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Show CO-OPERATiON THAT IS BAD t Demanding Cash Payment for Cream When It Is Delivered to Creamery Cream-ery Is Not Good Practice. Every once in a while we find a farmers' co-operative creamery that pays for each can of cream as it is brought in and on the ground that it is necessary on account of competition. A farmer who requires cash for his cream at a co-operative creamery does not understand the principle of co-operation and is unfortunate in his demands, de-mands, says a writer in Farm, Stock and Home. When butter was made on the farms and sold at the local store no cash was received for it. The storekeeper offered in trade what he estimated that he could get out of it with a fair margin for risk. It was always in trade, however, and for goods upon which a considerable margin mar-gin of profit was figured. The storekeeper store-keeper had to do this, as there was a risk in the business. He did not always al-ways know what the butter would bring when shipped out. In co-operation the farmers bring their cream to the creamery where it is churned into butter and then sold at the market price. When the proceeds pro-ceeds of the sale are remitted to the creamery, the cost of manufacture, shipping and commission is deducted and the balance is divided among the patrons in proportion to the amount of butterfat delivered by each patron. In this way there is no risk for anyone and the farmer get3 just hat his butterfat but-terfat is worth on the market the day it is sold, less the cost of manufacture. This is all any just man should ask and it is only through co-operation that the farmer can get the full value of his produce above the cost of manufacture. man-ufacture. The farmer who comes in and demands cash for his cream is asking for something a co-operative creamery has not got if it lives up to its constitution. The cream must be churned and the butter sold and remittance re-mittance made to the creamery before it can be paid for. When cash is paid, the association must borrow money to do it with or it must keep back a part of the former sales as a reserve fund to pay for cream before it is churned and sold; and this is not co-operation. Wh 'n cream is paid for in cash it is speculation. The market price of butter but-ter varies from day to day and no creamery manager can tell -what butter but-ter will bring, not even a day in advance. ad-vance. A farmer who asks for cash at a co-operative creamery is asking his neighbors who are associated in the creamery to take the risk of the market. mar-ket. A co-operative creamery can take no risk when it pays everything to the farmers over the cost of manufacture. Companies that buy for cash take a sufficient margin to insure against market changes. They have to. and it is only just that they should, but the farmer pays for the insurance. Cooperation Co-operation is for the purpose of eliminating elimi-nating this risk and also to eliminate unnecessary expenses between the producer pro-ducer and the consumer. . Cash payment for every can of cream makes extra work and expense for the creamery association. When there are many patrons it practically requires the work of a bookkeeper. The oldest and most successful creameries cream-eries in the state pay but once a month; and among them are creameries cream-eries that pay the highest prices that are paid for butterfat in the state. Alany crepmeries pay the 1st and 15th of the month, and this method is all right and it is frequent enough. It enables the creamery to pay what the butter brings and any reasonable man should be satisfied with this. It is only in this way that a creamery can be truly co-operative. Best Farmers' Organization. Of the many successful farmers' organizations or-ganizations now working in various states, the plan of the County Farm Bureau of California is probably the best. The farm bureau Is an organization organiza-tion of farmers and ranchers who combine com-bine to promote agriculture through co-operative study of farm conditions. The bureau should not be primarily a social organization, neither should it be essentially a union of farmers to lower prices of stuffs bought and to raise prices of products sold. It should be formed for the purpose of bringing together, for mutual co-operation, those farmers who want to investigate in-vestigate the fundamental problems involved in-volved in production on their farms. Co-operation and Brotherhood. The Almighty has so planned it that we cannot achieve real success in life without fellowship and brotherhood without a willingness to work with our fellows and trust them and bear with them and help them. Otherwise, we not only cannot find the happiness and satisfaction that should be ours, but as a people we cannot even prosper greatly in matters of dollars and cents. And if trial and financial loss should now cause our farmers to develop in fuller degree this spirit of comradeship comrade-ship and brotherhood, then the present light affliction in cotton prices may be worth a thousand times its cost. The Progressive Farmer. Stanchion Must Go. The old time, cumbersome, dangerous dan-gerous and uncomfortable stanchion must go. Plain cattle ties or halters are more convenient, safe an.d comfortable, com-fortable, not to mention their small cost. Clean Milk and Good Butter. It is impossible to produce clean milk In dirty surroundings, and equally equal-ly impossible to produce good butter where the milk has been exposed to miscellaneous odors. Benefits of Small Farm. Only a small farm Is required where the operations are confined to hogs, poultry, bees and gardening. The labor is less irksome than on a big place, the general investment smaller and the risk reduced to a minimum. Success in Dairy. Only a few men are bom dairymen. Successful ones can be made if ser- iousness and persistence characterize their efforts. It is a matter of experience ex-perience and education. ! |