‘Ihe RURAL. NEW-YORKER 
1829 
Let Us Fight This Extortion 
Several of the farmers of this section have received a 
letter from a New York City lawyer saying they had 
used milk cans belonging to milk dealers without the 
owner’s consent, and that the farmers are subject to a 
.$50 fine, but that he is authorized by his clients, the 
Milk Bottlers’ Federation, to accept $25. provided check 
is sent him at once, otherwise he will take action to 
collect full penalty. 
We rent cans from the company that runs the cream¬ 
ery, and pay 20c a can per month. We take and use 
the cans they give us, and pay for them. We have no 
others. 
What do you advise? E. L. J. 
New York. 
This law in regard to the use of milk cans was en¬ 
acted when individual farmers shipped milk to 
New York, and lost cans through carelessness and 
theft. .Since milk is required to he pasteurized, farm¬ 
ers do not ship as individuals, and the cans are 
owned by the dealers, because the ownership of the 
cans and the pasteurizing plants put farmers com¬ 
pletely at the mercy of the big dealers, except 
where co-operative plants existed, and sometimes 
even then. The dealers do not hill or check the re¬ 
turn of their own cans, and they frequently go astray 
and always get mixed up. The dealers make no at¬ 
tempt to enforce the law against each other, but 
this association authorized an agent to watch farm¬ 
ers, and he has made a business of hunting up cases 
against farmers and collecting one-half the alleged 
penalty, where he can scare farmers into making the 
payment. It is one of the most contemptible pieces 
of legal injustice we have in the State. When a 
dealer sends his cans for milk under such circum¬ 
stances it is presumptive evidence that he consents 
to the use of them, and there being no other cans the 
farmer must use them or lose the milk. 
In this case the farmers rent cans from a dealer, 
and pay for the use of them. If he sends cans not 
his own. the farmers do not know that the local 
dealer did not have the consent of the other dealer 
who owned them. They assume that he had. Any¬ 
way, if there is a penalty, the local dealer is respon¬ 
sible, and not the producers. It is admitted that the 
law says it is unlawful for anyone to use the cans 
bearing other names than his own. but in this case it 
is the local dealer and not the farmers who has 
actually used them, and we do not believe the pen¬ 
alty can be collected. We have advised the producers 
to keep their money, and if the lawyer brings action 
we will bear the expense of a test case. This is one 
of the antiquated agricultural laws that should be 
revised, and it may be well to have the situation 
come to light in open court. 
Testing Milk and Cream 
Will you give me the names of the best milk aud 
cream testers, as well as how milk is tested? j. J. B. 
New York. 
The Babcock four-bottle tester is the one usually 
used by individual farmers. It can be had at any 
dairy supply house at a cost of about $5 for full 
equipment. Full instructions for use of it come with 
the equipment, and the State Agricultural College, 
Ithaca, N. Y., furnishes a bulletin of instructions. 
Adulterated Milk; Cream Testing 
Will you tell me what day on milking after a cow has 
freshened the laws of this State consider the milk lit to 
offer for sale, and what officer to notify if this law is 
violated? Also the penalty for selling unwholesome 
milk to a station shipping milk to New York City or 
Brooklyn. T. B. 
Milk drawn from cows within 15 days before and 
five days after parturition is adulterated under the 
New York law. Penalties for violation of the dairy 
law are not less than $50 nor more than $100 for 
first offense, and not less than $100 nor more than 
$200 for each subsequent offense. Every container 
used to carry adulterated milk and every time it is 
used constitutes a separate violation. For example, 
if 10 cans of milk all contained some adulterated 
milk, even if all sold to one person or firm, there 
would he 10 violations a day for as many days as 
the adulterated milk is sold or offered for sale. There 
is also a provision in the law that a violation of the 
law constitutes a misdemeanor and on conviction a 
penalty may be imposed of not less than $50 or more 
than $200 or imprisonment of not less than one 
month or more than six mouths, or both such fine and 
imprisonment. 
A Milk Campaign in Boston 
While some other cities are facing “strikes” of 
milk consumers or trouble in disposing of milk, the 
city of Boston has developed a regular campaign to 
educate milk drinkers and increase consumption. 
Many readers have asked about this, and in order to 
give them an idea of it we print the following, sent 
out by the Boston Campaign Committee: 
The Boston Campaign Committee reaches the milk 
drinker through the schools, stores, churches, clubs, in¬ 
stitutions, factories, and even goes right into the homes 
to convince him. It is directed by an executive com¬ 
mittee consisting of Prof. D L. James, Dr. A. W. Gil¬ 
bert and P. M. Harwood of the Massachusetts Dairy 
Bureau. The general publicity program includes news¬ 
paper advertising, ear cards, posters, lectures, demon¬ 
strations and abundant literature in several languages. 
