1891 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
885 
CHANGES IN MARKETS. 
While great changes have taken place 
in the manner of producing all farm 
crops, those in the methods of marketing 
have kept pace with them. The transfer 
of products by barter, in vogue in abo¬ 
riginal days, is a thing of the past, except 
in country stores in remote localities. 
Dealings directly between producer and 
consumer seem but a memory. More 
and more middlemen come between. In 
this city a large part of the trade in farm 
products is carried on through commis¬ 
sion men. We have space this week for 
but a reference to these, but shall soon 
give an illustrated article going more 
fully into the subject. 
Commission men here differ as to the 
time of the origin of their business. 
Some of them say that it began to assume 
important proportions about the time of 
the war; others place the date much 
earlier. 
Formerly receivers of country produce 
made settlements with shippers at the 
end of the season, advancing small 
amounts from time to time as desired. 
Now shippers demand payment for ship¬ 
ments promptly on sale, and many times 
do not give time for the goods to arrive. 
Some of them not only want daily mail 
reports of the markets, but demand tele¬ 
graphic service as well. One well-known 
commission firm informs us that its ex¬ 
penses for telegrams alone to shippers 
amount to $70 to $80 per month. 
Not many decades ago, the produce 
coming to New York was nearly all used 
here. Now this city is a grand distribut¬ 
ing center for all New England and a 
large part of New York and New Jersey, 
besides much other interior territory. 
Aside from this, vast quantities are ex¬ 
ported. This, of course, has brought for¬ 
ward a great army of middlemen, and the 
amount of produce handled annually is 
something enormous and is constantly 
increasing. 
RECEIPTS OF GRAIN AT NEW YORK. 
1885. 
1890. 
Wheat, bushels. 
. 24,331,153 
15,794,857 
Corn, “ . 
. 38,257,132 
34,261,466 
Oats, “ . 
. 26,237,225 
33,744,000 
Barley, “ . 
. 4,266,818 
4,295,640 
Rye, “ . 
. 690,861 
1,228,393 
Peas, “ . 
. 305,721 
619,014 
Flour, barrels. 
. 5,988,575 
5,635,384 
During some of the intervening years 
the receipts of some grains were much 
larger than during the last year. 
CROP AND MARKET NOTES. 
Florida oranges are plentiful. 
Lady Apples bring high prices. 
The California fruit season is closed. 
Japanese persimmons are slow of sale. 
The Christmas tree crop is coming to 
market. 
English mistletoe is now on sale in the 
city markets. 
California quinces bring 30 cents a 
dozen at retail. 
The sale of venison will be prohibited 
by law after December 15. 
Fresno County, Cal., reports a sweet 
potato weighing 44% pounds. What a 
whopper ! 
California almonds are said to have be¬ 
come extremely popular and to be equal 
to the French almonds. 
Game of all kinds is plentiful, but large 
quantities of it are being put into cold 
storage to meet the demand that is sure 
to come about the holidays, and after the 
laws of many of the States preclude far¬ 
ther shipments. 
The time during which poultry can be 
kept in cold storage is practically unlim¬ 
ited. One firm claims to have turkeys 
which have been in the freezer two years, 
and another claims to have a turkey 
which has been in limbo 10 years. 
A Florida inventor claims to have dis¬ 
covered that by taking scions from orange 
and lemon trees, budding them and then 
rooting them in sand, and, subsequently, 
planting them in orchards, they will pro¬ 
duce a crop of oranges in three years 
from the planting. He claims that he 
can in this way save three or four years 
of waiting. 
The San Francisco Produce Exchange 
has prepared its semi-annual statement 
of the total stocks of wheat and grain in 
California to December 1. This shows, 
9,965,000 centals of wheat against 12,- 
169,000 on the same date last year ; barley, 
2,284,000 centals as against 1,616,000 cent¬ 
als at this same date last year, and flour 
140,000 barrels as against 118,000 barrels 
December 1 last year. 
