Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The Omaha morning bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 1922-1927 | View Entire Issue (March 29, 1925)
The Nebraska Dairy De velopment association has for its slogan, “Not more cows, but better cows for Nebraska.” That is a goal well worth the efforts of the organization. Nothing short of the best should sat isfy • great state. ^--T _/ rtfhere Town ancL| Countr> Meet j t Omaha’s centralized cream ery business has been built by Omahans. The men who have made this the greatest butter manufacturing city of the world have been building Omaha for a quar ter of a century *nd over. The business is the product of real constructive workers. v-. —--' — - -—-- ■ — — — —— - — ■.. . * ■ ■ . - —» ■ - --—— EDITED BY C:H<i flLAKELY. ^ ‘ ' 1 — OMAHA’S GREAT BUTTER INDUSTRY IS HEROIC STORY - ._ ______ I -- Men Behind Creameries Had V isions % (ireat Dairy Product Plants! Here Are Result of Years of Hard Work and Pro gressive Managing. Had Humble Beginning By C. H. BLAKKLY. / How often the thoughts come to nil of us as we stand before the buildings that represent one of Oma ha's great Industrial establishments ' —"how did this thing come?" Then again the thought, who was the man, who were the men? The man and the men were there. Back of the men were their thoughts, their ideals. Those buildings, the great in dustry, is but the material expression of the thoughts, and the hard, patient ! labor that accompanied the thoughts, 12,000 Gallons Doily. The Alamito and Roberts Sani tary dairies combined, deliver over 12,000 gallons of milk daily. Dup ing each day these two Omaha dairies deliver 1,500 gallons of cream to the people of Omaha, The smaller dairies in and around Omaha deliver about 7,400 gallons of milk, house-to-house, daily. The amount of cream delivered by these smaller dairies from house to I house is difficult to ascertain, but a conservative estimate would place it at 600 gallons daily. -/ of the men who built that industry, who laid the stone and the brick, who erected the steel of what is now a I series of great buildings. We pass hy the magnificent estab- I lishments of rhe "world's greatest butter producing center" and look upon it with unconcern. We see 35, Ct'0,000 pounds of butter turned out annually. OffPTi wo do nOt realize tile human equation which makes this achievement possible. We know little of the men who have spent a lifetime molding the present great ness of Omaha's creamery Industry. We determine to learn something f'jout them. S Look Behind the Scenes. We raised the curtains of the bust ness the other day ami looked behind the scenes. We saw the presidents of the various concerns who repre sent the Industry and talked to them about their life's work. C. F. i'chwager, of Alamito, speht his early <1 i,vs on a farm near Omaha. — Hand-t burn Start. / He had his first experiences ns '-“—;-"• Largest of Kind in World. The creamery industry of Omaha pays nut annunlly for freight, $3, 280,380. Most of this goes to pay the wages of railroad employes. Consider this with the $18;248,000 paid back to the farmers of the territory; add the amount paid to employes in Omaha, *1,857,515, and Omaha eati boast of an industry, tlie largest of Us kind In the world, that distributes $23,189,875 to its patrons. V_J manufacturer, behind the dash of an old-fashioned hand churn. His mother was an expert butter maker. She supervised the work. He arose early in the morning and quit late in the evening. "Those were the days of real sport," Schwager said. "I used to drive a team of mules into Omaha and peddle butter from house to house. I learned a great deal about selling in those days." Fairmont Head Tnllts. K. T. Rector, president of Fairmont Creamery company, became enthused after a few moments and dismissed the busy stenographer. For two hours lie told about his 35 years service in the dairy manufacturing business. He went back over those old days when hq. gathered cream from hand skim min's In tlie days when great cen tralized skimming stations were all the vogue. The farmers hauled fresh milk to tlie skimming vats and had tlie cream taken out. There they went home with the skim milk, which often was whipped to sloppy whey by the jolting of the wagons. “The poor calves sure had tougli sledding in those days,” said Rector. “X have milked cows, hopped clods the same as any other farmer, have dreamed of great things and have lived to see some of those things teallzed,” he said. First Hairy Student. C. F. Schwager was the first dairy student at the T'niverslty of Nebras ka. 