1892 
THE  RURAL  NEW-YORKER. 
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The  Poultry  Show. 
The  third  annual  show  of  the  New  York  Poultry  and 
Pigeon  Association  opened  in  New  York  city  at  Madi¬ 
son  Square  Garden,  on  Wednesday,  February  3.  There 
is  no  place  in  the  country  which  so  well  fills  the  needs 
of  poultry  exhibitors  as  this  immense  building,  and 
the  arrangements  for  this  show  are  nearer  perfection 
than  any  ever  before  reached.  Miniature  lakes  for  the 
ducks  and  other  aquatic  fowls  are  numerous.  The 
incubator  men  are  out  in  force  and  have  so  timed  their 
eggs  that  the  little  chicks  are  peeping  through  the 
shells  in  a  never-ending  procession  of  births.  The 
brooders  are  there  also,  and.  in  short,  all  the  thousand 
and  one  features  of  the  poultry  trade.  Pigeons  in 
never-ending  variety  are  to  be  seen  and,  as  a  sort  of 
appendix  to  the  show,  we  have  guinea  pigs  and  rabbits 
— those  pets  of  the  boys.  The  exhibition  closed  on 
Tuesday  the  9th.  We  shall  speak  more  in  detail  of  the 
show  in  our  next  issue. 
Wanted  !  Hot-Bed  Information  ! 
This  question  comes  from  Wisconsin  We  want  facte 
about  substitutes  for  stable  manure  in  hot-beds  : 
“  Does  The  Rural,  know  of  any  firm  that  manufac¬ 
tures  stoves  or  furnaces  or  other  apparatus  for  heating 
dwellings  or  greenhouses  where  kerosene  oil  is  used 
for  fuel  ?  If  so,  does  it  know  if  their  use  is  a  success 
or  a  failure  ?  We  want  something  else  to  heat  our 
hot-beds  during  the  spring  instead  of  horse  manure.” 
Broadcasting  Fertilizers. 
In  a  recent  issue  of  The  R.  N.-Y.,  S.  N.,  of  Harlan, 
Ind.,  makes  inquiries  as  to  sowing  commercial  ferti¬ 
lizers.  The  reply  is  well  given  as  far  as  it  goes  ;  but 
during  considerable  experience  in  handling  these 
manures,  I  have  found  it  a  very  disagreeable  job  to 
sow  certain  brands  of  superphosphate  by  hand,  and, 
besides,  it  is  a  difficult  matter  to  get  the  fertilizer 
evenly  distributed,  particularly  on  a  windy  day.  Last 
fall  I  used,  by  way  of  experiment,  a  sack  of  phosphate 
on  an  acre  of  wheat  ground.  As  there  are  no  ferti¬ 
lizer  drills  in  this  prairie  country,  the  fertilizer  was 
put  in  the  wheat  hopper  of  a  plain  drill,  and  in  this 
way  it  was  distributed  before  the  seed  was  drilled.  A 
part  of  the  time  the  drill  was  so  adjusted  that  the  feed 
would  run  with  the  hoes  elevated  out  of  the  ground, 
and  had  it  been  as  well  adapted  to  sowing  fertilizer  as 
grain,  an  excellent  job  of  broadcasting  would  have 
been  the  result. 
I  presume  that  fertilizer  grain  drills  are  not  uncom¬ 
mon  in  that  part  of  Indiana  in  which  S.  N.  resides, 
and  if  he  will  use  one,  adjusting  it  so  that  the  fertilizer 
e  ed  will  run  with  the  hoes  well  elevated,  the  result 
will  probably  be  satisfactory.  The  fertilizer,  being 
discharged  near  the  ground,  will  fall  evenly,  and  the 
labor  will  be  light. 
In  this  country,  Timothy  seed  is  sometimes  sown 
on  stubble  fields  in  the  fall  with  an  ordinary  grain 
drill,  by  elevating  or  detaching  the  hoes  and  so  ad¬ 
justing  it  that  only  the  grass-seed  attachment  will  be 
in  operation.  Within  a  couple  of  years,  however,  the 
broadcast  sowers,  which  are  attached  to  the  rear  end 
of  a  wagon  bed,  and  which  are  put  in  motion  by 
means  of  a  sprocket  rim  and  chain  attached  to  the 
wagon  wheel,  are  rapidly  coming  into  use  for  broad¬ 
casting  all  kinds  of  grain ;  but  they  would  hardly 
be  suitable,  for  distributing  fertilizers,  as  the  dis¬ 
charge  is  high  and  very  swift,  while  moistening  the  fer¬ 
tilizer  would  be  very  liable  to  cause  it  to  clog.  G.  T.  p. 
