694 
October 14 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
NOTES ON A WORLD’ FAIR TRIP. 
With ample lunch box and a small grip¬ 
sack I started for Chicago with my ears 
and eyes open, to get all the knowledge 
I could. After a week, I find myself so 
full of sightseeing that my ears and eyes 
refuse to be interested and my mouth is 
wide open, which is the reverse of what 
I had planned. Not wishing to return 
within the 10-day limit, I purchased a 
round trip ticket with a draft on the 
Chicago office attached, which made the 
cost only 50 cents more than one-half. 
One can sell the return half at any ticket 
office and buy an excursion back any day, 
so the 10-day limit need not keep one at 
home. 
Corn, as seen from the car windows, is 
very small and twisted in every direc¬ 
tion The corn harvesters will have to 
take a back seat this year. By the way, 
the agent of one on exhibition said: 
“ Two can cut six acres per day.” 
“ Who drives the horse ? ” 
“ Put a muzzle on him and he will fol¬ 
low the row without a driver.” 
“ Yes ! How do you work it ? ” 
“One man sits on each bide and gathers 
the tops in his arms as they are cut off 
until an armful is obtained Then he 
stops the horse and gets off and stands 
up the corn. Two rows are taken up 
and two back on each side.” 
Any man who has cut corn will com¬ 
prehend the difficulty of standing up an 
armful of loose corn and leaving it until 
he gets back on the next set to complete 
the shock. It would blow over. In 
even our “little” York State corn one 
would have to stop the horse every few 
hills and jump off to set up the armful. 
Some horses would drag the “ machine” 
loaded with two men and corn over the 
uneven surface carefully, without a 
driver, more of them would run away. 
How do you imagine you would feel 
after setcing up your share of the six 
acres in one day ? I think this is a case 
where one had better “ consider ” before 
buying. Suppose your land is a hillside 
and stony ; the thing might throw you 
against the sharp knife ; any way you 
could not hang on to both seat and corn 
at the same time. 
While wheat seeding at this date— 
September 7—was nearly finished in 
central New York, little had been done 
further west. We were suffering from 
drought and they seemed to be delayed by 
rains. Clay soils require altogether dif¬ 
ferent working from our gravelly loam, 
and the numerous tools which were 
scattered about the fields were of a dif¬ 
ferent class from mine. Many people 
discredit published reports of the useful¬ 
ness of many tools and extraordinary 
yields because they judge everything by 
their own experience in a limited section; 
still I do not believe the housing of a 
binder or plow in a fence corner makes 
it last longer. 
There is a great contrast in the color 
of soils—black muck, light gravelly 
loam, red clay and the white sand of 
Michigan which, in sone places along 
the lake, is piled up many feet high 
without a green thing except stunted 
pines growing on it The wind has piled 
it up to the branches in some cases and 
along the lake shore it is washed and 
packed as smooth as glass. Nothing 
made by man is more wonderful than 
some of Nature’s works. 
In Indiana the farm buildings, as seen 
from the car windows, are small and far 
apart. I saw more stacks of hay in a 
half a day than in all my life before. 
“ Nothing but hay,” said one. 
“ So fiat they cannot drain it and noth¬ 
ing but hay will grow,” said another. 
This was on the plains in western 
Indiana which is a prairie only when 
contrasted with the hills of New York. 
To us New Yorkers it is very monotonous 
traveling over these stretches of flat 
country, and we soon try to go to sleep. 
In New York the ever-changing scenes, 
as we glide over rivers, around hills, 
through the numerous cities, and see the 
different kinds of crops and methods of 
culture, keep up the interest. 
Everywhere the burnt up pastures tell 
the story of excessive drought and the 
few cows seen show their ribs. I did not 
see a fine herd of cows—everything is a 
mixture of “scrub and neglect.” I won¬ 
dered for an hour over the problem, 
“ How can a man make any money keep¬ 
ing such stock ?’’ and gave it up. Males 
of splendid breeding are cheap and it’s 
foolish not to use them. 
Many sides of human nature show up 
on a railroad train. One little woman, 
with three children, got on at Buffalo. 
All alone, she will care for the children 
and “do” the fair. She was a mechanic’s 
wife and he was out of work. After 
taking the little boy into my seat and 
entertaining him for several hours, I had 
a little talk with her. 
“ If your husband is out of work, how 
can you afford this expensive trip ?” 
