1238 
September  23,  1910. 
Cfcc  R  U  R  AL  N  E  V/-YO  R  K  E  R 
at  once  or  some  other  grocer  will  get  the  public  market  for  $2.  Next  week  prom- 
trade.  This  goes  on  day  after  day —  ises  to  be  better,  for  the  peaches  will 
little  orders  and  many  deliveries — until  come  in  a  swarm,  and  the  early  apples 
at  the  end  of  the  month  there  is  a  big  are  ready  and  there  will  be  more  vege- 
bill  which  frightens  the  woman  and  tables.  So  the  boys  and  I  sat  and  bilked 
whitens  her  husband  at  the  thought  of  it  over.  The  Wolf  River  and  Graven- 
paying  it.  That  is  what  makes  the  high  stein  and  Twenty  Ounce  apples  must  be 
cost  of  living — this  expensive  and  un-  picked  soon  and  if  this  warm  weather 
necessary  system  of  small  deliveries*  A  lasts  some  of  them  must  be  sold  at  whole- 
public  market,  where  farmers  can  sell  sale.  They  would  all  go  by  the  basket 
their  produce  comfortably  direct  to  house-  if  we  could  kep  them  properly.  We  ought 
keepers,  will  cut  down  the  cost  of  living  to  have  a  light  auto  truck  right  now. 
25  per  cent.,  largely  by  cutting  out  the  While  Tom  and  Broker  are  strong  and 
cost  of  small  deliveries.  Many  store-  willing  they  never  were  built  for  speed, 
keepers  see  this,  and  would  gladly  sell  at  and  we  must  have  over  3,000  baskets  of 
lower  figures  with  a  different  delivery  apples  to  turn  off  yet.  Cherry-top  figures 
system  and  in  larger  lots.  They  rarely  that  he  has  something  over  $80  saved  up 
dare  try  it,  for  it  is  the  fashion  to  buy  after  buying  bis  wheel  and  various  other 
in  this  most  expensive  way — and  then  things.  It  was  all  earned  by  hard  labor, 
blame  the  farmers  for  “the  high  cost  of  So  it  is  about  time  to  oat  a  few  peaches 
living.”  all  around  and  close  the  books  for  the 
How  Is  Trade? — Merrill  found  it  day.  It  has  been  a  good  financial  day, 
good.  There  was  a  steady  stream  of  buy-  and  a  friendly  one  too.  It  is  all  dean 
era  beginning  about  seven  o’clock.  Some  money.  I  go  out  in  the  starlight  and 
came  with  baskets  and  bags,  while  in  look  at  the  orchard  on  the  hill.  I  can 
other  cases  the.  children  came  with  little  remember  when  there  was  nothing  but  a 
wagons  or  baby  carriages.  They  were  line  of  small  stakes  outlined  against  the 
shrewd  buyers — knew  just  what  they  sky.  Ji.  w.  c. 
wanted  and  how  much  they  had  to  spend. 
Wealthy  apples  brought  50  cents  per 
peach  basket,  potatoes  60  cents,  and 
peaches  $1  to  $1.25  according  to  size  and 
quality.  The  apples  and  potatoes  were 
mostly  sold  in  the  larger  baskets  but 
many  peaches  went  in  the  trays  or  tills. 
Some  women  would  buy  a  tray  of  peach¬ 
es  and  order  a  basket  for  canning  next 
Wednesday,  or  perhaps  n  basket  of  ap¬ 
ples  and  potatoes.  Nearly  half  the  pres¬ 
ent  load  was  of  that  class,  and  those 
bird-like  boys  were  kept  busy  delivering. 
Merrill  knew  that  every  basket  on  the 
wagon  was  honestly  packed,  and  the  buy¬ 
ers  knew  from  long  experience  that  the 
bottom  was  just  as  good  as  the  top. 
