ii 
THE RURAb NEW-YORKER 
November 23, 
M X X_. IL 
In effect Nov. 11, different exchange 
prices were made for N. Y. City Board or 
Health, grades B and C: B (selected raw 
and pasteurized), 2.01 per 40-quart can; 
C (for cooking and manufacturing), $1.91. 
The zones are fixed by the Interstate Com¬ 
merce Commission as follows: 23 cents 
for the first 40 miles from New York; 26 
cents for the next 60 miles; 29 cents for 
the nest 90 miles; beyond this, 32 cents. 
The railroads allow a discount for car lots 
of 10,000 quarts of 10 and 12% per cent. 
New Jersey Milk News. 
Legislation to compel the use of refrig¬ 
erator cars in the transportation of milk 
will be asked for this Winter by the New 
Jersey Health Officers’ Association. The 
State Board of Health is now getting in¬ 
formation throughout the State regarding 
the condition of milk sold in towns and 
cities, and is also making inquiries as to 
local ordinances regarding the elimination 
of tuberculous cattle. The boards of 
health of many municipalities have taken 
rigorous action against those milk dealers 
who are not obeying the law with refer¬ 
ence to the purchasing and distributing 
of the product. Hereafter they will not 
allow milkmen to purchase milk from dair¬ 
ies condemned by the State authorities. 
Milk dealers are making considerable ob¬ 
jections to the law requiring all milk to 
be pasteurized, and efforts are being made 
to have it rescinded. The State sanitary 
inspectors have notified milkmen to give 
immediate attention to the recommenda¬ 
tion for making their premises sanitary. 
The general complaint is small air space 
and lack of windows in barns, and the 
scattering of manure too closely to wells. 
The wetting of the fingers with milk from 
the pail in use has also been tabooed. 
William L. Wandron, State Inspector of 
Weights and Measures, is making a vigor¬ 
ous crusade against dealers who sell milk 
and cream by the “bottle.” He has found 
that there were thousands of bottles in use 
which were from one to eight ounces short 
on the quart. In many instances, the milk 
and cream was sold by the “bottle,” but 
the average purchaser paid the price of a 
quart and bought the bottle with the un¬ 
derstanding that it contained that quan¬ 
tity. As a result, milk dealers are no 
longer permitted to sell milk and cream by 
the “bottle,” but are required to sell these 
commodities in bottles of standard capacity. 
The executive committee of the Interstate 
Milk Producers’ Association has filed the 
wholesale price of milk at five cents per 
quart until further notice. 
The Price of Milk. 
The cause for the low price for milk the 
coming Winter, as recently announced, has 
been variously stated. I have not talked 
with a manager of a creamery yet who 
did not say that he is surprised that the 
price is no higher, but he goes on to state 
reasons for it all the same. In the first 
place he says that the city managers have 
all the advantage of facts for determining 
the probable production and the demand 
for it in the city. He practically admits 
that the company can pay more if they 
think it necessary in order to get the milk. 
Most of them say that the price will most 
likely be advanced some months unless 
the price of feeds is dropped. He quotes 
the Government bulletins to show that the 
grain crops are large and that feed prices 
must go lower. It seems to be the opinion 
that feeds will be low enough so that 
farmers can possibly make milk at the 
prices announced by the dealers. They 
say that the amount of butter in storage 
is large and that its price will remain low. 
This will tend to throw more milk into 
the “liquid” market and there is every 
reason to think that the companies can 
get all the milk they want at the prices 
already announced. He is very likely to 
say that the result of the Presidential elec¬ 
tion will make some difference with busi¬ 
ness, although he is slow to give any proof 
of this observation. The milk trade is 
said to be very sensitive to any change 
in business conditions. The price of feeds 
and business conditions are the usual rea¬ 
sons submitted. At the same time several 
concerns are erecting new creameries and 
buying old ones. This is particularly true 
of the Borden company. I was told to-day 
of four or five new stations that they are 
taking on at the present time. Besides 
that they are converting their old con- 
denseries into shipping stations and are 
looking for locations further away to use 
for condensing. Their trade is increasing 
very greatly. With the demand for milk 
and the undisputed shrinkage in the num¬ 
ber of cows, it does not seem possible to 
keep the price of milk down so low. The 
Bordens, at least, and I think others of 
the big milk concerns, are engaging in the 
retail business in other cities. The big 
concerns are not losing control of the busi¬ 
ness by any means. h. h. l. 
THE ERIE COUNTY MILK ASSOCIATION. 
PART I. 
“You can get the finest ice cream in 
Erie if you go to the Erie County Milk 
Association,” was the remark of an Erie 
County farmer to the writer a few days 
ago. “For a dime you can get about a 
pint of cream, and you can depend on if 
being good, wholesome and sanitary.” 
“Erie, Pennsylvania, has the best milk 
supply in the United States, the customers 
are served promptly, they are insured pure 
and fresh milk, and they are getting it at 
a lower figure than other cities of a similar 
size,” was a remark made by one familiar 
with milk problems. 
This condition has been brought about 
by the Erie County Milk Association, an 
organization strictly of farmers. The as¬ 
sociation was promoted by farmers, the 
stock is held by farmers, and when a 
stockholder dies, the stock is placed in 
the hands of farmers or turned over to 
the association. Business men have tried 
to buy shares, but the members of the 
association are so firmly bound by charter 
and by loyalty to the organization' that not 
a single share, up to the present, can be 
secured from the rightful holders, the farm¬ 
ers of Erie County. 
