railroad stations from 22 to 26 cents per can. It also 
costs the farmers about two cents a can to team the 
milk from their dairies to the railroad stations, so that 
the farmer nets for milk from his dairy from 20 to 24 
cents for an8^ quart can during the present winter. 
The peculiar feature of the Boston business, the one 
which causes the most opposition among the farmers, 
and the most self-congratulation among the contract¬ 
ors, is in relation to the surplus. The contractors 
agree to pay, and do pay, this straight price for the 
milk that they can sell and a surplus of 10 per cent in 
addition, so that they may always have enough on 
hand to meet any call for extra milk. They buy all 
other milk that is sent to them for the sake of keeping 
it off from the market, and maintaining an even price 
to the peddlers and retailers. Be the supply large or 
small, this powerful combination of contractors keeps 
all surplus off from the market, so that there is never 
any breaking of the price to the peddlers and retailers 
by reason of an increased supply. This surplus the 
contractors manufacture into butter on account of the 
farmers, charging them four cents a pound for manu¬ 
facturing, and returning to them all the money the 
contractors can get out of it; so that the farmers get, 
as shown above, from 20 to 24 cents per can for all the 
milk which the Boston market will take and for 10 per 
cent more. Then they get butter prices for such 
surplus as they send to the city in addition to that. 
The market conditions here have a further peculi¬ 
arity in what is called the grading of the price. To 
“ IIow would you go to work to average 300 bushels 
per acre ? ” I asked. 
“I would want, in the first place, to have that ground 
two years before the crop so as to get it into the right 
condition. On the first round of this new land, of 
course, we cannot do so well.” 
“ What soil would you take from choice ? ” 
“ 1 have obtained the best results from what is 
known as ‘clay loam.’ That is porous enough to per¬ 
mit easy drainage, yet friable enough to work up well, 
and has body enough to prevent too much leaching. 
Green crops on such soil are very effective.” 
“ What do you want on the ground ? ” 
“ A strong, two-year-old clover sod, with as heavy 
an aftermath as possible. I would plow this under 
in the fall and, if need be, again in the spring.” 
“ When and how would you apply the fertilizer ? ” 
“I would want to use about 1,500 pounds per acre. 
While, of course, the potatoes would not utilize all 
this fertilizer, they would be sure of an abundant 
supply, and the grain and grass following the potatoes 
would be well fed. I would broadcast 1,000 pounds, 
and put 500 in the hill or drill. For broadcasting, I 
use an ordinary grain drill to distribute the fertilizer, 
and follow with an Acme ; this leaves the surface in 
excellent condition.” 
“ IIow about making the drills ?” 
“On a large scale, one may use an Aspinwall 
planter, but in my culture, I usually drop by hand. 
To make furrows, I have been well pleased with the 
work of a Planet Jr. cultivator, with the cul¬ 
tivator teeth removed and an eight-inch shovel 
in the center, with the marking attachment in 
place. This makes a good furrow, and the same 
tool may be used to cover the seed.” 
“ Do you roll the ground ?” 
“ Yes, if the indications point to hot, dry 
weather immediately after planting, I would 
roll the ground at once, especially if fresh sod 
had been turned under. By packing this sod 
down, you make a storage place for water ; 
whereas, by leaving it loose and light, the air 
can easily get in and dry it out.” 
“ Do you always plant in drills ? ” 
“No. In rough, weedy land, I would plant in 
hills two feet nine inches apart each way. This 
makes much cleaner work at cultivating, and 
much easier digging. In drills, three feet apart 
and 15 inches apart in the drill, one may obtain 
a larger yield, but on some accounts, I like the 
hill system better. At the distance I have in¬ 
dicated, there should be 5,900 hills to the acre. 
One should be able to grow a bushel in 14 hills. 
I have dug a bushel from 12 average hills. That 
is the standard, and it is what we should work 
for.” 
“ How about seed ? ” 
“ I would select sound, healthy tubers, rather 
above the medium size, cut them once in two 
lengthwise, and put one strong piece in each hill. 
This would require 13 to 14 bushels of seed per 
acre.” 
“ What varieties ? ” 
“ With my present experience, I would take 
R. N.-Y. No 2, and Maggie Murphy.” 
, 2 . “ What about cultivation ?” 
“ Keep the surface lightly stirred as long as 
possible, and as soon after rains as the soil is in 
condition. Cultivation is to kill the little weeds as 
they start, and to help conserve moisture by keeping 
the surface soil open and broken up.” 
“ Do the bugs trouble you ? ” 
“ They are numerous enough, but we make short 
work of them with Paris-green and water. We have 
a Peppier sprayer that covers six rows at a time. With 
a smart team, one could cover 30 acres a day with the 
implement. We use it for applying the Bordeaux 
Mixture, too.” 
“ So you use Bordeaux, too, do you?” 
“ Certainly. That has come to be a regular part of 
our potato growing. We no longer ask if it pays to 
use it. We assume that it is as necessary as bug 
poisoning, and we go right ahead with it on the prin¬ 
ciple that we can’t afford to let any useful thing go 
undone. I look upon the Bordeaux as a preventive 
rather than as a cure for blight, and so from the 
latter part of June until danger is past, I aim to keep 
the vines blue with it. Ordinarily, every two weeks 
will answer, unless soaking rains come and wash it 
from the vines. In that case we put it on again as 
soon as possible. We can’t afford to take any risks.” 
“ How strong a mixture do you use ? 
“ After many experiments, I proceed as follows : 
Dissolve six pounds of copper sulphate in a butter 
firkin. Dissolve four pounds of lime in another 
firkin, stirring the lime well and straining it through 
a fertilizer sack into an oil barrel holding, say, 50 
gallons. Then pour in the dissolved copper sulphate, 
and fill up with water. A mixture of this strength 
has proved very satisfactory.” 
taneously, as no matter how profitable they are in 
localities suited to their growth, in unfavorable con¬ 
ditions, they will not grow. The only safe advice as 
to planting or not planting them, is, to be governed by 
their presence or absence in the forest growth of one’s 
vicinity. H. R. 
