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Co-Operative Farm Products Marketing How It Is Done in Europe and May Be Done in America to the Profit of Both Farmer and Consumer By MATHEW 8. DUDGEON (Copyright. 1914, WMUrn N?wip?p?r Union,) WHY IRISH .BUTTER IS GOOD. The Omagh Co-operative Creamery. Omagh, County Tyrone, Ireland. ? Wlmt the city woman needs Is butter that Is standardized and always of a uniform excellence ? butter which comes as fresh and comes as straight ub may be from the cow on the farm td tho table in the city dining room. With the husband singing In her ears the song of high cost of living ? and What husband is not driven to such songs in these days of high prices ? she feels that she must get butter that can be bought at something Icbs than the fanqy prices charged in the exclu sive delicatessen shops to which she is driven in her efforts to insure her family a good grade of butter. Ask her and sh* will tell you that if co-op eration will enable her to get good but ter at a price made somewhat less by the elimination of excessive distribu tion' charges then she is heartily for cooperation. r The city man of course, wants a good butter to eat. The farmer wants to make money from his dairy. They have been telling us in America that direct co-operative marketing will give each what he wants; that co-operation has repeatedly accomplished these re sults where it has been tried in Ire land, in Holland, in Denmark and in (iermany. If co-operation will do this, it Ik well to look into it for good but ter in important ? and financial profits are worth while. So some of us are over here in Ireland to see if co-opera tion really is a benefit both to the city eater and to the rural producer. The co-operative creamery here is turning out good butter-r-none better anywhere. Wo think we have found why Irish butter is good, why it brings |to the farmer a good price in this city. The butter Is good because co-opera tive creameries use good methods of butter making; because their patrons get good milk from good cows, take good care of It, and deliver it in good 'condition tp the creamery; and lastly because when once made it is hurried ;off to a consumer before it can get stale. They get a good price for it be cause it is good butter. On the other hand, the city gets it at a reasonable price because co-opera tive marketing in Ireland is direct marketing; because the butter com^s quickly and directly from the cream ery to the city home with little added .expense for much handling by many ?middlemen. Why Farm Butter Is 8ometimes Bad. The writer remembers summer but ?ter made from cream skimmed from uncooled milk and. kept. on the warm pantry shelf during the long hot day? until churning time. It was hardly butr ter ? it was in fact commercially ranked "grease." It brought six cents per pound, and as butter was worth Jess. ? Failure to make good butter was in evitable. Nor were the tired farmers' wives to be criticised for the poor re sults obtained. Th6y had no facilities for keeping the milk and cream clean and cool, no facilities for making but ter, no facilities for keeping It. Co-Operation Lightens Labor. What the woman on the farm most, needs 1b to be free from the burden of the endless handling of milk, cream and butter, from skimming the milk, and churning the cream and from salt ing and working and molding the but ter ? from all the labor entailed In the | production of home-made, hand-made [butter. She needs It if she is to have any life outside the kitchen and the milk room. The laborious weariness of the un eventful existence of the farmer's wife has produced many candidates for the insane asylums. More than one worn unfortunate has been taken into ?cWtody because her household duties have chained her to a maddening monotony unralUved by opportunity [for intercourse, and have made impos sibly any thought above the churn and t the cook stove. One Wisconsin1 farm- j *er*s wife was adjudicated by the coun ty judge to be afflicted with insanity. ! L~When the judge announced the deci sion to the husband he was incredu lous. "It can't he she's got insanity or anything else, he said. "She's had no chance to catch 1L She hasn't set a toot off the farm fdr 14 years and no Neighbor has stayed at oar house long enough to give her anything." * If co-operation in the production and marketing of butter will take off even a small p%rt of the burden of the farm* era' wife, if It will give her time to straighten up from her work at table and tub and leave her free to remem ber that she is a human being with a head and a soul, if it will permit her to get off the farm oftener than once in 14 wears ? if co-operation will do this or help by ever so little to do it, the woman on the farm Is for co-opera tion. An Ungallant Irishman. We have found one man here in Ire land who is opposed to co-operation. Walking