7ht RURAL NEW-YORKER 
I 135 
The Dairy Situation in Wisconsin 
In the State of Wisconsin the fight is on in the 
open between policies for the management of co¬ 
operation by farmers themselves through independ¬ 
ent federated local units, as against centralized 
ownership and control of farm industries by one 
general organization. 
Wisconsin was one of tiie first States to take up 
farm co-operation. It is one of the best organized 
States. It is organized on the basis of local com¬ 
modity associations, which are owned and controlled 
by producers directly interested in them, and the 
federation of these locals to create selling agencies. 
This plan has been tried and tested. If is the plan 
used in Denmark and in California, and wherever 
co-operation has proved permanently successful. 
At the call of Governor Blaine a conference of all 
the organization interests of Wisconsin was held for 
10 days last February. Each interest was represent¬ 
ed by men in their own particular line, and a gen¬ 
eral plan was developed and approved for the State. 
These plans are being worked out. They include all 
the dairy organizations of the State. Recently these 
organizations were informed by the published an¬ 
nouncement that the dairymen of the State were to 
be organized into one great buying and selling organ¬ 
ization, without suggestion or consultation with the 
organizations that have worked out plans for the 
improvement of the dairy interests of the State and 
for the sale of dairy and other products of the State. 
Several meetings had already been held, and many 
more planned. 
At a meeting called at the suggestion of A. .T. 
Glover, editor of Hoard's Dairyman , on August 10, 
it developed that the new organization was being 
promoted by It. 1 >. Cooper, formerly president of the 
Dairymen's League, and Prof. Routed of New York, 
under the auspices of the Society of Ecprty. The 
explanations given by the promoters showed that the 
proposed organization was to be practically iden¬ 
tical with the Dairymen’s League Co-operative As¬ 
sociation of New York. It was proposed to pool all 
the milk of Wisconsin, including that made into but¬ 
ter, cheese, condensed milk and liquid milk. Mr. 
Cooper admitted that the outcome of the project 
would he that all the local plants now owned by pro¬ 
ducers would become the property of the centralized 
association. Prof. Mlacklin of the Wisconsin Agri¬ 
cultural College objected to the plan as fundamen¬ 
tally unsound and undemocratic in principle, as well 
as impractical in execution. It took, be said, owner¬ 
ship and management and control out of the hands of 
the men who are directly interested, and rested all 
in the hands of those who at best are only indi¬ 
rectly interested. It. creates a larger overhead, and 
opens the way to waste and extravagance. If, denies 
local men the opportunity to develop into managers 
by actually doing the work themselves, and leaves 
them dependent on others. 
A resolution was offered indorsing the general 
plan adopted at the February conference and oppos¬ 
ing the proposed plan. It was approved by all the 
farm organizations in the State except the Society of 
Equity. An attempt was made in a subsequent meet¬ 
ing to settle the matter amicably, but without suc¬ 
cess. Hence the fight is on, as indicated in the fol¬ 
lowing leading paragraph from Hoard's Dairyman: 
Wisconsin will continue to support the plan of com¬ 
modity organization as exemplified by the Wisconsin 
Cheese Producers’ Federation and as outlined by the 
Get-together Maiketing Conference held in Madison last 
February. It also opposes the organization of the Wis¬ 
consin Equity Dairymen’s Co-operative Association that 
is being promoted in Wisconsin by certain officials of the 
New York Dairymen’s league under the auspices of the 
Wisconsin Society of Equity. 
People at the Ohio State Fair 
“I am not living for myself,” a farmer at the Ohio 
Fair remarked. ‘‘My children are dead. That little 
boy was taken in my home as an infant. 1 am encour¬ 
aging him in club work, and that will be of more 
service to him than a legacy, lie just told me that he 
would place his prize money in the bank. Farming is 
in a bad way. In our county the loss will reach hun¬ 
dreds of thousands of dollars. On one farm, on which 
$12,000 had been paid, and a $17,000 mortgage still 
exists, the farmer will move away. The future of Ohio 
agriculture rests with the boys and girls. The boys 
will bo taught to conserve their credit, and the girls to 
be home makers.” 
“You are doing the tea 1 extension work of the State,” 
was the opinion ventured by I’rof. C. S. Plumb, regard¬ 
ing the boys’ and girls’ work. A little foreign girl won 
first last year and second this year with a pen of 
chickens. “It is our most effective way of American¬ 
izing the foreign farmer, who if lie persists in the old 
ways would be a menace to society and agriculture.” 
was the statement of one of tin* State club leaders. 
