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Editorial Page of the American 
American 
Agriculturist 
Founded 1842 
Henry Morgenthatj, Jr .. Publisher 
E. R. Eastman . Editor 
Fred W. Ohm . Associate Editor 
Mrs. G. E. Forbush .Household Editor 
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VOL. 114 September 13, 1924 No. 11 
The Dairy Markets 
T HOSE who have been following our market 
reports on the Market Page have noted the 
surprisingly large increase in butter in cold storage. 
The New York Produce Review states that there 
were about 150,000,000 pounds of butter in stock 
on August 16, as compared with 102,000,000 on 
August 16 of last year. The amount in storage last 
year was about equal to the five-year average of 
storage holdings. The trade reports that butter 
still is going into the warehouses rapidly. The 
chief dairy sections noted particularly for butter, 
such as Minnesota, Iowa and Wisconsin, have 
had good rains, pastures in fine shape, and the 
butter make is large. 
Cheese holdings also are dangerously large. On 
August 16 holdings were 70,717,000 as compared 
with 60,000,000 pounds on the same date last 
year. Last year's holdings were above the five- 
year average. With cheese, there is a virgin 
opportunity for increasing consumption. In 
Europe the per capita consumption is many times 
greater in nearly all of the countries than it is in 
the United States. Cheese is one of the best 
foods in the world. Farmers themselves could 
materially affect the cheese market by eating' 
more of it. 
The canned milk market is also somewhat un¬ 
healthy at the present time. Storage stocks are 
considerably above normal. Consumption, due 
perhaps to the decline of the good times in the 
cities, is decreasing, and dealers are cutting prices 
to meet competition. These are the reasons 
announced by the League for reducing the price 
of Class 3 milk from $1.55 to $1.45 per hundred. 
As noted on our Market Page, most of the milk 
prices remain the same for September as they 
were in August. The Sheffield Producers has 
raised the August price from $2.10 to $2.60, and 
the Non-pool from $2.00 to $2.40. 
It will therefore be seen from the above analysis 
that the market for milk products is not partic¬ 
ularly sound at the present time. Over-produc¬ 
tion is the chief reason for it. As pointed out in 
an article in American Agriculturist a short 
time ago, there has been a considerable increase 
in the number of cows in the United States and in 
countries which are able to ship manufactured 
products here. 
This situation in the produce market, however, 
is somewhat relieved for farmers of the New York 
territory by the temporary scarcity of market 
milk. This scarcity led to a healthy increase in 
market milk price for the latter part of August. 
This improved situation is due to several different 
factors. Warm weather in New York City has 
increased consumption somewhat, temporarily at 
least, and the low prices that have prevailed for 
market milk during the last few months, taken 
with the increased prices for grain, have lessened 
the production to some small extent. 
Let us hope that every dairyman will do his 
part in keeping the supply dowm. 
“Pop” Geers Drives His Last Race 
E DWARD F. (Pop) GEERS, veteran light 
harness driver, and one of the most pictur¬ 
esque figures in the history of American trotting, 
w r as thrown from his sulky at the West Virginia 
State Fair at Wheeling on September 3, and 
killed. Geers, known as the “grand old man of 
trotting,” was driving the famous Miladi Guy 
in the second heat of the 2 : 14 trot when the 
horse stumbled, the sulky overturned and Mr. 
Geers w r as thrown heavily to the ground, landing 
several feet in front of his prostrate horse. 
A crowd of 30,000 witnessed the tragedy, having 
gathered to see the famous driver in an exhibition 
race in which he was to attempt to lower the 
world’s mile record for a half-mile track, behind his 
champion trotter, Peter Manning. The exhibi¬ 
tion was never run, for Mr. Geers elected to 
handle Miladi Guy in the trot called just previous 
to the exhibition race. In the fall he suffered a 
fracture at the base of the skull, a broken collar¬ 
bone and shoulder bone. He died in the Ohio 
\ alley General Hospital. It was only by a 
miracle that he was not trampled on by Lulu 
Wood, another entry. She shied to one side just 
in time to avoid trampling the old man. 
Mr. Geers was seventy-three years old. He 
was born hi Lebanon, Wilson County, Tenn., and 
started his career when he w r as hardly out of his 
teens. It is doubtful if any man has driven more 
famous horses than Mr. Geers in his time. He 
developed Brown Hal, Mattie Hunter, Napoleon 
Direct, Sonardo, Miladi Guy, and many others. 
In his sixty-fifth year Mr. Geers won the honor 
of driving a mile in two minutes or better. It 
was in a free-for-all race in Columbus, Ohio, w T hen 
he drove Napoleon Direct in L: 59%. Six years 
later he brought out Sanardo with the same record. 
