THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
651 
HANDLING POTATO SHIPMENTS. 
Last week a representative of the State Food and 
Markets Department was detailed to investigate the 
grading of a carload of potatoes from New York State 
that were shipped at 38 cents per bushel delivered in 
Brooklyn, and some 15 barrels rejected even at that 
price because the potatoes did not grade up to the de¬ 
mands of the buyer. 
While on this errand the representative of the De¬ 
partment discovered a housewife who had, during the 
day, ordered a basket of potatoes for which she paid 25 
cents. The Department man put them on the scales', and 
the 25 cents worth of potatoes weighed just eight 
pounds. This is at the rate of $1.87 per bushel, or 
about 500 per cent profit. It. was learned in the neigh¬ 
borhood that the grocer is reported wealthy and takes 
frequent trips to Europe. 
When the Department gets its terminal markets es¬ 
tablished, it hopes to induce farmers to grade all pota¬ 
toes for the city market by running them over a grading 
machine, and then put them up in peck, half-bushel and 
bushel bags for family city trade. This will do away 
entirely with any question of grades, and it will greatly 
increase the consumption of potatoes because it will be 
impossible for retailers to charge such excessive profits, 
when the potatoes are put up in bags of definite weight 
and the wholesale price published daily. The Depart¬ 
ment is already getting estimates for the bags to be used 
for this purpose: and will publish and furnish descrip¬ 
tion of the grades required by the family and hotel 
trade of New York City. 
WHAT THE MARKET TERMINALS MEAN. 
I don’t think that one farmer out of a hundred has a 
clear idea of what this food and markets terminal will 
mean to him, nor in what way its realization will bene¬ 
fit him. For instance, the farmers in this section raise 
for money crops, hay, wheat, beans, buckwheat, pota¬ 
toes. apples and other fruits, a very small percentage 
making special money crops of potatoes and fruit. 
Ninety-nine per cent of the above crops are sold directly 
to local dealers and shippers (1) who, obviously, would 
reap most of the benefits to be derived from improved 
market facilities. 
2. Will you state as near as you can just what sort 
of. farm products would be handled at these market ter¬ 
minals? 3. Would food products such as meat, fish, poul¬ 
try. eggs, milk, etc., be brought here and distributed or 
would they be handled as at present from the refriger¬ 
ation plants throughout the city. 4. Would commission 
merchants be allowed to receive on consignment farm 
produce at their present location should they choose to 
stay or would they be compelled (o remove to the several 
market terminals? 5. Would the expense of these ter¬ 
minals fall entirely upon the City of New York, or 
would part fall on the State? 6. Granted that these 
market terminals would greatly cheapen the cost of food 
and its distribution to consumers, would not the farmer 
have to ship all his products to these markets on con¬ 
signment before he would reap the benefits? 
Interlaken, N. Y. w. a. it. 
1. Local dealers would share the benefits of better 
marketing conditions, but they would not get it all. 
\\ here the markets are open and free and prices regu¬ 
lated by supply and demand, and honestly published, the 
farmer may send his produce direct to the terminal 
market, and get just what the dealer would get, no more, 
no less. lie will therefore refuse to pay the dealer 
more than a fair reward for any service the dealer may 
be able to render. If the producers organize coopera¬ 
tive associations they would ship in car lots, properly 
graded. This would be the ideal way, and there would 
be no use for a dealer, unless he acted as the salesman 
of the association, which he would probably do. 
2. The terminal markets should be organized to han¬ 
dle all kinds of farm produce, and in fact all kinds of 
food used in a city home. 
3. The markets would handle all meat, poultry and 
dairy products as well as fruits and vegetables. 
4. The commission merchants and wholesale dealers 
would not be required to move to the terminal markets; 
but they would undoubtedly be forced by economic con¬ 
ditions to do so. Producers would not continue to send 
them goods unless the returns equalled the returns from 
the terminal markets, and with the present system of 
expenses in cartage and handling and re-handling, they 
could not compete with a market that received the goods 
direct from the producer in car lots, and sold direct to 
the retailer in open market, thus cutting out a whole 
chain of middlemen and their needless expense. 
• >. The expense of operating the market must not fall 
either on the city or the State. The business must pay 
its own legitimate expense. It pays much more than 
that now. Economically administered a small percent¬ 
age on the sales will pay all the expenses of distribu¬ 
tion. The auctioneers and salesmen will be licensed by 
the State, inspectors will be appointed by the State, and 
the State will keep an official record of every sale, with 
name and address of the buyer. There will be no chance 
to cheat. The producer will get just what the retailer 
pays, less the exact cost of handling. 
