RURAL NEW.YORKER 
1919 
Meeting, of N. Y. Federation of Agriculture 
A REPRESENTATIVE GATHERING. — Consid¬ 
ered from the importance of subjects, the character and 
ability of its speakers and the intelligence and interest 
of the audience, no better convention of farmers has 
ever been held in New York State than the one eon- 
Aoned under the auspices of the New York Federation 
of Agriculture last week in Rochester. The member¬ 
ship of the organization is distributed over the entire 
State, so that it is not possible for a full attendance of 
members; but the Granges and other organizations sent 
delegates, and local farmers generally made up for the 
inability of many members to be present. The attend¬ 
ance on the first day, while the average of farm meet¬ 
ings. was not large; but the program for the second day 
brought out a larger attendance, and they certainly had 
a treat in the address of Dr. Ladd, the new United 
States farm Senator from North Dakota. 
LOOKING FORWARD.—The management clearly 
anticipated the present farm needs in the program it 
presented. This was shown in the fact that in a refer¬ 
endum vote of the members by mail, the question. 
“What do you think the vital problem in agriculture 
today?” more than two thousand out of the twenty-five 
hundred voters answered that the most vital problem 
is the distribution of farm products. This- was the 
central point in the program and in the meeting. From 
the platform and from the floor the contention was made 
plain that the need is no longer for more production, 
but rather for a system of distribution that will make 
it possible to sell farm products at a profit and to make 
the farm pay. The universal judgment was that this 
process must be worked out by farmers themselves 
through a system of corporate co-operation developed 
on lines and under fundamental principles of co-opera¬ 
tion that have been found in practice to be essential to 
success. 
TIIE SPEAKERS.—It is difficult to do justice in 
the report of such a meeting, and with such unusual 
talent, in the bounds of a necessarily limited space. Dr. 
E. F. Ladd. Mayor George R. Lunn. Prof. George F. 
Warren, Dwight W. Huntington and II. W. P.righam 
arc men of national reputation, and are known to stand 
right out in the very front ranks of the agricultural 
representatives of this country. What they say about 
agricultural policies is always a little in advance of 
public thought, but always in harmony with the pulses 
of the farm, and it is always recognized as the last 
word in agricultural policy and thought. Mayor Lunn, 
it is true, is not a farmer, nor directly interested in 
agriculture, hut as an independent student of food prob¬ 
lems he has grasped the essential principles of pro¬ 
duction, and fully realizes that in order to feed the city 
populations in the future it is necessary now to adopt 
a policy that will make it possible for men to stay on 
the farms and produce food at a reasonable profit. The 
pith of his argument was that a large, healthy, vigorous, 
intelligent race cannot be built up and maintained 
through a process of starvation, and that to furnish 
food to the starving children of Europe, as well as a full 
permanent supply for the American people, it will be 
necessary to find some means of reducing the cost of 
distribution and shorten the breach between producer 
and consumer. If we expect, he said, to make the 
necessary changes in our system without hurting any¬ 
body we would not get very far. The men who make 
liberal profits on the system in vogue will not give it 
up on moral persuasion. There cau be no reform until 
they are replaced, and they cannot be replaced without 
some one being hurt. 
EXPERIENCE FROM DAKOTA.—Dr. Ladd gave 
a very comprehensive review of the efforts of the 
farmers of North Dakota and of the Northwest generally 
to improve distribution methods with a view of saving 
for themselves a larger portion of the consumer’s dollar, 
which he says now averages not to exceed 30 cents on 
the dollar. In this he reduces our estimate of th3 
35-cent dollar, and this, of course, does not take into 
consideration the present market condition of wool, and 
corn, and cotton, and other products, for which there 
is practically no market at the present time. Like all 
the rest of us, he believes that the reforms must come 
through the organized co-operative work of farmers 
themselves. For the first time in his life he has found 
the different farm organizations of the West working 
harmoniously together for this end. and he predicts that 
during the next three to five years farm organizations 
for distributing purposes will be as carefully organized, 
as well financed, and as capably managed, as large 
manufacturing and commercial interests of the country. 