“ Oh ! Tom don’t drink like most of the 
others ; we’ve money. It isn’t the wages, 
it’s the habits that keep folks poor”—a 
bit of advice worth remembering, c. e c. 
THE ALBANY PUBLIC MARKET. 
from producer to consumer direct. 
[EDITORIAL CORRESPONDENCE.] 
Where the Market is Located. 
One of the memories of my student 
days in the city of Albany, 14 to 16 years 
ago, was the street market where the 
farmers and gardeners came with their 
vegetables and fruits, butter, poultry 
and eggs, cottage cheese and buttermilk, 
nuts and pop-corn, which they sold to 
whomsoever would come to buy. The 
market at that time was on State Street, 
extending up the hill toward theCapi, 
tol, the length of the line being limited 
only by the number of would-be sellers. 
Here, with basket on arm, came the 
thrifty housewives of all stations in life, 
and shrewd were the bargains they 
drove with the horny-handed sons of 
toil in their endeavors to fitly furnish 
forth the domestic board at a modicum 
of expense. How long this location had 
been used for this purpose I know not, 
but so well established was it that it 
attracted customers from all over the 
city, and so superior was the location at 
the lower end of the line considered that 
the first wagons would take up their 
stations there while the day was yet 
quite young, there to await the advent 
of the customers who came after day¬ 
break. So well recognized was this 
market that the Albany papers have 
for years given the prices prevailing 
there. 
Happening in Albany the other day, 
and having in mind some recent articles 
in The R. N.-Y. on the selling of prod¬ 
ucts directly to the consumers by the 
producers, I thought to visit again this 
market place, and to gather, if I might, 
some lessons for the benefit of Rural 
readers. But State Street knows it no 
more, and I found it a couple of blocks 
distant, where it occupies nearly the 
whole of a cleared city square. The sur¬ 
face is paved, and by means of lines, 
streets are marked off, so that as the 
farmers come in, their wagons are ranged 
in long rows. At this time of year vege¬ 
tables and fruits predominate, but during 
successive months every known product 
of the soil finds its way through the 
hands of these calculating farmers. No 
fee is required of them for the privileges 
of the market, and, on the other hand, 
they are not allowed to peddle through 
the city. Hucksters who buy their sup¬ 
plies and retail, are obliged to take out 
a license and do not have the privil ges 
of the market. Along one side of the 
paved area is a shed for the accommoda¬ 
tion of licensed venders of meats. Every 
imaginable sort of wagon, drawn by 
horses as diverse in their appearance as 
it is possible to conceive, are found here. 
Side by side with a fine market wagon, 
overflowing with quantities of excellent 
products, drawn by a thrifty-looking 
team, and presided over by a well dressed, 
intelligent, prosperous appearing man, 
is a rickety old trap, drawn by a bundle 
of bones and engineered by a dejected 
specimen of humanity, whose efforts to 
dispose of the small quantity of measly 
looking stuff with which the wagon was 
loaded, would have been ludicrous were 
it not so pitiable. It is ev'dent that the 
latter class certainly don’t make farm¬ 
ing pay. 
Talks With Some Sellers. 
“To whom do you sell most of your 
produce ? ” I asked a man with a large 
load of barrels of musk melons and pears. 
“To anybody who will buy. I sell a 
great deal to grocers and hucksters, but 
much to consumers.” 
While watching his operations, a couple 
of shrewd-looking dames, evidently 
boarding-house keepers of the middle 
class, came along and opened up a dicker 
for a barrel of musk-melons. They wished 
to purchase them together, but to have 
him divide them. After considerable 
parleying they agreed to abide by his 
division, and the purchase was consum¬ 
mated. Probably some star boarders 
will revel in musk-melons for a week at 
the expense of a “ quarter ” each to the 
careful landladies. 
“Isn’t that pretty cheap for musk- 
melons ? ” I queried. 
“These are culls,” he said. “I get 
$1 50 a barrel for those others.” 
“ Do you find this method of disposing 
of your produce profitable ? ” 
“ Oh, yes; it pays us pretty well.” 
I watched a man with several barrels 
of potatoes and a box of eggs in his 
wagon. A half dozen asked the price of 
the potatoes. 
“Two dollars a barrel,” was the in¬ 
variable reply. They were fine potatoes, 
such as our home grocer gets 40 cents 
per peck for from the poor unfortunates 
who are compelled to patronize him. 
