The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
The Roots of Agricultural Unrest 
The Middleman. —The old industry of 
creating sedatives for formers in time of 
agricultural unrest is just now working 
overtime. Nowhere can we see any de¬ 
termined purpose to strike at the root of 
the cause of the present agricultural de¬ 
pression. Nowhere do we find any broad, 
comprehensive policy for agricultural re¬ 
lief. Whether this is due to ignorance of 
farm needs, want of vision, or a carefully 
devised scheme of selfish interests does 
not matter. The result is the same. This 
country has an abundance of wealth in 
food and fiber products grown on our 
farms. About -10 per cent of the people 
live on t'he farms. Probably a little more 
than t>0 per cent are urban population and 
look to the farms for their food. The pro¬ 
ducers of fond and the consumers of food 
are separated by long distances. The 
sary as a means to win the war. The 
price of wheat alone was arbitrarily fixed 
in the open, but prices of practically all 
other products were officially manipulated 
below the level of supply and demand. 
Neither farm products nor farm supplies 
could be moved except through the official 
agency of middlemen. When the war was 
over this system was established more 
firmly than ever before. It. has been 
politically created by the strong arm of 
government — city, State and nation. 
Nothing short of the same power can 
change it. We see no disposition to face 
the situation squarely in any legislature. 
Where farmers are hard pressed and rest¬ 
less, they are soothed and allured by little 
concessions and legislative palliatives, 
some of wh : eh are good enough in their 
tor a good investment, for helping get the 
work well along, hut we never aim to use 
it and allow the teams to remain idle 
when there is work the horses can do as 
well.” 
Regarding opera ling costs, Mr. Phil¬ 
lips says: “The tractor has cost me .‘it) 
cents an hour for fuel and oil. To this 
should be added depreciation and repairs. 
In rny case the repairs have cost, practi¬ 
cally nothing, except my own time.” 
.lust across (he State line in Ohio M. 
K. King has a large acreage in fruit and a 
much larger acreage devoted to general 
farming. Mr. Ring says: “Our exper¬ 
ience with a tractor extends over a period 
of four years, and is confined to one of 
the four-wheeled type of machines, quite 
large, and with rating of 10 horse power 
on the drawbar and J20 horsepower at the 
belt. We are using kerosene as fuel.” In 
prefacing remarks as to cost. Mr, Ring 
said : “The tractor lias been dependable 
and satisfactory in every way. Our trees 
are now so large that we arc contem¬ 
plating the purchase of one of the low- 
down track layer machines to supplement 
our older tractor.” 
As to operating costs, Mr. Ring says: 
“We use our tractor 100 days each year. 
345 
that wo find to do, but for the main or¬ 
chard tillage we find, in view of the 
length of time the horses are idle, aud 
other reasons stated, that our conclusion 
in favor of the tractor is well founded. 
Our experience with the tractor in or¬ 
chard development has been so satisfac¬ 
tory that we are depending on the tractor 
more and more each year. Furl her, in 
our opinion, the double action tractor 
disk is one of the best orchard tillage 
tools. On soil well supplied with humus 
we (hr very little plowing after we stop 
growing crops between the trees. We 
disk each way. and follow up later with 
two spring-tooth harrows abreast.” 
W. T. Mann of Northeastern Ohio uses 
one of his tractors to haul heavy sprayer. 
Mr. Mann states that, the slow, steady 
movement of the tractor makes it very de¬ 
pendable. Mr. Mann says: “We plan to 
keep moving. In spraying small trees the 
tractor may be driven as fast as one can 
walk, and as the trees get larger one can 
drive slower, and in spraying large trees 
a tractor can be driven very slow. In 
case of large trees, three men can be em¬ 
ployed. one for spraying tbo top. another 
the middle of the tree and the third man 
for the lower limbs. la this way there 
farmer can no longer personally bring 
the food to the city home. The consumer 
is unable to go to the farm for it. Hence 
an agency lias been created to take the 
food from the farmer’s hands atul deliver 
it to the city door. This agency we call 
the middleman system. It begins with the 
transportation companies, goes through 
the commission dealer, a jobber, a whole¬ 
saler. and a retailer. Sometimes these 
agencies speculate in it between them¬ 
selves to take up all the spread between 
the producer and the consumer. The 
policy is that the market must not be 
disturbed by low prices. The consumer 
must not discover that there is any way 
to get cheaper food. If the supply is 
larger than usual, the consumer must not 
be permitted to discover it. The policy 
is stable prices to the consumer and low 
prices and waste for the producer. The 
present result of this policy is that food 
is wasting oil the farms, and many city 
people are unable to get enough to satisfy 
their hunger. City authorities are con¬ 
stantly reporting a large percentage of 
underfed children in the city schools. 
