and no effort will he spared to make this 
meeting more interesting and more profit¬ 
able than any of its predecessors,” 
Wo shall hope to see a large gathering pres¬ 
ent at the meeting, and have no doubt but it 
will prove as successful, In point of attend¬ 
ance and in valuable matter elicited in essays 
and discussions as at any former meeting. 
THE DAIRY MIDDLEMEN 
Capt. E. L. Hibbard, Franklin Co., Vt., 
a butter dealer, extensively known in that 
part of the State, made the following affir¬ 
mation inn public address, some time since, 
respecting the butter buyer. He says fhe 
butter buyer is a man of considerable im¬ 
portance, especially in his own estimation, 
and is generally supposed to be a man that is 
os the sure road to wealth ; but when we 
look over the list of those who have been in 
the field during the hist 12 or 15 years, we 
find that not. more than one out of every 
three has been able to “keep his head above 
water" for any great length of time. Thus 
he (Hibbard) concludes that the farmers 
could not afford to dispense with the middle¬ 
men, oven were they so situated that they 
could place their products on the city mark¬ 
ets free of expense except the usual freight--, 
We have hoard similar remarks made con¬ 
cerning cheese buyers, except that the pro¬ 
portion of unsuccessful is put much larger 
than that named by Mr. Hibbard. Not uu- 
frequontly this argument is used by middle¬ 
men to show that the business of handling 
the dairyman's products is, on the whole, u 
very poor culling, and that wore it not for 
the middlemen, farm products would fall 
much lower in price than they do. Without 
considering the question a? to whether the 
condition of dairymen would be better with 
or without the middle-men, it must not be 
assumed that because a butter dealer or 
cheese buyer has been unsuccessful, that, the 
business is a bad business, or that the mar¬ 
gins betweon buying and selling have not 
been sufficiently large to be remunerative if 
properly managed. Nor is it clear that such 
failures come from paying farmers high 
prices for their goods, or that they could not 
have obtained more by selling direct to the 
city merchant or consumer. 
Men arc unsuccessful in various ways and 
in every department of business ; the many 
fail while the comparatively few arc success¬ 
ful, though both classes purchase thoir goods 
at the same prices. Wc have for some years 
had good opportunity to know something of 
a large number of middlemen ; and although 
some have failed on account of buying goods 
at too dear a rate, in the majority of cases 
the failures have resulted from other causes 
—such as want of economy, reckless specula¬ 
tion, unbusinesslike habits, bud partnerships 
and unfortunate operations outside their le¬ 
gitimate business. 
Of course it must be admitted that there 
are certain risks to be taken by every one 
who engages in trade ; but we do not believe 
the cheese buyers or butter dealers are to be 
set down as a specially unfortunate class any 
more than the dry goods merchant or per¬ 
sons engaged in some other class of trade. 
Middlemen are often a very useful class of 
persons ; and while dairy-men are generally 
quite willing to pay them liberally for their 
labor and the risk of capital, we should be 
sorry to see Capt. Hibbard’s proposition ad¬ 
mitted by them as a truism. Indeed, we 
know of many instances where dairymen 
have dealt directly with the consumers at 
much better rates than could have been ob¬ 
tained by dealing with middlemen, while 
certain factories have shipped their goods 
abroad on their own account., and thus saved 
considerable commissions that otherwise 
would have gone to the intermediate buyer. 
Under the associate dairy system there is 
less necessity for middlemen than under the 
old farm dairy plan, where goods were held 
in numberless small lots. Very likely it 
would be found inconvenient to do away 
with the services of middlemen ; but that it 
can be done, and without loss to the dairy¬ 
man's interest, has been demonstrated in 
some instances, and is gaining ground with 
the daily public from year to year. 
FROM SAN FRANCISCO, CAL 
I am thinking perhaps a note from this 
side of the Continent, from a former resident 
of your city, would not be amiss, and would 
Ire read with somo degree of interest by the 
readers of the Rural Nkw-Yoricrr, reach¬ 
ing, as it does, the homeB and firesides of the 
industrial world, visiting those of limited 
means, and many where the toil and income 
of three months of the j'ear is mostly con¬ 
sumed in the remaining nine, leaving a small 
margin for luxuries or money to spend in vis 
iting this land of gold, where the roses bloom 
in open air the whole year round. Plants 
and shrubs that are cultivated with such 
tender care in the East, here flourish with a 
mammoth growth. Vegetables need no well 
closed cellar here, but grow luxuriantly from 
the ground all the year. Ripe strawberries, 
delicious, are now in market, and formed 
part of the dinner repast yesterday, Nov. 7. 