The forward-looking farmer has at hand the Farm 
Bureau Federation, an organization of high efficiency 
which is being organized solidly. “The cause of agri¬ 
culture was hopeless.” one farmer ventured, “until the 
Farm Bureau was organized.” The membership of this 
organization in Ohio numbers nearly lOO.(MX). and is 
rapidly growing. In reply to the question what the 
Farm Bureau will do for Ohio, Secretary M. D. Lin¬ 
coln stated: “The Farm Bureau helps to develop and 
correlate the work of all organizations striving to work 
out a better agriculture.” By inquiry among State 
Farm Bureau officials and leading farmers it was the 
unanimous opinion that radicalism will not bo tolerated. 
“Do you intend doing away with the local dealer and 
making the Farm Bureau one large buying organiza¬ 
tion?” “Our purpose,” said Mr. Lincoln in answer to 
this question, “is to make use of the local man wherever 
possible. We recognize invested capital. However, we 
have as much right, where service is inefficient and 
profits excessive, to step in as another competitor would, 
and perform a real service.” 
The purposes of the Farm Bureau as outlined by 
State officials at Columbus are to promote co-operative 
grain and live stock marketing, organize dairymen, 
vegetable growers and other commodity groups and co¬ 
ordinate their activities, safeguard the farmer in matter 
of transportation, legislation, and in investments. 
“What is the outlook of the dairy industry in the 
State of Ohio?” This is the question that thinking 
dairymen are inquiring. In spite of present situation, 
which is apparently difficult, the dairyman is faring 
perhaps better than the live stock or general farmer. 
“The consumption of milk will probably be doubled.” 
was the opinion of State dairy leaders, “in a decade.” 
The demand for ice cream is substantial and increasing, 
since it is a food rather than a sweetened and colored 
drink. Ohio is second as producer of Swiss cheese, and 
if is the purpose of leaders to make it first in quality 
of this producf. 
“Are you not educating the young men away from 
the farm?” is the question which occurred to many 
farmers who v'sited the booth of the Ohio College of 
Agriculture. This was answered with the statement 
that 45 per cent go back to the farms. This percentage 
become leaders in their communities. Tt was contended 
that only five per cent are totally lost to agriculture. 
“Farm machinery will be the basis of much com¬ 
munity co-operative activity.” was the opinion expressed 
at the Ohio State Fair. From year to year new 
machines are shown which have afterward found places 
in agriculture. The light tractor of two and four- 
cylinder type, capable of handling two plows under 
ordinary conditions, was the more popular type of 
machine shown. r I'his machine will drive a small thrasher, 
and several thrashers were shown priced at $1,000 
under this figure. These are sold to groups of farmers, 
each paying in his annual thrashing hill. In two or 
three years a group of five to 10 men can easily pay for 
a machine. The cash sales from this type of machine 
exceeded those of the larger and more expensive types, 
according to one salesman. A thrasherman stated that 
ho was operating a large outfit, but the small group- 
owned thrasher appeared to be the logical and economical 
solution of the farmer’s thrashing problem. The two- 
row cultivator has been developed that it may he at¬ 
tached to tin 1 lighter tractors. Several cultivators were 
shown, and these had possibilities of 20 and .”>0 acres 
daily. One to be used with a popular low-priced tractor 
has extension steering control and gear shift devices, 
and trial of this equipment evidenced that the tractor 
could be handled as conveniently from the implement 
with the extension as when the operator was seated on 
the tractor. The eight-foot grain binder built for trac¬ 
tor and the corn harvester were featured, yet, it was 
the general opinion of farmers and farm machinery men 
that the farmer should continue to use such machinery 
as he had which is still in good condition rather than 
sacrifice it, for machinery which is destined to come in 
general use on the larger farms in a few years. The 
garden tractor was the center of groups of investigating 
vegetable growers. This is developed along tin- line 
of a single cylinder motor which is accessible; the parts 
are cheap, and well built. These tractors range from 
$200 upward. One vegetable grower stated that this 
type of tractor for small vegetables planted in narrow 
rows was much superior to horse-drawn or hand-op¬ 
erated machines. For potato or corn cultivation he con¬ 
sidered the horse-drawn cultivator, where the acreage 
may be small, superior. This grower said that if. 
required ahout a gallon and one half to two gallons 
nf gasoline to operate this machine, and was much less 
fatiguing, and more rapid and easily handled, than 
the horse-drawn implement. 
