290 
American Agriculturist, October 27,1923 
Reviewing the Latest Eastern Markets and Prices 
AFTER THE HORSE IS STOLEN 
HERSCHEL H. JONES 
T HE American Agriculturist has been 
receiving a large number of com¬ 
plaints from small egg shippers who 
have been victimized by “fly-by-night” 
egg dealers, who send out appealing 
letters promising all sorts of things if 
the shipper will only consign his eggs 
to them. One of these firms, D. Law- 
son & Company, 55 Rutgers street, is 
an example. This concern sent letters 
to shippers whose names he obtained 
from some source, promising empty egg 
cases free, remittance on the day of 
arrival, assumption of responsibility 
for all damages and better prices than 
the shipper is now receiving. The firm 
even mentions that they would pay 2c 
more than the average market. 
Why any farmer or egg shipper 
would accept such statements from a 
strange concern without any investiga¬ 
tion and send their eggs to them is hard 
to understand. But, nevertheless, ap¬ 
parently dozens or possibly hundreds 
of pepole have done this. Several other 
firms are being investigated by us who 
have sent out similar letters of appeal. 
It is almost impossible to do anything 
for a shipper after such a concern has 
received and disposed of his eggs and 
gone out of business. The important 
thing is to prevent other people doing 
the same thing. Locking the barn after 
the horse is stolen does not help much, 
but if you have other horses in the 
stable it may save the others. 
Investigate Before You Ship 
One important thing that an egg 
shipper should bear in mind in selecting 
a receiver to handle his eggs is to in¬ 
vestigate before he ships. Ifi the first 
place, no small shipper should send eggs 
to an unknown concern that is not 
licensed and bonded by the State De¬ 
partment of Farms and Markets. No 
responsible concern that engages in re¬ 
ceiving express shipments of eggs will 
avoid the State law relative to licensed 
and bonded commission merchants and 
once you have shipped to such a firm 
especially if it is clearly understood 
that it is a commission transaction you 
have all the protection which the State 
laws and the Department of Farms 
and Markets provides, for shippers of 
farm products. If you ship to un¬ 
licensed receivers without any clear un¬ 
derstanding as to how your eggs are to 
be handled, you may remove yourself 
entirely from its protection. 
In addition to finding out whether 
such a firm is licensed and bonded it 
would be well to write to the State De¬ 
partment of Farms and Markets, New 
York City office, 53 Park Place, and find 
out whether a firm is reliable before 
shipping, enclosing with your request 
for information the circular letter sent 
you. As an extra safeguard it is also 
well to secure from the receiver, bank 
references and write to his bank for 
information as to the credit standing 
and reliability of the concern. 
A Favorite “Stall” 
All of these are things that should 
be done before you ship. Most of the 
frauds on the part of egg receivers in 
the New York market are perpetrated 
against small shippers. The favorite 
appeal to such shippers is the idea of 
eliminating the middleman and selling 
direct to a firm that has a retail outlet. 
The only conditions under which it is 
safe for a poultryman to ship direct to 
a retailer or small dealer is when he 
knows that dealer personally or is near 
enough to New York City to investi¬ 
gate personally when anything goes 
wrong. What the responsible and 
honest commission house does is to pro¬ 
tect your interest and act as your sell¬ 
ing agent, and even though the prices 
so obtained may not be as high as those 
offered by some small retail concern, 
the added safety of shipping to licensed 
commission receivers is to be con¬ 
sidered. 
APPLE MARKET VERY WEAK 
The combination of warm weather 
and heavy receipts in all the large east¬ 
ern markets has produced a very de¬ 
pressing effect on the apple market. 
New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburg, 
Boston and other markets of the East 
were all over supplied with apples, espe¬ 
cially of the lower grades last week. A 
comparatively small percentage of 
really fancy barreled apples brought 
good prices but the bulk of the ship¬ 
ments were of ordinary quality includ¬ 
ing many B grade and unclassified 
which were hard to move at any prices, 
even at $2.50 per barrel. There was 
little outlet for much of this fruit in 
the New York market except among pie 
bakers. Quite generally prices asked 
at shipping points were higher than 
prices at which apples were sold in the 
large markets. Baldwins were moving 
heavily from Western New York and 
Hudson Valley last week. Most of them 
going into cold storage. F.O.B. ship¬ 
ping point prices on Baldwins from 
Western New York, A Grade, 2%-inch 
up range from $3.50 to 4. In Hudson 
Valley a number of sales were made at 
$4.25 per bbl. Some Vermont and 
other sections offering good A Grade 
ranging from $2.10 to 2.40, per 150- 
pound sack delivered. 
Regardless of the heavy supplies, the 
trade was good. 
