Jhi RURAL NEW-YORKER 
1005 
Things To Think About 
Farm Produce Sold by State 
Institutions 
[Below are given a few notes from tlie 
agricultural colleges on the matter of sell¬ 
ing farm produce or nursery stock grown 
at public institutions. Of course every 
one of the colleges will produce a surplus 
of such stock if any effort is made to 
conduct experiments on anything like a 
practical scale. What shall be done with 
this surplus? The people are demanding 
that these institutions be made to pay ex¬ 
penses, but how can that be done if there 
is no way of marketing the goods? On 
the other hand, whenever the institution 
or department sells in the local market 
the nearby growers who produce the same 
class of goods justly complain of unfair 
competition. What, then, can the institu¬ 
tion do?] 
Here in Michigan the department of 
horticulture sells both vegetables and 
fruits on the open market. In a way it 
may be said to be in competition with 
local growers. However, so far as I 
know we have not received criticism from 
local growers. I presume the reason for 
this has been that we do no price cut¬ 
ting. As a matter of fact, we aim to get 
the best prices that are going in the mar¬ 
ket, and oftentimes get better than going 
prices because of the quality of our pro¬ 
ducts and the way in which they are put 
on the market. Naturally, if we did any¬ 
thing to lower prices there would be ob¬ 
jections and criticisms, v. R. Gardner. 
Michigan Agricultural College. 
The Department of Horticulture of the 
Pennsylvania State College now sells 
fruits, vegetables, flowers and plants in 
the local market of State College, a town 
of about 5,000. There are practically no 
private growers now attempting to supply 
this market, possibly because the college 
has thus far pre-empted it. The depart¬ 
ment has adopted a policy of not offering 
its products for sale in any Pennsylvania 
market other than State College where it 
would come into competition with the pri¬ 
vate growers of Pennsylvania. Any sur¬ 
plus over and above that which can be 
sold to advantage locally is shipped to a 
large general market outside the State, 
where it meets the competition of the 
whole country, such as New York and 
Baltimore. 
It is inevitable that sooner or later 
local growers will come in and compete 
with the college in the local market. 
When this time comes I am in favor of 
withdrawing from the local market alto¬ 
gether. I hold that it would be unfair 
for a State institution to compete in 
small markets with private growers. The 
department must continue to produce a 
considerable quantity of fruits, vege¬ 
tables, flowers and plants as a by-product 
of experimental work and as a means of 
instruction to students. This produce 
should not be wasted. The produce that 
cannot be used by the institution itself 
should be disposed of to other State in¬ 
stitutions, or sold in the large cities. It 
is our hope to have, eventually, a by-pro¬ 
ducts plant which may be used to can 
and preserve a considerable quantity of 
our produce for use in the college dining 
commons during the college year. 
S. W. FLETCHER. 
Pennsylvania State College. 
We have a blanket reply to the many 
letters and local inquiries that we have 
for the purchase of plants of all kinds; 
that is, we have nothing for sale. Now, 
occasionally, we have a few surplus vege¬ 
table plants which we 'Sell to some of our 
own employes, but it is a very negligible 
amount. Also, last Spring we had a few 
extra small blue spruce trees which we 
wanted to thin out of a nursery row and 
did not care to use them here. We sold 
perhaps two or three dozen of them about 
town, but we do not plan to grow any 
plants for sale or distribution other than 
some forestry trees which the State For¬ 
ester distributes for special purposes. 
In regard to the produce, it is a little 
different problem, for we do have various 
kinds of horticultural iproducts which 
must be disposed of in some way. I have 
heard only one complaint in the three 
years I have been here myself, and that 
was that our driver disposed of a few 
pounds of asparagus to a grocer at a cent 
under the prevailing wholesale price. We 
immediately cheeked this matter up and 
instructed the driver to bring back any 
produce that did not bring the prevailing 
price as nearly as he could determine it. 
In other words, we have had no complaint 
in regard to the sale of our orchard pro¬ 
ducts or our greenhouse products—mean¬ 
ing by the latter tomatoes, cucumbers and 
lettuce. 
Wheu I was in New Hampshire we had 
considerable complaint in regard to the 
sale of garden and greenhouse produce, 
and finally limited the sale of it to our 
own employes and staff and to those who 
called for it at the college. The balance 
was shipped to Boston, oftentimes not 
bringing the cost of transportation and 
package. j. h. gourley. 
