1913. 
We want to keep right at this proposition of help¬ 
ing the old home town. Many a city man came from 
a farm in some town back among the hills. This man 
has prospered. Now and then he goes back to the old 
town and is saddened to observe how bright boys 
and girls have gone away and how industry has 
failed. This man remembers the feeling of the hill 
people, and he must see that these towns do not 
need scientific agriculture as much as they need in¬ 
dustrial opportunity. Oftentimes a little factory 
located at the water power or at some central point 
where high quality goods could be made would 
mean new life to the old town. There would be 
cash for labor, a market for raw material and a 
new enterprise to give thought and encouragement 
to the farmers. Such an enterprise plight stop the 
human flow away from the old town and perhaps 
bring some of the roamers home. The world would 
be better off if some of the great manufacturing 
monopolies could be broken up and scattered about 
in this way. Some of these successful city men 
may well consider this suggestion. We know of 
some of them who spend considerable money in 
beautifying the old town cemetery. Far better give 
thought to the living and put new industry and 
business hope into their lives. What could you do 
of greater help to the old town than to use your 
business ability and some of your money in organiz¬ 
ing a mutual business enterprise among your old 
friends and neighbors? 
* 
Week after week we have letters from dairymen 
who think the local creamery is not giving them a 
square deal. The trouble comes over the fat tests 
for milk. The creamery takes samples, makes the 
tests and pays on the basis of the fat which it re¬ 
ports. These tests often vary so widely as to create 
grave suspicion. In some cases the patrons send 
samples to the experiment station or do their own 
testing and those tests indicate that they are not be¬ 
ing paid in full. What can they do to obtain jus¬ 
tice? The New York Agricultural law provides the 
following: 
The Commissioner of Agriculture or persons employed 
by him for that purpose may at any time assist in 
making tests of milk received at a butter or cheese 
factory for the purpose of determining the efficiency of 
tests usually made at such factory. * * * No per¬ 
son or xiersons receiving or purchasing milk or cream 
upon the basis of the amount of fat contained therein, 
shall credit any patron or patrons delivering milk or 
cream thereto with a greater or lesser percentage or 
average percentage pf fat than is actually contained in 
the milk or cream so delivered. 
When a New York farmer feels that he is not re¬ 
ceiving what is due him he should notify the Com¬ 
missioner. Arrangements will then be made to test 
the milk under conditions which will be fair to both 
sides. If a man complains now, and such a test is 
made, the figures might not be full proof of mistake 
or fraud in the past—unless corroborated by relia¬ 
ble outside tests. They would make a basis for 
settlement in the future. It is easy to make errors 
in sampling or testing, and when there is any ques¬ 
tion the Department should be called in to settle it. 
Cooperative testing among the patrons is also good 
work. Some man who is accurate can take samples 
at intervals and test them independently of the 
creamery. 
* 
I don’t think much of the advice some of these agri¬ 
cultural papers give. One of them is always telling us 
to raise nothing but purebred cattle. We learn that 
the editor has much more money than he knows what 
to do with, while we have a mortgage, and in a year 
like this can hardly get enough to pay our taxes. Pure¬ 
bred cattle may be all right, but this is no advice to 
give to a poor man. D. E. F. 
New York. 
“Thou cans’t not say I did it.” We know just 
what to do with every dollar we have. We can 
easily understand this man’s position. He knows, 
as we all know, that in these days of high cost and 
strict inspection it does not pay to keep a scrub or 
an inferior cow. She cannot make milk enough to 
pay for her feed and the labor spent in caring for 
her. We cannot afford to keep her any more than 
we can pay a hired man $25 when we know he does 
not earn $15 for us. Our friend will probably agree 
that we should keep improved cows if we can get 
them. The majority of us will also agree that in 
order to get these improved cows we must get im¬ 
proved blood into the herd. The cow with the big¬ 
gest mouth to absorb hay and grain may be the 
poorest machine to manufacture it into milk or 
butter. The purebred bull with sisters and ancestors 
of good performance is the surest herd improver. 
It must seem both ridiculous and galling to a 
poor struggling farmer to be told that he should 
keep nothing but purebred cattle! In many cases 
his entire yearly profits would hardly pay for a well- 
bred bull calf and he must wait three years for re¬ 
sults. Left to himself it will be hard to start. But 
is it not iK)ssible to try the “community breeding” 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
plan? This means cooperation. Half a dozen neigh¬ 
bors combine and buy a good bull. The cost to each 
one is not large, and the bull can be used in several 
herds. This works out well in parts of Wisconsin. 
