As he tugged at his cow's udders, the ordinary dairyman of the great dairy State of New York had plenty to bother him last week besides keeping Bossy's tail out of his eyes.
For one thing there was the babassu, bassoba, baguassu, aguassu, uauassu or guaguassu, a palm tree that grows in Brazil. From the outcries of the Dairy Union and National Co-operative Milk Producers Federation, the New York dairyman had learned to deplore the babassu, its hefty nuts, the childlike Brazilians who skilfully crack them with axes, the oil pressed from their kernels which is not only an ideal fuel for Diesel engines but also a cheap base for oleomargarine.
In 1934 when dairymen's lobbyists got a 3¢ a Ib. tax on coconut oil and other imported oils suitable for oleomargarine, they completely overlooked babassu. What was worse, the State Department in February 1935 concluded a trade agreement with Brazil promising to impose no tariffs on the babassu nut or its oil for three years starting Jan. 1, 1936.
In his paper the dairyman read that the Department of Commerce had just announced the discovery by a German of a new method of keeping milk for a long time without refrigeration. By sealing the containers with oxygen, a shipment of fresh milk from Rotterdam to Capetown and back was found after 60 days' travel to be "unchanged in taste, nourishing qualities or chemical consistency." Plain was the possibility of future importations of fresh milk from Europe or South America by this method.
Closer to home were graver distractions. Butter prices were skyhigh. New Yorkers at Buffalo, where butter was selling at 37¢ per Ib., were crossing to Fort Erie, Ont., buying the stuff for 24¢ per Ib. in spite of a vigilant campaign by U. S. customs agents against butter-legging. High butter prices did not indicate prosperity for Bossy's boss. On the contrary, drought has parched pastures of New York's great Mohawk Valley, sent feed prices up as much as 70%. Hard as it might be on city folks, it looked as if the dairyman would have to get more for his milk from the processors and distributors. And he needed it bad enough to risk the physical and financial hazards of a milk strike.
New York dairymen staged a milk strike in 1933. Following it, the State passed laws regulating wholesale and retail prices of milk, made it a criminal offense for a distributor to buy or a retailer to sell milk below prices set by the Agricultural Commissioner. Under these regulations wholesale milk prices varied according to the use the milk was put to. Drinking milk was in one class, brought $2.45 per cwt.* Milk to be made into ice cream, butter, cheese brought from $1.20 to $1.90. On the average, after deductions for freight and handling many a farmer netted only about $1.50 per cwt.