The  RURAL  NEW-YORKER 
New  York  State  Agricultural  Society 
Meeting 
TIIE  annual  meeting  of  the  New  York  State  Agri¬ 
cultural  Society  will  be  held  at  Albany  Janu¬ 
ary  10  and  17  in  the  Assembly  Parlors  and  Chamber 
at  the  State  House.  This  is  the  ninety-first  annual 
meeting  of  the  society.  It  is  the  oldest  agricultural 
society  in  the  State,  and  it  is  proposed  to  make  its 
program  rank  with  the  youngest  in  vigor  and  power. 
The  program  embraces  discussion  of  the  most  im¬ 
portant  problems  now  affecting  agricultural  prog¬ 
ress.  The  subject  of  rural  education  will  be  taken 
up,  and  the  report  of  the  Committee  of  Twenty-one. 
Recommendations  as  to  the  policy  of  the  State  on 
this  matter  of  vital  importance  to  rural  people  will 
result.  The  matter  of  farm  finance  will  be  taken 
up,  and  aid  for  farmers  sought  along  this  line.  Mar¬ 
keting  and  distribution,  of  interest  alike  to  pro¬ 
ducer  and  consumer,  have  a  prominent  place  on  the 
program.  The  activities  of  the  Federal  government 
in  agricultural  matters  will  be  discussed.  The  sub¬ 
ject  of  radio  and  its  farm  use  and  value  will  be 
taken  up,  and  part  of  the  program  will  be  broadcast. 
Speakers  of  national  reputation  will  address  the 
sessions. 
The  production  of  food  waits  upon  a  right  settle¬ 
ment  of  fundamentals,  and  these  fundamentals  fill 
the  scope  of  the  society’s  endeavors.  Members  of  the 
Farm  Bureau,  the  Grange,  and  all  agricultural  or¬ 
ganizations  of  the  State,  and  all  men  and  women 
concerned  with  the  welfare  and  advancement  of 
agriculture,  are  invited  and  urged  to  attend  this 
meeting  where- it  is  possible  to  do  so.  The  meeting 
is  held  while  the  State  Legislature  is  in  session. 
Citizens  interested  in  agriculture  can  render  valu¬ 
able  aid  by  presenting  their  views  on  agricultural 
problems  at  this  time. 
Copies  of  the  complete  program  can  be  obtained 
by  writing  the  secretary  of  the  New  York  State 
Agricultural  Society  at  Albany,  N.  Y.  There  are 
many  reasons,  including  the  change  of  administra¬ 
tion  in  New  York  State,  why  there  should  be  a  big 
attendance. 
Occupations  in  the  New  York  Legislature 
HE  New  York  Senators  are  elected  for  two 
years.  There  are  51  members,  and  in  the  new 
Senate  20  are  reported  as  Democrats  and  25  as  lie- 
publicans.  It  is  said  that  one  man  classed  as  a 
Democrat  from  Brooklyn  is  really  an  enrolled  Re¬ 
publican.  As  for  occupations,  the  following  list 
shows  what  the  Senators  are  supposed  to  do  in 
private  life: 
Merchant,  4;  lawyer,  26;  real  estate,  2;  manufac¬ 
turer,  3  ;  broker,  1 ;  doctor.  1 ;  drug  store,  1 ;  account¬ 
ant,  1 ;  newspaper  man,  I  ;  architect,  2 ;  farmer,  2 ; 
salesman,  1 ;  banker,  2 ;  civil  engineer,  1 ;  agricul¬ 
ture,  1 ;  college  professor.  1 ;  Summer  hotel,  1 ;  con¬ 
tractor,  1. 
As  for  the  Assembly,  there  are  150  members ;  SI 
Republicans  and  09  Democrats.  From  New  York 
County  come  68  Democrats  and  six  Republicans.  A 
majority  of  the  Assembly  is  70  and  there  are  two 
Republicans  from  Nassau  County,  which  is  really  a 
part  of  New  York  City.  The  occupations  of  As¬ 
semblymen  run  as  follows: 
Mechanic,  1 ;  undertaker,  1 ;  pattern-maker,  1 ; 
lawyer,  56 ;  insurance,  3 ;  student,  1 ;  newspaper 
man,  1 ;  shoemaker.  1 ;  farmer,  22 ;  manager,  5 ; 
merchant,  5;  grocer,  1;  salesman,  3;  business  man, 
3:  engineer,  3;  doctor,  4;  banker,  1;  manufacturer, 
2 ;  auctioneer,  2 ;  advertising,  1 ;  lumber  dealer,  1 ; 
investments,  1 ;  auditor,  1 ;  automobiles,  2 ;  clerk,  3 ; 
teacher,  1 ;  pharmacist,  1 ;  secretary,  1 ;  broker,  1 ; 
contractor,  2;  bus  operator,  1;  news  agent,  1;  team¬ 
ster,  1 ;  jeweler.  1 ;  retired,  2 ;  real  estate,  9 ;  mason, 
1  ;  builder,  2. 
