1254 
terest  on  the  part  of  the  members  themselves,  to¬ 
gether  with  well  organized  though  underhand  oppo¬ 
sition  from  the  regular  retail  interests.  One  club 
after  another  went,  to  pieces,  and  many  government 
employees  became  quite  cynical  upon  the  subject, 
and  when  approached  upon  the  subject  of  coopera¬ 
tive  buying,  declared  their  conviction  that  such  a 
thing  could  not  be  made  to  succeed.  It  remained  for 
the  Secretary  of  the  Interior,  Hon.  Franklin  K. 
Lane,  to  put  cooperative  buying  squarely  on  its  feet 
In  Washington,  through  the  medium  of  his  admir¬ 
able  Idea  of  a  “Home  Club”  for  the  employees  of  his 
department.  Organized  in  December,  1013,  the  Home 
Club  soon  attained  a  membership  of  1.700.  whose 
combined  salaries  amounted  to  $225,000  a  month — 
quite  a  respectable  clientele  for  almost  any  kind  of 
business.  Their  income  was  absolutely  independ¬ 
ent  of  all  outside  influences,  and  their  wages  could 
not  be  attached  from  any  source.  The  great  suc¬ 
cess  attained  in  membership  was  largely  owing  to 
the  admirable  official  personnel.  The  nine  bureaus 
of  the  department  were  represented  on  the  board 
of  directors,  and  standing  committees  by  such  men 
as  the  Assistant  Commissioner  of  Patents,  the  Di¬ 
rector  of  the  Geological  Survey,  Deputy  Commis¬ 
sioner  of  Pensions,  Comptroller  of  the  Reclamation 
Service,  etc.,  and  the  president  of  the  club  was  the 
Secretary  of  the  Interior  himself.  There  were  com¬ 
mittees  on  education,  entertainment,  cooperation, 
etc.  The  Schuyler  Mansion  on  Jackson  Place,  di¬ 
agonally  opposite  the  White  House,  facing  a  beau¬ 
tiful  park,  was  rented  -at  $4,000  a  year.  Tour  read¬ 
ers  may  soon  ask  what  all  this  has  to  do  with 
farming  interests,  hut  that  will  come  in  at  the 
proper  time.  It.  is  enough  to  say  that  the  enter¬ 
tainment  committee  succeeded  in  getting  lecturers 
of  national  prominence,  like  Dr.  IT.  W.  Wiley,  com¬ 
missioners  and  chief  clerks  of  other  departments, 
scientists  and  artists,  to  add  to  the  pleasure  and 
information  of  members  of  the  club,  and  that  more 
than  70  pupils  took  instruction  from  native  teach¬ 
ers  in  the  German,  French,  Spanish  and  Russian 
languages,  and  even  dancing  and  singing  were 
taught.  LINDSAY  S.  PERKINS. 
A  Visit  to  Optimistic  Farm,  N.  J., 
In  the  Good  Year  1940, 
Being  a  Vision  of  What  is  to  Come  in  the  Milk  and  Egg  Trade 
Part  ir. 
APITAL  REQUIRED.— When  1  first  started  in 
the  poultry  business  50  years  ago  it  was 
thought  that  poultry  required  no  capital  to  speak 
*  if.  Anyone  who  could  get  together  a  dozen  hens  or 
so  and  a  few  acres  of  land  was  supposed  to  he  in 
the  poultry  business.  The  first  thing  that  arrested 
my  attention  here  was  that  a  modern  poultry  plant 
like  this  calls  for  a  considerable  outlay  of  capital. 
Soon  after  we  got  comfortably  settled  on  the  moon¬ 
lit  porch  who  should  drop  in  for  a  chat  but  our 
old  friend  "the  Deacon.”  lie  always  had  a  great 
knack  of  asking  questions,  and  here  are  samples  of 
some  he  asked  during  the  evening,  with  their  an¬ 
swers  : 
“Why  did  you  pick  out  this  location  for  your 
farm  ?” 
“For  several  reasons.  First  because  it  is  located 
near  a  good  road  to  either  New  York  City  or  Phila¬ 
delphia.  This  counts  for  more  perhaps  in  the  ease 
of  the  milk  product  than  with  eggs  and  poultry. 
