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Editorial Page of the American 
American 
Agriculturist 
Founded 1842 
Henry Morgenthau, Jr .Publisher 
E. R. Eastman . Editor 
Fred W. Ohm . Associate Editor 
Mrs. G. E. Forbush .Household Editor 
Birge Kinne .Advertising Manager 
E. C. Weatherby .Circulation Manager 
contributing staff 
Jared Van Wagenen, Jr. G. T. Hughes H. E. Cook 
Published Weekly by 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, INC. 
Address all correspondence for editorial, advertising, or subscription de¬ 
partments 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, $2 for three 
years, $3 for five years. Canadian and foreign, $2 a year. 
VOL. 114 August 23, 1924 No. 8 
Good News for Dairymen 
T HE Dairymen’s League has just announced 
a raise in class-one milk to $2.60 per hundred 
pounds, effective August 18. This is an advance 
of 54 cents per hundred pounds, or a little more 
than one cent a quart over the present price. At 
the same time, the price of class-two milk, which 
is sold mostly in the form of sweet cream, was 
raised to $1.90 per hundred pounds. This is an 
advance of ten cents over the present price. The 
League states that the increase has been made 
necessary because of the unseasonal shortage in 
production owing to the recent protracted period 
of hot weather. 
Other sales associations in the New York 
territory will undoubtedly raise their prices to 
producers. This general upward movement 
of milk prices will bring more money and 
hope to farmers than they have hadj before 
in a long time. 
The August Outlook 
T HE purchasing power of the farm dollar 
moved up to seventy-nine, as compared with 
a hundred for the year 1913, according to the 
United States Department of Agriculture report' 
for June. This is ten per cent, higher than any 1 
other June in four years. Prices of farm products,' 
have been advancing some since this report, so 
that the purchasing power at the present time of 
the farmer’s dollar is well over eighty and still 
slowly advancing. Certainly, the agricultural 
situation begins to look better. 
There are two chief reasons for the improved 
outlook. The recent decline of business in cities 
has made many of the things that the farmer has 
to buy some cheaper, and at the same time in¬ 
creased the amount and lowered the cost of farm 
labor available. These good results, however, are 
somewhat offset, because when -wages decline in 
the cities, the consumers have less money with 
which to buy farm products. The chief reason 
for better times is the increased prices for farm 
products. Grains of all kinds have made material 
advances, and farmers with wheat, oats, corn, 
barley, or buckwheat for sale this fall will without 
a doubt receive good prices for them. 
Perhaps a word of caution is not out of place. 
The chief reason for better grain prices has been 
a smaller world production. We certainly hope 
that farmers will not increase their acreage and 
bring the prices down again. No one can proph¬ 
esy future conditions of course, but there is 
talk among wheat growers of attempting to hold 
their wheat for $2.00. It is our opinion that 
holding wheat for too high a price is dangerous, 
and if we had grain for sale at fair prices this fall, 
we would sell it and let the other fellow do the 
gambling. This is simply an opinion, however. 
Farmers must exercise their own judgment. 
Of course, better grain prices mean increased 
cost of production for eastern dairy farmers, but 
milk prices have begun to advance and conditions 
in the market, with the exception of butter, 
indicate that they should go higher. The receipts 
of butter during June on the four principal 
markets exceeded the previous June by over a 
million and one-half pounds. A survey completed 
by rural mail carriers, under the direction of the 
United States Department of Agriculture, shows 
that there are six per cent, more dairy cows, two 
years old and over, on farms in the United States 
this year than there were last year. Most of it 
was in the West. This increase is dangerous and 
should be watched by dairymen. On the other 
hand, there is at present a scarcity of market milk 
in New York and many other cities. 
A large crop of hay was harvested this year and 
most of it is pretty good quality. In a recent 
trip across New York State we were impressed 
with the number of barns which were filled to 
the peak with hay. Even the barn floors were 
piled full. Corn will be a poor crop this year. 
The acreage, both of silage and corn for husldng, 
is smaller because of the late spring, and the stand 
is poor and late. However, recent hot weather 
and rains have done much to improve silage corn. 
The July estimate places potatoes at 373,000,- 
000 bushels as compared with a production of 
412,000,000 last year and with 391,000,000 as the 
average production from 1918 to 1922. Drought 
on Long Island has caused a great loss there. 
The August estimate shows a decided falling 
off in the July estimate for apples. The August 
report estimates a commercial apple crop of 
fifteen per cent, smaller than 1923. Weather 
conditions in the North Central States have been 
unfavorable during July. Too much rain has 
increased apple scab and other diseases and made 
it difficult for orchardists to exercise control 
methods. Production in the New England States, 
New York, New Jersey and Virginia promises to 
be much greater than last year, whereas Ohio, 
Michigan, Illinois and Missouri report smaller 
crops. The Washington crop will be only about 
sixty-five per cent, of what it was last year. The 
Oregon crop will be about eighty per cent. The 
California crop will be about the same. Judging 
from present conditions, the New York crop will 
be considerably greater than last year, but some¬ 
what less than in 1922. Peaches promise a big 
crop. The July estimate was 54,000,000 bushels 
as compared with 46,000,000 last year and 
44,000,000 for the five-year average. The July 
estimate for tobacco is 1,294,000,000 pounds as 
compared with 1,491,000,000 pounds last year and 
1,361,000,000 pounds for the five-year average. 
