1093 
RURAL  NEW-YORKER 
kept  in  an  unsavory  manner,  should  avoid  the  busi¬ 
ness,  but  there  is  a  good  ice  cream  market  for  the 
neat,  respectable  and  business-like  farmer,  and  lit¬ 
tle  salesmanship  is  required  to  market  the  pro- 
Tour  reputation  for  good  clean  quarters  will  be  an 
advertising  asset  or  liability,  and  this  will  either 
assure  success  or  doom  your  business  to  failure. 
The  ice  cream  market  is  a  good  one  for  the  dairy¬ 
man,  and  the  demand  is  constantly  growing.” 
An  Ohio  Farmer’s  Ice-Cream  Trade 
A  Home  Market  for  Milk  Products 
«<  UALITY  goods  and  honest  service  were  the 
basis  of  my  building  up  a  good  ice  cream 
trade  in  the  neighborhood,”  declared  A.  W.  Allyu  of 
Ashtabula  County,  Ohio,  when  inquiry  was  made  re¬ 
garding  reasons  for  his  successful  local  trade.  His 
headquarters  are  on  liis  farm,  and  bis  tributary  ter¬ 
ritory  is  made  up  only  of  cross-road  towns,  neither 
villages  nor  cities  in  bis  territory. 
“It  does  not  cost  more,  I  find,  to  produce  quality 
goods,  than  the  inferior  kind,  and  for  service,  take 
care  of  your  customers.  You  will  not  be  compelled 
to  develop  new  customers  continually,  and  this  we 
could  not  do  in  the  country.  Anyhow,  to  give  poor 
service  is  not  business. 
“Here  is  liow  we  started  in  business.  In  the  first 
place  we  were  not  satisfied  with  our  returns  from 
our  dairy.  Then  too,  had  we  been  satisfied,  we 
would  have  been  compelled  to  prepare  for  the  milk 
inspector  a  little  later.  So  we  looked  over  the  .sit¬ 
uation.  and  decided  that,  if  fixing  must  he  done, 
why  not  do  it  in  the  interests  of  a  hotter  market 
than  the  local  shipping  station?  We  found  it  would 
cost  little  more  to  make  ready  for  ice  cream  busi¬ 
ness.  It  cost  us  about  $300  cash  to  establish  our 
plant.  The  room  in  which  the  ice  cream  plant  is 
located  is  a  room  of  the  house  remodeled  for  the 
work,  and  is  12  by  17  feet.  Being  joined  to  house 
it  would  not  survive  inspection  on  that  technicality, 
hut  on  the  basis  of  sanitation,  we  have  passed  the 
demands  of  the  inspector  a  long  way. 
“My  equipment  consists  of  a  214  horsepower  gas¬ 
oline  engine,  two  five-gallon  freezers  and  30  five- 
gallon  packers.  I  commenced  business  the  first  of 
last  July,  and  during  the  remainder  of  the  Summer 
and  early  Fall  months,  T  made  TOO  gallons.  Up  to 
the  present  lime  this  year,  I  have 
made  and  sold  3,000  gallons, 
“I  doubted  about  the  business  pay¬ 
ing  out  when  I  fitted  up  the  wagon 
early  in  July  a  year  ago,  but  the  first 
trip  showed  that  T  was  on  the  right 
track.  As  T  drove  about  the  neigh-  **-**t^V 
borhood,  I  felt  pretty  well  satisfied 
when  my  eight  or  10  gallons  had  been  **~ 
passed  out  to  customers  in  five-cent 
dishes,  in  cones,  and  by  quarts  and  i  i» 
gallons.  Farmers  in  the  lmyfield 
came  to  the  wagon  and  refreshed 
themselves,  paying  me  from  25  to  50 
cents  for  cream.  Housewives  pur-  _  Hj 
chased  and  children  begged  their 
mothers  for  pennies  to  buy  when  I  19E9 
came  around  again.  T  made  three 
trips  a  week,  and  these  were  in  the 
“I  gave  quality,  and  remember  I 
never  solicited  a  single  order.  That 
is  what  a  farmer  can  do  if  he  gives 
quality.  Orders  came  in  by  ’phone 
for  cream  for  the  country  church  festival,  the  la¬ 
dies’  aid  society,  and  the  other  little  gatherings  in 
our  rural  communities.  Two  outside  competitors 
had  supplied  the  cream  previously,  hut  my  cream 
seemed  to  satisfy  tin*  people,  and  not  only  did  I 
sm ml v  flie  fountain  in  the  nearby  town,  hut  there 
Sudan  Grass  in  Arizona 
THE  picture,  Fig.  42G,  shows  Joe  in  the  Sudan 
grass  on  Melilotus  Bauch  in  Arizona.  This 
was  grown  without  irrigation,  just  the  natural  rain¬ 
fall.  Some  of  it  stands  nine  feet  two  inches  high. 
Sweet  clover  grows  successfully  on  this  homestead. 
lVi.  waste  charcoal,  often  at  a  very  low  figure. 