They arc found in our market every mouth 
of the year save one ; in some parts of tho 
State, 1 believe, are found every month. 
Fruit, whose variety seems to me to be al¬ 
most legion, and quality unsurpassed, always 
finds a ready sale at u. good price in market. 
You will say it. is a California story when I 
toll you I have seen sweet potatoes in mar¬ 
ket, one of which was huge enough, when 
eooked, to food five hungry men. 
Ranches of the modest number of thirty 
thousand acres are common, cattle and sheep 
ranges occupying a large extent of country. 
This is Considered one of the easiest ways of 
getting rich, legitimately, flocks and herds 
increasing while the owners are sleeping, un¬ 
til their wealth is hardly known by them¬ 
selves, oven. I was treated to a drive over a 
portion of a gentleman’s ranch, a short time 
since. They were then plowing with a gang 
plow -a curiosity in itself to one who had 
only witnessed the deep furrow at tho East. 
Tho range was divided and subdivided into 
fields—here a division for horses ; another for 
cattle ; another for sheep and goats. After 
a drive of six miles or more over the ranch, 
I asked how many acres he had. He replied 
—“Only seven thousand in this ranch ; but 
I will take you, when you have leisure, to 
a ranch what is a ranch,” £ saw fields of 
grain all ready for the reaper (which by the 
way in this country is an institution of itself,) 
headed, threshed and flagged in so short a 
space of time one would almost feel as if it 
was magic, or in the days of “Aladdin or 
the Wonderful Lamp.” I asked how many 
acres there might lie in this field, “ About 
three thousand.” A fortune almost to the 
owner of the grain, to say' nothing of tho 
land. 
The objection is raised that California is 
uot always sure of sufficient rain to insure 
crops to the sower. ’Tis well it should be so. 
The earth must rest as well as the human ma¬ 
chinery, or consequent early decay or wear¬ 
ing out. But this is now being obviated by 
the construction or an irrigation ditch of 
never failing water that can lie drawn on to 
the lands for thousands of square miles at 
but little expense to the real estate owner. 
In minerals (both this State and also Neva¬ 
da) its wealth is almost fabulous. A trip 
with me through the gold mines, tho great 
Haywood mine, of a depth of nearly four¬ 
teen hundred feet, would be of some interest. 
No country offers more inducements for 
the reward of industry than the Pacific Slope, 
California in particular. To those thinking 
of coming to this coast to live by their wits, 
or by chicanery, l will say there is no room 
for them ; they are not needed. But men and 
women who are willing to work, and if largo 
wages are not obtained at once, work for less 
until they merit more, may come. I can 
mention many laboring persons, servant 
girls and men, who are now in comfortable 
circumstances and own their city house and 
lot by buying on the installment plan, which, 
hy the way, arc great inducements offered 
now, as currency is so near the equiva¬ 
lent to gold. Those coming to this coast 
now, or making investments, do not have to 
lose in the exchange one quarter as much as 
in former times. 
In conversation with a gentleman who has 
an Employment Office, he said he could find 
FROM ESSEX CO., VA 
1 note your remarks on what the gentle¬ 
man from Essex Co. said to you respecting 
tlie affairs of out County arid our great want 
of workingmen, which is all true. He might 
have told you that good mechanics of every 
class are especially wanted, as they are very 
much needed, I to-day heard a wagon build¬ 
er wishing to get a good blacksmith, (food 
tradesmen, with small moans, can buy small 
houses and establish themselves with their 
very scarce. Being, before tho war, strictly 
an agricultural people, wo supposed we had 
no use for such tradesmen and never sought 
them ; but now find with the change in our 
social system, wo need them very much. 
Our people are desirous to divide their farms 
and work up land. Our free schools are 
good ; our facilities for transportation fully 
equal to our wants and cheap, 30 hours from 
New York, Our soil, though good, from 
neglect and bud tillage for ton years, is more 
abused than injured. A good farmer in live 
years will bring it back to its native fertil¬ 
ity ; 30 to 75 bushels of corn and 15 to 40 
bushels of wheat per acre. Those who have 
given attention to its cultivation find tim¬ 
othy, orchard grass and clover to succeed 
ns well as in any section of the country. 
