554 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
August 19 
with a lot of wood tied up in them. They must be 
bound with wire, and compactly and neatly pressed. 
The bales made by the perpetual presses are as good 
as any. Hay is not repressed here to aDy extent.” 
“ What about freight rates ? ” 
“ Tt costs about one-third more to freight hay across 
than grain. To English ports, the rates are now from 
30 to 40 shillings (from $8 to $10, in round numbers), 
to other ports from 40 to 45 shillings and upwards. 
This is per long ton. and here is another point to re¬ 
member : there hay is sold by the long ton, 2,240 
pounds, so that those who are comparing prices here 
with those in Europe must remember this. It makes a 
difference of 240 pounds on every ton, or about one ton 
in eight. Freight rates vary, but these are about an 
average. Freight is estimated by the steamships at 40 
cubic feet per ton of space occupied, and not by the 
actual weight.” 
Grain Cheaper than Hay. 
“ What is your judgment as to the prospect for 
higher prices here ? ” 
“ I don’t think that they will go any higher. They 
are too high now to make it profitable to ship from 
here. The foreign buyer will practice a great deal 
more economy in feeding than usual. He is more 
economical any way than the American. He will buy 
and feed more grain, because it is cheaper for him. 
In New York tc-dav, a long ton of good shipping hay 
cost3 about $18 40. A ton of corn costs about $20, one 
of wheat, $26, of oats, $31.20, and one of bran about 
$17.80. As I said before, the freight on hay costs 
about one-third more than that on grain, because of 
its greater bulk, so you see that it is cheaper for the 
European farmer to feed more grain. Of course he 
must have some hay, but he will work in all the grain 
hs can. The aftermath in Europe, too, is coming on 
well, and this will all be saved, and will go a long 
way to help out the shortage. 
“Then, again, the American farmer will feed more 
economically. He will mow out all the fence corners 
carefully and save it all. He will feed his stock more 
sparingly so as to have more hay to sell. In these 
ways the demand will be reduced, and the supply 
increased.” 
“You think then that it is of no advantage for the 
farmer to hold his crop ? ” 
“ No ; for I don’t think that prices will go much 
higher, while there is quite a heavy shrinkage on hay, 
generally about 15 per cent, and this is quite an item. 
The farmer who sells early, avoids this loss. Hay 
should be freshly baled and kept from the light, as it 
changes color rapidly when exposed.” 
Hay Inspection ; Cattle and Their Food. 
“ Of what advantage to the farmers are the listing 
and inspection of hay, according to the rules recently 
adopted by the Produce Exchance ? ” 
“ None that I can see. It simply enables the mem¬ 
bers of the Exchange to gamble in it. But I don’t 
believe that will be done very extensively, as it is too 
bulky a product to store and handle to make it prac¬ 
ticable. It is quite different from grain.” 
“Is the grading of hay as they have done it, all 
right for this market.” 
“ Pretty nearly, but their grade of prime hay is a 
misleading one. That is in the interest of dealers. 
Prime hay means pure Timothy, without a spear of 
anything else in it. If you know anything about 
meado vs you know that it is next to an impossibility. 
A bale of prime hay seldom comes to market; it is a 
great rarity. But most farmers think that their hay 
is prime, and ship it expecting to get prime prices. 
They are usually disappointed and get prices for No. 1, 
and perhaps No. 2. The quotations on prime hay 
often help a dealer to get those prices for No. 1 from 
a buyer who is not posted on grades.” 
“ If the inspection is of no benefit to the shipper, I 
suppose he isn’t expected to pay for it ? ” 
“ He usually pays for haH of it, and the receiver 
for half.” 
“ Has th;re been much of an export business in hay 
in previous years ? ” 
“ Not very extensive. There has been considerable 
hay sent abroad in a rather peculiar way, but no one 
seems to have thought it worth while to make any 
fuss about it. The cattle exporters, when shipping 
live cattle, send along hay enough to last them across. 
But to be on the safe side, they send along enough to 
last them two or three times as long, and then sell 
the surplus on the other side without any dock 
charges. There is a vessel loading with cattle here 
now which will make the passage in 10 days ; but 
they are putting on hay enough to last the cattle on 
board for 30 days. This is, of course, to make sure of 
a supply in case of accident to the machinery, or of the 
vessel being detained by storms, as is frequently the 
case, but the amount exported in this way makes quite 
an item in the long run. So long as the English don’t 
object, why should we.” f. h. v. 
ANOTHER BERRY TICKET. 
