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Editorial Page of the American 
American 
Agriculturist 
Founded 1842 
Henry Morgenthau, Jr. 
E. R. Eastman . 
Fred W. Ohm 
Gabrielle Elliot 
Birge Kinne . . 
H. L. Vonderleith 
. . . Publisher 
. . . . Editor 
. Associate Editor 
. Household Editor 
Advertising Manager 
Circulation Manager 
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS 
Herbert E. Cook .... Plow Handle Talks 
Jared Van Wagenen, Jr. . Van Wagenen Corner 
Herschel H. Jones . . . Market Department 
K. J. T. Ekblaw . Farm Engineering Department 
Paul Work .Vegetable Department 
George T. Hughes .... Investment Adviser 
Dr. S. K. Johnson . . . . Veterinary Adviser 
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ing which it believes to be thoroughly honest. 
We positively guarantee to our readers fair and 
honest treatment in dealing with our advertisers. 
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chased by our subscribers from any advertiser who 
fails to make good when the article purchased is 
found not to be as advertised. 
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Published Weekly by 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, INC. 
Address all correspondence for editorial, advertising, or 
subscription departments to 
461 Fourth Ave., New York, N. Y. 
Entered as Second-Class Matter, December 15, 1922, at the 
Post Office at New York, N. Y., under the Act of March 3, 1879. 
Subscription price, payable in advance, $1 a year. 
Canadian and foreign, $2 a year. 
VOL. Ill 
January 13, 1923 
NO. 2 
The Ice Harvest 
T he picture on our cover reminds us that 
this is the ice harvesting season. It is 
practically impossible to produce fluid milk 
for market without ice. A large amount of 
bitterness, ill feeling and financial loss al¬ 
ways develops in the hot season because milk 
is not properly cooled. The time is now at 
hand to save all of this by putting up ice. 
While the ice harvest is something of a dis¬ 
agreeable job, it is not difficult or expensive 
even if there is no ice house. A temporai:y 
one can be cheaply and quickly thrown to¬ 
gether that will keep the ice in very fair 
shape. 
In addition to the need of ice to cool mar¬ 
ket milk, it can be^made to add greatly to the 
comfort of the family during warm weather. 
On a hot day, ice-cooled water, tea or lemon¬ 
ade hits just the right spot. Homemade ice 
cream has the commercial cream beaten for 
real quality, and the farmer with ice has all 
of the ingredients at hand to make a high 
quality cream at home very cheaply. 
A Producers’ Conference Board 
T here is no business which is more com¬ 
petitive than that of distributing milk 
and other dairy products to consumers. In 
spite of this fact, the milk distributors and 
other dealers are together in a fairly strong 
organization called the New York Milk Con¬ 
ference Board, and nearly always stand as 
a unit when it comes to dealing with milk 
producers. On the other hand, the dairymen 
whose every interest should urge them to 
get together, are selling their milk in the 
New York territory either as individuals or 
through no less than four milk marketing 
organizations with little or no cooperation 
among these different groups. This is a 
golden opportunity which the organized 
dealers make constant use of to play one farm 
group against the other, to create bitter feel¬ 
ing among producers and to buy their milk 
at too low prices. 
American Agriculturist and others have 
called attention to this deplorable situation 
several times, committees have been ap¬ 
pointed and conferences have been held to 
bring about some kind of a workable under¬ 
standing among the producers’ organiza¬ 
tions. It certainly stands to reason that if 
the dealers with their diverse interests can 
organize a conference board, the producers 
with their common interest should be able 
to do the same. But for some reason, little 
progress has been made. 
In all of these organizations it is the 
farmers’ interest that is ultimately at stake 
and we, therefore, strongly urge producers, 
no matter to what organization they belong, 
to bring to the attention of their leaders the 
need of some kind of unity among the dairy¬ 
men’s organizations. No leader of a farm 
cooperative has any right to urge individual 
farmers to cooperate unless he is willing to 
do his part to bring about cooperation be¬ 
tween his organization and others. 
One of the Snags of Cooperation 
AN unfortunate situation in the affairs of 
jtx. the Monmouth (New Jersey) County 
Farmers’ Cooperative Association, is valu¬ 
able in the lesson it teaches to other cooper¬ 
atives. The association, which is a potato 
sales organization, did a business of more 
than a million dollars in the first selling year, 
but propaganda was circulated by its enemies 
telling its members that the association 
never would pay them for the potatoes which 
had been assigned to it. To offset this prop¬ 
aganda the association borrowed from five 
banks so as to make prompt payment to 
farmers for potatoes at prevailing prices. 
