VOL. LXXXIII. 
Published Weekly by The Rural Publishing Co., 
333 W. 30th St. New York. Price One Dollar a Year. 
NEW YORK, AUGUST 2, 1924 
Entered as Second-Class Matter. June 2. 1S79. at the Post 
Office at New fork, N. f.. under the Act of March 3. 1S7!>. 
NO. 4S0G 
Some Farm Conditions in the Middle West 
8 | HE CORN-BORER’S ENEMY—A wasp 
half an inch in lengh may be the hope of 
the American farmer, particularly the one 
in the quarantined area along the lakes. 
This wasp, scientifically known as Exer- 
__J istes Roborator. was found by Department 
of Agriculture scouts in France and acclimated in 
Massachusetts. The wasp lays its eggs in the larvto 
of the corn-borer. It seems that the wasp has a 
well-developed taste for this particular pest, and the 
problem confronting the Department of Agriculture 
was whether or not the present hope would survive 
the Winters in Ohio and adjoining States. Those 
connected with the department declare the farmer 
should not relax his vigilance, and it will require 
careful observation for several years to determine 
to what extent the corn-borer enemy will be able to 
control the pest. Farms along the Lake Shore in 
Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York have been in the 
quarantined districts for three years, and are under 
the surveillance of Federal Department employes. 
Roads have been guarded. The borer has been kept 
in restricted areas and its work has been compared 
to the boll weevil of the South. The corn-borer is 
said to have been blown across Lake Erie in a storm. 
Several thousand of its enemies have been released 
in Northern Ohio areas. 
MILK-MAKING PROBLEMS.—The cow has been 
kept on many farms to the exclusion of other 
lines of farming and live stock. There are sections 
from which three times as much milk goes to the 
receiving stations as was sent 10 years ago. In this 
the farmer has become his own competitor. A prob¬ 
lem faces the dairy organizations not only of Pitts¬ 
burgh and Cleveland, but many other cities as well. 
The dealer can go elsewhere for his milk supply if 
pressed by strike or higher prices, owing to the 
highly perfected system of shipping milk. The dairy 
marketing industry is so interlocked that one large 
dealer may secure from a distant one by wire a suf-, 
ficient supply for his needs. Officials representing 
the farmers realize this, and cannot insist on prices 
equalling the cost of production. There is another 
angle; the city consumer points to the fact that there 
is a surplus, and if milk production does not pay, 
why do so many farmers persist in producing this 
surplus? The city consumer, who has his say in the 
city of Pittsburgh at the price-fixing conferences of 
consumer, distributor and producer, has a heavy club 
to wield over the heads of the farmers’ representa¬ 
tives. The dairy farmer is faced with a surplus 
of milk. It was reported there existed a 70 per cent 
surplus in Pittsburgh for the month of May. This 
has been accounted for because of the rains, and the 
luxuriant pasture having kept green and fresh up 
to the present writing. Farmers have continued 
feeding their cattle grain which now has go le 
pound for pound, higher than the price of milk. Toe 
Pittsburgh surplus has been augmented by the im¬ 
portation of cream from newly developed dairy sec¬ 
tions in Illinois. A carload of milk can be brought 
from dairy sections in Illinois. Wisconsin or Minne¬ 
sota in from 24 to 90 hours, and not vary in temper¬ 
ature more than three degrees. This is due to the 
glass-lined thermos-bottle type car, and practically 
all of the milk brought into Pittsburgh by one of the 
large concerns of that city is transported in these 
cars. The saving at one of their receiving stations 
in wear and tear on cans, and in labor, icing and 
freight, amounts to thousands of dollars in a month. 
Five men are employed at one plant, where under 
the old system of loading cans into a box car and 
mmm 
A Fai'm Boy and His Dependable Horse and Dog 
