THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
389 
i89i 
Business. 
NEW YORK STATE HAY. 
This is known throughout the length and breadth of this 
country for its very desirable quality. It consists chiefly 
of Timothy or limestone hay, as it is sometimes called in 
the New York markets. The price has for several years 
ranged from $10 to $18 per ton to the grower, the buyer 
furnishing a press and the men to operate it and the farmer 
furnishing the additional help and board for all hands, 
horse feed and coal, and he has also had to deliver the bales 
to the cars. All this was quite satisfactory until last fall 
when the 300 hay dealers in this State formed a “ trust ” 
fixing the price at $7, and charging $1.75 per ton for baling, 
in case the dealer baled the hay and did not buy it. Nor 
was this all; an iron-clad contract was produced for the 
farmer to sign, which gave the buyer the privilege of grad¬ 
ing the hay at the car and many received only $5 or $6 for 
hay for which they expected $7. There was no use in 
talking back after they had signed the contract, for the 
monopolists could pay what they saw fit and the growers 
were obliged to take it. 
All this naturally caused a vigorous kick, and new presses 
were bought by enterprising men. Most of the latter 
were approached by the trust men who tried to induce 
them by various means not to press for farmers. The 
presses, however, have been constantly running and some 
of the farmers have shipped their hay, while others have 
sold theirs where they saw fit. The hay dealers, however, 
had too good a thing, and stuck well to their trust, and go 
where one might, $7 was all they would offer and they got 
plenty at that price, and, strange as it may seem, some old 
and very prosperous farmers have sold recently at that 
figure. But now the spell is broken and prices are look¬ 
ing up, and if the present dry spell continues hay will be in 
good demand. 
One of the leading hay dealers told me that he had no 
idea that $7 would buy any hay; but was instructed to try 
it and report. The result was that he bought several hun¬ 
dred tons the first day and had no occasion to ask his firm 
for a raise in price. Moreover, his hay was largely bought 
of good prosperous farmers and not of those who were 
obliged to sell, of whom we have so many. The hay buyer 
evidently thought, as Hiram S bley once said, “ a man’s a 
fool to be poor.” 
The above demonstrates one fact: one can organize any 
other class of men and hold them together till a given ob¬ 
ject is accomplished; but the modern farmer is an excep¬ 
tion, and no matter how suspicious and careful he may be, 
there is one man to whom he sells, and another of whom 
he buys, and they can swinole him the year round without 
his knowing it. Will the joung farmer of the future be 
more progressive ? C. s. F. 
Lodi, N. Y._ 
DOES IT PAY 10 USE NEW BERRY BASKETS AND 
GIFT CRATES ? 
In The Rukal of April 25, C. E., Ontario County, N. Y., 
asks several questions about gift crates in the shipping of 
fruit. In the issue of May 2, page 349, the New York Gro¬ 
cers’ Union and the Wholesale Fruit Dealers’ Associa¬ 
tion discuss the same question. This subject is of suffi¬ 
cient importance to the fruit grower, the middleman and the 
retailer to warrant a fuller presentation of the facts. 
For two years past I have been the selling agent of 
produce for the State Grange of New Jersey, and as this 
State is one in which the growing of berries takes a lead¬ 
ing position, 1 have investigated this question from the 
standpoint of the grower, middleman, retailer and con¬ 
sumer. Its importance necessitates a division of the sub¬ 
ject into several parts. This paper will be devoted to the 
consideration of the question, Does it pay to use new bas¬ 
kets ? The answer is, yes, aud it is based on two grounds : 
first, the use of new baskets will increase the net returns 
to the grower fully one third, taking the entire season 
through, and, second, it will cause one-fourth more quarts 
to be consumed. 
It is a well-known fact that by far the larger propor¬ 
tion of the berries shipped from a distance arrive in bad 
condition—that is, more or less damaged. By far the larger 
percentage of loos in the average shipments in an ordinary 
temperature occurs in the top layer of baskets, owing to 
the want of ventilation. The air between the under side 
of the cover of the crate and the top of the berries in the 
upper layer of baskets become so heated as to cause the 
juice to flow from the fruit, or, as the receiver says, the 
berr.es in this layer of baskets are partly cooked, and the 
baskets are stained with juice. ‘This is the portion of the 
crate in which mold on the berries first appears. The 
grower objects to the use of new baskets, as they cost him 
an additional half cent per quart, or 16 cents to the 32- 
quart crate. If the growers would only consider that the 
spores of the mold are present in the old baskets and are 
sure to develop when berries are put in the latter under 
favorable conditions, they would readily see that their 
profits are not inconsiderably lessened by the use of such 
leceptacles. What grower is willing by saving half a cent 
to imperil the safe carriage of perhaps a whole crate of 
berries ? Two years’ experience in selling berries has fully 
convinced me that the use of old berries will, taking the 
returns made to the grower for a whole season, diminish 
his net returns fully one-third. Berries are very suscepti¬ 
ble to injury from dirty surroundings, and an old basket 
is a pest-house to all berries placed in it. 
