7She RURAL NEW-YORKER 
1467 
Our Grain Crops Threatened by Demor¬ 
alization in Yucatan 
Farmers throughout the country are be¬ 
ing sharply stirred by the phenomenal 
advance in the cost of binder twine. The 
twine bill has been marked up more than 
800 per cent during the past two years, 
and the end is far from being in sight. In 
fact sufficient twine to harvest the 1918 
crop may not be obtainable at any price. 
A group of thrifty Mexican politicians in 
the Peninsula of Yucatan hold the base 
of supplies, and are standing pat. 
IVe use about 180,000 tons of sisal 
hemp from Y'ucatan in making binding 
twine. In 1915 this hemp cost our cord¬ 
age makers about six cents a pound and 
the twine made of it went to our farmers 
at about eight cents a pound. At these 
prices the nation’s binder twine bill was 
about $28,000,000. In 1916 Yucatan 
hemp was advanced to about 10 cents a 
pound, and the twine to about 13 cents, 
lifting the twine bill of our farmers to 
about $46,000,000. In 1917 the same 
hemp was pushed up to 16 cents and the 
twine to about 19 cents. The twine bill 
for 1917, therefore, approximated $68.- 
000.000. And now sisal hemp from Yu¬ 
catan is quoted at 19 cents bid, and the 
Hoover committee has paid a price for 
100.000 bales—about 16,000 tons—that is 
equivalent to about 19cents, delivered 
at New Y'ork. Cordage men are slow to 
contract for 1918 deliveries of binder 
twine under 26 cents, at which price our 
farmers are slated to pay $93,000,000 for 
their next year's requirements. 
IViio Gets the $65,000,000?-—If this 
great tax on our farmers went in Avhole 
or in principal part to the hemp planters 
of Yucatan and their laborers, it could be 
borne with better grace; for Jlanila hemp 
has advanced as much as that of Yucatan, 
and now is selling in our markets at 25 
to 27 cents a pound, giving color to the 
claim that sisal is entitled, as heretofore, 
to a price within three or four cents a 
pound of that of manila in the American 
market. But the Yucatan planter is not 
getting the advanced price or any part of 
it. Between his plantation and the Amer¬ 
ican cordage market there is a long and 
devious merchandising trail whose course 
is paved with golden increment for a 
clique of jNIexican manipulators Avho are 
fattening on our farmer’s needs. None of 
the advance is due to increased freight 
rates. The freightage on si.sal hemp from 
Yucatan’s port to New York is practically 
unchanged from former times; it is one 
and one-tenth cents a pound. The whole 
increase of price for the heirip is exacted 
of our farmers and withheld from the 
farmers of Y’ucatan. Under cover of our 
enforced attention to grave public matters 
the system has tightened its grip until the 
E reductive powers of the Yucatan planter 
ave been squeezed to a dying condition. 
Hemp Peantekr at the IMercy of the 
f’LlQrE. —The plight of the planters is so 
deplorable that cultivation of the sisal 
plants and cutting and shredding the leaves 
for hemp are being suspended all over the 
peninsula. Offhand estimates of present 
hemp production there run as low as 25 
per cent of former volume, and the most 
conservative reliable figures do not exceed 
40 per cent. The menace to our grain 
crops from this crippling of the hemp sup¬ 
ply is a valid reason for grave concern. 
It results naturally from the greed of the 
manipulating clique oper-ating through its 
reguladoras, its commissions and its Cana¬ 
dian and Americau corporations. In the 
days of legitimate government in Y'ucatan 
wlieu sisal hemp averaged about six cents 
a pound at the port of New York, the 
planters netted about three cents and 
found the business reasonably profitable. 
Now, with a price of seven cents, or even 
more, seemingly allowed them by the offi¬ 
cial marketing association of that Mexi¬ 
can State, the planters are losing money 
on their crops. 
To THE Victors, the Spoils.— For the 
most part the planters are men who pros¬ 
pered under the conditions of the Diaz 
regime and are the natural prey of the 
new officials who have come into power 
through revolution. Fines, forced loans 
and taxes deplete to the vanishing point 
the amount apparently coming to the 
planter for his delivered crop. The fines 
and forced contributions are arbitrarily 
imposed. Spite and whim figure in them 
at the will of the officials. Rarely as 
much as three Ccm.s a pound is actually 
realized by the hemp growers; not infre¬ 
quently the charges forced upon them ex¬ 
ceed the entire value of the crop. If a 
sum of money is admitted to be due a 
planter, he waits for it until the official 
in charge finds it convenient to pay and 
is compelled to endure insult as the days 
and weeks of futile importuning go by. 
