1895 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
343 
or elevated pulleys. The hay is then dumped into 
the several mows, and if a shower is coming, we can 
dump two sling loads in each of our four big mows, 
and return to the field and repeat the process, and 
mow the hay away during the rain. We are very 
particular to have it packed well and evenly in the 
mow, as the sweating will be alike, and the hay more 
uniform in color. The slings do away with all floor 
cleaning and lost time, and pull apart in the mow 
much easier than the old fork loads. 
In eight weeks after the final filling, the evaporated 
hay is ready for the baler, and is put into bales of 
about 100 pounds, so as not to mash or break it too 
much Hay is low, and the farmer who wishes best 
prices must evaporate, not dry, his hay. A. K. s. 
Huntington, Ind. 
PEACHES IN CANADA . 
To many readers, Canada is a land of snow and ice. 
Although they read descriptions of winter carnivals, 
ice castles, toboggan slides, hockey and curling 
matches and other winter sports, it does not follow that 
we do not have summer, and in some portions of the 
Dominion, a climate well adapted to raising fruits that 
are not perfectly hardy. Fig 10(5 shows an early morn¬ 
ing scene on the wharf at Niagara, Ontario. There 
are, probably, 10,000 baskets of peaches, grown within 
a radius of five miles, awaiting shipment by steamer 
to Toronto, where many of them are resliipped to 
other parts of the province and Dominion. 
The Niagara district has long been called “the Gar¬ 
den of Canada,” and in the growing of the luscious 
fruit,” that portion of it located whereothe Niag¬ 
ara River empties its apparently quiet waters into 
Lake Ontario, is particularly suited to fruit cul¬ 
ture In the spring, the buds are delayed by the ice 
which runs down from the upper lakes. The shelter 
also given by the Queenston Mountain, makes a town¬ 
ship bounded by river, lake and mountain, a happy 
combination, and an equable climate which produces 
the best results in fruits. It is estimated that this 
township, in 1894, shipped 300,000 12-quart baskets of 
peaches alone. Figs, and Black Hamburg grapes, with 
winter protection, do well here, and ripen their fruit to 
perfection in the open air. Many berries and small fruits 
are also grown, but peaches are the staple crop. Apples 
were in favor, but a great many of the orchards have 
been rooted out, and planted to peaches and other 
fruits. Even where apple orchards remain, and have 
every care, are scraped, washed, pruned, sprayed, well 
fertilized and cultivated, they do not seem to be a suc¬ 
cess any more. 
While plums are grown here in large quantities, 
one grower having over 5,000 baskets last season, the 
feature of the market in 1894 was the beginning of 
shipments of the Japan plums ; their season of ripen¬ 
ing, fine quality, together with the prices obtained 
making them very desirable goods for the orchardist. 
Larger numbers are being planted this year. 
Peaches are also grown successfully in other parts 
of Ontario, notably at Grimsby, about 30 miles from 
here, near the head of Lake Ontario, and in Essex 
County on the north shore of Lake Erie. Farther 
north they do not seem to prosper ; in fact, just 
across the Lake from Niagara, only 35 miles north, 
they will not do at all. We claim to be able to grow 
peaches as fine as Delaware or Maryland, in size and 
quality ; they are, however, about two or three weeks 
later in ripening. The varieties grown here are prin¬ 
cipally Alexander, Early Itivers, St. Johns, Foster, 
Early and Late Crawford, Smock and Salway. With 
a population of nearly 5,000,000, and the small area 
really adapted to peach growing in Canada, the pros¬ 
pects for growers are good, notwithstanding the fact 
that last year they touched a very low price. 
_ SUBSCRIBER. 
THE CULTURE OF BLACK CURRANTS. 
USE OF MACHINERY IN PICKING. 
Nothing is easier of culture than the black currant, 
as it grows and bears well in any tolerable garden 
soil. Never plant a currant sucker. To propagate 
them, it is only necessary to plant in autumn or early 
spring, cuttings a foot long in the open field or gar¬ 
den, and cultivate them ; they will root readily. The 
black currant should never be allowed to produce 
suckers, and in order to prevent this, the superfluous 
buds should be knocked off when the plants are trans¬ 
planted. This will keep them always in the shape of 
trees, with single stems and heads branching out at 
from 12 to 20 inches from the ground. 