• >. The farmer will have tlx; same privilege of selling 
to dealers and speculators that he has now, but he will 
not want to do it. lie does so now because he knows 
that he cannot get a “square deal” in the present mar¬ 
kets in New York or other large cities. When he is 
Mire that he will be treated fairly he will want to ship 
direct and get the full benefit of the market. Some¬ 
times the price will be high, sometimes low. lie under¬ 
stands that. What he wants is just what the stuff will 
bring, lie wants to know that the business is honestly 
conducted, and he wants his money promptly. The 
auctioneers and salesmen of the terminal markets will 
be bonded, and the producer will get his return and 
cheek the following day. 
Aside from the saving there will always be a market 
at some price for food products. It must be remem¬ 
bered that New York State furnishes less than five per 
cent of the food consumed in New York City. Under 
the present system, the prices are kept high to make a 
sale for the best grades that come in from distant. 
States. No matter how plentiful the food in New York 
State, it is held back by high prices to make room for 
western products, in which the dealers are directly or 
indirectly interested. If the commission man or the 
bank in which he is a director has made an advance on 
a line of food products from the West, it is little chance 
a New York State product will have In his hands until 
the other is disposed of, and his advance safely tucked 
away in his pockets. These dealers simply handle the 
goods that afford them the greatest opportunity of profit 
both in the handling and in the financing. With their 
present system of exchanges and quotations, they falsi¬ 
fy market conditions, and block the channels of trade in 
farm food products. The purpose of the terminal mar¬ 
kets proposed by the State Department of Foods and 
Markets is to open this channel, and to sell all food 
products freely and openly on their merits at prices 
regulated by supply and demand. No one can ask more, 
no producer or consumer can ever be satisfied with less. 
THE 35-CENT DOLLAR. 
No. 2.—Some Canadian Apples. 
No one would think of selecting the picture shown 
at Fig. 243 as a work of art, yet we have found that 
people may violate all the laws of art and yet present 
the truth in the most startling way. So we take this 
picture from the Weekly Star of Montreal, Canada, as 
it shows in a graphic way, the distribution of the 
money received for a crop of apples. Let us make this 
one of our 35-cent dollar series. The fruit growers of 
Canada have worked out many organizations for sell¬ 
ing their crop, yet in spite of all, this past year has 
Where The Apple Profits Go. Fig. 243. 
shown some very small dollars. A carload of some 
GOO boxes of No. 2 Jonathan apples were sold in Can¬ 
ada at 70 cents per box. The local and central charges 
were 50 cents a box; with the brokerage added, there 
was left for the growers $00, or 15 cents a box. This 
carload was sold to retailers in Calgary at $1.35 per 
box, which meant a profit of $246 for the wholesaler. 
These apples were retailed out of stores at $1.65 
per box or $990.00 for the carload. 
The local and central association got 30%. 
The railroad 18%. 
The wholesaler 25%. 
The retailer 18%, and 
The grower a scant 9%. 
It is said that it would be possible to sell to the re¬ 
tailer in competition with the brokers at 10 cents per 
box less than their price and still return to the grow¬ 
ers’ organization 95 cents per box instead of the 70 
cents which these growers received. We ask our read¬ 
ers to give careful study to the series of articles we in¬ 
tend to print regarding this 35-cent dollar proposition. 
They will come from all over the country, north, east, 
south, and west. We shall give the facts just as they 
are, and leave it to our readers to thoroughly absorb 
the situation. No remedy that is worth anything can 
be worked out until the farmers of the country first 
of all grasp the situation just as it is and realize just 
what this 35-cent dollar means. We promise to make 
it our business to have this 35-cent dollar thoroughly 
interesting. 
THE LONG ISLAND POTATO EXCHANGE. 
jit was recently reported that this cooperative or¬ 
ganization, doing business on Long Island, had failed, 
and this event was used to claim that cooperative buy¬ 
ing associations will not live since they interfere with 
organized business. In order to give the other side 
we present the following statement showing that the 
Exchange has been reorganized and is once more ready 
for business.] 
When it became known that the Long Island Po¬ 
tato Exchange was in difficulties financially it was 
a very evident source of satisfaction to the many 
different elements of society who had suffered loss 
many different elements of society who had suffered loss 
of profits because of the existence of the Exchange. 
The fertilizer manufacturers rejoiced because as one of 
them said, “’The Exchange has saved the Long Island 
farmers at least $500,000 on the price of fertilizer alone 
since it was organized.” The local dealers rejoiced be¬ 
cause they expected to get the business of the farmers 
and make a good thing out of them. The dealers in 
the city rejoiced because they hoped to make the large 
profits out of the Long Island potatoes that they used 
to make before the Exchange came into the field. The 
Produce News, a paper printed in the interest of the 
commission men and produce dealers, recently in an 
editorial condemned the efforts being made to reorgan¬ 
ize the Exchange. 
Several articles have been published that were some¬ 
what misleading as to the cause of the difficulties and 
the amounts involved. The liabilities were about $60,- 
000 with assets of about the same amount. Of the as¬ 
sets quite a large part were in slow accounts as well 
as several thousand dollars of doubtful accounts. Near¬ 
ly all the farmers located in' our territory are so well 
convinced of the benefits of the Exchange to them that 
they were unwilling that we should go back to the old 
conditions existing before the Exchange started. Con¬ 
sequently steps were taken immediately to reorganize. 