FARMERS AND DEFLATION.—Fortunately New 
York State has some national agricultural talent within 
its own borders, and Prof. George F. Warren of the 
State Agricultural College is one of the foremost. He 
said he came to the meetiug without much opportunity 
for preparation, but he made an address that was 
worthy of a national audience at any place, lie ac¬ 
counted for the present agricultural conditions under 
three different heads: favorable weather, which increased 
the volume of production, deflation and panic. From 
his statistics he was able to show that weather condi¬ 
tions have resulted generally in a little increase in pro¬ 
duction. He said that our rough-and-ready way of 
handling ordinary crops breaks down in the face of a 
large crop. Ilis remedy for this is not the waste and 
destruction, but storage and conservation to equalize 
the big crop over the succeeding years, which usually 
bring sooner or later small crops, lie quoted good 
Riblical authority for this in the seven years of storage 
in years of plenty, which fed the people in succeeding 
famine years in Riblical historical times., but he was in 
doubt as to what the modern food administration and 
district attorney would have done to Joseph and his 
associates. The holding of corn and wheat and wool 
by the farmers, he held, is uot criminal. It is not to 
the detriment of those who eat food or wear clothing; 
it is only a question of who docs the holding until it is 
needed, and whether it is not better that it should be 
held for the farmer and saved from loss to him because 
of the encouragement a fair reward would give him for 
larger future production. He defined deflation, and 
showed its effects on present conditions, and particu¬ 
larly the effect of declining price levels, and the injury 
to labor and active industry in rapidly falling prices. 
Rapidly advancing prices help the bondholder and 
wealthy class, and conversely the rapidly declining 
prices help the holder of staple securities, because his 
income is little affected by rapid changes that affect 
labor and industry. Panic comes largely from a wish 
to sell when no one wants to buy. The panic is, how¬ 
ever, limited, and he does not expect a general panic 
just yet. lie does not expect prices to return to pre-war 
conditions. Y'et he does expect an improvement from 
present conditions in the near future. One of his 
admonitions was to step calling on the Government to 
change prices for the benefit of special groups. 
MARKETING POTATOES.—Daniel Dean gave an 
article on marketing potatoes, which was broader and 
more comprehensive than the subject indicated. We 
confess to something of a pride in the fact that we 
have men of Mr. Dean’s capacity doing actual work on 
the farm and yet capable of expressing forcible agricul¬ 
tural thought on the platform. He had oppox-tunity 
to know a good deal about the Hoover Food Adminis¬ 
tration dining the war and he has the courage and 
the independence to express it. Mr. Hoover admitted 
to him that the one thing the Government was afx-aid 
of was organized labor, and the price of food at the 
farm was reduced to keep labor satisfied. He thx-eat- 
ened if the farmers did not send potatoes promptly to 
the markets, irrespective of price, that Congress would 
be asked to make a law to compel them to do so. They 
did not pass the law, but they secured the effect in a 
more seductive way. Mr. Sweet, a practical potato 
grower, was replaced by a large potato dealer and a 
propaganda of publicity was started during the war to 
make it appear that the crop of potatoes was large and 
to drive down the prices. He pointed out the tariffs 
imposed on imported manufacturing products but 
omitted on agricultural products; {he tariff on woolen 
goods and the free importation of wool, and insisted 
that the kind of democi-acy that the boys fought for 
in Europe was not of this stamp, but of the kind that 
would give us as fair a deal to the farm as the products 
of the factory and the shop secure. 
COUNTRY SCHOOLS.—One of the real practical 
and enjoyable addresses was on the country school 
problem by Mr. H. G. Read, also a farmer himself and 
a member of the committee that is now investigating 
school conditions. This subject alone would pay for a 
visit to the convention. 
GAME LAWS.—The question of game laws was ex¬ 
haustively discussed by Mr. Huntington aud Mr. Brig¬ 
ham. both of New Y’ork. They agi-eed substantially 
on the subject. The burden of it was that the land 
and evex-ythiug on it belongs to the farmer. He feeds 
the game, and no man should have the right or authority 
to this product of the farm without his consent. Roth 
held that our game laws are an absurdity, enacted by 
and for a lawless element that classes itself as sports¬ 
men. but which is opposed by real gentlemen sports¬ 
men as well as by farmers themselves. The audience 
was entirely in harmony with these discussions and 
legislation will probably be introduced this year. 
