1505 
Value of High-Testing Milk 
T keep a herd of Guernseys. My milk tests 4.8 par 
cent fat. We sell to a local shipping station controlled 
by a New York dealer. The manager has recently no¬ 
tified me that after October 1 I must reduce the aver¬ 
age fat to 3.6 or 3.8 at most, as they lose money on the 
high test. I do not want to mix the herd. What can I 
do? Would you advise looking up other customers for 
the milk or changing to low-producing cows? Kindly 
advise me. f. r. 
New York. 
Milk is sold on the basis of 3 per cent fat, and 4c 
extra for each one-tenth of 1 per cent excess fat per 
100 lbs. There is no limit set in the agreement for 
the amount, of fat which the milk may contain. It 
would seem, therefore, that your dealer violates his 
contract when he discriminates against your milk. 
The matter may he adjusted by the local officers of 
the League. Tf not, it should he referred to the main 
office. As a matter of fact, 4.8 per cent milk is 
cheaper at its price than 3.6 per cent milk at its 
price. The extra fat in milk brings only 40c per 
lb. Tt is worth more in butter. 
Delayed Payment For Milk 
Is there any way to make a creamery company pay 
for milk on the regular .pay day? Our creamery agreed 
to pay on the 20th of each month, but has always been 
late on payments during two years. If there is any 
way to make them pay promptly I would like to be ad¬ 
vised. .T. F. 
New York. 
The way to enforce the terms of a contract is to 
sue in the courts. There would be no defense, and 
the account would have to be paid with interest from 
the date at which it was due. But this is rather 
drastic treatment, and farmers usually refrain from 
resorting to the courts except when the payments are 
long delayed. If the milk is sold through the League, 
it can insist on prompt payments or refuse to renew 
contract with the same dealer. All the patrons of 
the creamery acting together could do the same 
thing. Of course, where a dealer violates a provis¬ 
ion of a contract, the producer would then be free to 
dispose of the milk elsewhere, but this is not always 
practical for a single producer. 
Shall it be Milk or “Pop”? 
The following chunk of common sense is taken 
from the Licking (Ohio) County Farm Bureau Bul¬ 
letin: 
If we count 60 quarts of milk to 100 lbs., which is 
very nearly correct, at 13c per quart, the price we are 
now paying for good sweet milk in Newark, the 100 lbs. 
will cost $6.50. Pop is sold in S-oz. bottles at 6c* per 
bottle, and it will require 200 to make 100 lbs. At that, 
price, 100 lbs. cost $12. A difference in favor of the 
milk of $5 50 per 100 lbs. 
In the 100-lb. milk there is 3.5-lbs. of protein; in tin* 
pop just a few little beads. 
When people willingly walk up to the soda fountain 
and pay 6c for a bottle of pop, or $12 per cwt., and suck 
it through a straw and grumble because good whole¬ 
some milk costs 13c per quart, or $6.50 per 100 lbs., isn’t 
it time that the dairymen, ereamerymen and everyone 
else interested in milk should do something to let their 
customer know the food value of their products? 
Why not have the tub full of pint, bottles of good, ice- 
cold sweet milk at our farmers’ picnics, festivals, church 
socials and other gatherings? Think it over. 
If milk was advertised and its good qualities so con¬ 
stantly kept before the public as is “Whistle,"’ “Smile,” 
“Coca Cola,” etc., it’s our opinion that the dairy business 
whill'd take on new life. 
Might say this brief article was inspired by watching 
from our office window a huge truck load of pop go 
whizzing past a little* one-horse milk delivery wagon. 
That’s right! We have been at. fruit exhibitions 
where it was impossible to buy an apple or a lmuch 
of grapes. There are hundreds of picnics where pim¬ 
ple would gladly buy cold milk by the pint if they 
could find it. There is nothing but “pop” or lemon¬ 
ade for sale. The best way to “do it ourselves” is 
to patronize our own products—buy milk instead of 
soda water, and apples in place of tropical fruit. As 
for advertising, we shall surely have to come to it. 
Amount of Butter in Milk 
Will Thk IL N.-Y. show us just how to estimate the 
exact amount of butter-fat in a pound of butter, and the 
number of pounds of butter that can be made from 100 
lbs. of 4 per cent milk? o. M. 
New York. 