Improved Conditions Needed. —The 
obvious remedy for these conditions 
would be to find a way to get. the cheap 
food of the farms to the city children at 
a reasonable cost. This would ho simple, 
direct and efficient. It would create a 
ready market, and absorb the farm surplus 
Fins shows a poultry demonstration by the County Agent of Bucks Co.. Pa. Here they all are—from grandfather 
down to the baby—each with a chicken in hand, learning how to tell a drone from a good layer. It is wonderful 
how many people are learning how to analyze a hen. This is having its effect upon the egg yield in a way that few 
people stop to realize. When people come together in this way and compare notes they make great progress in 
analyzing a hen. 
of food. It would cure anemic children of 
their illness and make future producers 
of them. Why is it that this simple remedy 
for a depressed agriculture and an anemic 
city population is not applied? No one 
denies that it can be done. No one stands 
up and defends the present cost of distri¬ 
bution. When wo first made the state¬ 
ment. that the farmer got .'55 cents out of 
the consumer’s dollar, wo were disputed. 
It is now generally admitted. The man 
who drives a city milk wagon gets close 
to a dollar an hour. The farmer who 
makes ihe milk is lucky if lie gets a dollar 
a (lay, and the farmer’s day is often lti 
hours Ioug. There is not. a man who 
touches the farm produce from the time 
it leaves the farmer’s hands until it 
reaches the consumer’s table who does not 
get more out of it for the time aud energy 
put into it than the farmer who pro¬ 
duced it. This applies to the trainman, 
t! e conductor, firethau, brakeinan and 
engineer, all the way through the 
various truckmen aud dealers down to 
the delivery boy and Che cook. All this 
burden of middleman expense and profit 
is pyramided on top of the food, and then 
the wages of all are computed on the cost 
of the food, and other living expenses cre¬ 
ated the same way. Is this system built, 
up through ignorance, or for want cf 
vision to see its results, or by studied 
intrigue on the part of those who profit 
by it at the expense of the farmer? 
Development of the System. —Be¬ 
fore we can answer that question we must 
know how the system has been developed 
and why and how it is maintained. We 
have made a deliberate and lifelong study 
of this problem, and we say, without fear 
of contradiction, that, the system has been 
built up and is uow maintained through 
political agencies for the profit of the 
middle agency. It. was strong and power¬ 
ful before the war; but it never before 
held the dominating position it secured 
during the Hoover administration, and 
yet bolds by virtue of the monopoly it 
then acquired. During the war farmers 
were lectured on their patriotic duty, 
ow,... fnjfi ti,nt production was nocos¬ 
way, but which afford no adequate meas¬ 
ure of relief. If the people engaged in 
the delivery of food and in manufacturing 
and delivering farm supplies were re¬ 
quired to work for the wages farmers get 
there would be no surplus <ff food to 
trouble the farmer, and the city would be 
bountifully fed. We refuse to believe that 
we have any monopoly of this informa¬ 
tion. and wo can only conclude that the 
system is maintained for selfish reasons; 
and since it can he changed onlj by the 
powers that created it and maintain it, 
the remedy lies first in a full understand¬ 
ing of the situation, by farmers them¬ 
selves. and then by a united action on 
their part to enforce jhstice f<>r them¬ 
selves through the governmental agencies 
that now discriminate against them. 
The Tractor in Orchard and Vineyard 
“The time is near when practically all 
work in vineyards aud orchards will be 
done with tractors.” This statement was 
made by a (Chautauqua County grape 
grower nearly 10 years ago. At the 
time his hired mail was operating a typi¬ 
cal machine of the time, one cylinder, and 
one that was heavier, less efficient per¬ 
haps, and more cumbersome than types 
of tractors now in use. This tractor was 
probably one of the first to be used in 
the l.ake Erie grape belt. The time is at 
band when a large part of the work on 
the larger vineyards and fruit farms will 
be done with power machinery. 
A. D. Phillips of Erie Couuty, l’a., says 
of the tractor: “Many fanners in the 
grape belt declare they are making future 
plantings with view to tractor cultivation. 
The fact is that my orchards and many 
others are not laid out with the idea of 
using a tractor economically. The rows 
are short, and the plantings are in 
patches. Part of our old vineyard was 
planted it rows too narrow to use the 
tractor. W e are planting our new vine¬ 
yard with ro\v> 0 ft. apart, and we ex¬ 
pect to use the tractor for a large part, 
of the work, although we will still use 
the horses for horse hoeing and many 
jobs. The use of rye and vetch as a 
cover crop, to which many object, owing 
to difficulty of plowing under, need not 
cause fear to the tractor owner. We aim 
to turn it down as soon ns the rye heads 
appear. With a good tractor disk run 
over it this crop need have no terrors for 
the t”ec‘ne plow. We consider the trnc- 
The fuel cost, for 10 hours is $2.80 for 
20 gallons of kerosene, 75 cents for lubri¬ 
cating oil. current, repairs 25 cents, in¬ 
terest oh investment »!() cents, and de¬ 
preciation £1.50. These figures amount 
to £5.00 each working day. The 25 cents 
for repairs is four times what they ac¬ 
tually cost us during the four years’ use. 
