1911 . 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
1017 
M I L 
The New York Exchange price is $1.81 
per 40-quart can, netting .8% cents per 
quart to shippers in 26-cent zone who have 
no additional station charges. 
Milk In Northern Ohio. 
The man who would write about the milk 
situation in Northern Ohio, figuratively 
speaking, takes his life in his hand, for, 
picture it as he will, some are hound to 
disagree, as its interests are so numerous 
and dealings so different by concerns and 
communities that no picture is a perfect 
representation of the situation. Northern 
Ohio—actually the Western Reserve—is al¬ 
most exclusively a dairy section, and dairy¬ 
ing it has been since 1812. Once the mak¬ 
ing of beef was a noted adjunct, and long 
droves of steers were driven over the moun¬ 
tains to New York, but the great West and 
its ranches proved too great a competition, 
and the dairy began to claim the whole 
section. After the Civil Wrfr the home 
making of butter and 'cheese quickly gave 
place to the factory and creamery, new ways 
of marketing were invented, and their mar¬ 
kets were everywhere. Then Ohio became 
the meeting ground of the great coal and 
iron interests, and iron towns sprang up 
with great rapidity; population increased 
correspondingly, and milk became a great 
want of the cities. Cleveland. Lorain, 
Akron, Canton, Youngstown and Ashtabula 
became great manufacturing and shipping 
confers. each year nearly doubling the de¬ 
mand for milk, and then Pittsburgh entered 
the same field for trainloads of milk. Sell¬ 
ing milk to the cities became the rule, and 
there was a rapid disappearance of the fac¬ 
tories and creameries, until at present fliey 
have about ceased to exist, except in places 
far remote from railways and trolleys, and, 
with the present building, there will soon 
be no remote places. Both railways and 
trolleys from the start shipped milk as 
“excess baggage,” and made only one rate, 
near or far from the city, for the carriage 
of milk, viz., 15 cents for an 85-pound can 
to be returned free, a rate that has never 
been changed, and put one dairyman on a 
level with any other one, so far as a rate 
was concerned. 
For years all milk purchased was by in¬ 
dependent buyers, who agreed upon a price 
with the farmer producer. There were 
many good buyers, and quite as many who 
failed every 29 days, or sold out to another 
before payday. Gradually the trade began 
to organize itself into companies, and be¬ 
came wholesale and retail both, with mani¬ 
fest improvement to the trade. Smaller 
dealers became larger buyers, and in time 
the large concerns merged, as at present, 
and these in turn “headed” into a single 
“holding company,” which in some cases 
Is a single holder, which makes and un¬ 
makes for the combines, so that in Cleve¬ 
land. while there are apparently five great 
concerns, they are controlled by one man, 
who has a voting majority of the stock of 
all the others, so that in fact Cleveland, 
with its approximately 075.000 people, buys 
about two-thirds of its milk from one man. 
In addition, these great concerns have pur¬ 
chased creameries and stations throughout 
this territory, and handle immense amounts 
of milk through their own collecting plants, 
aside from trainloads that go direct from 
the farm. While the milk that goes direct 
to the city is paid for at a rate of 8% 
pounds for a gallon, the station-collected 
milk is figured at 10 pounds—almost five 
quarts—per gallon : or, to make it plain, 
milk is purchased by the 100 pounds, and 
this, too. at a price somewhat below the 
city price, “as it may have to be made into 
cheese, or cream.” In some instances this 
country-collected milk is skimmed, and the 
cream sent to the ice cream makers In the 
city, mostly owned by the same milk trust, 
and the milk made into cottage cheese, and 
follows the cream in 85-pound cans. Two 
or three great concerns buy no milk, but 
bny cream from the farmers, shipping in to 
the city every morning, where it is made 
Into fine butter, and the buttermilk finds 
rapid sale at three cents a glass. Many 
farmers with fine dairies refuse to sell milk, 
shipping cream instead, and using the skim- 
milk to" feed fine bred calves, and sell them 
at high prices. The great buyers from 
Pittsburgh concerns, who largely operate in 
Ashtabula, Trumbull and Mahoning coun¬ 
ties, are dealing much the same. Youngs¬ 
town, with its great manufacturing con¬ 
cerns—some of the largest iron mills in the 
world—with its 100,000 inhabitants, is a 
great buyer of milk, as well as Akron, Can¬ 
ton and the like. 
