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Home My WebLink AboutThe Brussels Post, 1954-7-14, Page 2EBARN VI ET o Editor's Note — The following article by Claude W. Gifford appeared recently in a leading United States farm Magazine, The Farts Journal, ; Whether or not you agree with all the writer's statements or claims, many of which are applicable to a certain extent on this side of Me border as well, :you, will xt least find them thought-protiols- lag. It's about time that farmers ,looked at the "take" the middle- men are drawing out of the milk business. With milk producers suffering a big drop in income, these "milk Middlemen" are doing ,better; 'than ever, This includes dairy plant wage earners, home and store deliverymen, and dealers. This wouldn't be so bad if these middlemen—whose job it is to sell milk—.were doing a bang-up job. The truth is that milk outlets are partially paralyzed from abuses, dealer shenanigans, aelflsh labor encroachments, horse -and -buggy , laws and ,regu- fattens, and plain • "dead wood" in the distributing business. It's time that somebody be- sides farmers listened to advice about cutting costs, culling, and selling and promoting harder. If We ..had competitive markets everywhere pushing milk sale* • brim the small towns, up through the biggest cities—we'd have no surplus. The -excess is only about 5% of our milk -1.7 ounces a day per person. Farmers can do something about this. You can do 'some- thing. The,troublemay be no farther away than your nearest town—and if so that's the place to start. Farm Journal has become con winced of this after talking with some of the country's top milk market men, government specialists, and farmer bargain- ing groups. The milk middlemen's gross "take" since 1950 has climbed nearly a fifth, in 25 of the country's larger milk markets. Milk prices have dropped 3%. 1J,S.D,A. figures show this, startling fact: the biggest in- crease in "middleman" incomes came in 1953 — right when farmers' milk prices were bitting the skids. Milk companies were enjoying one of their better years. Dairy plant wages were never higher. Wholesale milk delivery - men for a company in a well- known eastern city averaged $11,500 a year for a 40 -hour week. More than $5 an hour! Q,S.D.A. figures show that typi- cal New York dairy farm families worked for less than 50 cents an hour labor return last year. The dairy distributors—whose job it is to sell our milk—are actually selling 14% less total milk per person than they did in the depression Thirties. And this while consumer incomes are at peak levels, and farmers are producing higher -quality milk. Middlemen` are an essential pail of the dairy team, and in mofl,e markets they are doing a bang-ujs job, but in others it's another story. A. L. McWilliams, general manager of Chicago's Pure Milk Association, gets to the core of this problem quickly. "Too much talk and too littleaetion." As a busy director of a farmer bar- gaining group representing more than half of the farmers selling milk in the Chicago area, he lueberry Cheesecake Is BI( POIHST1171 MADDO71 VIDRE'S a deiloloue eheeseeeke sa�ll your )facile er[ll exiles. Xt 1p is aglorified beautiful tohlook�M es iit)sidelightfulttoaeat.blueberries, and Blueberry -Gland Cbeeseealtb. tittakee 6.20 servings) Crust: One and one hall cups graham cracker crumbs, 'N4 cup sugar, t,4 sup melted butter, • +Combine crumbs end suga{, lalend in titter. ' Pigs to 1ture evenly an sides and bottom o!'5-lnob greased spring -('chin pats. Cheesecake Mixiitre Two 8 -ounce packages creamed cottage cheese, 1 cop' sagas, 2 tablespoons• dour, 4 eggs, separated; 2 tsblespeons melted butter, 3 teaspoon vanilla, 1 Op thick, sour dream; 2 tablespoons grated lemon rind. !Force cottage cheese through a coarse sieve Add sugar grade - oily, then (lour When well biendel, add egg yolks, one at a time, "beating until very 'light Add butter and vanilla, Pbltlrirs tiffly neaten egg whites. Stir in sour cream and grated lemon rind. When smooth and not bubbly turn into crumb -lined pan. Bake In slow oven'275 degrees 5'. 