Efce  RURAL  NEW-YORKER 
1603 
New  England  Notes 
1 _ _ 
A  Kound-up  of  Market  Gardeners 
It  was  cold  and  windy  after  the  bliz¬ 
zard  of  Dec.  16  when  the  Boston  Mar¬ 
ket  Gardeners  held  the  annual  round-up. 
Paths  were  snow-blocked,  and  the  visi¬ 
tors  showed  no  great  haste  about  com¬ 
pleting  the  rounds  of  the  Arlington 
greenhouses.  They  liked  better  to  col¬ 
lect  in  little  groups  around  a  boiler 
room  and  talk  things  over. 
Almost  everybody  spoke  of  the  labor 
situation,  past  and  present.  “We  are 
paying  $15  to  $17  a  week,”  said  a  man 
from  Lowell,  “and  even  at.  this  price  we 
can't  compete  with  the  munition  factor¬ 
ies.  But  they  are  beginning  to  shut 
down,  and  we  think  there  will  be  more 
help  in  the  Spring.”  “We  wouldn’t 
mind  the  price  so  much,”  remarked  a 
prominent  gardener,  “if  we  could  get  the 
help.”  “Our  cheapest  help  is  $12  a 
week,”  said  another.  "They  are  green 
Italian  boys  that  used  to  work  for  $6 
to  $N."  Others  complained  of  quality’: 
“I've  always  been  boss  before,”  declared 
a  veteran  gardener,  "but  this  year  1  had 
to  let  the  men  do  about  as  they  liked,  or 
they  wouldn’t  stay.  Some  of  the  help 
wouldn't  work  more  than  three  days  a 
week,  but  I  had  to  keep  them  because 
my  crops  were  growing  up  to  weeds. 
Even  the  Italian  women  went  up  from 
the  old  price  of  $1  and  carfare,  to  $1.50 
a  day."  About  the  profits  of  the  season, 
there  was  less  enthusiasm  than  might 
have  been  looked  for,  in  view  of  the 
high  prices.  It  appears  that,  as  with 
general  farming,  the  price  gain  was 
largely  offset  by  high  costs  and  a  poor 
season.  "The  gardeners  couldn't  work 
their  land  to  advantage,”  said  Frank 
Wyman,  “because  of  the  rains  and  the 
scarcity  of  help.  We  make  a  small  spe¬ 
cialty  of  improved  beet  seed,  and  set  80 
bushels,  but  harvested  only  450  lbs. 
where  we  should  have  had  a  ton,  and 
we  cannot  half  fill  our  orders.  The  chief 
Winter  crop  in  Arlington  is  lettuce,  but 
vve  cannot  sell  it  at  50  to  75  cents  a  box, 
and  pay  for  coal  at  $0  a  ton  and  for  la¬ 
bor  at  present  prices.”  Still  there  was 
none  of  the  deep  blue  feeling  that  has 
sometimes  prevailed  among  the  garden¬ 
ers.  Most  of  them  had  made  money  on 
one  crop  or  another,  or  at  least  ex¬ 
pected  to  dear  something  out  of  the 
Winter's  campaign.  Then  the  tulle  shift¬ 
ed  to  crop  enemies  and  their  control. 
“They  told  me  in  Florida,"  said  Mr. 
Wyman,  "that  they  had  controlled  celery 
rust  by  thorough  spraying,  beginning 
with  the  seed  bed  and  keeping  it  up 
right  through  the  season.  Did  I  try  it? 
