18 CONFERENCE ON MILK PROBLEMS 



farmers only learn to cooperate in the country and they will 

 not need to run any city business. 



ONE MEANS OF REDUCING COST OF PRODUCTION. 



We have spoken of the education of the farmer, especially 

 how to produce at less cost, but there is one problem much 

 talked about, which affects the farmer more than any other 

 industry: the securing of reliable farm labor. The exodus in 

 years past of the young men from the farms in the East to the 

 new West and to the cities has deprived the land of the first 

 essential for profitable cultivation : the necessary, efficient farm 

 help. Many old farmers thus find themselves compelled to sell 

 their farms greatly below their value, and here is the greatest 

 chance awaiting thousands of young, intelligent farmers who 

 have not been able to secure their own homes in the West 

 where farmlands have risen to excessive prices. The Agricul- 

 tural Department of the State of New York has, during the 

 last few months, received thousands of letters from farmers in 

 the West; and the speaker has alone received over three hun- 

 dred (300) such letters, from Germans, Danes, Swedes, Nor- 

 wegians and Finlanders, asking prices for farms in New York 

 State. Nearly all these people have large families and have 

 made some money which will suffice to buy farms for themselves 

 as well as their boys. Here is the soundest of all methods of 

 solving the farm labor problem, one of the first essentials to 

 produce more food at less cost, and especially more and better 

 milk. Germans and Scandinavians are especially desirable as 

 most of them are experienced stock-breeders and dairymen, 

 which we need most of all. We hope, before long, to have 

 several small colonies of these people established in various sec- 

 tions of the State and not only will they themselves be able to 

 make dairying pay and supply good milk at lower cost, but 

 their example will necessarily have a good effect and cause 

 others to do likewise. 



THE CONSUMER INFLUENCED BY THE CITY PAPERS. 



The consumers would be more reasonable if not constantly 

 stirred up by exaggerated and misleading views expressed by 

 many city dailies. Strange that people dare use milk at all, 

 hearing about all the horrors lurking in milk. As a fact we 



