IShe  RURAL  NEW-YORKER 
613 
readied  one  would  have  to  do  some  looking  to  find 
one  willing  to  buy  his  fruit.  However,  even  in 
sudi  communities  there  can  be  found  a  market  if 
one  will  go  after  it.  The  wholesale  grocery  houses 
list  evaporated  apples,  and  in  some  sections  of  the 
country  a  most,  astonishing  business  is  done  in  this 
line.  It  is  always  possible  to  learn  the  names  of 
the  wholesale  houses  selling  groceries  in  any  dis¬ 
trict.  Besides  if  one  will  go  over  a  list  of  brokers 
in  many  of  the  cities  he  will  be  able  to  find  one  who 
will  look  after  his  business.  a.  h.  pulver. 
Cucumber  Graft  Worth  $100 
THE  prize  cucumbers  at  the  Spring  show  of  the 
Massachusetts  Horticultural  Society  in  Boston, 
March  IS,  were  shown  by  J.  Winthrop  Stone  of 
Watertown.  “They  gave  Winthrop  all  the  prizes,” 
Preparing  the  Hole  for  Planting.  Fig.  220 
commented  a  fellow  market  gardener,  “because  they 
had  to  when  they  saw  the  cukes.” 
These  prize  cucumbers  were  listed  as  the  “Long 
Green.”  but  the  term  seems  to  he  more  a  description 
than  a  name.  As  compared  with  White  Spine,  the 
standard  farming  variety  in  New  England,  the  new 
kind  is  dark  green  all  over  and  much  longer,  while 
the  well  known  White  Spine  is  quite  chunky,  rather 
light  in  color  and  with  white  streaks  or  spines.  Sev¬ 
eral  years  ago  a  few  shipments  of  these  large,  hand¬ 
some,  dark  green  cucumbers  began  to  attract  notice 
in  the  Boston  market.  They  were  rated  as  fancy 
and  brought  high  prices,  but  they  were  different 
from  other  catalogued  varieties,  The  shipper  could 
not  be  persuaded  to  sell  the  seeds  and  so  Mr.  Stone 
decided  to  raise  some  himself.  Here  comes  in  his 
interesting  little  experiment  in  grafting.  A  friend 
had  succeeded  in  grafting  one  cucumber  to  another, 
Pruning  the  Roots.  Fig.  221 
by  waxing  and  tying,  as  when  trees  are  whip-graft¬ 
ed.  Why  not  see  what  would  happen  to  one  of  these 
new  cucumbers  used  as  a  scion?  He  tried  it.  using 
no  wax,  however,  but  merely  binding  the  parts  firm¬ 
ly  with  “electric”  tape.  The  graft  never  grew  larger, 
but  it  kept  alive  and  drew  enough  sap  to  ripen  its 
seeds. 
“That  graft,  Mr.  Stone,  must  have  been  worth  a 
hundred  dollars  to  you.” 
“More  than  that:  a  great  deal  more,”  was  the  re¬ 
ply.  “It  is  more  productive  than  the  White  Spine, 
as  well  as  better  looking.” 
It  seems  to  be  a  cross  between  the  White  Spine 
and  Telegraph  varieties,  but  unlike  some  other 
White  Spine  crosses,  it  breeds  true  to  type,  accord¬ 
ing  to  Mr.  Stone’s  experience.  The  story  shows  how 
hard  it  is  for  one  Yankee  gardener  to  keep  a  profit¬ 
able  trade  secret  from  another.  A  picture  of  ono 
of  the  cucumbers  is  shown  at  Fig.  222.  o.  b.  f. 
The  Mean  Side  of  Law 
I  have  a  question  which  should  concern  the  public 
in  general,  espeeially  farmers  and  the  working  class. 
Is  there  any  law  for  a  lawyer,  or  do  they  bear  the  name 
of  law  for  the  sake  of  being  lawyers’  dodgers?  I  did 
a  job  of  lumbering  for  a  man  who  has  been  a  judge  for 
some  years  past.  I  tried  in  every  way  possible  to  get 
my  pay  in  full.  I  coaxed  him  and  finally  turned  to 
the  law,  employed  a  lawyer  who  was  prominent  enough 
to  be  mayor.  The  ease  was  postponed  and  postponed 
and  repostponed  until  I  took  it  from  him  and  gave  it. 
to  another.  The  case  was  then  tried.  I  proved  my  case 
so  clear  that  the  judge  could  nut  decide  it  against  me, 
so  up  to  this  date  he  has  not  given  it  a  decision  at  all. 
What  higher  power  can  I  refer  to?  He  is  waiting  for 
the  opposite  party  to  put  in  their  brief.  What  time 
does  the  law  give  for  bri:fs  or  a  decision?  Or  where 
it  is  a  workingman  against  a  lawyer,  don’t  they  have 
to  give  any  decision?  My  opinion  is  there  are  too 
many  men  in  the  country  who  are  afraid  to  tell  law¬ 
yers  where  they  belong.  My  idea  is  that  if  50  per  cent, 
of  them  were  where  they  our/ht  to  be  they  would  he  on 
the  State  road  with  pick  and  shovel  earning  something. 
I  hope  that  every  farmer  in  the  country  will  charge 
lawyers  for  produce  and  necessaries  of  life  at  the  same 
rate  they  charge  us  for  the  trifling  things  they  do  for 
us.  That  would  be  about  500  per  cent  more  than  the 
other  fellow  has  to  pay.  a.  e.  n. 