This has now been accomplished and the reorganized 
Exchange is now doing business. It is stronger finan¬ 
cially than the old Exchange ever was. Thirty thou¬ 
sand dollars has been paid in cash, which is double 
the amount of stock the old Exchange had issued. Ar¬ 
rangements have been made to pay the creditors in full 
the amounts owed them by the Exchange, part in cash 
and part in installments. Even though there be some 
loss it is an insignificant sum compared with the 
hundreds of thousands of dollars the Exchange has 
saved the farmers annually. 
There has been some attempt to shift responsibility 
for the difficulties we found ourselves in. In the first 
place our conditions are so different from those exist¬ 
ing off Long Island, a method of operating that 
would be successful in New Jersey or Virginia would 
not necessarily be the right plan for Long Island. It 
is very easy to say “if” the members, or directors or 
officers had done differently it would not have hap¬ 
pened. Undoubtedly all the different elements are at 
fault to a greater or less extent. Be that as it may, 
the past is useful to us only for the lessons we can 
learn from it. We have learned those lessons, we have 
reorganized and the future is before us. We have been 
very fortunate in securing for our manager Joshua T. 
Fanning, who is a native here and has been in business at 
Riverhead. lie is a young man with a wide experience in 
the produce business on Long Island, in Maine and in 
New York. With Mr. Fanning as manager and the 
continued support of our farmers there is every reason 
to believe the Long Island Farmers’ Exchange will have 
a very prosperous future. h. r. t. 
New Uses for Potatoes. 
Among your efforts to suggest how to use the large 
potato crop I have failed to see one suggestion which 
you may have made and which has escaped my no¬ 
tice. There are several hens in the U.* S. A. whose 
owners neglect to supply with wheat at present 
prices. Substitute boiled potatoes, drain all the 
water off, having “spuds” dry as possible. Salt, about 
same as for human consumption, and mash into them as 
much wheat bran as possible. Also keep before fowls 
dry bran, some milk and feed some ground bone and 
meat scrap. It is surprising how they will lay. This 
also reduces the consumption of corn. j. p. 
New York. 
R. N.-Y.—Any suggestions for utilizing potatoes are 
certainly in order now. Either as food for man or 
beast every peck that can be consumed helps take care 
of the big surplus. All sorts of new schemes for selling 
potatoes are being started up. Here is one from 
Massachusetts: 
“A man here who sells popcorn in neat boxes among 
office clerks is making potato chips; last week sold 516 
boxes at five cents a box.” 
It would be possible to do the same thing in hun¬ 
dreds of towns and cities. In Paris the well-known 
“French fried potatoes” are cooked and sold hot on the 
streets, and great quantities are disposed of. In near¬ 
ly every large town where there is sale for candy or 
peanuts these hot fried potatoes would find a good 
market. Since we began the potato campaign all sorts 
of new things about potato eating have come to light. 
Among other “exchanges” we find Southern potato 
growers who are buying northern stock for eating pur¬ 
poses and selling their new crop. We have already 
helped dispose of many carloads. 
New York State News. 
FARMING SCHOOLS.—The regents of the Univer¬ 
sity of the State have placed themselves on record as be¬ 
ing in favor of placing greater emphasis on agricultural 
education work, and have voted to reorganize the pres¬ 
ent vocational schools division into a division of agricul¬ 
tural and industrial education. Dr. Arthur Dean has 
been made director of the new department. Dr. 
Finley says that the regents desire in this way to 
show a disposition to respond to the requests that have 
been made by those representing the agricultural inter¬ 
ests of the State. Governor Whitman has also signed 
this week another bill which authorized the Board of 
Supervisors of any county outside the City of New York 
to establish a farm school for instruction in trades, in¬ 
dustrial, agricultural and home-making subjects, of chil¬ 
dren between eight and 18 years of age. These schools 
become a part of the public school system of the State. 
THE OLEO BILL KILLED.—The Lawson oleo bill, 
which sought to tax manufacturers and dealers in oleo 
lias been killed by a vote of 115 noes to 16 ayes. This 
in the Assembly. The leaders of both parties in the 
Assembly got together for once and swamped the bill. 
FARM SETTLEMENT BUREAU.—A bill is on 
third reading in the Senate which would create a bureau 
of farm settlement in the Department of Agriculture for 
the purpose of formulating plans for promoting the set¬ 
tling of desirable immigrant rural laborers on farms in 
this State. 
NEW FARM BUREAU.—A new farm bureau has 
been established at Liberty, Sullivan County, by the co¬ 
operation of the Grange, farm clubs, fair association and 
business men. Dewey Carr of Liberty is president and 
Henry Musch, Jr., of Youngsville, is secretary. 
j. w. I). 
