The Butter Business: Is it as Profitable in the West as in the East?

Otago Witness, Issue 1583, 25 March 1882, Page 7

The Butter Business : Is it as Profitable in the West as in the East?

The Wisconsin State Dairymen's Association Seems to Think that It Is.—-Rela-tive Merits ov Summer and Winter

Dairying.— Tire Cost ov Producing Butter in lowa as Compared with New York.— Miscellaneous Notes. (Chicago Times, January Uth.)

The tenth annual convention of tho Wisconsin State Dairymen's Association, now closed, has been tho most successful mooting in its history in point of interest, number of attondanco, and importance of the questions discussed.

That the dairy business is one of tho most important of all Wisconsin productive industries is amply shown by tho fact that this association represents an invested capital of not loss than $45,000,000, whoso annual product is over §5,000,000. Tho farmers who compose the convention aro evidently of a superior class. The papers that were read wore dignified m tone and couched in good language. There is evidently something about the dairy business which attracts the thinking class of farmers, and. makes them think more,

Sheboygan, where the convention is held, is itself a dairy controof considerable importance. Tho main product of the county of which it is tho capital, is cheese, the value of last year s yield of which, as indicated by reported sales, was about $575,000, which is an increase over the product of 1880 of about $232,000. The convention was the great event of the hihtory of the city, which showered all possible honours upon the association.

SILOS AND ENSILAGE.

The subject of silos and ensilage, which occupied so much of tho attention of the Illinois association last month, hardly received mention in this convention. Profess ov Henry, of the state experimental farm, related the results of his experiments in that direction, which were not highly flattering. The Times repro sontativo talked with a largo number of tho dairymon present at tho convention, and failed to find any enthusiastic advocates of tho silo system among them. Most of them seemed afraid the institution would not pay tho first -cost of construction.

i' SUMMER AND WINTER DAIRYING. . Among tho subjects which were discussed one of the mout, important boomed to be the rolativeadvantagesot summer over winter dairying. The debate was opened by Mr Gieorge Lsiwronce, of Waukosha, who maintained thtit winter dairying was more advantageous for the cow, because it was far bettor for her to drop her calf in the fall than in the spring. It was a well-known fact that new milch cows did not thrive so well on green fodder as on dry. The best time for feeding grass was during the three months when the cow was dry. The method of winter dairying was also better for the man. In winter the fanner and his help had more leisure to devote to the dairy. The winter butter also was moro profitable. The practice of making butter in summer, and holding it over to winter was rapidly becoming a thing oi the past. Tho expense of winter feed, he claimed, was much reduced since tho silo system was introduced, so that now-milch cows can be more cheaply fed on ensilage than dry cowrj can be sustained without. Another advantage of wintor dairying was the case with which the product can bo preserved in cold weather. The speaker did not anticipate a very marked effect upon prices if his theory should be followed by the majority of dairymen, for, while prices might be reduced in wintor they would be increased in the Hummer, so that a better equalisation would bo tho result.

Hon. Hiram Smith, of Shcboygan Falls, who is known as one of the most .successful dairymen in Winscousin, was of tho same mind, and had the statistics to ahow that he was right; Good care, he said, would produco as much milk from a cow in winter as in summer. The gross weight might not bo as great, but the essential milk qualities without tho water would average up as well. Out of his herd of 34 cows, 26 were new milch cows in October, and five or six came in since. His receipts from the butter produced by this herd aggregated §3,889.09; from skim-milk cheese, $400 ; from curds, §153 ; from calves, $75 ; from pigs feed, on the milk in excess of their cost, $94; total }> §4678. Deducting $522 paid for milk to neighbours, and $669 for cost of manufacturing, leaves, a total profit of $3487, or a ,net of &70;43 per cow. This was the direct result of winter dairying, and this profit per cow,, he was prepared to assert, was §20 dollars better than ever had ,been produced by the old method of farming. It was a well-known fact that $50 per cow was a large average profit, If all his cows, had come in in the fall, he had no doubt that his profit would average $80 per cow. He was willing to 'offer $135 per hundred pounds for milk" In the winter, but would be afraid to offer. 55 cents per hundred during, June, July, and August.

WESTERN BUTTER. .