Some  Milk  Matters. 
No  milk  is  being  shipped  from  this  city  to  Philadel¬ 
phia — shipments  were  stopped  the  latter  part  of  Jan¬ 
uary.  The  inference  to  be  drawn  from  this  fact  is 
that  the  struggle  between  the  producers  and  dealers 
has  been  settled,  in  what  manner  we  are  unable  to  say. 
The  market  in  New  York  is  well  supplied.  The  net 
price  remains  at  three  cents  and  there  are  no  indica¬ 
tions  of  any  change  in  the  near  future.  There  is  no 
money  in  it  for  producers  at  present  rates,  and  the  Ex¬ 
change  will  not  cut  prices  when  such  a  movement 
would  jeopardize  the  supply. 
The  Elgin,  (Ill.,)  Dairy  Reporter  gives  its  readers 
the  New  York  Exchange  price  of  milk  for  the  months 
of  1891  as  “  retail  prices,  delivered  in  that  city.”  Our 
esteemed  contemporary  is  in  error.  To  the  prices 
given,  must  be  added  the  freight,  four-fifths  of  a  cent 
per  quart,  which  the  dealer  pays.  The  prices  it  quotes 
are  the  net  prices  to  producers. 
The  Milk  Producers’  Union,  supplying  the  city  of 
Boston,  is  still  in  a  flourishing  condition.  At  its  re¬ 
cent  annual  meeting  it  was  clearly  shown  to  have 
saved  the  producers  SG1,000.  The  Granstein  Bros.,  who 
were  the  only  formidable  competitors,  had  been 
knocked  out  of  business  and  the  farmers  who  had  sold 
them  milk  had  joined  the  Union.  The  Union  receipts 
for  the  year  amounted  to  7,281,524  cans,  the  actual 
sales  to  0,113,803,  the  average  monthly  sales  being 
509,483.  President  French,  having-  served  five  years, 
declined  a  reelection,  and  the  Hon.  C.  A.  Gleason,  of 
New  Braintree,  was  chosen  in  his  place.  The  Union 
starts  the  new  year  with  most  encouraging  prospects. 
Careful  observers  of  the  methods  practiced  by 
some  of  the  Exchange  creameries  have  noticed  that 
many  of  them  sell  considerable  cream  and  yet  never 
have  any  visible  supply  of  skimmed  milk.  The  only 
inference  to  be  drawn  from  this  fact  is  that  the 
skimmed  milk  finds  its  way  into  the  unskimmed  and  is 
put  on  the  market  as  whole  milk.  That  many  of 
these  institutions  carry  on  this  sort  of  business  is  be¬ 
yond  doubt.  The  average  milk,  as  received  from  pro¬ 
ducers  for  at  least  nine  months  in  the  year,  is  so  rich 
that  from  five  to  ten  quarts  of  skimmed  milk  can  be 
added  to  30  of  whole  milk,  and  the  compound  will 
make  a  40-quart  can  that  will  stand  the  legal  test. 
Three  per  cent  of  fat  is  not  high  enough  for  a  legal 
standard. 
A  New  View  of  the  Wool  Tariff. 
I  notice  in  the  market  reports  of  The  Rural  that  the 
prices  of  live  sheep  and  of  dressed  hogs  are  just  about 
the  same.  Now,  we  have  been  told  for  many  years 
that  sheep  raising  cannot  be  successfully  carried  on 
in  this  country  without  a  liberal  tariff  on  wool,  hence 
I  have  been  wondering  how  it  is  that  pork  raising  can 
be  profitably  prosecuted  without  any  reference  to  the 
price  of  hogs’  bristles.  Of  course,  as  the  Western  pork 
packers  utilize  everything,  the  bristles  of  the  hog  must 
have  some  value  ;  but  it  is  not  an  important  factor  in 
the  calculation  of  profits.  Then  again,  in  cattle  rais¬ 
ing  the  price  of  hides  does  not  count  for  much  with . 
the  cattle  raisers,  for  no  matter  how  high  their  price, 
the  cattle  raisers  never  get  much  benefit— it  all  goes 
to  the  profit  of  the  millionaire  beef  monopolists.  I 
have  always  supposed  that  the  sheep  are  raised,  to  a 
considerable  extent,  on  coarse  fodder  or  pasture,  and 
require  less  grain  than  hogs — if  I  am  wrong  in  this 
view,  I  will  be  glad  to  be  corrected.  Now,  if  the  tariff 
raises  the  price  of  wool  five  cents  per  pound,  and  if 
each  sheep  produces  a  fleece  weighing  five  pounds,  the 
advance  will  be  25  cents  on  each  sheep. 
