Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1930-01-16
FACTS ABOUT THE
BUTTER MARKET
BY s. A. Striegl
Of the Pine City Cooperative
Creamery.
(FrOm the Pine POker)

(tfOm the ZINE POker)
With butter prices tumbling every
day many dairymen are wondering
what it is all about and where it will
stop. With butter at one-fourth less
than it was at the same time last
year it will mean a real hardship to
the dairy farmers in this community
especially so because of the short
roughage and pasture crop of last
summer
The first reason always advanced
at this time for the butter market
situation is, the collapse of the stock
market, and no doubt this brought the
break in the butter market to head
in hurry, while on the other hand,
we were gradually drifting in to the
same condition for two reasons, name
ly, overproduction and the increasing
use of butter substitutes. The day
of reckoning was bound to come and
conditions will improve when it is
generally understood by the saviors
of agriculture that dairying can be
overdone-a point they have never
admitted before. With the usual lido
pie with little or no experience try
ing to teach the other fellow how to
run his business, they have recon-
mended dairying as a cure-all for
all the ills of a depressed agriculture.
When the wheat farmer could not
make a urofit at his business he was
advised to diversity and in the same
breath told to milk cows. This has
been the solution offered to the corn
and hog farmers, the tobacco and
cotton planters and in fact from one
end of the country to the other. go
into dairying and get rich"
The surplus at the present time
is not very much but we have sur
plus and very little can depress the
market. When we have any surplus
at all it makes the tariff imperative
unless we have system of handling
the surplus. The present surplus
could be cleaned up if we could cut
into the sales of substitutes if only to
the extent of 1910. The sale of sub
stitutes during last year will amount
to around 4OO,O00,00O pounds-an
alarming increase over the previous
year and unfortunately it is true that
farmers and even dairy farmers have
done their share to increase these
sales. Every pound of substitutes
used displaces market for pound
| of your own products. forcing you with
your standard of living to compete
with cOcOanut products produced un-
der low standards Of living conditions
by cheap, underpaid only half civil
lied natives who probably train mon.
keys to gather the nuts for them for
all we know.
1t is my opinion that farm papers
and magazines have been very harm
full to our interests in sending out sc
much information about dairying
think every man who has been harm
ed by this propaganda should write
his papers and magazines to now give
space to the calamity facing overpro.
duction of dairy products and put an
end to this expansion. There is plen-
ty of time to expand when our marke,
has been developed so that short
age is in sight. In this particular
community dairying is the only farm
ing that can exist because of the cut
up nature of the country.
Then the dairy farmers through
their organizations will have to push
the sale of dairy products. They will
have to spend some money for adver-
tising their products and creating
good will and try to displace oleC
sales with butter sales. In my opin-
ion no legislation will be of much
permanent help unless it is along the
line of the McNary-Haugen bill with
the equalization fee. We need SINH
lar legislation for each major pro-
duct That will force every producer
in an equal way to take his share OF
the loss on proportiOnate part oil
the surplus to enable him to get a
fair price for the part used by the
American market