Norwich bulletin., 1914-09-05
FINE PROFITS THE PRODUCER DOES
 NOT GET!

Cwritten Specially for The Bulletin9
 ABetter stock. better cared for, means better profit Sc says one or the 1iwlse mem who make a hobby or tell ing US farmers our mistakes
 Sunds nice, doesn't 1t Real nlce and pretty! There's only one thing aI,n,,t it That a mean spirited, small eouled, stingy hunk of 8 hayseed nke nnyseIf would like explained. That IS:
 Better profit" for whom? Farmer! or milk-midd ddleman and specuiator III babies lives
 Really. that question, no matter now trivial or how unimportant 1t may seem to the gigantic minds Wnlcn are devofing themselves to the upilIt or the farmer man, is one of some 1mpor- tance to him
 1t would be very nice if we farmers could live on faith and hope alone. No doubt some of these professional pni- lanthropists would be willing to nave us live on charity, so long as they managed the charity and continued to feel the eleemosynary urge! unfortu- ! nately, perhaps, in this New England climate we've got to have things more nourishing and filling than any one or the three. We've got to buy things, now and then. To buy things we need s, money. To get money we must sell other things at some sort of profit.
 If it's the milk business we're in, we must sell our milk at a profit Now, IS 1t certain, guaranteed. dead sure ]. thing that the better stock we have and the better we care for them the better will be our profits?
 Farmer Simpson of Vermont, himself g. milk producer, has recently sent to The New England Homestead one Of the most Illuminating letters happen !. to have seen on this question. He quotes the case of the worlds record dairy COW, the Guernsey May Rilma." "
 It cecfns that May Rilma produced in tho full year. 20.763 pounds of milk This would certainly eutitle her to ad- mission into the class of better stock" Her owner reports that the year'c cost of her feed and care was S4f9.54. This makes 1t fairly clear that s11o had what might be termed "better care'' than the average. So there you've got Q case of sbetter stock, better cared for" As her milk tested 6.4 per cent the regular market rate in Vermont. the price for her milk at the railroad station ould have been $2.05 per hun dred pounds. against $1.63 per hun dred, the regular rate for 4 per cent. mil This would have made the ruling market price for her years milk $418.64, a. loss of 90 cents on the years s buSineSc.
 And this in the case of wonderful COW. giving exceptionally rich milk
 Er. Simpson quotes two other casos for which he has the figures of produc- tfon-cost and selling price. One is that of 8 two year old which gave in tho year 9.CS5 pounds of milk of high test, marketable at $2.11 per hundred. The milk brought in $204 .35; the heifer cost to keep s236.16; net loss s31.s1.
 Another case was a three year old which gave 16.099 pounds of milk in the year. marketable at $303.47, and costing to produce s34a.03. a net loss of s40.56.
 Here, then, are three cases. concern ing which full and accurate records festly given 'sbetter care" than the av- craze. All three were losing ventures. at the ruling market price paid farmers for milk for delivery to the cities.
 Just as 3 sidelight, it may be noted that the price offered May Rilma.s owner for the extraordinarily rich milk of this wonderful COW was $2.05 per hundred pounds, or about Al cents per quart while that sort of milk cost the city consumer, a. hundred miles away, not less than IF and more. likely from B to IS cents a quart
 Which indicates that there surely is a profit lE producing. such milk-a profit to the city middleman, made up rom combination Of the farmer s loss and the consumer's spoil.
 But I'm not interested so much, just now, in the city consumers pillage. That open mouthed- individual can yell like a. stuck pig every time he has to buy something. over the Thigh prices. 9 When he arrives at the state of mind which leads him to stop squealing and DO something. he can largely cure his own troubles. He won't cure them, however. by denouncing farmers for the high cost of farm products which farmers already lose money in pro- ducing. If. fe can't see the hole through his own millstone, he'll have to continue being ground Under it. -
 What l am interested in is farm profits for farmers.
 There have been investigations enough in the past to light up the whole dairy subject and make it all as