1914. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
63c» 
THE FOOD AND MARKET BILL. 
The cooperative bill creating a Department of 
Foods and Markets passed the Legislature just be¬ 
fore adjournment last week. The bill was spon¬ 
sored from the first by Governor Glynn. It was in¬ 
troduced just two weeks before adjournment; and 
went before the Legislature with a special message 
in its favor. From the start it proved one of the 
most popular measures that has been proposed in 
years. Farmers saw its merits at once, and indorsed 
it at sight. The city papers gave columns to the 
Governor's plea for it and editorial approval be¬ 
sides. City consumers saw the possibilities in it for 
them, and approved. The commission men and food 
speculators did not see the possibilities of good in 
it for producers and consumers until the last two 
days. Then they got very busy, but the work was 
done. They tried the only available trick of pre¬ 
venting a vote in the Assembly. They delayed, but 
they could not entirely defeat the bill. The men 
they relied on to do the work stood loyally behind 
the bill, and it went through the Assembly just be¬ 
fore adjournment SS to 30. 
We gave an outline of this bill two weeks ago. 
The principles of it have been much discussed in 
these columns. We have space for only a short 
reference this week. Briefly the bill provides the 
machinery of a free and open channel for the sale 
of farm food products direct from the farm to the 
city consumer without obstruction of any kind ex¬ 
cept the necessary licensed and bonded auctioneer 
through whom the goods must pass. It is the first 
intelligent and systematic effort to increase the 
value of the producer’s dollar above 35 cents. 
Governor Glynn worked hard, intelligently and 
effectively for this measure. We congratulate him. 
Senator Wheeler, who introduced it in the Senate, 
did a valuable service, and credit is due the Senate 
for putting it through promptly. 
And here is something for farmers to remember. 
This bill was introduced in the Assembly by min¬ 
ority leader A. E. Smith, a Tammany Hall repre¬ 
sentative from New York. He stood by the bill loy¬ 
ally. It could not have become a law in the situa¬ 
tion of the last few days without his services. Let 
farmers score just one point for Tammany. But 
Governor Glynn, Mr. Smith and Tammany, all com¬ 
bined, could not have got it through the Republican 
Assembly this year without the aid of Speaker 
Sweet. The bill went into the rules committee three 
days after its introduction. Speaker Sweet had its 
fate in his hands, and the result testifies to his ap¬ 
proval and influence. 
Credit is due others that we have no space at 
this late moment to record. Some of the Progres¬ 
sives deserve a big bunch of praise. One other fac¬ 
tor we cannot neglect—farmers themselves, and es¬ 
pecially the State Standing Committee on Coopera¬ 
tion fought valiantly for the bill. They responded 
promptly to every call and they created the senti¬ 
ment which made the measure possible. Now for a 
better dollar. j. j. n. 
Financing Southern Cotton Planters. 
Part I. 
If any man doubts the necessity of a system of co¬ 
operative farm credits, let him go South and study the 
economic conditions of the cotton planters. The prin¬ 
ciples that govern credits in the South are the same 
old principles we find in all countries and all places 
at all times when individual producers are dependent 
on money-lenders for capital to use in productive oper¬ 
ations. These principles yet govern in the North and 
in the West, and in Europe as well as in America. 
They are emphasized in the South at the present time, 
because education there is not general, and because the 
system and the climate has developed there a peculiarly 
improvident class of producers. The conditions are 
such that a class of money-lenders operating as a unit 
furnish capital and credit to a class of producei's acting 
as individuals. The principles governing a condition 
of this kind are always the same no matter when or 
where they operate. The men, no matter how few, 
who control the capital, control the producers, no mat¬ 
ter how many. The producer gets enough to sustain 
life and to keep him in operation. The money-lender 
gets the surplus of every other man’s pi*oductions and 
the accumulation of these individual surpluses makes 
him rich, while the producers necessarily remain poor. 
