Litchfield enquirer., 1872-09-05

his agent and then offered to take 7charys cf tseir naiIk Aimsey MT. Pratt deelin-| ed his services and finally secured another agent. No sooner, however, had they be- gan business with this agent than shers, were complaints of sour milk. Cans were delayed, and all the familiar annoyances practised. Several changes of agent were subsequently made by the Goshen pro- ducers. and always with the same rssnlts: men who had never had any complaint made of sour milk, would, as soon as the agency was changed, get notice that their milk was sour; their cans would not be returned, &c. Determined to investigate fully into the conduct of the business, MT. Pratt at one time after these difficulties had arisen went to New York. was at the station at 2p. m., where the milk train arrived, and stayed there till six in the morning when the mill. has to make way for other business. He found that the usual time for giving out milk to agents was at four, two hours after the train ar rived; that during that time the depot agent and his employees had abun- dant opportunity, if so disposed, to tamper with the milk in the vari- ous ways familiar to New York mid dlemen. Enquiring for missing cans he was assured that none were there, that the piles of cans in the depot were all empty and waiting return. On examine tion, however, he found under the empty cans rows of cans full of stale milk, among which were some of the missing Goshen cans. / 1af-iH MT. Pratt then carried his complaint to the general freight-agent, explained the troubles that had driven most of the Naugatuck producers out of the business, and objected especially to the employ ment of man who was himself in the milk business in the responsible position of milk agent of their road. The experi- enee of all the other companies transport ing milk had taught them that they could not trust men who themselves dealt in milk, not even as brakemen, and that pro- ducers who were sending by the New York & New Haven were entirely at the mercy of the a man who was evidently in the milk ring and in whom we had no confidence. The freight agent seemed annoyed by MT. Pratt's complaints, with out showing the least disposition to rem dy the difficulty, remarking that he didn't care if they had no milk business at all. MT. Pratt then carried his complaints to MT. Hoyt, Superintendent of the New York & New Haven railroad, who has paid no attention to them. The officers of the Naugatuek road give him no as- sistance, seeming to prefer that the milk business should remain under control of the single agent in whose hands it has dwindled to almost nothing. ED. ENo.
 Harry Sedgwick, of Cornwall Hollow, said that it was thought along the Har- lem road that Vanderbilt was in the pay of the New York ring
 Mir. Hubben said that large organiza- ton of the kind proposed would be strong enough to secure all the reforms that might be needed in railroad management. He did not believe any New York milk ring had money enough to buy Wander bilt. -7tF.
 Elisha Smith, of Lee, Mass, thought that the only difficulty lay in getting hon. est and competent men to manage the business in New York. It was an absurd idea that these middle-men could compete with good producers organization. He thought the proposed plan g feasible one.
 MT. Otis s. Bedell, of New York was then introduced and read the call issued by himself and the gentlemen associated with him for convention of milk produ- cers to be held in New York, at the Hall of the Young Mems Christian Association. on the 24th inst, at 1, p. m. He then proceeded in substance, as follows:
 ''We have already demonstrated the practicability of the farmers distributing their milk in New York themselves. A year ago two or three of us farmers con- cluded % try, and if we couldn't sell oul own milk. We started with one. wagon and two cans day. In seven weeks we had orders for 200 quarts. Soon we had to put on three wagons, and we are now running four, We have sold at 8 cents g quart and have nevertheless netted 90 per cent. more than we have ever received before. The quantity of milk sold daily in the city is about 16, 900 quarts, in the distribution of which about 925 wagons are employed. Were the business in the hands of a single company proper dis tribution would enable one third the force now employed to do the work. sst
 ''When we started advertised in the papers that some farmers were proposing to sell their milk themselves. The re. porters inyeatiratad fhe -~~ttAr and And ing that we were acting bona tide commend ed the undertaking. We soon had all the orders we could fill. We had a pretty big battle with the milkmen. They stole the wheels and cut the curtains off ou1 wagon, and annoyed us in other ways. but we succeeded in spite of them. Undea our present arrangements the deligesy o) Dailk costs only one and one half cents pc, quart. The railroad transportation costs i- 2 - : fa sTaL s g II cents, so that the whole cost of trans portation and delivery should only be three cents per quart. We hope to con- solidate with the company of which MT. Hubbell is president - = .l :.
 ''Our sharesiare slOO, for the farmer sending single can, daily, the price per can being reduced where more are sent, till those sending from six to twelve cans are only required to advance $25 per can.