Thus  the  Senate  has  a  full  majority  of  lawyers — 
26.  The  rural  districts  are  represented  by  two 
farmers  and  an  agriculturist.  In  the  Assembly  are 
56  lawyers — less  than  usual.  Of  the  22  farmers, 
about  half  have  some  other  occupation,  such  as  feed 
dealer,  insurance  or  real  estate.  There  may  pos¬ 
sibly  be  half  a  dozen  of  what  you  may  call  “dirt 
farmers”  in  the  entire  Legislature. 
More  About  That  Roadside  Market 
[On  page  1363,  November  18,  1922.  we  had  an  article 
on  the  successful  roadside  market  conducted  by  Mr.  W. 
S.  Hall  of  Stanley,  N.  Y.  There  have  been  some  calls 
for  further  details  about  this  successful  business,  and 
Mr.  Hall  has  sent  us  the  following.] 
ETTING  CLOSE  TO  CONSUMERS.— In  the 
first  place,  I  was  born  and  raised  a  farmer, 
and  have  been  on  this  place  41  years ;  was  six  years 
old  when  my  parents  bought  the  farm.  I  was  mar¬ 
ried  25  years  ago  Christmas.  We  have  five  children: 
Clara,  24,  married;  Edna,  22,  married;  Louis,  20,  in 
the  navy  for  four  years ;  Esther,  10 ;  Frances,  seven 
years.  Some  time  ago  I  was  taken  very  sick,  and 
since  that  time  have  been  unable  to  do  heavy  work; 
consequently  I  followed  up  the  garden  business  more 
extensively.  One  thing  always  follows  another,  and 
every  year  we  kept  making  more  of  our  products. 
My  second  best  standby  is  a  Ford  delivery  car,  and 
that  has  been  kept  busy.  I  have  done  most  business 
in  Canandaigua,  and  made  two  and  three  trips  a 
week.  My  aim  in  this  business  is  to  cut  out  as  much 
of  the  middlemen’s  profit  as  possible. 
SOME  MANUFACTURED  PRODUCTS.  —  Our 
separated  milk  is  made  into  cream  cottage  cheese, 
which  sells  very  readily  from  the  truck,  also  butter¬ 
milk.  All  my  pickles  are  made  in  our  own  cellar 
and  kitchen.  We  have  made  1,100  gallons  of  dill 
pickles,  500  gallons  of  brine  pickles,  and  have  canned 
over  50  dozen  cans  of  different  kinds  of  pickles, 
jams,  relishes  and  marmalades,  also  780  gallons  of 
sauerkraut,  all  cut  by  hand  on  a  three-blade  cutter 
(just  a  little  exercise).  We  trench  our  parsnips, 
vegetable  oysters  and  horseradish ;  then  we  take  in 
cellar  and  thaw  out  as  we  need  them  during  the 
Winter  and  early  Spring.  I  sell  wholesale  as  well 
as  retail. 
BUSINESS  DETAILS. — I  was  unable  to  run  the 
truck  on  my  trips  from  August  22  until  December 
1  on  account  of  my  attention  to  the  roadside  mar¬ 
ket.  You  asked  me  to  tell  what  I  considered  the 
most  essential  things  to  keep  the  business  going.  It 
would  take  a  long  time  to  tell  all  the  details  of  a 
business  like  mine.  In  the  very  start  a  man  should 
stop  and  consider  what  sort  of  help  he  has  to  fall 
back  on.  I  mean  just  this:  That  if  a  man  is  mar¬ 
ried  to  some  one  who  does  not  care  or  isn’t  inter¬ 
ested  in  his  business,  then  the  best  thing  is  to  step 
on  the  reverse  or  brake  lever  as  soon  as  possible.  In 
my  case  I  never  had  to  lose  any  sleep  in  regard  to 
my  wife  being  interested  in  helping  me.  This  I  con¬ 
sider  the  key  to  the  whole  business.  Another  thing 
very  essential  is  the  quality  and  appearance  of  your 
fruit  and  vegetables.  Fruit  should  be  graded  and 
packed  in  baskets  and  placed  neatly  on  the  stand. 
Vegetables  should  be  washed  and  delivered  to  the 
customer  in  a  clean  container.  Another  very  essen¬ 
tial  thing  is  cleanliness  with  yourself  and  rig,  also 
your  products.  Try  to  please  a  customer ;  don’t  say, 
“Take  it  as  I  put  it  up,”  but  say,  “I  will  pack  you 
what  you  want.” 
