Tnt RURAL NEW-YORKER 
I (> I 
with the representatives of all the other groups to 
form a sales committee for all milk in the territory 
of the old League. This would be the quickest way 
out. but the pool will not agree to this. 
The most effective plan would be to ignore all the 
groups and call a meeting of every local branch of 
the Dairymen’s League, Inc., on the same plan as 
the school meetings were called, to elect a delegate 
to meet with all the other delegates within each di¬ 
rector district, to elect directors for the old League. 
This would revive the old League, then these direc¬ 
tors should elect officers and make such changes in 
the League plans as will fit conditions that exist 
now. This plan I believe would meet with the ap¬ 
proval of most of the League stockholders of all the 
groups. ^ j. A. M. 
New York. 
Wants to Think for Himself 
I am very much pleased with your willingness to 
help to get the dairymen together. The answer to 
your first proposition. “What is keeping the dairy¬ 
men apart?” is answered by the leaders not con¬ 
sulting or giving a referendum to the “rank and file.” 
so to speak. They think that the same methods and 
rule ought to work with the average farmer in the 
way that the agitator or rebel of Rus¬ 
sia and Mexico causes the peasants to 
run or chase after him as a flock of - 
sheep follow the leader over a stone 
wall. They (the leaders) are right, 
and don’t question it is their attitude. 
They think as the woman who sup¬ 
ports the consolidated school bill, that 
the farmer is more animal than any¬ 
thing else, and should have someone 
to do his thinking. One of the broad 
principles and general policies that all 
dairymen should adopt is co-operative 
marketing. Surely, we poolers have 
sacrificed the past seasons (for the 
benefit of the non-pooling group. 
M. H. SANFORD. 
Delaware Co., N. Y. 
Worth Thinking About 
There are, at the present time, four 
organizations in this State, the Pool, 
Non-Pool, Sheffield and Eastern States. 
Each of these groups is selfish in its 
methods (although we think the East¬ 
ern States is the broadest in its views 
and has the best plan of the four, for 
the co-operative creamery.) This self¬ 
ishness is shown by the desire of all 
to make the price, seeking all pro¬ 
ducers for their own organization, con¬ 
tinual knocking of each against the 
other, each wanting to sell all milk in 
fluid-milk form and trying to control 
the market. This has a very bad in¬ 
fluence on all in connection with the 
business, and is costing the producer 
millions of dollars. The heads of 
these organizations will never get 
together and agree, but they all be¬ 
lieve in organization, so why not get 
them to organize further by a plan sim¬ 
ilar to baseball, with Judge Landis at 
its head, moving pictures with Hays, 
picking some man whose honesty and integrity are 
above reproach, and his salary to be paid by taxing 
each on the amount of milk they handle. 
Herkimer Co., N. Y. b. j. shaut. 
Trouble from Milk Classes 
I think the pool parted the dairymen. I do not 
like their way of handling the surplus. When they 
classed the price of milk I think that was an act 
of injustice to the farmers. We all know the con- 
denseries and powdered milk plants want good milk 
and will send it back if not good. Why sell it to 
them so cheap? One may buy a good cow and pay 
a good price, and then buy some good feeds and pay 
a good price for them. He can milk the cow and 
take her milk to condensery and get third class 
price. Is that profitable for the farmer? I think 
we ought to be together but not in the pool. I do 
not think the pool has done anything to help the 
farmers yet. Their hobby seems to be to lower the 
price. .They cannot get it low enough at the end 
of the month, so they lower it in the middle of 
the month. If the pool makes the price and others 
follow suit and they want to help the farmer, why 
not make it a little higher?' I do not think the mid¬ 
dleman needs help. Look at Helvetia Milk Co. 
Their stock was worth $100 per share and now 
worth $1,200 a share. Then look at Borden's net 
profits, between five and six millions. Why not help 
farmers instead of the others? 
We read in the papers about the big price the 
pool is selling milk for compared with before the 
war. but not a word is said about the worth of the 
dollar. The Buffalo Express says all the way from 
54 to 60 cents. If a farmer is getting $2 per cwt. 
and the dollar worth 00 cents, he would be getting 
$1.20 per cwt. In other words it will take $2 now 
to buy what $1.20 would before the war. 
Some say the certificate of indebtedness does no 
harm, but I think it takes all the profits of the farm. 
Then take the pooling expenses on top of that, and 
how is a farmer going to tell where he is at? If 
surplus milk is the trouble why not make cheese? 
Cheese is so high a farmer cannot eat it, and milk 
so cheap a farmer cannot make it. If the pool is 
helping the farmers why not let the dealers fight it 
out, not put everything on the farmers? I think 
the pool is trying to help the dealers, not the farm¬ 
ers. 