£ Thousands of.farmers in the East have seen 
“Pop” Geers drive and have cheered him on to 
victory. His name will go down in sport history 
as that of the greatest of Grand Circuit drivers, 
the peer of horsemen, and the very synonym of 
all that is clean and honest in racing. 
Of Doubtful Value 
I N a recent speech. President Coolidge stated 
that he proposes to form a committee to 
make a thorough study of the agricultural situa¬ 
tion, and from this study to recommend agricul¬ 
tural measures that will help farming. 
There has been a good deal of foolish doctrines 
and many foolish schemes proposed to aid agricul¬ 
ture during the past years of hard times. Most 
farmers have come to believe that it is mighty 
little the Government can do to aid agriculture 
beyond the educational information furnished by 
the Department of Agriculture. Of the three big 
issues in Congress to help farmers during the past 
year, not one of them was sound economically. 
These include the McNary-Haugen Bill to arti¬ 
ficially raise the price of wheat, the bill to sell the 
Government nitrate plant at Muscle Shoals to 
Henry Ford, and the proposition to improve the 
St. Lawrence waterway so that Western products 
could be shipped direct to the sea, instead of 
through the New York barge canal. None of 
these propositions passed; none ought to. Like 
most of the so-called relief measures, they would 
have done more harm than good. 
However, we cannot know too much about our 
business or study it too well. Therefore, President 
Coolidge’s proposition for a commission to find 
the real facts regarding the farm situation and 
suggest a remedy may do some good, providing 
the men on it are not politicians but are real 
American Agriculturist, September 13, 1924 
Agriculturist 
farmers with farm sympathy and understanding, 
who know instantly what is practical and what is 
not in the suggestions for agricultural aid. With 
the best of committees most farmers will still 
have little faith in it, believing that the only ones 
who can help farmers are farmers themselves. 
Interest Rates Affect Business 
T HE economists who spend their time making 
a study, of the causes and effects of the ups 
and downs in business use as one of their chief 
measurements or barometers the rising or falling 
interest rates. As a usual thing, low interest rates 
mean plenty of money, which results in reasonably 
easy credit, and this is always a very decided 
factor in maintaining prosperous times. 
For several months there have been indications 
of declining prosperity in the cities, but in spite 
of this, interest rates are now the lowest in a great 
many years; therefore, many believe that the 
present decline is only temporary and that after 
the election business will rapidly improve again. 
The Intermediate Credit Banks have lowered 
interest rates on loans to cooperatives and others 
to finance marketing operations from five and a 
half per cent, to four and a half per cent. The 
lower rates for money are helping to keep Wall 
Street stocks up, and some believe that for the 
same reason these lower rates will be a consider¬ 
able factor in helping to maintain good prices for 
farm products. 
That Hot School Lunch 
N OBODY argues any more about its desira¬ 
bility—but a good many communities still 
do not see their way clear to starting the practice 
of serving a daily hot dish in the local schoolhouse. 
It means trouble for somebody. We can’t deny 
that. Food just will not cook itself and clear 
itself up. But mothers who have helped put in 
the system of serving a hot dish at lunch hour in 
the schoolhouse would never go back to the easier 
way of doing without it. 
A good plan is to make each child responsible 
for a given dish on a given day, and when there 
are, say, 15 children, each one takes a turn only 
once in three weeks. Cream of pea, vegetable or 
tomato soup, macaroni, creamed potatoes, baked 
beans and cocoa are among the dishes recom¬ 
mended for the hot lunch; and none of them is 
hard to prepare on a small two-burner oil stove. 
If you .can t begin by having a hot dish every 
day, try it once a week, then twice a week, until 
the teacher and the children establish a routine. 
It will pay in rosier cheeks, stronger bodies and 
brighter minds. 
And don’t forget to use plenty of milk, either 
raw or in appetizing soups, gravies and creamed 
dishes! 
Eastman’s Chestnuts 
H OW many good churches have been ruined 
by preachers who took an hour to say what 
better could have been said in fifteen minutes, 
and how many good magazines and papers have 
been consigned to the wastepaper basket for the 
same reason! Brevity is not only the soul of wit; 
it is, especially in these busy days, the backbone 
of all good writing and speaking. I am impressed 
constantly in my work as an editor with the large 
number of speakers and writers who would do 
very well to study Pat’s style in the following 
story. 
It seems that Pat was section boss and had 
greatly annoyed his superintendent by long- 
winded reports of unimportant events in his work. 
Finally the superintendent told Pat that if he did 
not cut down his reports he would be obliged to 
fire him. Shortly after this there came a great 
flood and washed out two or three miles of railroad 
in Pat s section. He looked it over and then sat 
down to write his report to the superintendent. 
After some reflection this is what he said: “DEAR 
SUPT.; WHERE THE RAILROAD WAS, 
THE RIVER IS. YOURS, PAT.” 
