FIFTEENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART VI 405 



$1,000 to $3,000 if they had called on the Dairy and Food Commis- 

 sion or the Iowa State Agricultural College at Ames for assistance. 

 This department is now well equipped with blue prints, plans, and 

 specifications, also cost of machinery and equipment, constitution, 

 by-laws and all other information necessary. We have men in the 

 department that have specialized in this work and their services 

 may be secured without cost where there is a reasonable certainty 

 of a sufficient number of cows (600 to 800) assured, and a desire on 

 the part of the community to build and support a plant. 



We deplore the fact that the promoter pays so little heed to the 

 future success of most plants they construct. They build an under- 

 sized, cheap building, put in much of the equipment that would be 

 obsolete in an up to date factory, charge a big price for the outfit 

 and leave it for this department to nurse along for several years. 

 We recently heard a new definition for the promoter that can well 

 be applied to most creamery promoters, — "A man who sells some- 

 thing he hasn't got, to people who pay for something they never 

 get." 



CENTRALIZERS OR CENTRAL CHURNING PLANTS. 



Some of these plants have been unusually active in the last year 

 in their efforts to put the farmers' co-operative or small individual 

 creamery out of business. By reference to a map shown in another 

 part of this report, you will notice that of the 496 creameries in this 

 state about 400 of them are located in the northern two-thirds and 

 about 96 in the southern third of the state. We think there is no 

 disputing the fact that the prices paid for butter fat in any of the 

 many well managed co-operative creameries range from 3c to 7c 

 more than the price paid by the centralizer. This being true, we 

 feel that this department is fully justified in giving all possible as- 

 sistance and support to the creameries already organized, and en- 

 coutagement and help to the communities where there is reason 

 to believe there is sufficient interest and enough cows to make a 

 paying proposition of a plant. 



We realize that the men operating the centralizers are in a 

 legitimate line of trade. They make dairying possible in sections 

 where there would be little or no market for butter fat if it were 