In view of depreciation charge the trac¬ 
tor will be paid for in seven years, and 
we shall be £50 to the good. However, 
the tractor is in fine condition, and should 
give service for a much greater period 
than seven years with proper care. From 
now on our repair bill will probably be 
greater, yet the tractor owner or the 
possible purchaser of one should bear in 
mind that lie should be his own service 
man as much us possible. He should see 
that bis tractor is running smoothly, that 
loose bolts and bearings are kept tight¬ 
ened, and that proper lubrication and 
cooling occur at all times. We devote 
one-half hour each day in going over the 
tractor, oiling and greasing, and getting 
ready for field work. At present low 
prices of feed it would cost £2.1 Mi a day 
to feed the tractor power equivalent in 
horse flesh. We consider that the tractor 
will do the work of four teams, and 
eight hours is a full day’s work for a 
team. In warm weather it is necessary 
to frequently rest the team. Further¬ 
more. care and attention for horsbs 
is spread over the whole year. Care 
of tractor usually ceases when the 
day's work is done. Overhaul of tractor 
should be done at such season of the 
year when there will he no immediate 
demand for its services, and it should be 
in fit condition the same as horses to 
properly perform their work when the 
season opens. Our cost for extra drivers 
for teams is from £2 to a day. The 
cost of eight or even six good horses is 
much greater than a tractor. The cost 
of horse-drawn implements will amount 
to more than the fewer tractor-drawn 
implements required to perform equal 
work. The cost of housing is in favor of 
the tractor and tractor machinery. Some 
may get. 10 years’ service out of a horse, 
yet in view of our experience this Sum¬ 
mer I believe depreciation in horseflesh 
is greater than tractor depreciation. 
“In orchard tillage.” Sir. King says, 
"the tractor has many advantages over 
horses. It gets around the trees better, 
and is able to work long hours in hot 
weather, when the orchard is most in 
need of this work, and we all know the 
orchard is a hot place for horses on a 
very warm day. On our farm we think 
it pays to keep horses for hauling the 
sprayer and for the hundred and one jobs 
is no stopping and resting horses at a 
time when it is vitally important that we 
should make use of every moment. We 
fiud in our tractor experience that one 
tractor will do work requiring three or 
four teams. As near as we can conclude 
from our orchard experience, it costs as 
much to do a given piece of work with a 
tractor as it does with horses, yet the trac¬ 
tor is not adding to the expense- account 
while idle. In my opinion,” Mr. Mann 
said, “depreciation on tractor and horses 
is about the same. I pay a good price 
for horses, and am less fortunate than 
some men. since I enunot deal them off 
except at a much lower figure. And an¬ 
other advantage in favor of the tractor, 
which I consider of importance, is the fact 
that the tractor can be operated continu¬ 
ously during the busy periods by shifting 
drivers. This is vitally mmortaut during 
the rush season. I have had little trouble 
with one tractor, which was as reliable 
its my car. Another tractor caused con¬ 
siderable bother, and we had difficulty in 
getting tlie service people to give the trac¬ 
tor the proper attention. I have a man 
who is as capable ns tnauv so-called ex¬ 
pert machinists.” said Mr. Mann, “and 
he is depended upon for overhauling and 
repairing. An item which makes many 
tractors excessively expensive is the cost 
of inexperienced and inefficient men who 
arc too frequently employed in ovc haul¬ 
ing and repairing. One of our tractors 
broke down when we needed it greatly. 
The part cost £40; this was replaced by 
a man who prided himself as a mechanic, 
and who had given the tractor an over¬ 
hauling. l’he part broke the second time, 
and our man replaced it. and it has 
caused no trouble. Hereafter we will de¬ 
pend ou our own man for this work.” 
It is the conclusion of tractor users 
that, covering a period of years, even at 
present, low feed costs and the possibility 
of cheaper labor, the tractor pays. Where 
general farming is carried on. 100 to 125 
acres may be considered the minimum 
sized farm on which a tractor may he 
owned. However, several who own as 
small an acreage as 20 acres in orchard 
or vineyard may be profitably operated 
with power, and the owner will have time 
to do outside work. In one ease a tractor 
owner did nmvard of 400 hours’ work 
for each of three years. At the end of 
this time an overhaul was necessary. This 
cost £101, and apparently the tractor is 
in condition for at least two years' ser¬ 
vice as good. On the other hand, an¬ 
other tractor in use less than nine months 
is in such condition that proper overhaul 
will cost much more than this figure. 
Ohio. " w. 
