4l2 
June  25 
THE  RURAL  NEW-YORKER. 
out  as  prominently  as  ever,  while  the  modern  house 
decorations  are  not  even  mentioned.  Let  the  man¬ 
agers  cut  out  this  old  stuff  and  fill  its  place  with  the 
newest  and  best  and  they  will  not  only  make  the  de¬ 
partment  more  attractive  but  interest  the  best  talent 
in  their  respective  communities  in  the  success  of  their 
fairs.  If  the  ladies  understand  that  all  the  latest  de¬ 
signs  will  be  on  exhibition,  there  will  be  no  lack  of 
interest  on  their  part. 
After  the  preparation  of  the  premium  list,  the  most 
important  matter  is  the  selection  of  judges.  Each 
should  be  an  expert  in  his  department.  He  should,  if 
possible,  be  an  utter  stranger  to  the  exhibitors.  At  a 
county  fair  last  fall,  after  judgment  had  been  passed 
on  certain  exhibits,  I  asked  one  of  the  judges  (there 
were  three)  on  what  ground  the  award  had  been  made. 
He  replied  :  “Well,  you  see,  that  other  fellow  has  a 
lot  of  premiums  already,  and  it  is  hardly  fair  to  give 
all  to  one  man.  We  want  to  divide  them  up  a  little. 
What  nonsense  !  Is  it  any  wonder  that  such  an  award 
has  no  value  ?  Nsy,  might  it  not  be  even  a  damage  to 
a  breeder?  1  took  dinner  at  the  same  table  with  a 
committee  of  judges  at  another  fair;  one  of  them 
turned  to  me  and  said:  “What  is  the  difference  be¬ 
tween  a  Standard  and  a  Thoroughbred  horse  ?  ”  I  ex¬ 
plained  the  difference,  but  wondered  what  sort  of 
judgment  such  talent  as  that  could  possibly  rendei . 
The  judge  should  be  able  to  decide  according  to  a  scale 
of  points,  and  should  never  be  allowed  to  award  a 
premium  where  the  exhibit  will  not  score  as  high  as 
85  points.  If  this  rule  is  adhered  to,  and  the  judge  is 
competent,  then  the  award  is  worth  just  as  much  at 
your  fair  as  at  any  in  the  land,  for  all  are  able  to 
know  just  how  nearly  perfect  the  exhibit  is. 
The  country  is  full  of  fakirs.  Under  all  sorts  of 
pretexts  they  try  to  get  on  to  fair  grounds,  and  especi¬ 
ally  country  fair  grounds.  Miniature  horse  races, 
with  cigars  thrown  in,  jewelry  boards,  cane  boards, 
etc.,  are  their  most  frequent  means  of  swindling. 
They  are  more  dangerous  than  the  pool  seller  in  that 
they  are  the  meanest  sort  of  gamblers,  while  profes¬ 
sing  to  be  honorable.  There  is  little  danger  of  an 
honest  boy  being  trapped  by  the  pool  seller,  for  he  is 
indelibly  stamped  gambler.  But  these  little  games  get 
their  chief  revenue  out  of  innocent  young  boys.  Keep 
them  all  out. 
For  attractions  get  the  best  you  can.  If  you  make 
it  all  horse  race,  you  will  soon  have  nothing  but  a 
"horse  race  crowd.  Good  music,  prize  drills,  parades, 
trained  animals  are  all  as  cheap  as  “Wild  West” 
shows,  and  they  cultivate  taste  in  a  much  better  direc¬ 
tion.  My  experience  is,  also,  that  they  are  fully  as 
effective  in  drawing  crowds. 
Finally,  if  you  would  make  your  fair  a  permanent 
success,  do  not  forget  that  it  is  an  educator,  and  see  to 
it  that  it  educates  in  the  right  direction. 
Chemung  County,  N.  Y.  c.  c.  teacher. 
Hudson  River  Valley  Fruit  Growers. 
SOME  PRACTICAL  HINTS. 
Great  Advantages. — The  season  has  arrived  for 
commencing  the  shipment  of  fruits.  In  the  face  of 
strong  and  ever  increasing  competition,  it  will  be  wise 
to  consider  our  environments,  advantages,  obstacles 
and  changes  of  methods,  that  would  be  likely  to  make 
our  business  more  remunerative.  With  soil  and  cli¬ 
mate  so  perfectly  adapted  to  fruit  growing,  it  is  doubt¬ 
ful  if  any  region  of  the  same  extent  in  the  "world  is 
able  to  produce  as  large  a  variety  of  choice  fruit  in 
equal  perfection.  Strawberries,  raspberries,  black¬ 
berries,  currants,  cherries,  plums,  apricots,  peaches, 
grapes,  pears  and  apples  here  acquire  a  flavor  seldom 
equaled,  never  excelled.  Our  facilities  for  reaching 
the  best  markets  in  the  world  are  unparalleled.  With¬ 
in  12  hours  after  it  is  gathered  here,  fruit  may  be  on 
the  breakfast  table  in  New  York,  New  Haven,  Hart¬ 
ford,  Providence,  Newport,  Boston  or  Albany.  No 
other  section  can  place  its  fruit  in  all  these  places  in 
such  freshness  and  perfection. 
