The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
1215 
Value of Local Market Gardeners’ 
Associations 
An Experience at Troy, N. Y. 
One of the. best examples of the value of a local 
vegetable growers’ association may be cited from the 
recent experience <Sf the members of the Troy Vegetable 
Growers’ Association in solving their market problem. 
The Troy growers have marketed their produce for the 
last decade in the city of Troy, where they maintained 
a wholesale and retail market, although it had always 
been largely wholesale. During the past Spring the 
Troy Women’s Civic League started an agitation to 
have the market conducted on a strictly retail basis, to 
which the growers naturally objected. The matter was 
taken up by the women of Troy with local leaders of 
the Federation of Labor and with the mayor. The 
women claimed that the growers had control of the 
market for 20 years, and that now it was time for the 
public to decide what the price paid for vegetable 
produce should be. They furthermore desired to have 
the market a free market, open to everybody. Instead 
of assigning definite stalls to each grower, where he 
might bring his produce and be found by his customers 
each morning, he was to select a location from what 
vacant space was left when he reached the market. The 
growers had always been satisfied to conduct the 
market on a wholesale-retail basis, although it entailed 
considerable inconvenience at times to do business on 
that basis. They frequently refused to break _a crate 
oi' package in order to make a retail y sale, which pro¬ 
voked many of the women patrons of the market. 
After considerable agitation had been _ aroused by 
the Women’s Civic League and the Federation of Labor 
over the market situation, the farmers 
agreed to pay the city of Troy $1,200 a 
year for a market on which they could 
have stalls assigned, and on which they 
could sell at retail and wholesale as in 
the past. It was proposed to conduct 
the market on a strictly wholesale basis 
until six o’clock, after which time it would 
be retail. This proposal was not accepted 
by the city of Troy, whereupon the grow¬ 
ers got together, each man pledging what 
he thought he could toward establishing 
a wholesale market of their own in the city 
of Watervliet. which is much more con¬ 
veniently located for the growers than is 
Troy, since it is nearer their farms. 
Nevertheless the wholesalers and jobbers 
are located in Troy, furthermore, the 
growers transacted most of their business 
in Troy, in which respects the Troy loca¬ 
tion would be more satisfactory than 
Watervliet. 
When the wholesalers and jobbers of 
Troy found the growers establishing a 
market across the river in Watervliet, 
they became provoked and tried to force 
the growers to return to their old market 
in Troy by going to the Albany market 
to purchase their produce. The Troy 
growers had informed the members of the 
Albany association what would probably 
happen, and requested that they assist the 
Troy growers by pushing the price up. 
When the Troy wholesalers appeared on 
the Albany market, they found the prices 
the Albany growers were asking double 
those of the Troy growers, and much 
higher than they could afford to pay. 
As a result the wholesalers saw that they 
would have to secure their produce from 
the Troy growers in Watervliet. The 
wholesalers had planned to buy their 
produce from Albany, and haui it to 
Troy, where they would maintain the old 
market, selling their produce to the gro¬ 
cers and hucksters there, thus forcing the 
Troy growers to come back. If the mem¬ 
bers of the Albany association had not 
co-operated with the Troy growers ’..v 
raising prices probably this is what would 
have happened. 
It has cost the Troy growers approxi¬ 
mately $18,000 for their new market, 
which they have concreted and laid off 
into stalls. They have also constructed 
a wholesale house, and are planning to 
build a cannery to take care of surplus 
crops during glut periods. It is estimated 
that the growers have paid $19,000 in 
bridge toll to carry their produce across 
the river from Watervliet to Troy during the past 20 
years. This saving alone would have more than paid 
for a market. Growers are charged $15 a year for 
stalls, wholesalers and buyers are charged $25 a year 
by the association. Each member of the association 
subscribed what he desired toward the new market, and 
it is planned to declare dividends after the market is 
well established. 
Undoubtedly there are many other local vegetable 
growers' associations that have similar problems to 
contend with which could be solved by co-operation of 
growers and associations. A year ago these same two 
associations, with the Schenectady association, estab¬ 
lished the three-peck basket as a standard for marketing 
tomatoes, beans, peas and other vegetables in this sec¬ 
tion. Next year they plan to co-operate in establishing 
a standard size asparagus bunch. At the present time 
the Albany growers put up their asparagus in large 
hunches weighing about two pounds, while the Schenec¬ 
tady and Troy growers put up smaller bunches weighing 
a pound to a pound and a quarter. The Albany growers 
do not secure more than the Troy and Schenectady 
growers for their larger bunches, because of the fact 
that consumers buy their asparagus by the bunch, and 
do not distinguish between different sizes. Nevertheless 
it would he folly for individual growers on the Albany 
market to change the size of their asparagus bunches 
if other growers continued to make large hunches, but 
if ail the members of the association agree to make 
smaller bunches, it becomes a very easy matter, and 
will result in much higher returns from asparagus for 
the Albany growers. H. w. s. 