BUTTER REACHES HIGH LEVEL 
• 
The butter market reached the high¬ 
est level of the season during the first 
part of the week under a sharp demand 
on the part of buyers. Some creamery 
scoring higher than extras, brought 
48 % to 49c, while creamery extras, 92 
score sold at 48 cents per pound. To¬ 
ward the latter part of the week ti’ad- 
ing was practically at a standstill al¬ 
though prices showed no tendency to 
recede. 
CHEESE DECLINES 
The cheese market developed some 
unsteadiness under the influence of the 
Federal report, showing this years’ 
storage holdings to be much greater 
Quotations From Eastern Markets 
The following are the prices at which farm products of special interest to 
eastern farmers sold on October 19: 
Eggs, Nearbys (cents per dozen) 
New Jersey hennery whites uncandled, extras.., 
Other hennery whites, extras. 
Extra firsts. 
Firsts. 
Gathered, whites, first to extra firsts. 
Lower grades.. 
Hennery browns, extras... 
Gathered browns and mixed colors, extras. 
Pullets No. 1... 
Butter (cents per pound) 
per 
te'&) 
Creamery (salted) high score. 
Extra (92 score). 
State dairy (salted), finest... 
Good to prime. 
Hay and Straw, Large Bales (per ton) 
Timothy No. 2. 
Timothy No. 3. 
Timothy Sample. 
Fancy light clover mixed 
Alfalfa, second cutting. . 
Oat straw No. 1. 
Live Poultry, Express Lots (cents per lb.) 
Fowls, colored fancy, heavy. 
Fowls, leghorns and poor. . . 
Chickens, colored fancy. 
Broilers, leghorn. 
New York 
Buffalo 
Phila. 
80 to 84 
78 to 82 
68 to 70 
58 to 60 
43 to 45 
60 to 67 
39 
60 to 68 
42 to 58 
55 to 60 
50 to 54 
52 to 55 
40 to 53 
48% to 49 
51 to 52 
48 
49 to 50 
49 
46% to 47% 
47 to 48 
44 to 45% 
40 to 45 
U. S. Grades 
Old Grade 
Standards 
$27 to 28 
$17 to 18 
$26 to 26.50 
25 to 26 
22 to 23 
17 to 20 
29 
26 to 26.50 
31 to 32 
11 to 12 
27 to 28 
23 to 25 
29 to 30 
19 
16 to 19 
20 to 24 
21 to 22 
21 
28 
24 to 25 
19 
27 
Live Stock (cents per pound) 
Calves, good to medium. 
Bulls, common to good. 
Lambs, medium to good. 
Sheep, common to good ewes. 
Hogs, Yorkers . . . . .. 
11 to 13 
3Y 2 to 4 
10 to 12 
3 to 4i/ 2 
8% to 8% 
to have the tax laws equalized. No one 
can deny that it is unjust to lay a 
heavy burden of taxation on one dollar 
and let another dollar escape. But will 
these organizations which profess such 
kindly interest in the farmer be willing 
to simply play fair and give his busi¬ 
ness a square deal? They will not. 
Congress will indulge in large draughts 
of finely filtered hot air and the admin¬ 
istrative departments will call some 
more conferences. 
Legislatures will meet even in agri¬ 
cultural States and let corporation at¬ 
torneys write the tax laws. 
Those of us who have been in agri¬ 
cultural organization many years fully 
understand that agriculture will get a 
square deal when enough farmers get 
together to make an organization 
strong enough to punish unworthy rep¬ 
resentatives and the hopeful sign is 
that each Congress shows more people 
in both houses who are willing to play 
fair with the tiller of the soil. 
2%-inch Baldwins at $3.75. There was 
little market for B Grade Baldwins at 
shipping points. 
Interest is very active in Greenings 
owing to scarcity. There are not many 
available for shipment now except what 
is in storage. Market not firmly estab¬ 
lished on Spys or other varieties now 
being picked in New York State. West 
Virginia Stayman Winesaps sold at $4 
per barrel f.o.b. shipping point. The 
total shipments of apples up to October 
16 this season were 42,075 carloads 
compared with 39,381 carloads, to same 
date last year. 
CABBAGE WEAK 
Cabbage prices have been gradually 
going lower for some time and last 
week the carlot buyers in New York 
City bought early varieties for kraut 
as low as $11 a ton loaded in the coun¬ 
try. Some reported that they were 
able to buy medium Danish for $12. 
HAY MARKET WEAKER 
The hay market was weaker during 
the past week the market being over¬ 
stocked with Canadian heavy pressed 
hay. Prices, however, showed practi¬ 
cally no change. 
POTATOES FIRM 
Potatoes were arriving in the New 
York Market last week from Long Is¬ 
land, Maine, New York and Michigan. 
