The Dairy Situation in the Corn Belt 
O VER-1‘HO DUCT I ON.—The dairy cow is making 
inroads into the corn holt. She is going into 
the Middle West and South al a pace that is both 
rapid and dangerous; for any industry must grow 
up in a community, rather than he thrust upon the 
people as an emergency occupation, The dairy sec¬ 
tions of Maryland, New Jersey, Now York State and 
Pennsylvania are complaining of an over-production 
of milk, and consequently the farmers are selling 
their product at relatively low prices. The dairymen 
in these sections are wondering why the “call of the 
West” for more cows and more dairying. 
WISCONSIN CONDITIONS.—The answer is not 
difficult. The Wisconsin farmer, largely because he 
stuck to dairy farming through thick and thin, came 
through the period of depression suffering least of 
all from financial problems. Only hanks in the 
whole Slate of Wisconsin were delinquent in rneet- 
ECONOMICAL PRODUCTION.—It is not difficult 
to draw a useful lesson from the misdirected ac¬ 
tivities of organized labor. It abandoned efficiency, 
demanded more pay for less work and shorter hours, 
and went on strike if anyone dared tread on its 
assumed rights and protected principles. Now the 
public is good and tired of such antics, and the open 
shop will make union workers click their heels and 
fall into line and go to work, else their jobs will be 
gone. The several agricultural agencies may well 
stop and consider just what problems they are trying 
to solve. Economical production comes iirsf, regard¬ 
less as to whether one is making milk, growing corn, 
raising potatoes or feeding live stock, and any at¬ 
tempt to raise prices by means of organized market¬ 
ing agencies will meet the same distress that now 
faces organized labor. Make marketing -as orderly 
as you please, but do not hold to that false hope that 
where dairying now constitutes the major industry. 
Sorely the feeling of unrest follows a period of de¬ 
pression, and very frequently the other fellow's job 
looks more promising than your own. Ry the time 
you get the other fellow’s job you often wish that 
you had your old job back, for looking out from the 
inside gives a far different perspective than mere 
looking in from the outside. Corn and hogs and 
beef cattle made prosperity possible in the Middle 
West; dairying has brought its own rewards for the 
Eastern farmer, who could buy feeds cheaper than 
he could produce them. Before meat-making can 
establish itstlf in the East the corn belt atmosphere 
must be applied there, and if dairying is to go 
West and South experienced dairymen must go along 
with the cows. Corn and more corn, with a sprink¬ 
ling of oats and tankage, will feed a mortg ge 
lifter, hut dairy cows must have feeds that the corn 
" • 
mti 
Lula Mayflowo', Owned by University of California. Grand Champion Crossbred Short horn-Angus Heifer at 1921 International 
ing their loans to the Federal Reserve hanks. 
Actually agricultural conditions in Wisconsin and 
Minnesota are nearly normal now, while the corn- 
holt. farmer is scratching his inside pockets for funds 
to pay interest on money borrowed to defray living 
expenses, let alone rents and other business obliga¬ 
tions. He looks over tin* State line into Wisconsin 
and into sections of his own State, where dairy 
fanning is the major industry, and observing pros¬ 
perity. determines to become a dairyman. 
CORN BEET FARMS.—'When the corn-belt farmer 
was making money selling grain two years ago a 
number of dairymen along the border lines aban¬ 
doned milk-making and went to raising and selling 
grain. They lost, because prices dropped before they 
were able to market a crop. The same fate will be 
experienced by the stockman who now turns to 
dairying as an emergency move. When he gets 
nicely started the surplus of milk will choke the 
markets, and then only the fittest will survive. Then- 
cry is not for more milk, hut for more economical 
production of milk, and for a more extended market 
for the milk that is now being produced and dis¬ 
tributed. 
organized marketing is going to substitute for an 
economical production. If organized labor had made 
possible more efficiency on the part of the plumber 
or the painter or the printer, the public would de¬ 
light in helping them on and up: but just the oppo¬ 
site happened. “Organize and you receive more pay 
and do less work.” Is this the objective of the 
various agencies that are promising great things to 
the farmer, who turns blindly from existing mar¬ 
keting agencies to the newly established ones that 
are to function co-operatively? 
READJUSTMENT.—I believe that many existing 
abuses will be corrected as a result of organized 
protests and by competition, but I do not believe that 
the whole existing system of marketing grains or live 
stock or dairy products need be scrapped just be¬ 
cause the period of depression lias emphasized cer¬ 
tain grievances that always have and always will 
he encountered if competition is to be the life of 
merchandising. 
CHANG I NO JOBS.—Just now there is a demand 
for more dairy cows and fewer beef animals in the 
corn belt: likewise there is much inquiry for more 
beef and fewer milk cows in the Eastern district. 
belt farmer will nut or does not know how to com¬ 
pound. If dairying is to prosper in the Middle West 
the dairy farms will have to change their rations 
from straight corn and oats to complete feeds that 
will enable cows to produce dairy product * economi¬ 
cally. Even dairy farming can come West and go 
South too rapidly for its own good. Orderly pro¬ 
duction is quite as essential as orderly marketing. 
F. C. M. 
New York Maple Producers’ Plan to 
Co-operate 
Part II. 
FORMING AN INCORPORATION.—In the course 
of the work the Del ova n brothers became more and 
more interested in tlie plans for a State-wide maple 
producers' association which were progressing under 
the leadership of the State Federation of Farm Bu¬ 
reaus. By this time the idea of marketing the maple 
products of the State through a co-operative asso¬ 
ciation had progressed to the stage where Aaron 
Sapiro and Julian Eangner, experts in co-operative 
law and organization, with offices recently estab- 
