15)15. 
THE RURAE NEW-YORKER 
DEPARTMENT OF FOODS AND MARKETS. 
First Report of the Commission. 
Part I. 
EEDS IN DISTRIBUTION.—The Department 
of Foods and Markets was proposed to find a 
profitable market for the products of the farms 
of the State of New York, and at the same time to 
provide such an economic system of distribution of 
farm food products that through the saving, the farm¬ 
er will receive more and the consumer may pay less. 
The need of the service is found in the wasteful, ex¬ 
travagant and, in many cases, irresponsible practice 
that now prevails in the distribution of farm food 
products, at both the producing and consuming centers. 
The individual farmer is unable to furnish a steady 
supply for' the families or hotels or dealers in his local 
town, and is therefore individually unable to satisfy 
the demands of a local trade. When he has made oc¬ 
casional attempts to improve his products by careful 
grading and superior packing, the returns from metro¬ 
politan markets have been discouraging and dishearten¬ 
ing, so that he has got into the way of shipping his 
products as they come from the field in individual lots, 
and takes his chances on the condition of the city mar¬ 
kets and the honesty of the city consignees. On his 
shipments in individual lots he is obliged to pay the 
highest freight or express rates and the goods are sub¬ 
ject to the greatest danger of deterioration and decay. 
T.ACK OF MARKET KNOWLEDGE—For the 
most part these goods are shipped to the cities without 
previous knowledge of the condition of the markets, 
with the result that the city markets are often glutted 
with similar products and the goods are sold at ruinous 
prices. These same goods are often assembled in the 
city markets and are returned to the farmer’s home 
town in quantities to supply the local trade, and after 
paying the freight both ways and the city expenses and 
profits, the goods are sold in the local town either by 
peddlers or dealers at a price less than the original 
cost of production. In the city wholesale markets, the 
prices vary violently from day to day, and often during 
periods of the same day, but the high level cost is al¬ 
ways maintained to the city consumer, so that the low 
return to the farmer does not stimulate an extra con¬ 
sumption, and in no way tends to absorb the surplus. 
Much of the food spoils and enormous waste results. 
CITY CONDITIONS.—In New York City the ter¬ 
minal conditions are chaotic and wasteful in the ex¬ 
treme. In the early evening wagons and trucks be¬ 
gin to appear at the pier entrances and maneuver for 
positions. The produce is piled on the piers in spaces 
assigned the different receivers. About two o’clock in 
the morning the gates are opened and the teams scram¬ 
ble in for their loads. The wildest confusion prevails. 
It is usually 30 o’clock in the forenoon before the last 
truckload disappears. It costs money to keep men 
and teams in that waiting line all night and their ex¬ 
pense must be paid by the producers and consumers 
of the produce. We have the cheapest form of trans¬ 
portation on the deep rivers that surround New York, 
but we discharge our food stuffs on the extreme end of 
our long and narrow island, and cart it back through 
the long streets by the most expensive means that could 
well be devised. Some of it is carted to the commission 
warehouse, then to the wholesale and again to a job¬ 
ber, and not infrequently to a second jobber before it 
is taken on the retailer’s wagon. It is subject to sev¬ 
eral handlings and as many profits. As the quality de¬ 
clines the prices increase. It requires no argument 
to show that goods shipped from a long distance in 
refrigerator cars, deteriorate rapidly in journeys around 
the city in an open wagon on a hot day. 
A COSTLY PLAN.—This practice is wasteful, de¬ 
moralizing and unsatisfactory to all concerned; even 
the men who are in the system and to some extent re¬ 
sponsible for it are dissatisfied with it. The best men 
in the trade condemn the system. They make no apol¬ 
ogies for it and endure it only because they fear a bet¬ 
ter system may disturb their present routine. No one 
is satisfied with our present system of distribution. 
The cost of distribution of farm food products is 65% 
<>f the price paid by consumers. On every dollar paid 
by customers for farm food products, 65 cents is paid 
for delivery from the country depot to the consumers’ 
door. The farmer gets 35 cents for producing it, for 
harvesting it, for packing it, for carting it to the rail- 
ion, and for purchasing a container for it. 
; cannot ask the farmer to take less, nor can 
__ . .ne consumer to pay more. We can only at¬ 
tack the 65% distribution expense, and there is room 
here for economies. 