I’rof. Ives declared that the tractor in instances 
supplemented the horse, and the. horse in other cases 
the tractor. He considered the cost of tractor and 
horse cultivation about equal, whereas the tractor has 
the advantage in hurrying the planting of the crop. 
With 11-cent kerosene and a low-grade motor fuel sell¬ 
ing for eight cents in parts of the State, the tractor will 
come in general use on farms of 125 acres or over. 
Horsemen were interviewed as to the outlook of the 
industry, and they generally feel there is good outlook 
for draft animals of good type and breeding, yet there 
seemed to be considerable prejudice against the tractor 
as a possible competitor. One well-known horseman, 
after venturing his opinion, declared he had not driven 
a tractor, and his only experience with one was an 
unsatisfactory job of plowing which he had hired done 
on his farm. w. J. 
The Wool Problem Solved 
The farmers of Whitley Go., Tnd.. h ve solved their 
wool problem. Columbia City, the county seat, has a 
woolen mill. Early in July R. M. Roop. County Agent, 
went to see the 1 manager of the mill. Mr. Fisher, and 
asked whether arrangements could not he made to have 
the farmers’ wool worked up into blankets. It. was 
agreed by the manager of the mill that if the farmers 
of the county would pledge 2.000 lbs. of wool the mill 
would work it up into blankets at $1.85 per pair (or 
what is called double), size 70x84. plain white, or 
rather cream, and $1.05 for gray. A day was set in the 
latter part of July, when every farmer who had wool 
and wished it worked up into blankets must bring in his 
wool and have it checked tip by the County Agent. 
When the day came, instead of 2.000 lbs. being deliv¬ 
ered, nearly .30.000 lbs. was delivered. It was agreed 
to sell those blankets at $5 per pair (or double), and 
the orders have been coming in until no farmer has 
enough to meet the requests for blankets. It takes 11 
lbs. of raw wool to make a pair of blankets, and when 
done they will weigh about 5 lbs. 
So widespread became the interest that the presi¬ 
dent of the State Farmers’ Federation of Indiana came 
up from Indianapolis and made arrangements with the 
local mill so that any county in the State could send in 
its wool and have it made up into blankets. In this 
case the mill charges a little higher figures for making 
up the blankets than is charged the Whitley County 
farmers, but in either case a farmer realizes from !>0c 
to $1.15 more on each 11 lbs. of wool than he otherwise 
could get. For the outside counties the plan is to pool 
the wool under one man’s management and ship it thus 
to the mill. Blankets are to be sold through the State 
Federation at $5 per pair (double) in 12-pair bundle 
lots. Anyone can order a bundle of blankets and dis- 
pose of what he does not want to his neighbors. Such 
blankets in local stores cost from $12 to $15 a pair. 
F. L. SNYDER. 
Seed Potato Growers Hire Manager 
On August 1 the New York Co-operative Seed Po¬ 
tato Growers’ Association. Inc., opened its business 
office in the Wieting Block in Syracuse, N. Y., with 
Joseph M. Hurley, formerly County Agent in Wash¬ 
ington County, N. Y., in charge. For the past seven 
years the New 1 ork State Potato Association, as the 
seed growers’ organization was known until it was in¬ 
corporated this year, has had its headquarters in Ithaca, 
and Dr. E. \. llardenburg of Cornell University has 
acted as its secretary. But the inspection of over 1,000 
acres of potatoes for 200 growers in 20 counties, and 
the annual certification of over a quarter of a million 
dollars’ worth of seed, entailed such an amount of office 
detail that it became desirable to have this work clear 
through an office apart from the State College. The 
Seed Potato Association still employs the specialists 
from the State College of Agriculture to inspect the 
fi"Ids of members who wish to have their crop certified. 
This type of service is analogous to the supervision 
which agents of the State College give to Advanced Reg¬ 
istry tests of dairy cattle and. like that supervision, it is 
paid for at cost. In future the officers and employees 
of the New York Seed Potato Association will 
handle all the business connected with the inspection 
and certification of seed potatoes through their business 
office at Syracuse. The annual meeting of the associa¬ 
tion will be held in connection with Cornell Farmers’ 
Week, as in the past. 