The  great  bulk  of  the  milk  supply  of  New  York  City 
is  subject  to  at  least  four  charges  that  must  be 
reckoned  with.  They  are  the  haul  from  the  farm 
to  the  receiving  station,  the  cost  of  running  the 
station,  the  railroad  freight  charge  and  cartage  from 
railroad  freight  depot  to  milk  store.  Against  these 
four  combined  charges  I  put  the  cost  of  delivery  of 
milk  and  eggs  direct  from  farm  to  city  store  by 
auto  truck  and  find  a  substantial  margin  in-  my 
favor. 
AVOIDING  DISEASE, — "Another  thing  I  had  in 
mind  was  to  find  a  farm  that  was  free  from  in¬ 
fection  with  disease  germs  that  are  so  common  to 
domestic  fowls.  There  had  not  been  a  lien  of  any 
kind  on  the  farm  for  a  year  or  more,  so  far  as  I 
could  learn.  As  soon  as  I  got  possession  I  took 
precautions  to  prevent  any  living  hen  or  domestic 
fowl  of  any  kind  from  attempting  to  cross  the  bound¬ 
ary,,  even  though  it  might  he  right  from  a  big  poul¬ 
try  show  or  egg-laying  contest  with  yards  of  blue 
ribbons.  We  cannot  raise  figs  from  thistles,  neither 
can  we  raise  cholera,  gapes,  or  roup  in  its  various 
forms  without  germs  as  a  starter.  All  new  blood 
that  comes  to  this  farm  must  come  in  the  form  of 
eggs  for  hatching.  Typhoid  carriers  and  diphtheria 
carriers  are  known  to  be  common  among  humans, 
even  though  to  all  appearances  they  are  perfectly 
recovered.  A  small  flock  of  hens  might  have  roup, 
and  all  either  die  or  perfectly  recover,  but  as  the  size 
RURAL  NEW-YORKER 
of  the  flocks  increases  to  hundreds  or  thousands  the 
risk  of  some  one  or  more  of  them  being  left  with 
the  infection  in  their  system  is  too  great  to  be 
assumed.” 
“Why  did  you  require  so  much  land?  Your  poul¬ 
try  buildings  all  seem  to  be  located  in  one  field  near 
the  centre  of  the  farm.” 
“So  as  to  insure  against  my  neighbors’  infected 
birds  mingling  with  mine,  and  have  a  home  market 
for  the  large  amount  of  valuable  fertilizer  produced. 
T  find  that  cows  and  hens  make  a  good  combination. 
Roth  furnish  an  abundance  of  plant  food  so  that 
every  acre  of  land  on  the  farm  can  easily  be  kept 
up  to  its  maximum  yield.  We  easily  grow  all  the 
hay,  pasture,  silage  and  roots  both  cows  and  hens 
can  eat,  and  part  of’ the  grain.” 
IIOME-GROWN  GRAIN.— "Another  thing  in  fa¬ 
vor  of  this  location  is  the  fact  that  many  of  my 
neighbors  are  raising  grain  for  market.  In  the 
ordinary  case  of  grain  bought  or  sold  one  dealer 
lmys  the  grain  and  adds  his  profit  to  the  price,  one 
or  more  railroads  haul  it,  adding  the  cost  and  a 
profit  to  the  price,  and  another  dealer  sells  the 
grain,  adding  his  profit  again.  I  buy  grain  grown 
in  this  locality  and  get  most  of  the  benefit  of  these 
three  profits.” 
“How  do  you  handle  the  poultry  droppings  so 
as  to  get,  best  results?” 
FEEDING  TI1E  CROP. — “We  aim  to  feed  the 
crop  rather  than  to  feed  the  land.  Most  of  the  sta¬ 
ble  manure  is  drawn  daily  in  water-tight  wagons 
and  spread  on  the  land.  Otherwise  it  is  dumped  in 
a  concrete  basin  until  wanted.  The  poultry  manure 
is  more  quickly  available,  and  cannot  be  applied 
Tha  Home  Gardener's  Onion  Patch.  Fig.  513.  See  page  1256 
much  iu  advance  of  crop  requirements.  We  have 
a  small  steam  outfit  for  kiln-drying  it.  This  puts 
it  iu  good  shape  for  applying  with  a  drill,  and  stor¬ 
ing  without  waste.  A  ton  properly  dried  analyzes 
over  4%  nitrogen,  or  one-quarter  of  the  value  of 
nitrate  of  soda.  We  make  over  100  tons  of  this 
valuable  fertilizer  a  year  and  with  the  stable  ma¬ 
nure  produced  we  are  never  at  it  loss  for  a  full 
supply  of  fertilizer  for  every  crop.” 