No;  it  was  out  of  the  question  to  take 
on  new  work  this  year  with  help  so 
scarce.”  “When  I  was  in  Washington,” 
said  the  Dowell  man,  "I  asked  the  De¬ 
partment  experts  about  the  onion  mag¬ 
got.  They  didn’t  know ;  said  it  was 
only  troublesome  in  the  North,  as  if  it 
was  none  of  their  concern  for  that  rea¬ 
son.  and  loaded  me  with  a  lot  of  pam¬ 
phlets  that  were  of  no  use  to  me.  A 
good  many  of  those  fpllows  are  there 
just  to  hold  down  jobs."  “It  will  be 
different  when  we  get  the  market  gar¬ 
deners'  station.”  replied  another  garden¬ 
er.  “I  have  never  got  anything  by  writ¬ 
ing  to  the  old  stations.  They  say  the 
gardeners’  station  at  Norfolk  has  al¬ 
ready  showed  them  how  to  control  spin¬ 
ach  yellows  and  they  are  making  money 
out  of  the  crop,”  Then  they  started  for 
the  ball  where  the  meeting  was  to  be 
held,  leaving  only  two  or  three  to  lin¬ 
ger  a  few  minutes  about  the  boiler  room 
while  the  fireman  explained  the  system 
of  exhaust  pumps  which  keep  circulation 
active  no  matter  what  the  grade  of  the 
pipes,  which  are  insulated  with  cement 
and  hair  felt  aud  laid  in  a  large  tunnel 
running  below  all  the  houses.  Steam 
is  kept  at  50  pounds  to  drive  the  pumps, 
etc.,  but  u  pressure  reducer  cuts  it  to 
three  pounds  for  the  heating  pipes.  This 
system  is  becoming  popular,  even  when 
there  is  fall  enough  for  the  return  flow. 
“This  isn’t  a  bad  job  for  Winter,”  said 
the  fireman.  "I  have  to  shovel  in  coal 
every  half  hour  or  so,  all  day  if  it  is 
cloudy,  or  until  the  snow  slides  off  if 
there  is  any  on  the  glass.  On  a  bright 
day  the  sun  will  keep  it  warm  enough 
for  lettuce,  about  40  degrees,  after  9 
o’clock,  and  I  work  in  the  houses  the 
rest  of  the  day,  pulling  lettuce  for  mar¬ 
ket,  or  wetting  down  and  digging  up 
space  for  putting  in  a  new  crop.  We 
laid  in  750  tons  of  soft  coal  for  the 
Winter.” 
When  the  crowd  reached  the  hall,  lunch 
was  ready ;  a  hearty  man's  ration  in 
amusing  contrast  to  the  refreshments 
served  for  the  Boston  convention  of 
women  gardeners  last  Spring;  The  la¬ 
dies  had  jellies  of  many  colors  and  fla¬ 
vors,  dainty  little  semi-transparent 
sandwiches,  ices,  olives,  wafers,  and  tiny 
cups  of  chocolate.  Here  the  men  have 
scalloped  oysters,  doughnuts,  cold  meat 
and  rolls,  frozen  creams  anti  puddings  in 
liberal  supply,  coffee  and  cigars.  After 
dinner,  Agent  Barber  of  the  Pilgrim  Pub¬ 
licity  Association  spoke  a  few  sentences 
convincingly  aud  directly  to  the  point 
like  a  good  magazine  advertisement,  and 
the  gardeners  responded  by  getting  up  a 
delegation  on  the  spot  to  go  to  t ho  meet¬ 
ing  on  regulation  of  railroad  rates,  etc*., 
to  be  held  at  Springfield,  Dec.  28. 
Then  came  a  most  remarkable  piece  of 
work  by  which  the  gardeners  showed 
their  interest  in  their  coming  "Market 
Garden  Field  Station.”  President  Arn¬ 
old  suggested  that  it  would  be  easier  to 
secure  the  $25,000  needed  from  the 
State  for  buildings,  equipment  and  ex¬ 
penses,  if  it  could  be  said  that  the  gar¬ 
deners  were  willing  to  put  up  a  little  of 
their  own  money,  and  should  raise  $500 
to  $1,000  for  that  purpose  The  idea 
went  with  a  rush.  One  after  another, 
prominent  members  stood  up.  told  how 
their  former  distrust  of  the  extension 
work  had  been  changed  by  recent  exper¬ 
ience,  and  concluding  with.  "1  will  give 
fifty  dollars,”  or  twenty-five,  ten  or  five 