These prices were not realized in the final 
sales, so that the association faced a deficit 
of $32,000. It now must go back to the mem¬ 
bers and ask them for a refund with which 
to meet this deficit. 
Overpayment of members is one of the 
chief causes of failure of cooperative or¬ 
ganizations. One of the things that members 
of the Dairymen’s League Cooperative As¬ 
sociation can take pride in, is the fact, that 
no matter how low the price of milk became 
nor how great the pressure, never resorted 
to the poor business practice of paying more 
for the milk than the current sales justified. 
Such practice may allay temporary criticism, 
but sooner or later it is certain toTead to 
permanent trouble and perhaps to ruin of 
the cooperative itself. 
The Country Church 
I N the present day careless attitude toward 
religion and the church it is hard for us 
to realize how vital religion and freedom of 
worship were to our ancestors who settled 
America. We know that the erection of the 
little church in every settlement was second 
only to the log home itself. We read of our 
fore fathers sitting in the cheerless places of 
worship for long, tedious hours listening to 
sermons, and reflecting upon their own sins, 
and we wonder at the lessening of religious 
enthusiasm time has wrought. 
The church was once a distinctly rural in- 
stitirtion; but now in the cities it is secondary 
to many other things and in thousands of 
farm communities it has gone entirely. Some 
of the spirit of our forefathers toward the 
church is well expressed in Mr. Van Wage- 
nen’s wonderful story of the “Country Min¬ 
ister,” featured in this issue. Incidentally, 
this is one of the best pieces of writing on 
country problems and country life we have 
seen in many a day, and it brings to mind the 
old fervor toward the church and the im- 
American Agriculturist, January 13, 19 
Agriculturist 
portant part the “domine” played in the past 
in every farm community. 
Why has this old spirit toward the church 
gone? Why are there few or none of the 
spiritual leaders such as Mr. Van Wagenen 
so well describes? Why do we sons hold of 
so little account, that which our fathers held 
so dear? Are we less spiritual than they? 
Or, was the church a man made thing built 
upon sand unable to change itself to meet 
change? Are present day sermons too long, 
dull and uninteresting, or are- our minds too 
filled with shallow sensations to respond to 
thoughtful suggestion and reflection? Has 
the church stood too strongly on the tech¬ 
nique of its creed and not enough upon 
service? Is the church too narrow in its at¬ 
tempted guidance of human thought and 
action? Perhaps the trouble is inadequate 
financial support: In short, what is the mat¬ 
ter with the church, particularly the country 
church, and what is needed to bring back to 
the people real religious help and guidance? 
For the best letter on this subject Ameri¬ 
can Agriculturist will give a prize of $10; 
for the second best letter we will pay $5; for 
the third $3, and we will give $1 for each of 
the other letters which we can use. This 
letter should contain not more than 200 
words, should be plainly written and should 
contain no sectarian discussion. Each letter 
should be signed, but no name will be signed 
in any of the letters printed. This contest 
closes February 15. Winning letters will be 
published in one of the issues soon after 
February 15. _ 
The Maternal Instinct in Man 
D octor flora rose of Comell says 
that naturally there is just as much 
maternal instinct in men as in women. The 
love of children, according to Miss Rose, does 
not have as much opportunity to develop in 
men. The necessities of modern life take 
men out of the home most of the time and 
the responsibilities of caring for the children 
bring the mother in constant contact with 
them, therefore fostering in her the so- 
called “maternal instinct.” 
It is unfortunately true that children of 
these times do not see very much of Father, 
nor do they get enough masculine association 
of any kind. The teaching profession is so 
poorly paid that it contains few men. This 
does not matter while the children are young, 
but it does with boys of high-school grade. 
This, of course, is no reflection upon the 
splendid influence of women teachers and 
women in the home. It is only to say that 
both boys and girls, to be well balanced, need 
the influence of and association with both 
men and women. 
One of the fine things about farm life, how¬ 
ever, and one of the reasons why people from 
the farms are so uniformly successful is the 
well-balanced farm home. On the farm the 
home is the center of the business and as 
soon as the children, particularly the boys, 
are able to get outdoors, they come in as 
much or more contact with Father as they 
do with Mother. 
If business men could get a little more of 
the influence of little children in their lives, 
perhaps there would be a little less selfish¬ 
ness and hardness in the world. 
Quotations Worth While 
Memory is the only paradise from which 
we cannot be driven.— Jean Paul. 
^ ^ 
A soul void of thought, like an uninhabited 
house, soon goes to ruin.— Young. 
* * 
I think the first virtue is to restrain the 
tongue. He approaches nearest to the Gods, 
who knows how to be silent even though he 
is in the right. —Cato. 