To borrow money for capital in cultiva¬ 
ting and shredding his hemp, the planter 
is forced into the hands of the newly rich 
money-lenders, who extort an interest rate 
of two or three per cent a month. T.abor 
conditions complete the planter’s misery. 
It is Indian labor, and under the new 
laws can command three pesos for eight 
hours’ work, payable daily. The Indian 
works one day in a week. "^^Tth his three 
pesos in hand he declines further employ¬ 
ment until his money is gone. The Yu¬ 
catan planter, discouraged, refuses to go 
on with the losing game. He quits. The 
hemp is not cut or cured or shredded, and 
in consequence a great gap in the binder 
twine supply is yawning not far ahead for 
the farmers of the T'uited States. 
But the marketing clique of Mexicans 
are making merry with the American 
farmer’s money and demanding more. 
They have Oli.OOO tons of hemp on hand, 
two-thirds of it stored in New Orleans 
and Newark warehouses and are refusing 
the present bid price of 21 cents. How 
much higher the price will be boosted be¬ 
fore the clique sees fit to sell is mere 
guesswork. Whatever it is the American 
farmer must pay it; for every pound and 
twice as much more is needed to harvest 
the ci’ops of the coming year. Also, what¬ 
ever the price is, the planters of Y'ucatan 
probably will see little or none of it. The 
Mexican official middlemen have the mat¬ 
ter in hand, and as middlemen the official 
marketeers^ of Yucatan have the widely 
advertised American article backed off the 
board. e. i. bell. 
The Squab Business—No Bed of Roses 
You have asked for definite information 
ns to possible profits in the squab busi¬ 
ness, and as I am operating a plant carry¬ 
ing several thousand breeders, and have 
been doing so on an enlarging scale for 
over 10 years, I think I should be able 
to give some data on the subject. I am 
not making any great push on selling 
breeding stock. We find a better pi’ofit 
for us to keep our stock busy turning out 
squabs than in breaking up pens of breed¬ 
ers to supply orders for bi'eeding stock. 
I am sorry to say that the squab business 
has been given something of a “black eye’’ 
on account of the extravagant claims and 
unbusinesslike dealings of a few dishon¬ 
est advertisers, who make a practice of 
buying up cheap, unprofitable stock and 
reselling it at high prices as “guaranteed 
mated pairs.’’ making their profits on 
trading in stock, and not breeding any 
amount of squabs worth mentioning. This 
has hurt the reputation ‘of the business 
as a legitimate, profitable undertaking for 
the production of market squabs on a 
commercial scale. 
Just at the present time, owing to the 
abnormal conditions in the feed market, 
on account of the war, I will admit frank¬ 
ly that it is a difficult proposition to run 
a squab plant at any profit, and a number 
of fairly large plants have been obliged 
to close up. With feed costing nearly 
three times what it was two years ago. 
wdth some kinds of feed entirely out of 
the market, and with labor higher than 
normal, it adds immensely to the cost of 
doing business. Also, for the last year, 
squabs have run lower than normal (pre¬ 
sumably because a good many people feel 
it their duty to live more simply while 
the war is in progress), and it is easy to 
see the effect of this combined with the 
high cost of feed, in getting any profits 
out of squabs. However’, it is not fair to 
judge any business by the results during 
such abnormal times as we are now pass¬ 
ing through. If we should, it would con¬ 
demn a good many perfectly good lines of 
endeavor. 