Freight  Rates. — The  immense  quantity  of  fruit  to 
be  transported  short  distances,  each  year,  should  in¬ 
sure  reasonable  and  uniform  rates.  Really  this  is  far 
from  being  the  fact.  The  transportation  companies 
on  the  river  carry  a  ton  of  hay  to  New  York,  sell  it, 
collect  the  money  and  return  the  same  to  the  shipper 
for  $2.  Under  immense  pressure  these  companies 
have  agreed  to  carry  a  ton  of  grapes  (if  in  non-return¬ 
able  packages)  to  New  York,  and  allow  the  agents  of 
the  commission  merchant  to  take  them  off  the  boat  for 
$4.  Strawberries,  raspberries  and  currants,  if  packed  in 
quarts,  pints  or  thirds,  are  carried  by  count  at  75  cents 
per  hundred  quarts,  or  $12  per  ton.  A  mere  state¬ 
ment  of  the  facts  is  all  that  is  needed  to  demonstrate 
the  inequality  of,  and  exorbitant  rates  charged.  It 
is  hoped  a  united  movement  of  fruit  growers  will  cor¬ 
rect  this  in  the  near  future. 
Our  Aim. — In  human  affairs  no  great  degree  of  ex¬ 
cellence  is  attained  without  endeavor  to  reach  a  high 
standard.  With  our  remarkable  advantages,  is  it  too 
much  to  hope  that  all  the  fruit  from  this  region  may 
be  of  such  uniform  excellence  that  the  fact  that  it  was 
grown  in  the  Hudson  River  Valley  will  be  accepted  as 
a  guarantee  that  it  is  the  best  that  the  market  affords  ? 
In  such  case  the  advantage  to  every  individual  fruit 
grower  could  hardly  be  estimated.  Wherever  our  fruit 
was  shipped  it  would  be  in  demand.  There  are  indi¬ 
vidual  growers  who  have  established  a  mark  that  is  a 
guarantee  of  uniform  excellence  ;  but  their  products 
are  necessarily  known  to  but  a  limited  circle  of  con¬ 
sumers. 
How  Attained. — To  improve  the  quality  of  our  fruit 
generally,  so  as  to  reach  this  standard,  every  fruit 
grower  must  be  reached  and  enthused.  Horticultural 
papers,  farmers’  institutes  and  the  experiment  station 
bulletins,  unaided,  cannot  perfect  the  reform.  They 
each  have  done  and  are  doing  much  in  this  line.  The 
object-lesson  of  the  methods  of  an  intelligent  and 
careful  neighbor  will  reach  many  who  can  be  con¬ 
vinced  in  no  other  way  that  the  necessary  care  to 
grow  good  fruit  pays  best.  A  willingness  among  good 
fruit  growers  to  let  their  methods  be  known  is  essen¬ 
tial  to  the  attainment  of  a  general  high  standard. 
That  they  will  generally  impress  on  their  more  con¬ 
servative  neighbors  the  necessity  for  high  culture, 
thinning  fruit  while  growing,  honest  packing  and 
neat,  clean  packages,  and  at  the  same  time  demon¬ 
strate  to  them  the  greater  profits  in  the  business  when 
so  conducted,  is  to  be  desired.  By  so  doing  a  radical 
change  of  methods  in  the  case  of  many  would  be  in¬ 
sured  ;  and  but  a  few  years  would  elapse  before  all 
would  gain  greatly  by  the  increased  demand  for  our 
products.  w.  D.  b. 
Bringing  Food  to  New  York. 
To  feed  the  millions  in  and  about  the  metropolis  of 
the  country,  this  center  where  population  gathers,  is 
a  task  which  taxes  the  railroads  and  steamships.  We 
all  eat,  here  in  New  York — many  of  our  people  have 
appetites  which  are  larger  than  the  means  for  grati¬ 
fying  them,  but  we  produce  nothing  in  the  eatable 
line.  All  the  food  for  this  immense  throng  must  be 
furnished  by  the  outside  world  of  agriculturists.  It 
would  be  hard  to  tell  how  many  car-loads  and  ship¬ 
loads  of  fruits,  vegetables,  cereals,  dressed  animal 
food,  live  stock  and  food  preparations  generally  are 
daily  poured  into  this  great  stomach.  If  arranged  in 
a  procession,  it  would  make  a  never-ending  one — it 
would  be  as  ceaseless  as  the  flow  of  the  rivers  which 
wash  the  shores  of  the  city.  How  all  this  gets  to  the 
city  may  interest  many  of  the  readers  of  The  Rural 
New-Yorker,  especially  those  who  are  regular  contrib¬ 
utors  to  the  supply. 
