2! >0 
TH E RUKA.L NKW-YOK’KKK 
LET FARMERS GET TOGETHER. 
A recent editorial in The R. N.-Y.. speaking of 
Secretary of Agriculture Houston’s recent comments 
on i rices received for large versus small crops, lias 
a Pi onled to me strongly. There is no use disputing 
.Secretary Houston’s statements. lie has the figures, 
and they are conclusive, neither is there any use of 
denying the position taken by the editor of The R. 
N.-Y.. but just what are we going to do about the 
whole matter? I have little sympathy for men who 
simply carry a grudge without making effort to eor- 
re< t existing evils, and really isn’t the former 
me:hod more characteristic of us farmers than the 
latter? Are we not more likely to grumble because 
everything is wrong than to make any particular 
effort to correct the wrong? It is true that the 
Granges by attempting cooperative buying have 
tried to benefit matters for farmers. For years there 
has been talk about cooperation in selling farm pro¬ 
duce. but how much has the talk about this latter 
matter ever amounted to? I notice that Armour 
made 30 percent on his invested capital for the last 
year's business. Part of this certainly comes out of 
the producers, and 30 percent net is surely a good 
margin. The entire subject is a large one, and 
worthy of years of study by competent men. But 
is anybody really giving the matter any study at 
all? 
What I would like to have the farmers think 
about a little is the enormous difference that there 
would be between the effort such as is being made by 
the Grange to buy things as cheap as possible, and 
a corresponding systematized effort to sell their farm 
produce as high as possible. Supposing, just for 
comparison's sake, that the average farm consists 
of 150 acres. Such a farm in our country will prob¬ 
ably buy an average of $50 worth of seeds; $200 
worth of clothing; $200 worth of groceries and $200 
worth of hardware, machinery and so forth, a year, 
making a total of $(>50. Supposing that by using 
Grange methods a saving of seven jiercen) is made 
on these purchases; this would amount to $45.50. 
Now this same farm will rent at cash for $1,125 to¬ 
day. and as we always figure labor to equal the 
cash rental value, the tenant would be compelled 
to get $2,250 out of the place in the way of crops 
sold before he could pay his labor and rental, while, 
as a matter of fact, he will do this much and lay 
aside a moderate amount in addition, so that we are 
probably not very far out of the way in saying that 
this farm will sell products worth very close to 
$3,(><H». If we are able by cooperative methods to 
add seven percent to the selling price of this pro¬ 
duce, it would amount to $210 for the year, about 
four and one-half times as great a result as is pos¬ 
sible to accomplish by purchasing at a discount. As 
a matter of fact, in my opinion, the difference would 
be much greater than this, because we have figured 
a uniform reduction of 7% on everything purchased, 
while we question if the most successful Granges 
have ever been able to accomplish this much or 
apply their methods to the entire list of commo¬ 
dities used, including the hardware, clothing and 
groceries. On the other hand, we believe, the co¬ 
operative selling might very easily bring in 10% 
more if properly handled, than we are likely to get 
without it. My idea of cooperative selling would be 
in the first place, to organize societies that handled 
just one article, say fruit, milk or any one of our 
farm crops. This sort of thing has already been 
done successfully where the producers are enough 
in earnest about it. Witness the great results ac¬ 
complished in certain sections of the country by 
handling fruit cooperatively. My idea would be two¬ 
fold. to have the association handling this produce 
not always try to figure the highest possible prices, 
but constantly to study the features and advise its 
members of best possible methods to be used in 
handling the produce and getting fancy prices; in 
ether words, to teach the producers the necessary 
methods of producing the highest quality, market¬ 
ing it iu the most attractive packages possible and 
thus stimulating the market t<> the highest point. 
It is true that it would be necessary for many farms 
to cooperate in order to make this movement the 
most successful. On that account, it would be easier 
to have one association handle one thing, starting, 
say with milk and fruit, which are commodities 
very easily callable of being handled by association 
methods and in a successful manner. Then if such a 
movement were started, get a thoroughly capable 
man at the head of it and pay him a real good sal¬ 
ary. It would be necessary to do this in order to 
make the project successful and would be one of the 
\ital factors. The manager would need to have 
thorough training in business matters, as well as to 
be thoroughly conversant with the farmer's end. 
Rut such men could readily be found and it would 
be only taking a small amount from each member 
to pay him a sufficient salary to secure his service. 
Ohio. chas. b. wing. 
R. N.-Y.—We call Mr. Wing’s attention to the 
paper by Mr. Tuckerman now being printed in The 
R. N.-Y. See what was done in the Hudson Valley 
through cooperation! We shall report dozens of 
other societies. They are springing up everywhere. 