After the bull has been used three years there will 
be found another “community” ready to change, so 
that new blood can be used. In this way and 
through this form of cooperation farmers who could 
not afford to buy a first-class bull alone may com¬ 
bine and thus obtain the best. This is no dream 
or theory—it is being worked out in many com¬ 
munities where farmers have learned to combined 
their efforts and live and let live. It is just another 
illustration of the fact that poor, individual fann¬ 
ers may find some relief from their hard necessities 
by cooperation. 
35-CENT DOLLAR: 15-BUSHEL WHEAT. 
On page 1066 we printed an editorial on the 35- 
cent dollar and the effects of a “bumper crop.” We 
stated that “the producer is the only one who suf¬ 
fers from a bumper crop.” A farmer in Ohio cut 
this out and sent it to Dr. Chas. E. Thorne of the 
Ohio Experiment Station, with some forcible re¬ 
marks about farm conditions. Dr. Thorne is one 
of the most practical and sensible men now engaged 
in station work, and we gladly give his comments: 
Your agitation anent the 35-cent dollar is thoroughly 
right. There is no question that producer and con¬ 
sumer are both being robbed under our present system 
of exchange, but the “bumper crop” fallacy is made the 
excuse for a world of slipshod, wasteful farming. Ohio 
produces in the average about thirty million bushels of 
wheat, on ten million acres of land. There is no valid 
reason why this quantity of wheat should not be pro¬ 
duced on at most two-thirds the area given to it. It 
would be absolutely better for this generation and those 
which are to follow it if one-third of the land in the 
State now under the plow were permitted to go back 
to rest in weeds and forest, and the energy which is 
now wasted in tramping over land which by no possi¬ 
bility can produce a full crop were concentrated on 
draining, liming and fertilizing the remainder. We 
do not at present need to grow more than thirty million 
bushels of wheat per annum in Ohio, but we do need 
to grow it on fewer acres and with less labor; but un¬ 
less our grandchildren grow more than thirty million 
bushels of wheat some of them will go hungry. 
Under our present system we are robbing the land 
and defrauding posterity. The 35-cent dollar is bad 
enough, but the 15-bushels-per-acre crop of wheat is 
worse, for the system of agriculture which produces 
such crops of wheat means the defrauding of our chil¬ 
dren of their right to the inheritance of a fertile soil, 
and it also means the continued migration of farmer 
boys to the city. The young man who cannot see on 
the farm the possibility of a better return for his energy 
than is obtained by the 15-bushels-per-acre farmer does 
exactly right in going to town. chas. E. tiiorne. 
THE BUREAU OF CO-OPERATION. 
Part II. 
The present high cost of food distribution, and 
the waste attendant thereto in our cities, is most 
obvious, and it seems that a fair margin of profit 
could be secured almost from the start by the or¬ 
ganization of consumers. Moreover, the idea of co¬ 
operation in general is more commonly accepted as 
sound from a financial point of view, among them. 
From these reasons it can readily be seen that the 
first line of work for this bureau was to assist in 
the organization of these consumers, that a fairly 
steady demand for farm products might be estab¬ 
lished on cooperative lines, which demand could re¬ 
ceive its supply from either individuals or other sim¬ 
ilar organizations of producers. The principal dif¬ 
ficulty here is the lack of ample capital rather than 
the lack of the proper spirit of loyalty, although, 
with the producers, the reverse conditions exists and 
capital is quite easily obtained but the spirit of loy¬ 
alty is hard to find and keep. It is very certain, 
however, that such combinations of consumers must 
and will be formed, generally in advance of any 
very general organization by producers, as soon as 
an easy method of capitalization is found. Several 
such cooperative companies are already formed and 
about to become incorporated, and if the experience 
in the foreign countries is any guide they should 
soon become very successful. 
The rather high percentage of failures among 
associations of producers has been largely due to a 
surprising lack of confidence on the part of the 
members toward the business management. Some 
of this was no doubt well warranted, but the lack 
of confidence grew out of the system employed, 
which did not deal at all times frankly with the 
members on a strict basis of equality regardless of 
the amount of their stock holdings or production. 
"With a simple and direct method of accounting to 
all members, which they can readily understand, any 
association of producers with loyal members should 
have very low chances of failure, lower even than 
with general merchandising business. Such asso¬ 
ciations undoubtedly succeed better where the num¬ 
ber of products sold is quite narrow, and where the 
members are not getting at present a fair profit as 
1209 
individuals from their business—are not too pros¬ 
perous, in other words. 