A  SQUARE  DEAL. — One  other  thing  is  truthful¬ 
ness.  Do  not  sell  sour  apples  for  sweet  ones ;  they 
may  come  back  after  sour  ones.  It  is  very  notice¬ 
able  that  people  like  to  pick  out  what  they  want. 
It  is  far  better  when  you  have  something  that  is 
not  fresh  to  give  some  one  a  bargain,  or  else  give  it 
to  the  pigs,  and  place  fresh  goods  for  sale.  If  a 
man  has  any  conscience  it  will  surely  show  itself 
very  often  in  this  sort  of  business.  In  other  words, 
do  not  sell  what  you  would  not  buy.  It  isn’t  the 
customer  who  buys  once  that  keeps  your  business 
going  but  the  one  who  conies  back ;  he  is  the  one  you 
can  bank  on.  Sometimes  it  is  service  that  counts. 
SELECTION  OF  GOODS. — -Variety  is  very  essen¬ 
tial  in  operating  any  market.  If  I  do  not  h^ve  just 
what  they  want  I  either  get  it  or  tell  them  where 
they  can  get  it.  We  have  raspberry,  elderberry  and 
cherry  syrup  for  making  soft  drinks  for  next  Sum¬ 
mer.  My  aim  is  to  stick  to  the  home-made  products. 
We  sell  no  pop,  ice  cream  cones  or  flavored  wind. 
My  advertising  is  simply  what  I  sell. 
MARKET  PHILOSOPHY.— M'any  a  good  thing 
has  been  spoiled  by  too  much  advertising.  Hay 
always  piles  up  faster  with  a  fork  than  it  does  with 
some  one’s  tongue.  In  other  words,  judge  a  man  by 
his  deeds  rather  than  his  talk,  and  you  are  not  far 
amiss.  The  time  is  far  gone  when  we  were  inde¬ 
pendent  of  each  other ;  the  sooner  we  come  to  un¬ 
derstand  more  fully  what  co-operation  means,  the 
sooner  we  will  be  traveling  the  road  to  success.  A 
man  always  feels  better  when  he  is  helping  some  one 
else  who  is  less  fortunate.  w.  s.  hall. 
Ontario  Co..  N.  Y. 
The  New  York  Primary  Law 
E  opposed  the  repeal  of  the  primary  election 
law.  Having  made  a  fair  canvass  among 
our  readers,  we  have  become  convinced  that  a  ma¬ 
jority  of  our  country  people  wanted  the  law  con¬ 
tinued.  with  certain  improvements,  or  more  after  the 
plan  of  the  New  Jersey  law.  We  find,  however,  that 
many  sincere  and  clear-headed  men  are  fully  op¬ 
posed  to  any  primary  election.  In  order  to  be  fair  to 
all  we  print  the  following  statement  from  a  prom¬ 
inent  citizen  who  has  had  experience  in  polities: 
I  am  entirely  opposed  to  the  direct  primary  act,  for 
several  reasons,  the  principal  reason  being  that  it  ac¬ 
complishes  nothing,  and  the  secondary  reason  that  it  is 
19 
so  expensive  that  no  one  can  attempt  to  obtain  an  office 
of  any  prominence  unless  he  is  a  very  wealthy  man. 
That  the  so-called  organizations  can  control  the  nomina¬ 
tion  of  a  candidate  as  well  under  the  direct  primary 
law  as  under  the  convention  system  has  been  clearly 
demonstrated,  eaeh  election,  which  we  have  had. 
One  can  go  through  a  street  in  the  afternoon  with  a 
petition  for  the  nomination  of  one  candidate  and  secure 
the  same  persons  as  signers  who  signed  a  petition  for 
another  candidate  in  the  forenoon.  As  a  matter  of  fact, 
every  year  we  discover  that  a  larger  percentage  of  the 
names  secured  for  different  candidates  are  duplicates. 
I  don’t  think  that  5  per  cent  of  the  voters  of  the  State 
of  New  York  would  go  out  to  vote  on  primary  day  if 
they  were  not  carried  to  the  polls  in  automobiles.  This 
indicates  that  there  is  little  interest  in  direct  primary. 
During  the  past  few  months  I  have  talked  with  a 
number  of  persons  well  qualified  for  prominent  political 
offices  who  stated  that  they  were  kept  from  becoming 
candidates  for  the  reason  that  they  could  not.  stand  the 
expense  of  practically  two  elections,  first  the  primary 
election  and  second  the  general  election. 
As  the  political  parties  are  prohibited  from  spending 
money  in  the  primary  election,  they  can  give  no  assis¬ 
tance  to  the  candidate  in  getting  out  the  vote. 
Under  the  convention  system  delegates  were  selected 
to  represent  the  various  districts  in  the  conventions  in 
a  similar  way  to  that  in  which  we  select’ our  Congress¬ 
men  and  Senators  to  represent  us  in  Congress  and  the 
Legislature. 
