Fanners Creamery 



(Continued from page 1) 



as a creamery. In December, 1932, of- 

 ficials of the McLean County Milk Pro- 

 ducers Association staged a drive to in- 

 form fat producers that the creamery 

 would soon be ready to serve them. 



Since sufficient funds had been bor- 

 rowed, prospective patrons were not 

 asked to contribute money. Each one was, 

 however, asked to subscribe for a share 

 of preferred stock at $25 a share. Pay- 

 ments on the shares were to be made out 

 of earnings or by a check-off of one cent 

 on each pound of butterfat sold to the 

 creamery. Ever try to buy stock in a 

 privately owned corporation that way .' 



Forrest "Doc" Fairchild, able manager 

 of the Milk Producers Association, was 



croachment occurred when the Producers 

 Creamery of Carlinville opened. May 14. 



By the end of the first year the Farmers 

 plant had churned 841,321 pwunds of 

 butter, had returned $8,607.05 to pro- 

 ducers in patronage dividends, an average 

 of % cent a pound on butterfat pur- 

 chased. 



In 1934, the second year, 1,258,359 

 pounds of butter were churned and $15,- 

 977.13 were paid in patronage dividends, 

 an average of one cent a pound. In the 

 third year 1,377,637 pounds of butter 

 were made and $17,993.27 in patronage 

 was returned. Average: % cent a pound. 



In addition to these dividends, a six 

 per cent stock dividend was paid each 

 year. 



Now that the creamery is firmly estab- 



EIGHT OTHER CO-OP CREAMERIES WANT IT 

 The most tallced-of >ign in Illinois cooperative circles gets a pctint job. Vandals 

 rvcently defaced it, caused a ripple of gossip. Question of tlie hour "How long can 

 Formers Creamery keep its trophy now tliat tlie new Carlinville plant has part of the 

 Bloomington territory?" 



drafted to manage the new venture. He 

 is still serving both cooperatives in a 

 managerial capacity. 



Before the plant opened, Doc estab- 

 lished truck routes to move cream in 

 from the farms. Here was a new service 

 for producers — twice a week pickup at 

 their farms. 



When farmers received their first 

 checks, it is interesting to note, the co- 

 operative had paid two cents more for 

 butterfat than the prevailing local market 

 price. Note, too, that the price paid was 

 four cents nearer the Chicago 90-score 

 butter market than it had been a few 

 months before. 



By the end of the first year the Farmers 

 Creamery had annexed new territory. 

 Cream pools in Carlinville and Palmyra 

 in Macoupin county had been purchased. 

 Truck routes had been extended into 

 Greene, Pike and Scott counties. 



Later, however, other cooperative 

 creameries, members of the state-wide 

 Illinois Producers creameries, took over 

 some of the territory. The latest en- 



lished it handles in the neighborhood 

 of a million pounds of butterfat annually. 

 It owns 14 pickup trucks operated by 

 14 cream salesmen who manage 32 routes 

 on which pickups are made twice weekly 

 at more than 1000 farms. 



Half of the butter made goes to the 

 central butter cutting plant of the Illinois 

 Producers Creameries in Chicago to be 

 packaged and sold under the "Prairie 

 Farms" brand label. The remainder is 

 sold by cream route men and, locally, by 

 a full-time butter salesman. 



So well has the plant been managed 

 that $70,000 in dividends have been paid 

 in five years of operation. Beside this, 

 the original debt of $20,000 has been 

 retired. The Milk Producers Association, 

 chose to take $2500 of its loan in stock. 

 It holds 100 shares. 



Harold Enns, Tazewell county, first 

 president of the Farmers Creamery, de- 

 clares the enterprise a success because it 

 achieved its goal — to increase the butter- 

 fat and milk price for dairymen. 



Speaking of Hobbies 



(Continued jrom page 2i) 

 rearing the smaller animals. 



In no sense a dudc-farmer, the doctor 

 and his brother own and operate HOC 

 acres. The Mathers Brothers" purebred 

 Shorthorns are famous wherever the 

 breed is known. 



Mathers is a graduate of the University 

 of Illinois college of agriculture and the 

 Chicago College of Veterinary Medicine. 

 His hobby of collecting and breeding 

 animals dates back to boyhood. 



The brothers have long been Farm 

 Bureau members and are leaders in their 

 community. Their farms are fertile be- 

 cause they believe in raising plenty of 

 legumes and feeding the hay to livestock. 



"It doesn't cost much to feed the 

 various species of animals we have here 

 because they are all hay-burners or vege- 

 tarians except the Collies, foxes and the 

 alligator. That's why I like to raise and 

 work horses, too. They eat what we 

 grow," he commented. 



"The bears? Yes, black bears are also 

 vegetarians." 



— L. A. P. 



7?i 



August Keichert Jr. Says — 



"I support cooperative livestock 

 marketing 100 per cent," says August 

 Reichert Jr., Pulaski county, "because 

 I like the feeling of protection it af- 

 fords. I know that when I ship a load of 

 livestock I will receive exactly what the 

 market allows for that day. The fact 

 that I am supporting a cooperative 

 that is alert in protecting my interest, 

 and that counteracts collective buying 

 of livestock, also appeals to me. 



"Many farmers do not support coop- 

 erative livestock marketing because 

 they have never given it much serious 

 thought or have never had a thorough 

 explanation of its objectives. There 

 is also a natural hesitancy in some cases 

 in making a change. A man who for 

 years has sold outside of cooperative 

 channels develops a habit that may be 

 difficult to change. If he has been the 

 recipient of personal back-slapping 

 and numerous gifts, the habit lingers 

 longer." i 



Deductions from benefit payments 



for overplanting soil-depleting crops 

 were recently reduced from eight times 

 the soil-depleting payment per acre to 

 five times. 



A buttermilk dryer began operation 

 at the Olney creamery, June 1. 



In ancieot China, bakefs who adulterate<l flour 



with sand were compelled to eat some of their own 

 products, thereby breakin>; their teeth and a bad 

 habit. 



The oil floating on top of the can of salmon it 

 as rich or richer than codliver oil in Vitamin D, 

 and should never be poured down the drain, but 

 used in cooking. 



28 



I. A. A. RECORD 