The return of empty baskets to the middleman is a 
source of vexation to him. It originates more hard feel¬ 
ings between him and the purchaser than any other thing. 
In the hurry of the busy berry season it necessitates the 
employment of one or two men to count the return “emp¬ 
ties” and then it leads to no small amount of bookkeeping. 
The retailer has his share of trouble from them. He 
would prefer to sell the basket with the fruit. Among the 
most perfect berries he receives there are more or less soft 
ones in the basket. The condition of the berries is not at 
all improved by having to empty them into a paper bag. 
By the time the bag reaches the home of the consumer the 
berries are a mass of mush. The consumption of berries 
in the large cities is not curtailed by the appetite of the 
consumer becoming cloyed; but it is because the good 
housewife becomes disgusted with picking over a mass of 
soft, molded and mashed fruit, and she wants no more 
berries in the house. She stops buying them both because 
she is disgusted with them and she cannot afford to pay 
for worthless stock. I believe as much damage is caused 
to berries by emptying them out of the baskets into paper 
bags as by any other cause. The disgust of the house¬ 
wife limits consumption fully one-fourth. 
Many retailers now sell the baskets with the berries and 
replace them with new baskets in the crate. J. B. R. 
Newark, N. J. 
ENSILAGE HARVESTING MACHINERY. 
The Rural well says, on page 348, that the “ silo is now 
of national importance.” It also says that there is too 
much hand work in carrying the stalks from the field to 
the silo, as lifting, binding, and carrying must still be 
done by hand. Now, a machine may be made that will 
cut and load ensilage corn 9 to 12 feet high, that averages 
20 big loads per acre ; but I am in doubt about it. In 
little corn, machinery will work ; but in big. profitable silo 
corn, it will tangle, clog, and do everything that it should 
not do, until it becomes a severe strain on a man’s Chris¬ 
tianity. Ensilage corn can be so cut that only one lifting 
or binding is needed and hand carrying of the stalks can 
be reduced to a minimum. In detail, here is how I 
adopted the plan last fall. 
One man with a corn-knife cut for three teams to draw on 
the average 45 big two-horse loads per day, and he got two 
men’s wages for doing it. He cut the corn three rows at a 
breadth, and laid it in small gavels, butts all one way. 
The sled cutter in big corn is quite as bad a failure as the 
reaper. We gather on flat hay-racks floored over. Two 
stout men pick up the gavels and hand them to the 
driver, who lays them cross wise on the rack, with the 
tops all one way. The wagon is driven alongside of 
this cut corn, and the fodder is all handed up from one 
side, butts first. Two men will hand up a ton load in 
about eight or ten minutes. At the silo, the load of fod¬ 
der is driven up beside the cutter which has an addition 
of an extension table 12 feet long. The cutter is down on 
the ground, and the fodder is unloaded down hill upon the 
extension table, tops toward the knives. The driver drops 
or rather swings off a bundle as often as he sees the clear 
line at the feeder’s left hand, and no faster. In a few 
loads he becomes an expert in unloading, and I have seen 
a driver put a 3,000-pound load upon the table In eight 
minutes without a break. This plan reduces the working 
force to a minimum, and dispenses with all men at the 
silo, save the feeder and the engineer. The “distributors” 
on the silo so economize labor in the pits that the engineer 
finds ample time to do what little needs doing in the silo 
in the way of keeping the ensilage level. 
I doubt if any machine could cut my ensilage as well and 
cheaply as did that Yankee with his “ tomahawk,” neither 
could I have loaded the fodder as cheaply and as satisfac¬ 
torily as did those two boys at $1.00 each per day and 
board. JOHN GOULD. 
Portage Co., Ohio. 
IMPLEMENT NOTES. 
Business In Spraying Pumps.— There will be more trees 
sprayed this year than ever before. All the pump makers 
report excellent business. P. C. Lewis writes as follows 
and his note is a fair sample of others : “ In the past few 
days we have booked orders for over 800 of these outfits. I 
never saw such a rush of orders since I have been in the 
business. My trade the present year is about quadruple 
what it has ever been in the past. I am receiving from 
150 to 250 letters per day, and have done a less amount of 
advertising this season than in several previous ones. An¬ 
other season I propose to have at least 5,000 of these outfits 
ready for shipment April 1.” 
Potato Diggers Needed.— The Farm Implement News 
gives the following: 
I was engaged a few days ago in watching a company of 
laborers at work digging potatoes In a field in the valley of 
the Rimac, writes a traveler from Peru. A team of oxen 
plowed up the hills with a light plow, leaving the tubers 
exposed on the ground. Six Indian workmen picked up 
the potatoes and carried them to a pile in one corner of 
the field, while the overseer, a Spaniard, stood in majestic 
and dignified idleness watching the work. The men who 
were picking up the potatoes had neither pail, bag nor box 
in which to carry them. Two of them put the potatoes in 
their hats and the others carried them in their hands, each 
one going from every part of the field to the piles in one 
corner, carrying five or six potatoes each trip. Here were 
eight men and a team of oxen engaged in doing work which 
could be done by a man and a boy. 