1t/s hours or until firm to the touch. Remove from oven and set aside to cool { Bldeberry Glaze. Two teaspoons unflavored gelatin, ud cup cold water, 2 cups fresh, cultivated blueberries; 2 tablespoons water dash mare, dash cinnamon, 8 tablespoons sugar. Sprinkle gelatin over the 94 cup water in small dish Wash and • drain blueberries. In saucepan, combine 1 cup of the blueberries and 2 tablespoons water. Bring to a boil Draln'berrles, saving $wise. Press berries through a food milt ox sieve lu small saucepan eombine strained pulp, juice, mace and sugar. Stir to blend. Heat. Add gelatin and stir until thoroughly dissolved. Let mixture chill until consistency of unbeaten egg whites. Then spread over chilled • Blueberry cheesecake, served yyith a beverage, makes a wonder- ful sUtnmertlme eating experience. • • cheesecake and.topithis taste -treat with reniaising l cup of culti- vated blueberries. Chill until glaze is firm. Note: If frozen berries are used, thaw and proceed as with fresh blueberries, kf canned blueberries are used. drain and proceed as with fresh berries. speaks with the conviction and experience that comes from in- fighting on a turbulent milk mar- ket. There's only one way to get the job done—that's for farmers to pitch in and do it themselves." Do what? Dr. Roland. W. Bart- lett, the University of Illinois crusading milk marketing specialist, answers: "Recognize a 'dead' dairy market, wherever it may be, and do whatever is necessary to liven it up—make it sell, farmers' milk.", Just ask yourself these seven . questions about your own mar-, ket. They'll tell you whether the place. to start is right in your own back yard. ' 1. Are your dairies,the ones in your milk market, promoting milk with vigorous advertising in newspapers, over radio, and with signs in stores? If not, that may be the tell-tale sign of stagnated competition between milk dealers. Or perhaps a "dead -wood" company has the town "sewed up." Or dealers may be co- operating backstage to soft- pedal competitive selling, or to set prices that will keep them all in clover. Pricing or health regulations may have frozen prices ---or may be protecting dead -wood dis- tributors by keeping aggressive companies off your market. Local farmers often applaud this, figuring that it protects them from competition, too. 2, Can customers save money enough to amount to anything by carrying milk home from stores in your milk market? To make "carry -home" attrac- tive, the difference between home delivery and store prices needs to be two cents or more a quart, except in little stores in small towns. •If there isn't this difference in 'your town, "middlemen" costs are too high. What's worse, people aren't drinking as much of your milk as they would if they could make this much sav- ing by going after'; their own milk. A little over a year ago com- petition'dropped`•store prices in Cleveland from one cent below home delivery (in quart con- tainers) down to five cents below Tin gallon jugs). Milk consumption shot up 8% for the year—the biggest increase for any large, city in the country. l• *LOIN -DOWN SIGNAL -This is something new which farmers *+round Columbia hope will promote highway safely. The slow. Moving, form tractor flies a red flag that, warns approaching circ to seloy' dawn. Without the banner, the farmer's vehicle often hidden from view until a speeding motorist is on top of )1, The Missouri Farmers' Associatidrt is furnishing the flag to 011 farmers requesting them. Yet farmers were getting more per hundred for Class I fluid milk! They collected a half - million . dollars more for the. year, In Chicago stores milk can be bought 'from four to seven cents a quart under single -quart home -delivery prices. In 1930 Chicago stores handled only 6% of the milk sold in the city; now it's near 70%. The simple facts are Mat milk can be sold through stores (in all but smaller towns) at sub- stantially lower costs than when delivered from door to door. If your store prices don't reflect that: . ee The stores may be charging too much; maybe because they're forced to. • The milk distributors may be dictating store prices in your town. • The milk -wagon delivery union may be pressuring com- panies to keep store prices high. • Outmoded state price-fixing laws and regulations may have frozen store prices. In about three-fourths of the nation's cities and towns, a quart of milk still costs the same, or only a penny less, than for home delivery. — regardless of how much you buy at one time. Why? Why not find out? 3. Can you buy milli at lower prices in half-gallonse or gallons? Or can you get discounts for tak- ing more than one single quart container per delivery? ;The important thing is that milk should cost less per quart for quantity sales — no matter what size package is used," states Dr. Leland Spencer, Cor- n e 11 University's well - known marketing specialist. That's what happens in Fort Wayne, Ind., where you pay 18 cents for a single quart. If you take two quarts per delivery, the price is 16 cents; for four to six quarts, 15 cents a quart. In Minneapolis you can get a , 2 -cent -per -quart discount on de- liveries of; two or More quarts, Why aren't more markets pass- ing along this saving for. quantity sales — which would encourage higher milk use? O n e Milwauke dealer reports that 70% of his retail route busi- ness is in half -gallons. He passes along a one -cent per quart sav- ing; two •cents if the customer takes 26 half -gallons a month. Quarts are going out of the picture in Chicago, observes Fed- eral Milk Market Administrator A. W. Colebank, 67% of the milk there is already being sold in gallons or half -gallons — at a good price saving. Yet May USDA figures show that less than half of the nation's 132 larger markets were selling milk in half -gallons or gallons at a saving under single -quart prices. Even then, the difference was often only a half -cent a quart. Why? 4. Can you find new products on y our market? L of s of variety?—such as flavored milk, skint milk fortified with dry - m i l k solids, egg nog, new cheeses, aitd other new products in varying sizes and quantities? Such variety is a healthy sign , —indicating spirited competition and aggressive promotion. Sense distributors are offering a fast -selling milk containing only 2% butterfat and 10% extra non-fat solids, It's going great guns under such "health" names as Zest, Zhu Champ, Cream is very poorly merchan- dised on many markets — being botli overpriced and of poor quality. n. Are milk sales going up in youe market? Or are they st,•tnd- ing still, nsaybe slipping? "Fluid milk sales are terrific in -Chicago," reports Carl Dey- senroth of the Milk Foundation. In this city of wide -Open cam - 'SAKES MUSCLE Norm' Scott, pressman with the Wilson - Publishing Company, while on vacation at Moira Cake caught this 9 - 11 - 13 - 15 - ? pound trout after an exhausting struggle. Opinions as to the real poundage differ but—we'd have liked to have caught it. And so "would you! petition — and high store sales due to much lower prices than home delivery — milk consump- tion per person went up 4% between 1945 and 1949, when it was dropping 10% for the nation! 6. Are therevendingmachines and intik dispensers on your market? ' 'If not, you're losing one of your best chances to sell more milk. Two hundred machines install- ed in Indianapolis and Chidago establishments. (where milk was already being ,sold over .the coun- ter) increased,total sales 60%. Lester . Will, manager of the American Dairy Association, es- timates that-iif ye -could dupli- cate the vending 'machin e' Sales , of coffee apo soft drinks, we could sell more than 7 billion half-pints • yearly of ' Milk and chocolate milk. That's half of our present surplus,- ee Sales in large schools have shot up phenomenally when vending machines were put in. • Why? Simply • because students - could get uniformly cold milk easily and quickly. If all, students could, it's estimated from actual tests that .they would drink an average of a half-pint a day — more than tripling their present low intake. Aside from being good for the kids, this increase is equal to a 'third of the butter and half the dry milk now in Storage, Many schools don't even have milk, and in many schools — maybe most — it isn't as well re- frigeraind, nor es high quality, nor as easy tq,get, as it might he. How about your school? 7 Are labor restrictions and wage scales out of line for your dairy plants or route delivery - men.? If so, they're taking a bigger bite than they're entitled to, and adding ousts that hold down sales. 'Part of "the answer in larger cities may be milk sub -dealers — these • independent distributors who own their own trucks, and buy their milk wholesale from a dalry, 'Unlike milk wagon men Cori salary; these sub -dealers hus- tle tics 'their Own customers, set their own prices where they can, and take their own profits. Thoy often handle 50%b 46 100%. more milk in a day than a, ttnidn driv- er. What it these seven quegtiOns show that your market doesn't measure opt a "Go to a source of, the troub le and see, if it can be corrected. If not, give the matter wide pub- licity," advises Chicago -Wise A. L. McWilliams. • Get your local farm organt- 'ration on it — or start• a milk bar. ;gaining association.