71 
American Agriculturist, August 2, 1924 
Up-Staters Visit Markets 
County Agents and Farmers Study Distribution 
F ROM beginning to By FRED 
end the marketing 
trip of the New York State county 
agents and their guests, held July 21, 22 
and 23, was just brimful of interest. I 
accompanied the party on two days, and 
due to the necessity of getting the 
American Agriculturist out, I had to 
forego the last day’s trip. Mr. Eastman 
was on hand on that day as per his 
editorial. Many times I could not help 
thinking what a wonderful opportunity it 
would be for our readers to take a similar 
trip through the great Metropolis and see 
what this party had an opportunity to 
study. It would take a whole lot more 
space than has been allotted me for this 
story to tell everything we saw. I must 
confine my story to a few high spots and 
leave the rest to the imagination of my 
good readers. A lot of credit is due the 
New York Central Railroad and its 
agricultural agent, R. W. Quackenbush, 
in particular, for putting on this excellent 
trip. 
On Monday the first stop was made at 
the Hotel Commodore, where all hands 
visited the magnificent kitchens, pantries, 
and storage rooms to give the boys the 
chance to see first hand the vast quan¬ 
tities of food that such a gigantic hos¬ 
telry uses in a day. From that visit they 
got a good idea of what the hotel trade 
demands in New York, considering the 
dozens and dozens of hotels that take 
care of the city’s guests. 
On Board the “Paris” 
The steamship trade was the next 
phase of the marketing business and to 
get an idea of this we all went down to 
the great transatlantic piers along West 
Street and, through the courtesy of the 
French Line, had the opportunity to 
inspect the gigantic “Paris,” one of the 
I largest steamers in the transatlantic 
service. During the visit the ship was 
being unloaded and loaded. While we 
were aboard a consignment of Swiss 
cheese was being taken off the boat. 
From the “Paris” we went over to 1 the 
store of the Nathan Schweitzer Company 
on 14th Street and got an excellent 
insight into the dressed poultry market. 
We were addressed by several members of 
the firm, on what New York City wants 
in the poultry line. It is their opinion 
that the average nearby farmer with a 
small flock can best market his poultry 
alive, shipping it in crates via express to 
the large receivers of such consignments. 
Mr. Will Schweitzer said, “ The dressed 
'poultry game is a business in itself which 
calls for expert skill. The average man 
cannot hope to compete with these feeders 
who supply the majority of the dressed 
poultry trade. The small man can best 
dispose of his surplus by shipping via 
express to the live poidtry receivers in the 
Metropolitan market .” 
On Monday night the party visited the 
New York Central milk platform at 
130th Street, the Borden’s Plant at 127th 
Street, and the Dairymen’s League 
Plant at 19th Street and Avenue B. A 
few of the problems of city distribution 
were studied at these places. 
W. OHM On Tuesday we started | 
off by going on to the 
Jersey City Terminal of the Lehigh 
Valley Railroad to see nearby eggs 
coming in. We saw a whole lot besides 
eggs. There were stacks upon stacks of 
crates of live poultry, grapes, country 
dressed calves, butter and other farm 
produce being unloaded from the cars. 
A representative of the Lehigh Railroad 
opened a number of cases of eggs and 
showed us why egg shippers get lower 
prices for their eggs and why the railroad 
lias so many claims to take care of. 
Faults of Egg Shippers 
As I said before, I could write a couple 
of columns on this subject alone, but to 
summarize it here are some of the out¬ 
standing high spots. Long eggs cause 
the greatest amount of damage. About 
a dozen cases were opened and the 
percentage of “cracks” was very heavy 
in some and in every instance they were 
the long eggs that stood above the others 
in the fillers. Another cause of broken 
eggs was second-hand fillers, resulting in 
damage to eggs on the outside as well as 
those on lower levels due to the contents 
of cracked eggs running through the 
crate, smearing eggs below. In addition 
to reducing the value of these eggs through 
smearing, a lot of damage was done to the 
fillers. Thin shelled eggs also were 
responsible for a lot of damage. 
Another very important point brought 
out by the railroad people was the trouble 
experienced with old tags. When some 
farmers ship they do not remove the old 
tags or deface them sufficiently with the 
result that lots of times a case wall go to 
the wrong consignee and that starts a lot 
of fun, with everybody getting mad at 
the end. Incidently the eggs are held on 
the platform extra long and there is a lot 
of spoilage by overheating which means 
lower prices. 
Live Poultry Arrivals 
It was interesting to see the methods 
employed by various shippers of live 
poultry, the majority of arrivals being 
broilers. We saw arrivals from Dryden, 
Ithaca, Moravia, Romulus, Ovid and 
dozens of other up-State towns. Some 
shippers used the greatest makeshift 
crates imaginable and a number of 
members of the party could not help 
remarking that it’s no wonder that some 
farmers get little or nothing for their 
shipments when you see how they send 
their stuff in to market. Crates made out 
of old boxes contained dead birds. The 
best crates contained the most likely 
looking shipments of broilers. The men 
who ship these took just as much care 
building the coops for expressing the 
birds as they did in raising them and it 
was the consensus of opinion of the party 
that these shippers of good stuff were 
getting a price that made care, all around, 
worth while. Several of the boys re¬ 
marked that if they were buying live 
poultry they certainly wouldn’t be 
attracted by a crate that contained a 
couple of dead birds. 
(Continued on page 78) 
The Milk Platform, one of the places of interest on the trip. 
Kodak at the Fair 
Fair time means vacation time to you and your 
family, and that means Kodak pictures as a matter 
of course. Everybody takes a Kodak on vacation. 
You’ll make pictures of the picnic along the 
roadside, of prize stock at the fair grounds, of your 
own entries in county or state competitions. 
Autographic Kodaks $6.go up. “Kodak on the Farm 
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E. C. WEATHERBY 
Circulation Manager 
Ithaca New York 