Now,  it  seems  to  me  that  a  business  that  can  be  ruined 
for  the  lack  of  this  amount  of  protection  is  not  a  good 
one  for  a  live,  energetic  American  farmer.  He  had 
better  go  to  raising  hogs,  or  cattle,  or  horses.  Take 
off  the  tariff  and  let  the  manufacturer  have  cheaper 
wool,  and  the  sheep  raiser  and  the  rest  of  us  will  have 
cheaper  clothing  and  blankets  with  less  shoddy  in 
them.  JOHN  RUSBY. 
Business  Bits. 
The  milk  producers  of  Orange  County,  N.Y.,  and  Sussex  County,  N. 
J.,  are  actively  pushing  the  movement  before  the  Inter-State  Railway 
Commissioners,  for  securing  lower  and  more  equitable  rates.  They 
complain  that  the  railways  charge  them  as  much  as  they  do  for  milk 
carried  200  miles  further,  and  this,  In  fact,  Is  their  main  grievance. 
This  movement  was  inaugurated  three  years  ago,  at  a  meeting  of  pro¬ 
ducers  held  In  this  city,  when  a  committee  was  appointed  to  prosecute 
the  matter.  The  committee  retained  Hon.  Henry  Bacon  as  counsel, 
and  the  Commission  gave  them  several  hearings.  No  decision  was 
reached  and  the  matter  was  left  open.  Since  then  the  committee  have 
been  actively  engaged  in  securing  evidence  to  present  to  the  Commis¬ 
sion,  and  it  is  said  that  they  have  retained  Col.  Robert  G.  Iugersoll  as 
their  counsel,  who  will  shortly  present  the  case  anew  to  the  Com¬ 
mission. 
Good  Crops  or  Poor  Ones.— This  is  the  title  of  a  neat  little  pamph¬ 
let  sent  by  the  Bowker  Fertilizer  Company  of  Boston,  Mass.  It  con¬ 
tains  photographic  engravings  of  fields  of  potatoes,  melons,  celery, 
corn,  onions,  carrots  and  buckwheat  on  which  tho  Stockbridge  fertilizers 
were  used.  The  reasons  xvhy  a  farmer  should  use  the  Stockbridge  fer¬ 
tilizers  are  briefly  and  forcibly  told. 
Selling  Barrels.— I  am  glad  to  learn  that  the  Fruit  Producers 
Association  of  New  York  has  Issued  a  circular  giving  the  dimensions 
of  the  barrels,  crates  and  packages,  In  which  fruit  should  be  shlppod. 
This  will  not  give  commission  merchants  any  chance  to  squeal  If  the 
barrels  are  “small,”  especially  when  fruit  is  low.  Should  not  the  shippers 
get  something  for  the  barrels  containing  their  fruit?  fruit  grower. 
Chemicals  and  Cold  Storage.— The  Rural  has  given  us  some 
cold  storage  hints.  I  use  a  place  for  the  purpose.  What  would  It  cost 
to  put  In  the  chemical  apparatus,  and  are  the  chemicals  expensive  ? 
Can  the  device  be  used  In  small  rooms,  say  one  10  x  18  feet?  Which 
would  be  the  cheapest?  suuscriber. 
Tho  method  spoken  of  as  the  chemical  one.  Involves  the  purchase 
of  expensive  machinery  and  would  not  be  practicable  In  your  case. 
A  neighborhood  could  combine  In  building  a  large  one  and  putting 
In  the  machinery,  so  that  It  might  pay.  It  Is  substantially  the  same 
process  that  is  used  for  the  artificial  production  of  Ice. 
Commission  Men.— “  I  think  honest  commission  men  earn  their 
money,”  says  a  correspondent  of  The  Rural.  Is  it  not  a  fact  that 
commissions  are  too  small  In  many  lines,  and  men  are  compelled  to 
make  dishonest  returns  or  quit  the  business  ?  Men  who  are  dishonest 
are  willing  to  offer  to  do  business  at  a  small  commission,  depending 
upon  ways  that  are  dark  for  profits,  and  those  who  would  be  honest 
must  make  the  same  rates  to  their  customers,  and  either  do  as  their 
competitors  do  or  go  under,  unless  they  have  such  a  large  custom  that 
small  percentages  yield  a  good  return  in  the  aggregate.  Expenses  are 
heavy  In  cities,  and  while  the  usual  per  cent  may  appear  high  to  the 
country  shipper,  1  believe  It  is  too  small  in  many  cases  to  pay  an  honest 
commission  merchant.  Yes.  he  surely  earns  his  money. 