REFORM AT THE FARM—The system of reform 
must begin at the farm. We propose to organize the 
producers in each section into a cooperative selling as¬ 
sociation, and enable them to sell their products in 
their local towns. For this purpose they will rent or 
build a packing house or shipping station for them¬ 
selves, at their own expense. The shipping station will 
also serve as a market for the local town. They will 
employ qualified management to assort, grade and pack 
the products. This will give the local station a steady 
supply during any season of production and the local 
families and hotels and dealers will be supplied in pro¬ 
portion to their wants. The surplus of the neighbor- 
nood will be shipped, after grading and packing in 
refrigerated or other cars as required, to metropolitan 
markets where the class of goods is in best demand. 
The information as to the demand and the prices pre¬ 
vailing will be furnished by the Department of Foods 
and Markets. 
TERMINAL RECEIVING STATIONS in New 
York City are the first requisite. These terminals 
must be distributed over the metropolitan district for 
the receipt and distribution of foodstuffs from every¬ 
where, so that the food may be discharged approxi¬ 
mately in the section of consumption so as to avoid the 
present great congestion and delay in distribution. 
These terminals must be located so that cars can run 
into the buildings and be discharged into storage or 
into trucks for delivery to retail stores as required. 
The ground floor must have properly arranged car 
tracks, platforms and elevators and the upper stories 
of the buildings must provide cold storage, dry stor¬ 
age and manufacturing plant to take care of the surplus 
and over-ripened products. 
A BEGINNING IN TERMINALS.—Three of these 
terminal markets have been offered on rental to the 
Department without cost to the State. The Depart¬ 
ment proposes to develop only one or two of these 
terminal markets at a time. It is proposed that these 
markets be accessible by trackage and lighterage to all 
of the railroads entering the city so that a carload 
of produce may be received into the market from any 
section of the country over any roads entering the 
city. Each market must be provided with a dry 
storage and cold storage and manufacturing plant to 
save the tender products and surplus. They must be 
operated under the supervision of the department to 
insure free, open trading and a fair and equitable re¬ 
turn to the producer. The products will be received in 
definite grades and weights, under a label from the pro¬ 
ducer. Salesmen will be licensed and their commissions 
fixed by the department. Official records of the weight 
and grade and price and of the name and address of 
the purchasers will be made and preserved to satisfy 
the producer and to furnish a basis of quotations for 
both the producer and consumer. 
New York State News. 
3VERAL MEETINGS AT CANTON.—The at¬ 
tendance at the meetings at Canton during Farm¬ 
ers’ Week was very gratifying. Several associa¬ 
tions elected officers and transacted business of special 
interest to each. The Corn Growers’ Association 
elected Major W. II. Daniels president; C. F. Wheeler, 
vice-president, and G. N. Ilalligan of Canton, secre¬ 
tary and treasurer. The Ayrshire Association elected 
George II. Converse president and A. F. Spooner of 
Ilichville secretary and treasurer. The Holstein As¬ 
sociation chose F. W. Ames of Morristown president, 
Seth Strickland of Carthage, vice-president; Floyd C. 
Overton of Adams, secretary, and Newell Hutchins 
of Ileuvelton, treasurer. 
EXCISE COMMISSIONER’S REPORT.—W. W. 
Farley, State Excise Commissioner, has some interest¬ 
ing things to say in his annual report to the Legisla¬ 
ture. They are facts that should be contemplated. 
There are in this State 23,373 licensed drinking places, 
of which number 16,628 are saloons and 6,745 hotels. 
The receipts from the saloons and hotels which carry 
these licenses amounted last year for the fiscal year 
ended September 30, to $18,109,260.61. There was 
collected by the department last year from cafe pro¬ 
prietors who sought to evade the law, the sum of $462,- 
998, through prosecution of bond actions against certifi¬ 
cate holders. The commissioner won 114 cases brought 
to revoke licenses. The number of no-license towns 
in the State is 407, while there are 384 license towns 
and 142 which have partial licenses. Based upon a 
population in the State of 10,000,000, each drinking 
place represents 428 people. 
