Vht RURAL. NEW-YORKER 
1459 
Fruit and Vegetable Men and Iein^ Cars 
A Case of Robbery Unless We Stop It 
CHANGING THE SYSTEM.—The United States 
Railroat Administration has proposed a new tariff for 
icing ear: of fruit and vegetables in transit to market. 
Heretofore the Southern and transcontinental hauls have 
been subject to a “stated charge” for icing by the rail¬ 
roads, and in the Northeastern territory shippers have 
paid for the ice they actually used, whether furnished by 
the railroads or by private concerns. The railroads now 
propose to make a uniform rate for icing which they 
call a “stated charge,” without regard to the amount of 
ice necessary to use or the distance to be hauled, and 
without taking into account the difference between va¬ 
rieties, weather or season conditions, and even without 
distinguishing between products direct from, the field and 
those which are pre-cooled, or taken from cold storage. 
EVIDENCE GIVEN.—During a brief hearing in 
New York, Mr. Kohlmann made an exhibit to show the 
effect of the proposed tariff on a shipment from Hilton, 
N. Y., to New York City: 
Cost as per Rail¬ 
road Exhibit 
1918 1919 
Initial icing of the car (5 tons).... $21.00 $31.50 
Re-icing of car at Rochester (2 tons). 8.04 12.00 
Re-icing of car at Earners (1*4 tons) 6.02 8.03 
Switching car at icing and re-icing 
stations at 35c per switch. 1.05 1.05 
Haulage of the ice in the bunkers—1c 
per 100 lbs. per mile. 3.20 3.20 
Hunker damage . 5.00 5.00 
Supervision . 4.00 4.00 
$49.51 $65.98 
The railroad experts testified that this tariff is pro¬ 
posed, “not for the purpose of increasing revenue,” but 
“in the interest of uniformity,” and every car which is 
iced at all for New York is to receive one initial iciug 
of five tons and two re-icings. Whether needed or not, 
S 1 /* tons of ice are to be used. If the cars will not hold 
it. it is to be paid fob. 
BUNKER CAPACITY.—For the sake of and in the 
interest of uniformity all cars are supposed to hold five 
tons of ice in their bunkers, although only a few of the 
refrigerator cars in use have bunkers which will hold 
five tons of ice, and the buukers of some cars will not 
hold 1 y -2 tons of ice. Furthermore, the bunker capacity 
was expressed in cubic feet and the statement that a 
cubic foot of ice weighs 57.4 lbs. was made. The rail¬ 
road exhibits showed that when the bunkers are filled 
with chunk ice it is seldom possible to put in more than 
37 lbs. of ice per cubic foot of space. The bunkers of 
most of the cars are not of five-ton capacity, and there 
is a loss of space when chunk ice is used, and frequently 
but 32 to 35 lbs. of ice are used per cubit foot of space. 
CAR INSULATION.—The insulation of the cars, 
which is one of the most vital of all the factors involved 
in this whole question, has thus far been ignored by the 
railroads. But 25 to 40 per cent of the ice used in iciug 
a car is used to cool the commodity; the rest is used in 
cooling the air outside the car. and the amount so wasted 
varies with the insulation of the car. 
FORMER ARRANGEMENTS.—Shippers filed a 
series of maps at the New York hearing, showing where 
tin- rail movement originated in the State of New York, 
and also that much of this development had been made 
upon a distinct understanding with the railroads that 
they would provide adequate and proper facilities for 
transporting the commodities. Further, that in this 
proposed tariff the Railroad Administration seeks to de¬ 
stroy this understanding by their claim that the charges 
for transporting peaches, for instance, was predicated 
on the movement of the commodity in a box car, and 
that a charge of $5 for the use of a refrigerator car 
would therefore be warranted. The growers point out 
that the development of this production was based on 
the use of refrigerator cars and refrigerator cars alone, 
not on box cars. 
RE-ICING.—The exhibit also showed the percentage 
of the movement which went on the initial icing; for in¬ 
stance, from Rochester 47 per cent of the peaches moved 
without re-icing, while 82 per cent of the apples, 92 per 
cent of the onions, 80 per cent of the celery, moved on 
the initial icing only. 
