485 
The Farmers’ Interests at Albany 
A DEFERRED CONFERENCE.—Last week Gov¬ 
ernor Smith called a conference of farmers at the 
Executive Mansion, but he was reported sick, and 
the conference dispersed without action or discus¬ 
sion. In the hotel lobbies it was apparent that the 
men present, largely officers of farm organizations, 
looked at the agricultural situation from many 
divergent angles. The one thing on which all seemed 
to agree is that the Farms and Markets Council is a 
colossal failure. 
DEMORALIZED CONDITIONS.—Boiling down to 
printable language, the general information, asser¬ 
tions and arguments as gathered in the hotels, at 
the Capitol and from State employees, the following 
summary fairly expresses the situation: The Farms 
and Markets Department is demoralized. The de¬ 
mand for the abolition of the council of nine is 
practically universal. Even its members admit fail¬ 
ure. and plead only for another trial. But. the real 
difficulty is fundamental. The department never can 
recover under the council from the Whitmanized 
policies and follies. For a month before election 
the high-priced new men were never at their desks. 
Their average service at other times has been two to 
three days a week. 
DIVIDED POWER.—There are virtually three de¬ 
partments now in Albany—Agriculture, under Com¬ 
missioner 11 ilson; Markets, under Commissioner 
Porter, and Food Commission under Calvin J. 
Huson. There is no co-operation among them, and 
any one of them would be worth more to the Stave 
than all three. They have brought in new men on 
high salaries, and they do little work. Salaries run 
from $.'{.000 to $8,000 a year. The old employees 
doing the work get. about one-lialf of these salaries. 
Some divisions, like the Farm -Settlement and the 
San Jose scale inspectors, go right on. oblivious of 
the fact that there is no longer anything for them to 
do. The efficiency of the whole force is decreased 
by the tone and atmosphere created by these con¬ 
ditions. 
PAST HISTORY.—The Farms and Markets Coun¬ 
cil was originally designed, ns everybody knows, to 
make a place for one man and to pay him a political 
debt. That man failed to get the place because the 
Senate would not confirm his appointment, but the 
law and the custom gave principal authority to the 
president of the council. The place fell to John 
Mitchell, an experienced miner and labor leader, 
but without information or experience in farm mat¬ 
ters, as he himself admitted. He also holds two 
other jobs. When a problem is put up to a com¬ 
mission or to another member of the council, it is 
straightway referred to President Mitchell, and not 
knowing the farm needs, the decision is sometimes 
embarrassing and often impossible. 
CHANGE NEEDED.—Such is the general expres¬ 
sion. Practically all agree that a change must be 
made. The word usually used to describe the con¬ 
ditions. we prefer not to print. The difficulty of 
correcting the situation is this, as expressed by the 
same men: The Legislature is Republican. The 
Governor is Democrat. And while both sides are 
working harmoniously, if a hill were passed to wipe 
out the discredited council, and allow the Governor 
to appoint new commissioners to clean up the de¬ 
partments. some one would raise the cry that it was 
all a Tammany trick to depose Republicans and put 
Democrats in office. The suggestion is now made to 
elect the commissioners by a direct vote of the 
people. This would avoid the objection to an ap¬ 
pointment by the Governor, and if the breach to 
January could be bridged, the direct vote would 
probably be the best solution of the problem. 
LITTLE PERSONAL CRITICISM.—There is lit¬ 
tle criticism of the personnel of this council, 
compared to the first, council, hut it. is dominated 
by interests not of the farm, and this is a farm 
business. Much of this story will be new to many 
farmers. Men familiar with Albany affairs know 
most of it already. Some hold that such information 
is only for the special few, and that it should not 
be published for the rank and tile. We believe too 
much is kept from the rank and tile. They should 
have more information, not less. In a new law we 
would insert a provision that all records of the 
departments be open to the public and available for 
publication. In that event we would publish every 
pertinent record from week to week. The depart¬ 
ments should do nothing that they are afraid 
to have published. 
DANGEROUS POLICY.—Two years ago we saw 
the pretext and the danger in the Wicks hill. Farm¬ 
ers saw it and sent their representatives from all 
parts of the State to oppose it. Kill the Wicks hill 
and no substitute, was the order from the farms. 
Yet when the substitute was presented, men fre- 
e I>'f RURAL NEW-YORKER 
fluently seen in the Albany farm circles could not 
see or admit the danger in it. and indorsed it. Prac¬ 
tically alone, this paper opposed it because with the 
information in our hands we knew it. was not in 
h -rmony with the real interests of the State, and 
we can now only regret that our information and 
fears are corroborated and justified by present con¬ 
ditions. 