Christmas will occur on a Friday this 
year and poultry intended for that market 
should be here not later than the Monday 
or Tuesday previous. A market author¬ 
ity says that, from present indications 
it looks as if we should have a large sup 
ply of turkeys and of unusually fine qual 
ity, and if the weather is favorable no 
doubt a satisfactory market, but extreme 
prices are not expected. Choice ducks and 
geese will be wanted and a few fine 
chickens will sell fairly. Shippers are 
urged to use great care in selecting, dress¬ 
sing and packing, to have their poultry 
look handsome and attractive when 
opened, and not ship any inferior poul¬ 
try of any kind for the holidays. 
AGRICULTURAL. NEWS. 
Huge Swiss cheeses are being imported. 
Delaware farmers purpose political ac¬ 
tion. 
California Citrus Fair at Auburn, Janu¬ 
ary 11. 
The Indiana State Grange met in Indi¬ 
anapolis, Tuesday. 
The largest oranges are selected for 
English shipments. 
Imported German bologna now comes 
in yellow wrappers. 
Galesburg, Ill., is to have a beet-sugar 
factory costing $600,000. 
The Nebraska State Grange opened its 
meeting in Fremont, Wednesday. 
A case of poisoning from eating rotten 
bananas is reported from Denver. 
The New York State Fish and Game 
Commission met in this city this week. 
Thousands of wild ducks were killed 
by a severe storm along the Delaware 
River. 
The New Jersey State Veterinary As¬ 
sociation held a meeting in Camden last 
week. 
A car-load of Japanese persimmons has 
been shipped from southern California to 
Europe. 
California horticulturists will make ef¬ 
forts to keep the peach yellows out of 
the State. 
Ventura County, Cal., claims a Lima 
bean ranch of 2,200 acres, the largest in 
the world. 
The New York State Dairymen's Asso¬ 
ciation closed a three days’ meeting at 
Owego, Thursday. 
In Nebraska during the month of Oc¬ 
tober farm mortgages to the amount of 
$1,348,528 were released of record. 
Illinois pays two cents each for the 
heads of English sparrows. One claim¬ 
ant sold the bodies for reed birds. 
The New York State Dairymen’s Asso¬ 
ciation has recommended that a memorial 
be raised in honor of Col. F. I). Curtis. 
It is recommended in France that a 
duty be placed upon raisins and dried 
grapes equal to three francs to the 100 
kilos. 
The Michigan State Grange opposes 
the Sub-Treasury scheme and free silver 
and favors free mail delivery to the rural 
districts. 
It is estimated that it will cost $35,000 
to build fishways to enable salmon to get 
up the Hudson to its head waters in the 
mountains. 
A Pennsylvania firm of cattle dealers 
has sued the I ’ennsyl vania Railroad Com¬ 
pany for $20,000 unjust rebates allowed to 
a rival shipper. 
The annual meeting of the New York 
State Farmers’ League was held in Utica, 
Thursday. It was decided to admit 
women to membership. 
Dr. W. Seward Webb is stocking his 
Vermont farm with 2,500 quails which, 
will be sheltered and fed during the win¬ 
ter and liberated in the spring. 
Some of the Western loan companies 
are fearful that they have got them¬ 
selves into hot water by the usurious 
rates they have exacted for loans. 
California fruit growers will erect a 
monument to Matthew Cook, the pioneer 
entomologist of the State, whose devoted 
labors ultimately caused his death. 
Large numbers of turkeys have been 
bought in this district, says a dispatch 
from Ottawa, for shipment to England. 
The average price has been 9% cents a 
pound. 
The Maryland State Grange has unan¬ 
imously passed a resolution empowering 
the Master to appoint a committee to ar¬ 
range for a big agricultural exhibit at the 
Columbian Exposition. 
Messrs. J. S. & W. G. Crosby, of 
Greenville, Mich., shipped A. S. Fletcher 
& Co., of Indianapolis, Ind., an invoice of 
50 imported yearling ewes last week. 
