The New Milk Plan Best 
The Strike of January, 1919, Showed a Reconstruction 
of the League Wat; Necessary 
The farmers, for some time, had been purchasing their 
own receiving plants throughout the milk-producing 
sections, and either marketing their own product at 
various prices or contracting with the larger companies, 
with contracts terminating at various times. These con¬ 
tracts had to be fulfilled, even though a strike was on. 
This threw much milk into the city, hurting the patrons’ 
interest, the League’s interest and the neighbor who 
was sending to a “strike” company. It also showed 
that neighbor, to be on the safe side, he must be inter¬ 
ested in a co-operative plant somewhere. 
FURTHER FLANS.—The talk all through the strike 
was to build and own, or buy all local plants possible. 
It was evident to the League from the January strike 
that all these plants, with localized control and different 
contracts, were really a menace in another strike, should 
it come, and with these ideas in mind the League was 
forced to submit plans for the future. These plans were 
given out at Utica and have many commendable features, 
and few bad ones. 
CENTRALIZED CONTROL.—Glance at the indus¬ 
tries. Steel mills, International Harvester Company, 
Standard Oil; these have succeeded through centralized 
control. Why not a Dairymen’s League? We have 
seen a centralized control in the Union of the 13 col¬ 
onies after the Revolutionary War. We have seen the 
centralized control of the Hun machine defy Europe, 
with local co-operation by the Allies for four years. 
Again, we see the centralized control of the Allied 
armies under Foch win the war. Hoover studied the 
food situation, alloted the amounts to each country. 
No one suffered, a reasonable amount was had by all at 
a minimum price. Would local co-operation produce 
this result? We see the same result in the Army pur¬ 
chasing boards; the united charities. Why not the 
Dairymen’s League? 
THE SURPLUS.—The cry always has been “sur¬ 
plus.” Is this real or imaginary? Can it be con¬ 
trolled? The answer is “Yes”; the new plan does it. 
It is the only logical way. Its simplicity is its guar¬ 
antee of its success. We have seen the advertisements 
of well-known business houses. They have become 
standards in household articles of merit and worth. 
The public today is only waiting for a standard dairy 
product whose quality is guaranteed absolutely. Just 
let the people know there is a dependable brand of but¬ 
ter on the market and its sale is unlimited. The butter 
will sell and introduce the cheese, condensed, evap¬ 
orated and milk powder. This is the surplus. The 
cities will receive only the milk desired. The surplus 
will be cared for cheaply in its own locality. Butter 
will be produced in highest butterfat producing sections 
naturally. It will be produced only in the quantities 
desired. Its storage will be provided fonand its quality 
maintained. The same with cheese. The by-products, 
as casein, milk sugar, are easily handled. The central 
control will know their condition from existing market 
conditions and the orders will be issued for the manu¬ 
facture of these products. 
OTHER CONSIDERATIONS.—It is to our own 
advantage for this to take place, for our own American 
industry to be protected, instead of a foreign controlled 
and capitalized industry to compete on our own soil 
and the markets of the world. The financing of this 
plan is perhaps the hardest part, and yet when the sur¬ 
vey of the territory has been made, the creameries’ value 
known, it is an absolute, definite amount required. The 
investment is safe. It will move alone. 
FINANCES.—All communities where creameries are 
know that their business depends largely on the success 
of the farmer. When the banker, the grocer or the 
feed man is asked to invest a little* money for five years 
at a good rate of interest, will he turn it down? The 
farmers know it is a make-or-break proposition with 
them. When the survey of the territory is completed, 
each local will have its quota, each share of th? regional 
will be included. Each local owning its own plant will 
probably have very little to invest. Also, is it not worth 
while to be an owner in your business, to have a divi¬ 
dend coming in. not only milk, but a little interest, a lit¬ 
tle investment all the while returning? If you have 
bet'n a heavy producer of milk for five years and your 
health fails you have a guarantee of something for five 
years as a dividend, just as good as an insurance policy. 
The first five years’ certificates of indebtedness should 
carry a higher rate of interest to make the investment 
attractive for the investor to get necessary capital. 
A GOOD PLAN.—The plan as it stands is the best 
formulated ; on the whole it is simple, the business end 
is self-supporting when once started. What it needs is 
a man or men to push it. to back it, and make it go. It 
is up to us as farmers to stand together as one unit to 
back the men who formulated it. The distributing end 
of the business will take care of itself. The absolute 
cost of production and handling can be given from one 
unit closer than ever before. The municipal authori¬ 
ties are awake today to see their people get things at a 
reasonable figure. If the dealer will not handle this at 
a reasonable profit, it is a simple matter to take over 
the distributing end of the business and handle it. The 
Dairymen’s League today has opportunity knocking at 
its door. It has the greatest food product of the world 
to handle. With a centralized control the dairy indus¬ 
try will be established on a business basis, as other in¬ 
dustries are established; a product necessary to life and 
“The RURAL NF.W - YORKER 
health is to be given to all at a reasonable price, and a 
reasonable profit to the producer—the farmer. 