I  spent  several  weeks  In  a  large  city  dealing  with  commission  men  a 
few  years  ago,  and  it  was  ray  observation  that  few  of  them  were  doing 
a  strictly  commission  business.  They  bought  on  their  own  account 
and  speculated.  It  Is  hard  to  see  how  consignors  could  get  exact  jus¬ 
tice  under  such  circumstances,  as  the  houses  would  naturally  sell  their 
own  goods  when  the  best  prices  were  offered.  We  repose  a  trust  In 
such  men  that  we  would  not  think  of  putting  in  our  neighbors.  Some 
of  them  are  honest,  but  in  no  business  are  there  greater  opportunities 
for  dishonesty  and  greater  inducements  to  deal  unfairly,  because  the 
accepted  rates  are  insufficient  to  pay  for  the  time  and  labor  expended. 
If  commissions  were  a  little  larger,  more  honest  men  might  succeed  In 
the  business,  and  shippers  net  more.  The  honest  men  who  do  succeed, 
do  so  because  of  the  magnitude  of  their  business.  At  least  that  is  the 
writer’s  Impression,  judging  from  fairly  good  grounds,  alva  agee. 
Teaching  Milking.— A  correspondent  of  Farming  World  (Scotland) 
wants  that  a  premium  should  be  offered  to  all  boys  and  girls  taught  to 
milk  at  school.  He  says:  “  The  providing  of  cows  for  this  purpose 
would  be  almost  an  Impossibility,  but  these  I  do  not  think  at  all  neces¬ 
sary,  as  artificial  udders  and  teats  are  already  In  the  market,  and  no 
difficulty  need  be  experienced  in  providing  India-rubber  udders,  which, 
when  filled  with  water,  would  serve  as  a  ready  and  suitable  means  for 
teaching  the  children  how  to  milk.”  This  means  a  machine  somewhat 
like  Small’s  calf  feeder,  which  Is  such  a  comfort  to  calves.  There  Is 
something  in  this  Idea— we  need  more  good  milkers. 
The  humorist,  Bob  Burdette,  in  one  of  his  recent  effusions,  gets  off 
some  stale  jokes  on  berry  baskets— quart  baskets  which  do  not  hold  a 
quart,  etc.  It  is  time  to  give  us  a  rest  on  this  matter.  All  the  styles  of 
fruit  baskets  with  which  we  are  acquainted  are  honestly  constructed. 
The  quarts  hold  a  quart  and  the  pints  hold  a  pint.  A  favorite  joke  of 
these  fellows  Is  about  the  raspberry  cups,  In  which  the  bottom  is  about 
three-fourths  of  an  Inch  from  the  bottom  of  the  rim.  This  they  insist 
is  a  scheme  for  defrauding  the  buyer,  but  It  is  no  such  thing.  The  cups 
purport  to  be  “  thirds,”  that  Is,  three  will  hold  a  quart,  and  the  bottom 
is  placed  as  It  is  so  that  when  one  cup  Is  placed  on  another  in  the  crate, 
the  berries  In  the  under  cup  will  not  be  crushed.  The  baskets  are  all 
right  and  the  fruit  is  all  right  when  It  leaves  the  farms.  When  it  has 
been  manipulated  by  the  green-grocer,  the  producer’s  responsibility 
ends. 
Absolutely  the  GREATEST  POTATO 
SINCE  THE  INTRODUCTION  OF 
=  THE  EARLY  ROSE.  . 
Have  you  read  what  T.  B.  Terry  has  to  say  about  the  Freeman  ?  305  bushels  from  one  barrel. 
J.  M.  Smith,  the  celebrated  market  gardener  of  Wisconsin,  also  makes  an  astonishing  report. 
Prices  for  1892 — lb.,  $1.00;  3  lbs.,  $2.00,  by  mail,  postpaid.  By  Express  or  Freight,  purchaser  paying  charges, 
peck,  $2.50;  bushel,  $7.50;  barrel,  $15.00;  two  barrels,  $25.00;  ten  barrels,  $100.00. 
Our  new  Catalogue  for  1892  mailed  free  to  all  on  receipt  of  five  2-cent  stamps ;  contains  full  description,  testimonials,  etc. 
We  Absolutely  Control  the  Entire  Supply  of  Freemans  in  the  United  States.  The  Genuine  can  be 
obtained  Nowhere  else,  and  all  Orders  Should  be  Addressed  to 
p. o. box  1296.  WM.  HENRY  MAULE,  mi  Filbert  St.,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 
