B»e RURAL NEW-YORKER 
V.- 
899 
Business Talk for Farmers 
The Committee on Cooperation, Transportation 
and Marketing: at the recent Syracuse, N. Y., con¬ 
ference made the following recommendations: 
1. That the fixing of a minimum or maximum 
price for food products by the State or Federal 
Governments is not favored. 
2. That this committee requests the New York 
State Food Supply Commission to apportion a suf¬ 
ficient sum to provide an adequate market news 
service for the State. 
^.3. It is the .sense of this committee that the mat¬ 
ter of storage, distribution and marketing of food 
products is a matter of public concern which should 
be so regulated as to i)revent undue speculation. 
4. We recommend that sufficient funds be appor¬ 
tioned by the commission for the organization of co¬ 
operative producers’ and consumers’ associations, 
utilizing the organization of the Department of 
Foods and Markets, and that the commission should 
render assistance whei*ever possible in the stand- 
organizers. This is one of the most important 
functions of the State. Every other industry is 
organized, and works in units in the distribution of 
food and in the purchase of food supplies. This or¬ 
ganization is more important to the farmer than to 
any other clas.s. It is the only way by which small¬ 
er producers can standardize produce, and without 
standardization, the best prices cannot be realized. 
The Depai’tment of Foods and Markets is now 
ready to assist any community, and the farm bureau 
organizations in the counties are co-operating in the 
work and will make the necessary preliminary ar¬ 
rangements. 
California Fruit Organization Work 
When fi-uit growers form an organization they 
genei-ally begin with some line of produc¬ 
tion. This is usually the wrong end for punching 
out quick results. The California Fruit Growers’ 
Exchange started at the other end, and took hold 
of distribution and sale.s. They have met with great 
you cannot get the farmer to increase hi.s crops next 
year. That is gospel truth, and the sooner the leaders 
understand it the better for the nation. 
New York Starting With Sheep 
Several times during the last few weeks I have seen 
notices in the papers in regard to the sheep that were to 
be brought from some Western State to New York, so 
that farmers who wished to go into the sheep business 
could get stock to start with. A letter informed me that 
these sheep were to be a Lincoln-Merino cross, they 
were to be yearlings, and they were to be sold at cost. 
We wanted about 50 good ewes to add to our flock, 
and as we h.ave kept sheep for 20 years, and I had 
worked for sheep men in Idaho three years, I went to 
Selkirk, N. Y., to look at these sheep. As soon as I 
saw the sheep I knew they were not what we wanted, 
and they were not as represented. They were culls, 
they had not lambed this year, and they would weigh 
about 80 pounds. We caught eight and looked at their 
teeth. One was a yearling, two were four years old, 
three were five years old, the other two were so old 
their teeth were worn down short and badly separated. 
ardizing, storing and preserving of all food pro¬ 
ducts. 
5. llesolved, that .shipper.?, growers and receivers 
are inconvenienced and suffer severe losses through 
the lack of refrigerator and dry cars available for 
shipping of perishable products and we recommend 
that shippers anticipate their wants by taking the 
matter of ear service up with the headquartex’s of 
railroad and express companies and that the Food 
Supply Commission be requested to use its influ¬ 
ence with the ti’anspoi'tation companies to make 
pi’ompt deilvei'y of cars; that ship- 
pei’s bo ui’ged not to ox’der cars be¬ 
yond their I’equirements and that 
they load as near maximum ears as 
possible with safety. 
These recoiumendations were ap- 
pi-oved. Only one man objected to 
the resti'iction on speculation. 
At first thought a good many peo¬ 
ple are inclined to favor a minimum 
price for farm products. If the 
result stopped with the one trans¬ 
action, it would be a safe propo- 
.sition, but as w’e said the result is 
often public distress. The further 
the Government keeps away from 
an arbitrary fixing of prices the 
safer it will be. The best function 
of the Government is to effect and 
secure an ecoixomic and eflicient 
system of distribution and elimin¬ 
ate speculation. Give the producer 
a fair shai’e of the consumer’s dol- 
lar and prices will be right and 
there won’t be any shortage of food. 
The request for an adequate mar¬ 
ket news service and reliable mai’ket reports is al¬ 
most universal. It is sadly needed, and while it 
will cost some money pai'ticularly to disti-ibute, the 
cost will be insignificant compared with the value 
to the growers. 