No doubt they stopped to “ tell stories,” too, or else they 
have special agricultural traits in Peru. Wherever pota¬ 
toes are dug there is a call for a cheap and serviceable dig¬ 
ger. The potato plows with prongs behind the plowshare 
do good work in loose soil and open the way for better and 
higher-priced machines. As we have frequently said, the 
only perfect potato digger is one with strength and ma¬ 
chinery enough to lift earth, vines and tubers and shake 
them apart. It is not to be expected that a perfect machine 
has yet been made—we are still waiting for the perfect hoe 
—but any one of the present machines will pay! 
Possibilities of a Cotton Picker.— Every year we 
hear of a “ practical cotton picker” that is going to revo¬ 
lutionize cotton growing. The machine has not yet 
appeared, but there can be no question about the great 
service it would be to Southern farming. In speaking of 
the last cotton picker—the Todd machine—Bradstreet’s 
say8 : “If the cost of picking can be lowered so much by 
the introduction of picking machines, the saving to the 
farmer will be somewhere from cent to 3 cents per 
pound, according to which of these estimates is correct. 
There would be a further saving of no slight consequence in 
being able to pick the crop at the right time, irrespective 
of the supply of labor, the inadequacy of which now often 
causes serious loss. The effect of this would be enormous, 
hardly excelled by that of the introduction of the mower, 
the reaper or the harvester into the world’s agriculture. 
Until prices were readjusted, of course, the benefits would 
inure to the cotton planter, and, though temporary, would 
be very great. Assuming the value of last year’s crop to 
be $350,000,000, had these machines been in general use 
with such effect as is predicted for them, the Southern 
cotton-growers would be richer by at least $80,000,000, and 
the Southern laborers would be poorer by that much 
money. Ultimately this gain would reach the consumers 
of cotton, after competition had cut down the price.” 
Two New Devices for Housewives. 
Below are shown pictures of two new devices for which 
patents have been recently issued. The chopping kDife, 
Fig. 136, is a simple combination of four sharp knives so 
arranged that they may be easily separated for sharpen- 
Fig. 136. 
ing. This knife will certainly “ cover more surface; ” 
whether it will clog so as to prevent neat work is to be de¬ 
termined by trial. 
The other curious machine, Fig. 137, is a low table placed 
on castors so that it will easily run about the room. At 
one end is a tank with a clothes wringer attached, and at 
the other a device for scrubbing floors. This is a long- 
handled mop or brush, the handle of which works on a 
Fig. 137. 
pivot, so that one may work it to and fro by taking hold 
of the upper end. A can of hot water with a faucet for 
letting it run upon the brush completes the machine. The 
housewife is supposed to trundle this machine about the 
floor, and work the handle while standing up if she 
wishes. It is to save her back. The inventor should go 
further and add an attachment that would enable the lady 
to have her chair on the machine and work it with her 
foot or have a dog power there and make the big dog earn 
his living. 
New Cutaway Tools. —The appearance of Clark’s Cut¬ 
away harrow some years ago, started a revolution in cul¬ 
tivation. Strictly speaking, the tool was not a harrow—it 
was a digger—doing the work of a spade rather than that 
of a rake. People found that on many soils and in some 
seasons the Cutaway saved the work of the plow, stirring 
the soil all that was needed for shallow-rooted crops. The 
question naturally arose why not use this digging princi¬ 
ple for the lighter work of cultivating crops ? Why not 
scratch and dig the ground Instead of tearing through it 
with a cultivator ? As a result of this question we have 
the Clark’s Cutaway corn cultivator. The principle of 
this is the same as that of the harrow—a series of discs 
with saw-like teeth work lightly over the ground throwing 
the soil to or from the rows as desired. This tool can be 
used for a dozen different purposes and does good work in 
all. Another machine is the Cutaway revolving gang 
plow. These plows combine the features of the disc, Cut¬ 
away and ordinary plowshare, cutting a furrow from four 
to seven feet wide, the soil being turned, twisted and 
shaken, and left in excellent condition. These tools are 
made by the Higganum Manufacturing Co., Higganum, 
Conn. Send for the catalogue and look at them. 
There is no reason why that big dog of yours should 
not earn his living by doing some useful work. The big 
ram, too, has lots of surplus energy that might be put to 
use. A good dog power will give either animal a chance 
to work off surplus flesh and at the same time contribute 
a little to the farm prosperity. Churning, pumping, run¬ 
ning the fanning mill, corn sheller or grindstone, can all 
be done by the dog or ram. The Enterprise Animal 
Powers, made by Minard Harder, Cobleskill, N. Y., have 
many peculiar points of superiority and will suit your 
dog—if he can be suited. 
Decorah Steel Windmill.— The circular of the Goulds 
& Caldwell Co., 22 and 24 N. Canal St., Chicago, Ill., de¬ 
scribes and illustrates the above named mill. The wheel 
aud vane are made entirely of steel, and the mill is claimed 
to have the most powerful movement ever employed in 
any windmill. The company proposes to guarantee several 
things about their mill and it will pay any one who thinks 
of buying a machine of this kind to read the catalogue. 
