Ladysmith news-budget. [volume] (Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wis.) 1907-1927, 1921-06-17
ORGANIZATION
FOR FARMERS
Farm Bureau Working For Co.
Operative Marketing of
Produce
NOT ENOUGH INTEREST
IN MEETING SATURDAY
Organization Not AntagOnistic to
Equity.-Is NOn-POlitical and
NOn-Partisan

That it is more difficult to organize
the farmers of Wisconsin for their own
interests than it is the farmers Of some
OF the states, was partially proven at
a meeting of farmers at the court house
last Saturday when a rather meagrely-
attended meeting was held to consider
the organization of county Farm Bu-
reau from township units.
About forty farmers and their wives
responded to a call for the meeting
John y. Schmidt of the town of Grant,
presided. He presented the principal
speaker, w. G. Bradley, of Hudson,
sent here by the Wisconsin Farm Bu-
reau to explain the objects of the Am
erlcan Farm Bureau Federation. He
said that the big idea of the Farm
Bureau is to develop agriculture and
promote the interests of farm people
TO build permanent organization to
represent the interests of agriculture.
But with two million members en-
rolled in AZ of the As states of the
Union, he finds that it is more difficult
to get Wisconsin farmers interested
in this movement than it has been in
many of the other states, and his ex-
PLANTATION of this fact is because Wis
cOnsin, more than any other state, has
people made up of more natiOnalities.
religions, and diversified interests.
The people are more inclined to be
clanish He has been engaged in or
ganization work in several states, and
in the southern states and in the west
he found it easier to get the farmers
together in this matter.
Found Market For Apples
One of the things to be accomplished
by the Farm Bureau, Mr.. Bradley said,
is better system of marketing the
products of the farmers There are
too many middlemen, he thinks. Along
the line OF marketing he told couple
of stories of what farmers are up
against in marketing. Rock county
farmers had good crop of apples one
year for which there was a very poor
market. One of them took the trouble
to telephone his neighbOrs to ascertain
how many barrels and of what varie-
ties of apples they could furnish, in an
effort to find a market for their stock
He quickly secured promises of a car
load. Then he went to New York, laid
the matter before a Farm Federation
official, and it was not long before they
got into touch with parties who would
buy the apples at good prices While
he was finding a buyer for the carload
of fruit he had arranged for, he found
buyers for ten more carloads, so that
he and his neighbors found good mar
ket for their apples which otherwise
would probably rotted on their hands
or been sold for Improbable prices.
Get EN- Coming and Going
Once hay buyer came to Mr. Brad
ley at Hudson to buy some hay and
have it shipped to his firm at Duluth
on consignment. Mr.. Bradley said he
would sell him two carloads of No /
baled hay which he had i'm his barn
for $40 per ton Chat was when hay
was cheaper than in recent years. and
that was the only way he would sell
it. Finally the man agreed to take it
at the price and directed the owner
to ship it. Mr. Bradley exercised
little caution by shipping but one car
load and then following the car to it's
destination. He was in the commits
sion firms office, but had not yet in
trOduced himself, when clerk who
had been checking up on the cars in
the yards, came into the Office well,
what have we got this morning?" in
quired the head of the firm to the
clerk. The clerk reeled off the number
of cars of different products, naming
the car of 10 tons of hay from Bradley.
of Hudson. Dock Bradley one tom
on that car and bill it to (naming
small timber jObber in the northern
part of the state who was not supposed
to have any scales to weigh hay on
at II tons" Thus this firm intended
to steal a ton off Bradley and the price
Of a ton off the Northern Minnesota
buyer But Bradley overheard the
whole conversation and he demanded
a check then and there for ten tons of
hay, and he got it, and besides, he had
the satisfaction of telling the head of
the house what he thought of such
methods of doing business. Since then
he has not had much use for commits
sion men,
Why Little Favorable Legislation
Continuing a discussion of market
ing and prices for farm products, the
speaker said that the reason farm
prices came down faster than prices of
other commodities, was that farmers
are not organized Farmers cannt