1913. 
118(3 
It is well nigh impossible to convince the ordinary 
farmer that the biggest sugar beet is not the best. Does 
not the biggest beet take the premium at the county 
fair? One man sent two beets weighing 15 pounds 
each. He wrote, “I bet you they will have a barrel of 
sugar in them.” They had six per cent sugar, so we 
threw the results away. 
That is taken from a South Dakota bulletin on 
sugar beet raising. There is much of human nature 
in this. Perhaps you have stopped to think that 
most of our so-called standards are based upon 
beauty or size, while life itself has to deal with 
utility. Our poultry are judged at shows by a 
“scale of points” which is based chiefly upon feath¬ 
ering or correct shape. Tet the world is to live upon 
eggs and meat rather than upon feathers. As a rule, 
prizes are won by handsome or large vegetables 
rather than by those which are best to eat. Prog¬ 
ress is being made in making quality or utility the 
standard, but it is hard work, and one tail feather 
out of shape may mean more than 50 extra eggs to 
a poultry judge. 
* 
Hardly a day passes without a letter from some 
farmer or fruit grower who wants to start a herd 
of improved cattle. These men aim ultimately at 
purebreds, but want to work at first with high 
grades. It is now generally understood that the 
scrub or low producing cow cannot get anywhere 
except as a fertilizer factory. Twenty years ago 
the institute speakers used to say that “farmers 
would be better off if the death angel would destroy 
one-third of the cows on our dairy farms.” High 
feed, scant labor and “sanitary regulations” are do¬ 
ing wlmt the death angel failed to accomplish. The 
improved cow is the only one that will pay for her 
board. Much can be done to improve the cow 
through her mouth—by better feeding—but most of 
the gain must come through better blood. The pure¬ 
bred sire must pass along the good qualities of his 
mother and grandmother. If those relatives have 
no superior qualities the purebred sire cannot pass 
them along to his daughters. This foundation prin¬ 
ciple of breeding is understood by most of those 
who want these improved cows. No wonder they 
want to be sure of the sire that will head their 
herds. This is the biggest question to-day in busi¬ 
ness dairy breeding. We have arranged with the 
best experts and practical men we can find to dis¬ 
cuss it.. The It. N.-Y. has more readers who are 
studying out this question than any other paper. 
* 
There is no question whatever about the shortage 
of beef. Canada cannot supply this country. There 
are sections in the interior of South America as yet 
undeveloped where in the future high grade cattle 
can he fed, but Europe will compete for every car¬ 
cass, and then not fill its needs. Cuba offers some 
hope as a beef-producing country. During the war 
with Spain most of the cattle were destroyed. Sup¬ 
plies have been slowly increasing, but the quality 
is not high, and there will never be large numbers 
for export. Beef will surely become a luxury unless 
our small farmers can find it profitable to raise and 
feed more of their calves. There is no use trying to 
scare them into doing this, or begging them to help 
humanity, or trying to compel them by law to keep 
their calves at a loss. Just as well try the same 
arguments on the manufacturer of shoes, clothing or 
tools. You cannot make them increase production 
except at a profit. Change conditions so that farm¬ 
ers will be reasonably sure of 50 cents of the con¬ 
sumer's dollar and the beef supply will he provided 
in a few years. In order to do this society must 
get rid of the monopolistic buying and slaughtering 
of cattle which has gone into the hands of the 
great packing companies. These companies realize 
the situation and they are getting in ahead by put¬ 
ting the blame on the farmers. Representatives of 
10 families that have milked millions of dollars out 
of the American farmers recently met ami “resolved” 
that the said farmers are lazy, shiftless and greatly 
in need of “education.” They say every farmer 
should raise at least two beef steers a year—especial¬ 
ly on “the hills of New England.” The Toledo News- 
Bee puts it this way: 
Get to it, ye farmer. All ye small ones have to do 
1S to turn out two beef steers per year to browse on air. 
All that's necessary to cover New England’s beautiful 
lulls with fatted beeves is to start with a breed that 
fattens on rocks. All the cotton bigoted South has to 
do is to turn from a crop that sells direct from the bush 
to corn which must be raised and then fed to the in¬ 
come-yielding product—hogs and such. Reduction of 
the Armour, Cudahy, Swift, Morris family incomes? 
ao. Free foreign meats? No. More work out of and 
more high-class education into the American farmer! 
Unit's the solution—at packing centers. 
■’lie farmers have work enough now—but we do 
believe in the education. We want the application 
of “higher mathematics” right down to the lowest 
penny in the 35-cent dollar. Let us educate farmers 
so‘they will stop producing an article when the 
figures show that they get less than cost, and then 
make the middleman a present of the balance. 
