326 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



Iowa's creameries have always made more butter to the 

 creamery than those of other States and the average make has 

 been heretofore about one hundred thousand pounds per annum. 

 On account of the central plants making from a few hundred 

 thousand pounds to a few million pounds this average this year 

 is more than one hundred twenty thousand, and this notwith- 

 standing the fact that therejis more than the usual proportion of 

 creameries with a make less than the average. The ^tendency 

 toward larger creameries is unmistakable even aside from the 

 central plants. The relatively high expense in the smaller 

 creamery makes it certain that they can not long continue to 

 compete with the larger and more economically operated cream- 

 eries, whether of the local or central variety. This tendency is 

 further accentuated by the impossibility of employing the most 

 expert butter makers in the small creameries because they can 

 not pay wages sufficiently high to get them. Hence their butter 

 is likely to be of poorer quality and bring a less price than that 

 of the well-managed larger creamery. 



While the creamery businesshas not had the smoothest pathway 

 for the last few years from a business standpoint, it is also true 

 that the creameries have suffered from a general decrease in the 

 practice of dairying in this State. This decrease in dairying in 

 the State is both an effect and a cause. It is the effect produced 

 by high prices of other products of the farm. It is the cause of 

 increased interest on the part of a considerable number of 

 farmers in the scientific and modern method of dairying. 

 Indeed, there in a great increase in the interest shown by Iowa 

 farmers in scientific and modern methods as applied to all lines 

 of agriculture. Because the State of Iowa is adapted by climate 

 and soil to the production of dairy products it is certain that the 

 State will always be one of the greatest dairy states, but the 

 increase of the immediate future will not be .increase of butter 

 production or of creamery building, but will be increases of 

 profits that will accrue to the individual who continues in the 

 business and adopts the best methods. The efforts of those who 

 would advance and increase the importance of the dairy interest 

 of this State must be in the line suggested. There was a time 

 when the farmer milked his cows because he had to make money 

 enough to live, but that situation was only temporary; now he 

 will milk only when he can be pursuaded that there is sufficient 

 money in the business to make it worth while to practice it, and 

 to submit himself to the confinement and regularity that goes with 