Speaking of normal conditions, I will 
say that I have found the squab business 
more profitable, when properly run, than 
any other branch of poultry w'ork, and I 
have tried eggs, broilers, etc., in connec¬ 
tion with the squabs, and given them up 
to devote more time to the latter, after 
giving them all a fair trial. When I say 
“properly run,' I mean that a person to 
make'a success of it must put good busi¬ 
ness sense into it. study the business, 
learn proper methods of mating the breed¬ 
ers. correct methods of feeding, dressing | 
and marketing, and plan his work to do j 
it most efficiently; in short, put as much ; 
gumption into it as most busine.sses re- i 
quire to make the best success. If a man ' 
goes into squab production with the idea 
that it is going to be an easy snap, simply 
tin-owing feed to the birds and letting 
them go their own sweet way in mating 
and breeding, letting the pens get foul and 
the birds lousy, he will soon condemn the 
business as a “fake.” even though the 
best stock is purchased at the start. But 
if he -will learn the business by working 
faithfully and studying with somebody 
who knows how. and then will use his 
head as well as his hands and not try to 
start out to flood the market with squabs 
before he is able to make it pay with a 
smaller plant, he will be very likely to 
find a good profit and an enjoyable employ¬ 
ment if he is at all adapted to the work. 
The business is not a bed of roses, nor a ; 
gold mine, but I am glad to be able to say | 
that under normal conditions the profite 
suit me very well. 
New York. Charles e. prescott. 
Practical Farm Books 
Productive 8wine Husbandry, by 
Day.$1.75 
Productive I’oultry Husbandry, by 
Lewis . 2.00 
Productive Horse Husbandry, by 
Gay . 1.75 
Productive Orcharding, bv Sears. . . 1.75 . 
Productive Vegetable Growing, by 
Lloyd . 1.75 I 
Productive Feeding of I’arm Ani¬ 
mals. by Well.r. 1.75 
Productive Farm Crops, by ilont- 
gomery . 1.75 
Productive Bee Keeping, by Pellett. 1.7,5 
Common Diseases of Farm Animals, 
by Craig. 1.75 
We have Meatless Days and 
Wheatless Days 
How About 
Bagless Days? 
One of the most important elements of a 
fertilizer is the burlap bag that carries it. 
Under normal conditions it was possible for all 
manufacturers to furnish a part of their goods 
in 100-lb., 125-lb. and 167-lb. bags as well as 
the 200-lb. size; but rtowin addition to all the 
former uses the war is taking millions of burlap 
bags to be filled with earth for trench fortifica¬ 
tions. 
The burlap supply at best was never too 
large, but this war development makes it even 
less than normal; and “bagless days” are in 
sight if something is not done to meet the 
situation. 
It is estimated that the use of 200-lb. bags 
in place of the 100-lb. size on fertilizers, will 
conserve twenty-four million yards of burlap. 
For that reason v/e are asking our customers 
to take their goods in 200-lb. bags. In this 
way the limited supply of burlap can be made 
to go further. The U. S. Department of 
Agriculture is fully cognizant of the burlap 
situation. 
When our local agent puts the bag ques¬ 
tion up to you, we hope you will realize the 
seriousness of the situation. The men in the 
trenches must have their burlap bags. Will 
you help them by lifting a heavier bag? 
Jf we have no agent in your town, we want one. Write us for 
agent’s name or ask for an agency yourself. It is paying 50.000 others. 
Why not you? 
READ THIS BOOK 
, HOWrOMAHi 
MONETWL 
No matter how many other books about ferti¬ 
lizer you have read, read this one. It is a new and 
different book. There isn’t any advice in it for one 
thih,^. probably you have about all the advice you 
need already. This is just a common sense book. 
You will read it and say: “That’s so! Why 
haven’t I thought of that before. ’’ If you are using 
fertilizers you are probably making money with 
them, but are you making enough? How do you 
know? By making little changes here and there, as you some¬ 
times shift your farm labor and teams, perhaps you can make 
more. This book may help you. 
SEND THIS COUPON 
Send me “How to Make Money with Fertilisers.” I expect to 
use . tons of fertilizer this season. A'.-Y. g 
My Name . 
My Post Office A ddress .. . . 
My County . State ... 
My Crops for 1918 . 
7**^ American Agricultural Chemical Co. 
SECRETARY’S OPHCE 
2 Rector Street, New York, N. Y. 
The Companr maintains an Agricultural Service Bureau 
conducted by Dr. H. J. Wheeler, (for many years Director of 
the Rhode Island State Eaneriromt Sratioc' whose Crop 
Bulletins, services ana advice are tree lu ai; .'aruicis. 
Wt ship from 60 different centers east of the Mississippi. This means 
good service for you wherever you live. 
