THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
5/ 
THE PROSPECT. 
There have been so many questions as to those 
cheap farms in Delaware, that we have tried hard to 
learn why they are cheap. Here is one explanation 
that seems plausible: 
The farms to be had at those prices are invariably mortgaged, 
and nearly all rented farms—the owners living elsewhere. These 
tenants farm on “share rent” giving the landlord one-half of the 
fruit, wheat, corn, etc. As prices of these products have been 
very low in recent years, and lower still during the past year, the 
landlord finds himself with his income becoming beautifully less, 
while interest and taxes are as high as ever—hence he is anxious 
to sell at even a low price. A few years ago these same farms 
would have brought double or triple the prices now asked. 
In such arrangements the tenant has the best of it, 
because he has his living before any bills are paid, 
while the owner is responsible for taxes and repairs. 
A buyer has an advantage because the present owner 
is ready to sell at a low price to get the property off 
his hands. An owner of such a farm can do far better 
than a mere tenant when he can work the land him¬ 
self. 
Q 
In New York are many fancy fruit stores, which 
sell the finest fruits, both domestic and foreign, put 
up in the best possible and most attractive manner, at 
the highest prices. The prices which they receive 
would make most growers open their eyes in aston¬ 
ishment. The fruits are mostly purchased in the 
ordinary packages used by fruit growers, taken to the 
stores and there assorted and re-packed to suit the 
trade. A number of these merchants were asked if it 
would be practicable for the grower to put up his fruit 
in these packages, and if they would care to buy it 
thus packed. The unanimous answer was, no. And 
why should they ? They make a fine profit in doing 
this work themselves. Then again, it would be out of 
the question to pack the fruit in these small and fancy 
packages, and have it come out in attractive condition 
after shipping and handling. It isn’t likely that the 
growers will ever reach this trade to any extent. Hut 
they can, to a certain extent, reach their own local 
trade, and build up a profitable and pleasant business 
by supplying willing customers with the choicest of 
the farm’s products. There is more profit in this 
direction than is dreamed of by most farmers. 
Q 
How often do we see one end of a business combina¬ 
tion running about searching for something to tie to. 
Labor is after capital or capital is trying to hitch to 
labor. Hoth are after opportunity—the chance to 
combine energies and thus work to the best advantage. 
For example, here is an opportunity for some one. 
This letter is sent from Trenton, Mo. 
We have a first-class equipped creamery that has made good 
money, hut had to shut down some two years ago, owing to “ bad 
roads.” Our city has a population of 7,000. We are 100 miles 
from Kansas City, on the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Rail¬ 
road. We will give the right man a chance to make a good thing 
out of it, by X'unning it for himself or the owners. If you can refer 
a good man to us, you will do both a favor. 
Now, is there any “right man ” for that place among 
our readers? If so, we will put him in communica¬ 
tion with the owners of that creamery and he can look 
the thing up. We do this partly to see if The It. N.-Y. 
is capable of bringing two such ends together. Last 
spring a hired man told what he wanted, and we put 
a dozen good jobs within his reach. Of course we 
can’t do that free for every one, but we are ready to 
experiment in a first case like this, to see if it really 
can be done. 
O 
The London Mark Lane Express prints an interest¬ 
ing comparison of the average wholesale prices in the 
London markets and those of New York. The follow¬ 
ing contrast is shown on some familiar articles of food, 
giving average prices. The meats are estimated by 
the carcass. 
Prices November 1, 1894. 
New York. London. 
Apples $1.92 per barrel.$1.92 per bushel. 
Bran 16.32 per ton.15.60 per ton. 
Butter .24 per pound.32 per jiound. 
Hay 9.60 per ton.24.00 per ton. 
Cheese .11 per pound.14 per pound. 
Celery .24 per dozen. 2.16 per dozen. 
Chickens .08 per pound.14 per pound. 
Ducks .08 per pound.14 per pound. 
Eggs .16 per dozen.36 per dozen. 
Grapes .03 per pound.24 per pound. 
