SIXTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART VI. 449 



the practice of dairying altogether and the shipping of his cream 

 to the best market for butter fat within. his reach. 



It does not follow, however, that the centralization plan is 

 the best either for the farmer or the industry as a whole. It is 

 now, as suggested, the only plan available in many localities, 

 and is very valuable for that reason. But there are plenty of 

 places in the State where successful creameries of another 

 kind are already established, and where also the central cream- 

 eries have their purchasing agents for cream. There are sev- 

 eral facts which ought to be recognized in regard to the cen- 

 tralization of cream for butter making. One of them is the 

 question of expense of the plan. Under the head of "Iowa 

 Manufactures, Dairy Products Second," following, some 

 figures bearing on this subject are given and will repay some 

 study. Under the almost universal practice now, the cream 

 shipping creamery pays its local agent one cent a pound for 

 butter fat purchased and the freight on the butter fat is about 

 one cent a pound for butter fat in addition. So that the farmer 

 has to pay about two cents a pound to get his butter fat to 

 the creamery after he has taken it to the shipping station. 

 That is to say the larger plant is handicapped at the start by 

 two cents of expense more than attaches to the creamery that 

 receives its cream direct from the wagon of the patron. 



The cream shipping has another failing necessarily unavoid- 

 able, in that in many cases the cream purchased is a long time 

 on the road, in hot weather, amid not too good surroundings, 

 after having been purchased, tested and shipped by an agent, 

 who, in the very great majortiy of cases, has had little or no 

 experience in handling cream. This inevitably results in low- 

 ering the value of the cream for butter making purposes, and 

 makes it impossible for even the best of buttermakers to make 

 out of it butter that will bring the highest price, a loss which 

 is, of course, visited upon the producer of the cream. 



That the centralization plan is increasingly expensive, is 

 shown by the fact that the net prices paid by them to the farm- 

 ers at present is less than it was a year ago. At that time this 

 office secured from the central plants themselves statements of 



29 