The exact amount of pure butter-fat in a pound of 
butter varies, depending on the amount of water, 
salt, casein or other material in the butter, but prin¬ 
cipally water. The National pure food law allows 
HYi per cent impurities, which of course means 82*4 
per cent pure fat, or .825 of a pound pure fat in 1 lb. 
of butter. Hence 4 lbs. fat, divided by .825, the fat 
in a pound of butter, equals 4.84 lbs. commercial but¬ 
ter in 100 lbs. 4 per cent milk. The formula is 
4 .825 = 4.84. To get this result it would he nec¬ 
essary to get all the fat out of the milk and bring 
the water and other impurities up to the exact limit. 
In practice a small percentage of fat is lost in the 
milk, and the water sometimes varies above or be- 
Ioav the legal standard. 
The price of milk for October has been lixed at 
<Iht RURAL. NEW-YORKER 
$3.11 per 100 lbs., or 10c per 100 lbs. less than the 
September price. Dealers have been threatening to 
increase the retail price again in the city, but no 
definite announcement has yet been made. 
The Road Issue in Wayne County, N. Y. 
We have the following letter from a reader in 
Wayne Co., N. Y., a reliable man, who knows the 
r 
county well: 
I note what you say about Chns. II. Betts, and it puts 
me in mind of a remark made recently by a friend who 
seemed to think he knew what he was talking about. 
He said that Betts is to he elected because he has prom¬ 
ised to crowd through a bill to bond Wayne County for 
$30,000 to build roads through the incorporated villages 
of Savannah, Clyde, Lyons, Newark and Palmyra when 
the State road known as Route 20 is put through. In 
building Route 30 they are said to have done some work 
within an incorporated village in the northern tier and 
the southern tier demands the same for all their incor¬ 
porated villages. I do not know whether they actually 
did this work in the northern village, but my friend 
claims they did, and that the law was changed later so 
that they could not build State roads within the limits 
of incorporated villages. At any rate, this man seemed 
ffUre that Betts is pledged to get this bill through if he 
goes to Albany. There is such intense jealousy between 
the towns of the southern tier and those of the northern 
tier that such an issue would throw the whole or a large 
part of the vote of the towns of Savannah, Galen, 
Lyons, Arcadia and Palmyra, at least, into the Betts 
column. The jealousy was so great that it held up the 
building of seven miles of Route 30 because the Route 20 
folks could not bear to see the other part of the county 
get anything. The matter finally became so scandalous 
that the commissioner, Duffy, I believe at the time, 
finally said that the county must agree on a program 
before he would do anything more. Twenty or more 
miles must be built in Route 20, but they held up the 
finishing of Route 30 for several years when that small 
strip (seven miles) was all that was not done in a road 
from Rouse’s Point to Ruffalo. The same jealousy will 
now probably send a man to Albany to misrepresent us 
for a year. 
The same thing has been reported to ns by several 
readers since the recent road meeting was held in 
Wayne County. Our correspondent probably states 
the local feeling and jealousy clearly. It is a well- 
known political trick to evade the real issues in this 
way by bringing forward something which will ap¬ 
peal solely to the poeketbook or personal feeling, and 
thus draw attention from the principle at stake. We 
presume Mr. Betts and his friends figure that the 
people at the south side of Wayne County are so 
much in favor of having him work through that road 
scheme that they will forget all they have said in the 
past and vote for him. All this adds to the interest 
of the election. Wayne County farmers (whether 
they want to do it m not) must now tell the State 
and nation just how independent and free our New 
York farmers are. It is a good test—the answer will 
mean much. This road question has some dynamite 
in it. however, for farmers know that this highly- 
paid road work will mean drawing more labor from 
the farm and boosting the wages of those who re¬ 
main. Do Wayne County fanners want to be repre¬ 
sented by Charles If. Betts? 
A Fight Coming for Co-operation 
There are plenty of signs that point to the fact that 
farmers’ co-operative buyiug and selling organizations 
are facing a strenuous time. The private business 
houses, particularly corporations dealing in farm pro¬ 
ducts and farm supplies, are adopting an aggressive 
business policy following the limited activity of the war 
period. In this connection, the word seems to have gone 
out to their agents, “Smash co-operative effort!” The 
wording of the directions may vary, but their intent is 
the same everywhere. 
