43c. Average farm price
No. 2 mixed corn in central Iowa 60c.
Closing future prices; Chicago May
wheat $1.22$; Chicago May corn
715sc; Minneapolis May wheat
$1.20%; Kansas City May wheat
$1.12B; Winnipeg May wheat SLIPS.
LIVESTOCK AND MEATS:-Chi-
cago hog prices declined 5 to 10c for
the week. Beef steers 10 to 40c low
er, butcher cows and heifers 10 to
75c and veal calves SOC to $1.50 up.
Feeder steers unchanged. Fat lambs
steady to 15c and feeding lambs
steady to 10c down. Yearlings steady
to 25c and fat ewes steady to 75c
up. On Dec. 20 Chicago hogs opened
25c lower, closed sc higher than early;
beef steers weak to 25c lower, butcher
COWS and heifers 10 to 15c lower and
veal calves strong to 25c higher; fat
lambs steady, sheep strong to 25c
higher. Dec. 29th Chicago prices;
Hogs, top, $S.45 bulk of sales $50
$50; medium and good beef steers
T.35-11.50; butcher COWS and heifers
$3.75-10.25; feeder steers $5.50-7.50;
light and medium weight veal calves
$9-11.50; fat lambs $13-1540; feeding
lambs $1275-14.65; yearlings 1913;
fat ewes $5.75-S.65. Stocker and feed
or shipments from IL important mar
kets. During the week ending Dec.
22, were; Cattle and calves 1881;
Hogs 22,7S7; Sheep 40,663. In cas-
tern wholesale fresh meat markets
beef was weak to 50 lower, veal and
lamb weak to 81 and mutton weak to
81 down, light pork loins steady to
soc higher and heavy loins SOC lower
to SOC higher for the week. On Dec.
29th beef and pork steady with Thurs
days prices, veal weak at Phila about
steady elsewhere; lamb steady at Bos-
ton about 81 lower at ether markets;
mutton steady at Boston, weak else
where. December 29th prices good
grade meats; Beef $12-16; veal $15-17;
Lamb $21-24; Mutton $11-15; light
pork loins $15.50-$17; heavy loins
$3.50 to S1450.
DAIRY PRODUCTS:-Butt mar
kets barely steady; dull demand has
followed holidays. Dealers have been
free sellers and in some cases granted
concessions to keep floors cleared of
accumulations. Arrivals at New York
included fairly good sized shipments
OF Danish butter. Cloisng prices, 80
score. butter-New York SAC; Phila.
55c; Boston 54c; Chicago SOC.
Cheese markets steady although
is very quiet. Better demand looked
for after first Of year. Cheese prices
at Wisconsin primary markets, Dec.
28th-Twins 26Ac; Daisies 27c;
Double Daisies 2s%c; Longhorns 27c;
Square prints 27c.
The Sauk Centre herald., 1923-01-04

or Government officials, who de-
termine what kind of farming
the farmers should or should not do
nor how he should dispose of his pro-
ducts, nor what he should do with his
income. In the long run, the farmer
decides that for himself and his decis-
ion is final, for it is governed by the
prices of all crops in relation to each
other, the fitness Of his soil, climate
and capital and his own needs, circum-
stances and desires. Those who would
serve him, must serve his actual needs
and not what theorists say his needs
should be.
Why Hand Separators?
The Blue Valley Creamery Company
was organized back in 1900 to meet
the actual needs of farmers in Mis-
souri, and Kansas at that time. One
of these needs was way to sell milk
from farms with few cows on each and
at the same time cut out the long haul
of whole milk to a small creamery
small because cows in a neighborhood
were getting fewer and fewer and con-
SequenCly able 10 pay only rulnOuSly
low price for butterfat.
Blue Valley was the first creamery
company deliberately to set out on a
large scale to induce farmers to buy
and use hand separators, and TO pro-
vide profitable market for the cream
from hand machines. We did so by
building and operating plant for
the manufacture of such cream into
the higheset possible grade of butter
in st. Joseph, Mo-, this plant as stated
being opened in 1900.
Again Blue Valley was the pioneer
just as it was in selling package but
ter direct to the retailers. And again
it was successful, because like the
Blue Valley butter selling system, the
hand separator system meant more
money to the farmer.
There were few hand separators in
the country in those days. Most people
were convinced that they were imprac-
tical. Farm implement dealers refused
to handle them. The few in use were
roundly cussed and condemned by
creamery men everywhere.
The Sauk Centre herald., 1923-01-04
Hill Heirs to Sue for Farm

st. Paul-Heirs of Mr.. and Mrs.
James ]. Hill have taken definite
steps to bring suit against Chairman
Louis w. Hill of the Great Northern
railway in an attempt to take from
him North Oak farm. the historic
country home established by the
empire builder" few miles north
of st. Paul.
The Sauk Centre herald., 1923-01-04

Coal Conference to Reopen Jan. 3.
Chicago Representative of the bi.
luminous coal operators and the union
miners Of the country will meet in
Chicago on January 3 to resume work
on the reorganization of the industry.