A Complaint About Wheat Grading 
The farmers in our community are feeling pretty 
bitter over the treatment they are getting out of the 
present wheat deal. None of our wheat grades No. 1. 
Most of it grades No. 2 and No. 3, and some of it No. 4. 
The writer sold a load the other day that weighed only 
53% pounds to the measured bushel. Under the rulings 
it grades No. 4, and I will be compelled to accept about 
$2 a bushel for it, and then I must give 00 pounds for 
the bushel. I am compelled to accept the price of a 
53%-pound measured bushel, but must give 00 pounds 
for it. I wonder who will get the benefit of those 0% 
pounds of wheat that I must put up on the bushel? It 
looks like a great injustice. Our farmers argue that if 
they make us accept the price of a 53%-pound bushel, 
or any other weight, they ought to pay us for that kind 
of a bushel, and not demand 60 pounds for a bushel. 
I would like to know if GO pounds of my wheat, weigh¬ 
ing only 53% pounds to the measured bushel, will not 
make as much flour as 60 pounds of wheat that weighs 
60 pounds to the bushel. The lower grades cut the 
price down to the farmer, but the weight remains 60 
pounds to the bushel, and the elevator man and the 
miller dump all of these different weights into the same 
bin. Does that look right? What grades will they 
make out of them? I wonder if any manufacturing 
concern or anyone else that had any contract with the 
Government has been treated in this manner with their 
contracts. Samuel hetman. 
Ohio. _ 
Trouble with Milk Tests 
What can we do to get a square deal on our milk 
test? Practically all our producers are complaining of 
low tests. Some of them have one full per cent drop 
in a month. My test dropped from 3.8 to 3.2. My own 
test shows 4 per cent. * The low tests have come since 
the new superintendent put in a new man to test the 
milk. We think the trouble is due to the superintendent, 
and not to the owner of the creamery. Where can we 
get a man to test the milk officially? J. R. 
Complaints of low milk tests are quite general. 
If the creamery will not accept your test you can 
get an official test through the State Experiment 
Station, Geneva, N. Y. If you want to make a 
general test, write Charles S. Wilson, Commissioner 
of Agriculture, Albany, N. Y., and he will no doubt 
find a way to help you get an official test for all the 
patrons who want it. 
Your branch should be organ.zed to employ an 
agent to weigh and test If :*c regularly. The 
dealers would not accept your ' t, and experience 
shows that producers cannot always safely accept 
their tests. 
A Virginian Farm Loan Association 
How the Local Can Help 
EARLY DIFFICULTIES.—On pages 1017-101S is 
a very interesting article relative to the working of the 
Chautauqua County (N. Y.) Federal Farm Loan 
Association by Earle W. Gage. The writer has been 
secretary-treasurer of this Prince Edward County Asso¬ 
ciation, Farmville, Va., for a year and a half, and can 
say that the Chautauqua County Association’s experi¬ 
ences were duplicated here, together with some other 
disagreeable features particularly our own. At first 
we were inclined to blame everyone except ourselves 
for the tardiness iu getting loans through, for the cuts 
that were made in the applications, and for all the rest 
of our troubles. But we see now that considerable of 
the difficulty was our own shortcomings, and our short¬ 
comings were principally our failure to apply business 
principles to our operations. I believe that our Asso¬ 
ciation’s work at present is generally satisfactory to 
our applicants and borrowers, and the reason is that 
we have cut expenses and time and have succeeded in 
having almost no applications reduced. 
PROFITABLE SHORT CUTS —Some of our short 
cuts may be of interest to and applicable to other asso¬ 
ciations, and undoubtedly other secretary-treasurers 
have adopted short cuts that we all can profit by using. 
I feel certain that The R. N.-Y. will give the necessary 
space to set out time and money-saving plans that have 
been successfully used. Formerly we had the maximum 
number of directors (nine), thinking that a directorship 
scattered in all parts of the county would add to our 
prestige and increase our applications. We now have 
the minimum number (five), and all live within a few 
miles of the office. A meeting of the board is not now 
the momentous and oft-postponed proceeding of the past. 
The members'can all come with little effort, and as 
under the law only four are necessary for all business, 
we never have a meeting without a quorum. Formerly 
we had three members of the Loan Committee, neces¬ 
sitating long trips for one or more of them. Now we 
have 10 or 12, located in various parts of the county, 
and can get property examinations with about two- 
thirds of the former expense. We pay our Loan Com¬ 
mittee at the rqte of $5 per day for each man serving, 
our board of directors $1 for each meeting attended. 