The New York Grange Exchange made a price of 
2(> 1 /4c in 500-lb. lots on binder twine. When this twine 
hit the market in certain communities, twine was selling 
for 23c and 24c per lb. In these same communities 
competitors with the Grange twine have dropped it as 
low as ISc. 
In a Central New York county the district representa¬ 
tive of a great corporation dealing in farmers’ supplies 
has publicly stated that he is “going to run the County 
Agent, out of the county” because this agent had helped 
establish a co-operative buying and selling organization 
that is making it difficult to sell the corporation’s ma¬ 
chines with their wide margin of profit. 
The up-State press has been filled with misrepresenta¬ 
tions of the October price for milk, intended to break 
the loyalty of the farmers to the Dairymen’s League. 
Many of the county sheep associations that consigned 
their wool have not yet received their final returns, 
simply because demand for certain grades is developing 
later in the season than usual. These men are being 
made the butt of rumors of varying character, but ail 
designed to show them how much better it would have 
been had they sold their wool to the regular dealers. 
The man who buys biuder twine at 18c now will re¬ 
member that it was 24c before the Grange twine came 
on the market. The members of the Farm Bureau As¬ 
sociation will call for a show-down as to whether they 
or some outside company is going to select their County 
Agent. The wool men will recall the offers of 45c and 
50c per lb. for their wool made by the very dealers who 
now tell them they could have got them more than the 
60c to 70c consigned wools will bring, and. looking back, 
all will take a fresh grip and continue the movemeuts 
which have served them so well to date. u. 
Farmers and Cut Price Agitation 
The Illinois Agricultural Association speaks out 
through its executive committee in strong language. 
The following expresses the views of a great majority 
of Middle West farmers: 
“The result of the high-cost-of-living agitation has 
been to decrease food prices temporarily at the expense 
of future production. The recent drop of $5 a hundred 
in hogs, $3 in cattle aud 50 cents a bushel in corn has 
taken all the profit in this year’s crop of livestock and 
grain, and in many cases more. Nothing that the 
farmer buys has decreased in price. 
“In the face of high costs of labor and farm supplies, 
with an agitation against food prices that is forcing 
these prices below the cost of production, there is only 
one thing for the farmer to do—cut expenses and 
operate on a decreased scale of production. This will 
mean a shortage, with correspondingly high prices to 
the consumer next year. 
“The drop in cattle and hog prices has hardly been 
noticed in the consumer’s meat bill. But it has cut 
the farmer’s returns so much that he is cutting down 
the number of sows to be bred for next Spring’s pig 
crop. Cattle feeders are afraid to buy feeders, in view 
of the uncertainty of a profitable market for the finished 
cattle. There are more empty feed lots in Illinois than 
at any time in recent years. 
“The agitation against food prices is doing the con¬ 
sumer little good. It will do him much harm, that will 
be felt six months or a year from now in a serious food 
shortage. Farmers cannot and will not supply the 
country with food at less than the cost of production.” 
Up-State Farm Notes 
MILK RULES ENFORCED.—Farmers are getting 
copies of a letter from the New York City Department of 
Health saying that they wish to give due notice that all 
dairymen producing milk for sale in that city and all 
dealers operating plants from which milk and milk pro¬ 
ducts are shipped will be required hereafter to meet the 
cooling regulations required by the department for Grade 
A and Grade B milk strictly as written. This means 
a store of ice to be put up the coming Winter, even 
though farmers sell to a milk products company, like 
the Ekenberg Powdered Milk Company of Cortland, 
which is passing these orders on to their producers. 
This will not interfere with or cancel the temporary 
dispensation granted until Sept. 30. 1919. 
UNUSUAL DROUGHT CONDITIONS. — Creeks 
and wells are lower than before in 10 years at this 
season. Pastures are extremely dry, Winter wheat is 
handicapped and even corn for silage is so dry that it 
is bad for the silage. The silage does not settle pro¬ 
perly, due to unusual dryness of the cut corn. Cortland 
County had its first frost the night of Sept. 26. The 
damage to corn and gardens was but slight. This is 
unusual for central counties. Potato digging is being 
rushed, as rot has set in—for reasons not understood 
here—where it is unusually dry. The rot is not so bad 
here, however, as it is in southern counties, ■where there 
have been heavv rains. 
