1892’ 
THE  RURAL  NEW-YORKER. 
4i 
Some  Questions  About  Coed  Storage. 
1.  Do  fruits  keep  better  in  cold  storage  houses  so  arranged  that  the 
atmosphere  within  them  is  comparatively  dry,  or  in  those  in  which  it 
is  damp  ? 
2.  What  degree  of  temperature  is  most  conducive  to  the  keeping  of 
fruits  in  cold  storage  ? 
3.  Is  there  any  one  degree  of  temperature  best  suited  to  the  long  keep¬ 
ing  of  all  fruits,  or  do  different  fruits  keep  longest  in  different  tempera¬ 
tures  ?  If  so.  what  class  of  fruits  reauire  the  lower  temperature  ? 
4.  Is  it  wise  to  keep  any  kind  of  fruits  or  vegetables  at  a  temperatuie 
as  low  as  the  freezing  point  ? 
5i  Do  fruits  kept  for  a  time  In  cold  storage  at  any  temperature,  keep 
as  well  after  being  taken  out  as  they  would  have  kept  under  similar 
conditions  had  they  never  been  placed  in  cold  storage  ? 
C.  Of  the  commercial  cold  storage  houses,  what  proportion  secure 
cold  by  the  use  of  ice,  and  what  proportion  by  the  use  of  chemicals  ? 
7.  Are  storage  houses  in  which  a  low  temperature  is  secured  by 
admitting  a  current  of  air  that  has  first  been  conducted  through  a  long 
underground  channel  much  used  for  keeping  fruit,  and  what  degree  of 
cold  can  be  maintained  in  them  during  summer  weather  ? 
1.  The  unanimous  opinion  seems  to  be  that  dry  air  is 
far  the  best.  Dampness  is  always  objectionable. 
2.  As  near  the  freezing  point  as  possible  without 
actually  freezing  the  fruit.  Fruit  packed  in  barrels  or 
boxes  may  be  kept  in  a  temperature  of  32  degrees  for 
an  indefinite  time  without  freezing.  The  temperature 
keeps  a  little  above  that  point  inside  the  packages. 
3. *  There  seems  to  be  no  specialty  in  this  direction — 
all  fruits  do  best  at  the  low  temperature.  Bartlett 
Pears  and  all  California  pears  require  most  attention 
in  keeping  them  at  a  uniform  temperature.  Some 
fruits — apples,  for  instance — are  not  harmed  by  changes 
which  would  prove  disastrous  to  pears. 
4.  Answered  above 
5.  They  do  not  keep  quite  so  long,  though  the  time 
is  shortened  but  little.  A  popular  impression  prevails 
to  the  contrary,  because  of  the  well-known  fact  that 
poultry  and  meats  which  have  been  frozen,  will  not 
keep  long  after  they  have  been  removed  from  the 
freezing  temperature.  There  is  a  great  difference 
between  being  frozen  and  nearly  frozen. 
6.  Ice  was  formerly  used  most  generally,  but  within 
the  last  two  or  three  years,  air  refrigerated  by  chem¬ 
ical  processes  is  rapidly  supplanting  it.  To-day,  a 
majority  of  the  cold  storage  houses  in  New  York  city 
use  a  chemical  process.  The  latter  is  preferable,  as  a 
dry,  cold  air  is  thus  secured,  which  is  not  always  easily 
obtained  when  ice  is  used. 
7.  We  do  not  know  of  such  establishments  in  New  York 
city,  but  they  are  practicable.  There  is  one  central 
plant  which  furnishes  refrigerated  air  through  under¬ 
ground  pipes  to  about  half  a  dozen  establishments 
where  butter  is  stored,  but  we  do  not  know  of  any  stor¬ 
age  houses  for  fruit  cooled  in  this  way.  With  pipes 
properly  insulated  by  non-conducting  envelopes,  the 
temperature  could  be  maintained  at  as  low  a  point  as 
if  the  machine  were  on  the  premises.  A  lower  temper¬ 
ature  can  always  be  maintained  in  this  way  than  where 
ice  is  used  as  the  refrigerant. 
A  WORD  FOR  THE  COMMISSION  MAN. 
