354 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



Those who are familiar with the history of the changes in the 

 manner of creamery operation know perfectly well that no system has 

 long endured that did not give the farmer the most possible for his pro- 

 duct does not require any extraordinary ability to foresee that that 

 system of creamery operation will continue that not only can but does 

 pay the farmer the most for his butter fat and the perpetuation of the 

 local plants turns on their ability to pay more for the butter fat than 

 creameries run on some other plan. Of course the situation is for the 

 present different in those localities where there are no local plants and 

 never have been, but for those localities where there are creameries 

 now in operation, more or less sucessful, the only real question is the 

 question of price, for the farmer will sell where he gets the most money. 



There is a popular superstition that the central creameries pay two 

 cents under N-^w York for butter fat delivered at the railroad station. 

 In a great many cases their prices are not only lower than two cents 

 under New York, more often three or even four cents under the market, 

 but they do not pay the same price at the same time in different locali- 

 ties. They buy for the least money that will get the cream. I am 

 not now stating that they are doing anything that is improper or illegal. 



I am simply stating the fact that they do not pay within three or 

 four cents of the market. 



They used to tell us that the central plant could be operated so much 

 cheaper than an equivalent number of smaller plants and that the 

 great saving in manufacturing expense would largely accrue to the 

 farmer. It is true that a creamery making a large quantity of butter 

 makes it at a less expense per pound than one that only makes seventy- 

 five or a hundred thousand pounds. If we compute the expense of mak- 

 ing butter from the time the cream comes into the creamery until 

 the butter goes into the ^ar, and compare the relative expense in a mil- 

 lion pound plant and a fifty thousand pound plant, it is true that the 

 smaller plant is too expensive to operate. It cannot compete with the 

 centralizer. This is the reason why three hundred creameries and 

 skim stations have been closed in this state in the last four years. But, 

 if we compare the manufacturing expense in the million pound creamery 

 with that in the creamery making one hundred and fifty to two hundred 

 thousand pounds of butter, the difference is not very great. The fact 

 that the central creameries do not now pay more for butter fat delivered 

 at the station than these smaller creameries used to pay, seems to indi- 

 cate that no great saving has been secured for the farmer. 



We are fortunate enough to have some figures bearing upon the 

 subject. The United States Census Bureau for the year ending June 

 30, 1900, found in Iowa 907 factories, this year they found but 657, a 

 decrease of exactly 250 plants. Notwithstanding this decrease in the 

 number of plants, the number of salaried officers increased from 413 

 to 806, 94 per cent; the salaries increased from $81,425 to |142,779, 75 

 per cent. The wages paid increased from $588,653 to $695,267, 18 per cent. 

 The miscellaneous expenses increased from $153,990 to $369,497, 140 per 

 cent. The total expenses here given increased from $824,068 to $1,207,- 

 543, or about 50 per cent, and this, notwithstanding the fact that the 



