146 Cooperation in Agriculture 



afford to employ the best expert butter-makers, nor can 

 it develop a highly organized system of business manage- 

 ment. As a result, the technical details of butter-making 

 are likely to fall below the standards of a larger factory, 

 the greatest economies in the purchase of supplies or in 

 the manufacture of butter cannot be inaugurated, and no 

 comprehensive system of distribution and sale can be 

 developed. The average cooperative creamery there- 

 fore manufactures its product at a comparatively high 

 unit cost. The quality of the butter, while comparatively 

 good, is below the standard of the quality of the raw cream. 

 The creamery consigns the butter to a commission firm or 

 other agent, thereby turning over the sale of the product to 

 the usual selling agencies, without being powerful enough 

 to exert an influence on the system of marketing. 



The Centralizer Creameries 



The strongest competitors of the cooperative creamery 

 are the centralizer creamery corporations. These cor- 

 porations are formed to purchase the butter-fat from the 

 dairymen, to distribute the butter to the trade, and to 

 pay the profits from the manufacture and sale of the butter 

 in the form of dividends to the stockholders. The cen- 

 tralizers establish a number of skimming stations where 

 the butter-fat is separated from the milk. The dairy- 

 man is paid for the butter-fat when it is delivered to the 

 station, or at the end of the month, and his connection 

 with the butter-making business ends at that point. The 

 cream is shipped from the skimming stations on fast 

 trains, usually though not always under refrigeration, to 

 the central butter factory, where it is given uniform treat- 



