1911. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
631 
MIL HL 
The New York Exchange price is $1.51 
per 40-quart can, netting three cents per 
quart to shippers in the 26-cent freight zone 
who have no additional station charges. 
The cut shows the Newburgh milk pail 
mentioned in Bulletin 326 of the Geneva, 
N. Y. t Experiment Station. This pail holds 
12 quarts, is 10% inches high, and has a 
NEWBURGH MILK PAIL. 
6%-inch circular opening. In the test with 
common open pail it was found that the 
Newburgh pail lowered the bacterial con¬ 
tent of the milk 70.1 per cent. 
At Still River, Conn., milk is brought to 
the railway station in 40-quart cans, sold 
in Bridgeport, New Haven and New York 
City at from 2% to three cents per quart. 
Farmers sell to retail customers for five 
cents per quart. At New Milford, three 
miles above here, there is a creamery owned 
by the Mutual Milk Co., who have railroad 
creameries along the railroad, and ship 
cream and milk to the cities by milk train. 
There are several retail milk dealers who 
sell at six to nine cents per quart, also two 
local creameries making butter and cheese. 
The poultry industry is divided among the 
farmers, who trade eggs for produce at the 
stores and peddling grocery wagon. At 
Center Harbor, N. H., the farmers do not 
sell much milk, but make butter and “trade 
it out.” Summer boarders are the chief 
crop up here. Some milk is sold in Sum¬ 
mer at eight cents per quart There is 
quite a demand for poultry products, and 
there are a few large poultry farms. 
Center Harbor, N. II. g. m. s. 
IMPORTED CREAM AND BUTTER. 
If President Taft and Congress want an 
object lesson of what the proposed reciproc¬ 
ity treaty with Canada will do for the 
farmers of the nation, they have it right 
at hand in the present condition of the but¬ 
ter market. It is perhaps fortunate that 
this object lesson is at hand just now, even 
at a fearful cost to the dairy interests, 
since an object lesson will cause a truth to 
“soak in" when other means often fall. The 
tariff on butter is six cents per pound. When 
the Payne-Aldrich tariff was enacted in 
1909 the duty on cream was lowered to five 
cents per gallon, regardless of how rich in 
butter fat it is, and regardless of the fact 
that the rate on milk is two cents per gal¬ 
lon. Just what influence is responsible for 
such a ridiculous rate I have never heard 
satisfactorily explained. We are concerned 
just now with its practical effect. 
Separator cream can easily be produced 
that will make three to four pounds of but- 
t'r to the gallon. Why should Canadian 
farmers pay a tariff of 24 cents on four 
pounds of butter, when it can cross the line 
before it is churned for five cents? They 
soon “caught on” and it is now stated oil 
good authority that enough cream from Can¬ 
ada was churned on this side of the line in 
1910 to make about 7,500,000 pounds of 
butter. It is this 7,500,000 pounds of but¬ 
ter that is responsible for the present de¬ 
moralized condition of our butter market, 
with its reflex effect on the milk market and 
other industries. With unrestricted compe¬ 
tition, an import duty on butter or any 
other article does not cut any figure so long 
as we produce at home more than enough 
of that article to supply our home demand, 
with a surplus for exportation. The price 
which the surplus will bring practically 
fixes the price of the whole product. What 
would you think of the effect of a ruling 
of the operators of a toll road or bridge in 
this country that all camel-drawn vehicles 
must pay double the toll of the horse-drawn 
vehicle? There is “nothing doing” in that 
line, hence it is inoperative. We had just 
got to the point where the protective tariff 
on butter was really helping the farmers of 
the United States. Consumption had over¬ 
taken production, and our tariff wall was 
a real protection to us. We were beginning 
to feel some of the benefits which other 
protected interests have enjoyed so long at 
our expense. In the year beginning Jan¬ 
uary 1, 1906, we had a surplus of 24,468,- 
023 pounds of butter for export. For 1907 
it had fallen to 3,857,288 pounds, and in 
1908 it was 8,918,091 pounds. I have not 
the official figures of the Department at 
hand for 1909 and 1910, but according to 
the Elgin dairy report only 34,450 packages 
were reported between May 1 and February 
14, 1910, while for the same period ending 
February 14, 1911, there was absolutely 
“nothing doing.” Only for the presence of 
that 7,500,000 pounds of butter made from 
Canadian cream in this country, our butter 
market would be bare to-day. and there 
would be prosperity where now there is 
gloom and despondency. Our butter market 
is overstocked, and prices must be forced 
down to the world level or lower in order 
to move that surplus. Exports to Europe 
last week were again 1,016 packages, and 
to other countries 1,040 packages. The New 
York price on March 30 is 22 cents for 
creamery specials. A year ago it was 33 
cents. What a fearful price we are paying 
for that reduction in duty on cream to five 
cents per gallon? What have President 
Taft and Secretary Wilson to say to this ob¬ 
ject lesson in arithmetic? Do they want to 
see the experiment tried on other farm 
products, removing even the five cents per 
gallon on cream? o. w. mapes. 