Added to all our other advantages, wo have 
tho soil and climate for fruit of tho best 
quality. 
Our river abounds with fish of the very 
best and oysters in abundance ; added to 
this, we arc free from the panics of the cities; 
we have on our farms what we need to live 
on, with a few exemptions; and though our 
stylo of living is different, it is quite as com¬ 
fortable as in the cities, and we arc not quite 
so dependent ; though wo have loss, mu- 
wants are not so great. Observer. 
GO OUT WEST 
Many times it has been said to me, “ I 
wonder you do not go out West.” in spite 
of all the fevers and ague numbers do go ; 
though in the far West corn only makes a 
third of the price it does in the East, fami¬ 
lies settle there ; and although meat is about 
three cents per lb., beef, &e., it is fattened. 
All to be sold i-; low priced ; everyt hing to 
bo bought has freight to be paid on it and is 
high priced ; sell cheap and buy dear ; and, 
to make matters still worse, there is a pro¬ 
tective duty on manufactured goods which 
acts injuriously, inasmuch as while selling 
corn and meat at n third of New York prices, 
there is double what ought to ho to pay for 
the elothos worn, the implements for culti¬ 
vation, and all the little household comforts. 
If I go West I will keep up the land I farm 
by consuming everything raised in the shape 
of crops, t hus returning all subtracted from 
the- soil, and send to market such produce as 
wool, butter, horses, worth thousands each, 
thus making the freight come low iu propor¬ 
tion. But I would prefer the South-west, 
where the winters will allow of horses, colts, 
Ace., running out, and where little expense 
has to bo incurred iu harvesting a winter's 
supply of food. No present inducement of 
prodigious crops should tempt, me to plow 
CONVENTION OF VERMONT DAIRYMEN 
Among the Agricultural Societies of New 
England, the Vermont Dairymen’s Associa¬ 
tion is prominent. The winter meetings of 
the Society have always been largely at¬ 
tended, and we doubt whether there is any 
Association in New England that is doing 
more, good for the cause of Agriculture than 
it. Wo have a card from the Secretary, Mr. 
O, H. Bliss, Georgia, Vt... announcing the 
Fifth Winter Meeting of the Association at 
Essex .Junction, Vt., on Wednesday, Thurs¬ 
day and Friday, Jan. Slst, 22d and 23d, 1-S74. 
In regard to the coming meeting. Mr. Buss 
says :—“ It has ever been the policy of the 
government of the Association to bring to¬ 
gether such an array of practical men, accus¬ 
tomed to giving expression to their thoughts, 
us would make the meetings worthy of the 
attendance and cordial co-operation of the 
foremost minds in the great battle of Agri¬ 
cultural progress. Acting upon the theory 
that all men know more than any one man, 
it has been our endeavor, as far as possible, 
without seeming to dictate to (hose who 
have favored us with their aid, to drift clear 
of the system of long didactic addresses and 
lecturers, and rather, by a series of short, 
pithy, incisive, introductory essays, to elicit 
the experiences, not only of our friends from 
abroad, but also of our own members and 
neighbors.” If we may give full credit to 
the encomiums of our visitors, no organiza¬ 
tion of the kind 1ms been more successful, or 
has accomplished a greater measure of good, 
aud no essential modification of the general 
plan of our meetings is contemplated at this 
time. From its very inception, however, the 
motto of the Association has been * Onward,' 
DAIRY NOTES 
find the best books and papers to gather all 
needful information from f What Is the cost 
to produce a pound of butter under ordinary 
circumstances ?—W. F. Davis, Cayuga Co., 
New York . 
1. Baltimore is a very good market for 
dairy products, and we are told that fine, 
fresh butter brings a good price in Washing¬ 
ton. Not knowing the precise location re¬ 
ferred to by our correspondent, nor the ca¬ 
pacity and condition of the farm as adapted 
to dairymen, we can give no opinion as to 
whether the project is good or bad. We are 
This Department of tho Rural has so 
many valuable contributors, whose articles 
are of general interest, that we feel bound to 
explaiu that while all are duly appreciated, 
we cannot publish them all at once. The 
information wc desire to give in other de¬ 
partments compels us to confine this to 
spieciled limits. 