A  commission  man  is  in  a  not-to-be-envied  position, 
and  we  should  be  charitable  towards  him.  One  serious 
mistake  shippers  make  is  to  send  their  goods  to  one 
house  one  day  and  to  another  the  next.  If  you  are 
going  to  send  goods  to  two  or  more  houses  to  find  out 
which  does  the  best,  divide  the  shipments  between  them 
each  day  for  a  period  long  enough  to  discover  which  is 
really  doing  the  best.  Some  commission  men,  I  be¬ 
lieve,  resort  to  baiting.  For  the  first  shipment  they 
are  likely  to  return  more  than  the  goods  sold  for.  This 
is  not  done  so  much  as  formerly,  for  shippers  have 
learned  a  counter  trick.  They  send  their  goods  to  sev¬ 
eral  new  houses  just  to  get  the  “  bait  ”  money,  and  then 
future  shipments  go  to  merchants  in  whom  they  have 
confidence.  It  stands  to  reason  that  if  we  stick  by  a 
firm,  it  will  stick  by  us ;  but  if  we  are  continually 
changing  from  one  to  another,  all  will  lose  confidence 
in  us  and  will  not  exert  themselves  to  get  a  big  price. 
Again,  if  our  goods  are  of  the  required  quality,  buyers 
become  familiar  with  our  mark  and  ask  for  it.  My 
commission  men  never  buy  any  goods  to  compete  with 
those  sent  on  commission.  I  have  written  them  sev¬ 
eral  times  requesting  authority  to  buy  some  goods  that 
could  be  obtained  only  in  that  way,  but  the  answer  has 
always  come  back,  “  We  do  a  strictly  commission  busi¬ 
ness.”  Of  course  this  makes  it  fairer  for  those  who 
ship  on  commission,  for  it  would  be  human  nature  for 
a  dealer  to  dispose  of  purchased  stock  first.  Our  ber¬ 
ries  picked  Monday,  get  to  New  York  at  midnight 
Tuesday,  and  are  sold  to  the  retailers  before  daylight, 
usually  between  two  or  three  o’clock  on  Wednesday 
morning.  During  the  forenoon  I  get  a  telegram  stat¬ 
ing  the  price  at  which  they  have  been  sold  and  the  con¬ 
dition  of  the  market.  The  freight  on  a  crate  of  straw¬ 
berries  from  this  place  to  New  York  is  80  cents  ;  cartage 
fO  cents,  and  commission  10  per  cent.  We  get  a  check 
once  a  week,  or  oftener  if  we  want  it,  covering  the 
amount  of  sales  made.  I  think  honest  commission  men 
earn  their  money.  L.  j.  FARMER. 
Sifter  for  coae  ashes. 
Scattered  over  the  ground  around  many  farm  homes 
we  see  coal  enough  to  run  the  stoves  for  a  month. 
It  was  just  dumped  on  the  ground  because  it  was  too 
much  trouble  to  pick  it  out  of  the  ashes.  We  shouldn’t 
care  to  do  such  picking  with  bare  fingers,  but  it  is 
well  enough  to  let  a  sieve  do  the  work.  The  sifter 
shown  at  Fig.  18  is  made  by  a  friend  in  Wisconsin, 
who  says  about  it :  “  The  apparatus  consists  of  an 
ordinary  coal  sieve  with  a  narrow  strip  nailed  across 
the  center,  as  shown,  and  let  into  the  top  of  a  box 
having  a  hinged  cover  in  the  manner  indicated  in  the 
drawing.  The  coal  ashes  may  be  poured  into  the 
sieve,  and  then  the  cover  may  be  shut  down,  and  the 
sifting  done  without  the  necessity  of  supporting  the 
sieve  and  the  ashes  by  the  hands  and  without  the  annoy¬ 
ance  caused  by  the  dust  settling  on  the  clothing  or 
blowing  into  one’s  face.  The  box  is  made  in  sec¬ 
tions,  which  may  be  lifted  so  that  it  can  be  taken 
apart  to  facilitate  shoveling  out  the  ashes.”  After  you 
get  this  sifter  made,  don’t  conclude  that,  just  because 
you  have  made  the  work  a  little  easier,  sifting  ashes  is 
the  wife’s  job.  It  isn’t.  It  is  a  man’s  job  as  much  as 
it  is  his  duty  to  shovel  coal  or  cut  wood. 
A  Stove  pipe  ventilator. 
We  live  in  an  old-style  rented  house  without  an  open 
fire-place  or  ventilating  flue.  For  heating  we  use  the 
largest  size  base-burner,  which  has  a  ventiduct  flue, 
causing  a  circulation  of  air,  but  no  ventilation.  This 
fall  I  bought  a  T  stove  pipe  and  ran  a  drop  pipe  to 
Stove  Pipe  Ventilator.  Fig.  19. 
within  one  inch  of  the  floor.  The  regular  stove  flue, 
being  warm,  causes  an  upward  current  of  cold  air  from 
the  floor  in  my  drop  flue,  and  carries  it  outside  with  the 
smoke,  etc.  In  this  way,  see  Fig.  19,  I  have  secured,  at 
small  cost,  the  effect  of  an  open  fire-place,  while  I  still 
have  all  the  benefit  from  my  base-burner.  The  T  can 
be  bought  from  any  dealer  and  every  American  knows 
how  to  put  stove  pipe  together.  w.  douglas  king. 