“Self-service”  for  Apple  Sales 
a ■p VERY  little  helps!”  “Big  oaks  from  little 
acorns  grow !”  We  could  quote  a  page  full 
of  maxims  to  prove  that  all  the  big  things  in  life, 
when  fully  analyzed,  separate  into  very  small  units. 
The  apple  crop  this  year  was  a  tremendous  one. 
Thousands  of  barrels  rotted  on  the  ground  because 
they  would  not  sell  for  enough  to  pay  freight  and 
picking.  Yet.  not  one  in  10  of  the  people  who  live  in 
town  and  city  have  the  apples  they  want  to  eat. 
The  trouble  lies  in  distribution,  which  means  making 
it  simple  for  the  Consumers  to  obtain  apples  easily  at 
a  fair  price.  Among  other  plans  suggested  is  so- 
called  “self-service.”  We  have  seen  this  worked  out 
at  several  meetings.  Good  apples  of  medium  size 
are  exposed  in  a  box  or  barrel.  There  is  a  box  at 
the  side  with  a  slot  in  the  top.  Over,  the  apples  is  a 
sign  like  this: 
:  Help  Yourself 
:  THREE  APPLES  FOR  FIVE  CENTS 
Drop  Nickel  in  the  Box 
At  one  meeting  several  barrels  of  apples  Avere  dis¬ 
posed  of  in  this  way,  with  practically  no  loss.  There 
might  be  cases  where  apples  would  be  stolen,  but 
most  people  would  pay.  Sliot  machines  might  be 
devised  which  would  feed  the  apples  out.  The  im¬ 
mense  development  in  the  sale  of  chewing  gum  and 
chocolates  has  been  brought  about  by  this  self- 
service — where  people  can  help  themselves.  We 
think  a  somewhat  similar  service  could  be  worked 
out  for  the  disposal  of  the  medium-sized  apples 
which  are  now  so  sIoav  of  sale.  Surely  those  of  us 
who  have  a  surplus  of  fruit  cannot  afford  to  sit 
down  and  Avait  for  the  government  to  be  prodded 
into  legislation.  We  must  do  it  ourselves,  and  per¬ 
haps  Ave  can  get  the  consumers  to  “do  it”  also. 
Apple  Markets  in  Texas 
I  have  just  been  reading  on  page  1424  of  the  experi¬ 
ence  of  F.  It.  with  his  apple  crop.  I  can  hardly  under¬ 
stand  such  as  that  to  be  possible ;  for  a  man  with  a 
5,000-bushel  crop  to  be  out  about  $1,000  after  the  crop 
is  sold.  (Why  cannot  you  people  within  striking  dis¬ 
tance  of  the  seaport,  New  Yrork,  find  a  market  for  your 
high-class  goods  in  a  State  like  Texas?  There  are  reg¬ 
ular  steamers  of  the  Morgan  Line  plying  between  New 
York  and  Galveston  twice  a  week,  I  understand,  and 
the  freight  by  water  certainly  is  much  lower  than  some 
of  the  railroads  from  the  far  Northwest  and  Pacific 
coast.  Bulk  apples  (Ben  Davis  mostly)  from  Arkansas 
are  selling  here  at  $2  per  bushel.  They  are  badly  bruised 
stuff,  being  handled  in  and  out  of  cars,  mostly  with 
shovels.  Box  apples  at  the  stores,  from  the  Northwest 
and  California,  sell  at  from  50c  to  75c  per  dozen.  None 
of  them  is  equal  in  quality  to  a  good  Baldwin,  Spy  or 
Rhode  Island  Greening,  such  as  I  had  seen  in  Erie 
County,  N.  Y.,  when  living  there  years  ago.  Steamers 
run  up  the  ship  channel  as  far  as  Houston,  which  is  a 
general  distribution  point  in  all  directions.  If  the  wind¬ 
fall  stuff  from  Arkansas  is  worth  $2  per  bushel,  your 
hand-picked  Baldwins,  etc.,  are  worth  easily  $3-$4  per 
bushel.  I  cannot  recall  ever  seeing  any  of  your  East¬ 
ern  apples  in  this  market.  It  appears  that  a  man  might 
come  along  with  a  good  shipment  of  several  hundred 
barrels,  advertise  freely  in  a  place  like  Houston,  and 
sell  to  good  advantage  in  no  time.  J.  av.  8. 
Mexia,  Tex. 
It  is  said  that  Denmark,  while  one  of  the  most  im¬ 
portant  butter-producing  countries  in  the  world,  is  also 
a  great  producer  of  “oleo.”  The  Danes  receive  a  high 
price  for  their  butter,  but  will  not  buy  it  for  their  own 
consumption. 
