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American Agriculturist, December 22, 1923 
i ' 
Editorial Page of the American Agriculturist 
over 8c a quart so that the dealer’s spread between mas season than that no matter what your years 
producer and consumer was only 4c. are you may get and preserve this Spirit of Youth, 
Then there is that other question raised by our so beautifully expressed by Oliver Wendell 
correspondent and by thousands of other farmers Holmes, in his poem called “The Boys”, 
as to why, when the consumer’s price is lowered. 
American 
Agriculturist 
Founded 1842 
Henry Morgenthau, Jr .Publisher 
E. R. Eastman . Editor 
Fred W. Ohm . Associate Editor 
Gabrielle Elliot . Household Editor 
Birge Kinne . .. Advertising Manager 
E. C. Weatherby . Circulation Manager 
CONTRIBUTING STAFF 
Jared Van Wagenen, Jr., H. H. Jones, 
G. T. Hughes, H. E. Babcock 
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The American Agriculturist accepts only advertising 
which it believes to be thoroughly honest. 
We positively guarantee to our readers fair and honest treat¬ 
ment in dealing with our advertisers. 
We guarantee to refund the price of goods purchased by 
our subscribers from any advertiser who fails tc make good 
when the article purchased is found not to be as advertised. 
To benefit by this guarantee subscribers must say: “I saw 
your ad in the American Agriculturist” when ordering 
from our advertisers. 
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. Canadian 
and foreign, $2 a year. 
VOL. 112 
December 22, 1923 
No. 25 
the farmer’s price is nearly always lowered still 
more. For instance, the price of Class 1 milk was 
lowered by the League from $3.45 to $2.80—a 
drop of 65c a hundred pounds—but the consumer’s 
price was dropped only a cent a quart, or 47c a 
hundred. In most cases distributor got this 
difference of 18c a hundred except where the milk 
was handled in the farmer’s own plants. This is 
but another instance of the great harvest that the 
dealers are constantly reaping by this unfortunate 
division among farmers and among their organiza¬ 
tions. Farmers should not blame the dealers 
either. They are merely better business men in 
this case than farmers are. They know that it 
pays to stick together. In no business in the 
world is there more bitter competition than 
between rival milk companies in the same city. 
Has there any old fellow got mixed with the boys? 
If there has, take him out, without making a noise. 
Hang the Almanac’s cheat and the Catalogue’s spite! 
Old Time is a liar! We’re twenty to-night! 
Yes, we’re boys—always playing with tongue or with pen; 
And I sometimes have asked. Shall we ever be men? 
Shall we always be youthful and laughing and gay. 
Till the last dear companion drops smiling away? 
Then here’s to our boyhood, its gold and its gray! 
The stars of its winter, the dews of its May! 
And when we have done with our life-lasting toys. 
Dear Father, take care of thy children, THE BOYS! 
For “Dollar Maker” Chick Letters 
O UR “Dollar makers” have created much 
interest. We are sure that our readers who 
^ i ,. » ,, will follow some of the suggestions will save a 
Yet when it comes to. dealing with farmers, the , j n ii ars 
milk buyers know that it is good business to 8 n wiu ^ be the time to think about the bab 
present a umted and organized front whrch they chicks ; n and it - has occurred to us that some 
do through the dealers New York Milk Confer- .< dollar ® aker " letters from our readers from their 
ence Board. The Borden sand Sheffield Company, actua , iences ; n hatchin g and rearing chicks 
the two largest milk distributors, are in the would bgtif great value to all those interested in 
When Farmers Fight One Another 
C‘Y KNOW that you are familiar with the milk situation. 
\Jl I wish that we as producers might get a little better un- 
1 derstanding through the American Agriculturist of the milk 
Iproblems. In 1916 the Dairymen’s League was formed for we 
Relieved that there was too large a spread between what the 
consumer was paying and what the producer was getting for 
his milk. Today the difference is greater than ever. I feel 
positive that the enormous profit which the dealers are allowed 
to make for their fluid milk is the reason why the non-pool 
dealers exist.” 
“When the Dairymen’s League Cooperative Association 
dropped the price on November 12 65 cents per hundred 
pounds and Borden’s cut the price one cent a quart to the 
consumers (46 cents a hundred pounds) what happened to 
the other fraction of the drop?”—L. J. H. 
T HE above is a sample of the letters American 
Agriculturist is constantly receiving on 
the milk situation and of the thought that is going 
through practically every dairyman’s mind in 
this territory. 
The Dairymen’s League Cooperative Associa¬ 
tion price to dealers for December fluidmilk is $2.80 
per hundred for 3% milk or $3.08 for milk contain¬ 
ing the average amount of butterfat of 3.7%. 