SUBSCRIPTIONS  IN  APPLES. 
An  old  newspaper  man,  now  in  England,  sends  us 
this  memory  of  a  country  newspaper  office  : 
“Some  40  years  ago  I  printed  a  paper  in  Essex 
County,  N.  Y.,  and  got  The  R.  N.-Y.  in  exchange.  It 
was  then  printed  in  Rochester.  It  was  not  as  large 
and  handsome  as  the  present  issue,  but  contained  a 
large  amount  of  good  matter,  and  was  thoroughly  read 
by  all  hands  in  the  office.  After  reading  I  laid  it 
aside  with  other  exchanges,  for  a  singular  genius 
named  Lyman,  who  was  a  little  defective  in  the  “  upper 
story,”  but  a  great  reader  of  newspapers,  calling  every 
week  for  a  supply,  which  he  paid  for  in  apples,  or 
other  fruits  in  their  season.  He  lived  with  a  brother 
who  had  a  farm  and  a  fine  orchard,  and  Lyman  was 
at  liberty  to  help  himself  to  all  the  apples  he  could 
carry  in  his  many  pockets  for  the  printer.  One 
winter  day  he  came  wearing  a  large  overcoat  with 
two  huge  pockets  and  several  others  filled  with 
choice  apples,  to  pay  for  a  copy  of  The  R.  N.-Y., 
First,  he  emptied  the  pockets  in  the  overcoat,  then 
those  of  the  under  coat;  then  he  took  one  from  each  vest 
pocket;  then  from  the  pants’  pockets.  Then  he  pulled 
back  his  overcoat,  and  showed  me  he  had  two  more 
pockets  full  in  his  swallow-tail  coat.  By  this  time  at 
least  half  a  peck  of  choice  apples  were  deposited  on 
my  table,  and  all  for  a  copy  of  The  Rural  New- 
Yorker!  In  this  way,  I  got  a  supply  of  apples  for  a 
whole  week.  That  R.  N.-Y.  was  a  godsend  to  my 
office.  Could  I  have  done  as  well  with  all  my  ex¬ 
changes,  a  cart  load  of  apples  would  have  been  brought 
to  me  every  week.” 
W.  H.  GILBERT’S  DAIRY  BUSINESS. 
Referring  to  the  account  of  a  visit  to  the  dairy  farm 
of  VV.  H.  Gilbert,  several  inquiries  have  reached 
us  in  relation  to  the  Boyd  “starter,”  which  Mr.  Gil¬ 
bert  uses,  and  as  to  the  methods  he  uses  in  testing  the 
individual  capacities  of  his  cows.  The  inquiries  were 
submitted  to  Mr.  Gilbert,  who  says: 
“  I  have  used  the  Boyd  Starter  System  for  ripening 
cream  for  about  two  years,  and  would  not  like  to  do 
without  it.  It  gives  us  practically  the  control  of  atmo¬ 
spheric  changes  and  uniform  quality  and  quantity 
and  is  simple.  To  make  the  starter  or  yeast,  I  warm 
sweet  skim-milk  up  to  90  degrees ;  then  put  it  in  a  fer¬ 
ment  can  and  cover  it  closely — air-tight  if  possible.  In 
about  22  hours  it  is  ready  for  use.  I  then  add  one 
gallon  to  20  or  25  of  cream,  warm  the  mixture  up  to 
70  degrees  in  winter,  cover  tightly  and  keep  it  where 
the  temperature  will  not  go  below  (55  degrees.  The 
cream  will  be  ripe  in  24  hours.  The  cream  vat  being 
tight,  no  odors,  flies  or  dirt  can  get  in,  in  summer  or 
winter.  I  now  use  the  Babcock  test  in  my  dairy  to 
test  for  butter.  Before  it  was  brought  out,  I  ripened 
and  churned  a  day’s  milk  from  the  cow  I  wanted  to 
test.  The  Babcock  is  the  most  correct  method  and  is 
perfectly  simple. 
Business  Bits. 
The  Scotch  Farming  World  thinks  the  McKinley  Tariff  will  prove  a 
blousing  in  disguise  to  Canadian  barley  growers.  Canadian  two-rowed 
barley,  it  says,  is  having  quite  a  large  boom  in  England,  and  the  pros¬ 
pect  is  that  it  will  bring  more  than  the  six-rowed  grain  brought  in 
America. 
Can  The  Ruual  Inform  me  in  regard  to  a  bread-working  machine 
which  is  designed  to  knead  the  bread  for  family  use  ?  c.  n.  w. 
West  Somerset,  N.  Y. 