Thin out the useless wood every winter, and if extra 
large fruit is desired, pinch off all the ends of the 
strong-growing shoots about the middle of June, when 
the fruit is about half grown, thus keeping the plant 
from spending all its energy in producing too much 
wood. I prefer for large plantations, Black Naples, 
Champion, and Collins Prolific. I prefer to plant in 
check rows, 5% feet each way. Perhaps there is no 
place in the world where better black currants are 
grown than Great Britain and Holland. They are 
called currant trees, often having clean stems on 
them three and four feet high. Keeping a clean stem 
from 12 to 20 inches, enables one not only to till them 
easier, but to use a picker, which I will endeavor to 
describe : It is in the shape of an inverted umbrella 
cover—see Fig. 107. Put a canvas cover on the inside 
of the ribs of a large bamboo-ribbed umbrella ; take 
out the braces and handle. To keep its shape opened 
out, two steel No. 9 wires are fastened on the inside by 
being wired to each rib, one near the outside, and the 
other near the bottom. These give enough spring to 
clasp it around a stem, as it has to be opened only 
about one inch to let the stem through the slot on 
the side to the center of the picker. The whole is 
mounted on three portable legs made of umbrella 
braces. Near the trunk where the stem socket is, 
a piece of cloth is sewed to make a pliable and close 
fit ’round the stem when the picker is clasped together. 
When the currants are ripe, adjust the picker as 
high as possible on the stem under the top. Around 
the lower part of the stem, immediately under the 
picker, clasp or wind a piece of thick felt; hold it 
with the left hand, and in the right use a wooden 
mallet with felt tacked on each end. Gently tap the 
stem all around, and watch the currants fall. If ripe, 
scarcely one will be found on the bush. Unclasp the 
picker, let down the legs and empty the contents into a 
bag or basket. That’s picking currants by an improved 
method, and one that will do away with all hand 
picking. If people will let them get ripe, they sell 
better, are larger and bring the same price as earlier, 
as black currants seldom vary in price. 
As the fruit comes from the picker, a large amount 
of dead leaves, stems, etc., will drop also, which 
necessitates hand cleaning to make it salable. This 
is all easily overcome if one has an old fanning 
mill. Take out all the sieves but the screen ; one 
inch above it tack a canvas or, better, make a canvas 
A PICKER FOR BLACK CURRANTS. Fia. 107. 
screen. If the currants are large, use the bean sieve, 
or large pea sieve ; put this as near the hopper bottom 
as possible. Under the mill where the cleaned fruit 
comes out, spread a sheet or canvas to catch currants, 
and pick them up for basketing. Fill the hopper the 
same as with grain, turn gently, and watch results. 
This is another labor-saving job accomplished. Why 
pay pickers 20 cents a basket for picking and cleaning 
a 10-quart basket, when you can save that much, do 
10 times as much as one man, and grade your currants, 
too, if you choose ? A. j. snydkr. 
Canada. 
HOW TO GROW “FANCY VINELAND SWEETS." 
FROM THE SEED TO THE STOREHOUSE. 
Part IV. 
Shall We Plant in Hills or Drills ? 
Good authorities differ on this point. If planted in 
drills—continuous ridges—the plants may beset closer 
together, getting a larger number of hills per acre, 
which the drill man claims will increase the yield. 
The advocate of hill culture, however, says that an 
acre may be tilled enough better and cheaper, by 
planting in rows both ways, to make up for the 
increased crop the drill man gets. I cannot see that 
one method has any material advantage over the other. 
If it is desired to keep them in hills, and a ridger is 
used, the field must be laid off in check marks, and a 
marker must be provided for marking the spot on the 
ridges where the plant is to be set. This is made 
from a piece of 2x3 scantling 18 or 20 feet long, with 
a handle attached so that the operator can press it 
down full length across the ridges as he walks along. 
As many ridges are made as the implement will reach 
across, usually about six. The six rows are marked 
by dropping the scantling lightly across them, the 
exact spot is determined by the cross marks which are 
visible at each side of the six rows. One man with 
this marker can mark the ridges faster than another 
one can ridge up. 