'When he sat on the edge of his chair and told about the early days down at Lincoln his fare broke from pleasant smiles to frowns of regret. He told abdut his work with A. L. Haecher in establishing the first dairy herd at the university, how they made a Jersey heifer produce 292 pounds of butter fat in one year, a record for those days which stood for many seasons. He curried the cows, carried their feed to them. He laughingly told ot, his first job after leaving college. An old friend, Charley Harding, now head of the Harding Creamery cord pany, had been plugging for him with one of the concerns in Nebraska. Harding told Schwager to hold out for $50 a month. However, it took i week of deep thinking and a lot of seif conviction for the young dairy student to get up courage enough to ask the amount. Finally he did so nd got the jol) without a word. -"It was a big raise over my last work for my father, when I arrived at the age of 21. I hired out to my father for six months. At the end of the time he gave me $40, Which 4 -lb. box ... $ .35 5-lb. box.65 12-lb. box- 1.25 , More Eggs or Money Back The greatest, money-makpr and baby chick life saver ever of fered poultry raisers. Acts on the egg glands. Makes all hens lay. Supplies the mineral need ed by growing chirks and laying hens. Helps the baby chicks grow fpathers quirk and feath ers protect them from disease. You take no risk. We guaran tee that EGG-a-DAY will pro duce more eggs or money back. Hoc buys a month’s supply for 100 hens and often brings $15 estra profit. Results will l?e in stant. Come in and get a paok Hg£ of EGG-a-DAY at once. Where 35,000,000 Pounds of Butter Is Made Annually M*WHaxnm^/~" <>»*»*<*>"<*&“<>■ HggNP* . «uww wwtoL,/y ' "' ' ' '' - n-~"-— — --.[- a r-^M——TiTt ID t pper picture: Here are tlie building* in whirl) Omaha manufacture* and handle* 33,600,000 pounds of butter a year. These buildings are the heart of the greatest butter center in the world. I.ower picture: Taken upon one of Douglas county's good dairy farm*. These row* are tested for production. They are making money. Hurl) herds as this one are making it possible for Omaha to produce 33,000,000 pound* of butter annually. put me through the first year of col lege,” sakl Schwager. Ilimliug Has Old Timers. The Harding Creamery turn the first one of the litg centralized con cerns to locate in Omaha. When we went looking for Charles Harding, Ita founder, we found he was away for a short vacation. Ills right-hand worker snd old time associate, 1>. C, KUlredge was at the desk and said, "I dont know much about this business, wish you could talk to Charley, I hafe only been In the game 21 years.” While he was relating some of the things which had happened to the business since Its Inception the tele phone rang, lie took down the re reiver and then said, "Gladys, please "hut off that typewriter for a moment, I have n call from New York rltv and the fellow seems to be s little deaf or something " When he had finished talking to his New York representative he turned and remarked, "Well, times have changed oven In my young life. When I (list went on with Harding we didn't have to buck the whole world, our manufacturing mi l hods were almost as crude ns our marketing problems. Hut today we are In the world mat ki t. We use I In- lies! machinery poe slide and put nut tin* product Ht a small margin of profit. Volume of business is our sole hope for profit.” Huberts Would Karin. •T. H. Huberts was In the city for s few hours when we pulled the cur tain* upon his concern He had the "Information desk" send us hack, hut said. "Now, young man, make 'er snappy, f am sorry, hut you see I'nt way behind ami niual leav* town to nlifht!" before we left, an hour Inter J. R was looking longingly out of the win flow and telling us about his plans of running a farm, lie wild, "Wish I had time to run n dairy farm my self, do all the work, take