Oats 2.88 per quarter. 3.10 per quarter. 
Maize 4.80 per quarter. 5.28 per quarter. 
Oysters 2.68 per barrel. 4.80 per barrel. 
Potatoes .48 per bushel.48 per bushel. 
Rye 4.08 per quarter. 6.32 per quarter. 
Turkeys .09 per pound.14 per pound. 
Veal .06 per pound.14 per pound. 
Mutton .04 per pound.12 per pound. 
Beef .04 per pound.12 per pound. 
Wheat 4.80 j>er quarter. 4.56 per quarter. 
One remarkable thing about this showing is, that 
bran and wheat are both higher in New York than in 
London. The prices for bran are altogether too high 
in this country. Notice how much cheaper eggs and 
fruit are here than abroad. We should be able to ex¬ 
port eggs at these prices. Meats of all kinds are very 
much cheaper here. In fact, a dollar bill will buy far 
more food in New York than it will in London. That 
is not as it should be if, as it is often claimed, work¬ 
ingmen in this country are paid higher wages than 
are those abroad. With such a state of affairs, the 
American workingman ought to feel highly favored— 
though he doesn’t seem to be ! Where do American 
farmers come in anyway ? 
O 
It is the fashion in some quarters to ridicule the 
plodding farmer, but in all departments of life, the 
steady workman is generally the successful one. A 
span of “high headers’’ will appear well before a sleigh 
in a city park, yet for useful service, the steady team 
which will pull faithfully through the mud and up 
steep hills, until the harness breaks, is to be pre¬ 
ferred. Hut staying qualities are alike needed in men 
and horses. Some years ago, Josh Hillings called on 
a restless friend in a New England printing office, and 
after silently listening to his complaints, with a piece 
of chalk, wrote on the inside of the door to the com¬ 
posing room, “2 win is 2 stay.” That man both staidand 
won. The farmer who decided during the drought of 
last August that he would have a field of green fodder 
corn ready for his milch cows next summer, thought 
wisely. Still the farmer who has chosen his field, has 
decided how much manure he will need, has begun to 
haul it into the field as fast as made, and has selected 
the variety of seed corn best suited for his locality, is 
the man most likely to be ready for another drought. 
It was a good resolution, when gathering last October 
so much wormy fruit, that the orchard must be sprayed 
next spring. One farmer will forget all about it, but 
the man who has planned just how the work shall be 
done, has already ordered his spraying pump and in¬ 
secticides, and has sent to his State experiment station 
for the latest bulletins on spraying fruit, is already 
on the sure road to success. If a thousand of us will 
chalk on the inside of the barn door, “ Tenacity of 
Purpose,” and let the idea work into our mental fiber, 
995 farmers will be better off at the close of 1895, 
whether we grow It. N.-Y. No. 2 potatoes, Clydesdale 
oats, Crimson clover, or winter oats. 
O 
The It. N.-Y. gladly submits the following thoughts 
from an Ohio reader. They are worth reading over a 
dozen times—worth committing to memory : 
After taking a retrospective of the past year, I have arrived at 
the following conclusions: 
That money has been very dear and considering the high price 
of it, on an average, people have been using more of it than they 
could afford. 
That to make a success of farming and to meet the emergency 
that is being discussed in the papers—that the brightest and best 
of our boys and girls are going to the city—we will have to take 
lessons from our city friends, and teach them to do business in a 
businesslike way. 
To look more closely after details, and think and act quickly, for 
if you are slow, your next neighbor will share the profit of your 
enterprise with you. 
That i have made the most profit on the crops that I have sold in 
my home market direct to consumers. 
That we must know what an article costs to be able to know 
what we can sell it for. 
That it is the product of ignorance of such facts that keeps the 
markets of the world overstocked with articles far below cost of 
production. 
That it is a noble principle to work for 25 cents per day if you 
can't yet any more , but be very sure you can’t. 
