‘The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
I 34y 
National Milk Producers’ Federation 
MEETING of the National Milk Producers’ Fed¬ 
eration will be held at Springfield, Mass., Nov. 
9-10. This is the sixth animal meeting of a federa¬ 
tion representing 23 state and sectional organiza¬ 
tions. Milo 1 >. Campbell of Michigan is president, 
and there are 21 directors. A long and elaborate 
program, with over MO speakers, and covering nearly 
every angle of the milk producing business, has been 
arranged. 
New York State Dairymen’s Assocation 
T HE forty-sixth annual meeting will be held at 
Watertown, November 14-17. Following is the 
program: 
Tuesday evening there will be an address of welcome 
by Mayor Cahill and a response by .T. A. Coulter, followed 
by an address by Commissioner of Farms and Markets, 
lion. Byrn It. F’yrke. Wednesday there will be one of 
the most elaborate milking machine meetings ever held. 
In the evening Dr. Newell Dwight llillis, pastor of 
Plymouth Church, Brooklyn, will speak. Thursday 
will he known as Dairymen’s League Day: conferences 
in the forenoon and addresses in the afternoon. “l?o- 
vine Tuberculosis Eradication," by Hon. Dorr W. Mc- 
I.aury. and an address by Dean II. J >. Van Norman, 
president of the International Dairy Congress, are 
scheduled. 
The annual banquet Thursday evening will have as 
its chief speaker Hon. John M. Kelley of Wisconsin. 
An outstanding feature of the convention will be the 
Holstein cattle sale, Friday, Nov. 17, details of which 
will be published later. 
Rieck-McJunken Milk Case 
T HE dairymen at Coimeautville. Pa., have won 
in one more case against the Rieck-McJunken 
Dairy Company of Pittsburgh. It will be remem¬ 
bered that the company sent checks to dairymen on 
January 20, 1922. to pay for milk delivered in De¬ 
cember; but the bank failed before the checks were 
paid, and the company refused to make the checks 
good, on the allegation that the dairymen neglected 
to present the original checks for payment as soon 
as they might have done. On the request of the 
dairymen we undertook the collection of the amounts 
due them and secured two judgments in the local 
courts for the full amount of the claims on a test 
case. The case is now on appeal for final termina¬ 
tion. 
In the meantime we discovered that one check for 
$108.30 had not been received by one of the dairy¬ 
men until after the bank had closed, and demanded 
payment, with interest. The company agreed to pay 
the face of the claim, hut demurred at the interest, 
and as the use of the money was more important 
than the interest, we waived interest charge, though 
it was a perfectly legitimate charge, and could have 
been (mi forced in the courts. 
The experience shows that these concerns dealing 
with farmers take advantage of every little techni¬ 
cality and every circumstance to increase their own 
profits. They take advantage of the farmer’s want 
of experience in legal technicalities, of his reluct¬ 
ance to go to the courts for full justice to himself, 
and of the financial needs that compel him to sur¬ 
render rights to secure a prompt settlement. The 
dairymen concerned in this case, however, are well 
advised by competent counsel, and nothing will be 
left undone for the protection of their claims. They 
have won in the first two rounds. 
Let Farmers Begin at the Bottom 
A S political parties are now lined up in New 
York State, we have pretty much a contest be¬ 
tween the city and the rural districts. This is un¬ 
fortunate, for it creates class feeling and bitterness 
between two types of civilization which need each 
other in full co-operation. The city people have but 
little that may he called essential to give to those 
who live on farms, while the latter hold the very key 
to life in their production of food and fiber. The 
fact remains, however, that in New York State a 
vast majority of the farmers belong to one party, 
while a great majority of New York City people 
vote with the other. And it must be admitted, in 
spite of the logic and theory of the reformers, that 
00 per cent of our voters are fixed, if not hidebound, 
in their party connections. It follows, therefore, as 
a matter of common sense that farmers must work 
to control their party if they ever expect to have 
their desires fully respected by candidates or ‘'plat¬ 
forms.'' As conditions now are in New York State it 
seems to us futile to try to organize any third party, 
or to adopt the plan of switching votes from one party 
candidate to another. There may be a few enthu¬ 
siasts who would support such a party, lmt the rank 
and tile of the voters will not do so. Past history 
shows that third parties have, with one great ex¬ 
ception when the Republicans split off from the 
Whigs on the slavery question—always wilted after 
a bi*ief period of bloom. The greatest success has 
been won when, as in the West and South, farmers 
have obtained control of the party machinery and 
used it to advance their cause. We think it is quite 
possible for the farmers of New York State to do 
that very thing, iyid it seems to be their best chance 
to obtain what they need. With very few exceptions 
the rural counties are controlled by the votes of 
farmers. The party is controlled by the county and 
State committees, and these are elected chiefly by 
farmers' votes. We think the best and most sensible 
plan is to begin at the foundation and elect men on 
these committees who will clearly and openly stand 
for the reasonable things which farmers ask for. As 
it is now, farmers are handed a program and told to 
carry it out. They usually obey orders. The job of 
changing the program after it is made up is too large 
for our present political system. A better way is to 
write the program ourselves:, and this can be done 
by starting at the bottom and controlling the polit¬ 
ical committees. It is evident that we cannot start 
the fire burning from the top. 
