T f 
SSlrfesfi SjrricTilturist. September 29.1923 
Editorial Page of the American Agriculturist 
American 
Agriculturist 
Founded 1842 
Henry Morgenthau, Jr .Publisher 
E. R. Eastman .Editor 
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VOL. 112 September 29. 1923 No. 13 
A Fairly Good Fall 
ROFESSOR G. F. WARREN of the Farm 
Management Department of the New 
York State College of Agriculture in a re¬ 
cent report said: 
The price, outlook for many New York farm 
-products this winter is better than at any time since 
1919, Milk, butter, chickens, wool, lamb, beans, 
cabbage and potatoes are already bringing good 
prices. Probably buckwheat will rise because of 
the short crop. Hay is cheap, but is likely to rise 
to some extent. Hogs are very cheap and the supply 
is so large that no material advance in price is to 
be expected this winter. Beef and veal are low in 
price, as are all the grains. 
In discussing the milk situation, Professor 
Warren says: 
The earnings of factory workers are more than 
double the pre-war rate so that the demand for 
milk is very strong. Even if prices continue to 
decline, it is probable that this strong demand will 
continue for the winter and probably for the year. 
The pool price for milk in July was 77 per cent 
above the pre-war price. * * * The weighted 
average price of farm products in the United States 
for July was 34 per cent above the pre-war price 
and the weighted average price of farm products 
for all New York State products was 57 per cent 
above the pre-war price. 
These last figures show that the New York 
prices are much above the general average 
for the whole nation and milk is still further 
above the New T York average. 
Prices for potatoes this year will probably 
be very good, concerning which Dr. Warren 
says: 
Last year the acreage of potatoes was high and 
the yield per acre was high, so there was a great 
over-production and prices were low. This year the 
acreage was reduced and the weather has been un¬ 
favorable. The United States crop of potatoes for 
1922 was 451,000,000 bushels. The August fore¬ 
cast for this year is 380,000,000 bushels. On August 
1, the New York farm price of potatoes was 82 
per cent above the pre-war average. 
The same situation applies to cabbage. 
Prices as high as $80 a ton have been men¬ 
tioned. 
The drought, labor shortage, and other 
factors have reduced the acreage of most 
New York State products and the production 
per acre. Never have we forgotten the boy¬ 
hood lesson obtained in raising potatoes on 
shares that it was better to have a moderate 
or even a poor yield and get a good price 
for them than to have a big yield and sell 
them for 15 to 25 cents a bushel. Crops are 
not particularly good in the East this fall 
and for just that reason most farmers will 
have financially the best year in some time. 
When Is a Farmer Not a Farmer? 
A FEW weeks ago a farmer was talking 
rather excitedly to another farmer on 
the old subject of the difference between 
farmers who work on the land and those 
who leave the land to do something else. The 
first farmer made the emphatic statement 
that the moment a man left his land, no 
matter for what purpose, he ceased to be a 
farmer. 
The second one said: “You believe it is 
true then that a doctor can go, say to the 
State Legislature and still be a doctor, a 
lawyer can represent his district in the Legis¬ 
lature and still be a lawyer; but a farmer 
who becomes an Assemblyman or a Senator 
is no longer a farmer?” 
“Yes, sir,” said the first man. “That is 
true. The only person qualified to speak 
for farmers or to act for farming is the 
man who is actually farming with his own 
hands.” 
In other words, this first farmer sincerely 
believed, and there are evidently many others 
who agree with him, that the moment any 
farmer leaves his farm to become a mem¬ 
ber of the Legislature or Congress, or an 
elected officer in any cooperative association, 
he then changes his whole nature and for¬ 
gets all of the former and chief interests of 
his lifetime to become some strange selfish 
creature to be carefully watched, criticized 
and seldom supported. 
This feeling of distrust and lack of con¬ 
fidence has done more than any other one 
thing to hold up the progress of farm af¬ 
fairs, to make the farmer the butt and the. 
victim of all other classes and to keep him 
from obtaining his rightful place in the 
►social, economic and political life of America. 
Other classes have worked in groups and 
organizations and until recently the farmers 
were unable to stick together and have 
worked as individuals -who were helpless 
against the powerful organizations on every 
side of them. 
