Z5/>e  RURAL  NEW-YORKER 
785 
Business 
A  Business  in  Turtles 
We  have  all  sorts  of  business  plans  pre¬ 
sented  to  us,  and  it  seems  as  if  our  read¬ 
ers  had  developed  about  everything  in  the 
way  of  farm  possibilities.  The  latest 
scheme  comes  from  a  man  in  Louisiana, 
who  is  in  the  business  of  producing  and 
selling  turtles.  Tie  wanted  to  know 
where  they  could  he  sold,  and  through  cor¬ 
respondence  we  have  learned  something 
about  his  trade.  In  Ins  part  of  Louisiana 
there  are  many  little  streams  and  bayous 
where  the  turtles  are  found  in  large 
numbers.  Of  course,  no  effort  is  made  to 
breed  them  in  captivity.  They  are  caught 
when  they  are  about  the  size  of  a  dollar, 
but  as  our  friend  puts  it,  they  grow 
finally  “as  large  as  a  tub.”  On  warm 
days  these  turtles  come  out  and  sleep  on 
the  logs  of  the  bayous  and  streams,  and 
men  are  hired  to  go  in  boats  or  canoes 
and  catch  the  turtles  in  long-handled 
nets.  When  they  are  caught  they  are 
brought  home  and  kept  under  natural  con¬ 
ditions,  except  that  they  are  fed  on  a 
special  mixture  of  food.  This  keeps  them 
growing  until  they  are  large  enough  to  be 
sold.  Very  likely  this  feed  is  put  before 
them  much  the  same  as  a  dry  mash 
would  be  put  before  n  flock  of  liens. 
After  all.  this  business  is  legitimate 
enough,  and  fairly  profitable,  but  do  not 
get  the  idea  from  reading  this  that  every¬ 
one  can  rush  into  the  business  of  raising 
turtles  and  make  a  fortune.  There  are 
only  a  few  who  would  ever  make  such  a 
business  pay,  for  like  hundreds  of  other 
things  there  is  just  enough  demand  for 
tlm  product  to  keep  n  few  people  busy 
supplying  the  turtles,  and  when  you  get 
beyond  that  there  would  be  nothing  to 
the  proposition  whatever. 
Selling  Rags  and  Waste 
1  Several  people  have  asked  about  the 
business  of  shipping  junk  nr  rags,  papers 
and  metals  or  rubfier.  Fsually  such  junk 
is  sold  to  wandering  collectors  for  a  small 
sum.  but  it  is  possible  to  obtain  more  for 
it  by  sending  direct  to  the  larger  dealers. 
The  W.  L.  Looser  Go.  give  11s  the  follow¬ 
ing  facts  about  this  trade]  : 
The  gathering  of  rags  and  other  waste 
material  is  an  old  established  business, 
beginning  with  the  so-called  junk  peddler, 
who  goes  from  house  to  house,  buying  as 
cheaply  as  he  can.  often  bartering  for 
tinware  or  other  commodities,  to  reduce 
his  cost.  ITo  sells  to  a  small  dealer,  who 
accumulates  quantities,  sometimes  car- 
loads.  and  this  dealer  ships  to  one  of  tin* 
larger  dealers,  of  whom  there  are  a  num¬ 
ber  in  each  of  the  principal  cities.  The 
latter  is  the  class  to  which  wo  belong, 
but  there  is  .no  valid  reason  why  we 
should  not  buy  directly  from  household¬ 
ers.  if  wc  are  willing  to  attend  to  the  de¬ 
tails  connected  with  small  shipments. 
Householders  would  realize  much  more 
than  by  selling  to  peddlers,  and  with  no 
more  trouble  than  would  be  involved  i  i 
packing  and  shipping  a  crate  of  eggs  or 
poultry,  or  a  few  barrels  of  apples.) 
The  recent  circular  issued  by  the  De¬ 
partment  of  Commerce  was  generally 
noticed  in  the  press.  Tt  was  an  official 
recognition  of  acute  shortage  in  the  sup- 
lilies  of  cotton  rags  and  waste  papers, 
and  called  on  the  people  who  have  been 
destroying  these  articles  to  save  them  for 
sale  and  use.  Our  foreign  supplies,  usu¬ 
ally  very  large,  have  been  almost  entirely 
cut,  off  by  the  war,  and  the  domestic  sup¬ 
ply  has  been  inadequate.  Whether  due 
to  this  appeal,  or  to  the  usual  Spring  in¬ 
crease  in  collections,  or  to  a  combination 
<>f  the  two,  the  situation  appears  to  have 
I  cen  much  relieved  within  the  past  few 
weeks.  Prices,  which  were  exceedingly 
high,  have  dropped  to  lower  levels,  which 
are.  however,  considerably  higher  than 
the  average  for  many  years  past. 
