Vol. LXX. No. 4116. 
“FARM POLITICS” AND FARMERS. 
That 35-cent Dollar. 
I have read your editorial on ‘'Farm Politics,” and 
most heartily commend the advice that farmers ex¬ 
ercise more influence in the selection of the men who 
represent them in State and national legislatures. 
Many years ago farmers used to go to caucuses and 
there deliberate over the men who should represent 
them in town and county matters, and in the Legisla¬ 
ture, but in recent years caucuses have 1 been domi¬ 
nated by a few local politicians, who have gathered 
together a generally irresponsible class of men in 
the community, and forced through the slate that 
they had decided to carry. The best class of farmers 
for years have had to meet this element in caucuses— 
a class of ignorant, irresponsible hangers-on about 
saloons that are used for this purpose in every coun¬ 
try town, and against this class contest their right to 
have a voice in the expenditure of the 
money which they are taxed to supply 
for public use and to select men whom 
they would like to represent them. 
The farmers in any voting district 
may have absolute control over their 
caucuses if they will come together and 
act for their own interest, but so long 
as they stand for their party they will 
continue to be fooled and duped by 
leaders as they have been in the past. 
These irresponsible local politicians 
know no party lines. While they brand 
the farmer who dares to follow his own 
convictions to act or vote independ¬ 
ently, as a traitor to his party, these 
same leaders, as soon as farmers do 
take independent action, throw their 
forces together, regardless of party 
affiliation, to win their slate. It is for 
these reasons that farmers have so 
largely dropped out of caucuses, the 
most important place where their influ¬ 
ence is needed, because of the eternal 
conflict'which they have to meet if they 
attempt to use their influence against 
those whose personal interests are put 
above the public good. 
I believe this condition in country 
politics is going to be changed. Farmers 
are slow to act. They work by them¬ 
selves, but they think for themselves, 
and when they do decide to do anything 
they do it, and effectively. At the present time more 
of co-operation is the need of every farming com¬ 
munity, and this is the only solution of the farmer’s 
problems, which are now more serious than at any 
time in farming experience. His taxes are increasing 
every year, and while vast millions of personal prop¬ 
erty escapes taxation, the farmer’s land lies open to 
sight and he has to carry a burden of taxation out of 
all proportion to the wealth of the country. When 
farmers will get together on a business proposition 
hke this rather than stand apart on a political mis¬ 
conception of their duty, they can correct any injus¬ 
tice and cast off an oppressive burden, while at the 
same time they will command a self-respecting posi¬ 
tion in so doing. 
Too long have farmers been at the mercy of city 
tradesmen, the middlemen, who are an intermediate 
element between the producer and the consumer, and 
who return to the producer any value they may see 
fit, while putting cost on the consumer to the limit 
of endurance. After expending his money and labor 
in producing crops, after they leave his hands there 
is no responsibility whatever over their value, and 
here again farmers must step in and demand some 
accountability. 1 hey have the right to know whether 
they are getting their due share of what their co-part- 
ners, the consumers, have to pay for their products. 
There are two things which farmers need to do: first, 
to demand accountability on the part of 'the commis¬ 
sion men who sell their products. A year ago we re¬ 
ceived a letter from a city man whom we had ad¬ 
vised in the management of his farm, saying he was 
not getting above $1.50 to $1.75 a barrel for his apples, 
well graded and packed. We advised him to put up 
10 to 20 barrels the same as he had done, and send 
his farmer to the city to buy his own apples, which 
he did. When the apples were unloaded at the store 
his farmer was on hand and began to bargain for the 
lot, which he bought, paying $4.50 a barrel for them. 
Two days afterward the bills of sales were received, 
sive as to become the present great problem in the 
cost of living, that has reached a point of extreme 
oppression, for which the farmers are not at all 
responsible. 
To a considerable extent commission men are es¬ 
sential. The farmers have the right to protection and 
responsibility in the handling of their products 
through this channel, but they will not get it fully 
until they have representation in the legislature that 
will stand for their rights. The recent action of a 
court in New York City in sending to jail a number 
of poultry dealers, in addition to paying a fine, for 
their crooked dealings in defrauding producers and 
oppressing consumers, is most wholesome. For a long 
time these men have had money at the Legislature to 
defeat legislation that would interfere with their illegi¬ 
timate ways of doing business. 
The old type of politics that has stood for the sel¬ 
fish interests of the few is being thrown to the winds, 
and that in the common interest is 
steadily coming to the front. The time 
is ripe for the farmer to again come to 
his own. It is only necessary for him 
to assert and to use the influence which 
he has always possessed, but which, for 
a long time, he has not properly exer¬ 
cised. The opportunity is now his, with 
the entire consuming class to back him 
in all reasonable demands. The courts 
realize the condition of the times and 
will enforce laws that are in the inter¬ 
est of the masses. Will farmers now 
come to the front again and take advan¬ 
tage of these more hopeful conditions, 
drop petty politics and get down to 
business? It is up to them now, and I 
believe they will make good. 
GEORGE T. POWELL. 
A PENNSYLVANIA GIRL AND HER CALF. Fig. 356 
and as usual, for $1.50 a barrel, with 10 per cent com¬ 
mission for selling and 10 cents a barrel for cartage. 
The owner of this farm, being a business man, at 
once made out a bill for his entire shipments, covering 
several months, at $4.50 a barrel, notifying the com¬ 
mission firm that he had bought his own apples at 
that price, and if prompt settlement were not made 
and check received for the amount of his bill he 
should begin proceedings to collect the bill. The re¬ 
sult was that the check for the full amount came to 
him without delay. 
The farmers of our country have been robbed in 
this manner by middlemen of millions of dollars an¬ 
nually, because there has been no responsibility lodged 
with the salesmen in their part of the transaction. It 
is to correct this abuse that the Collin bill was pro¬ 
posed, which will not injure the honest commission 
man, though it will make him some additional labor. 
The consumer is equally interested with the farmer 
in any reasonable legislation that shall protect them 
both from abuse of this character, which is so exten¬ 
BUCKWHEAT AS A FARM CROP. 
The name is a modification of beech- 
wheat, by which name it was originally 
known, owing to its similarity in form 
to that of the beechnut. It is a native 
of Central Asia, and although it is 
classed botanically with smartweed, 
knotweed, goose-grass, dock and sheep 
sorrel, it is, in spite of its kinship, one 
of our most valuable cereals. And yet 
it seems to the writer that no other 
farm crop is so universally misunder¬ 
stood and misjudged. Because it will grow on poor 
land it is generally regarded as a poor land crop. 
The average yield of buckwheat is less than 10 bushels 
per acre, but its capacity is equal to that of oats, wheat 
or rye when fairly treated with an equal chance. I 
have known it to yield 52 bushels from a measured 
acre, and from a measured peck of seed. This sug¬ 
gests another principal cause of its failure in produc¬ 
tion. Too much seed is sown; one-half or three- 
fourths of a bushel to the acre gives each plant scant 
room for anything like natural development. The 
lateral branches are so dwarfed that they produce 
but a fraction of the yield, though nature designed 
these for the larger and better part of the yield. 
No other of our common grains is so slightly de¬ 
pendent upon climatic conditions as is this, and yet 
it is quite generally believed and asserted that it re¬ 
quires the low temperature of late August and early 
September nights in order to mature well. Buckwheat 
is a good honey plant, and to accommodate several 
swarms of bees I sowed a half acre in May of the 
NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER 16, 1911. 
WEEKLY, $1.00 PER YEAR 
