1895 
THE RUPAL NEW-YORKER. 
519 
WHAT THEY SAY. 
A Handy Bushed Box. —A number of years ago I 
obtained directions for making a bushel box for 
potatoes and apples, which I have found convenient, 
and the most practical size I have seen. Cut an inch 
board, 12 inches wide, in pieces 14 inches long, cut 
good pine lath into pieces 17 % inches long, nail six 
pieces on each side and seven on the bottom, with No. 
5 wire nails ; then cut places for the hands near the 
top. This box will hold a bushel of apples or potatoes 
level full. Two will sit ends together, crosswise of 
the wagon and one tier on top, so one can take a full 
load in boxes. They are convenient to store potatoes 
or apples in the cellar in place of bins. The waste 
pieces of lath can be used in the inside corners, nailed 
with clinch nails to prevent splitting. d. g. b. 
Catskill, N. Y. 
Banishing Canada Thistles.— On page 457, H. C. 
W. asks how to kill Canada thistles. Working as 
suggested in the answer given, will no 
doubt subdue them. The practice here 
is effective. When the thistles are in 
full bloom, plow under with a chain, 
work the top well with a disc harrow 
or some other good implement like a 
gang plow. Sow to fall wheat and seed 
to clover in the spring. A field near 
here was so infested with these thistles, 
that a complaint was entered to the 
pathtnaster. This method was followed, 
and scarcely a thistle is to be seen. 
Another method is to cut them when 
in full bloom ; at this period, the sap or 
strength is nearly all above ground, and 
the stalks hollow. The root, also, is hol¬ 
low, of course ; the stalks remaining will 
be filled with rain and will rot both stems 
and roots. This was done on a hillside that 
could not be plowed, which was a dense 
mass of thistles; the following year, 
only a very few appeared. w. c. J. 
Norwich, Canada. 
A Loss on the Lawson Peak. —Some 
years ago, the Lawson-Comet pear was 
introduced with the usual flourish of 
trumpets. The original tree grew in 
the cleft of a rock; it was an early and abundant 
bearer, a luxuriant and vigorous grower, healthy, 
hardy, and exempt from blight. The fruit was large, 
early and beautiful. It was not exactly said that the 
quality was best, but then it would bring fabulous 
prices in the markets, being so large, so early and so 
beautiful. I obtained grafts, and have a well-grown 
specimen in my collection, the crop of which is now 
gathered. But is there not some error in the history 
of this pear as above given ? 1 have the same pear in 
my collection, and have compared the two for several 
years. I have now 20 bushels of fruit in 
the ripening room, and know no way 
of comparing so conclusive as the bring¬ 
ing of many specimens into juxtaposi¬ 
tion. During the first quarter of this 
century, Mr. Mantelle, a Frenchman of 
culture, resident here, returned to his 
native land on a visit, and being an 
ardent horticulturist, brought back with 
him, many seeds, cuttings and grafts, of 
things esteemed in his boyhood’s home. 
Among the number, was this abomina¬ 
ble pear, and the first tree grafted was 
only cut down a few years ago. My 
father disseminated it to a small extent 
about 1845-50, and there are a number of 
large trees scattered through central 
Kentucky. 
With a knowledge of this pear running 
back to my very childhood, I naturally 
have clear-cut convictions in regard to it. 
In the nursery, it is a fair grower, but in 
the orchard, it is not nearly so luxuriant 
as LeConte, and in habit of growth re¬ 
sembles it. It is not an early bearer, but later on a 
very abundant one, although variable and capricious. 
The wood is very frangible, sleet and heavy crops 
often sadly injuring the tree. Blight seldom attacks it. 
Ripened on the tree, the fruit is truly beautiful, 
but abominable in quality, and prone to darken at 
the core. House ripened, it colors to a clear yellow, 
and is always sightly and slightly better in flavor. 
My father had seven of these trees, and the selling 
of their produce was the bote noire of my boyhood 
days. “Sugar Tops” we called them colloquially, 
and “Sugar Tops” could be sold only once to the same 
buyer, be their beauty ever so great. Our fruit was 
nice in grade and condition. Our apples were always 
quickly placed ; we had orders ahead for our “ Bell” 
pears—green and unsightly though they were ; but 
to sell those blushing “ Sugar Tops ” implied a hunt 
for patrons in the alleys and byways. Wedding guests 
found in hedges, were not half so warmly welcomed 
as the finding of patrons for our wares, and my sons 
to-day philosophize as did their father. There is 
place for the Lawson, but the pear-eating public 
craves only homeopathic doses—few and far between. 
Lexington, Ky. h. f. h. 
THE PHILADELPHIA MILK TRADE. 
HOW THEY UTILIZE THE SURPLUS. 
[EDITORIAL correspondence.] 
What Brought the Change About. 
Of all food products, milk is the most difticult to 
convey from the pi’oducer to the consumer in good 
condition. On account of the rapid changes which 
occur in it, especially during hot weather, the great¬ 
est care possible in handling it must be observed, and 
the most rapid means of transportation secured. In 
cities, the problem becomes still more difficult, and 
much thought and many trials have been expended 
upon its solution. Hut after all the efforts toward a 
simplification of the problem, the consumers in most 
places are still paying too high a price for milk com¬ 
pared with prices producers are receiving, the most 
of the latter not getting enough to pay any interest 
on the capital invested, to say nothing of often re¬ 
ceiving less than the cost of production. Producers 
have often made efforts at cooperation, but for various 
reasons, these have more often been failures than 
successes, especially in large cities. Meanwhile the 
middlemen are doing their best to lower to the last 
notch the price paid to producers, regardless of the 
cost of production, and at the same time charge con¬ 
sumers all the traffic will bear. 