dollars,  as  the  case  might  be.  It  was  a 
kind  of  agricultural  "trail  hitting,"  hard¬ 
ly  ever  seen  before  iu  this  section.  Only 
a  few  years  ago  such  a  proposition  would 
have  met  buckets  of  cold  water  rather 
than  ready  money,  but  now  there  was 
not  an  opposing  voice.  For  the  first 
time  a  prominent  body  of  farmers  had 
unanimously  endorsed  the  efforts  of 
State  and  college  and  had  backed  their 
confidence  with  their  poekotbooks.  But 
they  were  careful  to  make  sure  that 
three  of  their  own  number  were  to 
serve  on  the  advisory  board  of  the  new 
station.  .Said  District  Agent  II  F, 
Tompson :  "Twelve  acres  of  land  has 
been  secured  in  Lexington  at  about  $400 
per  acre.  It  is  raw  land  and  cannot  be 
used  at  once  for  all  garden  crops,  but 
will  afford  a  chance  to  study  effect  of 
fertilizers  and  manures,  valuable  for 
those  moving  to  new  locations,  as  many 
must  do.  Some  of  it  must  be  drained, 
and  we  plan  to  got  the  ditches  dug  be¬ 
tween  now  aud  Spring.  There  will  be 
four  greenhouses  40  by  75  feet.,  a  com¬ 
pact  group,  an  administration  and  ofliee 
building  35  by  45  feet  with  a  room  for 
meetings  atul  u  service  building  with 
packing  room,  tool  room  and  wagon 
Space.  All  buildings  are  to  be  of  wood 
and  not  expensive.  There  will  be  a  fore¬ 
man  on  the  job  all  the  time,  and  we  ex¬ 
pect  to  call  in  the  services  of  the  college 
experts  almost  any  time,  to  study,  for 
instance,  the  life  of  troublesome  insects 
and  bow  to  get  at  them  in  their  weakest 
time.  We  may  test  varieties  of  vege¬ 
tables  to  some  extent  and  especially  to 
find  if  possible,  better  varieties  of  let¬ 
tuce.  I  have  ou  my  desk  letters  from  30 
experiment  stations  describing  their 
work  so  that  we  shall  not  repeat  what 
they  have  done.  It  should  be  a  great 
advantage  to  carry  out  the  work  right 
|  among  practical  gardeners.”  6.  B.  F. 
Boston  Produce  Markets 
(Continued  from  page  1601) 
getting  trees  to  ship  to  New  York  and 
Pennsylvania  markets.  The  trees  are  not 
taken  from  woodlots,  and  all  that  talk 
about  depleting  our  forests  is  nonsense. 
The.  well  branched  trees  that  we  want 
come  from  old  pastures,  and  we  help  the 
owners  clear  them  up  at  a  profit.  The 
firs  wouldn't  bring  over  50e  a  cord  on 
the  stump  as  wood,  and  we  pay  $2.  Rome 
we  buy  at  so  much  per  tree,  and  some¬ 
times  we  buy  the  whole  lot  to  cut  as  we 
please.” 
FRUIT  MOVING  SLOWLY. 
The  cranberry  market  has  been  weak 
lately,  aud  many  dealers  quote  $7  for  best 
Howes,  which  would  be  $1  below  the  high 
of  the  season.  It  surely  takes  a  pretty 
good  berry  to  bring  $7.50,  and  the  small 
kinds  are  going  nt  $5  to  $0.50.  “It’s 
mostly  always  so,"  said  a  Faueuil  Hall 
wholesaler.  “Whenever  there  is  talk  of  a 
shortage,  things  don't  turn  out  as  looked 
for.  They  told  rs  of  frosts  and  freezes, 
floods  and  bugs  until  everybody  made  up 
bis  mind  cranberries  would  be  too  high 
for  him  to  afford.  Last  year  it  was  the 
same  way  with  apples.  It  isn’t  wise  to 
figure  the  results  of  a  short  supply  until 
the  demand  has  been  heard  from.  When 
something  must  he  cut  out,  the  luxuries 
catch  it  first.” 
Apples  are  selling  rather  slowly  and  at 
a  wide  range  of  price  even  iu  the  same 
variety.  Dealers  agree  that  the  propor¬ 
tion  of  good  and  fancy  stock  is  loss  than 
usual.  “Not.  over  15  per  cent,  of  receipts 
could  class  with  4A  Grade’,"  said  one. 