COST OF ICE.—The railroad representative testified 
that in normal years the ice was frequently hauled from 
the Adirondncks to Rochester, while ice is hauled from 
Sodus Point to Parkersburg, \V. Va. The average cost 
of ice on some of the lines as shown in their exhibits 
was as high as $12.61 per ton. The shippers submitted 
evidence that in New York they had in the past and 
generally could ice their own cars at less than $3 per 
ton, and that they failed to see why they should not, in 
the interest of economy alone, continue to ice their own 
cars, and one of the contentions of the shippers is that 
they should continue on the "cost of ice per ton basis” 
on the ground that in view of the varying conditions 
and short hauls it is impossible to assess a stated charge 
justly. 
AN ENORMOUS INCREASE.—Under the new 
tariff shippers who formerly paid $10 to $20 for icing 
will pay from $65 to $70. In some cases it means 50c 
a barrel on apples. There is a large movement in which 
two to three tons of ice appear to be adequate. This is 
true of celery moving from cold storage, apples from 
cold storage, in which case a little ice is used principally 
to prevent the apples “sweating.” Peaches which have 
been pre-cooled require less ice than those from the field. 
Cabbage shipped in the Spring to Southern points is 
frequently ordered iced in transit when it reaches 
warmer regions— in fact, the exhibits made sii far show 
that the shippers are practicing economy and are icing 
intelligently at costs so much lower than those proposed 
that in some cases the proposed increase is one of 1.790 
per cent. In m<5st of the cases it is an increase of 200 
to 600 per cent. 
NO TIME FOR EXTRAVAGANCE.—The growers 
and shippers contend that these increases are so great in 
the case of some of the commodities that it will have a 
most serious effect upon the movement, and will cer¬ 
tainly curtail production. The present is no time for 
such ^extravagance. They will gladly pay for service 
rendered, but feel that a service should be performed by 
those who can most economically perform it. In icing 
cars in New York, many of the shippers have icing facil¬ 
ities of their own and they have built a large number of 
cold storages where pre-cooling of fruit and the icing of 
ears is now performed at very reasonable rates. A sys¬ 
tem is established. It is working efficiently. To destroy 
it would be an economic wrong. 
ASSOCIATED FRUIT AND VEGETABLE INDUSTRIES 
of NEW York. 
Candid Statement About a Canner 
One of our readers sends us the following pointed 
letter, taken from the Capital Times. It is from a 
Southern cattleman to a commission firm. It is print¬ 
ed here for the benefit of those who say there is no 
such thing as a 35-cert dollar. We have seen no 
answer to it. Tf there is any we will print it: 
Urania, La., July 28,1919. 
Cassidy Southwestern ( ommission Co., 
St. Louis. Mo. 
Gentlemen : 
We received your stock report last week and note 
that canners were still selling at 4 y±e. 
It happened that the same day we butchered a cow 
that would class as a canner, and we are giving you the 
full figures, comparing what this cow brought and what 
she would have brought had we shipped her to St. Louis 
and sold her as a canner. She weighed 525 lbs. gross, 
and she dressed 227 lbs. beef, at 25c per lb.—$56.75. 
TJie hide. 52 lbs., at 40c—$20.80—making a total of 
$77.50. Had we shipped her to St. Louis, weighing 525 
lbs., less 10 per cent for shrinkage en route, 52 lbs., 
total gross 473 lbs., price offered 4 Vic, would bring 
$20.10, less freight and commission of le per lb.—$4.73 
—leaving a net amount of $15.37 that we would have 
received for this cow in St. Louis, which brought us 
$77.50 here after being butchered. I think I have been 
very conservative in my figures for the price of beef. 25c 
I er lb., as a packer’s agent was here this morning and 
said it was worth 30c. The price of 40c per lb. for the 
hide is also very conservative, since we sold hides the 
same day that this cow was butchered at 41U.C per lb. 
and the next day we were offered 45c. 
