184 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



■disastrous in the ag-gregate, of smaller concerns with only a few 

 skimming stations each. If one may judge the future by the 

 past history of the skimming' station idea, it seems to be only a 

 question of a few years until the skimming station will be a thing 

 of the past. It is difficult to make a general statement that will 

 2pply in every case, but it seems entirely safe to assert that it is 

 bad policy at this time to invest any money in a skimming sta- 

 tion. If there is patronage enough at any point to warrant the 

 building of a skimming station, the patronage will be entirely 

 sufficient to warrant the erection of a co-operative creamery. 

 The difference in expense between building a skimming station 

 and a creamery is veiy small and the difference in expense in 

 operating them is still less. 



There are two creameries in the State, within ficty miles of 

 each other and operating under very similar conditions, but upon 

 entirely different plans. Each of them has about six hundred 

 patrons, but one of them has not only a churning plant, but eight 

 skimming stations. This creamery has an investment in the 

 creamery of $5,000.00 and reports the average value of the skim- 

 ming stations at $2,500.00, which makes the total investment 

 $25,000.00. This creamery makes 175,000 pounds of butter. The 

 other creamery has an investment of $5,000.00 in the creamer)^ 

 and makes 540,000 pounds of butter. It is evident that the ex- 

 pense in the first of these plants must include the wages of eight 

 skimming station operators, as well as the wages of the men who 

 operate the churning plant, and hence the expense of operating 

 this system of skimming stations will be very much larger than 

 the expense of operating the other creamer};, which makes three 

 times as much butter. And it is evident that when two cream- 

 eries such as these get into competition, that the creamery with 

 the skimming stations must certainly give way to- the creamery 

 that has no skimming stations. 



The creamery operator who invests his money in a skimming 

 station, in a very large number of cases, is almost certain to lose 

 a large part of his investment. 



A large number of centralizing plants are now in operation in 

 this State and a still larger number are apparently about to be 