HARMFUL DISCRIMINATION.—In the announce¬ 
ment of railway companies that all women employed as 
ticket agents, conductors, guards and station agents 
will be discharged and their places filled with men, 
farmers see a policy harmful to agriculture. Farmers 
would like to see women in the industries wherever the 
work is not harmful for them, as it would liberate so 
many laborers for the farm. With the machinery and 
the understanding of production that the farmers of the 
country now have the ability to secure needed help 
would mean abundant food crops to a degree never 
known before. 
LOWERED MILK PRICE.—Dairymen can ill 
afford the cut in October milk of about nine cents per 
hundred pounds. This is due to the slump in butter 
and cheese prices. Farmers would not complain if the 
consumer got the benefit of the cut and consumption was 
thus encouraged. But this is not the case, and it re¬ 
mains for dairymen to rally to the support of their own 
organization and complete and strengthen the details of 
its operation. 
STATE FAIR RECOMMENDATIONS.—John H. 
Cahill, a member of the State Fair Commission and 
one chiefly responsible for its success this year, vigor¬ 
ously opposes the recommendation that the commission 
be dismissed and that its duties be transferred to on© 
of the 16 new departments suggested by the recon¬ 
struction commission. State, city and county officials 
and influential citizens interested in the fair condemn 
the plan. Indeed, the reconstruction commission, ap¬ 
pointed by the Governor last Spring and headed by 
Abram I. Elkus. is regarded up-State as a “gallery” 
political play. The interests of the fair are too varied 
to be trusted to any one inexperienced head. The fair 
commission in its present make-up has members inter¬ 
ested in -all the phases of fair work, each an expert in 
his line. Senator Walters of this district strongly 
favors the fair commission and condemns the proposal. 
Favorable comment is broadly made concerning the 
plan of making the big fair a 10 days’ one, as it has 
now reached the proportions of an exposition. 
SHORT COLLEGE COURSES FOR FARMERS.— 
Farmers and their wives, sons and daughters are deeply 
concerned in the possibilities for good offered in the new 
program of short college courses in agriculture and 
home-making. Write at once to State College of Agri¬ 
culture, Ithaca, N. Y., for details of the courses in 
dairying, poultry husbandry, fruit growing, home 
economies, flower growing, vegetable gardening and 
game farming. The courses are held during the lull in 
farm work, from Nov. 5 until Feb. 13. The courses are 
purely vocational. No entrance examinations are re¬ 
quired, and instruction is of course free to residents of 
the State. 
SMALL NOTES OF INTEREST.—Forty-four high 
grade cows were recently sold at auction on a Clock- 
ville farm for $S,000. The sale of dairy cows has 
hardly begun for the season, but iudications are that 
prices will be very high. As an indication of the size 
of the dairy industry in local sections, the Bordens paid 
out over $90,000 to the dairymen near Norwich in the 
month of July, the milk being delivered to a local con- 
densery. The number of milking machines in use in 
the State is rapidly growing. It is estimated that the 
average production of milk per cow throughout the 
State is 5.000 pounds. When the number of known high 
producers is considered, this means too many non-profit- 
able cows. Cow testing associations and bull associa¬ 
tions are doing good work, but the gospel of high pro¬ 
duction of the individual should be spread more ef¬ 
fectively. 
CROP MOVEMENTS OF THE STATE.—Onion 
forwardings increased from 46 to 59 cars last week, 
making a total of 386 cars from all points to date. 
This is considerably under the production of last year, 
when the onion movement was averaging 150 cars 
weekly. The best yield this year will come from Fulton. 
Oswego, Canastota, Cicero, Medina, South Lima and 
Elba. The Wayne County crop it* below the average, 
or 65 per cent of normal. A fairly conservative esti¬ 
mate of yield would be 400 bushels per acre. Growers 
are getting $1.50 to $1.75 per bushel in the field. Thrips 
worked havoc this year and caused a big percentage of 
small onions. This is being sold early as pickling stock. 
The bulk of No. 1 stock is going into storage, as it is 
predicted it will go at $5 per cwt. before the season 
ends. New York’s rank in onions is this year changed 
from third to fifth place, the leading States being Texas, 
California, New Jersey and Massachusetts, M. o. F. 