With  the  exception  of  the  New  York  Central  Rail¬ 
road,  and  the  few  roads  centering  here  from  the  East, 
the  contributing  roads,  ending  in  New  Jersey,  find  the 
Hudson  River  between  them  and  the  destination  of 
their  supplies.  The  Pennsylvania,  the  Delaware, 
Lackawanna  and  Western,  the  New  York,  Ontario  and 
Western,  the  Erie,  the  Lehigh  and  all  the  Jersey 
railways  must  float  their  freights  across  the  Hudson 
River  in  order  to  reach  their  markets.  The  New  York 
Central  has  its  cattle  yards  at  63rd  street,  and  its 
freight  depot  on  the  square  down  town,  bounded  on 
the  east  and  west  by  Varick  and  Hudson  streets,  and 
on  the  north  and  south  by  Laight  and  Beach  streets. 
Freights  which  come  in  bulk,  like  potatoes  loose  in 
the  car,  are  generally  unloaded  in  Jersey  City  and  con¬ 
veyed  across  by  dray-loads  on  the  ferries.  But  the 
great  bulk  of  freight  is  not  unloaded  until  it  reaches 
the  New  York  side.  To  get  the  cars  over,  the  various 
railway  companies  have  built  large  flat  boats,  lying 
low  on  the  water  and  decked  over.  On  these  decks 
tracks  are  laid,  and,  the  flat  being  moored  to  the  rail¬ 
way  pier,  the  cars  are  pushed  on  the  boat,  most  of 
them  having  two  parallel  tracks,  holding  about  half  a 
dozen  each,  or  a  dozen  to  a  boat.  Between  the  two 
rows  of  cars  is  a  platform,  raised  to  the  height  of  the 
car  floor,  with  a  gang  plank  at  its  end  connecting  it 
with  the  pier.  On  this  the  trucks  are  trundled  along, 
and  short  work  is  made  of  the  business  of  changing  the 
freight  from  the  ears  to  the  pier.  Of  course,  the  pro¬ 
cess  of  reloading  is  simply  a  reversal  of  the  proceedings 
described. 
There  are  other  floats  built  expressly  for  cattle  and 
live  stock.  These  are  simply  divided  into  pens,  into 
which  'the  various  consignments  are  driven  directly 
from  the  cars  on  the  Jersey  side.  Those  for  export 
are  carried  by  the  float  to  the  steamer,  and  are  gener¬ 
ally  transferred  by  simply  driving  them  over  a  gang¬ 
plank  from  the  float  to  the  vessel.  Those  intended  for 
local  dealers  are  taken  to  the  most  convenient  points. 
Much  of  the  early  fruits  and  vegetables  for  the  New 
York  market  comes  by  water.  The  Mallory  steamers, 
three  or  four  a  week,  come  from  Texas  and  Key  West. 
These  bring  us  our  early  tomatoes  and  other  early 
vegetables,  getting  in  ahead  of  the  shipments  from 
Bermuda,  which  formerly  led  the  procession.  Ward’s 
line  of  Havana  steamers  from  Havana  bring  con¬ 
siderable  fruit — of  late  they  have  brought  large  quan¬ 
tities  of  pineapples.  There  are  two  of  these  weekly. 
There  is  also  the  Spanish  line  from  Cuba  which  gives 
two  steamers  a  week.  The  Ocean  Steamship  Company, 
or  Savannah  line,  lands  steamers  here  four  days  in 
each  week  and  brings  large  quantities  of  produce. 
They  bring  a  good  deal  of  Florida  produce  which  goes 
by  rail  to  Savannah  and  thence  by  the  boats.  The  Old 
Dominion  line  from  Richmond  and  Norfolk  brings 
large  quantities  of  fruits  and  vegetables  to  this  mar¬ 
ket.  Curiously  enough,  through  its  Southern  connec¬ 
tions,  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  brings  large  ship¬ 
ments  of  produce  from  Maryland,  Delaware,  Virginia, 
North  Carolina,  South  Carolina,  Georgia,  Florida, 
Mississippi  and  Louisiana. 
Leavings. 
Bogus  Agricultural  Fairs. — If  the  management 
of  the  agricultural  societies  elsewhere  is  not  better 
than  in  Greene  County,  N.  Y.,  not  a  dollar  raised  by 
taxation  should  be  appropriated  for  their  use.  It  is 
probable  that  for  the  past  15  years  not  a  particle  of 
good  has  been  done  to  agriculture  in  this  county,  nor 
have  a  majority  of  the  managers  intended  to  do  any. 