It is well to have a public expi’ession on the 
fundamental principles of disti’ibution; we get it 
in paragraph three. Some people hold that dis¬ 
ti’ibution of food is a private business problem and 
that when the man puts his time and his money 
and his risk in it, he is justified in chai’ging any¬ 
thing that the traffic will bear. With the exception 
of one man who probably did not undei’stand, the 
expi’ession for the exclusion of speculation was 
unanimous. Some people are troubled by the fact 
that producers are obliged to hold pi’oduce from 
results, and now ax’e taking up advance positions 
in production. They have just established what 
they call a “bud selection department.” The wox’k 
done by A. D. Shamel in the citrus and ox’chard 
gx’oves in California has convinced the gx’owex’s that 
they must in the future pay gx’eater attention to 
the selection of buds from supex’ior ti’ees. This new 
department is to furnish to growex’s and nui’serymen 
reliable buds from the best sti’ains of commei’cial 
varieties. It Is a gi’eat public service and it will 
do much to standardize and improve California 
Difficulties that are too much for the individual g^*ower- 
A man who is employed by the New York Central, and 
who seemed to have charge of the sheep, said when we 
told him that some of the sheep wex’e old, that he would 
eat all the sheep in the lot that were over a year old. 
Now why, if they are selling these sheep at cost, do 
they misrepresent the facts? It is not difficult to sell 
anything at cost. They say the cost is $f4. How much 
did the man who I’aised the sheep get? IIow much does 
the freight amount to? And how much is the commit¬ 
tee charging for overhead expense? 
Some farmers, who don’t know sheep, ai’e buying 
the.se sheep to start in the business with. They are 
buying them on the faith they have in the sincerity of 
the membex'S of the New York Food Commission. Is 
that faith misplaced, or has some one put something 
something over on the Food Commis¬ 
sion, and as usual the farmer is asked 
to pay the bill? josevii deyo. 
Orange Co., N. Y. 
'i R.. N.-Y.—The Food Oom mission 
had little or nothing to do with bring¬ 
ing these sheep into the State. It 
seems to have been one of the schemes 
for “helping the farmei’,” which 
worked the wrong way. If. as Mr. 
Deyo states, this was a bunch of old 
and wornout sheep at .$14 a head, they 
will not get very far along the road 
to wool and lambs. Let us give every¬ 
one a fair show in this matter. What 
do farmers who looked these sheep 
over have to say? Do they agree with 
Mx’. Deyo? 
are efficient^ kindled bycoopemtion of dOOO^rovew 
Cooperation as Illustrated by the Sunkist Courier 
fruits. There is already a great demand for this 
improved bud wood. For yeai’s many of our high¬ 
est authorities have claimed that thex’e was noth¬ 
ing to this matter of bud selection. The evidence 
appeal’s to be, howevei’, that there ai’e in every 
orchai’d naturally superior trees which have the 
power to convey their good qualities thi’ough the 
bud. It is also claimed that at least 25 per cent, 
of the ti’ees in California orchards are “drones.” 
The California growers evidently believe this, and 
they are working upon this theory for the future. 
Most of this work has been confined thus far to 
A Maryland Potato Grower 
I have but little patience with 
daily newspaper talk. Some of these 
smart editors who think the fai’mer 
gets rich quick ought to try farming. 
In regard to potato crop in Maryland 
and Virginia, I caii talk only for my- 
.self and my experience as a farmer. 
I have as nice a farm and as good 
land as there is in Somei'set Coxxnty. 
To begin with, I paid $8 for 165-lb. 
sack of seed potatoes this Spring; 
.$40 per ton for fertilizer; labor 
$1.25 a day; Paris green GOc lb.; 
barrels 40 cents each and labor- 
ei’s want 25c per barrel to pick 
them UP I dug three barrels planting today and got 
•>7 barrels, and this will beat the average from what 
i can learn in Virginia. Owing to wet weather quite 
a lot of potatoes have rotted and in Virginia I under¬ 
stand the blight has ruined their crop. And if pota¬ 
toes do not bring around $5 farmers will work for 
glory this year. In regard to Boy Scouts in \ ii’gmia 
I have heard their behavior is none the best. I had 
three Scouts from Philadelphia this week picking beans 
nicking up potutoes. If I hud to put them on the 
market as they fixed them I could not get expenses 
back. But peaches, apples, plums and even birds 
nests are in danger with such around, r armers m this 
section are stung for seed for late crop; can t buy 
them for $10 a barrel. The farmer according to my 
opinion is the man who ought to do the talking tor 
newspapers, but most of them are like myself 
citrus fruits. We have long believed that much the' night comes they are tired ‘^^id their thinking facilities 
. , . , . ire destroved They say nothing and taxe wnac is 
same difference of quality may be found in the trees to them for their hard toil. 