The ground should not be made up more than one 
day in advance of setting, as it is better to have fresh 
earth in which to set the plants. The old-fashioned 
back-breaking way of setting with a trowel, is entirely 
done away with. No one thinks of setting sweet- 
potato plants in that way now. A great many use 
what is commonly called “ paddle and tongs.” These 
consist of a pair of tongs made from two plastering 
laths, or similar strips of wood, so fastened together 
near one end that the points of the other end, which 
are made smooth and somewhat pointed, stand an 
inch or two apart. The paddle is a blade three inches 
wide and eight or ten inches long, tipped with metal, 
with a staff 334 feet long and two inches wide, all made 
from a single piece of light, tough board, three-fourths 
of an inch thick. At the upper end of the staff,is a leather 
loop large enough to allow the arm to pass through. 
At a convenient distance down the staff, the top of an 
old spade handle is fastened obliquely. This imple¬ 
ment is used on the left arm by passing the arm* 
through the loop and grasping the handle with- the 
hand. The tongs are taken in the right hand, grasp¬ 
ing them below the point where the laths are fastened 
together. The plant, which has been dropped in a 
convenient place, is taken by the root with the tongs, 
and placed in the hole made by the paddle, which is 
then used to press the earth against it. A lively man 
with a good boy to drop, will set from 8,000 to 10,000 
plants a day in this manner. 
There is another little plant setter, made by E. W. 
Packer, PaulSboro, N. J., that is patented. It is much 
superior to the implement just described, and with it 
one man can easily set plants as fast as two smart 
boys can place them on the ridges. I have set 7,000 
plants in 4}£ hours with one of them. If the ground 
is at all dry, each plant, must be watered as soon as 
set. Some growers water anyhow, rain or shine. A 
quart of water to four or five plants will be found 
sufficient in the driest weather. A slight depression 
should be left around each plant as it is set, to receive 
the water. As soon as the water settles, the hollow 
should be filled with dry earth, to prevent too rapid 
evaporation, and to keep the surface from baking. A 
common watering-pot without the 'rose, is sometimes 
used for watering ; but more rapid work can be done 
with a pail and an old tomato can. s. T. d. 
AN ILLINOIS EX-RENTER TALKS. 
HOW HE EARNED THE TITLE OF “ EX.” 
What Is the "Way Out?" 
We hear and read much about the tribulations of 
the American farmer—how men who own their farms 
clear of debt have to “ scratch ” in order to make both 
ends meet. Those in debt are getting in still deeper, 
and the poor renter is in utter despair with back rent 
unpaid, grocery bills unsettled, and the implement 
dealer hard after him for the balance on that labor- 
saving machinery purchased last year; but he still 
maintains a lingering hope that in some way or other 
Congress or the State legislature will help him out of 
his difficulty. It is refreshing, indeed, to meet a man 
who, after spending the best part of his life as a 
renter, has the courage to look the situation squarely 
in the face, and devote his energies to “ working out 
his own individual salvation.” Such a person I met 
at a farmers’ gathering in the Rock Rive* Valley, dur¬ 
ing the past winter. Here is Mr. James Hall’s story : 
“Wife and I came to Ogle County, Illinois, from 
Massachusetts,-29 years ago next spring. The first 
year, I worked for a relative, then we rented an 
80-acre farm, and until three years ago, we have lived 
continually upon rented farms, either in Ogle or 
Winnebago Counties, with the exception of two years 
spent in experimenting with grasshoppers and the 
drought in western Kansas. We started out in the 
beginning with light hearts, hoping in a few years 
to be able to buy a home. But as time went on, we 
had a family to provide for and educate. Some years 
we made a few hundred dollars ; other years we did 
not make both ends meet, and had to draw on reserve 
funds. We tried renting in all its variety—cash rent, 
share rent, with stock and without, but it always hap¬ 
pened that when we had a large stock of anything the 
price was low, so we never were able to get ahead. 
After our boys grew up and left us, we had to hire 
help and this made matters still worse. 
Learning Lessons From a Sow. 
“ now did I come to make a change ? Well, one day 
I was in a grocery store where we do most of our trad¬ 
ing, in company with several of our neighbors. The 
chief topic was the low price of beef. One farmer had 
just sold a car-load of fat cattle for a price which he 
thought was below cost. The proprietor of the store 
had been a silent listener to the conversation. Finally 
he asked what price the cattle in question were sold 
for. When told, he asked what was the actual cost of 
feeding the same cattle. The farmer could not an¬ 
swer the last question. Then he asked how long we 
thought he would be in business if he did not know 
what his goods cost him, and followed with a lecture 
upon the farmers’ loose business methods. 