BILLS INTRODUCED.—Two bills have recently 
been introduced in the Legislature affecting farmers’ 
interests. One amends the penal law in relation to 
unloading and feeding animals in t.ansportation. It 
increases the number of consecutive hours without un¬ 
loading from 24 to 28. The other bill relates to the 
Bureau of Weights and Measures. It adds a new sub¬ 
division to the consolidated laws, known as article 14 
of the agricultural law, the new ,ubdivision to be 
known as 321, which establishes the office of Commis¬ 
sioner of Weights and Measures. The Commissioner 
of Agriculture is “authorized to appoint a scientific 
man of sufficient learning and mechanical tact to per¬ 
form the duties heretofore imposed upon the Superin¬ 
tendent of Weights and Measures, which office shall be 
known as the Commissioner of Weights and Measures.” 
The salary connected with the office is $3,500 a year, 
and the term of office coincides with that of the Com¬ 
missioner of Agriculture. Salaries for deputies, cleri¬ 
cal services, etc., are provided for in the bill. 
Advice to Farmers; 35-Cent Dollar. 
T IE inclosed clipping from the Norwich Bulletin 
gives a good sample of the “guff” which our 
financiers are so fond of giving to the farmer. 
It is a remarkable thing that our bankers, merchants, 
editors, etc., many of whom could not milk a cow or 
grow a hill of corn to save their immortal souls and 
who are as ignorant of the conditions of farm life and 
its problems as they are of life upon the planet Mars, 
feel that they know the very key to the farmer’s suc¬ 
cess or failure. 
If I should attempt to tell one of our great bankers 
or merchants how to conduct his business more suc¬ 
cessfully he would very properly tell me that I did 
not know what I was talking about and to mind my 
own affairs. Nevertheless the same man would con¬ 
sider himself fully qualified to give me a fatherly dis¬ 
sertation upon how to increase the profits of my farm. 
They seem to hold the opinion that the farmers are a 
lot of benighted simpletons, more ignorant than the 
Russian peasant, and that they themselves are, as 
Mr. Baer once said, divinely appointed to conduct the 
business of the country, farming included. 
Connecticut. a. b. Roberts. 
The article in the Norwich Bulletin is one of the 
most sensible statements we have read. It appears 
that “The Wall Street Journal” had an article on 
“Farm Increase,” stating that more than half our 
farmers had an income of less than $640 per year. 
Then this wise owl from Wall Str^t goes on to say 
225 
this is due to the farmer’s ignorance and failure to 
appreciate what others are doing for him. 
In commenting on this the writer in the Norwich 
Bulletin gets right down to business and says among 
other things: 
“This farmer has a small place, from which he sells 
some milk and some potatoes and some vegetables and 
some fruit, etc. Last year he sold to the city 10,000 
quarts of milk. The consumers paid $800 for it. The 
farmer got $“>12. 
“He sold 300 bushels of potatoes. The consumers 
paid—I take my figures from yesterday’s advertise¬ 
ment of a big New York department bargain store— 
$300 for them. The farmer got $135. 
“He sold 100 barrels of apples. The consumers paid 
for them—advertised prices again—$325 for ninety 
barrels of Greenings and Baldwings, and about $100 
more for ten barrels of Spitzcnbergs—‘ONLY 26 cents 
a dozen !”—$425 in all. The farmer got $90 for them. 
“He sold 500 bushels of onions. The consumers paid 
—advertised price once more—$2.11 a bushel for them 
in five-quart baskets, $1,055 in all. The farmer got 
$285. 
“He also sold a few carrots and parsnips and ruta¬ 
bagas, another 100 bushels all told, for which he got an 
average of 50 cents a bushel, $50 in all. The consumer, 
according to the advertising prices, was charged at 
the rate of $2 a bushel for them, or $200 for the lot. 
“We won’t go any further with his sales. It ap¬ 
pears from the above that the consumer paid $2,780 
for the produce which this farmer raised and sent to 
market. 
“It appears that the farmer himself got $872. 
“Where the other $1,908 went is, asking pardon 
from the Wall Street gentleman for presuming to 
differ with him, a matter of very much more importance 
to both farmer and consumer than any increase of pro¬ 
duction up here in Podunk Hollow or over on Hard¬ 
scrabble Heights. 
“Does any reasonable man pretend that the farmer 
who took 57 cents a bushel for his onions, because he 
couldn’t get any more from “the market,” is in any 
degree to blame for the fact that the consumer had to 
pay at the rate of $2.11 a bushel for those same onions, 
in peck lots at a New York city store? 