along a country road near Omagh we came upon a shrewd faced Irishman who was very ready to talk about co operation. He was evidently a man of some Intelligence and, judg ing from his manner and address, a man of some experience and success in business. So we engaged him In conversation about co-operation and its effects. "I am against it," he said. "There is no sense in it." And he gave us in forcible and picturesque language the story of how he had been personally injured in his business by co-opera tion. It developed that he had been a buyer of farm produce ? a commission merchant in a small way. "Now there is no money in it," he said, "since the margin between what the city man pays and what the farmer receives is cut dowiv The farmer sells through the co-operative organization directly to the city merchant." Reluctantly he admitted that maybe it was better for the farmer aild better for the olty con sumer who had little with which to buy food. "But' it's hard on us com mission men. It's putting us on the rocks. I am not buying butter at all any more. The co-operative creamery here has run me out." We asked him if cooperative butter making did not make the work of the farmer's wife and daughter easier. "Of course it does," he said. , "And lit tle good it is doing them. They don't have to skim the milk and churn and mold and salt the butter now and so they go galavanting over the roads on their bicycles. They don't stay home at all any more. They're worse about gadding than city women," and he shook his head with misgivings. So, if it be true, as our Irish friend in his self pity proclaimed, that co operative butter making and butter marketing is going to make It cost the consumer less and net the farmer more, we suggest that both maker and eater will be for it, the ex-commission merchant to the contrary notwith standing, They will both In city and country be Interested In seeing co-op eration accomplished. Certainly the country woman who feels the burden of butter making will welcome a pro cess by which she is to get an oppor , tunlty to see something besides the top of the cook stove and the Inside of the big churn. And we do not believe that the ordinary American farmer will object to co-operation even if It does give his wife and daughter time to get out upon the road in buggy or bin bicycles. The Omagh Creamery. When we learned that the Omagh Cooperative Creamery system of mar keting was cutting down the margin of price between farmer and consumer ? was both raising the price to the farmer and lowering the price to the consumer, we concluded that it was a concern worth considering. Even the accusation that made it possible for the farmer's wife and daughter to get out on their bicycles occasionally did not unduly prejudice us against It- The Omagh creamery is capitalised by con tributions from 600 members who in vested from Ave dollars, up to $260 each. But the voting Is not by share*. It is on the one man one vote plan. The flve-dollar man votes Just as often and as forcibly as the $260-dollar man. The members voting thue elect a board of directors. These in turn have the best man they can get as manager. But he must be more than a butter maker. He must be a good business man and an expert in marketing. No matter how much money is made, It must all go back to: the members la proportion to tae bitter fat delivered to til* dreamery after a dividend not " , ?. . exceeding fire per cent, la paid to the stockholders. Five per oent. to the limit of profit to shareholder*. Thla Is the rule In all oo -operative enterprises I lu Ireland. It la organised primarily ! that profits may go to the man who ! brings In the cream. It la not ranked as a particularly fine lnveatment for the aharebolder. Differs From American CrssmeHsa. We flud the mechanical proceeaes of butter making mucb the same as those In the best up-to-date American butter factorlee. We do find, however, that this co-operative Association has had an output that la of more uniform ex cellence than that of the American factory. Here each member aeema to I realise more fully than doee the Amer ican farmer that the utmoat vigilance must be exercised lu keeping the milk and cream fresh and free from all Im purities, that keeping up the quality of the butter Is as much his business as the butter-maker's. Therefore he breeds and feeds and carea for hie cows and handles his milk on aclentlOo lines suggested by co-operative Instruc tors and Inspectors. The farmor is saving hie own Interests, of course, for a falling off of quality and reputation means a falling off In the price ob tained for butter. The creamery teats carefully, not only for butter fat but for freshness and flavor. Supervision and inspection. Then, too, tho Irish Agricultural Or ganization society, which is the central federation of all co-operative societies, inspects the