I have a ticket for keeping account with my pickers 
that I like better than any I have seen. It is simple, 
rapid and convenient. I have found it very satisfac¬ 
tory, and perhaps some readers of The R. N.-Y. may 
find it so, too. When I began growing berries several 
years ago, I used a modification of a ticket I had seen 
somewhere. It was similar to one published in The 
Rukai, lately. The objection to this kind is the cal¬ 
culation necessary to find the value of tickets not full. 
There will always be many tickets not filled out, for 
which payment is to be made. With my present ticket 
one can tell at a glance the number of boxes picked. 
The pickers like these better for this reason. After 
the first tickets are given out, all the one in charge 
needs are a few extra tickets, a pen or pencil to put the 
number of the picker and kind of berry on the ticket, 
or a punch. The name and number of each picker 
are kept in my book ; only the rightful owner of a 
ticket can get the money on it. If a ticket is lost and 
found by some one else, it is of no value except to the 
owner. For greater convenience, I use a different 
color for each berry. The color also indicates the 
value of a full ticket, or price per box for those not 
full. The dark red is a strawberry ticket; the lighter 
shade is for currants and the lightest for raspberries, 
the blue for blackberries, the yellow for peas and 
beans. Full tickets are worth $1.50, $3, $20 and $25— 
the latter for beans and peas. Of course the full 
1 2 3 4 5^ 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 
17 18 19 20 21 22 23 14 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 
33 34 85 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 
_ l EDWARD P. SPENCE. 
g £ 
g WEST BRIDGEWATER, MASS. 
49 50 51 12 53 54 65 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 
65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 
81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 
name of each berry can be printed. As I grow sev¬ 
eral kinds, I had simply the word “ berry,” so the 
tickets could be printed at less cost. Any rules the 
grower may wish may also appear, edw. p. spexce. 
THE STATE OF FARMING IN ENGLAND. 
There is in the human mind, under given circum¬ 
stances, a condition, or state, or attitude, which may 
be described as the negation of hope, the pent-up de¬ 
lirium of reckless, devil-ir ay-care unconcern, whatever 
the sequel may be, and men thereupon just simply 
stand up and snap their fingers at the conspiring fates. 
Indeed, a point may be reached in the road to ruin 
where men fling effort and apprehension to the winds, 
and a deceptive, unnatural calm hides a great spirit 
of deep unrest, which for the moment lies quiescent. 
We have not yet—at least, most of us have not_ 
come into that condition of calm before a storm, but 
the position of the bulk of farmers in England to-day, 
particularly those in the southern and eastern coun¬ 
ties, is one which causes a feeling of sprained and pain¬ 
ful apprehension. In the north midland and northern 
counties the state of things is not so bad, or nearly so 
bad, as in the southern half of the country. Indeed, 
north of the Trent, matters improve the farther north 
we go ; and Scotland is much less a sufferer than Eng¬ 
land, if indeed she is a sufferer at all. All the mischief 
has been caused by the drought which has prevailed 
since the early part of March, and which has, as I have 
already intimated, been much more pronounced in the 
southern than the northern half of the country. It 
has come to an end, we hope ; or at all events, there 
has been a welcome break in it; subsequently, how¬ 
ever, it has been trying to reestablish itself. 
We may say, indeed, that the northern half of Eng¬ 
land has not taken much harm from the drought, save 
in reference to diminished crops of hay, straw and 
roots, which are wanted for the support of live stock 
in winter. In some localities there is a famine for 
water, and there the deplorable state of things is in¬ 
tensified. It is bad enough for stock to have little 
enough food on the pastures, but it is worse when 
they are short of water. It is surprising, in fact, how 
well live stock will do in a hot, dry time, when pas¬ 
tures are very bare, if only they have plenty of water. 
England as a rule is well supplied with running 
streams, but there are districts here and there where 
there are no running streams, and there the farmers 
depend wholly on artificial reservoirs of water— 
“ meers,” as they are termed—circular basins scooped 
out, 10 or 20 yards in diamer, and 3 or 4 yards deep, 
sloping gently to a point at the bottom. These meers 
are carefully lined, first with a two-inch coat of lime 
asphalt; next with a four to six-inch coat of thor¬ 
oughly well tempered clay, beaten solidly into a com¬ 
pact, seamless sheet all round ; and, lastly with a care¬ 
fully-set covering of stone, the interstices amongst 
which are filled with fine gravel. The dx oughts of 
o 
ft 
ft 
ft 
3 
ft 
o* 
3 
: 
Q 
t-9 
1868 and 1870 caused a great number of these meers to 
be constructed, and they have been of immeasurable 
service this year. All the same, however, the water 
supply has given out in many districts, and the precious 
liquid has had to be carted from the nearest available 
sources. Away from the districts whose water has dried 
up, live stock, I say, have done, as a rule, very well, 
though they have been more or less short of food. 
