1903 
623 
CO-OPERATIVE FARMING. 
Hilda Richmond’s description (page 
547) of how three farmers solved the 
help problem is very interesting. It is 
encouraging to think that there are 
people v.no can work together that way, 
but alas, they are none too common. 1 
have seen that plan tried. To outsiders 
it appeared to work very nicely for one 
season, but the next year, for some rea¬ 
son, each man paddled his own canoe, 
and was almost painfully independent 
of the others. I wonder why? 
susAX nnowx kobrins. 
Massachusetts. 
The biggest thing to my mind in 
months or years in your paper is Hilda 
Richmond’s priceless article, page 547, 
“Three Farmers Solve the Help Prob¬ 
lem.’’ It ought to be worked up in 
every number of every farm paper, and 
in every farm institute and report. The 
indirect cooperative training and dis¬ 
cipline Involved is fully as needful and 
profitable to every farmer and his fam¬ 
ily as the direct farm work lift I beg 
you push it. It means farm labor unions 
on the grandest, simplest scale without 
the burdens of formality. 
Wisconsin. f. k. phoenix. 
Surely it has not taken three Ohio 
farmers to solve the help question in 
this late day. That was the system In 
vogue in my days of farming, even with 
the well-to-do farmers. I am surprised 
that it seems new now. My uncle farm¬ 
ed in Minnesota for 38 years, and never 
had a “hired man’’ on the place. Auntie 
and he helped the neighbors, and when 
his turn came they helped him. I don’t 
think there was ever a dispute as to 
whose crop should be cared for first. 
The crop that called loudest for help 
got it without fault-finding. For years 
the Winter’s wood was cut In the same 
way. New fencing, buildings, etc., were 
all done on the same plan. If a neighbor 
was going to town he halted along the 
way for all the errands needed. Why, 
if I owned the New York Life Building 
I would give It instanter for the simple, 
wholesome life these few people led in 
those days. It was a privilege to be 
among them, e. m. 
A RAT-PROOF HENHOUSE. 
I desire to ask what Is the best way to 
make a henhouse both rat-proof and mois¬ 
ture-proof. Would you have a double 
beard floor with building paper between 
set up on piers or blocks about a foot or 
two high, or would a cement floor from 
six to 10 Inches above the ground outside 
be better; or, is there still a better way? 
Macedon, N. Y. i. w. t. 
Make a cement floor by all means. 
More moisture gets Into henhouses 
through damp dirt floors than perhaps 
in any other way. The same may be 
said of rats In houses having board or 
dirt floors. Cement Is pretty near proof 
against both; moreover. It Is more easily 
cleaned. But in all cases, it should be 
kept well littered with straw; so should 
any other kind of floor. All our houses 
now have cement floors. The closer a 
house can be built to the ground and 
keep the drainage good the better. We 
do not like the idea of having cold air 
circulating under the floor. Being so 
high from the ground the house catches 
more wind and is therefore colder. It is 
always well to fill in the floor with flne 
stone or coarse gravel to the top of the 
sill, so that the water cannot get in. We 
use Shield’s improved cement, which 
costs us $1.45 per barrel in town, and 
use it one part cement to three partis of 
good clean sharp sand, well mixed and 
remixed and mixed again, and when it 
is mixed enough mix a little more. 
WHITE & RICE. 
A LITTLE chap four years of age met 
with the misfortune to have his hat blow 
into the river. When he reached home 
Ills father said to him: “It’s a wonder 
you didn’t blow overboard, too.’’ “I 
couldn’t," was the quick response; “I 
m to mr’fQeW^ProapyterlaUr 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
PEOPLE’S PURE MILK COMPANY. 
Can you give us any further facts about 
the Pure Milk Company, or the people 
who are promoting it? Can you And out 
something about their past business his¬ 
tory? Many of the dairymen are sign¬ 
ing contracts. Of course we are held by 
the contract if we sign, but if milk can 
bo bought for less than the contract prices 
I do not believe we could hold them. I do 
not see how you could do the people a 
greater service than to investigate the 
matter. It would amount to $10,000 or 
$12,000 to us for five years. Quite a good- 
sized deal to go into without knowing 
more about the parties than we do now. 
In this locality almost the entire Income 
is from milk that is shipped to New York. 
In a mile’s distance here there are 175 cows 
owned, one dairy of 38, from which the 
gross returns from the milk last year 
were over $05 per head, and others nearly 
as much, so you see what an Important 
matter the sale of the milk for flve years 
is. D. B. tr. 
Madison Co., N. Y. 
R. N.-Y.—We called upon Ezra A. Tuttle, 
150 Broadway, New York, president of the 
People’s Pure Milk Company, and called 
his attention to this letter. He said in a 
brief interview: 
“This company has not sprung up in a 
moment, but is the direct outgrowth of 
the Five States Association. It is essen¬ 
tially a milk producers’ company, and the 
Interests of the producers will be guarded 
so that no man will lose a dollar through 
the company. The sales committee, Messrs. 