There  is  a  machine  for  kneading  bread  dough,  constructed  for  family 
use.  Particulars  may  be  had  by  addressing  Fowler  &  Rockwell,  9 
Elizabeth  Street,  New  York,  who  are  agents  for  it.  It  is  simple  and 
looks  as  if  it  would  do  the  work  thoroughly.  It  is  attached  to  an  ordi¬ 
nary  pan,  the  pan  being  fastened  to  the  kneading  table.  The  kneader 
is  at  the  base  of  a  perpendicular  shaft.  At  its  top  is  a  bevel  gear,  con¬ 
necting  it  with  a  short  horizontal  shaft,  at  the  end  of  which  is  a  crank 
for  operating  it. 
The  Miller  and  The  Bran. 
A  great  trouble  with  us  farmers,  here  in  Steuben  County,  N.  Y.,  is  that 
roller  process  millers  will  not  grind  our  wheat  any  more.  They  want 
to  trade  Hour  for  wheat,  and  will  give  only  28  pounds  of  Hour  for  one 
bushel,  or  (10  pounds,  of  wheat.  This  is  a  one-sided  arrangement.  To 
me  it  looks  like  a  skin  game.  f.  m.  a. 
It  is  a  skinning  process  of  the  worst  kind.  An  honest  miller,  under 
the  old  process  of  grinding  and  bolting,  would  give  for  each  bushel  of 
wheat  about  30  pounds  of  good  flour  and  20  pounds  of  bran  and  mid¬ 
dlings,  worth  half  as  much  as  the  flour.  The  miller  who  refuses  to 
give  more  than  28  pounds  of  flour  for  a  bushel  of  wheat  would  have 
been  accused  of  dishonesty  under  the  old  regime,  and  we  do  not  think 
it  would  be  at  all  out  of  the  way  to  call  him  piggish.  The  law  gives 
him  one-tenth  for  his  labor  in  converting  the  wheat  into  flour,  and  he 
acquires  no  title  to  the  by-products.  To  evade  the  law,  millers  re¬ 
fuse  to  do  a  toll  business  and  insist  on  “  swapping  ”  flour  for  wheat. 
Farmers  should  And  some  miller  disposed  to  deal  more  equitably  and 
then  go  out  of  their  way  to  patronize  him. 
A  Vermont  Dairy  School. 
The  dairy  school  of  the  Vermont  Agricultural  College  closed  Decem¬ 
ber  24.  We  attempted  to  limit  the  number  of  pupils  to  40,  but  we  have 
actually  had  over  50,  besides  quite  a  number  from  outside  the  State 
and  several  hundred  visitors.  This  was  the  first  dairy  school  held  in 
New  England,  and  was  probably  better  equipped  than  any  other  held  in 
the  United  States  up  to  the  present  time.  Six  separators  were  used,  viz: 
the  United  States  Butter  Extractor,  both  as  an  extractor  and  as  a  sepa¬ 
rator,  the  Sharples-Itusslan  Steam  Separator,  the  Danlsh-Weston  and 
the  DeLaval  belt  turbine  and  hand  separators,  all  of  the  Alpha  pat¬ 
tern.  For  cooling  the  cream  there  were  the  Heullng’s  cream  cooler  and 
aerator  and  the  Behr  cream  cooler.  Churns  were  represented  by  the 
Moseley  &  Stoddard  barrel  churn  and  the  Vermont  Machine  Company’s 
square-box  churn.  The  butter  workers  used  were  the  Water’s  hand 
worker,  the  Mason  power  worker  and  the  new  Fargo  centrifugal 
worker.  The  general  outfit  of  the  creamery  was  from  the  Vermont 
Farm  Machine  Company,  Bellows  Falls,  and  D.  H.  Burrell  &  Co.,  Little 
Falls,  N.  Y. 
About  half  the  samples  of  skim-milk  showed  no  fat  by  the  Babcock 
test,  and  several  lots  of  buttermilk  were  equally  free  from  it.  The 
Babcock  test  and  lactometer  were  the  principal  tests  shown  and  used, 
five  different  forms  of  the  Babcock  being  used,  showing  the  makes 
of  the  different  firms;  the  pupils  became  quite  expert  in  testing  milk 
and  its  products  and  in  detecting  adulterations  in  any  of  them.  More 
than  half  of  the  class  were  professional  creamery  men  and  butter 
makers,  many  of  whom  have  a  high  reputation  for  their  work  and 
product,  and  these  were  the  men  who  were  the  most  Interested  in  the 
work.  The  Department  of  Agriculture  of  the  Province  of  Quebec  sent 
five  delegates  at  the  public  expense  to  be  present  throughout  the  ses¬ 
sion  and  fit  themselves  for  similar  work  in  Quebec  next  year. 
[PROF.]  W.  W.  COOKE. 