The “Cold Storage” Egg Situation 
Following the lead of the Department of Foods 
and Markets in New York State, Connecticut passed 
a law to require that cold storage eggs he marked 
with the words "cold storage” on the shell when 
taken from the original package and offered for sale. 
Now the cold storage and dealer (interests are fight¬ 
ing to put. through a bill to repeal the law, and the 
Connecticut Poultry Association and the State agri¬ 
cultural institutions and agricultural officials are 
opposing the repeal of the law. 
In the meantime it appears now that the Council 
of Farms and Markets in New York State has re¬ 
scinded the order with the approval or at the sug¬ 
gestion of Commissioner Porter. The resolution to 
rescind the order was offered by Commissioner Day 
of the City Market Department, who is ex-officio a 
member of the council, while Swift & Company had 
an appeal case against it in the courts in a case 
brought against them by Commissioner Dillon. The 
vote to rescind was unanimous in the Council of 
I arms and Markets. Two days later the court 
rendered its decision against Swift & Company and 
in support and approval of the order. The judge 
took Occasion to say that tin* order-was within the 
law. reasonable and fair, and that if was inconceiv¬ 
able to him that any honest merchant would obje f 
to a regulation so obviously in the interests of the 
public. Here we have an expensive macMnery of 
city. State and Federal government duplicating 
energy and expense in an alleged purpose to protect 
producers and consumers: but all breaking down 
together before the influence of interests who want 
to sell and and who do sell “cold storage eggs” as 
fresh eggs, under a placard authorized by the State 
guaranteeing them "strictly fresh State eggs." In 
other words, the constituted agricultural authority 
of the State gives a sense of false security to con¬ 
sumers. and puts Southern- and Western April eggs 
held for months in cold storage in competition with 
egg producers of the State who are producing eggs 
in cold weather on high-priced feed. At the same 
time the State maintains an expensive propaganda 
to increase the Winter production of eggs. 
We hope the Connecticut poultrymen will succeed 
in protecting their law, and that they will find 
officials able to resist the allurements of the cold 
storage interests and enforce its provisions. 
Big Apple Buying for England 
Our old friend, the Rochester Herald. prints the 
following as news: 
Through the entrance of Great Britain as a buyer in 
the market of Western New York, apple men of the dis¬ 
trict have realized on their chemical storage fruit a 
profit of 'fully $*>.000,000 in a series of transactions in¬ 
volving in the neighborhood of only $10,000,000. The 
foregoing estimate is made by a" prominent produce 
dealer of Rochester, who is quite persuaded that his cal¬ 
culations are more likely to be moderate than extrava¬ 
gant. 
Approximately 1.000.000 barrels of apples were con¬ 
tained iu storage warehouses some few weeks ago when 
British buyers began negotiating for the- fruit. In the 
earlier dealings prices obtained are said to have ranged 
from $8 to $0 a barrel and thenceforward to have crept 
steadily upward from those quotations until sales were 
being made at $12 to $13, which would be the prevail¬ 
ing price today if there was any fruit to sell. 
Tin* main bulk comprised in the 1.000,000 barrels of 
stor>>d fruit has iu tile last six weeks been shipped from 
the district. In round numbers the shipments have 
totalled 800,000 barrels, which thus leaves 200.000 yet 
to go out. Hitherto a price of $4 a barrel lias been vir¬ 
tually the average for apples, but the British purchases 
are reckoned to have lifted the average $10. It requires, 
therefore, no particular genius for mathematics t<> per- 
ceivc that the apple men have profited very handsomely 
indeed from their crop. 
Furthermore, there is still another angle of impor¬ 
tance to the affair. It is confidently asserted by those 
in a position to speak with shrewdness on the situation 
that the district within two weeks will he as free from 
apples as an eel is from scales. None will be available 
at any price, and accordingly the prospects appear to he 
for an apple famine iu a territory where the fruit is 
normally plentiful. 
The fact is that no one received $12 to $12 f. <>. b. 
in Rochester. The price did run to $1* and $9.o0 per 
barrel, and about everything lias been cleaned out. 
The trouble with this article is that it leaves tlie im¬ 
pression that the farmers received these big prices. 
The Herald evidently intended to convey that idea. 
The truth is that 9f> per cent of the apples were sold 
by the growers last year to “dealers” at not to ex¬ 
ceed $3 per barrel. There may be a few rare excep¬ 
tions. but practically all these profits went to men 
who bad nothing whatever to do with producing the 
fruit! 
The dealers and speculators made their haul, and 
this is not written to criticize them. They gambled 
on the fruit and won. We object to these statements 
which lead city people to believe that farmers are 
making money “hand over fist." When a grower sells 
a barrel of apples at $3 and the dealer sells at $9 our 
old friend the 35-cent dollar comes upon the stage, 
[f we had a Federation of Agriculture rightly estab¬ 
lished it could publish the facts everywhere to stop 
such misrepresentation. 