THIS RURAL, NEW-YORKER 
THE BUREAU OF CO-OPERATION. 
fAs our readers have been told, New York State has 
a bureau of its Agricultural Department which is to 
encourage cooperation among producers and consumers 
of farm produce. The director of the Bureau is Marc 
W. Cole. Some of our people want to know what he 
has been doing since the -Bureau was started and so 
we give, in two parts, his first report.] 
Part I. 
The Bureau of Cooperation established in tlie De¬ 
partment of Agriculture has been organized about 
three months, and its work to date has been prin¬ 
cipally in the nature of an investigation of the coop¬ 
erative companies now doing business. It was hoped 
at the beginning that it could become a sort of 
clearing-house for information to both tlie producers 
and the consumers, beside its regular duties of 
assisting in the formation of cooperative associa¬ 
tions, but this plan soon became almost Impossible, 
because tlie producers, as individuals, expected to 
receive practically retail prices regardless of the 
amount or the season of their production, and, on 
the other hand, tlie consumers expected to get fresh 
farm produce in retail amounts whenever they 
needed it and at a very much lower price than at 
the retail markets. The bureau received letters 
from a large number of producers in this and other 
States, but tlie number of consumers who applied 
for information about farm produce, while about 
equal in number to the producers, could consume 
only a very small fraction of the produce offered. 
Beside this difficulty, it soon became evident that the 
bureau could not successfully acc as arbiter be¬ 
tween the buyer and seller on the question of quality 
of the produce without causing much dissatisfaction 
to one or both of the parties. 
At the outset the bureau encountered a very large 
amount of theory, and a very small amount of fact, 
as to tlie best method of organizing and capitalizing 
tlie cooperative companies, and the methods used 
abroad were not at all adapted for use in this 
country, where the social and tlie geographical con¬ 
ditions are quite different and where even tlie very 
object of cooperation has many interpretations. The 
successful cooperative companies among producers 
in this State, in almost every case, have been en¬ 
tirely satisfied with the general wholesale price for 
their products, and without exception depend upon 
tlie superior grading and uniform quality of these 
products to bring them very profitable returns. By 
skillful salesmanship and good business methods 
these companies successfully combine the selling 
power of their members to mutual advantage, and 
in some cases their buying power is combined to 
the same end; but in no case which lias come to 
tlie attention of this bureau lias any of the cooper¬ 
ative companies now doing business in this State at¬ 
tempted to deal directly with the consumer or to 
eliminate any of the cost of the distribution of their 
products to him, either as an individual or as any 
form of organization. 
* 
Let us all be fair to Wm. Sulzer, late Governor 
of New York. Since his removal from office Mr. 
Sulzer has made a statement in which lie denounces 
the court which found him guilty, and charges 
Charles F. Murphy, the political boss, with working 
his downfall because lie would not submit to dicta¬ 
tion. There is nothing in Mr. Sulzcr’s statement to 
offset the testimony which convicted him. Every 
member of the Court of Appeals who voted at all 
finally voted for removal. Judge Cullen did not vote 
at all, but lie declared that Mr. Sulzer’s actions were 
“dishonorable in tlie extreme. On the evidence sub¬ 
mitted to this court we cannot see how any other 
verdict could be possible. As to what Sulzer says 
about Murphy, it is probably true. We have no 
doubt this insolent boss knew, all of Sulzer’s troubles 
and debts, and kept the man in torment. One cau 
imagine Gov. Charles E. Hughes in such a crisis. 
He would have given tlie whole story promptly to 
tlie public—aud in the present feeling among tlie 
people that would have been’the end of Murphy. 
The exposure may help get rid of him now, but it 
ought to have been made right when tlie incident 
happened. There seems no doubt that Mr. Sulzer, 
by reason of the unfortunate condition into which 
debt and political obligations had forced him, was 
subjected to persecution and hounding by Murphy. 
Do not, however, make the mistake of confusing 
these issues. On the evidence before tlie impeach¬ 
ment court, which lie did not attempt to deny, Mr. 
Sulzer was clearly unfit to be Governor of New 
York. It is no answer to this testimony to say that 
Murphy attempted to buy the Governor, and failing 
to do so ordered the Legislature to impeach. This 
may be, and probably is, true, but it lias nothing 
to do with the conduct for which Air. Sulzer was 
removed. We cau think of few more dangerous 
tliiugs to put before our young men tliau the sug¬ 
gestion that because Sulzer was persecuted by Mur¬ 
phy his own misdeeds should be overlooked. We 
shall never get anywhere under the leadership of 
a man for whose political morality we must apol¬ 
ogize. Sulzer and Murphy are both products of our 
present political system. Under one name or an¬ 
other we shall have them or their types in public life 
just as long as a few bosses are able to control 
Party nominations. There is no possible way of 
getting rid of them or of clearing out tlieir nest ex¬ 
cept through a fair system of direct nomination in 
which the people will take part. We venture to 
say that neither Sulzer nor Murphy could ever en¬ 
dure under the present New Jersey election laws! 