of most apple and peach orchards, and we believe 
that future investigation will pi’ove the value of 
E. L. 
A Farmer’s Sensible Talk 
hai’vest time to other periods of the year for dis¬ 
tribution. They call this speculation. We do not. 
Some crops like wheat and potatoes ai’e nece.ssarily 
harvested when mature and are necessarily stored 
for future use. Wlxen the producer holds such 
crops for equitable distribution, it is not specula¬ 
tion in the broad sense of the term. When dealers 
manipulate prices to the lowest point at harvest 
time and buy up the goods and later manipulate 
the prices upward to the highest point the consum¬ 
er can pay, an act of .speculation takes place. The 
producer stores his product for a market and to 
secure an equitable distribution during the year. 
The speculator buys and hoards and manipulates 
for a profit that he does not earn. 
The demand for a system of cooperation is again 
emphasized in paragraph four. The demand has 
always come from the people but the ivork was 
slacked up in the State for a while. The demand 
comes again clear and insistent, and the State has 
now through .the Food Supply Commission made an 
appropriation to carry on the work so that any 
section desiring to effect an organization will have 
the necessary work performed by the experienced 
this bud selection for practically all fruits. It is 
easy to discredit any theory, but when practical 
business men accept it as has now been done in 
Califoi’nia there is not much to do except to get in 
line. 
Justice to the Producers 
Slowly but surely the fool talk about increasing 
crops through city labor and experimental fads is pass¬ 
ing out of circulation. It is being crushed out on the 
millstone of experience. All who are capable of even 
oi’dinary thinking now begin to realize the ti’uth of 
the fundamental proposition. It will not be possible 
to increase the food supply until the plain, practical 
farmers are convinced that they will be paid living 
wages for their labor. Mr. Herbert Hoover in his re¬ 
cent letter to Px’esideiit AVilson says: 
In ox’der to do justice to the producers who have 
shown great patriotism in a special effort to increase 
production in 1917, and to stimulate further the ef¬ 
forts of 1918, it is absolutely vital_ that _we shall pro¬ 
tect the farmer from a slump in price this year due to 
a glut as above. 
Give the American farmer a fair chance in the mar¬ 
ket and make distribution fair and even and the food 
question will settle itself. Unless this is to be done 
I have been very much interested in the correspond¬ 
ence in The R. N.-Y. about the great appeal to farmers 
to plant more this year.' From my point of view, as one 
who grows fai*m garden crops for the local markett they 
began at the wrong place, by urging everybody xn the 
city to plant a gai’den, and then coming to the tainieis 
and gardeners afterwards. To appeal to city amateur 
gardeners for any increxise in food supply is on a par 
with calling in a butcher instead of a siirgeon specialist 
when a patient requires a serious operation. 
If they want increased food supply let them come to 
the men who have their money invested in the business, 
who have the skill and the knowledge, and then pay for 
their products a price that will put them on a par with 
specialists in xiny other line of endexivor, and will allow 
them to pay the wages for their help that the city em¬ 
ployers pay. Most of the American farmers know well 
enough now bow to produce better crops, and would 
gladly seek for any further information needed if they 
could be assured of a fair share of the consumer s dollar. 
At the Uuiversalist Church State convention here in 
May Dr. Butterfield of Amherst spoke at a banquet, and 
he drew the attention of the people to the fact of the 
farmer’s 35-cent dollar. As far as I know I was the 
only one there who is in the business, and I thought it 
too good a chance to let go by, and after the banquet I 
told him I was glad as a farmer to know that the college 
nieu were beginning to see the farmers^ istandpoint or 
the .35-cent dollar, and that they had dwelt altogether 
too long upon the two blades of grass idea. Such occa¬ 
sions help to educate the consumer as to the real facts 
of the high cost of living. ABTUua w. babrett. 
Massachusetts. 