'The Progress and Reputation of Western Butter " was one subject of discussion, which was opened by a guest 1 of the Association ', Hon. ,H. D. Sherman, of Monticello, lowa. He briefly showed how, for many years, there was existing in the minds of eastern people a prejudice against western butter. It was known to them as 'western gi ease',' and a good deal of it justified the name. The International Dairy Exhibition, in 1876, changed this sentiment, however, the medal for June butter going to lowa, and for October butter to Illinois, and ever since that time the comparison has been in favour of the west. In regard to the profits of dairying, the speaker said that a few years ago lowa farmers ,were growing poor. Every crop of wheat was put into the ground at a dead loss, and the farmers were becoming discouraged. Now that the dairy business had been introduced there, tho counties that have engaged in it were becoming prosperous, and their farmers were becoming rich. In regard to the improvement in the quality of product, the speaker said that he had bought a groat many car-loads of butter in lowa in years past at 6 cents per pound. It was now bringing 40 cents, and at no time last summer did it sell for less than 28 cents. The speaker, who owns 12 or 13 milk factories in lowa, was sure that this increase was a direct result of the introduction of the factory system. His factories paid the farmers an average, in 18S1, of 90 cents' for the cream from one hundred pounds of , milk. , His factories consumed 10,775,000 pounds of milk hi 1881. '

DAIRYING COMPARED TO FARMING. >

The paper whioh was, perhaps, of the most interest to the general public was read by Mr W. D. Hoard, president of the Northwestern Dairymen's association, in which he reviewed the advantages of dairying compared with other farming processes, in their effects upon the farm, the farmer, and the community at large. Commencing with a description of the former wasteful methods of farming in Wisconsin, when the land was drained of its strength year after year, he spoke of the change for the better which had now taken place owing to the introduction of cow-culture. Ho said :

In 1870 the entire property valuation of Jefferson county was $10,511,377, and its population over 35,000. It was one of the oldest counties in the stato, possessed a fair medium soil, but, owing to the causes 1 have already cited, agriculture was in a very depressed state. At this time there wore in the county 1000 cows, producing, according to the census, nearly 1,000,000 pounds of butter, and about 50,000 pounds of cheese, with a total value of $75,000. But this is evidently below the truth. It would bo fairer to estimate tho productive value of these cows at $20 each, which would give a total value of $220,000. But very littlo care or thought at that time was bestowed on tho amount of revenue a cow produced. Thoro was great unrest and discouragement in tho entire community. Now mark the change in ten years. The valuation of tho county on a gold basis in 1880 was tf11,G99,357. This is an increase of $1,188.0 L0. Tho number of cows is 20,000, an increase of 1000 a year. Tho joint value of their product in butter and cheese is $900,000, an increase of over 400 per cenfc. And the productive capacity of the same farms for all kinds of crops has also greatly increased. In 1870 there were but six cheese factories in the county, employing 17 hands, and producing $18,000 worth of cheese, In 1880, 46

cheese factories produced $400,000 worth. of. cheese. In 1870 tho product of butter is" estimated at 1,000,000 pounds. In IdSO it was about twice that. .Right here stands out a feature which strongly marks the advantages of dairying over all other branche.-s 0/ fanning. Not only i h thevo an increase in the product of butter and cheese, but also an increase in priue. The average price of butter in 1870 was l(i cents per pound. In 1880 it was 25 cents. The, averago price of cheese in 1870 was 8 cents ; 111 1880, 10 cents. If the fanners had stood by their old products they would not have had an advance in yield and prico both. The increase in the wealth of the county during that decade has been marked. Yet our population has decreased about 800, owing to the departure of our young men to other western states. The change in the appearance and conduct of our farms has been marvellous. Whore only a few years ago the prospect was bare of those material evidences of wealth I've always looked, for in a prosperous country, thoy can now bo' scon on ovory hand. Now tho farmhouses, barns*; me-rdows, fields, and stock, all in good condition, bear evidence of tho change in the financial situation of the farmers of the county. There is also an increase of 75 in the number of fanners who keep a bank account. ' ' ~

And this is not all. Dairying has proved a groat educator and civiliser. It has taken Urn fanner out of his isolated life and pushed him into the busy channels of trade and commoreo, and has made a business man of him. Whoxe ten years ago lie had no -familiarity with the linos of busiiiejf) life outsido of his local mar.ket, he now may be found consigning hja butter to New Yo.rk, Boston, Chicago, or New Orleans, as ho deems best ; and his cheese to London. He has been forced to deal,_ as principle, with railroads and transportation companies and the great commercial .world. lie has been forced to the study of tho groat underlying economies of business life, plant life, and animal lifo. He has learned to solvo tho vexed transportation question in tho moat practical way, ',» way that Vandorbilt and J. Gould are powerless to circumvent,— and that by condensing the bulk and increasing tho values of his products. Erom this latter question he has luarnud the valuable losson that the difference in cost of transporting to market a dollar's worth of grain and a dollar's worth of cheese is as 7 to 20 in favour of the dairy dollar, and there aro but 100 rents in each dollar.

But tho effect on our community lifo has been just as marked. It is a principle that holds Hood everywhere, that all interests depend for their good or ill on the ruling interest. Go where you please in tho dairy districts \oi Winsconsin, you will find every, commercial and manufacturing interest keenly alivo to'ita prospeiity. ' "\'\