854 
in  front  of  their  horses  and  asked  them  if  they  did 
not  think  they  were  (loins  themselves  and  neigh¬ 
bors  a  wrong  that  would  take  years  to  correct,  if 
they  stood  with  the  buyers  and  prices  offered  rath¬ 
er  than  with  an  organization  fighting  for  them  and 
their  wives  and  children.  It  Is  to  the  credit  of 
many  of  our  foreign  citizens  that  they  turned  hack 
home  when  they  needed  the  money  the  milk  would 
have  brought.  It  is  to  the  discredit  of  others,  and 
most  of  them  American-horn,  that  they  insisted  on 
delivering  their  milk.  It  was  t  .on  that  men  got 
into  the  wagons  and  handed  the  milk  to  others  who 
set  it  beside  the  road.  It  will  be  asked  who  did 
these  things,  and  I  answer  some  of  the  most  con¬ 
servative  and  sensible  and  thrifty  farmers  we  have. 
After  seeing  their  own  locals  shut  the  milk  from 
the  plants  in  their  communities  they  went  to  neigh¬ 
boring  towns  and  stood  picket.  That  occasionally 
these  men.  filled  with  the  idea  that  this  revolt  meant 
a  step  ahead  if  won,  should  have  seized  the  horses 
of  the  farmers  by  the  heads  and  stopped  them  and 
even  stopped  some  milk  belonging  to  t lie  milk  deal¬ 
ers.  milk  that  was  being  taken  from  one  plant  to 
another,  is  not  to  be  wondered  at.  The  wonder  is 
that  an  occasional  encounter  with  fists  and  a  pelt¬ 
ing  with  rotten  eggs  was  all  the  force  used. 
SUITS  AND  INJUNCTIONS.— Whenever  the 
milk  belonging  to  dealers  was  touched  suit  was 
brought  against  our  members,  and  suits  aggregating 
nearly  $350,000  were  started.  Injunctions  were 
asked  for  with  snap  haste  and  without  notice  both 
in  the  State  and  U.  S.  courts.  There  seemed  to  he 
a  notion  that  we  could  he  scared,  and  that  we  had 
members  who  were  timid  is  true,  hut  we  hired  the 
best  legal  talent,  and  were  ready  for  the  fight  in 
the  courts  if  it  was  to  come.  We  were  beset  with 
knowing  husybodies  who  came  to  us  with  tales  of 
the  investigations  to  he  begun  by  the  U.  S.  govern¬ 
ment  and  the  State  officials,  hut  to  all  we  said :  “We 
expect  our  adversaries  to  take  whatever  course  they 
see  fit.  but  we  are  fighting  for  life  and  must  win  or 
go  out  of  existence.”  When  we  had  stood  enough 
of  the  suits  and  settlement  had  been  reached  on 
prices  we  told  the  plaintiffs  to  dismiss  their  suits  or 
they  would  get  no  more  milk.  They  were  dismissed, 
or  the  milk  would  have  been  withheld.  Our  mem¬ 
bers  were  in  no  mood  for  trifling. 
THE  FUTURE. — The  question  confronts  us,  what 
are  we  going  to  do  to  avoid  such  conflicts  in  the 
future?  That  we  are  held  in  better  repute  than 
heretofore  is  sure,  but  whether  we  can  get  a  living 
price  for  our  milk  is  the  question.  All  over  this 
country  milk  is  the  one  food  that  is  sold  below  its 
real  value  as  food.  Compare  it  with  any  food  you 
please,  and  it  is,  considering  its  food  value,  sold 
cheaper.  We  have  left  the  marketing  of  our  milk 
to  others  only  to  find  that  its  food  value  is  not 
known,  and  that  not  a  dollar  has  been  spent  by  these 
distributors  to  inform  the  people  of  the  vital  force 
contained  in  this,  almost  the  only  uncooked  food  wo 
have  today.  That  the  food  elements  of  milk  have 
vital  Qualities  in  the  maintenance  of  life  and  growth 
is  beyond  question  and  yet  fhe  city  of  Chicago  con¬ 
sumes  $20  per  capita  of  liquors  to  $5.75  of  milk. 
Our  milk  merchants,  who  should  have  been  telling 
this  story,  have  failed,  and  we  find  our  market  less 
than  one-third  what  it  should  be.  They  have  had 
but  one  thought,  and  that  has  been  to  fatten  on 
profit.  They  have  had  invested  less  than  $25,000,000 
in  their  plants  and  have  employed  hut  4.000  men 
to  do  their  work,  while  we  have  had  more  than 
$250,000,000  Invested  in  production,  and  employed 
40,000  to  make  the  milk  and  feed.  They  have  sold 
the  milk  in  Chicago  at  eight  cents  per  quart  and  five 
cents  per  pint,  and  paid  us  on  an  average  for  the 
year  three  cents  per  quart.  Can  we  longer  stand 
such  service,  or  must  we  undertake  the  marketing 
of  our  product? 