Ills  complaint  seems  to  be  well  founded.  There 
is  no  limit  to  the  time  the  court  may  give  either 
side  to  put  in  its  brief,  and  probably  because  of  the 
prominent  position  hold  by  the  defendant  in  this 
case  the  court  and  the  plaintiff's  lawyer  have  been 
A  Prize  Massachusetts  Cucumber.  Fig.  222 
lenient  to  him  in  the  prosecution  of  Ihe  case.  There 
is  no  way  we  can  answer  or  alleviate  the  case,  ex¬ 
cept  to  say  that  in  this  county  a  tort  case  cannot  bo 
brought  to  trial  in  less  than  a  year  and  a  half  un¬ 
der  the  best  circumstances.  There  are,  of  course, 
always  delays  in  the  preparation  and  trial  of  these 
actions,  and  the  more  prominent  the  defendant,  the 
more  easy  lie  gets  his  requests  for  adjournment 
granted.  Our  suggestion  is  not  to  change  attorneys 
again,  but  to  let  this  one  carry  Ihe  matter  through. 
This  is  an  unfortunate  case,  and  it  is  because  of 
delays  of  this  character  that  the  law  has  got  into 
the  disrepute  it  enjoys,  because  of  the  length  of  time 
that  is  required  to  prosecute  simple  eases  to  a  final 
conclusion.  The  whole  legal  system  should  be  re¬ 
vised  so  that  a  case  can  be  tried  out  within  at  most 
a  month  after  it  is  started,  and  not  have  so  much 
red  tape,  which  lias  grown  around  the  legal  system 
for  centuries.  .  m.  d. 
Are  Any  Leghorn  Farms  Profitable 
A  short  time  ago  a  noted  St.  Lawrence  County  man, 
speaking  before  the  Chamber  of  Commerce  here  in 
Glens  Falls,  said  there  was  not  a  Leghorn  farm  that 
was  run  for  market  eggs  in  this  country  that  he  be¬ 
lieved  was  paying.  j.  E.  \v. 
So.  Glens  Falls,  N.  Y. 
I1ILE  this  statement  is  not  true,  it  is  so 
nearly  true  that  I  am  surprised  any  It.  X.-Y. 
reader  should  question  it. 
In  the  22  years  I  have  been  in  this  business,  I 
have  seen  unnumbered  poultry  plants  start  with  a 
great  flourish  and  only  a  very  few  have  run  over 
three  or  four  years,  then  the  bouses,  worth  thou¬ 
sands  of  dollars,  stand  rotting  down :  the  farm  is 
for  sale  or  rent,  and  another  disgusted  owner  is 
saying  there  is  nothing  in  the  chicken  business. 
Over  20  years  ago  Prof.  Rice  and  I  started  the 
business  of  making  fancy  eggs  for  market.  We  real¬ 
ized  we  could  not  be  satisfied  with  only  35  cents 
of  the  consumer's  dollar,  and  sought  to  supply  pri¬ 
vate  families  first  in  our  local  market;  then  as  we 
developed  our  plant  began  shipping  to  hotels  and 
private  families  in  New  York  City.  The  number  of 
l  ens  we  keep  ranges  from  1,200  to  2.000  at  different 
seasons,  and  we  aim  to  raise  about  (500  pullets  each 
year,  selling  off  that  amount  of  old  stock.  For 
quite  a  number  of  years  past  our  sales  from  the 
hens  have  run  from  $4,000  to  $5,000;  besides  the 
Soaking  After  Planting.  Fig.  223 
poultry  and  eggs  used  on  the  table  would  cost  over 
$300  if  we  had  to  buy  if.  Of  course  when  you  figure 
the  high  price  of  feed,  charging  market  price  for 
what  we  raise,  the  profit  on  our  business  is  not  us 
large  as  we  would  like  to  have  it.  I  believe  our  suc¬ 
cess  is  due  to  breeding  vigorous  stock,  heavy  pro¬ 
ducers  of  fancy  white  eggs,  and  selling  direct  to  the 
consumer.  floyd  q.  white. 
Westchester  Co.,  N.  Yr. 
Diversifying  Farming 
We  had  only  one  main  market  crop,  cotton,  till  Pro¬ 
vidence  or  the  lower  power  brought  ns  the  weevil  pest. 
Our  merchants  were  not  prepared  to  handle  anything 
else,  but  in  recent  years  our  farmers  have  begun  to 
diversify,  and  we  found  our  market  situation  in  a 
primitive  state. 
HAT  is  from  a  philosopher  in  one  of  the  Gulf 
States.  The  cottou  weevil  did  great  damage  to 
the  South's  great  money  crop,  yet  it  did  wonderful 
Pruning  Back  the  Top.  Fig.  224 
good  iu  compelling  farmers  to  produce  grain  and 
meat  and  fruit  in  order  to  live.  This  change  in 
production  made  it  necessary  to  develop  markets. 
For  many  years  the  Southern  people  depended  upon 
the  North  and  West  for  their  bread  and  meat,  and 
for  hay  for  their  stock.  The  markets  had  become 
accustomed  to  handling  this  imported  product,  and 
when  the  home-grown  food  began  to  come  it  was 
necessary  to  break  up  many  old  habits  of  business. 
Thus  the  Southern  States  have  their  own  hard 
marketing  problems — different  from  those  at  the 
North  because  it  is  a  development  of  the  home  mar¬ 
ket  now  supplied  at  long  range.  The  Southern 
farmers  have  a  great  opportunity  if  they  can  learn 
to  supply  their  own  people  with  food. 