Ohio Experiment Station. 
The matter of the sale of products of 
an agricultural college or experiment sta¬ 
tion has many different phases. For ex¬ 
ample, we are propagating some of our 
new seedling peach trees and disposing of 
them to the fruit growers of the State. 
We do not have sufficient funds to propa¬ 
gate them and distribute them free of 
charge, and I doubt whether such a use 
of public funds could be entirely justi¬ 
fied. In other words, the persons who re¬ 
ceive these new types of trees should be 
willing to pay a moderate price to cover 
the expense of growing same. We have 
also found it rather difficult or impossible 
to get nurserymen to propagate these new 
types until it is certain that there will 
be a good demand for them. After these 
seedlings have demonstrated their worth 
to such an extent that there is a general 
call for trees, we shall expect our nur¬ 
series to supply the needs. As far as pos¬ 
sible, we have supplied the nurserymen 
with buds at a figure that does not more 
than cover the cost of cutting same. 
Where new varieties are distributed in 
this way, I do not believe there will be 
any objection. 
We produce flowers, such as roses and 
carnations, from our experimental plots 
in the greenhouse, and we dispose of them 
wholesale to the florists nearby. We also 
retail to member of our staff. 
I believe agricultural colleges should 
avoid growing plants such as tomatoes, 
and to sell them in competition with near¬ 
by growers who are trying to make a bus¬ 
iness of growing and selling such plants. 
Where experiments are conducted with 
an economic crop, I think it is desirable 
that the institution be encouraged to dis¬ 
pose of the crop if it can be done in a way 
that will not offer competition to some 
farmer or grower. Certainly wasteful¬ 
ness in throwing away products should 
not be encouraged in public institutions. 
On the other hand, no individual tax¬ 
payer should suffer from competition with 
State institutions. M. A. blatce. 
New Jersey Experiment Station. 
The trustees of the institution and gen¬ 
eral public of 'the State believe that the 
college farms should be run on as nearly 
a commercial paying basis as possible. 
Local gardeners, however, object to our 
invading their markets. We are side¬ 
stepping this problem, insofar as possible, 
by hauling produce to larger markets in 
the State, where the amount of fruits and 
vegetables which we produce does not 
make very much of an impression on the 
market. This, of course, is not as profit¬ 
able to the college as selling in the local 
markets. I have brought this matter to 
the attention of the trustees of our insti¬ 
tution, and they recognize that our farm 
is competing at a disadvantage in being 
obliged to dispose of our produce in less 
profitable markets. geo. f. potter. 
University of New Hampshire. 
Baked Indian Pudding 
Two pints skim-milk, one pint sugar, 
two tablespoons molasses. half cup corn- 
meal, one egg, butter size of an egg, 
pinch of salt and nutmeg to taste. Boil 
half the milk, then stir in the meal and 
cook till it thickens. Remove from stove, 
add the butter, sugar, molasses, remain¬ 
ing cold milk, salt and beaten egg. Bake 
slowly two hours. If directions are close¬ 
ly followed a thin delicious juice will 
have formed in bottom of baking dish. 
We enjoy it not too hot. L. c. M. 
—an extra rugged tire that 
{ will stand up under the rough 
all-around service tires are 
called upon to give on the farm 
It doesn’t need much examination of the new 
Kelly Cord to convince a car-owner that here is a 
real tire. 
The new Kelly Cord has all the good qualities 
of the famous Kelly Kant-Slip, plus extra strong 
sidewalls and a much more massive tread, with 
reinforced shoulders that add to the life of the tire. 
Developed originally to meet the need for a 
dependable pneumatic truck tire, the new Kelly 
Cord has been giving such phenomenal service 
that our dealers and the public alike demanded it 
in sizes suitable for passenger cars and the smaller 
trucks. 
Now you can get it in all sizes from 30x3V2 
up to 40x8. 
Whether your driving is done over “hard” 
roads or rutted dirt roads, the new Kelly Cord will 
give you unequalled service. 
Try one on your car or truck. 
Kelly-Springfield Tire Co. 
250 West 57th St. 
New York 
i 