Country  mixed  rags  have  been  fluctu¬ 
ating  between  Ho.  and  -le.  per  lb.,  as 
against  a  normal  value  of  about  1c. ;  old 
newspapers,  50c.  to  00c.  per  100  lbs. ;  old 
magazines  and  books,  $1  to  $1.50  per  100 
lbs.,  as  against  a  normal  value  of  half  as 
much.  Scrap  rubber,  copper,  zinc,  lead, 
etc.,  remain  at  figures  much  higher  than 
usual,  due  in  most  cases  to  the  war,  the 
scarcity  resulting  from  increased  exports 
to  warring  nations,  or  decreased  supplies 
from  like  sources. 
Shippers  should  send  not  less  than  100 
lbs.  as  freight  rates  are  based  on  that 
minimum.  Smaller  shipments  will  cost 
as  much  freight  as  100  lbs.  Goods  may 
be  packed  together,  and  shipped  in  bar¬ 
rels.  bags  or  boxes.  Barrels  may  be  cov¬ 
ered  with  burlap  or  wood.  Bags  should 
be  free  from  large  holes.  A  tag  should  be 
firmly  attached  to  each  package,  bearing 
name  of  shipper,  also  name  and  address 
of  consignee. 
The  rag  and  waste  paper  business  is 
not  generally  understood.  Most  people 
know  that  scrap  iron  goes  back  to  foun¬ 
dries  for  re-melting,  and  that  lead,  Clip¬ 
per,  brass  and  zinc  are  melted  and  used 
over  and  over  again  ;  but  they  know  little 
of  the  uses  of  rags  and  papers — an  in¬ 
dustry  that  has  grown  to  tremendous  size, 
and  has  taken  an  important  place  in  our 
economic  life.  As  mixed  rags  come  in 
they  contain  all  kinds  from  rag  carpet 
and  burlap  up  to  clean  white  cottons  and 
bright  woolens.  The  woolens  are  the 
for  raw  wool.  There  are  about  one  hun¬ 
dred  grades  made  in  this  country,  distin¬ 
guished  as  to  texture  (knitted,  woven, 
felted),  as  to  fineness,  and  as  to  color. 
Hundreds  of  woolen  mills  and  shoddy 
manufacturers  are  usually  ready  to  buy 
such  of  these  grades  as  meet  their  re¬ 
quirements.  If  the  woolens  contain  cot¬ 
ton,  the  rags  are  subjected  ,  to  an  acid  pro¬ 
cess,  which  destroys  the  cotton,  leaving  a 
pure,  clean  wool  fibre. 
Cotton  rags  are  also  graded  into  many 
classes :  the  whites  are  used  for  our  best 
grades  of  writing  paper;  the  light  colors 
for  book  paper,  and  the  dark  colors  and 
rug  carpets  go  to  the  mills  making  roofing 
and  building  papers.  Magazines  and 
books  are  made  over  into  a  cheap  book 
paper.  Newspapers  and  cirdiuary  waste 
papers  are  used  by  paper-board  mills 
who  produce  the  box  and  carton  papers, 
which  are  now  so  largely  used  for  a  mul¬ 
titude  of  purposes,  clothing,  laundry,  ce¬ 
reals,  sugar,  eggs  and  many  others. 
The  handling  of  rags  and  papers  is 
done  on  a  large  scale  by  the  city  dealers. 
Freight  cars  are  switched  to  the  door, 
goods  unloaded  and  carried  by  mechanical 
contrivances,  assorted  quickly  by  expert 
workers,  baled  in  powerful  presses,  and 
again  loaded  into  the  cars  for  shipment 
to  many  different  mills,  who  in  turn  re¬ 
quire  these  goods  for  the  manufacture  of 
their  product. 
