1330 
from tuberculosis are responsible. The next point is 
somewhat conflicting— wedge-shaped, with deep large 
paunch (e ), legs proportionate to size and of line 
quality. The wedge shape is of prime importance in 
a dairy cow; looking at her from before she should 
swell out immediately behind her forelegs and con¬ 
tinue to grow larger till at the hips she has great 
width, so as to give room for a very broad udder. 
The depth of a cow, the great barrel which contains 
the digestive organs, is the all-important thing. 
She must have length, breadth and thickness. A cow 
with a poor middle piece may begin well, but her di¬ 
gestion handicaps her. “Depth,” to be sure, is largely 
a matter of development; calves fed plenty of rough- 
age will, if their ribs permit, mature with good bodies, 
and in breeding from generation to generation one 
sees how the bodies develop in depth under good 
feeding. But in looking over a herd for the first time 
it is surprising how one may be deceived. The two- 
year-old does not promise the abdominal development 
of the fully mature animal; cows thicken up just as 
human beings do; but they must be built for it or they 
.can’t. It is impossible to predict in just what order 
the growth of a cow will proceed. Sometimes she is 
all legs; sometimes she seems altogether too short, es¬ 
pecially in the back and hips; then her spine and hip¬ 
bones lengthen and her body fills out. I remember 
sending three calves to an agricultural fair. The 
judge refused to consider them on the ground (a) 
that they were too small and had been starved; (b) 
that they had no heart girth; (c) that their hips were 
hopelessly narrow. This was crushing, and I with¬ 
drew in a very dilapidated condition. Two years 
later the bull, grown into a large robust animal with 
unusually wide hips and all the size in his fore¬ 
quarters anybody could ask for, went to be the pride 
of a customer’s herd. His daughters are just coming 
into milk now; hips very broad, heart girth all I can 
tolerate, bodies very deep. And the rejected heifers 
have developed into large sturdy cows, persistent 
milkers. One of them gave me 14)4 pounds of but¬ 
ter in seven days last month. In fact, heifer’s hips 
widen very much as they mature. 
The back should be level, neither raised nor de¬ 
pressed, from withers to hip bones. Cows carrying 
Golden Lad blood, however, often curve upward to¬ 
ward the withers (b), and excellent milkers are very 
often sway-backed. Eurotin and Jersey Belle of 
Seituate were hollow-backed. The present fashion 
now calls for a back level from withers clear to the 
extremity of the animal; the big rump bones that 
were formerly thought to indicate constitution, rising 
high above the level of the hip bones and finishing in 
a huge humpy tail-setting, have been bred off, and 
the tail of the show cow now lies flat at setting on, 
like a horse’s. This marks the difference between 
Island breeding and American. The American breeder 
has his eye fixed on milk production and nothing else. 
It is not pretended that the big coarse-boned beast, 
with coarse horns, big ugly head, hideous humpy tail 
and drooping hip bones, with an udder that swished 
and flapped between her hind legs when empty, did 
not give milk and good milk. She did, and a great 
deal of it, too. But she was a badly planned, homely 
cow. The new Jersey is exquisitely beautiful; not be¬ 
cause she is delicate, but because having got the 
essential, milk production, we have learned how to 
get rid of ugly traits that either do not help or posi¬ 
tively injure the milking function. 
Rump long to tail-setting and level from hip bones 
to rump bones. The hip bones should be high and 
wide apart, and they must not droop at the back so 
as to give a horse-like rump. The rump must be level 
and not made so by a huge-jointed, high-riding bone. 
The length of the cow from the hip bones to the tail 
is of great moment. It defines the size of the udder. 
The loins must be broad and strong. You often see 
the expression “deep at flank” nowadays. As a mat¬ 
ter of fact the flank should be cut out clean and 
high to make room for the great udder, and the most 
beautiful types are so cut; but with “heart girth” has 
come a thickness all along the body, so that people 
are now breeding cows thicker in the body above the 
flank, while the abdomen still curves downward 
sharply to give room for the huge paunch. The 
thighs must be thin, flat, and well cut out, and the 
hips should be thin. Otherwise you get beef. 
