Farmers Creamery 



f (.f'>il!ntitd horn />./i:c 7/ 



as a creamery. In December, 1932. of- 

 ficials of the McLean County Milk Pro- 

 ducers Association stajied a drive to in- 

 lorm fat producers that the creamery 

 would soon be ready to serve them. 



Since sufficient funds had been bor- 

 rowed, prospective patrons were not 

 a>ked to contribute money. I:ach one was. 

 however, asked to subscribe for a share 

 of preferred stock at S^S a share. Pay- 

 ments on the shares were to be made out 

 of earninjt;s or by a check-otT of one cent 

 on each pound of butterfat sold to the 

 creamery. Kver try to buy stock in a 

 privately owned corporation that way.' 



Forrest "Dot" I'airchild. able manager 

 of the Milk Producers As.sociation, was 



croachmcnt occurred when the Producers 

 Creamery of Carlinville opened. May 1-4. 



By the end of the first year the Farmers 

 plant had churned SH,S21 pounds of 

 butter, had returned SH.tSOT.Ci to pro- 

 ducers in patronage dividends, an average 

 of ^4 cent a pound on butterfat pur- 

 chased. 



In 19i4, the second year. 1.2'iH,.S')9 

 pounds of butter were churned and $1 5,- 

 977.1.3 were paid in patronage dividends, 

 an average of one cent a pound. In the 

 third year 1.377,6.37 pounds of butter 

 were made and $17,993-27 in patronage 

 was returned. Average: ^4 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 talked-of sign in Illinois cooperative circles gets a paint job. Vandals 

 recently deiaced it. caused a ripple of gossip. Question of the hour: "How long can 

 Farmers Creamery keep its trophy now that the 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. 



>Xhen farmers received their first 

 checks, it is interesting to note, the co- 

 operative had paid two cents more for 

 butterfat than the prevailing loc.il 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. Iiowever. other cooperative 

 creameries, members of the statewide 

 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 ow ns 1 i pickup trucks operated by 

 1-4 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 ( reameries in Chicago to be 

 p.ickaged 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 S~0.()()0 in diviclends have been paid 

 in five years of operation. Beside this, 

 the original debt of 520.000 has been 

 retired. The Milk Producers Association, 

 chose to take S2 'iOO of its loan in stcxk. 

 It holds 1 00 shares. 



Harold Fnns. Tazewell county, first 

 president of the Farmers Oeamery. de- 

 clares the enterprise a success because it 

 achieved its goal — to increase the butter- 

 fat and milk price for dairymen. 



Speaking of Hobbies 



H miiininJ jyiim p.txi- -?5^ 

 rearing the smaller animals. 



In no sense a dude-farmer, the doctor 

 and his brother own and operate 1100 

 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. Tlieir 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? '\'es, black bears are also 

 vegetarians." 



— L. A. P. 



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 soine 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." 



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 OIney creamery, June 1. 



In ancient China, bakers who adulleraied flour 



with -ijnj «fit- n.rnptllfil to e.it stttne of tlicir own 

 pro^luits. tJietcbv hicaktfn: their Iccth .irui a bjj 

 h.ih.t. 





The oil floating on top of the can nf salmon is 



as ru !i or rt* her than ^udhvt■^ oil in Vitamin H, 

 an»i shouKi nevtr be puured down the drain, but 

 used in luckin^. 



28 



L A. A. RECORD 



