1914. 
l «y 
CO-OPERATIVE STATE MARKETS. 
[Report of marketing committee of the New York 
State Agricultural Society by John J. Dillon, Chair¬ 
man.] 
NEW YORK MARKETS.—Your committee has 
given much attention to the subject of market condi¬ 
tions in New York City. Conditions there could 
hardly be more extravagant or wasteful if they 
were maliciously designed. There is no provision 
there that could properly be called a market. The 
city owns some lots of land with antiquated build¬ 
ings, in which it rents out stalls for the sale of 
food products, just as any other landlord might do, 
at a more profitable rental, but there is no regula¬ 
tion for the protecting of either producer or con¬ 
sumer who patronize them. Perishable food pro¬ 
ducts are rushed to that centre by rail, steamer 
and boat, and now by auto express. It is left 
to the tender mercies of transportation employees; 
to truckmen; to commission men. to jobbers: to 
speculators, and to retailers. There is no provision 
to care for the damaged, the neglected, or the sur¬ 
plus shipments. As a result complaints from ship¬ 
pers are numerous. Total losses are frequent, and 
tbe producers who get a prompt return for 35% of 
the consumption price, are always fortunate and 
sometimes content. At the time of the organization 
of this committee a project was under way to spend 
twelve million dollars of city money to establish a 
large market structure near the present site of West 
Washington Market This did not meet the needs 
of the city, and could only' perpetuate and magnify 
the present unsatisfactory conditions. A protest 
was made against the project by this Committee and 
the Housewives’ League and it has been since held 
in abeyance. A committee is now at work on a com¬ 
prehensive plan for a series of markets to be under 
municipal control and regulation; and it is hoped 
that measures along these lines may be perfected 
and adopted. 
THE FARMER’S PROBLEM.—The marketing of 
farm products is essentially the problem of the 
farmer. He cannot safely entrust it to others. So 
long as middlemen monopolize it, it will be at the 
expense of producer and consumer. If the muni¬ 
cipalities should undertake it, it would naturally 
be conducted for the benefit of fne consumer. So 
far in this State the middlemen have practically had 
a free hand. There has been little or no organized 
attempt even to supply local markets, and the in¬ 
dividual farmer cannot give a satisfactory service 
to local dealers or local consumers. Hence we see 
fresh farm produce shipped from interior towns to 
large cities, there repacked and shipped back again 
in definite quantities to the country towns. The 
produce has deteriorated in value and the expense 
of two transportation charges and one or more deal¬ 
ers’ profit must be paid by the local dealer, and the 
consumer pays an extra profit for the privilege of 
getting the exact quantity he demands. 
POOR SALESMANSHIP.—But the products of 
the neighboring farms are not always returned from 
the metropolitan markets to local towns. In many 
lines this trade has been secured by the better sys¬ 
tems of salesmanship adopted by other States. Go 
through the small towns of New York during the 
producing season and you will seldom find on the 
hotel tables or in the markets of the towns the fresh 
products of the neighboring farms, but you will al¬ 
most invariably find California fruits and bananas. 
We grow in New York State some of the finest qual¬ 
ity apples in the world, but we leave the packing 
and the sale of them to such an extent to specula¬ 
tors and jobbers that, as a distinct food, New York 
apples are unknown to the consuming public. This 
condition is so general that it is beyond the control 
or correction of the average individual grower. Last 
year a Columbia County, N. Y., grower went to the 
city with a shipment of finely sorted and graded 
Baldwin apples. He was unable to sell them at any 
better price to the jobbers than if he mixed the or¬ 
dinary grades in his barrels. He was told that there 
was no recognition of his superior apples in the 
market, and that they would sell for no more than 
the ordinary pack. Go into the hotels and restaur¬ 
ants in New York City and into the dining cars of 
most of the railroads of the country and ask for 
baked apples and you will get a western product. 