Two points are allowed for a long, thin tail («), 
not coarse at setting on, ztrith a good switch. I place 
a good deal of stress on the switch myself. It seems 
to me to correllate with constitution. A few years 
ago the tail lay between the ends of the high rump 
bones in a little channel. Blue Belle’s tail was like 
that. But these bones are not as sharp now and the 
tail is flatter. I have always found milk correlate 
with a very long, thin tail. fanny morris smith. 
THE RURAL NEW-VORKER 
PARCELS POST AND US TWO ENEMIES. 
The possibilities and practicability of parcels post 
have been well established and understood. My own 
articles, published last Winter, are no doubt well re¬ 
membered. If we confine ourselves to suggesting 
methods of establishing a parcels post only we shall 
find that we have been barking up the wrong tree, and 
counting our eggs before they were laid. What we 
need now is action, and concerted action. Such action 
has already been taken against it by at least two or¬ 
ganizations, viz., the Penny Postage League, and the 
Credit Men’s Association. 
“The greatest danger to the parcels post movement lies 
in the demand for a one-cent letter rate. Members of 
Congress are now being flooded with letters from bankers 
and wholesale merchants asking for one-cent letter postage. 
The similarity of the language in the letters shows con¬ 
clusively that they are not written because these men 
feel the two-cent rate to be burdensome, but because 
some interested organization has agitated the subject. 
Establishment of the one-cent letter postage would mean 
a reduction of the revenue of the postal service and 
would delay enactment of parcels post legislation. No 
European country has one-cent letter postage, but Euro¬ 
pean rates on parcels are much less than ours. Our letter 
rate is not burdensome. Strange as it may seem, the de¬ 
mand for reduced letter postage comes chiefly from bankers, 
who are abundantly able to pay the two-cent rate. 
I am quoting the above from a statement made by 
Senator Jonathan Bourne, chairman of the Senate 
Committee on Post Offices and Post Roads. It shows 
how the action is viewed and received by many mem¬ 
bers of Congress. It is looked upon as unnecessary 
and not as a matter demanding favorable legislation. 
Even a strong suggestion is apparent that parcels 
post legislation is far more needed. And it points 
out the weakness of their case in that circulars and 
similarity of language are used. A number of letters, 
AN ILLINOIS WELL-DRILLING OUTFIT. Fig. 503. 1 
by all advocates of parcels post, to their Congress¬ 
men, stating their own wants and needs, are far more 
effective than thrice the number of circulars. We are 
in need of parcels post and if we ask for it we will 
get it. 
Mr. Burrows, president of the Penny Postage 
League, has been working for a reduction in letter 
postage as early as 1906. In an article then published 
he referred to agricultural papers and others as “weeds 
of literature”—being of little value and causing a 
deficit. He was then advocating an increase in the 
rate on periodicals so that a one-cent rate could be 
had for letters. The R. N.-Y. made reference to this 
statement in an editorial, and he has remained under 
cover since then. The country merchant has been 
continually referred to as being harmed or even 
ruined by parcels post, should it be established. The 
Credit Men’s Association of Baltimore, Md., has 
drawn up a report, the chief objection being the hard¬ 
ship its establishment would work upon the small 
merchant in the country village or small town. 
He would have to carry the load of unfair competition 
with distant establishments, practically subsidized by the 
Government, whose sole object is to entice the cash busi¬ 
ness from the community. With the local competition 
stifled, the farmer would doubtless soon have to pay 
higher prices for necessities, and there would be at times 
great delay in obtaining much-needed supplies. 
A copy of this report has been sent to President 
Taft, members of Congress, and the 73 Credit Men’s 
Associations in the United States. The first part of 
the report sounds reasonable, but the last part is ab¬ 
solutely groundless. If the association is so con¬ 
cerned about the facilities the rural people have for 
getting “much-needed supplies,” I would suggest that 
they help along the cause of parcels post, the needed 
agent for making these deliveries, instead of trying 
to defeat it. The express companies are performing 
this service to-day, and many have experienced the 
manner in which it is often done. I have seen crates 
of poultry, dropped by express men, without even 
stooping over. If the crate is low and poultry can 
put their heads out at the top, others piled on top 
December 30, 
will often catch the head and kill them, if no care is 
used. This is the fault of employes, but it is also the 
reflection of the business principles of the company. 
Parcels post will not carry crates of poultry, but it 
will provide competition which may remedy many 
present abusds. 