There  is  no  other  way  to  work  on  the 
public  market.  The  marketman  must  be 
sure  of  his  goods,  firm  for  his  prices  and 
good-natured  through  it  all.  It  was  a 
busy  time  while  it.  lasted.  Merrill  slow¬ 
ly  emptied  the  wagon,  while  wise  old 
Tom  and  Broker,  tied  to  their  iron  posts, 
stamped  their  feet  and  gazed  benevolently 
upon  the  scene.  I  had  some  business 
which  took  me  away  and  so  I  passed  on, 
leaving  Merrill  to  clean  out  his  load. 
Lively  Days. — When  I  got  home  in 
the  afternoon  I  found  our  folks  facing  the 
unexpected — which  is  always  to  be  ex¬ 
pected  when  you  raise  peaches.  A  block 
of  trees,  made  gay  by  the  warm  weather, 
had  ripened  a  lot  of  fruit.  Wlliy  they 
should  push  these  soft  things  upon  us 
on  Saturday,  when  any  sensible  character 
should  know  better,  is  one  of  the  things 
which  you  must  charge  up  to  the  incon¬ 
sistency  of  “peaches”  in  general.  There 
was  the  ripe  fruit  and  Mother,  a  Vroman 
of  action,  when  she  gets  started,  had  it 
picked  at  once.  When  I  got  home  she 
had  her  sterilizer  (the  modern  name  for 
canning  outfit)  out  aud  the  girls  were 
turning  the  Elbertas  into  great  lumps  of 
golden  flesh.  For  inside  a  hot  can  the 
most  wayward  and  exasperating  peach 
learns  to  behave  itself  and  stay  put.  And 
Mother  had  organized  a  selling  depart¬ 
ment  for  the  two  little  boys  bad  gone  out 
with  old  Bob  and  the  wagon  to  see  what 
they  could  dispose  of.  No  sensible  woman 
wants  a  man  bothering  in  the  kitchen 
while  she  is  eauning  to  avert  a  crisis,  so 
I  did  not  wait  for  any  invitation  to  re¬ 
tire.  A  fruit  grower  on  these  hills  can 
always  •out  weeds  aiul  pile  them  around 
a  tree,  and  I  had  started  with  my  scythe 
for  the  fence  row  when  old  Bob  came 
toiling  in  from  the  road.  The  two  little 
hoys  just  stood  up  and  waved  their  straw 
hats  and  yelled.  They  had  sold  every 
peach ! 
The  Day’s  Work. — You  would  think 
our  folks  could  easily  dispense  with 
peaches  for  a  while,  hut  they  ate  a  great 
dish  of  them  for  supper.  Then  we  count¬ 
ed  up  our  day’s  retail  business  and  this 
is  how  it  figured  out  in  cash : 
Public  market  load  . $38.60 
Boys’  load  of  peaches .  8.50 
Potted  strawberry  plants .  4.50 
$51.60 
That  was  all  retail  and  some  accounts 
were  not  collected.  A  few  wholesale  ship¬ 
ments  would  nearly  have  doubled  it.  In 
addition  to  this  we  have  the  canned  fruit. 
Our  family  of  14  people  have  had  all  they 
could  eat  of  peaches,  apples,  sweet  corn, 
Lima  beaus,  beets  lettuce  aud  potatoes. 
I  am  sure  we  could  never  have  bought 
what  we  have  consumed  of  these.  <m  (he 
HOPE  FARM  NOTES 
A  Good  Load. — I  came  home  after 
dark  Friday  night  and  Cherry-top  came 
running  out  with  this  announcement: 
“Merrill  has  a  big  load!”  Last  year  the 
New  York  Sun  collected  all  the  English 
words  which  have  been  used  to  describe 
the  condition  induced  or  produced  by  too 
much  stimulant.  They  found  over  200 
such  words,  and  “load”  or  “loaded”  led 
all  the  rest.  But  Merrill  does  not  even 
use  coffee,  and  we  all  knew  that  Cherry- 
top  was  referring  to  the.  wagouload  of 
produce  which  was  to  go  to  the  public 
market.  After  supper  wc  took  our  lan¬ 
tern  to  look  the  load  over.  The  big 
wagon  was  filled  with  peaches  and  ap¬ 
ples  and  potatoes.  Usually  we  have 
other  produce  too,  but  this  time  there 
were,  orders  ahead  for  apples  and  pota¬ 
toes,  and  the  peach  trees  woke  up  aud 
began  to  ripen  the  Elbertas  and  Niagaras. 
