<Ih*  RURAL  NEW-YORKER 
1247 
Marketing, — The  Business  End  of  Dairying, 
HE  DAIRY  FARMER  might  well  be 
recognized  as  the  balance  wheel 
of  American  agriculture.  During 
the  turmoil  of  war  and  throughout 
the  period  of  adjustment  the  dairy 
cow  served  to  stabilize  farming  op¬ 
erations.  Every  agency  concerned  in  educational 
or  extension  work  proclaimed  that  increased  pro¬ 
duction  of  milk  and  the  manufacture  of  more  dairy 
products  was  the  one  emergency  demanding  im¬ 
mediate  consideration.  No  doubt  this  was  good 
counsel,  for  it  demonstrated  anew  that  prosperity 
follows  the  dairy  cow. 
THE  GREAT  DAIRY  FIELD.— As  a  result  of 
this  organized  effort  the  field  of  dairying  was 
widely  extended.  More  than  S2  per  cent  of  the  5,- 
000,000  farmers  in  this  country  keep  dairy  cows. 
8ome  idea  of  the  extent  of  the  dairy  industry  may 
be  gained  by  comparing  values.  The  farm  value 
of  dairy  products  in  1921  was  three  times  as  great 
to  produce  intelligently  and  then  blindly  distribute 
or  merchandise  the  products.  This  procedure  can 
only  end  in  a  blind  alley.  The  whole  problem  of 
marketing  dairy  products  is  involved  in  a  menacing 
tangle.  The  producer  blames  the  distributor  for 
extravagances.  The  distributor  challenges  the  effi¬ 
ciency  of  the  producer.  The  consumer  feels  that 
in  any  event  he  is  the  victim  of  circumstances 
that  force  him  to  restrict  the  amount  of  milk, 
cream,  butter,  or  cheese  that  under  changed  condi¬ 
tions  would  be  used  regularly  by  his  family.  There 
is  every  reason  to  believe  that  consumption  of  dairy 
products  has  been  curtailed  largely  because  the 
public  is  not  in  full  sympathy  with  the  existing 
methods  of  distribution  of  dairy  products.  For  in¬ 
stance,  take  butter.  One  can  go  to  any  red,  yel¬ 
low,  or  green-fronted  grocery  store  and  buy  Wiscon¬ 
sin  or  Minnesota  creamery  butter  for  50  cents  a 
pound.  He  can  go  across  the  street  to  a  more  pre¬ 
tentious  looking  store  and  pay  75  cents  for  perhaps 
AN  EDUCATIONAL  PROBLEM.  —  The  whole 
matter  is  an  educational  problem  rather  than  a  con¬ 
dition  to  be  shot  at  with  law  guns  aimed  by 
apostles  of  discontented  producers  or  consumers. 
Mere  organization  into  leagues  or  associations  will 
only  complicate  conditions  for  in  almost  every  case 
the  objective  of  such  organization  is  some  gigantic 
plan  aimed  at  price  control.  The  dairy  industry, 
like  the  wheat  crop,  is  too  diversified  and  too  widely 
distributed  in  its  production  areas  to  respond  to  di¬ 
rection  from  a  centralized  agency.  When  the  in¬ 
terest  of  the  farmer  passes  beyond  community  con¬ 
trol  and  approaches  a  State  or  national  issue  it  at 
once  enters  the  field  of  big  business.  Manifestly 
such  associations  do  not  respond  to  corporate  su¬ 
pervision  and  control,  for  the  farmers’  problems 
are  sectional  and  not  national  or  international  as 
are,  for  example,  the  activities  and  services  of  the 
Standard  Oil  Company. 
VARYING  CONDITIONS.  —  The  problems  of 
Contentment  in  a  Sheep  Pasture  Adjoining  Otsego  L  alee,  Cooperstown,  V.  Y. 
as  the  farm  value  of  the  record-breaking  wheat 
crop  of  that  year.  Based  upon  the  1922  census  re¬ 
ports,  it  would  take  the  farm  value  of  all  the 
steers,  twice  the  farm  value  of  all  the  sheep,  twice 
the  total  value  of  hogs  to  equal  the  value  of  dairy 
XH'oducts  produced  in  1921.  This  picture  does  not 
include  the  beef  and  veal  furnished  by  the  dairy 
industry,  which,  in  the  opinion  of  the  statistician 
of  the  Federal  Government,  constitutes  one-third 
of  the  beef  and  veal  supply  of  the  United  States. 
The  combined  farm  value  of  the  wheat  crop,  the 
cotton  crop,  the  potato  crop,  and  the  oat  crop,  of 
the  average  year,  does  not  equal  the  value  of  dairy 
products  produced  during  that  year. 