Parcel-post  Eggs  Unsatisfactory 
I  notice  on  page  325  some  communica¬ 
tions  with  regard  to  egg  shipments  by 
parcel  post.  Our  experience  has  been  un¬ 
satisfactory.  We  have  been  sending  eggs 
by  parcel  post  to  New  York  and  Brook¬ 
lyn  for  several  years.  For  a  time  the 
eggs  arrived  in  good  condition.  Then  the 
smashing  process  began.  At  first  we 
were  very  much  surprised,  anil  wrote  to 
the  Post  Office  Department  in  Washing¬ 
ton,  expecting  that  flu*  smashing  would 
be  stopped.  We  received  a  civil  reply 
informing  11s  that  the  matter  would  be 
investigated.  As  a  result  of  the  investi¬ 
gation,  we  were  told  that  an  order  had 
been  issued,  directing  that  parcel  post 
shipments  from  our  station  should  not  lie 
put  in  mail  pouches.  This  seemed  to 
work  an  improvement  for  a  time,  hut  for 
a  time  only,  A  box  of  eggs  which  we 
sent,  to  an  uptown  address  in  New  York 
was  never  heard  from.  We  sent  the  par¬ 
ticulars  to  Washington,  but  no  result. 
The  same  thing  happened  a  week  ago. 
On  April  18th  we  mailed  a  box  of  eggs  to 
an  address  in  the  New  York  Life  Build¬ 
ing,  and  up  to  date  this  has  not  been 
heard  from.  Yesterday  we  received  a 
complaint  from  a  Brooklyn.  N.  Y.,  cus¬ 
tomer  from  which  I  make  the  following 
extract : 
“When  the  eggs  were  received  this 
week  (a  four-dozen  package)  the  box  had 
been  opened  and  nine  of  the  eggs  wore 
broken.”  Another  customer  wrote:  “The 
box  looks  as  if  it  bad  been  struck  with  a 
hammer  and  four  eggs  out  of  two  dozen 
were  broken.”  We  could  multiply  these 
complaints,  hut  what's  the  use?  We  con¬ 
sider  the  parcel  post  egg  service  a  na¬ 
tional  disgrace.  Do  you  suppose  such 
things  happen  in  France  or  Germany? 
Leonardo,  N.  ,T.  f.  u.  b, 
R.  N.-Y. — We  understand  there  are  oc¬ 
casional  complaints  about  breakage  in 
Europe,  but  nowhere  near  as  much 
trouble  as  in  this  country.  On  the  other 
side  light  hampers  are  used  for  carrying 
the  packages.  The  R.  N.-Y.  has  never 
believed  that  parcel  post  shipment  of 
eggs  under  the  American  system  will 
prove  satisfactory. 
Duties  of  Rural  Mail  Carriers 
[Our  readers  will  be  interested  in  the 
following  letter  from  the  1’ost  Office  De¬ 
partment  at  Washington.  It  refers  to  a 
complaint  made  by  one  of  our  readers.] 
She  complains  that  she  lives  on  a  road 
traveled  by  two  rural  carriers  whose 
routes  emanate  from  different  post  offices; 
that  the  carrier  from  one  of  the  offices  is 
not  inclined  to  deliver  mail  which  is  ad¬ 
dressed  to  her  at  that  office,  claiming  that 
to  do  so  would  be  an  accommodation  on 
his  part  and  not  a  duty,  and  that,  al¬ 
though  she  has  requested  the  postmaster 
at  the  office  in  question  to  have  her  mail 
delivered  by  the  carrier  from  his  office, 
the  postmaster  continues  to  forward  her 
mail  to  the  office  at  which  the  other  car¬ 
per  is  employed  for  delivery  by  that  car¬ 
rier. 
With  reference  to  your  request  to  be 
advised  as  t<>  the  Postal  Laws  and  Regu¬ 
lations  governing  cases  of  this  character 
I  beg  to  state  that  a  person  who  resides 
on  a  road  traveled  by  two  rural  carriers 
may  be  afforded  delivery  nf  mail  by  both 
carriers,  provided  the  patron  will  properly 
erect  an  approved  rural  mail  box  on  the 
road  traveled  by  the  carriers  and  will 
notify  the  postmasters  concerned  that 
sueh  mail  delivery  is  desired.  If  your 
correspondent  has  met  the  requirements 
of  the  Department  as  stated  herein,  and 
will  furnish  this  office  with  the  names  of 
the  post,  offices  anil  carriers  to  which  she 
refers,  instructions  will  be  issued  for  the 
delivery  of  her  mail  by  the  carriers  from 
both  offices.  JAS.  1.  iu.akslee. 
