S55 
A Case of Selling Farm Produce 
Recently we received a telephone request from an 
up-State farmer to handle a shipment of cabbage, 
and while not in a position to handle produce ship¬ 
ments now, under the circumstances related, we con¬ 
sented to look after it. We interested Mr. George 
Hildebrandt, who was connected with the depart¬ 
ment of Foods and Markets when it handled produce 
for farmers. The cabbage, 2 y 2 tons, arrived on a 
Jewish holiday, and dealers offered $40 for the let. 
They didn't get if. The next day they offered $50, 
and didn’t get. it. It was put in barrels, shipped to .. 
salesroom and sold for $250. Of course, this de¬ 
layed tile returns longer than would be the case in a 
sale from the car. The shipper writes: 
Your esteemed^ favor was received April 21 with 
check for $207.45, and it was a wonderful surprise! 
All I was offered here was $20 per ton. 8 o I decided 
to ship direct to you, and I \Cas sure you could get 
me more than $20 per ton. A commission man told 
me he hated to tell me what he thought when a week 
had transpired and I had not received any returns. When 
I argued, he reiterated that he hated to tell me what he 
thought. However, my faith never faltered. I knew 
you would “send home the bacon.” Of course yon can 
imagine m.v delight—$250 for 2V> tons of cabbage 
through your efforts, in spite of an offer of $20 per tun 
from local dealers is « vast margin which bespeaks a 
vicious system that ought to be rooted out, and nothing 
except close organization on the part of the farmers will 
ever do it. Considering the implicit confidence of the 
farmers throughout the East in The R. N.-Y.. it would 
be entirely feasible and practicable that a commission 
house should be conducted in New York City under the 
supervision of The R. N.-Y. By such an establishment 
we could be reasonably sure of getting what is right¬ 
fully ours. Then, too, by a process of elimination a 
genus of parasites would be exterminated. L. s. bird. 
Of course, we made no charge. We have no facil¬ 
ities for such a service, and could not undertake such 
work generally. The house that handled it got the 
regular commission. 
We refer to the incident only to give expression to 
the difficulties producers have in finding a market 
for their produce under the present system. The 
Department of Foods and Markets was organized to 
work out a solution of this problem. It was ham¬ 
pered by the propaganda of dealers, by meagre ap¬ 
propriations. and by politically inspired opposition 
of the State administration. Yet the need of it was 
indicated in the sale of nearly $ 1 , 000,000 worth of 
farm produce in 15 months. 
The produce speculators and food trusts, through 
their working partnership with our organized State 
government were, .by a subterfuge which deceived 
even some farm interests, able to defeat the purpose 
of the department and stop the work. The facilities 
were never right, and the service never as good as it 
ought to he. or as it could ho with proper facilities 
".nd organization, but it was at least honest, and 
clearly demonstrated that the plan and policy was 
right, and if properly developed would solve the 
farmers’ distribution problems. It was killed through 
politics because the farmer's gain would he the spec¬ 
ulator's loss. 
While the dealers and speculators are in partner¬ 
ship with the Government neither The It. N.-Y. nor 
any other agency will be able to break down the sys¬ 
tem that offers $40 for $250 worth of cabbage, and 
generally gets it. The State is stronger than any of 
its parts, and as far as these distribution problems 
go. the dealers and speculators have the State. If 
farmers, with their wives, sous and daughters, will 
put aside partisan politics, and through membership 
in the Federation of Agriculture or some other or¬ 
ganization for the same purpose, see that men are 
nominated to go to Albany who will give the farm a 
square deal, we can drive a wedge between specula¬ 
tors and the State government, and then, unham¬ 
pered by the power of our own government, farmers 
can and will cope on equal footing with the produce 
speculators. 
N. Y. State Federation of Sheep Growers 
New York has a sheep growers’ organization with 
E. S. Hill of Freeville secretary. Every sheepman 
in the State should he interested in this. The or¬ 
ganization committee sends out the following: 
SHEEP MEN GET TOGETHER.—It was through 
organization that tin 1 war was won ; through the organi¬ 
zation of the different nations. Let the sheep growers 
of New York State profit by this example, and every 
county have a Sheep Growers’ Association, so that we 
may bring the sheep business to the front and that it 
may be conducted on a living basis. 
Furthermore, the nations needed and had to have a 
mouthpiece through which they might be heard, and 
this was General Foeh. We. as county units, need a 
mouthpiece, and let that be the New York State Fed¬ 
eration. 
But as an organization it will be impossible for the 
Federation to act without funds. Already a number of 
counties have paid their dues of 20 cents a member, 
based on last year’s membership. It is. however, urgent 
that all associations give this their prompt attention, 
send in their dues at once. No doubt you have suffi¬ 
cient funds in your treasury. If so kindly request your 
treasurer to send a check to E. S. Hill of Freeville, who 
is the treasurer of the State Federation. 
OUTLOOK FOR SUCCESS.—Opinions regarding 
The RURAL NEW'- YORKER 
the future of the market vary to a great extent, even 
b.v the best wool men. Today the market is firm. 