R. N.-Y.—We understand that tliq change 
in the tariff was the result of a clerical 
error. It was intended to put a duty of 
five cents a pound on cream. By mistake 
it was printed gallon. The facts are that 
in the eight months ending February, 
1.921,939 gallons of cream valued at $1,543,- 
759 were imported from' Canada. 
PRODUCTS, PRICES AND TRADE 
In the Elgin, ill., dairy district butter 
averaged 29.8 cents for 1910. This is the 
highest recorded average for the Elgin 
market. 
One sign of Spring in New York is the 
arrival of the soap peddler who gives street 
demonstrations of the workings of his 
wares. Bareheaded, with neckband of shirt 
unbuttoned, he lathers head and face to 
show the soap's shampooing and- shaving 
qualities. It is certainly a success for 
making “suds,” great chunks of which cling 
to him. This demonstration is acconw 
panied by a line of talk that might well 
be envied by a stand-pat orator on dis¬ 
covering that his pet high tariff schedule 
is in danger. Then the peddler rubs off 
enough of the suds so that he can see to 
count money, reaps the harvest of coin 
that his oratory and lather have produced 
and moves on to the next block. 
Potatoes. —The boom in prices did not 
last long. During all of the present week 
the New York market for old potatoes 
has been very dull, with prices nearly 
as low as before the recent advance. New 
potatoes from Bermuda have been in this 
market for several months, though too high 
priced for general use, as they have whole¬ 
saled from $5 to $7 per barrel. Now 
the Florida crop is arriving quite freely, 
selling at prices within reach of large 
numbers of consumers who prefer them 
to the old stock. Some consumers, how¬ 
ever, after using two or three messes of 
these new and often immature potatoes 
go back to the old ones for a time. 
^ About the most calm individual seen in 
New York is the man driving a truck 
loaded with structural iron. lie may have 
two horses or as many as six or eight, de¬ 
pending on weight of load, and his truck 
may be “reached out” 40 feet or more 
if necessary to accommodate the length 
of the iron beams hauled. Other men may 
worry about being run down by autos, 
trolley cars, express wagons or other 
juggernauts of the city street, but he has 
no fears of such happening. He keeps 
his face aimed straight ahead and drives 
on calmly, while the traffic that runs over 
pedestrians and small fry vehicles keeps 
at a respectful distance from those slowly 
moving six-foot wheels with their ten-ton 
load. 
Fur Notes. —Five auction sales of furs 
are held annually in London, viz. : Janu¬ 
ary, March, June, October and December, 
the prices prevailing at these sales govern¬ 
ing the markets of the whole world. Of 
these auctions that of March is considered 
most important. The 1910 season was very 
unfavorable for fur men. It started with 
high prices at the March sales, but dropped 
steadily, so that great losses and sumo 
business failures resulted. As a result of 
the 1911 March sales the outlook is some¬ 
what improved. The offerings of most furs 
were larger than a year ago. Some of the 
important items follow: 1,239,510 opossum, 
which continues in good demand; 301,475 
wallaby, supply excessive and prices low; 
red fox, 11,750, demand good; beaver, 7,- 
210, higher; raccoon, 148,057, sold well 
at improved prices; skunk, 685,131, nearly 
twice last year’s offerings, sales mainlv for 
German and French trade. On the whole 
the fur market is-considered on a much 
more stable basis than last year. Prices 
are about the same as two or three years 
ago, before the early 1910 boom. 
Several exhibits of short baskets and 
other measures seized by the New York 
City inspectors of weights and measures 
have recently been piled on the walk beside 
the City Hall. The last lot, about 1.200. 
w r ere taken from farm produce wagons 
in the public market at 14th street. They 
were the common side-handled vegetable 
baskets holding about three pecks. We 
make no excuses for men who try to cheat 
their customers by short measure or stuffed 
packages, but we know that large num¬ 
bers of the truck farmers who use these 
baskets do not call them bushels ; the man 
who buys them knows that they are not 
bushels, and thus is not cheated. Those 
who have handled potatoes or other roots 
know that a full bushel is rather heavy 
to lift into a high wagon. The writer 
has "backed” a good many 200-pound sacks 
of feed and lifted barrels of flour into 
a wagon, but knows very well that for 
steady business it does not pay, and, as a 
matter of labor economy, three-peck baskets 
are better than bushels for building a high 
load. A three-peck basket may be used 
for dishonest purposes, but is not neces¬ 
sarily a dishonest package. The case is 
entirely different with scales or wooden 
measures, such as half bushels, pecks and 
quarts. The names of those are standard. 