Of course an individual producer of special ability, per¬ 
severance and prudence occasionally rises above the 
conditions that fetter his neighbors, but the exceptions 
are no more than enough to prove the rule. The lender 
always exacts the highest possible rate for the use of 
money, and the borrower when helpless will always 
concede whatever demand is made. The lender finds 
his best opportunity for extortion where security is 
insufficient to guarantee the payment of the loan, yet 
where economic conditions make the risk practically 
safe. 
English money is loaned to farmers in Ireland to the 
full appraised value of the farm at 3% per cent, in¬ 
terest to be amortized in 67% years on an annual pay¬ 
ment of one-quarter of one per cent. The Irish farmer 
pays 3% per cent for 67% years; and the farm is then 
free of mortgage. English money is invested in farm 
land debentures up to 66% of the land values of Den¬ 
mark, France, Germany and other European countries 
at from three to four per cent, interest per annum, but 
English money is loaned in the State of Georgia on 
farm mortgages at eight per cent, per annum, and loans 
are made there up to only 40 per cent, of the value of 
the property. In addition to the interest the Georgia 
farmer must pay the cost of appraisal, the attorney’s 
fees and disbursement for searching records and guaran¬ 
teeing title; and the expense of drawing papers and 
recording titles. The mortgages, payable in bulk, run 
from one to five years. One English company loans for 
10 years in special cases, but in such cases a substan¬ 
tial annual payment on the principal is demanded. 
It is, however, in the matter of personal credits that 
the southern planter finds his greatest embarrassment. 
The conditions in Augusta, Georgia, are somewhat 
typical, but the system there is conducted with more 
moderation than in some other sections of the South. 
Some of the individual planters own their land; others 
rent it. In many cases the “Cotton Factor” owns large 
tracts of land and rents it to the planters. The “Cotton 
Factor” has an office and a warehouse in the city. He 
furnishes the capital during the season; and handles 
the cotton when it is ready for delivery. 
March first is the time of making contracts with the 
factors,in Augusta. The “factor’s” offices line the 
streets in the cotton section. During the first week of 
March the main street in this section is crowded with 
planters of both white and black, and their wives and 
children, with their horses, mules and wagons, all 
waiting their turn to make arrangements with one “fac¬ 
tor” or another for the necessai-y amount of credit to 
grow the next year’s crop. Every planter is treated as 
a unit. Every contract is an individual contract. Some 
planters are worthy of more ci-edit than others, and 
they get it; but the “factor” makes sure as far as 
human foresight can go. He takes a mortgage on 
everything in sight, including the mule, the plow, the 
harness and any other chattel the planter may own. 
He cannot mortgage the prospective cotton crop, be¬ 
cause that is not grown; but he contracts for the pur¬ 
chase of it when l'eady for delivery, and later mi makes 
payment on the purchase. The planter is rated by 
the number of plows he operates, but his loan is not 
made to him in bulk at the time the contract is made. 
He simply gets an advance from time to time as his 
needs demand and his condition warrants. In this way 
the “factor” is in a position to keep an eye on the 
planter during the growing season, and if necessary 
suggest or even dictate what the planter is to do. The 
usual rate for these loans is one per cent, a month or 
12 per cent, a year. In Augusta I was told that some 
loans were made as low as eight per cent.; and that 
interest was paid only up to the time the cotton was 
delivered ; but it is not an uncommon custom to charge 
interest at the rate of 12 per cent, for the full year. 
In cases where the “factor” is not himself finan¬ 
cially able to handle the operation with his own 
money, he assigns his contracts with the planter to the 
bank, and gets a loan in order to keep up payments to 
the planters from time to time during the year, and 
in some eases when this not sufficient, he negotiates 
credit with the tradesmen, millers and fertilizer con¬ 
cerns, to help out until after the picking season. 
_ J. J. D. 
Those New York City Workers. 