Many of the local civic associations are taking active 
part in the work. Twenty-four thousand leaflets have 
been circulated in the public schools through the cour¬ 
tesy of the Director of Physical Education. The teach¬ 
ers, too, are lending their aid in assisting the children. 
The writer's little girl, attending the second grade, car¬ 
ries a half pint of milk for recess twice daily. Now 
others are doing the same. If this custom were adopted 
throughout the country the consumption of milk would 
be increased by 20.000.000 pints daily. 
The school children have been strongly influenced by 
the play, “Milk Fairies.” written by Mrs. McCrillis of 
the staff. The play has been staged by the Summer 
schools, playground children and others. The play de¬ 
picts the good elements of milk as fairies; fat. sugar, 
protein, mineral matter, water, and even ice. and cal¬ 
ories or food units, are represented. An interesting 
Story is woven around these characters in such a man¬ 
ner as to carry the message to old and young. This play 
is commended to those of other communities as an ef¬ 
fective part of publicity programs. But the factories, 
stores and hotels are also reached by the lecturers with 
amazing results. One factory serving about 500 people 
in its dining room increased the sale of milk 400 per 
cent in one month ; on one day 457 people were served, 
and of these 370 drank milk. 
The program is enlarged from time to time, and Prof. 
James is constantly evolving some new plan to reach 
the children and the parents. A successful public con¬ 
ference was held October 24 and 25 at Ford Ilall. and 
at the State House. Dr. Woodward, the Health Com¬ 
missioner. presided on the first day, and Dr. Gilbert on 
the second. Dr. McCollum and other authoritative 
speakers throughout the country addressed large audi¬ 
ences. The doctrine of more milk and better health is 
rapidly spreading among the more thoughtful people. 
r fihe movement, although beneficial to the industry as 
a whole, is likewise of great service to the community, 
for it sells the family better health, greater happiness and 
higher achievement. As Mr. Munn aptly states, “the 
healthy child is the cream line of a nation.” It is 
doubtful if the sale of any other product could attract 
such favor and such support. Boston is giving her 
children more milk to drink, and everybody feels better. 
J. ARTHUR M’COY. 
Good Work From Hemp 
Hemp is generally used to tie people up. It 
does not usually set them free as it did in Wis¬ 
consin. We have told how certain parts of that 
State were overrun with quack grass and Canada 
thistle until farms and fields had to be aban¬ 
doned for ordinary crops. We have argued that a 
weed may be a blessing in disguise if we can learn 
how to handle it as such. In Wisconsin they found 
that the hemp crop could do this. Hemp made good 
use of the quack and thistles when they were plowed 
under, and by its rank, heavy growth smothered 
them and redeemed the fields. Thus a million dollar 
crop took the place of foul and weed-grown fields. 
And it seems entirely natural that hemp growers 
should be tied together in a strong organization. 
Such an organization was formed and tied up to the 
college. Hemp was a comparatively easy crop to 
produce, but there were many troubles in handling 
and selling it. The organization proved very effi¬ 
cient. not only in finding new methods of cleaning, 
harvesting and breaking the crop, but also in finding 
a new market. Surely these hemp growers may sing 
with special fervor “Blest be the tie that binds.” 
They did well to twist their interests into a rope to 
pull themselves along. 
Farm Legislation 
On page 1750 you discuss the relative need of various 
“L’s”—such as labor, less land, learning, loans or lime. 
There is another need, d “L.” and that is legislation. 
What about the great need of that? s. k. b. 
We thought of that, dut did not refer to it 
at the time. We do not think it as essential as 
the others. To continue the comparison with fer¬ 
tilizer or plant food elements, we would call labor 
nitrogen, less land potash, learning phosphorus, farm 
loans lime, and legislation sulphur. In some soils 
and with some crops, such as clover, Alfalfa or tur¬ 
nips. sulphur seems to be essential, but it is not 
ranked with the four other elements as absolutely 
necessary on all soils. It is supplied along with 
other elements in acid phosphate or land plaster or 
manure, and except in special cases if these materials 
are properly used the sulphur problem will be pro¬ 
vided for. It is much the same with legislation. 
The truth is that we already have too many laws 
which are not enforced. Every year Congress or the 
Legislature will meet and pass a lot of new laws, 
most of which would not be needed if the present 
laws could be properly enforced. There are today 
laws enough on the statute books of New York to 
give good protection to the rights of our farmers. 