This is said to have been the finest car¬ 
load of sheep that has ever left Michigan. 
The Ayrshire Breeders’ Association 
will hold its 17th annual meeting at the 
Fifth Avenue Hotel, New York, January 
6, at 2 p. M. All interested in the breed¬ 
ing of Ayrshire cattle are invited. 
It is claimed, and apparently proved, 
that unscrupulous Eastern packers are 
labeling inferior canned fruit with Cali¬ 
fornia labels, to the deception of the pub¬ 
lic and the detriment of the California 
product. 
Immense roof gardens will be estab¬ 
lished around the central dome of the 
Horticultural building at the Columbian 
Exposition. They are intended to illus¬ 
trate the possibilities of roof gardening 
in large cities. 
The New York Central and Canadian 
Pacific Railroads have contracted to haul 
within the next few weeks 5,000 carloads 
of Western grain over the Canadian 
Pacific, Rome, Watertown and Ogdens- 
burg, and New York Central to New 
York, bound for European markets. 
Later reports from the famine-stricken 
districts of southern Mexico, present a pit¬ 
iable picture of starvation and despair. 
The fields have been blighted by the 
drought, and the corn and black bean 
crops, upon which the common people de¬ 
pend for food, have been utterly lost. 
It is said that the cattle business of 
Wyoming is being ruined by desparadoes 
from Texas who overrun Wyoming, steal 
the steers and rebrand them and shoot 
the cows. They defy the law, but the 
ranchers propose to organize an exter¬ 
mination party to wipe out their 
enemies. 
The report of the Massachusetts State 
Board of Agriculture on abandoned or 
partly abandoned farms in that State 
shows that there are 887 such farms. 
They are principally in the western coun¬ 
ties and represent but 3.45 per cent, of 
the total farm acreage of the State, and 
but 87-100 per cent, of the value of said 
acreage. 
Twelve hundred quarts of milk, des¬ 
tined for the Philadelphia market, were 
left standing on the platform at the Cam¬ 
den Depot Tuesday, the dealers refusing 
to accept it owing to the price being in¬ 
creased to 4% cents a quart. A couple of 
days later 1,100 quarts were dumped into 
the river because the dealers refused to 
take it at the increased price. 
A commission firm in St. Louis secured 
large shipments of produce by promises 
of high prices, prompt settlements and 
low commissions. As nearly as can be 
learned, they never made any returns 
for the large amount of produce received, 
but pocketed the proceeds so long as it 
seemed safe for them to stay and then 
absconded. The farmers are out thous¬ 
ands of dollars. 
In the center of the Columbian Expo¬ 
sition Horticultural building there will be 
a miniature mountain 70 feet high, which 
will be covered with the most beauti¬ 
ful tropical plants, ferns and flowers. 
Streams will dash down the sides and it 
will be a veritable production of a sec¬ 
tion of some rarely beautiful tropical 
mountain. Beneath the mountain, it is 
proposed to conduct a garden by electric 
light. 
The cotton farmers of Greenville 
County, S. C., raise the cotton, and now 
they are seeking to raise the price for 
1892. Their plan is a novel one. They 
have resolved to assign all cotton made in 
their county in 1892 to the County Commis¬ 
sioners, or other officers to be elected by 
the voters of the county, provided these 
officers pay for the same in cash or 
county bonds at 11 cents a pound for 
middling and less or more for other cot¬ 
ton by class or grade, one cent a pound 
to be received for expenses, etc. The 
same meeting at which this was adopted 
also passed upon a resolution favoring 
the inauguration of a movement to secure 
from the general government the restora¬ 
tion of $50,000,000 taxes collected on cot¬ 
ton. It is proposed to invite the aid of 
all the Southern States in this effort to 
get Congress to refund this tax. 
Christmas to Thanksgiving: “ After You, my Dear!” Fig. 325 . 