IMPROVED  METHODS  of  feeding  have  helped 
to  increase  the  production  of  our  dairy  herds.  Or¬ 
derly  testing  for  tuberculosis  has  greatly  restricted 
the  hazard  of  disease  and  reduced  the  loss  from 
this  menace.  Intelligent  supervision  of  cow  test  as¬ 
sociations,  coupled  with  the  activities  that  have 
been  promulgated  by  the  community  and  various 
breed  associations,  has  enabled  owners  to  eliminate 
unprofitable  cows.  Demonstrations  everywhere  have 
greatly  aided  in  emphasizing  the  importance  of 
tying  up  efficient  and  economical  production  of  milk 
with  normal  and  regular  reproduction  of  calves,  ail 
of  which  are  admittedly  constructive  methods  de¬ 
signed  to  improve  conditions  on  our  dairy  farms. 
THE  MARKET  PROBLEM. — Orderly  marketing 
is  the  business  end  of  agriculture.  It  is  not  enough 
the  same  grade  of  creamery  butter.  One  week  you 
are  satisfied  with  the  lower  priced  product ;  the 
next  week  you  are  dissatisfied  and  make  up  your 
mind  to  buy  the  higher  priced  or  what  you  believe 
to  be  a  better  product,  only  to  find  that  now  and 
then  you  face  the  same  annoying  variation  in  color, 
texture,  flavor  and  quality. 
STANDARD  GRADES  NEEDED.— Such  experi¬ 
ences  show  that  somewhere,  somehow,  somebody 
has  failed  to  recognize  the  importance  of  establish¬ 
ing  standard  grades  for  butter  and  cheese  based 
upon  accepted  score  grade  ratings,  and  adhering 
to  such  standards  and  grades  in  the  merchandising 
of  these  products.  It  is  not  only  the  matter  of 
price  .that  you  object  to,  but  you  are  annoyed  with 
the  item  of  quality  and  lack  of  uniformity  of  the 
product.  If  some  working  plan  could  be  presented 
to  the  operators  of  the  3.701  creameries,  the  3,748 
cheese  factories,  and  to  the  553  condensed  milk 
plants  that  operate  in  this  country  which  would  re¬ 
sult  in  the  adoption  of  standard  grades  for  all  dairy 
products,  the  whole  marketing  proposition  would 
be  greatly  simplified,  and  our  outlets  of  trade 
vastly  extended.  When  American  grades  of  hotter 
arid  cheese  mean  as  much  to  the  public  as  Danish 
grades  of  dairy  products  do  to  the  buyers  of  but¬ 
ter  in  every  country  we  shall  have  solved  the  major 
problem  now  confronting  the  dairy  interest.  Truly 
lack  of  standardization  is  the  greatest  menace  af¬ 
fecting  dairying  in  this  country. 
production  in  Kansas  are  vastly  different  from  the 
production  problems  of  the  New  York  State  farmer. 
Both  operate  in  an  area  where  seasonal  conditions 
are  vastly  different,  and  where  the  problem  of  se¬ 
lecting  crops  that  mature  under  the  existing  condi¬ 
tions  is  the  determining  factor.  Any  plan  that 
might  bring  relief  to  the  dairy  farmers  of  New 
York  State  where  90  per  cent  of  the  milk  produced 
is  sold  as  market  milk  could  not  possibly  help  the 
Wisconsin,  Minnesota,  or  North  Dakota  dairyman, 
since  90  per  cent  of  the  milk  produced  on  their 
farms  is  manufactured  into  butter  or  cheese.  In 
fact,  if  we  undertake  to  make  a  careful  analysis 
and  study  of  any  particular  agricultural  problem 
we  find  that  every  community  has  a  peculiar  con¬ 
dition  to  cope  with. 
MARKETING  DETAILS.  —  The  marketing  of 
dairy  products  is  no  simple  project ;  storage,  trans¬ 
portation,  standardization  of  grades,  financing,  pro¬ 
cessing,  warehousing,  absorption  of  risks,  and  re¬ 
distribution  of  assembled  stocks  are  factors  of 
primary  consideration.  It  is  agreed  on  every  hand 
that  the  road  to  market  must  be  shortened ;  selling 
methods  must  be  simplified,  and  every  effort  exerted 
that  will  tend  to  eliminate  marked  fluctuation  and 
sudden  changes  in  prevailing  prices.  The  extension 
of  cold  storage  facilities  aided  by  the  refrigerator 
car  has  vastly  multiplied  the  markets  for  poultry, 
butter,  fruits,  vegetables,  and  meat  products.  In¬ 
stead  of  feasting  on  fresh  pork  and  beef  during  the 