POSSIBILITIES  IN  CO-OPERATION.— We  are 
discussing  a  cooperative  marketing  company,  and 
when  we  have  the  whole  matter  thrashed  out  will 
endeavor  to  launch  it.  That  we  have  divergent 
opinions  as  to  the  necessary  elements  of  a  co¬ 
operative  undertaking  is  not  to  he  wondered  at.  We 
want  to  do  something  worth  while,  and  we  invite 
the  best  thought  of  the  whole  country  to  help  us. 
Getting  the  food  from  the  farm  to  the  common  peo¬ 
ple  is  a  greater  question  than  preparedness,  for  un¬ 
less  the  common  people  get  a  fairer  deal  in  this 
country  than  they  have  had  in  the  past  they  will  let 
those  who  fattened  on  the  industries  of  the  land 
defend  us  when  we  are  attacked.  I  hope  readers 
of  The  It.  N.-Y.  will  help  us  solve  the  problem  that 
now  confronts  us.  I  have  had  many  requests  for 
accounts  of  the  Milk  Producers’  Association  fight 
but  have  had  to  refuse  them.  This  opportunity 
of  telling  our  story  in  The  It.  N.-Y.  is  accepted  be¬ 
cause  of  the  stand  for  a  fair  deal  that  this  paper 
has  always  taken,  and  I  hope  that  among  its  many 
75he  RURAL  NEW-YORKER 
readers  there  would  he  some  who  would  have  ideas 
of  value  and  would  give  them  to  us. 
R.  B.  SWIFT, 
President  of  the  Milk  Producers’  Association. 
The  Old  Fight  Against  Peach  Borers 
WITH  our  modern  methods  of  spraying  the  San 
Jose  scale  is  not  now  considered  as  serious 
a  peach  enemy  as  the  borer.  We  can  take  care  of 
the  scale,  but  the  borer  causes  unending  trouble. 
In  many  localities  the  insect  apparently  does  more 
damage  each  year,  and  all  sorts  of  remedies  are 
The  Peach  Borer  and  Its  Work  in  Trunk  and  Main  Root.  Fig.  325 
proposed  each  season  for  making  an  easier  job  of 
fighting  this  pest.  The  picture  at  Fig.  325  is  taken 
from  a  bulletin  issued  by  the  State  Entomologist 
of  Georgia,  and  is  a  fair  sample  of  borer  work  in 
many  orchards  where  the  insect  is  not  persistently 
fought.  The  white  spot  in  the  upper  part  of  the 
picture  shows  the  insect  at  its  work,  and  the  lower 
part  of  the  trunk  and  the  root  shows  what  it  can 
do  when  left  undisturbed.  The  old-fashioned  way 
of  fighting  this  insect  was  to  scratch  the  earth 
away  from  the  base  of  the  trunk  and  dig  the  borer 
out  with  a  sharp  knife  or  a  crooked  wire.  This  is 
still  the  most  effective  way  of  fighting  the  insect, 
and  in  fact  the  only  way  to  be  positively  sure  that 
lie  is  conquered.  Modern  peaeli-growing.  however, 
has  developed  into  such  a  tremendous  business  that 
this  old  plan  of  digging  has  become  very  expensive. 
It  involves  too  much  baud  labor,  and  we  have  also 
found  it  impossible  to  depend  on  the  average  hand 
to  do  thorough  and  accurate  work.  It  is  a  dis¬ 
agreeable  job  to  get  down  on  the  knees  under  a 
tree,  in  cold,  damp  weather,  and  only  the  most 
careful  man  will  stay  there  until  he  has  dug  out 
all  the  borers.  Thus  it  is  that  all  sorts  of  washes 
June  10,  1916. 
and  protectors  have  been  recommended  to  get  rid 
of  this  disagreeable  work.  Preparations  of  grease 
or  mineral  oil,  mixed  with  other  materials,  have 
been  recommended  for  smearing  the  lower  part  of 
tiie  trunk.  Some  of  them  are  partially  effective,  but 
probably  they  are  no  better  on  the  whole  than  a 
thick  smear  of  strong  lime-sulphur  solution,  paint¬ 
ed  or  spread  upon  the  lower  part  of  the  trunk. 
One  very  effective  way  of  killing  the  borers  is  to 
scrape  the  dirt  away  from  the  lower  part  of  the 
trunk,  and  then  pour  in  a  quantity  of  boiling  water, 
or  a  hot  solution  of  lye.  This  will  get  most  of  the 
borers  without  seriously  hurting  the  tree,  but  in 
large  plantations  it  is  difficult  to  keep  the  water  hot 
enough  to  he  effective.  The  plan  of  washes  and 
protectors  is  based  upon  the  life  history  of  the  in¬ 
sect.  The  moth  or  wing  form  of  the  insect  lays  its 
eggs  from  the  middle  to  the  latter  part  of  Summer. 