The egg and poultry situation holds steady and 
good for the poultryman who ships a high quality •, 
product. Many eggs on the market show the 
effect of hot weather, and the lack of attention on 
the producer’s part to keep the eggs fresh. 
Field beans promise slightly better than a year 
ago, though the late planting brings greater 
danger than usual from frost injury before 
maturity. The condition and acreage, at the 
present time, indicate a probable total crop for the 
United States of 13,688,000 bushels as compared 
with 15,740,000 last year. 
The outlook for cabbage in New York State, at 
the present time, depends largely upon the 
weather conditions between now and November. 
The acreage is slightly below that of last year. 
Through the Western New York cabbage section 
growing conditions have been good so far, but so 
much cabbage was set late that a late fall will be 
necessary to mature it. 
As a whole, the season has been, and still is, 
very unusual, resulting in a lesser production with 
many crops. This and other causes bid fair now 
to give the farmer more dollars with more pur¬ 
chasing power than he has had in several years. 
The “Golfers” at the State Fair 
N almost every county all over the State of 
New York men are pitching horseshoes in 
local contests and getting ready to send teams 
from different counties up to the State Fair 
where the contest will be held under the auspices of 
the FarmB ureau and the Amer ican Agriculturist 
to determine the State Amateur Champion. 
Plans are being completed for laying out on 
American Agriculturist, August 23, 1924 
Agriculturist \ 
the Fair Grounds the large number of courts 
which will be necessary for the elimination 
contests to determine the championship teams. 
The grand final contest will be held in the large 
new coliseum and the interest that is already 
evident indicates that this barnyard golf scrap 
for the American Agriculturist prizes will be 
one of the leading events of the State Fair, and 
will be witnessed by tens of thousands of people. 
Competing teams of the different counties will 
register at the American Agriculturist tent 
on the grounds, and there receive instructions and 
rules which will govern the contest. 
Poor Threshers Cost Farmers Money 
Cleve Prather, living near Buena Vista, Oregon, 
claims that many farmers, in threshing their clover^ 
lose from 25 to 50 per cent, of the seed, because of poor 
machinery, or because the clover is too green, or too 
ripe, or too damp, when threshed. A neighbor disagreed 
with him, and offered to sell him, for $25, two stacks of 
threshed clover straw. Prather accepted the offer, 
rethreshed the straw, and sold the seed procured from 
the two stacks for $1,356.20.—L. L. H. 
T HE above letter serves to illustrate and em¬ 
phasize the need for every farmer to make sure, 
at threshing time, that the outfit he employs gets 
all of the grain. There are a lot of inefficient 
thresher outfits in operation, and the total loss 
to farmers caused by them is appalling. 
After a farmer pays particular attention to 
getting good seed, properly preparing and fer¬ 
tilizing his ground, and devoting a whole season 
to raising a good crop, it is too bad to have to lose 
a considerable proportion of it because it is not 
properly threshed. Often it is not the machine 
that is to blame but the operator. The sieves 
may not be properly adjusted, or the grain may 
be fed into the cylinder too rapidly. We know of 
no way to prevent losses except vigilance on the 
part of the farmer by noting the threshed straw 
very carefully and by insisting that an efficient 
job be done. 
Eastman’s Chestnuts 
T HE slowness of trains has always been a 
prolific source for jokes. Traveling men 
especially have rung almost every variation of 
humor possible on this subject. Somewhere 
recently I heard a pretty good one about a 
drummer w r ho stopped a conductor on his way 
through a slow train and said to him with a 
perfectly straight face. 
“Conductor, is this train properly equipped 
with safety appliances?” 
“Why, yes,” said the conductor, “certainly.” 
“Are its brakes all in working order?” 
“Of course, why do you ask?” 
“Is there a cow-catcher on the engine?” 
“Yes,” said the conductor, rather irritably. 
“Why?” 
“And is there a cow-catcher on the rear car?” 
persisted the drummer. 
“Of course not,” snapped the conductor in¬ 
dignantly. “Cow-catcher on the rear car, who 
ever heard of such a thing! ” 
The drummer arose hastily from his seat and 
began picking up his things. “Stop this train 
immediately,” he ordered. “I am going to get 
off. No cow-catcher on behind. The idea! Why 
at any moment, sir, a cow might overtake ns, 
climb on the rear car and bite your passengers 
severely! ” 
* * * 
Over at Freeville, New York, there is a little 
junction where passenger trains from both north 
and south on two branches of the Lehigh Valley 
Railroad come in both night and morning and 
wait for one another. No train can leave until 
the others are in. This sometimes means very 
long, tiresome waits. Any of you who have 
travelled through Freeville, or who have waited 
for hours at some other little one-horse junction 
will sympathize with the traveling salesman who 
said that he had been on the road for forty years 
and spent thirty-nine years and six months of it 
waiting for trains at Freeville Junction! 