Farmers have sent us a number of i-eports about 
that carload of working men sent fron New York to 
Fonda as an experiment. They seem to have been 
above the ordinary class of workmen, and were well 
received as a rule by the farmers who saw them. Some 
of these men were capable of doing good work from the 
start, while othex-s knew little about farming, but ap¬ 
peared to be stx-ong and willing. The trouble with most 
of them was that they expected too much for their ser¬ 
vices. Many of them demanded $35 a month and their 
board. It takes an expert hired man to earn that 
amount of money for farm or ordinary work, and 
frankly, a great maixy of these men were not worth 
that pi-ice. Most of them held out for it, however, and 
thus they were not all employed at Fonda, although 
they could have obtained jobs had they been willing to 
work for less money. Some of these men made a mis¬ 
take in demanding such high figures. They did not 
have the farm experience to justify them in demanding 
high-class wages. They could have found work for 
less money, and with experience might have been worth 
the price they demanded. These city workmen will 
make a mistake if they expect too much from farmers 
in the way of wages. The experiment shows that there 
are workmen in the city who could be made very use¬ 
ful to our farmers after they learn more about country 
living and farm work, but these men cannot expect that 
New York farmers could ever afford to pay $35 a month 
and board for labor which is not of high class. 
New York State News. 
GLYNN ON GOOD ROADS.—There is no doubt 
that Governor Glynn has the knack of summoning facts 
and figures in convincing array, to his command. He 
was lately an editor. lie writes in concise and con¬ 
vincing terms. About the matter of expenditures for 
our highway system, he begins his message to the Legis¬ 
lature. March 23, in these words: “New York is en¬ 
gaged in building 12,000 miles of road, which will wear 
out 40 years before they a re paid for. Unless the 
State makes a radical change in the type of roads it 
builds it will cost from $20,000,000 to $30,000,000 
yearly to maintain and rebuild New York’s highways 
when the present system is completed.” He continues 
by saying that the cost of building macadam roads is 
$12,000 per mile and that these roads will nert last 
more than 10 years. At the end of these 10 years it 
will cost at least $6,000 per mile to x’ebuild them, and 
the State will have little to show for its expenditure of 
$250,000,000. “In the 20 years thereafter,” he contin¬ 
ues, “the tax for highways will be at least $20,000,- 
000 each year, if our roads are to be kept in proper 
condition.” The Governor’s proposition is to use vitri¬ 
fied brick instead of macadam. A brick road costs from 
$20,000 to $25,000 per mile to build but it will last 
for 25 years, as it has been px-oveu by the hardest kind 
of traffic over them in the cities, and the annual cost 
of maintaining them does not exceed $50 per mile. He 
also recommends that the State go into the business of 
manufacturing vitrified brick on its own account and 
thereby greatly reducing the cost of the same. He re¬ 
commends that prison labor be used and it is his be¬ 
lief that these roads can be built for $15,000 per mile, 
and on this basis the total cost of a mile of brick road 
for 20 yeax-s would be $16,000 as against $36,000 for 
macadam roads. “An idea of the importance of the 
economy I propose,” says the Governor, “may be gained 
from the fact that the total saving in the 7.300 miles 
of road yet to be constructed would amount to $146,- 
000,000 in the 20 years after their completion, or more 
than the total cost of constructing our entire system 
of highways.” 
COMMISSIONER IIUSON REAPPOINTED.—On 
March 25 Gov. Glynn sent the nomination of Calvin 
J. Huson to the Senate, to be State Commissioner of 
Agriculture, and it was immediately confirmed. This 
reappointment of Commissioner Huson will give general 
satisfaction to the farmers of the State. The Governor 
also nominated John F. Farrell, of New Yox - k, to be 
State Superintendent of Weights and Measures, to suc¬ 
ceed Fritz Reichmann who resigned. This nomination 
was referred to the finance committee but will be con¬ 
firmed later. Geo. W. Driscoll, of Syracuse, was re¬ 
nominated to the position of State Fair Commissioner. 
His nomination was immediately confirmed. The sal¬ 
ary of the Commissioner of Agriculture was increased 
from $6,000 to $8,000 by a bill passed at the close of 
the session. 