The cooler weather helped to improve 
the demand. Long Islands were sold 
in carlots at $3.15 to 3.25 per 150- 
pound sack f.o.b. loading point; bulk, 
$1.10 to 1.30 bu. loaded. Maine’s, most¬ 
ly Green Mountains, sold for $1.60 to 
1.75 cwt bulk delivered; $2.65 to 2.75 
per 150-pound sack. 
States sold in bulk for $1.40 to 1.60 
cwt delivered; 150-pound sacks $2.40 to 
2.70 delivered. 
Michigan potatoes arrived at prices 
than last year. The price of cheese 
likewise is still at a high level com¬ 
pared with that of butter. State Flats 
dropped %c per pound and Wisconsin 
markets are reported lower. There 
seemed to be a tendency for State Flats 
to strengthen slightly toward the end 
of the week. 
FANCY EGG PRICES SOAR 
Prices of fancy eggs showed addi¬ 
tional advances the last week. On Oc¬ 
tober 18, New Jersey hennery whites 
closely selected extras sold at 80 to 84c, 
compared with 74 to 76c the previous 
week, and other nearby selected eggs 
78 to 82c, compared with 72 to 75c. The 
decrease in consumption from such 
high prices is beginning to be felt by 
dealers. There was a slight reduction 
in supplies of medium grade eggs, but 
the market still remained dull. 
LIVE POULTRY MARKET ACTIVE 
Geese were wanted on the whole¬ 
sale markets this week. Ducks like¬ 
wise met a good demand. Prices of 
geese in express shipments ranged from 
21 to 22c, and of express shipped ducks, 
22 to 28c. Long Island ducks which 
supply a good portion of the New York 
trade had a fine sale during the week, 
bringing 27c per pound. Express 
colored fowls and chickens are meeting 
an active demand and prices tended 
upward. 
The Present Outlook in the 
Hog Market 
{Continued'from page 282) 
prices can be expected to drop down 
to a lower level. Judging from the 
market’s recent performance that level 
should not be a great deal lower than 
last year for a number of months, at 
least. But it is not likely to be at¬ 
tractive to growers in view of higher 
feed costs, and should start the process 
of readjustment by causing fewer 
sows to be bred for spring litters than 
a year ago. 
Usually these ups and downs in pro¬ 
duction go too far and such is likely 
to be the case this time. Human 
nature is a rather constant quantity 
and the first signs that the process is 
going too far usually are not discerned 
by the majority. The evidence is not 
heeded until it is overwhelming. 
Just how much of a reduction is in 
order, it is impossible to say. Future 
employment conditions will have a large 
influence on the amount of pork that 
can be sold at a profit, but a decrease 
in production of ten to fifteen per cent 
would go far toward restoring the 
balance once more. There is some 
merit in the argument that production 
should be reduced to a point where 
there would be no surplus for export 
in order to get the formation of hog 
prices out of the international trade 
arena where the buying power of a 
bankrupt Europe is so large a factor. 
Certainly the position can be defended 
that production should be reduced to 
a point where the amount to be sold 
abroad would be no more than Europe 
could buy at a price reasonably profit¬ 
able to the grower. 
Hog Production a Good Business 
While the prospect for the hog 
grower is not very rosy for the next 
year, the condition is a temporary one 
because of the overdoing which follows 
undue prosperity in the business. But 
the business is still a good one. Al¬ 
ways there are low cost producers who 
can weather such periods of low prices 
as the present without much loss. Bar¬ 
ring severe economic changes which 
would affect other branches of agri¬ 
culture and industry as well, hog pro¬ 
duction will get back on a profit-making 
basis again and if the usual cycle is 
followed, a mild hog shortage may 
develop in about two years. 
The Real Trouble With 
Agriculture 
{Continued from page 279) 
missed by the assessor, but stocks, bonds, 
mortgages and all forms of intangible 
property are escaping taxation and the 
tangibles are required to carry the load. 
It would help agriculture immensely 
MaKe $40 aD 
Sawing and Felling trees. You can make big money 
with the WITTE One - Man Log and Tree Saw. 
Saws 15 To 40 Cords a Day 
Saw wood—make ties. En¬ 
gine also runs other farm 
machinery. W.W.Broofman 
says: "I saw 40 cords a day.” 
Big money-maker. A one- 
man outfit—easy to run and 
trouble proof. Write today 
forFreelnformatlan—no obligation. 
WITTE ENGINE WORKS 
6804 Witte Building. Kansas City, Mo. 
6804 Empire Building, Pittsburgh, Pa. 
KITSELMAN FENCE 
“I Saved 26%e a Rod,” says J. E. 
Londry, Weedsport, N. Y. You also save. 
We Pay the Freight. Write for Free 
Catalog of Farm, Poultry, Lawn Fence. 
KITSELMAN BROS. Dept.303MUNCIE, IND. 