Snell, Battlmer and Aiken, well known to 
milk farmers, are the spokesmen for the 
company, and have authority to give what¬ 
ever information they see fit. I feel that 
It would not be wise or courteous to the 
committee to take this matter out of their 
hands and make personal statements. I 
shall call their attention to it and recom¬ 
mend that they give all needed informa¬ 
tion.’’ 
Mr. Tuttle declined to nay anything 
further for publication. We have also 
written members of the sales committee, 
offering them full opportunity to make 
statements. 
A CITY MILKMAN’S VIEW. 
The R. N.-Y. Is a good mls.slonary; It 
turns up in unexpected places, ever ready 
to spread enjoyment and enlighten those 
who pern.se its pages. A copy of July 25 
issue was used as a filler in a case of eggs 
by an up-State shipper of mine, and upon 
candling the eggs I immediately recog¬ 
nized an old acquaintance. 
The enthusiasm with which the milk 
producers are receiving the overtures of 
the People’s Pure Milk Co., leads me to 
a.sk, who is going to get done in the deal? 
Before 1 proceed further I might as well 
say I am one of a great army of small dis¬ 
tributors depending on the creamery m.an 
for a supply, and the whims of the con¬ 
sumer to take it off my hands. The 
new milk company Issues a set of prices 
for two years within the 26-cent zone, but 
they have not one subscriber within the 
prescribed limits their prices are to gov¬ 
ern. To become a factor on this market, 
the company must handle a volume of 
milk; to do this they must buy or steal 
some one’s customers. They propose to 
buy the busine.sses of those who are willing 
to operate them for a given length of time 
to be agreed upon; to buy, but not for 
money, but a piece of paper with a Rttle 
red seal upon it which does not pay bills, 
as one bankrupt firm of the milk peddling 
fraternity found out who accepted the 
paper as a life-saver. As presi-imably the 
greater part of the creditors were the 
farmers who furnished the milk, we have 
the farmers’ friend indirectly robbing the 
farmers. If the cooperative creameries 
are taken over on the .same terms, a hat 
will have to be passed in order to pay the 
new tax Governor Odell has devised for 
corporations and such. 
New York is the cheapest place in the 
world to buy milk; one often sees oppor¬ 
tunities to buy It by the quart for leas 
than it costs by the can. As the People’s 
Pure Milk Co. says "the price shall not 
be raised to the consumer,’’ it Is hard for 
the layman to reconcile the before and 
after conditions of this problem. 
Retiirnlng to the subject of eggs, having 
lived my early life near "Mapes, the hen 
man,’’ I am always Interested in reading 
his literary productions. It might not be 
out of place to add there is a young Mapes 
here in New York making hlm.self equally 
■famous with the Maple Dale Farm brand 
of western eggs. I.ast week I accom¬ 
panied another of those long-headed Or¬ 
ange County farmers to the market on a 
chicken quest; he bought thrifty young 
pullets for half what tfiey coulfl be raised 
for. Let those who have pot a full clock 
pf ikyers take the tip. 
Ratification of the Milk Contract.— 
There w'as a meeting of the Spencer Sec¬ 
tion of the F. S. M. P. A. on August 7 to 
present the proposition and ratify the 
action of the sales committee of the F. S. 
M. P. A. to the People’s Pure Milk Com¬ 
pany. The milk producers of this section 
unanimously endorse the work of the sales 
committee, and readily reaffirm their alle¬ 
giance to the powers of attorney which 
they gave to Messrs. Aiken, Lattlmer and 
Snell. The milk producer, from his bitter 
and profitless experience in producing milk 
for less than two cents per quart on a 
yearly average, is ripe for any proposition 
which will Insure him a remuneration 
which will put him on an average or nearly 
so with other business enterprises of our 
country. It has been for want of organi¬ 
zation and concerted action on the part of 
the producer; a lack of confidence in their 
own ability to succeed, which has kept 
them at the minus end of each year’s pro¬ 
duction and allowed the middleman to ab¬ 
sorb the entire profit, when if it had been 
judiciously and equitably adjusted, there 
would have been a good business profit 
for all, and the consumer would not have 
paid any higher price for his milk than 
he has hitherto done. m. d. w. 
Spencer, N. Y. 
BOOKS WORTH BOTING. 
Landscape Gardening. Waugh.60 
Landscape Gardening. Long.50 
Picturesque Gardens. Henderson.2.60 
Hedges and Windbreaks. Powell.60 
The Farmstead. I. P. Roberts.1.25 
How to Plant a Place. Long.10 
Handkerchief Garden. Barnard.10 
Lessons with Plants. Bailey.1.10 
Plant Breeding. Bailey. 1.00 
Story of Plants. Grant Allen.40 
Familiar Trees and Their Leaves. 