“Would that farmer have got any more per bushel 
if he had raised 1,000 bushels instead of 500? 
“Would the consumer have been mulcted any less? 
“The farm value of this particular farmer’s produce 
was $872. It took $1,908 to get that $872 worth of 
truck to the eaters thereof. 
“There is a condition of things which really merits 
the consideration of Wall Street intellects. 
“The mere statement of it is an indictment and con¬ 
viction of the system under which it is possible—con¬ 
viction of inefficiency, of rapacity, of extortion, of 
pillage. 
“The reason why even the good farmer hasn’t in 
this twentieth century an average income equal to the 
average wage of a coal miner, is not because he doesn’t 
raise enough stuff, but because he gets on an average 
('nly 35 cents of any dollar which the consumer pays 
for it.” 
New York and White Eggs. 
I BEG leave to quote the following from the Amer¬ 
ican Poultry Advocate, because it brings up a mat¬ 
ter that I should like very much to see thrashed 
out in the columns of The It. N.-Y., the big Hail 
being in the hands of the editor. 
“In New York white eggs bring more per dozen 
than brown,” says the writer. “This is merely a mat¬ 
ter of looks as far as New York is concerned. Actual 
tests will prove that brown eggs have more flavor 
and are richer for cooking than white ones. Of course, 
poorly-fed fowls will produce eggs containing little 
nutriment, but fed alike the birds that lay dark-shelled 
eggs will ‘take the cake’ and make it rich every time. 
Eleven Brahma eggs, or Rhode Island Reds, or Barred 
Rocks will go as far in cooking as a dozen Leghorn 
or Minorca eggs.” 
Is there any reason why New York City should pre¬ 
fer white eggs to brown ones other than the mere 
color of the shell? In about 30 years’ experience with 
poultry I have never yet been able to discover any 
essential difference in quality between a white and a 
brown egg, provided that the hens that produced them 
were kept under like conditions. I have proved to my 
own satisfaction that the feeding has much to do with 
the weight and quality of eggs, whether the shells are 
white or brown. Is the discrimination of the New York 
market against brown and tinted eggs anything more 
than fancy? If it is fancy—and a fancy that has 
reached some of the up-State cities—then why can’t 
something be said or done to convince consumers that 
there is really no difference in quality between a white 
and a brown egg? Otherwise a large number of poul- 
trymen of the State of New York, who are keeping 
American varieties, will have to go out of business. 
In this locality there are a number of men who keep 
Wyandottes, Rocks, or Reds, that produce an abund¬ 
ance of Winter eggs—large, brown or tinted eggs, of 
standard weight, from well-fed hens—who are finding 
it increasingly difficult to dispose of their product at 
a reasonable price. Some of these plants have layers 
enough to produce one or more cases of eggs each week. 
The local demand is not strong enough to take care of 
half the output, and as the cities are demanding white 
eggs, these henmen find themselves “up against” a 
rather difficult problem. Why don’t they keep Leghorns 
and produce the goods that the market calls for? Some 
of them do, and are able to dispose of their eggs in 
Albany, but the difficulty lies in not being able to get 
enough of them. For the most part, the experience of 
poultr, keepers in this section of Northern New York, 
where the mercury stands below zero for days at a 
time, corresponds with that of the Storrs laying contest 
as noted by Mr. Cosgrove in a recent report: “The 
cold weather certainly does dry up the smaller breeds 
more than it does the larger ones.” And for that 
reason the American varieties are preferred and re¬ 
lied upon for Winter egg-production. Boston, with its 
dark-brown-egg taste is too far away for convenient 
shipping from this point. w. w. L. 
Hudson Falls, N. Y. 
R. N.-Y.—We discussed this question on page 305. 
The demand for white eggs is largely a “fad” and is 
without question dying out. Chemists who have 
analyzed many eggs tell us there is no practical dif¬ 
ference in quality between brown and white shelled. 
This is chiefly a matter of feeding. Of course a large 
egg will go further than a small one. We are selling 
tinted eggs from It. I. Reds at the highest market 
price, and customers are entirely satisfied. Most Amer¬ 
icans prefer poultry with yellow flesh and legs because 
they have been accustomed to that color. Yet when 
they eat one of the white-fleshed birds they may find 
it superior. We feel sure that the New York prejudice 
for white eggs is slowly fading away. 