That we must heed the warning given by Daniel Webster: “ We 
must educate! We must educate, or we must perish by our own 
prosperity.” For the lack of it we have seen in the last 12 months 
that people have almost starved within sight of elevators over¬ 
flowing with 50-cent wheat. Think of it. That some of this wheat 
was raised by farmers that had to hire help to raise it, and during 
these hard times could not afford to keep sufficient help in the 
house. Consequently the difference between the cost of having or 
not having help indoors equals his gain by overworking his wife 
and daughters. Profit ? Is that where the business men of the 
city look for profit ? 
That our representatives have not represented the interests they 
have received pay for representing. 
That the time is coming, and now is, when honor and integrity 
must cope with greed and conquer, or our Government will not be 
what its founders desired. And I have discovered that I have a 
neighbor with three grown-up sons, who is living on a small farm 
that his father gave him, who does not take a newspaper or 
periodical of any description. h. w. a. 
0 
About two years ago, the National League of Com¬ 
mission Merchants of the United States was organized. 
Among 1 its objects were these : “To concentrate action 
upon the general welfare of the trade, in uniting 1 our 
efforts with growers, producers, and shippers against 
the enactment of damaging laws, in collecting and 
disseminating information, in improving business 
methods ; in protesting against discrimination, exac¬ 
tions and damages of transportation ; in demanding 
integrity and financial responsibility, and protecting 
all as far as possible against frauds, misrepresentation 
and injustice.” Commendable objects, certainly, and, 
carried out, should be helpful alike to shippers and to 
reputable commission firms. This League held its 
third annual convention in this city January 9 and 10. 
It now numbers, we believe, 164 firms in the cities of 
Haltimore, Hoston, Detroit, Louisville, Minneapolis, 
Huffalo, Chicago, Omaha, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Phila¬ 
delphia, St. Louis, St. Paul and New York. It is said 
that during the two years, there has been but one 
failure among members of the league, and then the 
members of the firm went to work on salaries, and 
borrowed money enough to settle with every shipper. 
The League is active in agitating the subject of right¬ 
ing wrongs of the transportation companies, and in ex¬ 
posing frauds. The League discussed the cases of such 
fraudulent dealers as Stephen H. Ilayt, whom we have 
often exposed. They find that there is no State law 
covering his case, but that he can be reached under 
the United States laws for using the mails to defraud. 
It has been held that any one sending out deceptive 
quotations for the purpose of securing goods, is liable 
to arrest for using the mails for fraudulent purposes. 
It is to be hoped that this matter will be tested, for it 
is as much to the interest of the reputable dealer as 
to the shipper to ha ve this class of sharks suppressed. 
o 
The following interesting letter came last month, 
but we have been unable to refer to it before : 
In noting your comments on the price of potatoes, I am quite 
surprised to learn that importations of foreign potatoes are so 
light in comparison with those of 1893. I take a central New Jer¬ 
sey paper, and information through that source is to the effect 
that farmers are meeting with difficulty in marketing potatoes at 
very low prices The New York City market quotations are also 
low. Now, the official Agricultural Bureau statements with regard 
to the crop, are, I think, that the crop throughout the United 
States is only about three-fourths of an average crop. Exactly 
what constitutes an average crop, lam in ignorance; perhaps The 
R. N.-Y. knows; but if it is true that the annual domestic product is 
only three-quarters of an average, is not that fairly good evidence 
that foreign potatoes, British or Canadian, are here to replace 
our deficient crop ? A possible explanation may be that the pur¬ 
chasing power of the consuming public is curtailed by “ hard 
times,” and the price of potatoes suffers in consequence. I refer 
to present price, not any prospective price, which The It. N.-Y. 
seems to think will rule high. If the present reluctance to pay 
remunerative prices for potatoes is to be ascribed to lack of “pur¬ 
chasing power,” the same rule should apply to corn. Corn is 
relatively higher than wheat by a margin never before known. 
The corn crop of 1894 is a short one without doubt, but it is not 
subject to competition from foreigners, or its home market to in¬ 
vasion from that source, and, therefore, corn is high. t. 