Matthews .i.gs 
The Rose. Ellwanger.1.26 
How to Know Wild Flowers. Dana.... 2.00 
How to Grow Cut Flowers. Hunt.2.00 
Violet Culture. Galloway. 1.60 
Insects Injurious to Staple Crops. 
Sanderson .1.60 
Economic Entomology. J. B. Smith.... 2.60 
Spraying of Plants. Lodeman.1.00 
Spraying Crops. Weed.60 
Story of Germ Life. H. W. Conn.40 
Handbook of Conversation. Peabody... .60 
Mistakes in Writing English. Bigelow.. .60 
Book of Synonyms. Campbell.bo 
Fumigation Methods. W. G. Johnson.. 1.00 
Accidents and Emergencies.10 
The Soil. F. H. King.75 
How Crops Grow. S. W. Johnson.1.50 
How Crops Feed. S. W. Johnson. 1.60 
Modification of Plants by Climate.10 
Fertility of the Land. Roberts.1.2,5 
Fertilizers. Voorhees . l.oo 
Talks on Manure. Harris. 1.50 
FARM 
SEMRATOl 
Just one Tubular, all the 
others are of the ‘ bucket 
bowl” type. Plenty of the 
old style, bucket bowls, but 
only one of the Tubular 
style. Others have tried to 
imitate, but they can’t get around the 
Tubular patents. If you want the 
Improved Tubular Separator 
come to us; if you are satisfied with the 
old style bucket bowl, go to any of the 
others. Write for catalogue No. 153 . 
The Sharpies Co>; P. M. Sharpies, 
Chicago, III, Westchester, Pa, 
The EMPIRE 
The Easy Runnlnc Kind. 
WIU kIto batter aatiiAtotion, make 70a inora 
I monay and last longer than anj other. Our 
\ book shows whj. Send 
I Empire Cream Separator Go.» 
’ BLOOMFIELD, N. J. 
AmericeLii 
MA 
Creak, m Sepotra-tors 
are proving the biggest money makers for 
IjHb farmers of any machines on the market. 
BQh 1 The price is away down, and we sell 
kg ] them on trial. Medal at Paris in 1900, 
JR- Write for free catalogue to-day. 
American Separator Co., 
Box 1066 Balnbrldgo. N. Y. 
THE LUCKY “4-LEAF CLOVER’ 
Plymouth Oroam Extract¬ 
or i.stho CREAM of them all. 
Inner can quickly remova¬ 
ble: water all around and 
under milk; has far greater 
cooling surface t li a n any 
otlier. No water required 5 
months in year. Special air 
chamber witli ventilator. 
New and original faucet, 
ImiKissible to leak or sour. 
E.r-pre«K charocs prejxuVi. 
Catalogue free. 
Plymouth Cream Separator Company, Plymouth, Ohio. 
SpAvilx 
Cvrbi 
Spl^lv^ 
Cure These Blemishes 
Also Ringbone, hard or soft 
enlargemeniB. Sweeny, Knee- 
^rung.Fiatulaand Poll Evil. 
-Jight cost and certain cures. 
Two big booklote telling how 
to do It sent free.Writetoday. 
rCKJlINO BROS., ChrmUt., 
aaa tnlon Htoek¥arils,ChIeago,III. 
BI G SElieRfop COOP AGFN T.S 
TH^OSTEH"sTEETrSTA!IcH?o!7 
Best c<iw fiutsoer. All met»L 8trooi$, dursbls snd 
ooovsDisnt. Llberml terms to hustllQg ftgeats. 
Frank H. Battlaa, Saad Crawar Rachasiar, N.Y, 
The first and always leading 
DE LAVAL 
CREAM SEPARATOR 
is not without imitations 
but it is the only 
PERFECT SEPARATOR 
and its many patent-protected 
INVENTIONS AND IMPROVEMENTS 
still render it easily 
IN A CLASS BY ITSELF 
and as much better than 
Other Cream Separators 
as the best of them are better than 
GRAVITY SKIMMING SYSTEMS. 
A DE LAVAL Catalogue—with a world of Separator information— 
is to be had for the asking. 
The De Laval Separator Co. 
Randolph & Canal Sts., 
CHIQAGO . 
1213 Filbert Street, 
General Offices: 
121 Youville Square, 
MONTREAL. 
1213 filbert street, rOOTI A M r.T CtDITB-T ” & 77 YORK STREET, 
PHI LADELPH IA. LORTLANDT STREET, TORONTO , 
NEW YORK. 
S & I I Drummi St., 
SAN FRANCISCO, 
248 McDermot Avenue, 
WINNIPEG. 