The  practice  here  has  been  merely  indirectly  to  en¬ 
courage  immorality  and  damage  agriculture.  Gov. 
Flower  has  done  right  in  his  veto  of  that  bill  appro¬ 
priating  $100,000  to  aid  evil  and  to  demoralize  agri¬ 
culture.  geo.  c.  mott. 
Sell  Wheat  and  Buy  Flour. — On  page  337  F.  H. 
pays  his  respects  to  the  millers.  Now  there  is  a  very 
simply  way  to  evade  these  “impositions,”  and  that  is 
to  sell  the  wheat  and  buy  the  flour.  The  market  quota¬ 
tions  are  open  to  him  as  to  the  miller,  and  with  a  good 
article,  he  cannot  fail  to  get  the  top  price  for  his  grain. 
Having  the  cash  in  his  hand,  he  can  then  buy  that  grade 
of  flour  that  suits  his  taste  or  his  purse,  and  the  ras¬ 
cally  miller  is  “  left.”  Last  week  I  bought,  here  in 
Du  Page  County,  Ill.,  two  cars  of  wheat  flour,  one  cost¬ 
ing  me  $4.80  per  barrel  in  sacks,  the  other  $2.40  in 
jute.  A  bushel  of  wheat  is  worth  here  80  cents.  This 
flour  was  bought  at  the  lowest  wholesale  rates.  Giving 
F.  H.  the  advantage  of  these  prices,  what  is  wheat 
bringing  him  at  36  pounds  of  flour  and  12  pounds  of 
bran  to  the  bushel  ?  Of  the  patent  flour  he  would  get 
over  94  and  of  the  low  grade  over  51  cents’  worth,  get¬ 
ting,  in  the  first  instance,  over  14 H  cents  more  than 
his  wheat  is  worth,  and  in  the  latter  a  trifle  over  28 
cents  less.  Here  he  will  see  that  quality  counts,  and 
the  chances  are  his  rogue  miller  gave  him  more  in 
trade  than  he  could  have  got  in  the  open  market,  e.  l. 
[Every  query  must  be  accompanied  by  the  name  and  address  of  the 
writer  to  Insure  attention.  Before  asking  a  question,  please  Bee  If  It  Is 
not  answered  In  our  advertising  columns.  Ask  only  a  few  questions 
at  one  time.  Put  questions  on  a  separate  piece  of  paper.] 
Spraying  Potato  Vines  in  Drought. 
Several  Subscribers. — In  times  of  severe  drought, 
would  it  probably  pay  to  spray  the  vines  of  potatoes  ? 
With  the  modern  horse  power  sprinklers  this  work 
could  be  done  very  rapidly.  The  point  is,  would  wet¬ 
ting  the  vines  thoroughly  refresh  the  plant?  When 
would  be  the  best  time  to  do  such  work? 
Ans. — Plants  do  not  absorb  water  through  their 
leaves  and  stems.  These  organs  are  the  lungs  of  the 
plant — the  mouth  is  in  the  roots  through  which  food 
and  water  must  enter.  Here  are  some  comments  on 
the  question : 
It  is  well  known  that  plants  absorb  little  or  no 
moisture  from  the  air  but  depend  wholly  upon  the  root 
system  for  their  supply.  When  the  atmosphere  is 
charged  with  moisture,  as  it  is  during  a  rain,  evapor¬ 
ation  from  the  leaves  ceases  and  begins  again  as  soon 
as  there  is  less  than  100  per  cent  of  moisture  in  the  air. 
When  plants  are  sprinkled  the  condition  of  saturated 
atmosphere  around  the  leaves  obtains  for  a  short  time 
only,  and  though  the  leaves  may  be  given  a  fresh  ap¬ 
pearance  in  consequence  of  being  washed,  the  ben¬ 
efit  derived  is  more  apparent  than  real  because  in  time 
of  drought  the  surface  of  the  ground  soon  becomes 
baked  and  hard  and  subsequently  evaporation  from 
the  soil  is  more  rapid  than  it  is  under  the  “  dust 
blanket.”  When  evaporation  is  least  the  benefit  of 
spraying  is  more  protracted,  and  therefore  evening 
would  probably  be  the  best  time  to  sprinkle  the 
plants.  s.  A.  BEACH. 
N.  Y.  Experiment  Station. 
The  question  of  spraying  potato  vines  for  the  pur¬ 
pose  of  mitigating  the  effects  of  drought  is  new  to  me 
and  I  do  not  recollect  having  seen  any  data  upon  the 
point.  However,  I  presume  every  gardener  and  truck 
grower  will  admit  without  question  that  wetting  the 
foliage  revives  a  plant  and  checks  the  exhaustion  due 