“IIow were you able to hold the mem¬ 
bers together?” was the query the repre¬ 
sentative of The R. N.-Y. put to the presi¬ 
dent, T. D. Willis, himself a business 
farmer, and the man who has steered the 
association through periods of reverses, 
until it is now standing on firm footing. 
“We incorporated under the laws of West 
Virginia at first, and when we acquired 
real estate, again under the laws of our 
own State. We bound one another hand 
and foot to stand by the proposition, and 
we went at it with the determination to 
see it through. At first we were viewed 
as experimenters. People pointed their 
fingers at us derisively, saying that ours 
would be a short-lived affair, for all farmer 
attempts at co-operation fall down sooner 
or later. Our charter held us together in 
the early years when we had to fight for a 
footing. We had to fight the labor unions. 
They thought we had organized a trust, 
and we were going to boost the milk prices 
to prohibitive figures. 
“Popular sentiment swung in line with 
that of the labor unions, and it was against 
us. It seemed that everyone viewed us as 
robbers trying to play the hold-up game 
on the people of Erie. The independent 
milkmen posed on the popular side and 
endeavored to impress on customers that 
he was their sole protection from the trust 
octopus. 
“You ask how we came to organize,” 
suggested Mr. Willis. “It was 13 years 
ago. There were between 60 and 70 routes 
distributing milk throughout the city. Each 
route represented a dairy of from a half 
a dozen to as many as 20 cows. Distribu¬ 
tion was poor. Routes overlapped in hun¬ 
dreds of places throughout the city. They 
were conducted by the farmer, who was 
obliged to have a man and team tied up 
practically all day, and at that a man was 
doing well to distribute 200 quarts. In 
many blocks in the residence section only 
one quart of milk might be left, and it 
seemed that each route covered the entire 
city. 
“There was an economic loss in this,” 
continued Mr. Willis. "The customer had 
to meet the farmer half way in bearing 
this burden, and had the old method of 
distribution been continued* milk could 
not have been sold in the city with the 
same degree of profit to the farmer at 12 
cents that it is now at seven. We dis¬ 
covered we were all losing money ; we were 
growing dissatisfied with dairying as an 
occupation, and united action was the 
shortest road to recovery. When we in¬ 
corporated we took a determined stand to 
make the proposition a winner, and then 
went after it. First we mapped out Erie. 
We eliminated about 50 routes, leaving only 
a score to cover the city. Probably to 
the total number of members who went 
into the association, which was about 65, 
this one proposition saved over $200 daily 
in co'ld cash. The customer in turn was 
benefited by a better grade of milk, 
prompter deliveries, and could ask for a 
greater variety of dairy products from the 
milkman. We insisted that each member 
should maintain sanitary barns, and use 
all possible precautions in handling his 
milk, and in this way our product has 
become much better than in the old days 
of the individual delivery system. We 
now supply our customers a* better test 
than the city demands. The city fathers 
have asked for a 3.2 per cent test, and we 
are giving from 3.5 to four per cent. 
“We are able to furnish from the de¬ 
livery wagon butter, cheese, Dutch cheese 
and cream, as well as milk, and during the 
Summer we have a special delivery for ice 
cream. Under the old regime, only milk 
could be delivered, and occasionally butter¬ 
milk and sour milk when ordered a day 
or two ahead of time, but our system pro¬ 
vides that these products can be placed 
in the hands of the consumer direct from 
the wagon. Our milk reaches the last cus¬ 
tomer on the route just as fresh as to the 
first one. We have every modern appli¬ 
ance in our new headquarters to care for 
milk and other dairy products. Our men 
usually get through their routes by noon, 
some are out as late as two o'clock, and 
the men are delivering three times as much 
as formerly. Several of our employes are 
delivering 750 quarts daily, besides hand¬ 
ling a vast amount of other dairy prod¬ 
ucts.” 
“What proposition did the association in 
its formative period make to prospective 
members?” 
“Each farmer turned over to the asso¬ 
ciation his route and in return received $3 
in stock for each quart of milk distributed. 
For instance, if his normal output was 200 
quarts daily, he received $600 in stock, 
or 12 shares at $50 each, which was par 
value on our stock at the time of or¬ 
ganization. If the farmer delivered 210 
quarts, which would give him an allowance 
of $630, he would either pay us $20 more 
and receive another share, or we would 
pay him $30, leaving him even. We pur¬ 
chased all horses, wagons and equipment 
we possibly could buy from members, and 
of course had to add labor-saving equip¬ 
ment of all kinds, which would run into 
money rapidly. But as farmers generally 
do, we went slqw. We made our associa¬ 
tion pay its way as much as we could. 
However, in those early days we were 
forced to declare an assessment of 15 per 
cent to tide us over emergencies. This also 
paid for a large boiler, and the necessary 
expense required in renting quarters in the 
old market house and for stable room. 
“Our space was small, and as we look 
back at those days, it surprises us that we 
weathered our hardships as well as we 
did. On the day the system was to go in 
operation everything seemed against us. It 
was a dreary December day. Rain fell in 
torrents. The men did not know the 
streets, and by night we all felt pretty 
well discouraged.. We tried to smile when 
the kicks came in, but things went along 
better the next day, and when the weather 
brightened and the boys got well in the 
harness, we then saw that we were on 
the right track, and it did not take more 
than a week to come to the conclusion, 
either. However, we learned that the 
matter of mapping out the city and estab¬ 
lishing new routes was not the wisest move, 
and would suggest to associations in the 
process of formation that old routes should 
be combined, the shorter ones eliminated, 
and the matter of routing the city should 
be developed, instead of right-about-faced. 
w. j. 
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