• Either: way, • set up a commiitee with gump- tion enough to dig up the facts, no matter how hard they may be • to get: Theti 'plan some action, •e Get active in your local ADA or Dairy -Council, if you have one; contribute to dairy promotion, locally and nationally. • "Get your organization to take the lead in doing away with state laws that allow minimutn price fixing to the consumer," urges Bartlett. He insists 'that .these laws merely protect inef- ficient distributors (You can still protect the price paid to the farmer.) .. At one time or another 21 states have fixed minimum consumer prices. Nearly a third of the U.S. population lives in the 13 states that still do. Bartlett argues that Milk Control Boards relying On these laws have demonstrated that they resist change, force consumers to pay higher prices, slow up sales, and cut down on healthy competition inmilk dis- tribution. Here's what's actually happening: Milk is 92 cents a gallon in Pittsburgh '(where the state sets consumer prices), and only 60 cents a gallon in near -by Youngs- town, Ohio, where competition sets consumer prices, A difference of 32 cents a gallon! Yet farm- ers in the Pittsburgh milk shed get only five cents a gallon more for ,milk, Bartlett cites 17, typical com- petitive markets where there is no price fixing. Store prices av- erage 31 cents a quart below home delivery prices. In 18 oth- er market, where state milk con- trol boards set consumer: prices, -milk in stores averages only a half -cent below home delivery. This bpils down to the fact that there is much we can do about our milk -markets.' We can sell all of the milk that . we're now prpducing.:The-•obstacles.are ar- tificial and can be gvercome. Pro- gressive markets are showing the way. Why' not have yours jdin the parade? . Our Sense Of '•'aiaflce • Our sense _ of balance comes from the motion of fluid in a sys- tem of canals and tiny sacs ' in the inner ear. There are three canals and two sacs in each ear, and they ,are all connected. The canals are so placed that each one is at right angles to the.other two—that is, one is placed from side to, side; the second, up and down; and the third, from front to back. The positions thus cor- respond to the three dimensions •--width, lenght ,and depth. As we havesaid, the .canals are filled With fluid; and whenever the fluid moves, it presses against nerve endings. (When you move your head to the right, the fluid is forced to the left, and so on.) Nerves carry tate message to the brain of where the fluid is mov- ing, and so we have the sense of the direction of our body's move- - ment, In the sacs, called the utricle and the saccule, there are tiny ,hairs. At the tip of each hair is a tiny bit of horny mater- ial -the "ear stones." or otoliths. These stones press clown on the hairs according to whatever position the body is in, whether at rest or in motion, Informa- tien of where they are pressing pages to the brain, and we have Our sense' of balance. It is an interesting faot that those organs OI balance are most highly developed in the bird, Rolls Folks" Secrets From Their Hair Mensieut' Henri, well-lunown Fifth Avenue hairdresser, is tam- otis not only for his skill with hair -dressing, perms and trims, but fox his uncanny gift Of be- ing cable to tell' people's secrets by their hair. At the beginning of his r he was employed m ladies'a hairdressing establishment, where he soon learned to tell if the woman who sat in the chair was a drug -addict, an al- cOholie or on the edge. 01 a ner- Mous breakdown, All that, he says, is revealed by the client's hair, - Drugs affect hair roots in a peculia. way, it would seem. The moment the drug -addict's hair is wet it gives off a most ,offensive odour. The alcoholic,. too, is re- vealed,by her hair, No perm will "take" on It. The hair straight- ens out again immediately after it is Combed, even if the curlers have been left twice the nor - teal length of time .inthe hair and the Lead has remained un- der the dryer until it is bone dry. Monsieur Henri -believes that, .. when a woman is under prolong- ed nervous strain, her hair fails to respond to treatment, in the same way as the 'alcoholic's, although perhaps the picture is not quite so bad. "There is a difference, hard to explain,' but you recognize it when you are 'working all the time on hair. You also notice other signs of tension. The client cannot relax; she.is, all on edge. "A thing that is not often known,' says Monsieur Henri, "Is that ether 'causes, the hair to fall out; Sometimes the trouble can be arrested, some- times not. It depends on many factors. A doctor can sometimes be toe kind in alleviating pain, and by giving a patient too much ether' he may do permanent in- • jury. to her. hair."..