An Advertising Plan 
I was pleased to read the article by W. F. O’Conner 
on page 301 on “Telling the Farmer’s Story,” and your 
comments following. Advertising the merits of milk and 
milk products is the essential tiling at the present time, 
and T believe the Dairymen’s League should inaugurate 
a nation-wide campaign. Let. me tell you of a plan that 
we have devised, and that is being put in operation here. 
The adjoining cities of Johnstown and Gloversville com¬ 
prise about 34,000 inhabitants, and desiring that the 
truth about milk and farmers’ butter should be brought 
to the attention of every family in these twin cities, we 
ttevised a calendar card system of advertising. We just 
had 6.000 of these calendars printed, and on March 1 
will place one in every home in the two cities. You 
will notice that the calendar feature is not the only at¬ 
traction, but the essay and receipt contests should 
arouse considerable study in every -family as to the 
merits of milk. 
cue year by distributing the calendar quarterly, of course 
using a different picture and reading matter each time, 
i'o raise funds, each one of our advertising committee 
of Pisrbt canvassed the district allotted to him. and each 
producer contributed an amount approximately equal to 
<* cents per cow kept, and distributors from $2 to $r> 
each. The cost of this project will probably he about 
*200 for the year. bluer pork. 
Member “Adv. Committee." 
A Farmer’s Eight-hour Day 
I am glad to see a favorable notice of an eight or U>- 
1" nr day for the farmer in your columns. Awhile back 
I lived in the South for quite a number of years, and l 
noticed the amount of mouey that an eight-million-bale 
crop of cotton sold for was always more than an deven- 
million-balecrop would fetch, and I would think what a 
set oi fools these cotton farmers arc. Now that I am 
producing milk I often think what a set of fools we 
farmers are to work 12 or 14 hours a day to produce 
more milk than is wanted by the reasonable profit to the 
Pr ^ UC ?' -T. B. CRKSWRLL. 
Dutchess Co., N. Y. 
.-uuvnai uii iins suojeei 
than anything I have read in The R, N.-Y. for a louj 
time. It is something l have advocated for years. Hen 
I have had a nine-hour day for farm labor for the pasi 
few years. No man can do his best, or accomplish a.* 
much, who overworks, or tries to drag through 12 or l-l 
hours of labor daily. If labor were more sensible 1 
would favor nine hours for the six Summer months an. 
seven through the Winter, for the most Northern States 
But under the present circumstances the farmers would 
better demand an eight-hour day all over the Unite.] 
States, and if the other trades secure less, demand tin 
same for farm labor. It is the only way the farmer can 
make himself the social equal of the other trades. To¬ 
day he is looked upon as a scrub and drudge, to raise 
cheap food for high-priced labor. Let the farmers get 
together and demand an eight-hour day and as fair pay 
as others, and it will wake up the politicians and labor 
leaders as nothing else has ever done. h. o. mf.ad. 
Massachusetts. 
It has been so many years since I have disagreed with 
an editorial in The R. N.-Y. that I was in danger of 
reading it as gospel, but now I am up against it. You 
teem to advocate an eight-hour day for the farmer. [ 
have often thought that when that, happened the world 
would starve, and 1 do not see how it can happen either, 
Take the dairyman ; how long would his herd be good for 
anything if he started milking at 8 a. m. and again at 
4 p. m.? And the poultrymen are just learning that a 
lorn must have her 12-hour day and we give it to her 
with artificial light. During the busy season tile fann¬ 
ers would have to double their force of men. as uianv of 
them now work eight hours in the morning and again 
eight hours after dinner. Now. I am as lazy as tlie next 
man, and would surely enjoy workiug eight hours in¬ 
stead of 12. but I don’t think it will do to try it. It 
must raise the cost of food at least 33^ per ceut and 
labor is giving the high cost of living now for the reason 
for raising their wages. With another raise of food 
prices, up would go labor wages, and hack would go the 
shuttle. \\ ouldu t it ho much hotter if everyone £*ivo 
an honest 10-hour day s work for 10 hours’ pay. than for 
the farmer to go to labor s extreme and only work eight 
hours out of 24 l I think there is someone trying to in¬ 
troduce a bill at Albany now to make everyone work 
eight hours, and I admit I would like to see some peo¬ 
ple work even eight hours. floyd q. white. 
Westchester Co.. N. Y. 
R- N.-Y.— The II. N.-A. did not advocate any eight- 
hour day. We stated what many farmers are saying 
and thinking, and our idea was to start a full discussion 
—which we arc, getting. 
