306 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



that the leading dairymen were practically all readers of that magnifi- 

 cent paper called "Hoard's Dairyman." One night, after addressing a 

 meeting on building up a herd, a rugged farmer came up to thank me 

 for the short talk I had given and he asked me to guess how much butter- 

 fat per cow, his herd of twenty-one grade cows, had given. Of course, 

 I failed in my guess, then he told me that they had produced 352 pounds 

 of butterfat per cow. This statement was verified by the creamerymen 

 who were there. I expressed some astonishment at this nice record, 

 when Mr. Frohman said: "We read dairy literature out here, and en- 

 deavor to profit by its teachings, and furthermore, I am not satisfied 

 even with this record." We have in this State and adjoining states some 

 excellent dairy and agricultural papers that are doing good work for 

 both the producer and the manufacturer, but when we see a paper 

 that is supposed, to represent the great dairy cause, having a special 

 editorial at the commencement of the storage season, maintaining that 

 the price of butter is too high, that instead of going into storage at 

 20c per pound it should go in at 18c, we naturally come to the conclu- 

 sion that such a paper represents the cause of the buyer and not the pro- 

 ducer, as such editorials have an influence in holding down the market 

 price. 



The price paid for butter during the past season has been high, 

 but not any higher, and possibly not as high, as it should be. To 

 satisfy myself thoroughly on this point, and to show to you that butter 

 was not any higher than it should be, I took the make of a large 

 gathered cream plant in Ontario, Canada,, and compared it with the 

 make of one of the highest selling as well as one of the best creameries 

 in this State. This comparison was made from the middle of May up 

 to September the first. The Iowa creamery I referred to sold their 

 butter at a premium of two cents per pound. Now the prices I am 

 quoting are the net prices paid for butter at the creamery in both 

 cases. The gathered cream plant shipped their butter to the English 

 market and no duty prevents us from doing the same. Both creameries 

 received 20c net, during the last half of May. During the month of 

 June the Iowa creamery received 20c net, and the Canadian creamery 

 21c. During the first half of July the Canadian creamery received 21 %c 

 and the Iowa creamery received an average of 21c for the month, while 

 the Canadian got 21%c for the last half. During the month of -August 

 the Canadian ceramery received 23c at home, and 22c for that sent 

 abroad, while the Iowa creamery received 23c for the entire month's 

 make. 



Here we find that a gathered cream plant has actually out-sold one 

 of the best whole milk creameries in the West. The creameries I have 

 referred to are at Strawberry Point, Iowa, and at Owen Sound, Ontario. 

 Now if a gathered cream plant in Ontario can out-sell a creamery that 

 is actually getting two cents premium above New York quotations, how 

 much will they out-sell the average Iowa creamery? When butter is 

 quoted at 23c in Montreal and 24c in New York, the natural inference 

 would be that the New York market was a cent higher than the Mon- 

 treal market, when in reality the Montreal market is about one cent to 

 a cent and a half higher than the New York market. The quotation 