Her  habit  is  to  deposit  these  eggs  on  the  lower  part 
of  the  trunk  and  close  to  the  ground.  When  once 
deposited,  in  course  of  time  these  eggs  liateh,  and 
the  small  borers  as  they  grow  begin  to  dig  or  gnaw 
down  just  under  the  hark  toward  the  root  of  the 
tree.  If  they  are  plentiful,  and  left  alone,  in  the 
course  of  time  they  will  leave  the  trunk  as  shown 
at  Fig.  325.  They  work  through  bite  Summer  and 
Fall,  gnawing  and  boring  their  way  down.  Appar¬ 
ently  they  do  little  work  in  the  Winter  through  the 
cold  weather,  but  in  the  Spring  they  begin  again 
and  keep  on  until  they  reach  full  size.  Then  they 
emerge  or  pass  into  the  last  form  of  insect  life, 
from  which  in  due  time  the  moth  again  comes  to 
continue  laying  her  eggs.  Thus  the  theory  of  pro¬ 
tecting  the  tree  is  based  <>u  the  fact  that  this  insect 
lays  her  eggs  at  the  bottom  of  the  trunk,  dose  to 
the  ground,  and  the  washes  and  smears  are  sup¬ 
posed  to  repel  her  so  that  the  eggs  cannot  be  laid 
in  that  place. 
The  Georgia  State  Entomologist  gives  much  en¬ 
couragement  as  the  result  of  experiments  with  the 
protector  shown  at  Fig.  320.  This  is  a  piece  of  heavy 
tarred  or  building  paper,  cut  so  that  it  can  be  pulled 
around  the  trunk  of  the  tree  as  shown  in  the  picture. 
Thus  it  rests  tightly  on  the  ground,  and  a  smear  of 
tar  is  put  at  the  top  and  along  the  edge,  so  as  to 
hold  the  paper  tight  in  place.  Properly  put  on, 
and  early  enough,  these  protectors  will  prevent  the 
insect  from  laying  her  eggs  at  the  base  of  the  trunk. 
She  may  lay  them  in  the  tar  at  the  top  of  the  pro¬ 
tector,  in  which  cose  they  would  probably  be  killed. 
When  the  protectors  are  used,  the  insect  sometimes 
lays  her  eggs  higher  up  on  the  trunk,  or  at  the 
crotches  of  the  limb,  but  in  such  a  case  it  is  quite 
easy  to  detect  the  borers  and  kill  them.  In  Georgia 
they  think  that  this  new  form  of  protector  is  likely 
to  prove  very  useful,  if  put  on  in  time  and  properly 
fastened.  Wo  hope  it  will,  for  the  peach  borer  has 
become  a  nuisance,  and  more  so  since  the  coming 
of  large  orchards,  where  hand  labor  is  expensive 
and  hard  to  obtain. 
Wheat  Growing  in  Vermont 
VERMONT  reader  sends  ns  the  following — 
taken -from  the  St.  Johnsbury  Republican: 
’The  success  of  John  Squires  of  Bennington,  who  has 
just  completed  the  harvesting  and  thrashing  of  200 
bushels  of  wheat  from  four  acres  of  land,  will  recall 
the  days  when  every  farm  in  the  State  had  its  wheat 
field  and  when  the  grain  was  a  standard  crop  in  the 
State. 
Some  years  ago  the  owner  of  a  good  water  power  at 
Jericho  built  a  flour  mill  and  endeavored  to  induce  the 
farmers  in  that  vicinity  to  go  into  wheat  raising.  He 
told  them  that  they  could  obtain  larger  returns  from 
their  hind  per  acre  than  the  wheat  farmers  of  the 
West  and  produced  the  statistics  to  prove  his  conten¬ 
tion  but  he  failed  to  make  much  of  an  impression. 
Most  of  the  land  in  the  West  available  for  wheat 
is  now  under  cultivation  and  with  the  steady  increase 
in  population  tlm  time  is  coining  when  the  nation's 
bread  basket  must  look  for  its  tilling  to  other  sections 
of  the  country.  With  wheat  selling  at  move  than  a  dol¬ 
lar  a  bushel  and  little  prospect  that  the  price  will  again 
drop  to  that  figure  it  would  seem  that  there  are  open¬ 
ings  in  Vermont  that  have  not  yet  been  seriously  con¬ 
sidered. 
This  is  a  time  when  all  sorts  of  suggestions  are  be¬ 
ing  made  about  new  crops  or  methods.  As  a  rule 
we  shall  find  that  the  crops  grown  by  the  great  ma¬ 
jority  of  farmers  in  any  particular  section  are  usu¬ 
ally  the  best  adapted  to  climate  and  condition.  Most 
improvement  is  to  be  made  in  methods.  The  follow- 
lowing  comments  are  made  by  Commissioner  of 
Agriculture  E.  S.  Brigham: 
“I  have  little  faith  that  Vermont  will  ever  become 
a  wheat-producing  State,  for  the  reason  that  our 
farms  average  to  he  too  small  to  afford  a  reasonable 
income  to  a  farmer  who  would  adopt  wheat  grow¬ 
ing  as  a  specialty.  An  acre  of  Vermont  land  which 
will  produce  50  bushels  of  wheat  may  be  made  to 
produce  the  roughage  in  the  form  of  hay  and  corn 
silage  to  feed  a  dairy  cow  through  the  closed  sea¬ 
son.  The  dairy  cow  lias  the  possibility  of  earning 
$100  as  against  $50  income  from  the  wheat.  To  be 
