68o 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
October 12 
greater abundance, although in apples and pears, 
there was a decided show of lack of keeping quality, 
owing, undoubtedly, to the hot, dry weather and 
early maturity of the later sorts. Quite an interest 
was shown by many, as was manifest by the frequent 
questions to the judges for information, and notes 
taken by the inquirers, as to the most desirable fruits 
to plant. The same was the case in the floral depart¬ 
ment, which was very large and varied, and in decora¬ 
tive plants, the best ever shown here. 
The Geneva Station branch made a very interesting 
exhibit of insects, fungi, etc., that are troubling the 
farmers, and many availed themselves of the oppor¬ 
tunity to become posted on the appearance of the 
various diseases and the remedies, a varied collection 
of which was shown. Many questions were answered 
by those in charge. Mr. Stewart, the microscopist, 
had many applications to see the fungus, spores, etc., 
under the microscope, which was quite a revelation to 
many. Mr. V. H. Lowe, in charge of the entomologi¬ 
cal department, was kept busy explaining to many 
anxious to learn, more of our insect enemies. Mr. 
Seriene had charge of the ammunition and machinery 
for destroying all these pests, and was well patron¬ 
ized, and had lots of questions fired at him. So you 
see that the educational part was not lacking, and if 
a farmer wished to learn to care for and protect his 
crops, he could. If the trots were of more interest, 
he took his amusement at the race track. There was 
much to learn in the tool department, where were 
shown all sorts of labor-saving appliances. 
The fake element was kept properly outside the 
gates. A merry-go-round to amuse the children, was 
the only thing prominent. If there were any illegiti¬ 
mate games, they were very much in the background; 
for this the management are to be commended. No 
liquors of any kind were allowed, and not a person 
under the influence of liquor did I see. The fair of 
1895 may be set down as one of the most successful 
and useful of the whole 55. n. H. 
SOME CONNECTICUT FARM NOTES. 
I was recently shown the following detailed account 
of the cost of raising an acre of onions : 
Manure.$50.00 
Sowing. 12.00 
Cultivation. 44.00 
Harvesting and marketing. 25.00 
Interest and taxes. 6.00 
Total in round numbers.$137.00 
“ Did you work on the job yourself ?” 
“ Yes.” 
“ IIow much did you charge for your time ?” 
“ $1.25, the same that I paid day labor.” 
“ But don’t you consider your time worth more than 
that ?” 
“ Yes, I do ; but the small farmer who does manual 
labor, can only charge a crop laborer’s wages for his 
own work, or else he will be unfair to the crop.” 
This is a disadvantage under which a man labors 
who is competent to direct the labor of others, but 
cannot command the capital necessary for larger 
enterprises. An excellent plan for such a man, when 
he feels the injustice of his position, is to create capi¬ 
tal for himself with that superior brain of his. 
“ Unless you sell the crop for $137 or more it will be 
a dead loss ?” 
“ A bookkeeper would say so, but a little would be 
gained then. The job created a market for some team 
and manual labor which otherwise would have gone 
to waste, and the field is much improved by the 
thorough tillage that onions require.” 
lie was right. Many farmers are unmindful of the 
fixed charges which they create in improvements, in 
animals, etc. If we look closely at the well managed 
farm, we see that business is created to employ ani¬ 
mals and men in the slack seasons, and if we study 
the farm improvements, they are for reducing the 
running expenses by increased or cheaper production. 
A friend who has a hot-air furnace in his house in 
which wood is used as fuel, said that he burned from 
six to eight cords of wood in it during the winter. 
The furnace takes in four-foot wood from the size of 
a common water pail down. The large size stick is 
good for keeping fire overnight, but more heat during 
the day can be obtained from smaller wood. He 
thought it as easily tended as a coal furnace. In 
cold weather, he attended it the first thing in the 
morning, then after breakfast, just before dinner, at 
nightfall and at bedtime. His house is large, and 
stands in a high, exposed position. Four registers are 
in average use, two on the main floor, and two in the 
chambers, although about twice as many are in the 
house. The smoke pipe formerly entered the chimney 
in the cellar, but it made the cellar too warm for 
vegetables, so he had it carried up through the hall- 
ways to the attic, where it now enters the chimney. 
This arrangement makes the cellar cool enough for 
vegetables, and also warms the halls, so that the use 
of the hall register is unnecessary. He said that, if 
he bought his fuel, he would probably use a coal fur¬ 
nace ; but he had plenty of wood, and it was not ex¬ 
pensive to work it up into four-foot lengths. 