Demand an explanation and you will be told that 
the steward was unable to get a uniform grade of 
New York apples. The organizations of the West 
have simply gone about the sale of their products in 
a business way, and by superior salesmanship have 
secured a preference for an inferior article in your 
own markets. Our flocks have vanished from our 
Eastern hillsides, and our fields and feed-stalis have 
given up their meat-producing animals to the pres¬ 
sure of the monopoly of our markets, and the coer¬ 
cion of our butchers by the meat packers of the 
THE R.U R-A-Iji NEW-VOKKEK 
West. With subtle irony these packers now com¬ 
plain that the Eastern farmer has abandoned the 
production of meat producing animals. The condi¬ 
tions are right now for the revival of this industry, 
but if we give ourselves exclusively to the produc¬ 
tion of it, the packers will again find a way to ap¬ 
propriate its profits to themselves. 
WE MUST MAKE TRADITIONS.—We must be¬ 
gin at the beginning. We must establish marketable 
packages and brands that will specify in quality 
and quantity of weight or measure, the exact con¬ 
tents of the package, and that will be accepted with¬ 
out question at its face value in tue markets of the 
world. Generally speaking local markets are the best 
markets. We are fortunate in having many of them in 
New York State. We should develop them and control 
them by the simple process of giving better service and 
better and cheaper food than can be secured else¬ 
where. The individual farmer cannot do this be¬ 
cause he cannot furnish a steady supply. It must 
be done by assembling the food products of the 
neighboring farms in a common market or ware¬ 
house and supplying the local trade from this cen¬ 
tre. To effect this the local growers should be or¬ 
ganized in cooperative societies with packing and 
shipping facilities, and in some sections with cold 
storage and manufacturing plants to take care of 
surplus products. These local units or societies 
could be coordinated in one central agency with 
representatives in the large markets of the country 
to direct the shipment of food products not absorbed 
by local trade where they would find the most ready 
demand and the best prices. 
FARMERS’ ORGANIZATIONS.—In proposing 
this organized work we are invariably met with the 
assertion that it cannot be done because farmers 
will not, they assert, stand together. I meet this 
criticism with the answer that farmers are in this 
respect no different from any other class of business 
men. Gentlemen's agreements have never yet produced 
permanent results. I have seen it tried by farmers, by 
briekmakers, by clothiers, by grocers, by barbers 
and by publishers, but the gentlemen’s agreements 
were never adhered to for long by all of the parties 
to it until the interests were bound together in a 
legal contract that none of them could violate except 
at his peril. The farmer cannot play hide and 
seek with a cooperative company and expect satis¬ 
factory results from it. He must enter into con¬ 
tractual relations with his own company just as he 
would with any other company, and he must bind 
himself to live up to that contract in all its details 
just as he would with any other contract. If.a 
creamery company organizes to handle the milk of 
400 cows and half of the members are led to with¬ 
draw because some milk dealer is interested in the 
destruction of the company and offers individual 
members an eighth of a cent premium for their milk, 
the creamery cannot be maintained at half its capa¬ 
city, and unless the producer is willing to become a 
member and bind himself for a definite time in a 
definite contract, he does not became a member of 
the association and is not entitled to its privileges 
or benefits. 
BUSINESS PRINCIPLES ESSENTIAL.—To be 
successful, cooperative organizations must have legal 
organization and be operated on strictly business 
lines. They must be independent and self-support¬ 
ing. There is also danger in loose or careless or¬ 
ganization. There is no magic in cooperation work. 
The associations will not produce miracles. They 
are not Aladdin lamps that will produce fabulous 
wealth by the friction of a chamois cloth. They 
offer opportunity for organized self-help. Through 
them producers may save waste and preserve for 
themselves the profits that now go to middlemen. Co¬ 
operation looks for no subsidy from the State; and 
would accept none. It does not expect something for 
nothing. Statutes, however, will not create coopera¬ 
tive organizations. The farmer does not have the 
time nor the experience, nor in all cases the in¬ 
formation and the facilities for organization work. 
It is, however, important to the whole consuming 
population of the State that facilities be provided 
for the saving of products now going to waste, and 
for the economic distribution of all farm food pro¬ 
ducts. Hence it is the proper function for the State 
to help organize food distributing associations as 
part of the agricultural educational work of the 
State. It will require men trained in the principles 
of cooperation and business to discuss the plans and 
purposes and benefits of the organization with pro¬ 
ducers throughout the State, and to organize these 
cooperative associations, and help direct and develop 
the business. 