I think if we were all in the Non-pool we would 
be much better off. We would not have so many 
salaries to pay. It would all be paid with one cent 
per hundred, and then if we had some surplus we 
ROBERT H. SMITH 
Of the Canton (N. Y.) Agricultural School. Whose Notes on Farm 
Engineering are a Feature of The R. N.-Y. 
could lower the price same as they have and get rid 
of it. I don't think we would need to sell so much 
below cheese prices. The milk all went before it was 
pooled and farmers not so hard up as now. I think 
we could sell the surplus the way it is being sold now 
without paying out thousands of dollars to get it 
done. j. e. 
New York. 
Castor Oil for Non-poolers 
In my opinion it is greed and ignorance that are 
causing the lack of co-operation. The Sheffield pro¬ 
ducer seems to rejoice that he received a little more 
for his milk than the pooler received. So long as 
the non-co-operators can get a little more than the 
co-operators, they feel very contented. Competition 
is not the life of trade any more; competition is the 
death of trade. Co-operation is the life of trade. 
We are never too old to learn, and 1 should like to 
learn how we ean have co-operation without pooling. 
We poolers have the greatest marketing system for 
our milk that has yet been evolved. We have the 
greatest financing system that has yet been evolved 
in the mind of man. We have been co-operating suc¬ 
cessfully three years in spite of the non-co-operators. 
We invite all efficient producers to join our ranks, 
and help boost for the dairy, industry. 
Me want 100 per cent co-operation, not to put any 
exorbitant price on the consumer, but to put our 
business on a level with other organized industries, 
and assure the consumer o£ a continued, unlimited 
supply of dairy products, the best food his money 
can buy. If the farmers wish anything done for 
them they must do it themselves. We cannot com¬ 
pete with organizations on every hand and be un¬ 
organized ourselves. We must organize; we must 
co-operate, work together. 
The Dairymen’s League Co-operative Association. 
Inc., has the machine all running and running pretty 
fair. We would like to have the non-co-operators 
get in line and co-operate, but so long as they can 
stay out and get 5c per cwt. more for their milk 
than the pooler gets that seems to be their policy. 
The non-co-operators have held the idea that the 
co-operative association is a mighty good thing for 
the fellow that doesn’t belong. Why? Because we 
have named the price for fluid milk and then taken 
care of the surplus, so that would not demoralize 
the fluid market. The talk about the non-poolers’ 
one-price plan, and that price should therefore be 
cheaper than the pool’s fluid price, sounds to me like 
talking nonsense just to pull the wool over some¬ 
one’s eyes. The fact remains that the non-co-opera¬ 
tive dealers can buy of the non-co¬ 
operative farmer at a price so he can 
undersell the co-operative association. 
Wihy, I ask, should the poolers continue 
to hold the price of fluid milk up so we 
poolers take care of all the surplus? 
Have we not carried the non-co-opera- 
.fives long enough, hoping, in vain, that 
they would see their mistake and jump 
off and push? 
In my younger days I had a small 
•boy’s appetite, coupled with a small 
boy’s judgment. The result was, much 
to my dislike, a dose of castor oil quite 
frequently, until I learned better meth¬ 
ods of eating. This oil was admin¬ 
istered by my best friend, my mother. 
I am sure it pained her quite as much 
as myself. However, the oil did the 
business and I am now strong and 
healthy and never have to take oil. I 
believe the only way the non-co- 
operators can be made to co-operate is 
by giving them repeated doses of castor 
oil. This may cause the co-operators 
some pain, but if we administer it in 
the right spirit, I am sure that some¬ 
how, sometime, and in some manner, 
we will receive our reward. 
Oneida Co., N. Y r . f. ii. smith. 
A Simple Plan Rest 
The inclosed published statement 
from the president o£ the Dairymen’s 
League, saying who was responsible 
for (lie November reduction in the price 
of milk, will explain the situation as 
some may want to see it. But when I 
signed the pooling contract I think the 
question of investing over seven million 
dollars of farmers’ money in real estate 
and investments, and other millions in 
expense accounts and in the retailing 
of milk to consumers in competition ’ 
with wholesale buyers, was not a part 
of the program. How can the League sell all the 
milk without driving its competitors out of the 
market? Their attempt to do so has cost the farm¬ 
ers a lot of money, and the fight now on will cost' 
them many millions more. The amount will depend 
on how soon the war ean be stopped. 
For purpose of information I see no better way 
than for the poolers to sell their plants and equip¬ 
ments and give up handling and manufacturing 
milk at a loss, then form a new organization from 
those who are supposed to be members of the old 
Dairymen’s League, Inc. In this way by united 
purpose they can sell milk to dealers by the can 
or hundredweight. If they are completely united 
it will be easy to adjust the production or the supply 
lo satisfy the demand of the consumers. I think the 
I’resident of the United States has recommended a 
simple plan for farmers’ co-operation. Simple plans 
will be better for farmers than the complicated and 
expensive plans that we have undertaken without 
success. FARMER AND POOLER. 
There is certain to be a heavy planting of Soy beans 
in the Eastern States this year—a good thing, too. 
We have one field in rye. Our plan is to cut the rye 
early for hay, plow and seed Soy beans, and reseed to 
rye and clover, at last cultivation of the beans. 