crcamery and its output frequently, points out defects and helps to remedy them. The business side is not neglected. The organiza tion society has complete business su pervision of the creameries, which must keep their accounts and records in tho way and on forms prescribed by this central body*. The creameries re port to the organisation society and their books and accounts are period ically audited by the organization so ciety's auditor. Co-Operation Does the Work. In short, the butter is good because of co-operation. The members co-op erate with each other and with the Omagh .creamery; the Irish Agricul tural Organization society co-operates with the Omagh creamery; the Omagh creamery is federated with hundreds of other creameries and is federated with and co-operates with the Irish Wholesale society through which the butter is marketed. It is co-operation everywhere and the object of it all is to produce good butter, to market It in good shape and to get a fair price for it. Quality and Brand*. But quality after all la the whold thing. If butter is not good no system of marketing, no business methods, no exercise of federated strength, no co operative endeavor can do anything for it. The Omagli creamery makes good butter and for years has made good butter. It has a well established reputation for good butter which is worth at leaet one cent for every, pound that it makes. In order to be able to collect this cent on each pound it must mark each pound that it sends out. And printed upon the wrappers and stamped upon the cases is the guar anty of quality: "Guaranteed Pure Centrifugal Creamery Butter, Ftnest Quality." Butter Central Label. But more Important still is the au thorized label of the Irish Agricultural Organization society issued from its headquarters at the Plunkett house in Dublin. It goes upon only the best of butter. It goeB not upon a case or cake or cover, but upon the butter It self. The label is printed upon thin tissue paper. When it is placed upon the butter it is stamped with a die that fixes the label firmly upon and in "*tbe butter and tears the paper bo that it cannot be removed ^nd used again. This label is -guaranteed as carefully as are the cotns of the realm. Bach has a series number and can be traced to the creamery to which It was deliv ered. If by any chanc4 it is found up on a. poor* quality of butter, the butter is at once sent back to the creamery to which the use of that particular label was entrusted. What We Need in America. ? We have plenty of creameries Id the United States. Some of them are owned co-operatively by the farmers. But the farmers stop Just short of the highest success. The marketing is generally haphazard. The different creameries do not co-operate in sell Ing. Often good butter goes bad be fore it is sold. No one knows where the demand is greatest today, when the butter should be sent tomorrow. The quality is seldom uniform. Many a good butter maker with good butter making equipment turns out poor but ter because the patrons bring in poor cream. The farmers do not co-opera tlvely work for quality. The creamery does not always discriminate between the best f^esh cream and oream that is a trifle stale and old. Butter buyers cannot know what they are getting. The name of the creamery upon a package carries no guaranty of qual ity. It is put on good and bad butter alike. A Definite Prescription. What is needed In the United States is, first, creameries supported by farm ers working together co-operatively to produce an absolutely uniform high grade product ; second, a brand thft is authoritatively filed onTy^ on butter of the highest quality after official tests and grading; and third, a central as sociation or federation of creameries that will perform the functions of the Irish Wholesale society and of the Irish Agricultural Organization society. This central federation should control the branding of butter, possibly under state supervision; It should respect and audit and advise with each sep- , arate creamery; it should aid in mar keting the butter Intelligently - and economically. Bank Stock For Sale ? ?? ?? ' ? ? I am offering for sale, within 30 days. live Thousand ($5,000) Dollars worth of stock of the Loan & Savings Bank, of Camden, S. C. L. L. CLYBURN . DeKALB. S. C. BANK STOCK WANTED i ' I hereby offer Five I houfi and Five Hundred Dollars ($5,500 00) for the Five I housand Dollars of Loan & Savings Bank Stock, (50 shares) advertised by L. L. Clyburn, that is to say, ten per cent, above par. Henry Savage CAMDEN, S. C. Brought to Civilization. The latest addition to civilization is the Watwa tribe, people who lived like frogs In the unknown swamps Of T^ake Bangweolo, Central Africa. Thes swamps were quite impregnable, and the people would not formerly al low strangers to visit their haunts. 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