TRANSPORTATION.—The discussion in the last 
afternoon on the transportation problems between 
Samuel Fraser of the Federation, R. G. Phillips of 
the International Apple Shippers’ Association. Fred 
Welsh and other l-epi-escntatives of the New York Cen¬ 
tral Railroad, was to some extent pertinent to the local 
situation in Western New Yoi-k. but was equally im¬ 
portant to farm transportation generally. It had to 
do with tariff rates, and with an adequate and prompt 
supply of refrigerator cars and other cars for . the 
movement of perishable products Mr. Welsh admitted 
that it would have required at least 4.000 more cars 
to have satisfied the shippers during the last season, 
in Western New York..and because of this shortage of 
cars there was a very large waste of peaches aud other 
perishable fruits. The condition has not been im¬ 
proved yet. Shippers of apples and of celex-y and other 
products- find it impossible to get cars for prompt ship¬ 
ment of their orders now. Tliey sometimes wait sev¬ 
eral weeks for cars, and in some cases are carting the 
products 30 to 40 miles by trucks to ’Buffalo and other 
points t<> reach trains on the Pennsylvania Railroad, 
where car service seems to be better. It was alleged, 
however, that this is due to the fact that the Pennsyl¬ 
vania road has not joined the car pool for equitable car 
distribution. The officials of the New York Central 
discussed the problem frankly enough: admitted their 
inability to give satisfactory service, but expressed their 
desire both as a business proposition and from personal 
desires to do their best under the circumstances. 
CO-OPERATION.—One of the real timely and well- 
treated subjects was “State Aid to Co-operation.” by 
Charles R. White, the Director of Co-operation in the 
Farm and Markets Department at Albany. Mr. White 
has been a consistent champion of co-operation for many 
yeai-s. lie was one of the small group who stood by the 
proposition on principle when it had few friends and few 
supporters. He knows what the principles of co-opera¬ 
tion are and. like all who have become saturated with 
those altruistic principles, and who have become fa¬ 
miliar with the fundamental principles that have been 
developed and stabilized by successful co-operative ex- 
perience, he advocates local control aud local owner¬ 
ship and local management of the co-operative enter¬ 
prises for separate and distinct products. For central- 
ized service he would have these federated together with 
all the necessary authority to make sales, and do the 
things that the localized organizations were not in a posi¬ 
tion to do for themselves. Mr. White gave an account of 
the progress of the work in the State under his depart¬ 
ment and gives assurance that the work is growing and 
progressing far beyond his expectations aud fully up to 
the capacity of his bureau to take care of it. 
Resolutions were adopted as follows: 
Demanding better school facilities for country chil- 
dren and a local control of local schools. 
Demanding a fuller supply of refrigerator cars and 
prompt delivery of cars for shipments. 
Directing the committee to take necessary steps to 
combat discriminatory freight rates aud ensure reason¬ 
able rates on food shipments. 
Demanding a repeal of the State daylight saving Inl¬ 
and opposition to the proposed Federal five months law. 
Favoring the establishment and equipment and con¬ 
trol of terminal markets. 
Requesting that the costs of production and costs of 
distribution of food, as based on facts and figui-es ob¬ 
tained from the College of Agricultui-e, be distributed 
through the schools for the education of the pupils and 
the education of parents in both country aud city 
schools. 
Requesting. the Conservation Commission to permit 
the killing of rabbits in fruit counties, and permitting 
the use of ferrets in hunting them. 
Requesting the Federal Government to facilitate the 
exports of dairy products for the benefit of starving 
children in Europe and for the relief of our home dairy 
industry. 
Requesting Congress to authorize the organization 
of co-operative associations under a Federal act, with 
authority to use capital and make profits, and to include 
banking as well as co-operative business. 
Authorizing the legislative committee to further legis¬ 
lation that will protect the farmer in his right to own 
and handle game on his farm, a^d to prevent fishing and 
hunting on his lauds without written permission. 
Demanding an amendment of the State bonding law 
for milk dealers to the end that every dealer be required 
to file bonds for the full and prompt payment of milk 
bills, and that none be exempt from this obligation. 
Directing the executive committee to co-opex-ate with 
the food problem committee of the City of New York 
in the development of necessary plants and facilities 
for an efficient and economic distribution of food in the 
City of New Y’ork. 
SECRETARY’S REPORT.—The report of Secretary 
Seth J. T. Bush gave some intimation of the work being 
done by the Federation. It was the first aud only 
organization in the State to file protest with the Inter¬ 
state Commerce Commission against the px-oposed in¬ 
crease in rates covering the use of refrigerator cars. 