Once upon a time the buyers and the 
farmers met two or three times a year 
and agreed upon prices, and a semblance of 
the custom still survives, but now the 
farmer goes in in April and October to find 
out what he may expect to get for the 
ensuing few months. lie apparently has no 
say about it. The great concerns set the 
price, and “take it or leave it" is the ulti¬ 
matum. The small independent dealers 
keeps pretty closely under the lee shore of the 
big buyers, though they may vary a little 
in the rates, but it about evens up at the 
end of the year. But a contract for 
any definite time is a joke. For in¬ 
stance. last Winter the price agredfl upon 
from December 1 to April 1 was supposed to 
be 18 cents, delivered in Cleveland, subject 
to inspection, but by January 15, prices be¬ 
gan to be cut a couple of cents; then in 
February another cent or two, and again 
that month, and still again in March, so 
by the time the supposed agreement ter¬ 
minated the farmers were getting about 13 
cents or so, and some of the small dealers 
were below this mark: yet at the same 
time the retail price of milk remained at 
eight cents, and even the past Summer it 
did not go below Seven cents, the Summer 
price being 12 cents to the farmer, out of 
which he must pay 15 cents per can for his 
excess baggage. On the first of last Au¬ 
gust some dealers raised the price of milk 
to 13 cents and a few possibly to 14 cents, 
hut “owing to the drought and scarcity of 
feed,” the retail price was put forward a 
cent, and the same gallon at retail was ad 
vanced four cents per gallon, eight cents 
per quart, which was certainly a great con¬ 
cession to farmer and consumer. 
For several years an attempt has been 
made to organize a dairymen’s protective 
association and control the supply. It is 
pretty easy to hang one man, but to make 
9,000 men hang together is more difficult, 
so that the organization has done little 
more than pass resolutions. Just now there 
is a new farmers’ combine in the wind, 
which promises more in the way of com¬ 
bine and adhesion than the other, and has 
a plan to do its own inspection and save^the 
city the trouble. Each year the health 
boards demand more and more, and many 
think some of their demands and rules are 
beyond reasonable exaction, and beyond the 
needs of making clean, healthy, sanitary 
milk. Bo this as it may. tho farmer is be¬ 
tween the city buyer and the health board 
and appears to have little to say beyond 
submitting to take his 35 cents on the dol¬ 
lar. which in many cases Is costing him 40 
cents to get. It is only the story everywhere ; 
selling milk at throe cents, net, as now, to 
another man to sell for eight cents. It is 
the picture of one man riding in a $40 
carriage and the other riding in a $2,800 
auto. Who actually paid for the auto? 
Western Reserve, O. John gould. 
Don’t Drudge or 
e Drudges 
Tite New York State Dairymen’s Conven¬ 
tion will be held at Olean, December 12-15. 
There will be various addresses and ex¬ 
hibits of machinery and dairy products. The 
secretary is It. R. Kirkland, Olean, N. Y. 
Regarding prices received by farmers for 
milk, we contract it for six months at Bor¬ 
den's prices. Farmers are not satisfied with 
that price. There will not be as many 
cows wintered, as the hay crop is short; 
corn was good, but is damaged by frost 
September 13; also buckwheat. The potato 
crop is poor and apples scarce. R. m. f. 
Delhi. N. Y. 
September milk. $1.20 per 40-quart can at 
station. Retailers pay 3M> and four cents 
a quart, and sell for six cents dipped, seven 
cents bottled. Hay scarce, $10 to $20 
loose; very little baled here. Silage not all 
in yet; heavy frost September 12 hurt corn 
badly. At the Randall estate auction, 80 
cows brought about $83 per head; nine 
registered ; remainder, grades. Young stock 
(grades) sells for $20 to $30; horses, $175 
to $200 for best farm workers. Manure in 
town, 50 to 75 cents for two-horse load. 
Cortland, N. Y. w. E. B. 
Milk market is unsettled yet, with most 
of the contractors unwilling to give the 
raise of two cents per can asked for by the 
farmers. In this section most of the pro¬ 
ducers have made a deal with the Deer 
'Foot Farm Co., who pay the extra two 
cents, or 37 cents at the car, and 40 cents 
for higher test milk, as they wish to ob¬ 
tain, as far as possible, nearby milk. The 
other contractors buy where they can g^| it 
cheapest, no matter how far away, and 
trouble is expected with these, and perhaps 
a strike, to hold back the milk until they 
pay last Winter’s prices, for which they 
have been asked. • a. e. p. 
Hopkinton, Mass. 
The price of milk paid by the Michigan 
Condensed Milk Co. at Newport, N. Y., for 
October is $1.75 per hundred; November 
and December, $1.90; other places, five to 
10 cents under. Retail price in small vil¬ 
lages, around five and six cents per quart. 
There have been no auction sales to amount 
to anything around here lately. New milch 
cows and springers sell from $G0 to $75 
per head. Loose hay about $13 or $14 
per ton. Baled hay, about $16. Manure 
and silage not sold to my knowledge 
Boland, N. Y. o. w. J. 
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U A h 
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134 HonlStreel 
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_ .\ 
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SEATTLE MONTREAL WINNIPEG 
