American Agriculturist, July 14,1923 
V ii 
The Farmer’s Greatest Problem 
He Knows How to Raise Food But His Difficulty Is to Sell It—A Radio Message 
fa 
HE first need of man is food. The 
production of foodstuffs on the farm 
intimately concerns the life of every 
man and woman in the city who con- 
umes food, but does not produce it. A gen¬ 
eral strike in the steel industry, or the cloth¬ 
ing industry, or the coal industry, may result 
in severe discomfort for certain classes of 
the populatioin. But failure of all the crops 
in one year—as a result of a general strike 
on the part of all the farmers, for instance— 
would result in starvation for a large por¬ 
tion of the population. Until science learns 
how to convert earth into apples and the 
grasses of the field into meat, man will be 
dependent on agriculture, and animal hus¬ 
bandry for his food. 
i My own work at the side of my father in 
behalf of a purer milk supply for the city 
babies has impressed me with the dependency 
of the city-dweller on farming, and dairy¬ 
ing. For that reason I made a 
request unusual for a city man, — ■ 11 
when I was elected to the State 
Senate three years ago. It was 
that I be appointed a member of 
-the Committee on Agriculture. 
And when reelected last year, I 
Asked for and received the ap¬ 
pointment as chairman of that 
committee. Three, years of study 
of agricultural problems, follow¬ 
ing on eighteen years of practical 
work with the milk question, has 
convinced me that the terrors of 
crop failure which threatened the 
farmer twenty-five years ago 
have largely been overcome. Agri¬ 
cultural research has made it pos¬ 
sible for almost any farmer with 
average mental and physical 
equipment to grow a crop, which 
should give him a fair annual re- 
turn for his labor and his capital 
invested. But larger crops on the farm have 
not resulted in increased prosperity for the 
farmer. The average farmer’s reward for 
his long hours of work and his risk was in 
1919, a banner year, $1,456. It was only 
$465 in 1920. It was $1,211 in 1922. Why 
does the farmer still struggle along earning 
a bare livelihood with crops that should net 
him a greatly increased income? Because 
improvements in marketing methods have 
not kept pace with improved farming meth¬ 
ods. Scientific agriculture has solved the 
problem of an adequate production of food¬ 
stuffs. It is time more consideration were 
given to the farmer’s greatest problem to-day 
—the problem of marketing. I regard a 
solution of the difficulties of distribution of 
foodstuffs from farm to city as the greatest 
service that could be done to civilized man 
to-day next to a solution of international 
problems that would bring about world 
peace. 
The farmer in New York receives $3 a 
barrel for his apples; the housewife pays 3c 
and 5c apiece, which is equivalent to $15 to 
By NATHAN STRAUS, JR. 
Chairman of the Agricultural Committee, New 
York State Senate 
at Cornell University, the Dairymen’s 
League, etc. It was also endorsed by many 
representative consumer organizations in the 
city. The resolution unanimously passed the 
State Senate, but it failed of passage in the 
Assembly. 
Every farmer should know the simple 
facts on which our committee would have 
based its study. Every farmer, every city- 
dweller, should ponder these facts in an 
effort to contribute toward a solution. 
1. New York State is first among the 
States of the Union in its production of 
apples, second in its production of milk and 
milk products, fourth in its production of 
potatoes. 
2. Apples sell in the markets of New York 
Market Information Fundamental 
Y OU will like this sensible talk by Mr. Straus. The talk was 
broadcast from station WEAF on Wednesday evening, July 
11, at 6:50 P. M., eastern standard time. At this time every 
Wednesday evening tune on WEAF, wave length 492 meters, to 
hear the best farm speakers that can be obtained in the United 
States, on the American Agriculturist farm radio program. 
Every one is now agreed that the big need of agriculture is to 
sell farm products for better prices. As Mr. Straus so well sug¬ 
gests, this will have to be done mainly through the energy of farm¬ 
ers themselves. 
The first step in doing this is to get correct information about 
the markets. Because this information is fundamental, American 
Agriculturist is making a constant and special effort through ar¬ 
ticles, through our weekly market page, and through our radio 
market service to give our folks this information in the latest and 
most accurate form.—The Editors. 
farmers’ marketing problems by encourag¬ 
ing cooperative marketing and by the ex¬ 
tension of State assistance, New York, one 
of the greatest agricultural States in the 
Union, is doing practically nothing to reduce 
the spread between prices on the farm and 
food prices in the city. 
The same energy that solved the problems 
of the production of foodstuffs will solye the 
problems of marketing. The city-dweller 
with his need of cheap foodstuffs in the 
city has as much interest in the solution of 
these problems as has the man on the farm. 