A STATE COMMISSION.—The opinions of pro¬ 
ducers and consumers are fast crystallizing into the 
conviction that we should have a State agency 
clothed with the authority and charged with the 
duty of organizing producers in local units; and of 
establishing and maintaining markets and slaughter 
houses; assembling food products, and prescribing 
packages, grades and measures, and of inspecting 
foods and regulating their sale and distribution; of 
preserving surplus, developing local markets and 
directing shipments to centres of greatest demand. 
I grant that a perfunctory commission would be 
worse than useless, but the possibilities of the work 
are vast and enduring enough to fire the ambition 
and to inspire the energy of genius; and the man or 
the administration that undertakes it and measures 
up to its opportunities, will merit the everlasting 
gratitude of future generations. This is a depart¬ 
ure that is coming sometime. That thousands of 
people should go hungry in the city while food is 
rotting on the nearby farms, is a disgrace to our 
boasted civilization, and an insult to a bountiful 
Providence. It is impossible that we should be per¬ 
mitted to abuse the generosities of God indefinitely. 
The calamity howlers already capitalize our negli¬ 
gence to promote their own vague and sinister the¬ 
ories. They find willing listeners in homeless men, 
ill-clad women and hungry children. No one de¬ 
fends our present system of distribution, and noth¬ 
ing stands between us and ultimate chaos or 
anarchy but a fair distribution of wealth through 
the cooperative control of the men and women who 
produce it. 
SAVING THE WASTE.—While food products 
were abnormally low the consumer was little con¬ 
cerned about the extravagance and waste in the 
distribution of farm food products. At worst the 
price to the consumer was no hardship. The 
farmer accepted the inevitable of his 35-eent dollar; 
the middleman took his 65 cents and all were happy, 
but when the cost of living began to advance the 
consumer began to feel the burden, and investiga¬ 
tion has revealed the fact that of the estimated 
$500,000,000 worth of food products consumed in 
the city of New York alone, the people of that city 
are paying more than three hundred million dollars 
annually for distribution. This does not take into 
account the losses and waste of deterioration and 
condemned products in the city. Nor does it in¬ 
clude in any way the waste through losses and ex¬ 
pense of returning products to inland towns. Nor 
through the waste of products that rot on the farms 
because the producer is unable to secure enough for 
them in the markets to pay for packing and trans¬ 
portation. 
Our concern is to save this waste. Economists 
have pointed out to us the possible shortage of food 
in this country if present ratios of production and 
increase shall continue for 25 years, and they have 
warned us that unless changes are effected it will 
become necessary in the next quarter of a century 
to import food to feed the people. They calculate 
on the basis of our present system of distribution. 
They have not guessed the possibility of the pro¬ 
duction of American farms under a system that 
would return the farmer a fair reward for his labor. 
The farms of this country produce three-fourths of 
the annual wealth of the country. The idlers and 
non-producers manage to get possession of the sur¬ 
plus savings. The workers produce; the idlers and 
non-producers save. This saving we call capital, 
and the producer must go hat in hand pleading to 
the non-producer for the use of it. We are trying to 
devise a system by which this saving or capital will 
remain in the hands of the men who produce. If 
we are successful the product of the American farm 
will be sufficient to feed the people of the world for 
generations to come. Our initiative to this end is 
the development of the cooperative measures to 
finance agriculture and to establish modern systems 
and skilled salesmanship in the marketing of farm 
products. 
“ EXPERIENCE” AND FARM EDUCATION. 
In regard to Mr. Coleman’s article “City Boy and 
Agriculture,” page 67, at bottom of second paragraph 
he says: “I am sure I could not have had as thor¬ 
ough a foundation in agriculture if I had devoted 
some of my time at college to getting experience.” 
At beginning of third paragraph: “As a city-bred boy 
I recognize my limitations,” etc. This is very good 
proof of lack of “experience” from a farmer’s point 
of view. Does a sailor consider it lost time before 
the mast? When we do a little thinking, the two 
professions, following the sea and farming, have 
problems that are similar. Two men pass an exam¬ 
ination as to intelligence equally. One serves before 
the mast for three years, one serves three years in 
a school of navigation. There is a chance to com 
maml a ship. Which one will get it? The school 
navigation man may get his orietation—after that 
he is liable to come to grief. Robert joxes. 