The customer has a right to get 16 ounces 
in an avoirdupois pound, and 2,150.42 cubic 
inches in the Winchester bushel. But the 
terms basket and bag convey no such 
definite idea, and there is some doubt as 
to the constitutional right to forbid a 
man’s using a basket of any size for 
potatoes and turnips, so long as he does 
not call it any standard measure. It would 
be about as reasonable to confiscate a big 
dictionary because its owner may get from 
it combinations of words expressing senti¬ 
ments detrimental to the public good. But 
many makers of municipal law, as well as 
inspectors, appears to have a great faculty 
for straining out the gnats, while the pub¬ 
lic which they arc supposed to serve has to 
swallow whole menageries of camels. 
w. w. H. 
The Best and Sea Green or 
Cheapest Roofing Purple Slate 
35 Years’ Roof Service—Without Costing One 
Cent for Repairs—and Never a Leak 
The following letters—all written from the town of Wilmot, Ohio, prove the 
economy of using slate for roofs. 
Any Building, New or Old— 
is Strong Enough for Slate 
Thirty-four years ago this summer I roofed 
my house with American Sea Green Slate. It 
has never leaked since and I never paid out 
anything for repairs. There is nothing equal to 
such a roof for durability and service. 
—URIAH MEESE. 
Twenty years ago the building occupied by 
the Farmers’ Bank was covered witli American 
Sea Green Slate. It has given very satisfactory 
service, has never leaked, and has never needed 
any repairing. I can heartily recommend 
American Sea Green Slate for roofing. 
—JOHN LONGKNECKER, Cashier. 
This is to certify that the undersigned had 
personal knowledge of placing an American 
Sea Green Slate roof upon a building of his 
grandfather. Gabriel Putnam, in the year 1877, 
and also one upon the dwelling of his father in 
the same year. Said roofs are to-day intact, 
just as they were laid, never having cost one 
cent for repairs.—W. O. PUTNAM. 
In the year 1876 I placed upon my house an 
American Sea Green Slate Roof and the roof is 
just the same as when I put it on, has never 
leaked a drop, and has never cost one cent for 
repairs.—A. HUKRAW. 
Protect Yourself 
Against Fire 
The cheapest insurance is 
a roof of slate—a roof that 
is absolute proof against 
sparks from adjacent fires. 
With such a roof upon your 
house, bam or outbuildings, 
you are secure from 
this danger—you pay •» 
lower insurance. 
If You Want 
Pure Cistern Water 
you must see to it that your roof is 
of Slate—which is impervious to 
climatic changes—does not absorb 
the poisonous gases of the atmos¬ 
phere, cannot retain dust, dirt or 
any substance that makes water 
collected off the roof unfit for 
household or personal use. This 
cannot be said of any other 
roof you can name. 
Roofing Slate is Solid Rock 
It Can’t Wear Out, Warp, Rust or Decay 
Sea Green or Purple Roofing Slate is Nature’s own product—not man made. 
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On account of being solid rock, it absolutely can not bum, warp, wear, rust, decay, 
and of course, does not require painting, recoating or repairing like all artificial roofings. 
A few owners have the mistaken idea that build¬ 
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This is a mistake. Any building strong enough to hold 
a water soaked, snow and ice covered shingle roof—is 
sufficiently strong to carry slate; as the snow and ice 
slips off slate like water from a duck's back. 
There is absolutely no reason why your present 
buildings can not be re-roofed with slate, nor will any 
new ones require special strength to carry the load. 
SBate Roofs are Cheap 
The first cost of a Sea Green or Purple Slate roof is 
only a trifle more than these short lived roofings, but one slate 
roof win outlast 10 galvanized roofs, 10 shingle roofs, 50 paper 
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cheapest roofs that money will buy because they’re the best. 
Let Us Give You the Approximate Cost 
of Stating Your Roofs 
First Cost is the Only Cost 
Bear in mind that the rock out of which Sea Green or Purple Roofing 
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Asking for this information 
won’t obligate you to buy. 
Send for* Free Booklet “ROOFS* 9 * Simply Sign and Mai! the Coupon 
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‘ R °weai a out” er HO Clark St., Granville, N. Y. 
Sign and Mall This Coupon To-Day* 1 
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Please send the Booklet “Roofs” to this address: 
Name .... 
Address .. 
Toum . State .. 
Approximate size ... 
My nearest roofers name and address is as follows : 