As  you  know  we  have  no  ambition  to 
rank  as  “peach  kings”  or  to  grow  any 
large  crop.  The  chief  use  for  the  peach 
with  us  is  to  help  pay  expenses  until 
the  apples  come  in.  We  expected  a  small 
crop  this  year,  but  with  the  mild  Sep¬ 
tember  weather  the  fruit  comes  faster 
than  we  looked  for.  Merrill  bad  his  pro¬ 
duce  iu  peach  baskets.  There  were  small¬ 
er  measures  and  paper  bags  tucked  into 
the  wagon,  and  all  was  ready  for  a  start. 
The  Market, — We  have  a  public  mar¬ 
ket  in  our  county  town — about  10  miles 
south.  This  market  is  open  twice  a 
week,  and  we  have  found  it  a  good  place 
to  sell  produce.  Merrill  was  up  on  Sat¬ 
urday  morning  long  before  daylight,  so 
that  Tom  and  Broker  could  have  their 
breakfast  before  the  long  trip.  There 
was  a  little  evidence  of  light  over  the 
eastern  hills  when  finally  the  big  grays 
went  solemnly  jogging  out  of  the  yard 
and  along  the  smooth  hard  road  to  town. 
I  slept  a  little  later  and  took  an  early 
train  so  as  to  he  on  hand  about  the  time 
the  market  opened.  I  am  afraid  the 
town  fathers  did  not  have  much  faith  in 
this  market,  for  they  located  it  in  a  va¬ 
cant  lot,  aud  have  not  even  cut  the  weeds, 
which  grew  shoulder  high.  Very  likely 
they  felt  like  the  judge  recorded  in  the 
Scriptures  who  gave  the  widow  justice 
because  he  knew  if  he  did  not  she  would 
“weary”  him.  I  found  our  wagon  lined 
up  in  this  vacant  lot,  and  Merrill  was 
already  busy  supplying  a  crowd  of  house¬ 
wives  who  came  early  armed  with  bas¬ 
kets  or  bags,  A  good  share  of  the  load 
had  been  sold  ahead  and  of  course  this 
means  delivery  in  some  way. 
Delivery. — To  accomplish  this  several 
boys  have  invented  homemade  delivery 
wagons,  and  are  able  to  make  a  little 
money  carrying  the  goods.  These  boys 
have  bicycles,  and  they  have  made  little 
trucks  with  two  wheels  or  four — using 
cast-off  wheels  from  small  wagons,  baby 
carriages,  or  anything  that  runs  on 
spokes  and  rim.  They  have  this  truck 
fastened  on  behind  the  bicycle,  either  by 
means  of  a  pole  or  by  straps  or  ropes. 
Anyway  they  have  it  fastened  so  that 
when  they  mount  the  bicycle  and  begin 
footwork  the  truck  has  to  follow  and  off 
it  goes  with  its  load.  These  boys  can 
haul  two  or  even  three  peach  baskets  at 
a  load  in  this  way.  It  was  a  wonder  to 
me  that  they  did  not  tip  the  whole  thing 
over  as  they  went  skimming  around  cor¬ 
ners  aud  shooting  over  smooth  places,  but 
they  seemed  to  balance  themselves  like 
birds  on  the  wiug.  One  boy  had  a  peach 
basket  securely  fastened  to  the  front  of 
his  wheel.  He  would  just  slip  a  loaded 
basket  down  into  this  fixed  one,  and 
then  go  skimming  off  to  deliver  it. 