FARMERS’ WEEK AT CORNELL 
Part 7. 
“This is a fine afternoon; I am so glad that it. is 
only three o’clock.” I thought that it was a fear¬ 
fully cold afternoon, for the mercury had tucked it¬ 
self away under the cipher and was hiding there while 
icy winds swept the hill and drove all but the red¬ 
dest-blooded indoors. There was evidently an en¬ 
thusiasm abroad that defied the cold, however, and 
I looked around at the crowd pouring out of the 
new auditorium to see who it w«s that found the 
afternoon “fine,” and was glad that it was only half 
over. It was one of a number of young women 
hurrying to reach another building and get seats be¬ 
fore the speaker began. That talk wouldn't be given 
again, and if you were not there, you missed it, 
that’s all. To be sure there were a score of other 
things that you wanted to hear, and see, all at 
the same hour, but having fixed upon this, there was 
nothing to do but to run for it. And, best of all the 
women were there, and they were all having such a 
good time, and they came very near to demonstrat¬ 
ing that the foundation of the farm home is equally 
essential to the success of a farmers’ meeting. May¬ 
be it was a mistake; putting that new building de¬ 
voted to the teaching of home economics so near to 
the agricultural building, and making a good walk 
between; still, the agricultural building was crowded 
too, and no one, whether he talked about raising 
buckwheat or spraying fruit trees, nad any need to 
complain of the lack of an attentive and interested 
audience. 
The experience meetings were not all held in the 
lecture rooms, either. Whenever you went, through 
corridors or into exhibit rooms, you would see 
groups of men. perhaps by themselves, or maybe 
gathered about some agricultural teacher whom 
they had recognized and “nailed” on the spot; and 
if you stopped to listen a moment, you would hear 
the jargon of agriculture. When men get together 
at times like this to discuss those things in which all 
are interested, all are neighbors; and no one hesi¬ 
tates to break into any group taiGing about some¬ 
thing in which he is interested to contribute his 
mite, or draw a little more out of some one already 
there. 
They make pleasant discoveries in this way, too. 
That quiet spoken, pleasant-appearing man. looking 
at that exhibit of potatoes and chatting with those 
about him, is Martin, the drainage expert. You have 
read about some of the things that he has done, and 
it does you a lot of good to get next to him and 
absorb a little of his personality. When you read 
about any of his work again, you will feel ac¬ 
quainted with him. That man over there explaining 
some things about bee keeping to an interested 
group is House; and that man hurrying through the 
corridor, stopping only to greet an acquaintance 
with a smile and impart a little of his contagious 
enthusiasm, is Rice; you have read about Rice; he 
invented hens. A lot of these men whom you have 
read about, or heard about, for years, and 
who have sort of grown to the proportions 
of giants in your mind, prove to be just 
common, whole-souled, neighborly men when you 
get next to them at a place like this. A college 
professor has always been a rather awe-inspiring 
thing to most of us, but when you get close enough 
to one to look him in the eye and listen to his voice, 
you find that he is only a pretty good quality of 
clay, after all, and when you get a little better ac¬ 
quainted with him. you don’t mind calling him 
THE STORY OF A CO-OPERATIVE SUCCESS. 
Part III. 
FUTURE POSSIBILITIES.—And we are looking 
ahead to the time when we can use our Exchange 
for much wider purposes than now. We see no 
reason why we should not have our own fertilizer 
plants, as the Monmouth County Exchange in New 
Jersey has; our own package factories, canning fac¬ 
tories, cold storage, etc. We would have our own 
fruit trains to New York now if there were room 
in the Weehawken yards to unload. But there we 
are up against the milk trains of the West Shore, 
O. & W. and Ulster & Delaware roads on one side 
and the trackage of the National Express Company 
on the other. But we shall work that out in time. 
Now we are obliged to ship by express unless we 
February 2S, 
want to risk the delays of boats at about the same 
rates. 
FIGHTING OPPOSITION.—At the meeting of 
this society last year, reference was made to a 
cement deal where a concern, after selling direct 
to farmers, found a combination of dealers against 
it in that district, and the claim was made that 
much business was lost thereby. That is purely an 
economic matter. If that concern was selling satis¬ 
factory cement direct to one group of men, it is 
more than likely that others in the same neighbor¬ 
hood would quickly avail themselves of the oppor¬ 
tunity, and the company would find that its business 
tended to grow, in spite of opposition by the dealers. 
Opposition to our Exchange has stopped at nothing 
so far in the effort to put us out of business, but 
we notice that concerns having fertilizer, feed, etc., 
to sell seem very anxious to deal with us, and now 
even outside commission men are applying for ap¬ 
pointment by us, where at the start they scoffed. 