About a dozen years ago, milk producers along 
some of the main lines of railroad running into Phila¬ 
delphia, organized to resist the exactions of the milk 
dealers. Afterwards, others along other roads organ¬ 
ized, but could not withstand the opposition, mainly 
because they were not prepared to take care of the 
surplus—that bane of the milk handler—and suc¬ 
cumbed. Emboldened by their success in crushing 
opposition, and cutting down the wholesale price, the 
dealers in the middle of the winter four years ago, 
with the price of feed unusually high, put the price 
down below the cost of production. The case was 
getting serious, and again organizations were formed, 
and the farmers set their own prices for milk. This 
time the different organizations agreed upon a basis 
of cooperation, and dealers were forced to pay the 
price or go without the milk. Provision was made to 
take care of the surplus, and thus the greatest stum¬ 
bling block in the way of maintaining prices was 
removed. 
How the Machinery is Made. 
Briefly, the organizations are as follows: In each 
neighborhood from which milk is shipped, a local or¬ 
ganization is formed. These along each railroad are 
formed into a general association, and the latter form 
the United Association. The latter is composed of 
delegates or directors from the other associations, who 
meet on the last-Saturday of each month to fix prices to 
be paid for milk during the coming month, make assess¬ 
ments when these are necessai*y, and transact neces¬ 
sary business. The United Association established a 
creamery to use up the surplus and get as much from 
it as possible. The general associations hold monthly 
meetings, carry on the business of dealers in milk, 
place the necessary agents and employees 
on the platforms where the milk arrives, 
buy milk from farmers, and sell to deal¬ 
ers and others who wish large quan¬ 
tities of milk. The United Association 
does not do a retail business, except 
from the store, selling its milk almost 
entirely to dealers and the hotels, and 
similar large establishments that require 
large quantities of milk. The object is 
to secure to every farmer who ships 
good, pure milk, a fair equal price, to 
do away with speculators, and to insure 
to consumers a healthful product at a 
fair price. 
The Handling of the Surplus. 
The creamery where the surplus is 
handled is at Eleventh and Wood 
Streets. The superintendent is Robert 
Crane, and during a visit there, he ex¬ 
plained to me the workings of the 
creamery, and the methods of working 
up and disposing of the surplus. Each 
day, after the regular patrons are 
supplied from the receiving stations 
of the different railroads, the surplus 
is collected and taken to the creamery to be 
worked up. Here it is run into great tanks. A con¬ 
siderable retail trade is carried on from the store, but 
the greater part was formerly made into butter. The 
latter, however, under the low prices of recent years, 
has not proved profitable, and for the past year or 
more, great quantities of ice cream have been made, 
and this trade, which is constantly increasing, has 
proved more remunerative. 
From the vats, such of the milk as is to have the 
cream removed, is run to the separators. Skim-milk 
is sold to bakers only. A great deal of 
it is made into cottage cheese, which 
finds a ready sale. Such of the cream 
as is not sold, or made into ice cream, is 
made into butter. Great churns and 
butter-workers all run by steam power, 
do this work, and an excellent product 
is turned out. But the prices allowed 
farmers for their milk, leave little or no 
profit in this, so an effort is made to 
work as much as possible into ice cream. 
Buttermilk is sold, and four wagons de¬ 
liver goods to customers. Cold storage 
rooms hold butter in good condition 
until wanted for market. The cash 
sales from the store during 1894 were 
$225,000. An effort is made to secure 
the hotel and restaurant trade, and sev¬ 
eral of the largest hotels are supplied 
entirely from here. The latter is one of 
the most desirable trades that can be 
secured ; it requires a regular and cer¬ 
tain supply of good goods, but is one of 
the best for cash returns. 
The following schedule of retail prices was posted 
in the store : 
Milk. 5 cents per quart. 
Cream.25 cents per quart. 
Buttermilk. 3 cents per quart. 
Ice cream.25 to 30 cents j>er quart. 
Butter.27 to 31 cents per pound. 
Cottage cheese. 1 to 1*4 cent per pound. 
But the great effort now is to work all the surplus 
possible into ice cream. This trade was started in 
May, 1894, and has increased at an astonishing rate. 
In making this cream, only the purest ingredients are 
used, and these, so far as possible, are the direct prod¬ 
uct of the farms. Equal quantities of cream and milk 
are mixed, this is sweetened, and the desired flavors 
and fruits are added The vanilla flavor is obtained 
direct from the beans, and the fruits are supplied by 
the farmers so far as possible. The ice cream after 
freezing is made into the various forms demanded by 
the customers, and is gaining rapidly in popularity. 
ONE OF THE FALLEN TREES AT THE RURAL GROUNDS. Fig. 1(54. 
GRAPE ARBORS AFTER THE TORNADO. Fig. 165. (See page 523.) 