Fourth  Assistant  Postmaster  General. 
Mushrooms  in  the  Cellar 
In  the  cellar  of  our  farmhouse  the  men 
have  erected  some  frames  for  mushroom 
beds.  They  have  not  filled  them  with 
dirt  and  manure  yet.  .Vs  the  frames  are 
near  where  I  keep  the  milk  I  am  afraid 
the  cream  might  be  affected.  T  have  told 
the  men.  but  they  say  it  will  not.  Would 
yon  tell  me  who  is  correct?  B.  g. 
New  York. 
Some  one  has  apparently  distributed 
some  misinformation  regarding  this  odor¬ 
less  mushroom  proposition.  We  tried  it 
under  those  assurances,  in  Summer,  when 
the  windows  could  be  opened  over  the  en¬ 
tire  house,  and  we  found  that  insufficient, 
as  that  stable  odor  permeated  to  the  last 
niche  of  space.  W  hen  the  beds  begin  to 
heat  up  alter  being  made  a  few  days,  it 
is  a  good  miniature  reproduction  of  a 
horse  stable  that  needs  attention  on  a 
warm  day.  This  gradually  subsides  us 
the  manure  cools,  anil  in  about  30  days 
to  two  weeks  is  imperceptible,  possibly 
because  by  that  time  the  inmates  also  be¬ 
come  permeated  with  the  odor.  After  the 
beds  are  cased  and  during  the  bearing 
season  there  is  possibly  no  odor. 
We  had  no  milk  or  cream  near  this 
odor,  but  one  knowing  their  susceptibility 
to  absorb  odors  can  well  imagine  the  re¬ 
sult,  during  this  period,  before  the  beds 
are  ready  to  case.  fj.xiek  .t.  weaver. 
Rabbits  for  Market 
\V  hat  breed  ol  rabbits  would  be  best 
to  raise?  Where  could  I  find  a  good  mar¬ 
ket  to  dispose  of  them?  I  could  supply 
the  necessary  green  food  and  grain. 
)\  hat  kind  of  house  should  they  be  kept 
in !  \\  hat  care  should  they  receive  and 
"hat  should  1  feed  them?  \  n 
Berkshire,  N.  Y, 
Belgian  hares  arc  the  rabbits  most 
raised  for  the  market  and  probably  best 
suited  to  your  purpose.  The  Flemish 
Giant  is  a  strain  of  these  bares  that  has 
been  bred  for  size  hut  the  meat  is  not 
quite  as  fine-grained  as  that  of  the 
smaller  breeds.  The  demand  for'  rabbits 
is  limited,  as  compared  with  that  for 
poultry  and  other  meats;  still,  they  are 
handled  by  commission  merchants  in  the 
large  cities  and  local  dealers  in  dressed 
poultry  furnish  an  outlet  for  the  breed¬ 
er’s  produeet.  Prices  have  recently 
ranged  around  12  cents  per  pound.  Rab¬ 
bits  require  considerable  care  and  one 
should  not  expect  more  than  very  mod¬ 
erate  profits,  if  raising  them  for  mar¬ 
ket.  The  meat  is  excellent,  however,  if 
properly  cooked,  and  raising  the  rabbits 
is  a  pleasant  diversion  for  young  peo¬ 
ple  and  those  fond  of  pets. 
Belgian  hares  are  fed  upon  clover  hay. 
oats,  wheat  feed,  barley,  cabbage,  carrots, 
turnips,  apples,  etc.,  in  the  Winter  and 
green  stuff  from  the  field  and  garden, 
with  a  small  amount  of  hay  and  grain,  in 
the  Summer.  They  are  easily  housed,  re¬ 
quiring  a  hutch,  which  may  be  simply  a 
drygoods  box  nf  suitable  size,  and  a  wire 
covered  run.  For  detailed  directions  for 
their  care,  see  Farmers’  Bulletin  No. 
49G.  issued  by  the  F.  S.  Department  of 
Agriculture,  Washington,  D.  C.  This 
will  be  sent  free,  upon  application. 
M.  B.  D. 
most  valuable,  being  used  as  a  substitute 
Many  Farm  Women  are  Experts  at  Cutting  Potato  Seed 