IMPROVING CREDIT.—But further still than 
this: We all know that the farmer has had to pay 
seven and eight per cent, and more for money in the 
past. Each of you doubtless know of men in your 
community who have made fortunes lending money 
to farmers on mortgages, usually at the highest rate 
that they were able to squeeze, and you all know 
of good, industrious neighbors who have been forced 
out because they could not meet short term notes. 
No other business in the world has better security 
than we have, and none other has so much trouble 
getting money on terms to enable us to make per¬ 
manent advance. Now, we suddenly found when our 
Exchange wanted to buy stuff by the carload, that 
our notes were welcome at the banks. As one banker, 
who knew all about our little $500, said to me, when 
I wanted $1,500 for the Exchange: "Why sure, and 
as much more as you need.” It was our joint credit 
he was sure of. And it is that joint credit that has 
made possible the really tremendous business we 
have done. Why not go a step further in coopera¬ 
tion, and use that joint credit which hitherto has 
min idle and gone to waste? 
1,L '” 1 uiuv oiftlE, ulVAlMOL. 
Part II. 
The matter of the use of traction engines on high¬ 
ways came up for consideration, and action favorable 
to the contention of the Brotherhood of Thrashermon 
that traction engines used by tbrashermen should 
virtually be exempt from the rules and regulations 
recently made by the Highways Department, was taken. 
They asked that traction engines of the same style 
as those now in use "may be used for thrashing and 
other agricultural purposes” on the highways. It was 
stated that the amount of money invested in traction 
engines used in the State is more than $5,<)o6,00<), and 
that other machinery such as thrashing machines, sepa¬ 
rators. clover lmllers, etc., to the value of $5.0()0,0<)0 
more would be rendered useless while the engines were 
being remodeled to conform to the rules of the depart¬ 
ment. 
Two or three resolutions concerning plans for co¬ 
operative buying and selling came before the committee 
on cooperation, but did not find favor with the Grange 
when the delegates were called upon to act on them 
One of ( these provided for the creation of a State 
Patrons Produce Association, the members thereof to 
com- from the Pomona Granges of the State. Another 
asked for the appointment of a supervisor of cooperative 
societies who should also give instruction in any matters 
pertaining to cooperation, and whose salary should be 
not more than $4,000. Neither met with favor. The 
idea of establishing a Bureau of Markets in connection 
with the Pomona Granges of the State also failed 
to carry. 
The best method to deal with some propositions is to 
ridicule them, and this was neatly done regarding the 
so-called veal law now before Congress, which declares 
that no veal calf under seven years of age shall be 
killed, etc The committee on trusts hadn’t much 
to do this year, so it produced a resolution “making 
it a misdemeanor for any person to offer for sale any 
chicken less than eight, any fowl less than 15, any 
goose less than 25, any beef cattle less than 20, any 
hog less than 18. any sheep less than 15 and any eggs 
less than three years old” The Grange “adopted” 
the report with all the dignity at command at the time, 
which wasn’t much. 
To prohibit the manufacture and sale of all malt and 
spirituous liquors by a constitutional amendment iu 
1010; opposing the Congressional free seed distribution: 
recommending the continuation of Orange scholarships; 
amending the drainage laws so that tne owner of low, 
wet land, capable of improvement by draining through 
adjacent lands may have the right to do so without 
long and expensive proceedings; favoring a constitu¬ 
tional amendment permitting women to vote; favoring 
the use of school houses as social centres for the com¬ 
munity ; favoring the loaning by the Federal government 
«>f the deposits of the postal savings banks directly to 
farmers at the same rate of interest as to National 
banks; opposing the resolution to establish a permanent 
home for the State Grange as headquarters and place 
for annual meeting; favoring a s.vst-m of unification of 
agricultural education: asking legislation to preclude 
brokers in farm lands from accepting a commission 
on sales unless there is a written contract with the 
owners; asking for an increase of jurors’ fees in 
justices’ courts from 25 cents to $2 per day; asking 
for a censorship of popular songs offered for sale to 
cut out those immoral or suggestive: ravoring a county 
option bill to control^the liquor traffic by counties; ap¬ 
proving a fine of $25 for Sunday hunters; advocating 
the appropriation of moneys by the State for new 
buildings at the Geneva Experiment Station; commend¬ 
ing Gov. Glynn for his interest in agricultural legisla¬ 
tion and the farmer’s behalf; demanding that the State 
pay for all cattle killed by its agents; better market 
roads. j. m. harrow. 
