The Richfield recorder. (Richfield, Idaho) 1909-1931, 1914-03-05

ample, where a rival trader was chars
ing $3.07 for seven stone of flour W
were offering the same flour at s2.S
for the seven stone.
"You may be interested in lmowini
about what an average family her
has for an income, where he gets i
and what he has to eat l have made
out a little statement so you coulC
figure that out. To begin with, every
farmer has his own potatoes and oats
Besides this, his income is something
like this:
Eggs and poultry, per week, about
five shillings ($65 per year,.
Butter for about IS or 20 weeks II
summer, one to two shillings ($7 pei
year,.
sale of cattle possibly 70 pounds
each year (s6O per year,.
sale of sheep, one pound ($5 pei
year,.
"a total of $137 per year.
Besides this, the women earn q
little something by knitting sweaters
and making lace, etc.
marketing EGGS
"You will notice that eggs are our
staple product. The average poor
farm family around here gets each
year from IL to Is pounds out of their
eggs, which is generally about half
of their entire money income. Before
we took hold, however, egg raising
was not at all profitable. There was
no steady market, the farmers did not
understand poultry, and no one had
any ambition to learn anything about
it. They didn't take care Of their
eggs well and few we're sold.
Previously the local price was two
or three pence less than the price
quoted in the nearest market in Straw
bane and Derry. Now the prices paid
are from one to two pence above the
prices quoted in these markets. In
other words, we have increased the
value of dozen eggs from three to
four pence (six to eight cents), For
the entire district, this amounts to
quite a sum. You must remember
also that while we purchased only
one-tenth of the eggs sold in this par
ish, the fact that we at Dunglow are
paying the prices which we pay has
made it necessary for every other
buyer in the entire parish to pay the
same price.
Irish Lace and Knitted Goods.
Our cooperative company looks af-
ter a good many things besides sell
ing eggs and butter We are helping
the girls market their lace ana knitted
work. Two years ago we asked the
government department to send us an
instructor to teach the girls to make
hand-knit sport coats (sweaters).
They sent man to look it up. He
talked with some of the men here
who were not friendly to this coop |
erative movement. Nothing was done.
Our girls were getting one shilling |
six pence CSC cents) for knitting a
dozen pairs of socks, using up from
three and half to four pounds of
wool. These socks we're purchased of
the women by an agent of a whole
sale trader.
"The cooperative society decided
hey could do better by the girls than
-hese buyers. Since they started buy
ng, the girls get seven shillings six
pence ($1.SO from the society for
a sweater coat, using only two
pounds of wool and taking only one
lalf as long as a dozen pair of socks.
Putting it another way, for the same
mount of wool and the same time
ipent in knitting, the girls get Is
billings (s9.75) instead of one shil-
ing six pence (36 cents). That is, our
ociety is paying them ten times what
hey used to get from the other buy
RS for their knitting. Formerly the
iris who knit lace were bound by a
argain under which if they sold to
ny one privately they were boycott
ed. The buyer told them unless they
old him all he would buy nothing.
low we are getting fairly good prices
Or the lace, better than they. got be-
ore and we, of course, permit them to {
ell wherever they can. They fire. \
uently have opportunity to sell to
ourists and others who come through
ere. While we get fairly good prices Il
II the lace, there is no steady market
,r it, as there is for the knitted
mods.
Connected With Central Society.
Our little local society could not E
and alone and do what we are try
g to do. We are helped all the time h
z Sir Horace Plunkett's organization II
ciety and by the Cooperative While 4
Ia society at Dublin. Each week Is
q wholesale society sends us a fore :
st giving the figures that should be
'tained for eggs, butter and chick
IS, and stating whether or not there
to be a demand for these products.
ich day we write to the wholesale
ciety, telling them what we have
hand and what we will likely have.
'metimes we telegraph. Then they
ay either write or telegraph back +
lat they want us TO send and when b
d where to send it. We send it, not
Dublin, but directly to the places =
lected by the wholesale society. =
this way we save freight, we save
we save time, and we n
ye the eggs themselves. "a
You must not get the idea," Mr.. 4
llagher continued "that This con- q