T rnler our present distribution of political power in 
New York there is no chance for any improvement 
save from tlie farmers and country voters. They 
should refuse to vote for any candidate for the As¬ 
sembly nomination who does not favor direct and 
full primary. 
* 
There is one place on earth at least'where the 
farmers are recognized as the foundation of busi¬ 
ness. That is Hillsdale, Mich. Hillsdale County 30 
years ago was a grain-producing section. The land 
began to fail and grain prices fell. Twenty years 
ago the apple industry was at its best, but it slowly 
declined in profit. Then farmers begetn to see that 
tlieir section was admirably adapted to dairying. 
1 lie silo made a place for the corn c-rop, improved 
blood promised to double tlie capacity of the old 
cows, and improved methods of feeding gave the 
cows a better chance. And so the improved cow 
came into this rich strip of Southern Michigan, bit 
at the grass and called it good. Hillsdale, like all 
such towns, must depend for its life upon what the 
surrounding farms produce and what farmers have 
to spend. A big condensery company offered to build 
a plant at Hillsdale if contracts for 2,500 cans could 
be secured, llieii the farmers enjoyed the privilege 
of having business men chase after them. Business 
places were closed and men scoured the country 
asking the farmers to put up their cows and help 
Hillsdale make sure of the condensery. They kept 
at it until 1.250 yoke of cows came hauling the plant 
into town. This business will prosper because that 
section of country has fine corn ground, and can 
pioduce clover and Alfalfa. We make much of this, 
because, at Hillsdale, conditions made it as clear 
as day light that the town absolutely depended upon 
the farms for support. This is just as true of all 
other towns and cities, but it is seldom made as 
clear as in this case. 
Government Farm Statistics. 
country (Ictober 1 was 13.0 per cent lower than last 
year, and 9.7 per cent under the average of several years 
Past. 1 he_eorn outlook was G5.3 per cent of normal, 
w hich is 1 d.o under the 10-year average, promising a 
yield of 2,3(3,000,000 bushels. 
The Spring wheat yield was 242,714,000 bushels* 
\\ inter wheat, oll.000.000, the largest yield on record. 
The area in alj wheat was 49,601,000 acres, and the 
average yield lo.2 bushels per acre. The average price 
paid producers October 1 was 77.9 cents. 
i looVomui 11 , oa £V V! V5 38 ’ 341 ’ 000 a « r es and the yield 
139.000 bushels, the average price paid producers 
being 39.0 cents. 
Barley, on 7.255,000 acres, yielded 173,301.000 bushels 
Average price to producers, 56.8 cents. 
Rye, with an area of 2.134.000 acres, yielded 34,789 - 
000 bushels; average price 04.8 cents. 
The indications for buckwheat are 14.000,000 bushels 
on 841.000 acres, the smallest yield in 13 years, owing 
to drought and early frost in heavy producing parts of 
New York and Pennsylvania. Average price to pro¬ 
ducers October 1, 74.1 cents. 
Potatoes promise 319,000,000 bushels, about 100.000.- 
000 less than last year. Maine is the only one of the 
large producing States having a larger crop than last 
year; average price to producers. 73.9 cents. 
The yield of cabbage is about 71.2 per cent of normal, 
production per acre being 4.9 tons against 0.7 last year. 
Onions, 77.6 per cent, the yield per acre being’ 171 
against 200 bushels last year. Beans, 5.2 per cent be¬ 
low average; tobacco 6.5 per cent lower; sugar beets. 
3.5 lower; peanuts, .0 per cent higher; broom corn, 30.1 
lower. 
The average apple condition October 1 was 46.6 per 
cent. 21.2 under last year. States having a higher aver¬ 
age than last year are Rhode Island, Connecticut, New 
Jersey, Indiana, Illinois. Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, 
South Dakota, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona. States 
giving only one-half or less of last year’s yield are: 
Vermont. New York, Virginia. West Virginia, the Car- 
oliuas, Ohio, Missouri and Kansas. 
Dividends on Canadian securities for the last three 
months of this year will be: 
Steam railroads. $15,463,950 
Industrial corporations . 6.455.498 
Government and municipal debentures. . . . 3,810,274 
Chartered banks . 3,234,254 
Alines. 2,883,005 
Canadian electrics . 2,308,883 
Light and power. 1,320.325 
Loan and trust (on stock only). 886,701 
Telegraph, telephone aud cable. 721.250 
Insurance . 216.250 
Navigation . 200.000 
Total... $37,500,396 