care of the cow s There is loo mu< h 'honk' he lug fed the farmer, thinks Huberts, lie believes (lie farmer, the' common kind, 1* doing a tremendous lot 4>£ 3,750 Carloads of Eggs. The poultry business, which Is closely attached to the creamery industry, forms a part of the tre mendous volume of trade executed by the local concerns. The total number of carloads of live poultry handled in 1924 was 700 carload?. Of dresed poultry there were 350 carloads. The freight upon dressed poultry was *157,500; upon the live poultry. *450,000. A total of 3,750 carloads of eggs came to the big creameries In 1924. The freight upon this Item was *1,150,000. —-* "He who eareth for flowers, eareth also for Him." A Seedsman’s Opportunity. The Russian explorer, Kozloff, has found skeletons of animals, fish and insects near Urga, Mongolia, now ex tinct. He has also found a royal tomb, antedating Tut-Ankh-Amen. In It there was tea and wheat compressed Into bricks and ltlll fit for human consumption. Now watch some enter prising seedsman announce a marvel ous new strain of wheat developed J from this ancient grain.—Capper's Weekly. —————— ——— Milk make* jrood chicken feed. The ! l*e»t result* can be obtained from fe^d- < inr well balanced and sc ientific for j mulas with milk a* 0 basis for : protein part of tide diet. ,--:-:—?-;-1 Fourth Industry in America Dairying and the product* derived from the manufacturing of raw milk to the fourth industry In America. The total'value of dairy cows m America in'TOI* was *1,565,*77,000; all other rattle, *1,563,847,000. Consumption of dairy products in America could !>» easily doubled and still not use as much as doctors and nurses advise. That would be doubling a tremendous industry'- Yet it Is possible. It show* the potential pos sibilities for dairying. , j .__ ■ +\ _ —i ■■ -- /■ 1 Omaha’s Annual Creamery Payroll Is $1J)57J>15 $1,657,513. The Industry pays bark to the farmers of this territory $ 8, 248,000 annually. There was received at Omaha In 19.4 a total of 6,400 carloads of cream. The freight alone upon this cream was $7.0,(W0 Besides the butter sold within the state of Nebraska the Industry shipped out 1,840 carloads to other points. The freight alone on this hutter jfc a/l|g f)00 W It takes some additional materials to Keep the industry running. During 1914 they shipped in 1.018 carloads, consisting of new machinery and creamery supplies. The freight costs alone upon these supplies was The byproducts, largely ice cream and buttermilk preparations totaled 161 carloads for 1924. The cost in freight for these byproducts was $.8,.on. -— point of view some years later. His nephew Edward, was railed In when we began to ask shout "row testing association work " For an hour and s half these busy men talked dairying, market problems nnd production dlf Acuities. Thev weie Just ss keenly Interested In the future growth of the Industry as they are In Its present supremacy. "Over production In the dairy Aeld is ImtHisaihle," salt! Mr. Ktrachbaunv "tlive the creamery men the raw product* and they will find n market for the finished artkle, "said Edward. • 1. \V. Street, president of David tfnle Creamery company, l>elievea ef IMent production la on# of the htg needs of the business today. Me heartily endorsed the work lielng done by the cow testing associations. "If the farmers would look toward economy In the production w# could, perhaps, pay no more for cream, hut We would be aide to handle their vol ume as well as at present and the proAt at the f irm Would he greater,"' he said. The coming year should be as pruAtuhle In dairying as In any other line of farming, think* Street, Me declared the faimer who la jumping In and ntll of dairying usually doss It at the wrong time "It I* the fellow who sticks to It •is « business, who makes the most money in the long run, ' he said, _j % production* milking common cows, but doing bo at low coat of produc tion. V”Without that aort of production, otfp creamery business would be without a supply," says Roberta. "If I were on a farm. I'd keep books. I'd know Just what it was costing me to produce everything on the farm." When we left, Roberts made us promise to come hack and spend some time with him shout that question of "the common