Sometimes  the  charcoal  is  reasonably  pure,  or  it 
will  he  mixed  with  ashes  or  sand.  Has  it  any  value 
as  a  fertilizer?  There  is  very  little  if  any  actual 
plant  food  in  charcoal,  yet  it  often  gives  quite  sur¬ 
prising  results  when  used  on  the  soil.  Tt  may  be 
compared  with  lime,  as  an  indirect  fertilizer.  We 
rarely  use  lime  for  its  actual  plant  food  value,  as 
most  soils  contain  lime  enough  to  feed  the  plants 
which  they  produce.  The  lime,  however,  has  an 
indirect  effect  both  chemically  and  in  other  ways, 
anti  the  charcoal  also  has  something  of  this  indirect 
effect.  It  gives  a  darker  color  to  most  soils.  This 
is  desirable  because  the  darker  the  color  the  bet¬ 
ter  the  soil  can  absorb  and  retain  its  heat, 
duct.  For  him  it  is  only  a  case  of  taking  off  his  If  in  Spring  you  throw  a  quantity  of  soot  or  char- 
coat  and  going  after  the  business,  first  with  the  coal  on  the  snow,  you  will  be  surprised  to  see  how 
wagon  and  then  wholesale,  r  receive  80  cents  a  much  more  rapidly  it  will  melt  us  a  result  of  this 
gallon  when  wholesaled.  I  have  not  increased  my  darker  coloring.  We  wear  darker  clothing  in  Win- 
dairy,  T  have  only  three  cows,  and  I  intend  to  eon-  tor  than  we  do  in  Summer  for  somewhat  the  same 
reason,  as  the  darker  color  is  a  bet¬ 
ter  absorbent  and  retainer  of  the 
^mi|i|<iiiT|  heat.  For  many  garden  soils  it  is  a 
HHp  great  advantage  to  warm  them  up 
early  in  the  season.  The  same  is 
L  __  a.  true  of  hotbeds,  and  the  use  of  char¬ 
coal  in  darkening  tlielr  color  will  help 
B  l%  WjjK  Probably  the  greatest  value  of  the 
charcoal  is  its  power  to  absorb  and 
holds  licpiids  and  gas.  Try  the  fol- 
lowing  experiment  to  show  this.  Put 
a  dead  rat  or  small  animal  on  the 
I  ground  and  cover  its  body  with  pow- 
i .  *  • '  .  dered  charcoal.  Go  back  in  a  week 
L  ' 
i  .  ?• ,  or  two  for  an  examination  and  you 
KwXHm'  will  find  that  practically  all  except 
the  bones  of  the  animal  has  been  ab- 
sorbed,  and  it  will  be  quite  impossi¬ 
ble  to  detect  any  bad  odor  about  it. 
The  charcoal  lias  this  peculiar  power 
of  absorbing  and  holding  these  gases. 
Probably  many  who  read  this  were 
boys  on  a  New  England  farm  in  the 
old  days  before  we  knew  anything  about  bacteria  or 
realized  that  water  from  the  old  well  could  carry 
disease.  We  used  that  water  until  it  began  to  smell 
bad,  and  then  father  or  Uncle  John  would  go  to  the 
stove,  and  take  three  or  four  big  shovelfuls  of  char¬ 
coal  and  ashes  and  throw  them  down  the  well.  That 
would  usually  be  an  end  to  the  bad 
_  smell  for  a  number  of  months  at 
*2*  IV  least.  No  one  knew  or  cared  for  the 
chemistry  of  it  in  those  days,  but  the 
£  charcoal  then  as  now  absorbed  those 
‘I  foul  odors  and  held  them  tight.  Thus 
8  charcoal  put  on  the  manure  pile,  or 
put  into  the  hog  pen.  chicken  houses, 
or  wherever  there  is  likely  to  be  a 
bad  odor  or  a  loss  of  ammonia,  will 
prove  a  great  help  and  saving.  It 
is  an  excellent  material  for  scatter¬ 
ing  now  and  then  behind  the  cattle  or 
horses,  so  that  it  will  go  into  the  ma¬ 
nure  pile  when  the  stables  are  cleaned 
out.  There  are  a  number  of  other 
Riding  Through  the  Sudan  Grass.  Fig.  426 
The  N.  J.  Experiment  Station  Peach  Crate  Press  at  Work.  Fig.  427 
tiuue  buying  my  milk.  Here  is  what  I  am  paying 
each  of  the  eight  small  dairymen  iu  my  neighbor¬ 
hood,  and  i  do  not  test  their  milk,  although  I  make 
my  cream  mixture  reach  close  to  20  per  cent.  For 
l lie  mouths  of  May  and  June  I  paid  $1.30,  July 
$1.40,  and  August  $1.00,  gave  skim-milk  back.  IIow 
Loading  the  Auto  Truck  with  New  Jersey  Produce.  Fig.  428 
is  that?  I  have  made  my  profit.  I  am  not  going  to 
tell  how  much  profit,  for  one  might  do  better  and 
might  do  worse.  It  might  be  that  you  are  the  man 
who  would  make  a  success  of  the  business  in  your 
community,”  said  Mr.  Allyu,  “and  you  might  not,  but 
before  jumping  in.  not  only  consider  the  possibilities 
of  your  market,  but  your  standing  in  the  community. 
Xz 
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