Chenango Co., N. Y leo l. nichols. 
Let Us Have the Details 
I acknowledge with thanks your check for $100 
awarded to me in the milk plan contest. As a mere 
expression of my ideas on the subject the plan I sub¬ 
mitted has gone further than I had hoped. The plan 
as I gave it to you 4s simply an outline, and lacks many 
details and explanations which I should be glad to 
discuss for your paper if you so desired. 
I am glad to see a farm paper that has the common 
sense to wish to discuss such a gigantic project as the 
League has undertaken before advocating any one plan, 
and I heartily commend you for the policy you have 
taken. The League has never asked its members to 
submit any plans or ideas on any subject, and the 
leaders of the League should give heed to The R. N.-Y.’s 
suggestion and example in that respect. 
New York. geokge c. porter. 
It may interest dairymen to know that Mr. Porter 
is connected with the Co-operative Bureau in the 
State Department of Agriculture, is a graduate of 
the College of Agriculture at Cornell, and besides 
holding positions in several local organizations, runs 
a 400-acre dairy farm in Broome County. We shall 
be glad to have the further elucidation of his plan. 
885 
table is given as the value of dairy products at 
wholesale city prices: 
Fluid milk consumed.v°3-33&.S54.09 
Butter . 7.2°4 286 31 
Cheese . IJ.SOO.OOoiVl 
Condensed and evaporated milk. 42.474.463.29 
Sterilized milk . 54,855.48 
Dried casein . . 259,058 56 
Powdered milk and cream. 10,638,705.45 
Malted milk . 118,523.40 
Milk sugar (crude). 838,407.00 
Ice cream, all kinds. 33,336,441.20 
Total .$208,084,590.52 
The report accounts for the amount of milk con¬ 
sumed in the State and also the amount manufac¬ 
tured in the State and from State production, but 
there do not seem to be any figures to show the 
quantity of milk produced within the State and con¬ 
sumed in liquid form. Considerable liquid milk 
comes from other States, and there seems to be an 
omission in accounting for it. There is, besides, 
some milk produced in the State and consumed in 
other States, and this would tend to offset our 
receipts from other States, but hardly to equal 
them. 
MILK IS THE 
PERFECT FOOD 
You Cannot Properly Raise a Child 
Without a Quart of Milk Per Day 
The R. N.-Y. makes the suggestion that all farm 
papers and all country papers print a series of 
free advertisements calling attention to the food 
value of good milk. Every paper printed in a dairy 
community should come in on this, for they owe their 
life and prosperity to dairying. Not one farm family 
in a dozen uses as much milk as we think the city 
family ought to use. Years ago The R. N.-Y. began 
to talk about baked apples. At that time it was hard 
to find a baked apple in a city restaurant. We were 
told that a farm paper could not influence the habits 
of city people, but we kept at it until we had the 
entire country talking about apples. It will be the 
same thing with milk if we can all get together in 
an organized campaign to show the true value of 
milk as a food. If every farm paper and every paper 
printed in a dairy community will put some printers* 
ink into milk we can within a year put milk into 
the mind of the city man. This is one of the things 
we must do for ourselves. No one will do it for us. 
New York as a Milk State 
Commissioner Charles S. Wilson of the Agricul¬ 
tural Department has issued a bulletin of dairy 
statistics for the State of New York, for the year 
1918, which contains very interesting data in relation 
to the industry. The report indicates approximately 
1,023.034 milk-producing cows in the State, at an 
estimated value of $102,303,400. The value of the 
dairy farms is estimated at $129,540,000. The 
average production per cow is given as 4.337 pounds, 
and the average income per cow $121.91. The 
bulletin gives the volume of fluid milk consumed in 
1918 in the cities as 971.439.105 quarts, and in the 
counties of New York State exclusive of the metro¬ 
politan districts 336.750,825 quarts, and in the metro¬ 
politan districts, including Greater New York. Nas¬ 
sau. Suffolk and Westchester. 752,273.030 quarts; a 
total consumption of 1.089.023,855 quarts. 
The total consumption of liquid milk for the year 
191S is given at 2,341.401.2SS lbs., or 1,089,023,900 
quarts, and 2.095.531,125 lbs., or 974.665,600 quarts 
as manufactured. 