“Well,”  said  the  Deacon,  “if  all  our  farmers  could 
say  that  the  name  your  farm  goes  by  could  soon  be 
applied  to  any  of  them.  Let  me  get  this  straight. 
Your  daily  load  of  20  cans  of  milk  and  IS  cases  of 
eggs  from  this  120-acre  farm,  at  live  cents  a  quart 
and  30  cents  a  dozen  is  bringing  you  over  $200. 
still  consumers  get  their  milk  cheaper  than  former¬ 
ly.  and  tlieir  eggs  at  about  the  same  price,  and  get 
them  within  24  hours  from  the  time  they  were  laid.” 
Well!  Well!  Well!  I  must  have  slept  about  25 
years  last  night.  When  I  went  to  sleep  the  boys 
and  girls  from  the  farms  were  hurrying  cityward  as 
toward  heaven.  Harold  here  was  horn  and  brought 
up  in  the  city.  The  first  time  he  looked  out  of  a 
window  from  his  mother's  arms  he  saw  the  green 
grass  and  trees  of  Central  Park  at  82nd  St.,  Now 
York  City. 
“Do  you  mean  to  say  that  you  personally  feed 
10,000  hens,  besides  overseeing  all  your  other  farm 
work  ?” 
“Easily!  ’The  water  is  piped  into  ail  the  houses, 
and  grain  is  kept  in  handy  bins.  One  of  the  most 
important  lessons  learned  at  the  egg-laying  contests 
a  good  many  years  ago  was  that  a  skillful  feeder 
can  easily  feed  100  small  flocks  of  hens  successfully. 
1  can  feed  my  20  units  of  500  each  in  less  time  than 
they  could  feed  100  units  of  ten  each.  The  main 
thing  is  to  give  them  not  too  much  or  too  little 
grain,  so  that  they  will  eat  just  enough  dry  mash 
September  30,  191 G. 
fronv  the  hopper  that  is  always  open  to  make  a 
balanced  ration.  Here  is  where  all  the  skill  is  re¬ 
quired.  If  you  can  do  this  all  the  other  labor  can 
easily  be  done  by  any  unskilled  laborer  under  your 
direction.  If  you  cannot  you  are  not  likely  to  make 
much  of  a  success.  It  is  largely  a  matter  of  how 
eagerly  the  hens  answer  to  the  breakfast  call. 
When  you  get  them  so  that  every  hen  is  eagerly 
waiting  for  you  to  scatter  their  daily  allowance  of 
grain  in  the  litter,  and  still  be  eating  considerably 
more  than  a  maintenance  ration  you  can  confident¬ 
ly  look  for  a  full  egg  basket.”  o.  w.  mates. 
Figuring  the  Value  of  Milk 
Which  would  be  the  more  profitable  to  the  farmers, 
selling  the  whole  milk  off  the  farm  at  $1.35  per  100 
lbs.,  paying  17  cents  per  100  lbs.  for  hauling  to  the 
condensery.  leaving  $1.18  net  to  the  farmer  or  selling 
to  cheese  factory?  It  has  been  said  that  the  skimmed 
milk  has  a  feeding  value  of  35  cents  per  hundred  if 
used  on  the  farm.  The  prices  vary  from  $1.35  per 
100  lbs.  for  May  and  June  and  81,40  for  July  and  five 
cents  per  hundred  additional  each  month  until  the  price 
reaches  $1.05,  ami  then  comes  back  five  cents  per 
month  until  it  reaches  $1.35  again.  If  the  farmer  would 
insist  on  selling  his  whole  milk  by  selling  to  a  cheese 
factory  could  the  cheese  factory  afford  to  pay  more 
than  the  condensery  pays?  The  cheese  factory  would 
not  be  supposed  to  charge  the  farmer  anything  for 
hauling.  Or  suppose  the  feeding  value  of  the  milk  is 
35  cents  per  TOO  lbs.,  and  the  farmer  is  credited  17 
cents  for  hauling,  and  he  skims  his  milk  on  the  farm 
and  sells  his  cream  to  the  local  creamery,  getting  from 
the  creamery  25  cents  per  pound  for  butter,  and  as  the 
butter  market  advances  price  of  butter  goes  up  until 
it  reaches  32  cents.  The  price  of  butter  at  25  cents 
is  supposed  to  Compare  with  milk  at  $1.35  per  100 
ios.  sold  to  the  condensery,  w. 
Logantou,  l'a. 
