£a/try HP 
WEEKLY $1.00 PER YEAR, 
NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER 18, 1915 
I'or,. LXXIV, No. 4344, 
that many of the feeders in the East were paying 
from $20 to $25 per ton for good Alfalfa hay. They 
also knew from many years’ experience in loading 
their hay on cars for the dealer, that the purchaser 
of that hay seldom got what he bought because 
of the universal px-actice of “trimming the car,” 
which is only another way of trimming the pur¬ 
chaser. This practice consists in putting cheap, in¬ 
ferior hay in both ends of the car and high grade, 
bright hay at the doors, then drawing a sight-draft 
upon the purchaser with bill of lading attached, 
which allows inspection befoi’e payment. On ar¬ 
rival of the car at its destination, the doors may be 
A Heaped Bushel of Middle-West Peaches. Fig. 425. 
opened, the hay looks tine, the confiding purchaser 
pays the draft, and when he comes to unload the 
car he finds that he also has got it in the neck. The 
result of this practice was that the man who really 
appreciated the value of Alfalfa for feeding pur¬ 
poses, and desired to become a constant user of the 
product, never was sure of getting what he ordered, 
but on the other hand, rather expected to get a 
“trimmed car.” The effect of all this was a black 
eye for Onondaga Alfalfa, which will take time and 
earnest effort on the part of our association to over¬ 
come. It was the same old story which the fruit 
grower in the old days experienced, when the two 
ends of the barrel contained good fruit and the mid¬ 
dle was fdled with scrubs and nubbins. The Fruit 
Growers’ Association has eliminated that evil among 
many others, and our Alfalfa Association proposes 
to remove the practice of “car trimming,” if we have 
to eliminate the dealer in order to do it. 
BEGINNING CO-OPERATION.—Under these con¬ 
ditions, the Fayetteville Grange undertook to put 
into operation a plan of cooperation in the disposi¬ 
tion of the hay crop of 1914, by refusing to deal 
with the dealers, brokers, middlemen and commis¬ 
sion houses, and selling the product direct to the 
feeder, giving him just what he ordered, grading 
the hay as best we could, and making good any de¬ 
fects or mistakes in the 
shipments made by our 
members. We did not 
seek to raise the price, 
but we did wish to 
raise the standard of 
quality, and we desired 
to secure for ourselves 
the profits which, up 
to that time, had gone 
into the pockets of the 
middlemen. We also 
wished to give the pur¬ 
chaser a square deal. 
We told the people 
through the advertising 
columns of The II. N.- 
Y. that we had the 
goods and what we 
wished to do, with the 
result that in 90 days, 
the whole year’s crop of 
our Gi*ange member¬ 
ship, and many moi'e 
non-members as well, a 
total of 1,250 tons, was 
disposed of direct to 
the consumer at an 
average price of $17.00 
per ton, f.o.b. Not a 
dollar was paid for our 
hay in excess of the 
usual cost to the feed¬ 
er ; there was no “car 
trimming”; we tried to 
give every man what he 
ordered and if we 
failed, we made it good; 
we gave every one a 
square deal, and the 
farmers who furnished 
the hay were $3,000 
ahead on the deal. 
With these results well 
known throughout the 
community, the demand 
became insistent that 
our plan of cooperation 
should be extended so 
as to include the entire Alfalfa belt, and should in¬ 
clude not only Alfalfa, but every kind of hay and 
other farm produce, and that demand we are now 
seeking to satisfy. Thus the Onondaga Alfalfa 
Growers’ Association, Inc., was brought into being. 
WORKING PLAN.—In order to conduct a very 
much larger business and to give us a legal stand¬ 
ing, about 200 of our largest and most reputable 
farmers got together and incorporated the asso¬ 
ciation, with a capital stock of $5,000, divided into 
1,000 shares of the par value of $5 each. Every 
member must own one share, but none can own 
more than 10. New members are constantly com¬ 
ing in, and it will be but a short time before the 
Selling Alfalfa Hay Co-operatively. 
Farmers Handle Their Own Business. 
[We have had a number of questions about the Al¬ 
falfa Growers’ Association in Onondaga Co., N. Y. 
The secretary of the Association gives the following 
statement of history and intention.] 
T HE ALFALFA BELT.—The central portion of 
New York State contains an “Alfalfa belt,” that 
is, an area or strip of land running east and west, 
from about Cayuga Lake on the west in Cayuga 
County, through the central part of Onondaga 
County, and as far east as Canastota in Madison 
County; being, roughly speaking, about 50 miles in 
length and averaging 
about eight miles in 
width ; and in this area, 
the Alfalfa plant grows 
naturally; in other 
words, the soil condi¬ 
tions are such that 
there is little dilficulty 
in procuring large and 
permanent yields of the 
crop almost anywhere 
within that area. Out¬ 
side of that area, it is 
difficult to produce Al¬ 
falfa, and if a catch is 
secured, it is seldom 
permanent. I may say 
in this connection, that 
the area described is 
the only distinctive area 
of any importance east 
of the Mississippi Riv¬ 
er. The production of 
Alfalfa upon this Alfal¬ 
fa belt in 1914 was, in 
round figures, about 50,- 
000 tons, composed of 
first, second and third 
cuttings, and compx-ises 
the principal money 
crop of the farmers in 
the locality. Of course, 
many of them raise 
m ore or less Timothy, 
clover and other hay, 
also grain of all kinds, 
as well as large quanti¬ 
ties of potatoes, various 
kinds of vegetables and 
fruit, but the standard 
money crop is Alfalfa 
and hay. 
S E L L I N G THE 
CROP. — Until about 
February 1, 1915, all of 
these products, includ¬ 
ing all kinds of hay, 
were disposed of almost 
entirely through deal¬ 
ers, brokers, and commission men, whose only inter¬ 
est was to secure the product as cheaply as possible 
and make the largest profit possible in handling the 
product. The hay dealers met from time to time 
and fixed the price of hay for the farmer, so that 
he had nothing to worry about. He could take the 
dealers’ price or leave it, or he could send his year’s 
crop to the commission men in New York or Bos¬ 
ton, and let those gentlemen fix the price for him, 
which was even less trouble. In either case, he 
generally got it in the neck. 
“TRIMMING THE CAR.”—About February 1st, 
1915, the price of Alfalfa as offered by the dealers, 
ranged from $10 to $14 per ton. The farmers knew 