E. c. BIROE. 
" A GEORGIA PEACHr 
HOW IT IS PLANTED, PROTECTED, PICKED AND PACKED. 
Part VI. 
[EDITORIAL, CORRESPONDENCE.! 
The Connecticut End of It. 
The great Georgia orchard we have been talking 
about, had its origin in Connecticut. The It. N.-Y. 
has told before now how Mr. Hale and his brother 
were left when mere boys, at the father’s death, on a 
debt-burdened farm, without capital or experience. 
They saw clearly that success had only one latchkey 
—that was to grow some new crop, and grow it well. 
There is an old peach tree on the farm that is over 60 
years old. That old tree showed these boys that it 
was possible to grow good peaches in Connecticut—so 
they went at work to fill in the skeleton of that possi¬ 
bility with work and study. They did it, and, there¬ 
fore, that great Georgia orchard may be said to have 
sprouted from this old tree. 
Of course the conditions of culture and sale in Con¬ 
necticut are different from those at the South. The 
northern orchard is scattered, while in Georgia the 
peaches grow in one large block. Mr. Hale thinks 
that the soil of the Georgia orchard is the stronger, 
while the northern fields are more hilly and stony. 
The cost of growing a tree to a profitable age in 
Connecticut is twice as much as in the South. The 
fields are smaller, there are more stones and more 
hillsides to cultivate, labor is very much higher, and 
very much more fertilizer is used. The advantages 
are that markets are much nearer, and transportation 
is so quickly and cheaply carried on that the peaches 
may be left longer on the tree, and thus command a 
higher price because of better appearance. 
“ You told us how much cheaper the Southern labor 
is,” I said ; “but is there much saving in the fertilizer 
bill at the South ? ” 
“ Well, you saw how little we have used down there. 
Up here, we use a ton or more per acre of a mixture 
of bone and potash—three parts bone and one of 
muriate. In fact, we don’t mix them, but apply them 
separately. We have used more or less cotton-hull 
ashes.” 
“ But don’t you need more in Georgia ?” 
“Yes, and we shall use more hereafter. One reason 
why we used so little there is that we wanted to test 
the soil and see what it needed. After one crop, we 
know that it needs more potash to give the peaches 
more color, and that will be supplied. The cow pea 
crop is a great help in the Georgia orchard. We have 
found that certain varieties of cow peas will grow 
with us here.” 
The “ yellows ” have given little trouble in these 
orchards. The oldest orchard is now 16 years old, 
and has given eight good crops. It is now vigorous 
and thrifty ; good for five more crops at least. An¬ 
other 12-yeai*-old orchard is still in splendid health. 
The healthy appearance of the orchard is to be at¬ 
tributed to the careful cultivation of the soil and the 
skill with which the trees have been trimmed and 
thinned. They are never permitted to overbear. 
More than half the growing fruit is pulled off early 
in the season. Mr. Hale shows an orchard of 22 acres 
that was thinned by seven girls during haying time, 
when the men were busy in the hay field. If a good 
sized tree produces 500 peaches, it earns its full salary, 
and should be given a share of the profits—payable 
in potash and bone. 
The color of these Northern peaches is something 
remarkable—a dark, rich crimson cheek. “Potash 
paints the peach,” is Mr. Hale’s motto, and he says 
that nothing but an ample supply of potash will give 
this rich coloring. 
The varieties grown at the orchard are Mountain 
Rose, Early and Late Crawfords, Stump, Oldmixon, 
Sal way, Elberta, Crosbey, Smock and Keyport White. 
This gives a good succession. In Georgia, but two 
grades are made, but in Connecticut three grades are 
packed, each one with certain colored label—the 
largest red, second size white, smaller blue. The 
culls are sold without label. The Hales are patriotic 
people for the “red, white and blue” is displayed 
everywhere. 
When asked to give the proper distance apart for 
trees, Mr. Hale took me to an orchard of 22 acres, one- 
lialf of which is set 18 x 18 feet, and the other half 
12 x 12. Accurate account has been kept of the rela¬ 
tive profits of these two halves, and with five crops, 
the closer-planted half is $7,000 ahead. While the 
other may gain somewhat now, it cannot entirely 
catch up. It was this experiment, chiefly, that in¬ 
duced Mr. Hale to set the Georgia orchard 13 x 13 feet. 