But, as a rule, the hay and straw crops are light, in 
many counties mere vestiges of crops ; and it is there¬ 
fore in the coming winter, rather than now, that stock 
farmers will feel the p'.nch. And yet on some sorts 
of land—retentive soils, with clay subsoils—there are 
excellent crops, excellent for any season, and magnifi¬ 
cent in one like this. On the other hand, there are 
many counties in the south where the hay crop is not 
20 per cent of an average all through, and some soils 
on which there was no crop at all. 
Have you Americans and Canadians any hay to 
spare? If so, send it over, and we will pay you well 
for it. Even now, hay is worth $30 to $50 per ton ; 
what, therefore, will it be worth in six or eight 
months’ time ? Of course I relate all this with a sense 
of the possibility of matters “panning out ” better 
than we dare at present hope for. We may, for in¬ 
stance, have a very grassy autumn and a winter so 
fine in the front half of it that our cattle may live out 
of doors until Christmas has turned. Failing these 
two much-desired conditions, I fear tliat the coming 
winter wiil be a heart-breaking experience for thou¬ 
sands of farmers in Old England. Failing, I say, a 
grassy autumn and a fine fall up to Christmas, it is 
almost a certainty that lean stock will be at lower 
prices than any one living has seen aforetime in this 
country. Fat stock are selling tolerably well now 
and milk is in good demand; but young and other 
stock that are not in milk and are unsuitable for fat¬ 
tening during the season of grass, are even now at 
very low values. At what value, then, must they 
stand if an early winter sets in when the time comes ? 
And this is the state of farming in Engiand to-day_a 
very short supply of forage for winter and uncom¬ 
monly bad prices for live stock. The prospect, in all 
conscience, is about as dreary and disheartening as 
can easily be imagined. 
We are, of course, taking such precautions as lie 
within our reach, and it is certain that the strictc st 
economy all round will be practiced. Europe is being 
searched for hay, and it is coming from you, from 
Canada, and even from Australia. Fortunately, too, 
for us stock farmers, corn and grain are abnormally 
low in price, and likely to remain in that neighbor¬ 
hood for another winter. This sort of thing does not 
suit our arable farmers, who find wheat-growing 
wholly and decidedly unremunerative; nor indeed 
does it suit your farmers who raise the corn and grain. 
What the winter will bring no man can tell; but, to 
say the least, it cannot bring much comfort to live¬ 
stock farmers in England, at all events in the southern 
half of the land. [pbof.] i. p shelbon. 
Sheen, Ashbourne, England. 
WEAK BORDEAUX MIXTURE FOR PEAR SCAB. 
Dr. Collier, of the New York State Experiment Sta¬ 
tion, writes as follows respecting an exhibit of fiuit 
at the World’s Fair: “It consisted of two branches 
from sprayed Seckel pear trees and two from adjacent 
unsprayed trees. These branches were carefully se¬ 
lected so as to show the average condition of the fruit 
on sprayed and unsprayed trees. I think it would be 
very difficult to find any poorer branches on the 
sprayed trees than the samples sent. On all treated 
trees the fruit is very uniform in character except in 
the tops of trees 25 feet high, where the spray was 
not thoroughly applied. Two treatments were given 
before the blossoms opened, using simply the Bor¬ 
deaux Mixture of the strength of one pound of copper 
sulphate to 11 gallons of the mixture. After the 
blossoms fell three subsequent treatments were made 
with the same mixture to which Paris-green was 
added at the rate of one ounce to 11 gallons of the 
mixture. The Paris-green was added for the codling 
moth and other insects. The last treatment was made 
June 28. It would not be difficult to find worse 
branches on the untreated trees than the samples sent. 
“The treated branch will give at least two-thirds 
more first-class fruit than the untreated ; in fact, it 
is very difficult to find an unblemished specimen of 
untreated fruit, while a blemished specimen is rare 
indeed on the treated trees, except, as before stated, in 
the tops of tall trees. A very careful estimate also 
leads me to the conclusion that at present there is 
more fruit on the sprayed than on the unsprayed 
trees, though early in the season if there was any 
difference it was in favor of the latter. Later in the 
season doubtless the scabby fruit will begin to crack 
and the contrast between this and the perfect fruit 
will be more marked. 
“The experiment was undertaken in order to dis- 