Public  Marketing.—  In  theory  the 
saving  at  such  a  market  comes  in  two 
ways.  The  farmers  charge  a  little  less 
than  the  storekeepers,  and  women  save 
the  cost  of  delivery  by  carrying  their 
purchases  home.  It.  cos(s  to  deliver  goods 
whether  a  farmer  drives  in  from  the  farm 
or  whether  one  of  these  winged  boys  uses 
his  bicycle,  or  whether  there  is  some  neat 
market  wagon  or  truck.  It  all  costs,  and 
the  consumer  pays  for  it.  The  present 
high  cost  of  living  comes  largely  from 
this  heavy  delivery  tax.  The  average 
city  housewife  falls  into  the  habit  of  pay¬ 
ing  for  all  this  delivery.  The  telephone 
eats  up  her  pocket  money  by  making  it 
easy  to  order.  I  hear  of  cases  where  a 
woman  will  want  a  yeast  cake  or  a  box 
of  crackers.  She  just  telephones  the  gro¬ 
cer  and  he  must  make  a  special  delivery 
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Crab-grass  in  Lawn 
I  need  advice  on  the  subject  of  crab- 
grass,  “Summer  grass,”  as  it  is  called 
here.  It  appeared  iu  one  corner  of  the 
lawn  two  years  ago,  increasing  in  spite 
of  efforts  to  pull  up  every  plant.  Then 
came  a  fire,  with  rebuilding,  necessitating 
the  digging  Up  and  resowing  of  the  lawns 
one  year  ago  last  Spring.  The  new 
lawns  were  beautiful  for  a  few  weeks 
only,  when  the  crab  grass  appeared 
again,  and  last  Autumn  was  far  worse 
than  before.  This  Spring  a  mattress  of 
the  dead  grass  was  raked  and  pulled  off, 
aud  new  seed  sown,  but  bad  hardly  ap¬ 
peared  before  the  same  old  “Summer- 
grass”  began  once  more,  and  now  holds 
full  sway.  It  is  just  beginning  to  look 
brown  and  die,  and  I  am  quite  expecting 
the  lawns  to  look  disgraceful  iu  a  short 
time,  weeks  before  Summer  is  over.  Is 
thei-e  anything  to  he  done  this  Autumn, 
or  even  in  the  Winter?  ir.  \r.  o. 
Princeton,  N.  ,T. 
After  many  yours  of  unsuccessfully  fight¬ 
ing  crab  grass  in  lawns.  I  believe  I  am 
safe  in  saying  there  is  no  known  way  of 
overcoming  it.  It  has  come  to  stay,  and 
all  the  labor  that  can  now  be  bestowed 
upon  it  will  never  eradicate  it.  The  mure 
dense  the  turf,  the  less  opportunity  for 
crab  grass  growth  and  everything  possi¬ 
ble  should  be  done  to  encourage  rank 
growth  of  the  lawn  grass  and  thickening 
of  the  turf.  By  this  means  the  oral* 
grass  may  be  kept  under  control  to  a 
great  extent,  but  it  is  a  matter  of  con¬ 
siderable  doubt  if  it  will  ever  be  entirely 
overcome.  k. 
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FERTILIZERS 
Value  of  Acetylene  Waste 
I  have  an  acetylene  generator  which 
uses  carbide  as  fuel,  and  from  it  we  take 
about  forty  gallons  of  residuum  at  each 
recharging.  I  have  been  told  it  will 
make  a  good  spray  for  trees  when  diluted. 
It  makes  fine  whitewash  as  it.  is.  Have 
you  any  information  in  regard  to  this 
waste  being  used  as  a  tree  spray?  I 
do  not  wish  to  use  it  on  trees  unless  I 
know  it  will  not  injure  them.  r.  j.  a. 
This  residue  contains  lime  aud  noth¬ 
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spray.  It  would  make  a  whitewash  aud 
that  is  all.  It  would  not.  take  the  place 
of  lime-sulphur  or  any  other  real  insecti¬ 
cide.  Some  people  think  that  a  strong  or 
peculiar  smell  about  a  substance  is  indi¬ 
cation  of  its  streugth  as  a  fertilizer  or 
spray  material,  but  outside  of  the  char¬ 
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