Now the most ridiculous part about this business is 
that if we had come to the question of shipping her to 
St. Louis and selling her as a canner or just killing her 
here and selling the hide, throwing all beef away, we 
would have been ahead of the game $5.43 as against 
shipping her to St. Louis. This matter I cannot under¬ 
stand. and I am writing you at length, asking if you cau 
give me some information why such condition's exist. 
This cow’s hide alone is worth as much in St. Louis as 
here and at the price of 40c it amounts to $20.80. where¬ 
as the whole cow would only bring $15.27 if sold as a 
canner in St. Louis. 
If you can explain the above matter to me I would 
be greatly obliged to you, as I admit I am greatly puz¬ 
zled over tiie proposition. Yours very truly, 
Q. T. IIARDTNER. 
The Wheat and Bread Situation 
If the price of wheat which the farmer receives were 
reduced 50c or 75c a bushel, it would mean a reduction 
in the price of bread to the consumer of not more than 
1c or 1M.C a loaf. < >f the $29.10 the wheat necessary to 
produce a barrel of flour costs by the time it reaches the 
consumer in the form of bread, the farmer receives oulv 
$9.06. or less than one-third. Millers and middlemen 
get the rest. It is a mistaken idea that wheat growers 
are rolling in wealth because of a Government guaran¬ 
teed price. 
That statement is credited to President W. M. 
Jardlne of the Kansas Agricultural College. After a 
tour of Kansas he finds so little ground plowed that 
the chances now are for hut little more than half the 
wheat seeding of one year ago. About the only way 
now to got in tin* average number of acres is to disk 
cornfields after cutting the corn and seed without 
plowing. The figures given above are based on the 
price of bread as compared with the farmers’ price 
of wheat. We have figured this out again and again, 
and reached the same conclusion. The "authorities” 
have been challenged again and again to show where 
such figuring is wrong. An ounce of wheat makes an 
ounce of bread—providing for the bran and shorts 
and also for what goes into the bread with the flour. 
Wheat will not go below $2 per bushel until prices 
for labor, machinery and other necessities go lower 
in price. 
The Plenty Food League 
Last Winter some women of the borough of Bronx, 
New York City, organized the Plenty Food League. 
These women believe that every person should have 
plenty of food to supply normal growth for children 
and maintenance of health, strength and vigor for 
adults. They believe that the only way to insure this 
full supply of food is to encourage the farmer to pro¬ 
duce it by paying him the cost of production, and by 
organizing an economical system of distribution so that 
consumption may lie increased ami a ready market 
found for farm produce. These women believe that 
it is the duty of the State to provide a system of dis¬ 
tribution to prevent waste, reduce cost of truiusporta- 
tion, provide ample storage, secure abattoirs and other 
finishing and preserving facilities, provide ample ter¬ 
minal markets with State regulation and control, to 
the end that all the food produced may be taken prompt¬ 
ly from the farmer’s hands when produced, assembled, 
graded, packed and shipped, and sold in an-open market 
free from speculation, monopoly, manipulation or 
profiteering, under the free operation of the law of 
supply and demand. 
The women of the whole city quickly indorsed these 
practical purposes, and the Plenty Food League spread 
not only over this city, but over the whole State. It 
already numbers 350,000 members, ami has a committee 
in every county of the State. 
Just now we want the men and women of the farms 
to help us get a cheaper distribution of milk for city 
children. W e want to pay dairymen a fair price for 
production, because we want to keep farmers producing 
milk so that we can have a full supply; but we know 
that milk should be and can be delivered for less than 
it now costs, and we want the men and women of the 
country to help us get it. This will help the producers 
as well as ourselves, because it will increase the demand 
for milk. 
This has. now come to be recognized as a social prob- 
lem. Politics has produced the present wasteful system 
and the State must help us correct it. Members of the 
I ienty hood League are pledged to vote only for can¬ 
didates for Governor and Legislature who promise to 
iavor measures for economic food distribution. We 
want country men and women to help us in this work 
We ask them to join our League, and to attend our 
meetings. There are no fees. We are not looking for 
money. We want three full meals a day for our chil- 
(Iron, and wo want to pay thoso who produce it, but 
we want to escape the tax of the speculator Will thp 
farm people help? 