Sheepmen are not speculators. Early business on the 
part of the county units will serve to hold the sheepmen 
together, and might save disappointment. The stand 
that sheepmen are taking all over the country with 
reference to what theii product is worth is having its 
effect. Today little wool business has been done in the 
fleece wool States. 
The Government wool business took the high-priced 
wool off dealers’ hands ; today they are not worrying 
about a depreciation in value on wools that they would 
normally have in stock. Therefore they are bearing 
toward the market. They are mainly buyers rather 
than sellers. On the other band, the growers are ex¬ 
erting a bullish influence in standing firm. The impor¬ 
tance of this solidarity should not be underestimated. 
However, facts are facts, and sheepmen must remember 
that reports show that less wool was used by manu¬ 
facturers during February than during any month for 
some time, the consumption being les'; than half that 
of a year ago. The National Wool Growers say. “We 
have in the country, including this year’s clip, sufficient 
wool to meet all our needs for a long time to come.” 
Do not fail to^urge members to dock and castrate all 
market lambs. Whether or not the public eats lamb 
will depend mostly upon the quality of the product. 
The market should not be depressed again this Fall with 
a large run of coarse, bueky. wormy and thin lambs. 
How many members would be interested in a farmers’ 
ram sale at the State Fair this Fall? If interested in 
consigning rams to a sale of this nature write the chair¬ 
man of your committee on store and stock sheep. 
Farmers wishing to buy ranis this Fall should notify 
this committee. A list of available rams will be in their 
hands. This exchange should be very valuable to flock 
owners wishing to change rams this Fall. 
Thoughts on the Milk Situation 
Owing to some little experience in business and years 
of association with the farmer, I feel that I must con¬ 
demn this milk plan as ill-timed and impossible, and the 
ultimate ruination of the Dairyman’s League. It seems 
to me that they are entirely wrong in assuming that they 
can eliminate a surplus through a process of manufac¬ 
ture. If there is a shortage of condensed milk, butter 
and cheese, there will he a surplus of fluid milk. If 
there is a surplus of fluid milk, is there not a surplus of 
milk products? 
If supply and demand do not regulate the surplus, 
and you resort to manufacturing, will the five, ten or 
twenty millions we are going to raise be able success¬ 
fully to combat the hundreds of millions already invest¬ 
ed in the same business? Remember that the present 
distributors and manufacturers have their products 
upon the shelves of every grocer in this State and na¬ 
tion ; remember, also, that the consumer is very well 
acquainted with the name and quality of each and every 
one of these products, and will insist upon having his 
favorite brand. It will cost us millions of dollars' and 
years of hard work to teach the consumer that ours is 
a superior product. We all admit that there are times 
when there is no surplus; nevertheless we shall be 
obliged to keep at all times a full force of the very best 
experts in our line, at large salaries, to take care of this 
surplus when it appears. We must develop in a few 
days, or at least in a very short time, a great business 
manager; one who is entirely familiar with the milk and 
milk products business; it has taken our competitors 
from five to 70 years to develop and perfect their organi¬ 
zation. We must have an up-to-the-minute sales force, 
and up-to date advertising force, and the system of 
bookkeeping that will be necessary is ’way beyond my 
comprehension. Assuming that there is a surplus, we 
are going to confess to the dealer that we were wrong 
in the past when we asked him to take all of our pro¬ 
duct. 
Farmers must make binding contracts with the Dairy¬ 
men's League Co-operative Association to. sell to them 
all of their milk. They will agree to pay League prices, 
but you can hardly expect to get your check every 15 
or even 30 days. Your surplus must be manufactured 
and sold and collections made. Salaries, taxes, insur¬ 
ance. and all other overhead charges must be taken care 
of first. If at the time this surplus is ready to be sold 
the market is bad, your manager wanting to make a 
good show, may hold for a few days; market worse, 
holds for 5K) days, and finally sells at lowest figure; you 
will then condemn him instead of the present distributor. 
He may win next time, but speculation is ahrays a gam¬ 
ble. How many of the 70.000 members of the League 
can or cares to wait from GO to 90 or ISO days for their 
pay? How many own their farms and can or will make 
such a contract when so much is at stake? 
Surplus is defined by Webster as that which is left 
over after demand is satisfied. IIow can we make de¬ 
mand any greater by manufacturing? We must stimu¬ 
late demand or lessen production to solve this problem. 
I believe that there has never been a more opportune 
time to boost the sale of milk. I am sure that a good, 
lively advertising campaign will entirely eliminate this 
surplus and cause such a shortage that we will have to 
exert ourselves to the utmost to supply the extra de¬ 
mand. 
Let us demand of the dealer cost plus a profit, and 
in return promise and deliver a better product than ever 
before; to use more care in handling the milk than be¬ 
fore. to stop all loss in handling and in transit, and 
to organize a campaign to create a greater demand for 
our product. Let us work to solve the problem of distri¬ 
bution. that consumers may be benefited and induced to 
purchase more milk. a. d. s. 