SOME NEW LAWS.—The Governor has signed the 
following bills: Chap. 60—Authorizing the construction 
of State and county highways by counties and towns 
as contractors, with convict labor, and providing for 
the purchase of machinery and tools. Chap. 61—Auth¬ 
orizing the supervision of any county to provide for the 
impi’ovement of the highways in one or more towns at 
joint expense of county and town, and to prepare a 
definite system of county roads, and to employ convict 
labor. Chap. 64—Prohibiting the use of gasoline trac¬ 
tion engines on public highways unless a person is sent 
ahead to give warning. Chap. 66—Providing that if 
farm or lot is divided by a line of tax districts and it 
consists of two or more pai'cels, with separate dwelling 
houses or other principal buildings, a portion of such 
farm lying in each district shall be separately assessed 
therein. As there have been 1,300 bills introduced in 
the Senate and about 1,500 in the Assembly, it is fair to 
presume that a very small minority of them will become 
law's. 
NEW FORESTRY BUILDING.—The construction 
of the new building for the College of Forestry at Syra¬ 
cuse University will be begun in April. It is intended 
to be the most complete and best equipped building of 
its kind in the United States. The low'est bids for its 
construction call for an expenditure of $224,000 while 
the legislature’s appropx-iation was $250,000. The 
amount available for actual building operations is $240,- 
000 the difference of $10,000 goes into the fund for ad- 
ministi'ation expenses, etc. 
BOYS TO THE FARMS.—New York City has pur¬ 
chased a tract of about 600 acres of land at Denton, 
N. Y., near Middletown, for its new refox-m work. The 
plan is to erect necessary buildings and conduct modern 
farming under the direction of experts. Much atten¬ 
tion will be given to poulti-y and gardening for the 
New York markets. The first company of boys from 
the reformatory on Hart’s Island, New’ York, arrived 
at the farm some days ago and it is expected that 
within a few weeks there will be 300 boys there. 
COW TEST ASSOCIATIONS.—A campaign for 
arousing the interest of farmers of Jeffei’son County 
to the need of weeding out their unprofitable cows, has 
been begun by County Agent Robertson, of the Farm 
Bureau. He proposes to educate the farmers to the 
necessity of doing this by holding a series of meetings 
at eight different places in the county, and it is worthy 
of mention that all these meetings but one are held in 
Grange halls showing that the Farm Bureau has the co¬ 
operation of the Granges in this matter. 
RURAL DEATH RATE COMPARISONS.—Some 
of the county Gi'anges of the State have taken issue 
with the statement, which caused considerable comment 
at the State Grange meeting, and which appeared in 
the report of the tubei'culosis committee to the State 
Gnxnge, that the rural death rate is larger than the 
city death rate. It has been held that towns of several 
thousand population should not be classed as in rural 
districts and, further, that deaths of inmates in State 
hospitals located in the country should not be classified 
with the deaths of rural communities. In oi'der to get 
an authoritative statement on this phase of the subject 
we interrogated Dr. Herman M. Biggs, State Commis¬ 
sioner of Health, who in a pex'sonal letter said, among 
other things: “Instead of deci-easing the death rate in 
the rural districts you would find that if the deaths 
of non-residents occurring in the cities, where so many 
persons are taken for hospital treatment, were charged 
to the district in which they have legal residence the 
death rate in the rural districts would be increased. I 
realize the fact of course that deaths occurring in in¬ 
stitutions located in the rural districts would mate¬ 
rially increase the death x - ate of such places, but if we 
eliminated from consideration all deaths of persons oc¬ 
curring in State institutions the rural rate would ex¬ 
ceed that of the cities by at least one point.” 
According to the January Bulletin, issued by the de¬ 
partment, cities and villages of over 6.000 population 
are included in the urban ten-itory, or in other words, 
all towns and villages up to 6.000 population are classi¬ 
fied in the rural districts. The commissioner has had 
the statistics classified, confining to the rural districts 
all towns and villages under 2,500 population, and 
finds that the death rate for such rural districts is 15.3. 
The death rate of Gi’eater New York is 13.7. It is a 
most striking contrast. Dr. Biggs says: “By exclud 
ing all places above 2,500 and including such statistics 
with those of our cities, the rural death i*ate is de¬ 
creased only one-tenth of a point and exceeds that of 
the rest of the State by nearly one point.” Of course, 
it is understood that under the present method of class¬ 
ification of mortality records all deaths are credited to 
the locality in which they occur. 