Letter postage produces about 70 per cent of the 
postal revenues. If this is cut in half, when will we 
get parcels post? Will we ever get it if no special 
appropriation is made for that purpose? Is the fight 
against parcels post made to get a one-cent letter rate, 
or a one-cent letter rate asked to defeat parcels post? 
Do the Credit Men's Associations really want to pro¬ 
tect the country merchant and the rural communities, 
or are they looking to their own special interests? 
How much advantage are the express companies get¬ 
ting with the defeat of parcels post? I will not at¬ 
tempt to answer these questions, but you can do so 
yourself. 
The department has extensive data to show any 
loss or profit at any weight or distance for any class 
of mail. A “trial” on rural routes, as suggested, is un¬ 
necessary and will only prove the messenger boy for 
the express companies and a gainer of time. Parcels 
post within any county and all routes originating in 
the county can and should be established. This will 
give a short and profitable haul. For further exten¬ 
sion it will be necessary to graduate for rate, weight 
and distance. The county zone will furnish the data 
for doing so, the rural route neither data nor service 
worthy of the name. A package weighing 10 pounds 
costs less to handle than 10 packages weighing one 
pound each. In a distance of 100 miles or more it 
costs less per mile • to handle than only a short dis¬ 
tance. I base my calculations on actual working con¬ 
ditions gained from almost 10 years’ experience in a 
postal car. Parcels post and the. county zone should 
be our cry. We cannot get less and receive anything. 
Letters will bring it. b. e. Evans. 
Maryland. 
“FAKE’' PRICES FOR BUTTER AND EGGS. 
A western paper states that in Chicago there is a 
scheme among the butter and egg dealers to make “fake” 
prices, which run from one to four cents below actual 
wholesale rates. Then the dealers make contracts with 
creameries to pay a “premium” of several cents above 
the market rates. They use the “fake” price quotations, 
and make a nice margin. A suit has been brought to 
dissolve the Chicago Butter and Egg Board, and one 
witness is reported as testifying: 
“The big dealers not only flimflam the creamery men, 
whom they have absolutely in their clutches, but they 
sell the butter at their own prices to us and to other 
wholesale dealers and jobbers, who don't buy directly from 
the creameries. We have to make a little profit, and the 
grocer has to make some profit, and by the time the 
butter gets to the consumer it costs a great deal. At 
the other end of the line the creamery, being squeezed 
on its contract, in turn squeezes the farmer. The farmer 
and the consumer get the worst of the bargain.” 
Do such practices exist in New York. j. l. e. 
It is true that these board of trade prices are manip¬ 
ulated so that dealers can offer creamery men one 
cent per pound or more above the New York, Chicago , 
or Elgin quotation. This “premium” practice is so i 
generally understood that it is doubtful whether many 
butter makers or tradesmen are deceived now, but it 
complicates the situation in much the same way as a 
series of discounts in other lines of trade. Some 
time ago the New York Mercantile Exchange was 
enjoined by the courts from giving out, as official 
quotations, lower prices than the butter was actually 
selling for on that day. For a time the Exchange de¬ 
clined to give out any quotations, but later quotations 
were made on a somewhat improved basis, though 
it is well known that they do not now represent cor¬ 
rectly the current of trade. The premium plan is 
based on deception, and the fact that many honest 
houses use it because they find it difficult to do busi¬ 
ness otherwise, is no excuse for the evil. 
A trial of selling butter, eggs, and poultry, both 
live and dressed, at auction, is soon to be made in 
New York, and this may develop in such a way as to 
break the monopoly in these products now enjoyed by 
a few big operators. An auction sale conducted on 
the square, both as to the products sold and the 
methods of selling, gives a wholesome publicity to the 
business, and puts it on an entirely different basis 
from the exchange method of making a price on one 
or two fake sales. It is no secret that among the 
largest butter operators, who dictate prices and domi¬ 
nate the market, are those vitally interested in oleo. 
With their large capital and ample secret storage 
they are able to absorb all the good gutter as fast as 
made and dole it out at as high prices as the public 
can be made to pay. Their own oleo press agents find 
this high price of butter a good argument for re¬ 
moving the oleo tax, thus catching the public both 
coming and going. 