. . x 
From the facts already at hand, and from the in¬ 
formation gathered by the bureau, there is no doubt 
of the healthy growth of the cooperative idea; but 
for some time to come a large part of its work must 
be missionary in character, because, to reduce ef¬ 
fectually the present high cost of food distribution, 
and to become financially sound and lasting, co¬ 
operation must be quite general. Consumers in the 
cities and towns organized as cooperative associa¬ 
tions must be able to meet with producers from many 
States to obtain a steady flow of supplies, and the 
organized producers will need eventually, if not at 
first, the broad general demand so combined to real¬ 
ize the maximum profit. 
The bureau is ready at all times to furnish ad¬ 
vice, and has ready for distribution a complete set 
of by-laws and articles of incorporation for the 
formation of any co6perative organization. It has 
also the business history of several successful co¬ 
operative companies now doing business, which it is 
at liberty to give to those interested. The super¬ 
intendent has spoken at twenty meetings and has 
assisted in working out several business systems to 
be used by associations. No hard and fast plans for 
the future have been made, except that the assist¬ 
ance given shall be practical, and any advice or 
suggestions offered will be the result of investiga¬ 
tion. MARC W. COLE. 
MEDICAL INSPECTION OF COUNTRY 
SCHOOLS. 
There is some evidence in our laws of a growing 
paternalism upon the part of the government, and 
by some this will be looked upon with distrust, while 
others will regard it as marking the beginning of a 
better era in which society as a whole will do some 
of the needed things for human betterment which 
are difficult or impossible to the individual. Be¬ 
ginning with the present school year, the country 
schools of New York State will share with those of 
the cities in medical inspection of all the pupils. 
There is some doubt in the minds of parents, and 
others, as to the value of this inspection, though 
there is no doubt as to its increasing the expense of 
school administration. Most country schools are 
very small nowadays, however, and the expense will- 
not be very heavy for any one district, even if large 
in the aggregate. If any considerable benefit ac¬ 
crues to the pupils this need not be regretted. With¬ 
out question such medical inspection in towns and 
cities will disclose much neglect upon the part of 
parents and the consequent suffering and hindered 
development of many children; nor will all of this 
ignorance and neglect upon the part of parents be 
found in cities, an occasional child suffering from 
adenoids, greatly enlarged tonsils, defective eyesight 
or hearing, or other serious physical defects wbich 
hinder their proper mental and physical develop¬ 
ment will be discovered in country districts where 
the average of thrift and intelligence is high. If the 
attention of the parents of these children is called 
to these conditions by this medical inspection, and 
children who are mentally and physically backward 
because of these handicaps are given a better chance 
in life, the money cost may well be ignored. Just 
how far the community should go in relieving par¬ 
ents of their responsibility to their children by car¬ 
ing for these unfortunates is a question difficult to 
answer. It is a serious error to encourage delin¬ 
quency upon the part of any citizens in the hope 
that the State will relieve them of their burdens. 
This medical inspection-law is new, and like many of 
our laws, not yet fully digested. There is reason to 
believe, however, that it is a step in a right direction, 
and that coming generations will realize the benefit 
that it is hoped to bestow. 
World Crops. 
Broomhall’s Liverpool report states: Shipments dur¬ 
ing the past week were lighter, with the amount to the 
United Kingdom SOO.OOO bushels under requirements. 
The Continent is getting plenty, and, with a growing 
firmness among holders, fears are expressed here that 
the United Kingdom will be forced to purchase at 
higher prices. 
Corn arrivals are liberal, with resultant pressure of 
spot and scarcity of local storage, which led to realiz¬ 
ing. Foreign crop advices are favorable, with Buenos 
Ayres lower. 
Argentina.—Private cables received state “Parts pre¬ 
dictions of frost” and another “parts too hot,” with 
rain badly wanted in the North. 
India.—Dryness continues over a very extended area, 
and the time is passed for the hope of a full acreage and 
satisfactory results. The Government has already ad¬ 
vanced money to the United Province, which will be 
used for relieving districts where the loss of food crops 
has been severe. 
Russia.—Our correspondents are of the opinion that 
this year’s wheat crop is larger than last year and that 
the exportable surplus will be in accordance with the 
crop, but the tightness of offers and comparatively small 
marketing is causing firmness among other countries. 