What Should a Man Do? 
Noticing in your good paper numberless accounts of 
the doings of auto hogs and lack of consideration in 
townspeople for the rights of others, I would like to 
relate a happening that took place at. my homo a few 
afternoons ago. 
I live alone on my small farm of 17 acres, keeping 
four cows, one horse, 100 hens, a few swarms of bees, 
and am starting in a small way in berries, doing nearly 
all the work, both outside and in. myself, and. strange 
as it may seem. I am contented and happy; more so. I 
think, than the majority of married people who have 
come under my observation. So much for bachelorhood. 
A man and his wife, retired farmers, and two ladies 
came down 1 from town in their car the afternoon re¬ 
ferred to, the man, who is a speculator in a small way, 
wishing to buy some chickens. On the east side of my 
house, across a strip of green lawn, my garden is locat¬ 
ed. bordered with small evergreens, peonies, old-fash¬ 
ioned roses and other shrubs. Outside of this is a long 
narrow strip the length of the garden, planted to annu¬ 
als, such as poppies. Salpiglossis, asters. Dahlias, etc., 
which, by much weeding, hoeing and watering, had be¬ 
come very beautiful ; a delight to passersby. and more 
in particular to myself. This mass of bloom attracted 
these people's attention at once, and while they were 
admiring them I picked for each of these “ladies” what 
I considered a nice bouquet, after which the man and I 
retired to the hen park to look at the chickens. Wo 
were gone perhaps 10 or 15 minutes, and imagine my 
feelings upon coming hack to the house to see two of 
these “ladies” with bouquets the size of a small milk- 
pail, the choicest of the flowers which had been such a 
source of pride and comfort to me. I was too astounded 
to speak, but my face must have been “a scroll upon 
which was written unutterable things.” for they imme¬ 
diately 1 egau to make apologies, saying they could not 
resist the temptation. The looks of the border are 
ruined, for they took both buds and blossoms and 
trampled many underfoot. 
What ought I to have done? Told them in plain 
words what 1 thought of their conduct, or said nothing, 
a; I did? I was too angry at the time to speak with any 
degree of composure. Two of these “ladies” pride 
themselves upon their refinement and culture, and actu- 
ftllv do move in what is called “the upper classes of so¬ 
ciety.” L. C. H. 
New York. 
R. N.-Y.—Such a situation would try the temper of 
any man. We confess that we do not know what should 
be done in such a case. This is one of the cases where 
a woman has the advantage if she is dealing with a gen¬ 
tleman. If we had the names of these parties we would 
give them publicity at least. The action of those women 
will serve to confirm our friend in the belief that the life 
of a bachelor is not. without compensations. 
As Some Others See Us 
What is the matter with the farmers? 
It seems to the writer that as a general class they are 
not desirous of considering genuine economic reforms 
that are going to help them as farmers. They (those 
who own tlx'r own land) seem to be mentally preoccu¬ 
pied by tlx* idea of how much money they can make on 
the land that they own, not by working it, but by sell¬ 
ing it to somebody else for a profit. In other words, they 
are land speculators rather than farmers. Such a profit 
would he unearned, but that doesn’t interest them so 
I -rg as they get it. 
If farmers were more concerned with establishing con¬ 
ditions i f justice that apply to themselves as well as to 
others, they probably could bring about conditions that 
would make real farming not so arduous and difficult to 
make a decent living. 
Selfish greed, the desire to get something for nothing 
through speculation in their land, blinds them to, or 
prejudices them against, reforms that would help them 
in itlieir real interests as farmers, because they fear it 
would hurt their nefarious schemes as land speculators. 
The help the farmer cry would be more palatable if they 
were more really farmers and not so much speculators in 
land. A. BOURGEOIS. 
New Jersey. 
R. N.-Y.—We print that in order that farmers may 
I now what some of the town people think of them. It 
is very easy to scold and find fault, but no one ever 
made any real improvement in conditions that way. 
There may be some farmers, or perhaps a few localities, 
where this indictment would hold. It is not true, how¬ 
ever, of the great majority of real farmers. There arc* 
^ti 11 thousands of farmers left who regard their farms 
as their homes. They are not speculators, but they re¬ 
gard the farm as an estate which they desire to hand 
down to those who follow them. Our friend has made 
flie common mistake of observing a few speculating 
farmers and concluding that all farmers are like them, 
lie is wrong. 