Think of it; five pecks there to pay for 
one barrel here. 
Yet, the unanimous reply was: “Too 
much.” Some didn’t deign to make an 
offer, while several hucksters offered 
$1.50 per barrel, and assured him that he 
would j ump at the chance to take that 
later if he didn’t snap up their offers at 
once. One individual poked around until 
he found the smallest potato in the bar¬ 
rel and then turned up his nose at the 
whole lot. Such is human nature. 
The box of eggs attracted the attention 
of several, and might have been sold 
several times over. But they were sold. 
“What do you get for eggs?” I queried. 
“ I sold these for 23 cents.” 
“ Do you sell most of your produce 
this way ? ” 
“ Yes ; a large part of it. Our hay we 
generally press and send down the river.” 
“ I suppose the returns are satisfactory 
or you wouldn’t continue ? ” 
“ Yes, we do pretty well.” 
“ How early do you have to get here in 
the morning ? ” 
“ I didn’t get here until eight o’clock 
this morning, but many of them are here 
at three. Sometimes one has to come 
early to get on the market. I have seen 
every space occupied, and the wagons 
stretching away down some of the ad¬ 
joining streets.” 
Not a High-Priced Market. 
On* man with a large wagon was sell¬ 
ing dressed lambs by the quarter. lie 
was kept pretty busy, too. 
“ W^at prices do you get?” I asked 
him. 
“Twelve cents for hind-quarters, and 
nine for fore-quarters, and 10 cents for 
whole carcasses.” 
“ Do you cut them up any smaller than 
in quarters ? ” 
“ No, it wouldn’t pay me.” 
“Aren’t the prices you get pretty low?” 
“ Yes, I can make it pay only by kill¬ 
ing and selling a large number Albany 
is not a very high-priced market.” 
I came to this conclusion myself after 
investigating the different products sold. 
Many a little manufacturing town would 
pay better prices. Still the system itself 
seems a good one. The producer and the 
consumer are brought together. The 
products are brought fresh from the 
farms and gardens to the market. It 
would seem that many of the sellers 
must have found it unprofitable. How 
a man with a few dozen ears of corn, or 
bunches of beets, or pecks of tomatoes 
could find any profit in going miles, and 
spending perhaps the best part of a day 
to sell a little mess of stuff whose value 
would hardly equal that of the wages of 
a day for a good man, passes my under¬ 
standing. Still it seems that in hundreds 
of towns such a market might be estab¬ 
lished with satisfaction to both the seller 
and the buyer. It probably wouldn’t 
give satisfaction to the grocer or the 
butcher, but I don’t know that the farm¬ 
ers of the country are under any contract 
to do business for the gratification of the 
latter. F - H * v - 
, i—— SMALL FRUITS, GRAPES, SHRUBS, ROSES, 
HARDY PLANTS, BULBS, 
1 ff* JF F0R FA LL planting. 
M r 1 fi Mr Immense Stuck. 160 page Catalogue Free. 
I # / \ ^ ELLWANGER &, BARRY, 
[ FRUIT and ORNAMENTAL MLHo P e^eri^Rg !? ter,N.Y. 
L BIG FRUIT CROP REQUIRES PROPER HANDLING. 
A big crop on any one farm demands a big evaporator if evaporated. The 
nail farm with a big crop demands a way to use the surplus and waste fruit. The 
U. S. Cook Stove Fruit Drier fills the 
bill. It has been thoroughly tested 
and approved. It is the latest, cheapest, 
best. A veritable little bread winner. 
Weight, 25 pounds. Metal base. Can 
be used on any kind of stove. Dimen¬ 
sions : Base, 22x16 inches; Height, 26 
inches. Eight galvanized wire-cloth 
trays, containing 12 square feet of tray 
surface. No extra fire. Always ready 
for use. Its capacity ample for domestic 
use, up to two bushels of fresh fruit 
per day. Price of the drier alone, $7. 
Special price to our subscribers only 
$5; or, better still, together with a 
three years’ subscription, $7. This will 
pay your own subscription for three 
years from the date of expiration of 
time already paid for. New subscrip¬ 
tions may be substituted if preferred. 
Shipped by freight at purchaser’s ex¬ 
pense; cost 50 cents to about $1, accord¬ 
ing to distance. THE RURAL PUB¬ 
LISHING COMPANY, Cor. Chambers 
and Pearl Streets, New York. 
