414 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



must balance with the tests and weights turned in by the cream 

 wagons. The cream haulers are paid monthly, their wages 

 being added to the general expense fund. When the butter is 

 ready to be taken from the churn it is put in 60-pound tubs, 

 when it is ready for the market, being put in the storage room, 

 and when a sufTicient amount has accumulated it is shipped to 

 market in refrigerator cars. As contracts are usually made for 

 butter on the cars at stations where the creamery is located, 

 there is no further expense to the creamery for the butter 

 shipped, less the shrinkage that occurs in the storage room and 

 in transit, which does not amount to a great deal. All of the 

 returns for sales come in drafts and are deposited by the secre- 

 tary of the creamery. At the end of each month the operating 

 expenses are deducted from the total sales and the entire bal- 

 ance, including all the profits, is prorated among all the stock- 

 holders or patrons. The price per pound is found by dividing 

 the total amount received for butter, less operating expenses, 

 by the total number of pounds of butter fat received at the 

 creamery each month. 



A co-operative creamery patron was asked why he favored 

 the co-operative plan of disposing of his cream. He said: 



"Every good butter maker can get 20 per cent overrun. 

 This is 120 pounds of butter made from 100 pounds of butter 

 fat. Then we do not have to pay 1 3^ to 2 cents per pound com- 

 mission to a cream buyer and we do not have to pay 1 to 1 ^ 

 cents per pound to express companies for shipping, to say 

 nothing of the drayage. In addition to all of this he is aiding 

 an enterprise in which he is interested and helping to upbuild 

 his own community. Each stockholder is paid 5 per cent in- 

 terest on his stock, interest being deducted from sales of butter. 

 And should a stockholder leave the community the creamery 

 buys his stock, holding it as treasury stock until disposed of to 

 a new patron. Very little stock accumulates, however, as there 

 is usually a demand for it. Each stockholder has but one vote, 

 regardless of the number of shares he holds." 



The following example will show why the patron likes the 

 co-operative plan: Cream buyers in most localities pay 3 to 4 

 cents under Elgin or Chicago quotations for butter fat. If 

 Elgin is quoted at 30 cents the cream seller receives 26 to 27 

 cents per pound. Suppose he is a patron of a co-operative 

 creamery where, say 1,000 pounds of butter fat, is received daily 

 for 26 days each month, making a total of 26,000 pounds of 