Vice-pi-esident Fraser put in five months on this work, 
and the success in preventing the advance saved millions 
of dollars annually to this class of shippei-s. The Fed¬ 
eration also opposed the increase of fi-eight x-ates on 
peaches last year, and through its work saved the peach 
growers $40 per car, or a total this year of $20,000 in 
transportation charges. 
THE POSTAL VOTE.—He also made a i*eport on 
the votes received by mail from members for the election 
of officers and for votes on a questionnaire as to the 
farmers’ attitude on the agricultural questions before 
the people at the present time. In round numbers there 
were about 2,500 votes, all showing a unanimous senti¬ 
ment on the following questions: 
What do you think is the most vital problem in agri¬ 
culture today? 
What questions do you wish discussed at the meetiug? 
Vote yes or no on the following propositions: 
Terminal Markets; Repeal of the Daylight Saving 
I jaw; Repeal of the Primary Ballot Law: Reform of the 
Game Laws: Local Control of Local Schools; Tax on 
all Sales. Will you help secure better service and 
freight rates for farm produce? 
The officers elected were, President, Frank M. Brad¬ 
ley, Appleton ; first vice-pi’esident. Samuel Fraser, Geu- 
eseo: second vice-president, Robert Seaman, Jericho; 
third vice-president. Fx-ed M. Tail, Milton; secretary, 
Seth J. T. Bush, Morton; treasurer. Fx-ed W. Corn¬ 
wall, Pultneyville. The secretary made the point that 
the officers are chosen by a secret ballot vote of the 
member-hip. and must be actual farmers, and that no 
public official is eligible to office. The system of vot¬ 
ing by ballot and referendum is yet a little crude, but 
it is the intention to develop it and place the election 
of officers aud the decision of the policies as directly 
as possible in the hands of the membership. 
WORK OF THE ORGANIZATION.—The one prin¬ 
cipal purpose of this organization and the one excuse 
for its existence is to find a way to make the farm 
pay through a system of distribution that will l’eturn 
the farmer a better share of the consumer’s dollar. 
•There are many other good and serviceable organi¬ 
zations in the State for other purposes, and some of 
them give some attention to this problem, but it is of 
such vital importance that an organization devoted 
to this subject alone seems desirable, and the response 
of farmers aud agricultural thought today fully justifies 
■this conclusion. If farmers generally and other farm 
organizations focus their energies for farm business 
and farm profits into an oi’gauizatiou of this kind there 
cau be no doubt about the x-esults. The problem may 
be worked oixt in one way or iu another. The purpose 
is to find the best way through free and frank dis¬ 
cussion, aud then for all to push together on that line. 
Too Many Middlemen 
A miller told me this week that he sold his flour to a 
broker. who sold it to a retailer, who sold it to the con¬ 
sumer. Each one made his pi-ofit. At least one of these 
is a parasite and should be treated accox-dingly. Farni- 
ers a re receiving for their products now the following 
prices: Milk. $2.88 per cwt.. ... per cent: wheat, $1.50 
per bu.: potatoes. 00c to $1 per bu.; hay. $20 per ton : 
pork. $10 per cwt.. gross.: corn, 75c per bu.: straw, $S 
to $10 per ton. baled: poultry. 20 to 22c.; eggs, 85c. 
The prices of milk and wheat are just $1 per unit lower 
thau the price two mouths ago. And the prices for hay. 
poi’k aud coni are just one-half what they were last 
Spring. I have uot heard of any rye, oats or barley for 
sale. 
The price of dairy cows (grade Holsteins) was 
$100 to $200; calves, two to four months old. $15 to $25. 
and pigs. $6 to $12. But no longer will the farmer get 
even cost out of his products. The same cows are uow 
selling from $35 to 8.50, hay has sold at sales as low as 
$5 per ton. and a horse with lots of work in him for $11. 
Onjthe other hand, coal is $16 per ton ; middlings, $60 
to $65 per t>>n : bran. $.5.5 per ton. and 20 per cent pro- 
teiu feeds, 870; wages. $3 to $4 per day; clothing and 
shoes in local stores reduced very little. Of course. a 
readjustment is inevitable, but I don’t think the farmer 
should bear the heavy end alone. I am anxious to see 
the day when the farmer can figure the cost of produc¬ 
tion accurately and then add a profit. It is nothing but 
right This is a conservative community, pursuing the 
even tenor of its way, planting the average acres iu 
corn. hay. wheat and potatoes, regardless of conditions. 
New London, Pa. J. b. g. 