The total value of the liquid milk used for both 
consumption and manufacture is given at $124,725.- 
847.S9. The total value of the manufactured dairy 
products of 2,095,531.125 liquid pounds, or 974.665.600 
quarts, produced within the State is figured at 
$109,745,736.43. The value of milk in these products 
would be $02,865,933.75. The cost jof manufacture 
must therefore be $46.880.002.6S, or 74 per cent. The 
report estimates that 539.859 cows produced 2.341.- 
401,288 lbs. of milk, which were consumed as liquid 
milk, and for which producers received $3 per owt, 
or a total of $70,242,038.64, and that 483,175 cows 
produced 2,095,531.125 lbs., which were manufac¬ 
tured. and for which producers received $2.60 per 
cwt.. or a total of $54,483,809.05. The following 
Buying Farms on Contract 
* 0 D , P a £ e 1406, December 21, 1918. there was an edi- 
toria, answer to a woman who asked the editor to tell 
her where she and her husband could get credit or cash 
to enable them to make a start to own their own farm 
home. The couple, according to her statement, are in 
the dairy business. Your answer was a brief statement 
that something should be done to give credit to worthv 
people like this husband and wife to enable them to en- 
gage in dairying on a farm that in the course of time 
would become their own. due to their economv, industry 
and good management. Every section of ‘our great 
country has some peculiar customs of doing its own 
business. In Allegany County, N. Y., which is a dairv 
county, it is quite common for farmers who have grown 
old and wish to retire, to sell their farms on a contract 
taking half of the produce, grain, milk and fruit that 
are raised by the buyer. The retiring farmer leaves 20 
or _o cows on the farm, a team or two of work horses, 
the necessary farming tools and hav enough to carry the 
stock to grass in the Spring. For all this there is no 
money paid by the buyer, except I think 50 cents or 81 
to the lawyer who draws the contrct. For this trifle 
the new man is placed in possession of a producing 
plant from the day he enters into possession. 'To begin 
with he has the milk of the herd of cows to sell That 
gives him a cash return at once. Half of this milk 
money is his and half goes to the owner of the farm 
and is credited by him as part purchase upon the agreed 
price. At the time of purchase a price is also agreed 
upon for the cows and tools, and that price is added to 
^i e ^J JI!rc il as ? P iaee of the farm. Here, then, is a corner 
ot New York where a farmer can start on a dairv farm 
not as a renter, but as an owner. After he has paid a 
certain part of the purchase price a deed is delivered to 
the purchaser and he executes a mortgage for the bal¬ 
ance due on the property. This is nothin isolated case 
and I am assured that it is quite common custom in 
Alleganj County. Personally I know several men who 
have come from Monroe County, N. Y.. in recent vears 
and bought Allegany County farms on the plan I'have 
described. j x 
It is quite common practice in this section to sell 
farms on contract, where only a very small cash pav- 
ment is made. However. I have never known a case 
where a good, well-equipped farm was turned over 
equipment and all. with no cash payment, unless from 
father to son or some such case. A small cash pav- 
ment is nearly always required, and it is seldom that 
stock or tools go along with the farm. Usually a retir- 
.ng funnel has an auction and sells all his equipment 
and stock, except possibly a few cows. Farms here¬ 
abouts are usually rented on the share svstem. and in 
such a case the owner furnishes part of the cows 
. 1>p rhaps a few words in regard to the farm situation 
in Allegany County might be appropriate at this point 
This county is essentially what is known as ‘'hill eoun- 
tvy. Rich bottom lands, or ‘'fiats” are of small extent 
I here m some level or gently sloping land on top of the 
hills, but as a whole the land is rather rough and liillv 
In tact, m the southern part of the county manv fields 
are so nearly “on edge" that it is necessary to* put a 
rough lock on both hind wheels in removing the crops 
I he soil varies, within short distances, from gravel to 
heavy clay and from very good to very poor. Some 
farms also have fine buildings and fences and are in a 
high state of cultivation, while others are in the last 
stages of dilapidation. I mention these things to show 
the necessity for a stranger to look well to his purchase 
before he makes it. 
Piobabh a man and woman who had the appearance 
ot being ambitious and of good habits, even though 
strangers, might be able to purchase a fairlv good farm 
on a very small payment down, and I think it likelv that 
it would not be necessary to pledge half the farm in¬ 
come but rather a specified annual payment. It is quite 
customary to sell cows without anv cash payment ex¬ 
cept to allot half the milk checks to the owner of the 
cows until paid for. Dealers and merchants in this 
county have always been very liberal in the matter of 
credits for farm supplies, and I believe most of the local 
banks are as accommodating as is consistent with safe 
business. 
I do not know that it can be said that Alleganv Coun¬ 
ty offers exceptional oppM-tunities to the man 'without 
capital. 8till, if a couple have the euergv, honesty thrift 
and other qualities which will be necessarv for financial 
success it will not be long until these qualities are rec¬ 
ognized and they will be able to find plenty of oppor- 
tumtJ fllmad in the making of a farm home. It 
vil! take a lot o. hard work, here as elsewhere, and it 
is eas,\ to see that a stranger is at a considerable disad- 
vantagein getting started. Allegany County farms are 
not high priced, on the average, and there is much land 
for saie Credit is as easy here as anywhere, but it can 
hardly be said that people who own farms want to dis¬ 
pose of them without looking pretty well to the pav- 
ment end of the deal. Individual cases mav be found 
where exceptionally easy terms are offered, blit these are 
hard y the rule. c . L . .mills. 
Allegany Co., N. Y. 