New Jersey. 
We have been at some pains to investigate this matter. 
First as to prices during December. Here are the 
coverages for six years past in the New York market 
taking prices as they varied for December : 
AVERAGE PRICE PER BARREL. 
1894. 1893. 1892. 1891. 1890. 1889. 
Long Island... $1.75-2.00 $2.00-2.25 $2.25-2.50 $1.50 $’.87*4 $2.00 
N. Y.State.... 1.25-1.62 1.37-1.62 1.75-2.25 1.37 2.75 1.25-165 
Maine. 1.62.1.75 2.00-2.25 . 2.62 
Now we give the total imports and their values for 
these years : 
Imports—Bushels. Value of Imports. 
1889 . 883,380 $321,106 
1890 .3,415,578 1,365,898 
1891 .5,401,912 2,797,927 
1892 . 186,871 186,006 
1893 .4,317,021 2,066,589 
The total American crop for 1893 was 183,034,203 
bushels valued at $108,661,801. The crop for 1894 
is valued at $91,500,000. It will thus be seen that 
the value of the imports was but two per cent of 
the value of the total crop. Surely this small impor¬ 
tation should not depress prices from 15 to 25 per 
cent unless other influences are at work in our mar¬ 
kets ! As to the crop and imports for 1894. From all 
that we can learn, the crop in the sections that 
naturally supply the large Eastern markets was 
moderately good. The great crop failures were at the 
West so that these sections have no potatoes to send 
East. As to imports, the latest authentic reports we 
can obtain are those for November, 1894 in which 
month 113,282 bushels valued at $31,806 were imported. 
In November, 1893, 199,500 bushels valued at $66,729 
were imported. The imports for the II months of 
1894 ending November were 2,677,886 bushels valued 
at $1,148,536 and for the corresponding 11 months of 
1893 3,788,888 bushels valued at $1,894,459. We think 
this shows that the imports are less and that the 
decreased price must be due to some other thing than 
tariff reduction. 
BUSINESS BITS. 
Mb. A. H. Foster, of Allegan, Mich., makes the announcement 
this week of his high-class Shropshire sheep and Poland-China 
swine. He sends a souvenir hand book free. 
Some of our readers who sent money with order to the Disbrow 
Mfg. Co., manufacturers of berry boxes, Rochester, N. Y. have not 
been able to get the boxes or their money back. 
A most useful and serviceable harrow is that made by G. H. 
Pounder, No. 22, Ft. Atkinson, Wis. He sells one at a place at 
wholesale price, and sends descriptive catalogue free. 
We would like all those who use berry boxes any time dur¬ 
ing the year, to send now to R. T. Pierce & Co., South Haven, 
Mich., for their catalogue and prices on their Climax boxes. The 
boxes are good, and so are the manufacturers. 
Tiie new spraying pump made by Morrill & Morley, Benton Har¬ 
bor, Mich., is an entirely new thing, and is sure to be popular with 
those who have spraying to do. We sent for one of these simply 
for examination, and will have more to say about it later. It’s a 
good one. 
While every one doesn’t want a windmill, there are a great many 
who need them but struggle along without them. But every one 
who wants one surely wants a good one, and this may be had 
in the Halliday. It is made by the U. S. Wind Engine Co., 
113 Water Street, Batavia, Ill. This house also make a line of 
other goods, and their catalogue will be found useful and reliable. 
Parties in need of drain tile or similar products, are invited to 
correspond with the New York State Drain and Pipe Works, 
Albany, N. Y. This great enterprise was started in 1852, by George 
Jackson, and is now controlled by his son, John H. Jackson. The 
works cover 10 acres, and are fully equipped with the best ma¬ 
chinery and skill. Besides drain and sewer tile, Mr. Jackson 
makes front and pressed brick, clay stove pipe, chimney tops, 
oven tile, etc., and also a new tile for sidewalks. He carries also 
a full line of cements, plaster, lime, hair, etc. We are often asked 
where to buy such articles. This is the answer. 