They are not enforced, and while new legislation 
might be passed on into law there would be no idea 
of enforcing it under the present system of political 
protection. We do not need new legislation half as 
much as we need some power among farmers that 
will galvanize some of our present laws into life, and 
make them bite as well as bark . They do not even 
bark at the present time—they only whine. This 
would be a great and wonderful work for the Farm 
Bureaus. They could develop a sentiment among 
country people in favor of compelling public officers 
to enforce such laws as we now have. That is 
needed far more than new legislation. It will be 
harder to develop such a sentiment than to push 
new laws through the Legislature, for enforcement 
will make necessary considerable personal sacrifice 
and moral courage. These are the things which give 
the acid test to the souls of men—and yet without 
such test there can be no soul in public affairs, and 
if there be no soul there is not much else •worth 
considering. 
Silage for Steers 
Some years ago feeders seemed to agree that 
while corn silage was excellent for dairy cows, 
it was not profitable for feeding steers. Later ex¬ 
periments have upset this theory, and now the best 
cattle feeders seem to consider silage one of their 
most economical feeds. Silage and clover or Alfalfa 
hay makes a good foundation ration for all stock.' 
The Nebraska Station has shown a profit in grinding 
corn and Alfalfa for steer feeding. The corn was 
crushed and the Alfalfa hay cut or crushed into 
pieces a little less than an inch long. When this 
was mixed and fed to steers there was considerable 
gain over the corn and Alfalfa fed without crushing. 
We have long believed from our own experience that 
when hay is very high in price it will pay whenever 
possible to run it through a cutter before feeding. 
In large dairies this would hardly be economical, 
but in small herds it will pay. Perhaps among the 
new methods due in the future we may find farmers 
running the hay through big cutters as it comes 
from the field, and blowing it into the mow, as corn 
is now blown into the silo. 
A Farmers’ Campaign in Nebraska 
In reading tonight in The R. N.-Y. of that political 
fight in Wayne County, N. Y., I am strongly reminded 
of the fight that the farmers of this county have just 
won in electing delegates to the constitutional conven¬ 
tion soon to be held. This county contains one city of 
about 12.000. and two of probably 2.000 each, besides a 
dozen or 15 ordinary country towns. The total popula¬ 
tion of the county is about 30.000. 
In this election the county elected one delegate by its 
own votes, and as parts of two other districts helped 
elect two other delegates. The city furnished six of the 
eight candidates, a neighboring county one, the eighth 
being a young Bohemian farmer living in a far corner 
of this county, but well known. The man from the 
other county and the young Bohemian were active farm¬ 
ers. aud avowedly farmer candidates, and also members 
of the Farmers’ Union, which has about 1,200 members 
in this county. The only city candidate -who made a 
very active campaign is a lawyer with a rather un¬ 
savory reputation both as a lawyer and a man, but who' 
rose from private to brigadier-general in the Civil War, 
and who was also in the Sprnish War and several In¬ 
dian wars. He was also a member of the convention that 
drafted our present constitution in 1S75, and several 
times a member of the State Legislature. The other- 
candidates were the editor of a local daily paper that 
has been very friendly to the farming interests as repre¬ 
sented by the h armers’ 1 nion; a retired implement 
dealer and at present a member of the Legislature; a 
real estate dealer and also a legislator, and a city osteo¬ 
path doctor. 
The two farmer candidates made only very limited 
campaigns, as was also the ease with all the others, ex¬ 
cept the general. He put on a very active campaign 
especially in the city, and was considered as good as 
elected by probably a majority of the city voters. The 
vote was light, so the early reports came from the sev¬ 
eral city precincts, every one of which was carried by 
the general with good majorities. But the later reports 
from the rural precincts jarred the politicians good and 
plenty. The two farmers and the editor were elected by 
safe majorities. Although no political meetings had 
been held among the farmers, we had talked the matter 
over privately, and decided to support the two farmer 
eandidates and the editor. The editor did not alto¬ 
gether suit us, but he seemed to be the most promising 
material of the city bunch, and it was up to us to vote 
for one of them. 
The writer has been quite prominent in various farm¬ 
er organizations for several years. The morning after 
election I went to the city, where, by the way, I am 
quite well acquainted. That morning it was positively 
amusing to note the new attitude towards me that was 
shown by the politicians and would-be politicians. They 
seemed to think that I was to blame for the landslide 
of the day before, and were wondering how I put it over. 
No credit was due, however. The outcome was, I be¬ 
lieve. the result of the calm, mature judgment of the 
rural voters and their friends. Much the same thing 
happened in several other districts in the same election. 
Gage Co., Neb. j. h. tubbs. 
R. N.-Y.—It now becomes evident that the Wayne 
County farmers might have defeated Charles H. Betts 
by 500 majority if some of them had not become a lit¬ 
tle discouraged. It seemed such an impossible thing to 
overcome that 6.000 majority that a few people said 
“We can’t do it.” and thus did not try. The result was 
an eye-opener. It is a larger thing than any of us 
thought, and all done through a clean, straight appeal 
to reason and common sense. 