F  we  may  he  allowed  to  assume  a  few  figures,  this 
is  not  so  difficult  a  problem  to  figure  out,  but  in 
the  absence  of  the  data  mentioned  it  is  not  possible 
to  answer.  In  the  first  place  it  is  necessary  to  know 
the  test  of  the  milk.  I  am  going  to  assume  that  it  is 
3.8  per  cent.  Then  we  must  have  some  basis  of 
overrun,  and  I  will  assume  that  it  is  20  per  cent. 
This  overrun  is  quite  possible,  but  conditions  must 
be  about  right  or  it  will  not  be  reached.  I  have 
known  it  to  be  exceeded,  but  it  is  more  often  less 
Ilian  more.  It  depends  upon  the  quality  of  the  milk 
or  cream  delivered,  and  upon  the  skill  of  the  oper¬ 
ator  of  the  creamery.  I  will  not  question  the  value 
stated  for  the  skim-milk,  but  want  to  say  that  a 
poor  farmer  may  not  get  that  for  it.  It  may  be 
used  so  as  to  get  50  cents  or  even  more  for  it,  but 
usually  it  is  considerably  less.  I  will  accept  the 
figures  given,  however,  and  try  to  answer  the  ques¬ 
tion  on  that  basis.  It  seems  to  me  almost  unreason¬ 
able  that  17  cents  ’should  be  charged  for  hauling, 
and  if  the  farmers  were  to  start  a  creamery  of  their 
own  they  would  soon  find  that  the  condensery  would 
find  it  possible  to  haul  tiie  milk  for  much  less.  T 
have  known  them  to  haul  it  for  nothing  if  by  that 
means  they  could  get  the  cooperative  creamery  out 
of  the  way.  It  is  no  easy  job  to  handle  a  cooper¬ 
ative  in  competition  with  a  condensery  in  the  hands 
of  one  of  the  big  concerns. 
If  the  milk  sells  for  $4.35  and  there  is  17  cents 
out  for  hauling  it  leaves  $1.18.  That  milk  testing 
3.8  per  cent.,  given  a  20%  overrun,  produces  4.56 
pounds  of  butter.  At  25  cents  a  pound  it  comes  to 
$1.15.  Add  the  35  cents  for  the  skim  and  you  have 
$1.49  as  against  the  $1.18  when  sold  to  the  con¬ 
densery.  This  figures  out  nicely  on  paper.  I  doubt 
if  it  will  work  out  just  as  it  figures.  It  is  true  that 
the  butter  ought  to  bring  more  than  is  stated  here, 
but  it  is  possible  that  the  test  might  not  be  as  high 
as  estimated.  That  can  be  determined,  however,  be¬ 
fore  going  any  further,  and  before  spending  any 
money  on  the  project.  G>ne  must  figure  on  the  hand 
separators  that  will  have  to  he  provided,  and  the 
work  on  the  farms  of  skimming.  Then  it  will  he 
necessary  to  plan  for  the  profitable  utilization  of 
Hie  skim-milk.  In  most  cases  where  there  has  been 
no  skim  to  use  for  some  time  farmers  are  not 
equipped  to  handle  it  to  advantage.  I  would  inves¬ 
tigate  the  test  the  first  thing,  then  I  would  find  a 
better  market  for  the  blitter.  With  these  things  set¬ 
tled  in  a  satisfactory  manner  it  will  be  possible  to 
proceed  in  the  other  lines. 
As  for  (lie  cheese  question,  I  do  not  see  how  the 
cheese  factory  folks  are  to  haul  the  milk  unless  the 
cost  is  to  be  taken  from  the  returns  from  the  cheese. 
In  that  case  it  will  be  the  same  as  now,  unless  it 
can  be  hauled  for  less  money.  The  whey  returned  is 
worth  something,  blit  may  not  realize  the  farmer  any 
considerable  money.  Milk  testing  3.8  per  cent, 
should,  according  to  figures  that,  have  been  carefully 
worked  out,  yield  10.15  pounds  of  cheese.  The  price 
of  cheese  is  not  given,  but  from  this  statement  of 
yield  the  returns  can  lie  readily  figured  as  soon  as 
the  cheese  price  is  determined.  Cheese  has  been  a 
somewhat  better  project  here  than  butter,  unless  the 
farmer  is  ready  to  handle  skim-milk  to  some  advan¬ 
tage.  I  might  add  that  milk  testing  3.5  per  cent,  is 