Twelve Great Men in Agriculture 
OME weeks ago The R. N.-Y. asked readers to 
name the 12 living Americans who have "most 
profoundly influenced the thought and lives of Amer¬ 
ican farmers or American agriculture." We have 
received a large number of replies, and have pur¬ 
posely refrained from printing the list of names in 
order that we might obtain first hand and original 
selections. Sometimes when lists of such names are 
printed we are all influenced in our choice. We 
wanted, to start with, the individual opinions of 
thinking men and women, uninfluenced by any selec¬ 
tion which might be made by others. 
We find that 04 different persons have been 
named. The lists or groups fall into several quite 
distinct classes. Most practical farmers include a 
few names of national reputation, hut usually add 
names of local celebrities. We presume this is be¬ 
cause farmers are personally acquainted with many 
of these local leaders, and have a fuller knowledge 
of their life and work. In some cases men and 
women take a somewhat narrow view of the mean¬ 
ing of "farming” and “agriculture,” and honestly 
feel that local leaders have influenced their lives 
more than meu of national reputation have done. 
Thus we have one group of men who can hardly lie 
said to have country-wide reputation. 
On the other hand, the teachers, workers at the 
colleges and stations, and government ottionrls usu¬ 
ally make lists from their own ranks. That is, most 
of their selections are college or "department" men. 
They rarely select men for their practical farm 
service, but seem to conclude that college meu, teach¬ 
ers or scientists have done most for agriculture. The 
theory of this group seems to he that education— 
that is, college or scientific training—lias had most 
to do with farm development. In going over the lists 
one is forced to conclude that, after more than 60 
years of active service and support, the agricultural 
colleges have produced a surprisingly small number 
of great leaders in agriculture. Apparently the 
great majority of the really strong men turned out 
by the colleges have entered the service of other 
interests where their identity has been lost. 
We also find a third small group of men and 
women who seem to think that men of industry, like 
Ford, Edison, Bell, and men of similar type, should 
rank with others in a list of men who have pro¬ 
moted agriculture helpfully. 
doing through our lists carefully and checking up 
each name, we find that, regarded as a popular vote, 
the following 12 names are mentioned the greatest 
number of times: 
Dr. Liberty II. Bailey. 
Dr. S. M. Babcock. 
I>r. Eugene Davenport. 
Secretary Henry Wallace; 
Prof. W. A. Henry. 
Dr. <1. F. Warren. 
Aaron Sappiro. 
James R. Howard. 
Dr. E. V. McCollum. 
Henry Ford. 
Dr. K. L. Butterfield. 
H. W. Collingwood. 
Out of a total of 64 those names are suggested 
most frequently. Our people have not. as a rule, 
named statesmen or members of Congress. Senator 
E. F. Ladd uf North Dakota seems to be regarded 
as the most useful man at Washington. Very few 
practical farmers have been named thus far. We 
have purposely refrained from printing our owu 
selection or in making any comments which tnigln 
influence othei’s. We want, a fair, unprejudiced 
opinion from our people, especially from practical 
farmers. It is rather important to know whether 
scientific education or practical work is most im¬ 
portant to agriculture. We shall be glad to have 
you criticize the list or say how it can be improved. 
Dairying on the Hawaiian Islands 
NE would hardly think of the city of Honolulu 
in the Hawaiian Islands as a dairy center, yet 
the milk business seems to be flourishing there. It is 
not generally known that this city has more than 
•SO, 000 inhabitants. A dairymen’s association has 
been organized, and it sold 2.263,177 quarts of milk 
in the city last year. In addition to milk, it handles 
ice cream and a special brand of “miil-Paeifie” candy 
in which much cream is used. This is not a bad 
record for dairying in the home of the “cocoanut 
cow,” and the business is growing. Retail prices run 
about 1-8 cents a quart, and of this the producer gets 
1114 cents, and the dealer or association 6% cents. 
Thus, through a form of co-operation, the milk pro¬ 
ducer in Hawaii gets nearly 63 ceuts of the consum¬ 
er’s dollar—more, we believe, than in any other large 
market known to the United States, and the pro¬ 
ducer needs it. for the production cost is high. Cows 
cannot do their best, in that warm climate, and pas¬ 
turage is poor. There is no local grain supply, and 
all feed must be shipped in. 2,000 miles, by wafer. 