State aid must be extended for a study of 
marketing conditions, for legislation to pro¬ 
mote cooperative marketing, and indeed f 01 - 
public markets in the cities with adequate 
warehousing and cold-storage facilities. 
Lasting gratitude is due men like Dean Mann 
of Cornell, Judge John D. Miller of the Dairy¬ 
men’s League, H. E. Babcock of the New 
York State Cooperative Council, 
- " " Aaron Sapiro, organizer of suc¬ 
cessful farmers’ cooperatives, and 
Senator Royal S. Copeland, for 
for their work toward solving 
the marketing question. But 
back of the efforts of such men, 
back of State aid, the mainspring 
and the driving force of the move¬ 
ment to bring the producer on the 
farm and the housewife in the 
city in closer touch must be the 
energy of the farmers themselves. 
The solution of their marketing 
problems can come only from 
their united effort, backed up by 
their will to do it. 
City at 5c apiece and more every fall, while 
tons of apples are rotting on the ground 
within a twelve-hour rail journey of the 
city because it does not pay the grower to 
pick, pack and ship them to the city. Last 
year, as a result of competitive dumping by 
farmers, the price for potatoes was brought 
down so low that it is estimated that 70,000,- 
000 bushels were never dug. 
3. The people of New York State have 
spent over $150,000,000.00 on a barge canal. 
This canal runs from the apple-producing 
and milk-producing centers in the west of 
the State to New York City. It is the con¬ 
necting link between the Middle West, the 
greatest zone of agricultural production in 
the world, and the Atlantic seaboard, the 
greatest zone of consumption and export in 
the world. 
4. New York State, after building the canal, 
is making no substantial effort to utilize it 
for the transportation of foodstuffs. There 
are to-day less than 300 modern serviceable 
boats on this canal. Although the 1923 Leg¬ 
islature has been generous in appropriations 
$25 a barrel. The dairy farmer receives 4c to assist agriculture, the State to-day spends 
to 5c a quart for milk; the housewife pays 
14c to 18c a quart. This spread between 
producer and consumer must be reduced if 
improved farming conditions are to be re¬ 
flected in increased prosperity for the 
farmer. 
In an effort to contribute toward solving 
this problem I introduced at the last session of 
the Legislature a resolution for a committee 
to study means of carrying the milk, eggs, 
apples and other farm produce of this State 
to the city markets by a more direct and 
economical marketing method. The com¬ 
mittee was endorsed by the New York State 
Grange, the New York State Farm Bureau 
Federation, the State College of Agriculture 
less than 4 per cent of its annual appropria¬ 
tions for the benefit of agriculture, while 
other successful farming States such as 
Iowa, Montana, Kansas, Oregon and Minne¬ 
sota, spend from 8 Y 2 per cent to 18 per cent 
to help agriculture. 
5. Nowhere else in the United States does 
invested money produce so little or labor 
bring so small a reward as on the farm. 
Half the farmers of the country made less 
than $1,000.00 in 1922. 
6. The actual loss in farm population 
caused by migration from the farms to the 
cities is at the rate of over half a million 
persons per year. 
7. While some other States are solving the 
“Tune In ” 
You do not have to have a 
radio to get the benefit of the 
great marketing service which is being fur¬ 
nished daily by American Agriculturist, the 
New York State Department of Farms and 
Markets and the WEAF broadcasting sta¬ 
tion. In nearly every community there is 
now at least one radio receiving set. If you 
want the money these reports will save you, 
you will find some way to cooperate with 
your neighbor who has a radio to receive 
these reports. 
A little community marketing club might 
be formed, or some local farm organization 
already formed might be used to subscribe a 
small sum to pay the lady of the house who 
has the radio to telephone the market reports 
to each member of the club as soon as they 
are received every morning. Or perhaps 
arrangements can be made to have them 
posted in some conspicuous place like the 
local grocery store or the weekly newspaper 
office, or at the station where the milk is de¬ 
livered. Best of all, an inexpensive radio set 
might be built at home to get the reports 
direct. 
These reports are last minute prices and 
information selected from New York City, 
the greatest market in the world, by the ex¬ 
perts in the New York State Department of 
Farms and Markets. They are broadcast at 
10:50-A. M., eastern standard time, from 
WEAF, wave length 492 meters, every Tues¬ 
day, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. 
Blanks for taking down these reports as 
they come over the radio will be furnished 
free of charge upon application to Amer¬ 
ican Agriculturist, 461 4th Avenue, New 
York City. “Tune in.” 
The American Agriculturist is the best 
magaziine for general information that I 
ever read.—Arthur A. Glunt, Lilly, Pa. 