Fairmount, Ky. 
Nut Trees Near Fruits. —The blossoms of English 
walnuts are sometimes nipped by frost, even in this 
mild climate ; but the entire crop on old trees has 
never been cut off in the past 20 years. I do not con¬ 
cur with the statement that fruit trees will not thrive 
near walnuts, and I have taken particular notice of 
such plantings for about 12 years past. It is of much 
importance to fruit growers here where land is high 
priced, that trees planted by the roadside for shade 
and ornament do not interfere with the growth of the 
fruit trees inside the fence. I have a row of walnut 
trees along two sides of a 30-acre orchard ; they are 
half English walnut and half black walnut, planted 
alternately, 20 feet apart in the row, which is only 18 
feet from the first row of fruit trees inside the fence. 
The latter is composed of apples, prunes, apricots and 
pears. While these distances are much too short for 
both nut and fruit trees, I cannot see that the first 
row of fruit trees is any less thrifty than other parts 
of the orchard. The nut trees are part 10 years, and 
part 14 years old, and all in bearing. I am so well 
satisfied with the English walnut as a road tree, that 
I have planted all the remaining frontage with that 
variety, but have put them 24 and 30 feet apart. 
The walnuts are all seedlings, and the later 
plantings are seedlings from the best trees of 
the 14-year-old lot. I would like to inquire if 
these seedlings are likely to come true, or any 
more so than the original lot. My observation 
of other varieties of road trees shows that poplars, 
pines and blue gums are a great detriment to 
orchards planted near them. H. G. K. 
San Jos<$, Cal. 
Apples Live with Walnuts. —We have in our 
orchard, a cluster of about a dozen fine walnut 
trees, and just above them on the side hill less 
than 20 feet away, stands a fine, large apple tree. 
On the opposite side of the orchard is a large 
walnut tree, with wide-spreading branches, and 
near by is a large sweet apple tree that bears 
more or less every year. On a lot which I for¬ 
merly owned, I set out an apple tree between 15 
and 20 years ago, and about the same time a 
walnut tree came up not over 15 feet away. Both 
the apple and walnut trees are strong and vigor¬ 
ous. I conclude, therefore, that the trees men¬ 
tioned by J. P. in The R. N.-Y. of January 5, 
died from some other cause. w. p. w. 
Wilmington, O. 
THE BOSTON MILK BUSINESS. 
HOW MILK IS SOLD IN NEW ENGLAND 8 METROPOLIS. 
The Boston milk business is, in a general way, ’ 
conducted as follows: There are several large 
firms of wholesalers or contractors who practi- V 
cally monopolize all the business in the city. A 
little milk is brought in from near-by sources in 
wagons, and one or two independent cars are COCOON OF A GIANT SILK WORM. Fig. 21. See page 5: 
run ; but three-quarters of all the milk busi¬ 
ness of Boston and its suburbs is done by 
these contractors, who have an association, constitu¬ 
ting practically a combination or trust. The railroad 
companies fit up cars with accommodations for re¬ 
frigeration in summer and heating in winter. These 
cars are rented by the year to the contractors. They 
are supposed to hold about 800 cans, but at times they 
are filled beyond this limit, carrying 1,000 or 1,100. 
This, of course, is to the advantage of the contractors, 
reducing materially the freight per can, but on the 
other hand they have to pay the regular contract 
price per car for a short load. 
There has been agreed upon, between the milk con¬ 
tractors and the milk producers’ union, a series of im¬ 
aginary circles about the city, 10 miles apart, and it is 
agreed that there shall be a set of discounts from the 
theoretical Boston price depending upon distance 
from the city; so that when the two contracting 
parties (the dealers’ association and the producers’ 
union) get together, they negotiate for a price for 
milk delivered in Boston. But this is a theoretical 
price, and is never made use of in practice, except for 
purposes of negotiation twice a year when the trude 
is made. 
When the Boston price is established, then, each 
producer applies the discount applicable to his own 
railroad station, and thereby figures the price he is to 
get for the ensuing six months. These discounts range 
from 8 to 15 cents per can. The contractors buy milk 
delivered at the producers' several railroad stations. 
The price at present for this winter is 37 cents per 
can, the cans being of a capacity of 8% quarts, so that 
the farmers who supply the market receive at their 
illustrate : Thirty-seven cents was agreed upon as the 
theoretical Boston price for the six months beginning 
November 1. Now the contractors reserve the right 
to grade this price so as to pay less than this during 
the months of largest supply, and more during the 
months when the supply is shorter. For instance, 
they may pay 35 cents during October, November and 
December, and 39 cents during January, February 
and March. Sometimes, during the six summer 
months, the contract price will be for two months two 
cents below the theoretical price, for two months two 
cents above that price and for two months will be the 
regular price, thus making the average for the six 
months. geo. m. whitaker. 
Ed. New England Farmer. 
FARMING AMONG THE COAL MINES 
Driven Back to the Hills for Land. 
A SERIOUS AGRICULTURAL PROBLEM PROMPTLY MET. 
[editorial correspondence.] 
( Continued .) 
A Good Potato Crop. 
For a few years, at least, potatoes will be Mr. Gar- 
rahan’s main crop. As we have said, there is no better 
crop with which to bring up a worn-out soil at a profit. 
Mr. G. does not believe in small crops. Taking several 
seasons in succession—good and bad as they come— 
the average must be good if there is any profit to be 
made. One year with another, 300 bushels per acre 
should be grown on good soil, 