CONI IDENTIAL REPORTS.—Another of our diffi¬ 
culties whs that our loan committee was inclined to 
make a favorable report on every farm examined, and 
if a cut was in order to let the Federal Appraiser do 
it. This tended to make the Federal Appraiser appre¬ 
hensive of each of our applications. After considering 
the matter we decided to make the proceedings of the 
loan committee, and the board of directors, together 
with their reports, strictly confidential. If an applica¬ 
tion is cut or rejected our action is not known to the 
applicant, as we insist that the District Bank shoulder 
the responsibilty of turning the loan down after the 
Federal Appraiser has examined the property. This 
action has tended to decrease our loan cuts by the 
appraisers, as they recognize the fact that our reports 
are actual reports of the true condition of the property 
value and of the applicant. Hence they 
compare our reports with apparent con¬ 
ditions with confidence instead of suspi¬ 
cion. 
LESSENING DELAYS.—Another 
trouble that we experienced was long de¬ 
lays between making the application and 
completing our local work, on the appli¬ 
cation. This has been remedied by hav¬ 
ing 12 appraisal days per year, and ad¬ 
vertising these dates, so that a prospective 
borrower may guide his anplication by 
the date of his needs. We find that most 
of our applications come in within a few 
days of the advertised date. This allows 
us to arrange our route, notify our com¬ 
mittee members when and where to meet 
our party, and to complete the work of 
examination quickly and at a minimum 
cost. The directors are notified at the 
same time to meet the following day. and 
thus the completed application leaves our 
hands promptly. Our District Bank is 
also familiar with our appraisal date, but 
to make certain we notify them a week 
beforehand, and their appraiser is on 
hand promptly, in fact, oftentimes on the 
day following our directors’ meeting. 
When the report has left our hands we 
start our abstractor working on the titles, 
his taking the most urgent cases first, and 
within a few days our application is com¬ 
pleted as far as we are concerned. From 
then on the loan is at the mercy of the 
District Bank and the Federal Farm 
Loan Board. Our late experience with 
these two institutions has been gratify¬ 
ing ; in fact, one particular case in which 
I requested haste, the money covering a 
$4,500 loan, was mailed to me within four 
hours of the hour at which the abstract 
of title was received by our District Bank, 
the Federal Land Bank of Baltimore. 
DEALING WITH THE APPRAISER. 
—Mr. Gage’s experience with an appraiser 
who has seemingly no qualification to act 
as such is unfortunate, and with such a 
man I would suggest the delicate, dainty 
and sensitively exquisite steam roller 
treatment. The farm loan system was 
never intended for the purpose of being 
a meal ticket to a narrow-minded bigot 
with a one-sided soul. If you ever draw 
that kind of an individual, get your facts 
and figures lined up. so that if necessary 
you can present a convincing case, and 
then write to your District Bank that 
you will not allow further appraisals to 
be made by him. Mr. Gage’s suggestions 
relative to amending the Act of Congress 
are pertinent, and I believe that if he will present them 
to the Farm Loan Board. Washington, D. C., both they 
and he will receive courteous treatment. 
OBTAINING CAPITAL.—Now. as the political 
spellbinder says, “one word and I am done.” The 
effective working of a plan to furnish capital to Amer¬ 
ican farmers at a low interest rate depends upon this 
point: ability by some one or some institution to obtain 
that capital from its source at the minimum rate. To 
provide that capital at a low interest rate the Farm 
Loan Act of Congress in Section 26 and paragraph one, 
reads: 
“ * * * farm loan bonds issued under the pro¬ 
visions of this Act shall be deemed and held to he 
instrumentalities of the Government of the United 
States, and as such they and the income derived there¬ 
from shall be exempt from Federal, State, municipal 
and local taxation.” 
Certain interests in this country are very anxious to 
have the effectiveness of the above paragraph emascu¬ 
lated, and Washington news reports would seem to 
indicate that a considerable force is being mobilized for 
that purpose. Should they succeed in doing so your 
farm loan system goes to the scrap heap and you will 
go hack to borrowing money under the plan of “all the 
traffic will bear.” If any bill is introduced in Congress 
that tampers ’with the Federal Farm Loan Act in any 
way it will be well to insist to your representatives 
that they vote against such a bill or amendment, if it 
alters in any way the above quotation from the original 
Act. ROY MATHEWSON. 
Prince Edward County N. F. L. Asso’u. Virginia. 
Guernsey Breeders Meet 
Guernsey breeders of Genesee, Wyoming axul Livingston 
Counties met at the farm of Taber & Miguin, Castile. N. 
Y.. Aug. 1 for the first meeting of its kind held in Western 
New York. About 75 breeders and their wives and 
families turned out. The forenoou was taken up with 
an inspection and study of the herd of the host, and 
the afternoon was featured by talks and a cow judging 
demonstration by Prof. C. H. Royee of the College of 
(Continued on page 1224) 
Free Open Market Space, Resulting from Lack of Co operation 
How the Wagons Are Ranked in the Open 