Declared  another,  “I  Lave  scarcely  ever 
found  it  so  hard  to  fill  an  order  for  fancy 
lot  of  Baldwins.”  Said  P.  H.  Wall  & 
Co. :  “Apples  that  have  any  quality  to 
them,  sell  for  all  they  are  worth.  Fancy 
Baldwins  will  bring  $4,  as  compared  with 
$2  to  $2.50  for  the  ordinary  stuff  that  is 
so  plentiful  this  year.”  Said  Lord  & 
Spencer:  “If  a  shipper  has  good  apples 
he  can  get  $3  to  $4.50  for  them.  By  good 
apples,  we  mean  sound,  clean  and  good 
color  with  no  spots."  Said  Curtis  &  San¬ 
ger:  “Good  A  grade  Baldwins  bring  $3 
to  $4.50.  Here  is  a  lot  that  came  frozen 
and  we  are  lucky  to  get.  $2.25  for  '  hem. 
That  is  about  the  price  for  No-  2’s.  Some 
of  the  box  apples  get  frozen  corning.  A 
few  windfalls  are  selling  at  50  to  75c 
per  box  and  better  fruit  up  to  $1215.  It 
looks  as  if  the  New  England  fruit  would 
all  go  very  well  as  sooa  as  the  poorest 
stuff  is  out  of  the  way.  The  stock  in 
storage  here  is  very  moderate.  Bui  the 
Western  box  apple  crop  seems  to  be 
stuck,  and  shipments  are  hard  to  clear  up 
on  account  of  .the  enormous  supply.  We 
look  for  no  trouble  with  go  ml  New  Eng¬ 
land  apples.” 
GOOD  NETS  CONTINUE  FOR  EXPORT  APPLES. 
The  leading  Boston  apple  exporters 
give  the  range  of  recent  nets  as  between 
$4  and  $5  per  barrel  Boston  basis,  but 
latest  cables  report  British  markets 
easing  off  a  little  owing  to  congestion  of 
freight  around  9ueh  centres  as  Liverpool, 
which  condition  causes  buyers  to  hesi¬ 
tate.  The  same  trouble  on  this  side 
checks  shipments.  “We  have  thousands 
of  barrels  here  awaiting  a  chance  of  ship¬ 
ment.  Some  steamers  refuse  to  take  any 
apples.  They  are  in  protected  cars,  but 
with  possible  risk  of  freezing.  We  are 
watching  the  freight  situation  anxiously. 
Some  of  the  Boston  apples  now  in  tem¬ 
porary  storage  will  go  across  if  the  space 
can  be  had.  We  are  shipping  some  by 
way  of  New  York.  The  prices  in  that 
city  and  in  the  leading  Canadian  cities 
are  higher  than  in  Boston,  so  that  Boston 
is  about  the  only  port  that  can  net  more 
in  the  foreign  market  than  in  the  home 
market.” 
VEGETABLE  MARKET  FIRM- 
Supplies  continue  moderate  and  prices 
firm  generally.  Some  lines  are  higher. 
Beets  can  hardly  be  bought  for  less  than 
$2  a  box.  These  are  late-sown,  medium 
size,  handsome  beets.  The  hard,  over¬ 
grown  or  stunted  leavings  of  early-sown 
beds  are  scarcely  wanted  at  any  price. 
Good  squashes  are  in  light  supply  at  $70 
to  $80  per  ton.  Carrots  hold  at  $1.25 
box.  Cabbages  firm,  at  $3.50  barrel,  and 
large  celery  at  $2  dozen.  Other  general 
stuff  holds  firm.  Hothouse  produce  tends 
higher,  with  lettuce  at  75c  to  $1 ;  rad¬ 
ishes,  $2 ;  sprouts,  12  to  16c  lb. ;  toma¬ 
toes,  30c  lb.  Onions  are  firm  at  $4  to 
(Continued  on  page  1607) 
THE  GREAT 
LIVE  STGC 
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tions  of  the  showring  events,  details  covering  the  sensational  sales  of  breeding 
and  fat  stock  and  reports  of  all  of  the  live  stock  association  meetings  held 
during  the  week. 
This  sixty-four  page  Report  Number  together  with  the  beautiful  one  hun 
dred  page  Holid;  y  Issue,  which  contains  matter  of  interest  to  every  member 
of  the  farm  home,  will  be  sent  to  new  yearly  subscribers  at  $1.00,  or  three 
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lUlHIlI 