Some weeks ago, I spoke of the effect of girdling od 
an Elberta peach tree. This tree split open, and to 
bring it together, the workmen put a wire around 
both limbs of the crotch, and pulled them up by twist¬ 
ing the wire around with a stick. The wire cut 
through the bark and girdled the tree. As a result, 
the tree was filled with fine great peaches, while the 
other Elbertas were green and hard—at least 10 days 
behind in ripening. It will probably kill the tree, 
but this accident suggests an experiment that Mr. 
Hale will try next year. lie has an orchard on leased 
land, the lease of which expires in two years. Next 
year, he will girdle 100 or more trees in various ways, 
and thus see the effect on quite a large scale. The 
next year, if necessary, he can girdle the whole 
orchard for his last crop, even though it kill every 
tree. If it will hasten the ripening of some of the 
earlier varieties by 10 days, the increased price would 
pay for the trees. 
Some of the white workers in the Georgia orchard 
had the pluck and ambition to follow the business 
North, and are at work handling the Connecticut 
peaches. The way business is conducted at the 
North, was a revelation to these young men. “Why,” 
said one of them, “ I can stand on a corner in Hart¬ 
ford, and see more people in half an hour than I could 
see all day in Macon, Ga.” These great, thriving 
centers of population, with the thousands of workers 
right at the end of an electric wire, may well seem 
wonderful to those who have known nothing but the 
market needs of a small city. In fact, the dazzling 
changes that are taking place in New England agri¬ 
culture may well take away one’s breath. 
“If you will get up at 2 o’clock,” said Mr. Hale, 
“we will show you a new trick about marketing 
peaches.” 
The electric road from Hartford runs directly past 
Mr. Hale’s house. There is a side switch in front of 
the orchard, and on this, during the day, three 
empty passenger cars were left standing. All day 
long, the peach baskets were packed into the cars. 
When we got up in the morning, we found an electric 
car from Hartford hitched to the three cars of peaches. 
With Mr. Hale’s son for conductor, and his little girl 
for passenger, we went whirling at a 20-mile gait 
into Hartford, with 1,000 baskets of peaches behind 
us. There was no stop until we reached the store of 
the Hartford agent. By 6 o’clock A. m., the peaches 
were all unloaded, sold and distributed, and the 
empty cars hauled back to the side track in front of 
the orchard—ready for another load. 
There was a saving of the work of, at least, 10 
teams—all done quickly and without fuss. That is 
what farming is coming to. The same thing might 
be done in thousands of other localities. These light, 
electric roads must be made to serve the farmer by 
hauling freight as well as passengers. At the open¬ 
ing of the peach season, Mr. Hale hired cars, decorated 
them with flags and labels, and made great bowers 
of peach boughs with the fruit hanging. Then, with 
60 local fruit dealers seated in the cars, he ran all 
over the electric lines of Hartford. Why not ? Why 
not advertise the peach business as well as the cloth¬ 
ing trade ? 
The coming farmer must make use of all these new 
devices, or some one else will take the chance away 
from him. It will not be many years before a car¬ 
load of cotton-hull ashes can be shipped from Georgia, 
and run right into the Connecticut orchard without 
being once opened. These electric lines must be of 
use to farmers for freight. It is but a question of 
time before a large proportion of New England mar¬ 
keting will be done by electricity. The fact that it 
can be done, gives New England farmers a great 
natural advantage. H. w. c. 
FROM THE " CARNATION BELT." 
SOMETHING ABOUT A FLOWER BUSINESS. 
Kennett Square, in Chester County, Pa.,.is the central 
point in what is known among florists as “ The Car¬ 
nation Belt,” where probably more carnations are 
grown than in any other section in the United States. 
Not many years since, the late Charles T. Starr, the 
most active pioneer carnation grower of these parts, 
astonished the natives by sending to the Philadelphia 
market “a whole bushel of cut flowers” per week ; 
now, 75,000 in the same time are not at all an unusual 
shipment, and this, too, by men who have grown into, 
rather than gone into the business. By this, I mean 
that most were attracted by Mr. Starr’s success, and 
mechanics or laborers who have begun in a small 
way have increased their establishments from year to 
year as occasion warranted. 
Assuming that a novice would like to begin in a 
small way, I will briefly give an outline of the busi¬ 
ness. First, we will consider the house ; this may be 
one of many forms, the style most generally used, 
being what is called three-quarter span—that is, by 
preference, 20 feet wide, running east and west, 
rafters 16 feet long on the south side, and eight feet 
on the north, with ventilators along the ridge; 50 feet 
long by 20 or 22 feet wide, is a fair size for a begin¬ 
ning, and can be built from $150 to $250 complete, 