farmer." We’re gnlnfr hack, lie has looked n little deeper into the question of production than most of the farmers. Ills Ideas have much to do with the success of hie personal business. I,mil* K. Still in llnrnes*. Louis Klrschhaum had his hack to the door when we entered his oflice. When he turned and faced us his I kindly smile at once sent the blood tingling. Here was a fellow who could tell a lot of histoiy if we could get him going. lie would know some thing shout Omaha's business as a I creamery giant lie reached down In the desk and pulled out a box of line « Igors. "Light nip, then fire your questions," he said. Through the smoke filled room, phnn toms of the past edrne and went as ha told a Is Hit the struggles of the ceil trsltxed « reamer} business He cams to Om.iho in IN?’.' Ills business was estahlitfiicU from a manufacturing; ■/ Rector Cites Wisconsin— ■'Tin* row testing association* In Wisconsin, 70 of them, have made that stale a dairy stnte. Nebraska has but three such associations,” said E. T. Kector, president of Fairmont creamery. "The Nebraska Hairy Develop ment association Is doing some very valunble work. It Is a step In the right direction.” I». C. F:idredge, Harding Creamery company. "Too many farmers are looking upon dairying as a llfesaver In tough times, the business In Nebraska needs more men in It who are there to stay,” G. IV, Street, president Davkl Cole Creamery company. , "The creamery business turns more money back to the farmer than any other business," lamls Klrschhauin, Klrschhaum ,1 Son*. "There will always be bum dairymen, but the cow-testing association work will get rid of a lot of them," C. K. Scliwager, Alnmito. "Farmer* don’t appreciate the wholesale advice handed out to them by white-collared, so-called esperts; what they want Is farts,” J. R. Roberts. w____ -- ■ -* BUY FROM THESE DEALERS B. C. Bezanson, O K Hardware Co., 4012 Kansas Ave. 4831 South 24th &t. Freytag's Pharmacy, Abe Wolfson, 8511 N. 30th, Florence. 5642 Center St. Geo. T. Kauffman, Stoltenberg Elevator Co., 807 South 60th St. Benson. , A. V. Layton, Max Herrington, 6208 Gilmore Ave. Millard. C. A. Ranney, C. W. Hickey & Co., 1304 Farnam St. Bennington. ' The Busy Store, Papillion. Standard Chemical Mfg. Co. < John W. Gamble, Pre»ident Omaha, Neb Maker* of Reliable Lire Slock anil Poultry Preparation* Since 1886 T SHEEPO Lawn and Carden Fertiliser Manufactured, Delivered and Applied to Your Lawn Perfect diatributlon over the area you deaire fertilised. Lot the Nebraska Fertilizer Co. give you this aarvico this .print and become one of our many satis fied customers. For SHEEPO, Phono JA IMS Also for Sals by Seodmen and Floriata Seeds That Grow-Need Any? Let us advise you on the seeding and fertilixing af your lawn and the planting and planning of your garoen. Bring your problem* te us; SEEDS is our business; as have been selling SEEDS THAT GROW for years. ij NEBRASKA SEED CO. ^ 15th and Howard Stf. JA 1T3» Oppooito Auditorium ^ * “The perfect image You'd know he was his father’s son the minute you saw them together. He has his father's features and the same way of walking. He is "a chip off the old block.” In plants, as in people and finely bred cattle, blood will tell. What the plant will be depends upon what the parent plant was. Every packet of Ferry’s Seeds comes from parent plants of selected ancestry. This means that the parent plant is a purebred—true to name, variety, form and color. We know the history of our plants. For sixty-nine years we have been watching their ancestors. We have rogued out undesirables. Our seeds of his dad” taken from selected plants are al ways tested at our experimental grounds to observe their trueness to type. Think of this precaution as you plan your garden. Then plant Ferry's purebred Seeds with faith that they will pay you in full with the finest vegetables and the most beautiful flowers. You can buy Ferry’s purebred Seeds “at the store around the comer’’ from the familiar Ferry Box. Make your selections today. D. M. FERRY fit CO. Detroit, Mich. San Francisco. Calif. Windsor. Ont. ' i I [for UTTER CARPtM | Of oou rM r»u rimed Forty'* Seed Annum/. It'* packed with author,, tatire garden information. Free-ju*, write and aek for it. x — ", .. ■» —