Thus conditions are harder than in the Gulf States, 
but through their strong organization these dairy¬ 
men are enabled to cut the cost of delivery and thus 
get a fairer share of the consumer's dollar. 
New York State Notes 
New vigor is being added to the effort to bring ihe 
World’s Dairy Congress to Syracuse in October of 1923. 
The organizations that are back of the movement are 
the State Fair Commission, the Chamber of Commerce, 
rhe Dairymen’s League Co-operative Association, and 
State-wide farmers' organizations, A< rhe decision on 
the site has not yet been marie. Syracusans think that 
their chances are good. Syracuse has many things to 
its advantage in asking for this meeting. It is the cen¬ 
ter of the great dairying State; it is also in the center 
of rhe breeding area of the largest dairy breed in the 
State. this city is also in the center of one of the 
pioneer dairy sections. Syracuse will have by that time 
unusual hotel facilities to accommodate the crowds. 
Ihe boys’ and girls' club work in New York is well 
distributed when we take into account the reports that 
have recently been issued. In the 20 counties of the 
State where there is a club leader employed there is a 
total enrollment of 10.413. These are distributed as 
follows: Chenango. 1.234: Otsego, 1.211; Chemung, 
ov.t; .letterson. *94: Nassau. S2S; Delaware, 7.80 : Os¬ 
wego. 730; Monroe. 343; Oneida, 473: Erie, 432; Alle¬ 
ghany. Gteuben. 405; Livingston. 390; Tompkins, 277; 
Rensselaer. 233; Si-buliurie. 243; St. Lawrence. 201; 
Wyoming. 145; Madison. 142; Onondaga. 12s; Putnam’. 
04. There are 3,053 boys and girls who carrv ou the 
work in counties where there is no paid leader. This 
number is distributed as follows: Chautauqua. 910; 
Montgomery. 370; Lewis. 239; Genesee. 1S.S: Cattarau¬ 
gus, 130; Essex, 127; Cayuga. 103; Albany. 94; 
Broome. s_4; Franklin, s4; Suffolk, 73; Wayne. 71; 
Sullivan. 59; Cortland. 33; Tioga. 43; Westchester, 
4o; Saratoga. ; Seneca. 30; Orange. 20; Herkimer. 
19; Rockland. 16; Orleans. 13; Ontario. 12. Of all 
the vrork rhat is carried on the work in the clothing 
project leads them all. There are 4,179 in this one 
project. Poultry is the most popular in the agricul¬ 
tural projects. The work is the most successful in the 
counties rhat can employ a paid leader to give his or her 
entire time to the project. Such a leader does much to 
encourage the boys and girls to carry their work 
through to completion. Some uf the teams of . ther 
States have been sent to the National Dairy Show at 
St. Paul. New York State did not send a team this 
year, but is planning to do so next year. 
The Holstein sale which was scheduled for Water- 
town on November 17 has been called off, owing to ihe 
fact that the selection committee could not find suffi¬ 
cient number of surplus cattle that were in sale condi¬ 
tion. and not wishing 9> loner the standard of the sale 
they have decided to wait. This is a commendable vet. 
New York State Holsteius can remain on a high plane 
only so far as those who have charge of sales and 
other activities have a high standard to guide them. 
The Guernsey breeders of Perry and <’astile, in Wy¬ 
oming County. at their Iasi regular meeting, voted to 
! wote considerable time during the next year to the 
interest of calf clubs. This action was stimulated by 
• he successful calf club at Pavilion last year. The par¬ 
ticular location is fast becoming a strong Guernsey 
center, and the boys and girls will receive considerable 
help. The clubs are co-operating with the County 
Agents of the counties and the various vocational agri¬ 
cultural schools of rhe county. 
The Tri-county Millet Growers' Association of South¬ 
ern New York will soon begin to pool their millet seed. 
They are planning not only to market it collectively, as 
heretofore, but expect to be equipped to reclean ihe 
seed as well. 
A special train will carry Centra! New York farmers 
to rhe Nniional Grange, which opens at Wichita. Kan., 
on November 14. This train will be combined with the 
delegation from New England Tlte train will start 
from Boston and rake on the New York State delega¬ 
tion at New York City. It will pass through Philadel¬ 
phia and Washington, and then west over the Chesa¬ 
peake A Ohio Railroad through Virginia. West Virginia 
and Ohio. This trip will be very interesting to the del¬ 
egates. The fifty-sixth annual session has many items 
of interest on the program. 
Just what effect the amount of wood burned will have 
m the fuel situation as a whole is rather problematic 
when it is considered that there is comparatively little 
wood in the country at the beginning of Winter. 
E, A. F. 