• Monsieur Henri believes a lot more about people's health and temperament might be revealed by their hair, "Hair is a mirror to health," he says. }DAY SCHOOL LESSON Salaried Cats Belinda the cat, who lives in the British Museum, London, has been failing down on her job lately. She's become lazy. Her job? Keeping the Museum Premises free from rats and mice. Belinda fell into disgrace the other day following a report that a daring rat had turned up in -a. Museum storeroom and "fright- ened an official." Work -shy Belin- da was nowhere to be seen. La- ter she was found taking a nap. Said. the Museum's Director, Sir Thomas Kendrick, who owns Belinda: "She's a fine cat, but I fear she's become slack lately." That's often the trouble with these official cats which receive board and lodging in return 'for their services as ratters and mousers. They lose interest in everything except food and sleep. The General Post Office • has had official cats on its staff since 1868. Their food allowance of la.. 61, a week, has been unchanged since 1873. Last year M,P.s sol- ethly di'scus'sed' this wage freeze. Said ones M,P. sadly: 'These servants of State have often proved unreliable and caprici- ous in their duties — and liable to long,. absenteeism." The meat fdmous Post Office cat is Tibs at 'the St. Martin's - le -Grand headquarters. Her offi- cial rations a r e supplemented with scraps from 'friendly postal officials. .191 ]Rev. R, 13arelay Warren, Growing Through Blbie Study Acts 17.10-14.1 Timetiry 4:13-14 2 tniot ebxewa ; i; 3:14-17; Memory Selection: All scripture is given by htsjiiratibn of God, and is•profttable fordoctrine>,for re. proof, ter correction, for Instruct. than In righteousness: 'ghat the man, of dad may' be perfect, thor- oughly Whittled unto all good works.tributes " 2 greaTimothy: 3;16,17, The' study of the Bible eon - growth Christian's growth; .. ,The . people . of Berea were mote noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they receiv- ed the word "with all readiness of mind, and searched the scrip. tures daily; whether those things were so. The study..of the scrip- tures has an ennobling effect, It should begin' in early childhood. Timothy was fortunate in thug recelvinglthe•Word'edrly, He also saw it demonstrated in the lives of his mother. and .,grandmother. The Word of God 18 more power- ful than atomic weapons or hydro- gen bombs. It is sharper than any two-edged sword, piecing even to the dividing ashnder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and mar- row, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart, The Word applied b}' the Holy irit will r toi selvesSp, Condiscovescience isnset quickthem- ened and convictionfor 'sin . follows. The' awakened, sinner sees the precious promises ,; inviting him to trust in J gus Cjtriat as his Lord and, Saviour. He ,enters the kingdom of God by embracing some such promise- ass -"Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.and thou shalt be saved," or '7f awe con- fess mu' .sins, he its faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to,cleanse us from all unrighteous- ness7' • Through the Word we enter in- to the way of salvation. We grow by continuing the study -of the Word and using it to help others. As bread to the body so is God's Word to the soul. Let us search it daily, How We Get Heat From The Sinn Heat comes to us from the sun across millions of miles<of empty space by means of radiation. Radiant heat may pass through objects without heating them. Energy, or radiant heat, from the sun passes through the upper layers of the earth's atmosphere without heating them; Glass '- permits some of the short waves of radiant, energy from' the sun to penetrate, but not longer waves like chose of a flame. If a pane of glass be held' before a gas flame, it will'transniit only a little 00E6 Beat and will become very hot because it hasabsorbed much .of. this heat ,,Tlie reason is that the flame emits long waves. The sun's heat, however, passes readily through' a glass- enclosed'greenhdu1e; 3'tit the heat from the inside the greenhouse can not escape throng -11-11e glass. The short waves from the sun can penetrate the atmosphere but when they strike the eaatth they are absorbed and worth it up. The earth radiates longer waves which are mostly absorbed by the surrounding atmosphere. If the atmosphere were not present we would burn to death during the day and freeze to death at night. s4T WHAT TIME 15 IT? --•It could be almost ony time at all, if you had this clock, and the knowledge necessary to interpret its indications, Displayed in Paris, France, by invertor F. J. Senac, the instrument is set to give, for 100 years, the follow- ing information: Day, date, month and es Or; cecurenco of Easter; phases of the moon, sid•eal and maen soler timet predictions of • approaching; lunar and solar eclipius,