This is only a little over 6}^c a quart to the 
farmer, and of course this is only the price of 
Class 1 milk. The farmer’s pool price would be 
much less than this. Grade B bottled milk 
delivered in New York City in December costs 
the consumer 15c a quart. Therefore, the spread 
between what the consumer pays for bottled 
milk and what the farmer gets is approximately 
8j/2C a quart. About half of the fluid milk 
used is sold in bottled form. In fairness it should 
be stated that the spread on the loose milk is 
considerably less. But even taking this into 
consideration, together with the greatly increased 
freight rates, labor and other delivery charges 
which the dealer must pay, we believe our farmer 
correspondent is right when he states that the 
profits of most of the dealers are the highest they 
have ever been. In fact, some of the dealers’ 
financial reports to their stockholders bear out 
this statement. Even before the days when the 
farmer was organized, during the period of 1910- 
1914, the average December price for these four 
years for milk testing 3.7% butterfat was $1.95 
per hundred, or about 4c a quart. This was a very 
low farmer’s price, to be sure, but do not forget 
that during that time the consumer never paid 
m the 
strictest competition in the city. One of them 
patronizes the pooler producers and the other 
the independent producers. Yet it is highly 
significant that they both belong to and work 
with the same organization, the New York Milk 
Conference Board. 
But when it comes to farmers wdiose every 
interest lies in cooperation and in working 
together, we have an entirely different story. 
The League, the largest of the four producers’ 
organizations in this territory and one or two of 
the smaller organizations have been doing what 
they could working independently to get the 
farmers a fair price for their milk, but there are 
after all only about 43,000 actual poolers in the 
League in competition with probably at least 
this great farm industry. After all, experience is 
the best teacher and we think we can render the 
most help to you by passing your experiences back 
and forth. 
Therefore, we will pay a dollar for every good 
letter not too long giving definitely your exper¬ 
ience in hatching and rearing chicks. Letters will 
not be acknowledged or returned, but those that 
are accepted will be paid for upon publication. 
Saving the Evergreens 
E RECTING the annual Christmas tree is one 
of our nicest customs, but in its observance, 
. may we suggest that great care be made in select- 
80,000 other producers in this territory so that j n g the evergreen that has no opportunity of some 
when all is said and done, the work of any one of Jay becoming a great tree and that some careless 
these fairly small organizations is comparatively youngster may not mutilate a large tree by cutting 
insignificant when compared with what might be ou t the top. Sometimes we Americans who have 
done were they all working together. And the t> een so prodigal with our forests are going to 
dealers with their good business sense well know wa Le up to the fact that the tree is one of the most 
their good profits will continue as long as they can pr j ce less of Nature’s gifts to Man. 
succeed in keeping the farmers divided and more 
interested in competing with one another and 
in laying the blame for their troubles upon one 
another than they are in getting together into 
some kind of a real federation or conference board 
that could meet the dealers on their own ground. 
Christmas 1923 
Eastman's Chestnuts 
T HINKING of the campaign now on in many 
States to renew and increase the member¬ 
ships of county farm bureaus led me to recall the 
old story that the boys used to tell when the farm 
bureau men gathered at conferences. 
It seems that County Agent Bowen was just 
H OW the years race by, don’t they? To most 
of us, it seems only yesterday when Father newly elected in the early days of the farm bureau 
and Mother helped us hang our small stockings work in Wyoming County, New York, and in one 
while we went reluctantly to bed, impatiently to of his first trips out to the farms to get acquainted, 
await the coming of Christmas morning. Yet to he had quite a long visit with a farmer, without 
many of us it is getting to be quite a spell since giving his name or his job. Near the close of the 
those happy days twenty-five—or was it fifty— conversation Mr. Bowen said: 
years ago. It is so long, in fact, that the pressure “By the way, do you ever make any use of the 
farm bureau?” 
“Naw,” said the farmer, “wouldn’t have one of 
them confounded new-fangled contraptions on 
the place!” 
Recently, another farmer—a Scandinavian—- 
and worry of worldly affairs have made some 
forget the real spirit of Christmas and the joy of 
the kiddies in this, the finest and best of our 
holidays. 
It does not take a lot of money or expensive 
gifts to make a merry Christmas for the youngsters up in North Dakota, took out a membership in 
or for ourselves, but it does take a turning back or the farm bureau. About six months later the 
a forgetting of the years so that by remembering r Department of Agriculture, at Washington, 
the joy of our own Christmases of long ago, we received the following letter from him: 
can live them over again with almost the same “I bane sign up for your farm bureau. Not 
eagerness and joy with our friends and our chil- : yet received it. Schoolmarm she have want 
dren in this year of our Lord, nineteen hundred board at our house and wife wants bureau for 
and twenty-three. <%spare bed-room. For why you not send it yet? 
We have a couple of married friends well past Tell me.” 
the half century mark, whose children have long He received the following letter in reply: 
since gone to make homes of their own, but who “Dear Sir: Yours of 23 inst. to hand and beg 
still preserve the eternal Spirit of Youth by to say that we have no bureaus in Washington 
hanging their stockings on Christmas eve and that we can send out at the present time. How- 
by erecting a little Christmas tree on their hearth- ever, we have an “A 1 Farm Bloc,” and as soon 
stone. as we lay our hands on it, we will have it sawed 
We can make no finer wish for you this Christ- up, made into a farm bureau and sent to you.” 