New York. 
A Woman’s Milk Comments 
In any milk plan let the members, not the delegates, 
elect officers. I do not believe the proposed plan can 
be successful o-n such a large scale, because two very 
small companies attempted this and failed, and quite a 
few members are afraid of the venture. 
The League will have to control the distributing end 
before they can ever make any better market for milk. 
Consumers are not going to buy 16c milk any quicker 
because the farmer is only getting $2.80 than they did 
when he got $ 1 . 01 . I cannot see any advantage in own¬ 
ing the country end, because nearly all communities 
have old, abandoned cheese factories which we could 
put into use with comparatively little expense, and also 
without handing over millions to men and measures 
which we do not approve of whether we want to or not. 
I. don’t think there is a farmer who would kick about 
handing over money for a wholesale distributing plant 
in New York City, and we all know that is whac has 
to be done before the League is a success. We. all 
know the country end of the League is controlled by’-the 
members, and I don’t believe there*i 3 a community that 
would not own their plants if then, was a place to ship 
to, but we all know the dealers v ill not buy from co¬ 
operative plants. 
We also need officers who will see to it that the pro¬ 
visions of the contract with the dealers are lived up to. 
Also that they hire a competent man to test our milk 
for butter fat and see that we ger what is coming to us. 
It looks to me as if rhe only fair solution is a dis¬ 
tributing plant owned by the League as a whole 
under the management of tried and true business men 
in New York City, and from all I have read and ob¬ 
served the members would very soon all own their own 
shipping station just as soon as they were sure there 
was a place for th°ir milk. b. l. c. 
New York. 
Figures on the Butterfat Basis 
In your article ou “Butter and Cheese Prices in Milk 
Figuring” I think you have also failed to see the real 
“gentleman in the rail pile.” At the price of 3 per cent 
milk a pound of butter is figured as .84 butterfat aud at 
58 %c per lb. for butter, or 69c per lb. for butterfat. If 
the price is to be figured ou a butter basis, why does the 
price of butterfat drop from 69c to 40 a< soon as it 
passes the 3 per cent point? This makes a reduction of 
29c per ewt. to the many who are making 4 per cent 
milk and to the few making 5 per cent the reduction is 
58c. J. B. T. 
New York. 
We did not discuss this point in the article because 
our correspondent who opened the discussion made 
this point in another way, but hardly with the same 
clearness in detail. If the quotations on butter are 
to be the basis of computing the price of milk, the 
producer is certainly entitled to pay for the full 
amount of butterfat delivered. No one pretends that 
the rich milk is ever passed on to the consumer until 
it is relieved of its excess burden of butterfat by the 
distributor. 
Horse Breeding in the East 
So far as my own locality is concerned, very few 
horses are being bred. There are not nearly as many 
as was the case 20 or more years ago. Horses generally 
of local breeding have sold at low prices for a good many 
years, and not infrequently there has been no market at 
all. It is true that our local breeding has been usually 
of poor quality. Laying that aside, it has seemed very 
discouraging for a farmer to try to sell a horse for 
some years. lie had to sell at a low figure, even if he 
had a good horse, while the speculator would at the 
same time get a good round price for something no bet¬ 
ter. There were reasons for this. The usual dealer 
made his sale and would allow the return of the horse, 
if not satisfactory, in exchange for another, perhaps 
with a little “boot” money paid him. Then he would 
usually take the buyer’s note, sustained by a chattel 
mortgage. These things tended to give the dealer a 
better market and a better price. Again, the farmer’s 
horses that he offered for sale might be as good, or bet¬ 
ter. but having the reputation of breeding something 
inferior did not help his sales. Farmers got discour¬ 
aged over breeding under these conditions. One reason 
for breeding rather inferior stock has been the fact that 
stallions have been of inferior quality almost without 
exception. The automobile and the truck have certainly 
tended to lessen the use of horses to au appreciable de¬ 
gree, and this has influenced rhe horse market. At the 
present moment there are rather more good stallions 
than before, but none too many rhat will stand recom¬ 
mendation. A great many horses have been brought iuto 
our section in the past years and rhe number seems to be 
now fully as large as ever. As before stated, these sell 
readily and at rather high prices. People are talking of 
keeping mares for farm work and raising colts from 
them. I cannot say rhat I know of anyone who has 
commenced this, but when we b*giu to talk it is usually 
not long before we get at a thing. I shall expect it to be 
done before long. While I am nor entirely optimistic 
as to large profits from this, ir seems to me a fairly 
safe proposition if the really good stallion is at hand. 
The heavier breeds are most in demand, but in my local¬ 
ity the 1.500 or 1.700-lb. hors* L uot particularly de¬ 
sired. Perhaps 1,200 to 1.400 lbs. may be most iu de¬ 
mand. although a little heavier horse is acceptable. The 
light driving horse and the racer ha- very 1 rle demand. 
The business of breeding tb*>» > dis ouraging. 
Chenango Co., N. Y. u. h. l 