MRS. LOUIS REED welzmiller. Chairman. 
Western Farmers and the Farm Bureau 
I am heartily in sympathy with the article appearing 
on page 1349. entitled "The American Farmer in Poli¬ 
tics. lou might be interested to know that there is a 
movement on foot in this section to do the very thing 
that you suggest. There is a feeling at present that one 
ot the greatest needs is for legislation favorable to farm¬ 
ers, and, seemingly, there is no agency organized to take 
care of this feature alone. 
r I he proposition that is being undertaken here is to so 
organize the farmers as to be able to support a Countv 
Agent from the farmers’ funds alone, cutting loose from 
all public funds. Personally. I have felt for a long time 
that tor the good of the agricultural interests th : must 
be done. I have been a County Agent myself, ami know 
bow hard it is to serve two masters, and I know that 
many of the.n are refraining from doing a lot that they 
feel should be done simply from fear of criticism on the 
PaU “,1 some grain dealer, fertilizer merchant or the 
like. The numerous persecutions of dairymen, one of 
which going on in Cleveland at the present time, is 
tending to make the.farmers realize more than ever that 
they must have their own organization, with an agent 
answerable to no one but themselves t 
Ohio. 
^ • This is a fair sample of what we get from 
man; parts of the Middle 1\ est. I >ur there the idea of 
supporting the ( ounty Agent entirely through money 
contributed by farmers is becoming more and more pop- 
i:bir. This correspondent states the reason for this feel¬ 
ing clearh. 1 hus far the plan has not made much head¬ 
way in tiie Last. Our farmers are perhaps more con¬ 
servative. and are more in the habit of letting the officers 
and “leaders" conduct su<-h business for them. Yet the 
plans which th«- \\ esteru men are now putting through 
really originated in New York at the meeting in Ithaca 
during farmers’ week last Winter. At that time prom¬ 
inent Farm Bureau men from Western States attended 
and talked the situation over. They went home and be¬ 
gan starting State Jh ederatious. with an increased mein 
bership fee. In New York and New England an at¬ 
tempt will be made to increase the membership fee from 
$1 to $2. At several points in the Middle West farmers 
say they are willing to put up $10 each if they can dom- 
niate the r arm Bureau and run it in their own interests 
entirely. 
“The Banner American County” 
Mr. Weaver told the truth on page 1387. Lancaster 
County, l’a.. stands alone. The writer has studied and 
worked hard to be a good farmer, but shrinks to a finger 
length when there. Anyone crossing it on a train, in 
any direction, will have some of the miieeit taken out of 
him. 
"What is the cause?” Mr. Weaver asks, and then 
gives diversified farming and methods of marketing, but 
he only deals with incidentals. He slighted the first, 
main cause. The first settlers were men of good judg¬ 
ment in the choice of soil, but would have made a gar¬ 
den of any kind. Lancaster proves that the farm own¬ 
ers there taught their children industry and a love of the 
farm. Very few of them were attracted by town glitter, 
or the near-dollar of town wages, but nearly all stayed 
to help get more land, there or elsewhere, and improve 
every foot of it. 
Their money and their efforts were all directed by the 
command, "Increase, multiply and replenish the earth" 
in the country districts, and now they have something to 
show for it. They are among the best fixed people on 
earth. The investigators who are trying to find the 
elusive cause of “profiteering." while making so much 
expense and disturbance, can get the answer there, in 
staidly. Any w’ho want points on the rural church, 
school or the hired help troubles can get the full explan¬ 
ation there. 
Abandoned farms, sorrowful and criminal evidences 
of the reason for them, and farm vandalism are un¬ 
known there. Peace and plenty are always in evidence, 
and right now during these years of leanness, is then- 
harvest of money-getting. "The laborer is worthy of his 
hire," and they deserve it. Their interest, which made 
them skillful, intelligent and industrious, is bringing re¬ 
turns. Lancaster County, compared with many other 
counties, is a startling object lesson of the benefits from 
tin- proper rearing of farm children, and the investment 
of farm savings in the country. w. w. Reynolds. 