When the cooperative movement first 
started, the middlemen’s chief weapon to 
break up the organizations was to spread 
the propaganda among farmers that their 
leaders had “sold them out.” For long 
years this propaganda succeeded. When¬ 
ever a cooperative creamery, for instance, 
gave evidence of becoming a real competitor 
of the milk dealer, the dealer got busy with 
his whispering and spreading of distrust and 
lack of confidence among the members of 
the cooperative and one by one they de¬ 
serted. The time came, however, when farm¬ 
ers got wise to this old, old game, and 
learned how to stick through thick and thin. 
From the day that they saw the absolute 
necessity of standing together and support¬ 
ing their own elected leaders, the cooperatives 
began to succeed. 
But recently farming has been through a 
period of mighty hard times. Farmers have 
been discouraged and certain interests have 
seized this period of discouragement as an 
opportunity to revive again the old propa¬ 
ganda against farm cooperatives and their 
leaders. Farmers are being told that there 
is a “line up” of insincere farm leaders on 
one side against the plain farm folks on the 
other. They are told that they are “being 
dominated”; that the farmers have nothing 
to say about their own organizations; that 
measures are being “put over on them” 
against their consent; and many other state¬ 
ments equally absurd but deadly, pernicious 
and dangerous because they strike at the 
very roots of the whole cooperative move¬ 
ment. Jt is the old “sold them out vy propa¬ 
ganda, a little more cleverly told, but all the 
more dangerous because it is clever* 
As long as human nature is human nature, 
there will be leaders who will make mistakes. 
Undoubtedly, there will be some, too. who 
will do wrong, and there will be those whom 
the farmers will need to change from time 
to time; but it is a mighty sight easier to 
take a critical and destructive attitude to¬ 
ward men and their works than it is to give 
them constructive support. It seems some¬ 
how to be easier for some to believe the 
dealer and the demagogue, than instead of 
the leaders whom the farmers have them¬ 
selves elected. 
But times have changed, and while there 
may be a minority who will always respond 
to destructive forces and suggestions, we 
have faith in the majority of modern farm¬ 
ers to believe that they are doing their own 
thinking and that they are taking a con¬ 
structive attitude toward their business, their 
organizations and their leaders. Most of 
us have learned by sad experience that farm-, 
ers must work in groups and in organiza¬ 
tions—and that organizations like armies 
without well-supported leaders end in defeat. 
The Editor’s Chestnuts 
R. MORGENTHAU our publisher says 
that farmers get tired of being serious 
and appreciate a good joke better than most 
folks; therefore, American Agriculturist 
ought to have something funny in it. I fully 
agree with him. But it is hard work to be 
really funny. There was only one Mark 
Twain, you know, and there are only about 
a half dozen original jokes anyway. All of 
the others are just variations of the original. 
1 have noticed that many a joke when told , 
orally has a real laugh in it, but falls flatter 
than . a pancake when you try to write it 
down. But just the same, we are going to 
be funny a little every week, so if you know 
or hear of any stories, particularly farm 
stories, that make you laugh, may be they 
would make thousands of other farmers 
laugh if we passed them on, so send them in. 
Perhaps some of them will make more of 
a hit than T did one time when I tried to 
be humorous up in Delaware County, New 
York. It was back in the days when there 
was constant trouble between the Dairymen’s 
League, for which I was working, and the 
milk dealers. Every time the word “milk” 
was mentioned, it seemed to be the signal 
for a nice little row, either in the country or 
in the city. I got so I was almost ashamed 
to look a glass of milk in the face. 
Well, I w T as called on to make a talk at a 
big farmers’ meeting in Walton. The 
speaker before me w'as from the Home Bu¬ 
reau and gave a very nice explanation of the 
different elements like butterfat, milk solids, 
salts, etc., that milk contains. 
In beginning my talk, I complimented the 
lady upon her clear explanation and then 
attempted to be funny by saying that the 
preceding speaker in naming the different 
parts that composed milk had omitted to 
mention the chief one of all—which was 
dynamite! 
I paused to give the people a chance to 
laugh, or at least to smile, but there was a 
long and embarrassing silence with nary a 
laugh—as usual wTien I tell a story, no one 
had gotten the point, just as you have prob¬ 
ably failed to get it now after you have read 
it, because I cannot make it clear. 
The County Agent of Delaware County 
was present at the meeting and the fact that 
my story had fallen flat was a huge joke to 
him. He told of it later at county agent 
gatherings and out of the circumstance came 
the question asked among my friends from 
one end of the State to the other; “When is 
a joke not a joke?” — to which the answer is, 
“When Ed, Eastman tells it!” 
