1278 
‘Ihe RURAL NEW-YORKER 
October 28, If 
skill in grading and loading, and the produce in 
quantity to fill carlot orders of any grade wanted. 
After the railroad has taken another slice of the 
money for the trip of perhaps a thousand miles the 
carlot receiver takes it in hand, because he knows 
what, to do with large lots, and pays cash. If it 
goes directly to the commission man instead, his 
charges are fully as heavy. Then the jobber takes 
hold, puts out the stuff in small lots, perhaps cart¬ 
ing them to the retail stores and extending credit. 
The storekeeper cannot handle large lots, and can¬ 
not bother to go to the railroad yard miles away and 
get it. Then the retailer gets the final and largest 
slice for peddling out the produce n few pounds at. 
a time, perhaps on credit. The marketing chain 
generally shortens up a little in small cities, hut not 
greatly to the gain of the distant, producer. 11 is a 
long chain at best, but when the producer away up 
country tries to shorten the line very much lie finds 
himself green at a complicated business, running 
against difficulties and costs he never thought, of, 
and using time and labor needed at home. An asso¬ 
ciation might do better, but the great majority of 
producers will have to take things as they are this 
season, and look toward the future. What is the 
outlook? 
LONG RANGE HOPES.—Those professors and 
experts who have set forth the long range facts in 
charts and tables hold out a ray of hope. They say 
in effect that the farmer is sick because he has 
taken his dose. The worst is over for him and the 
cure is in progress. Some labor unions, middlemen, 
dealers, landlords and many factory workers have 
yet to take their full dose of deflation medicine and 
come to earth again. Everybody must swallow the 
pill, say the experts, and when that happens the 
farmer will be at least on more even terms with 
other folks. Surely he cannot, long pay the average 
railroad hand $2,000 a year to handle his 30-cent 
potatoes to market, nor pay the dealers’ help .$25 to 
$50 per week to handle it. and the ironworker $12 
per day to make his farm tools, and the carpenter 
nearly as much to repair his buildings, the miner to 
dig bis coal, and the factory hands two or three times 
the old wages to make up his clothing. By the way, 
one New Hampshire Farm Bureau has partly solved 
the clothing problem by having wool raised by mem¬ 
bers made into suits and blankets for tlieir own 
use. The farmer cannot pay fancy prices for what 
he hires done, because bis wheat, cattle, milk, fruit 
and truck at going prices are not providing him the 
money. If he should go hack to old days and raise 
little more than his own food, make his own tools, 
use none but farm manure, weave his own cloth on 
the family loom, and do his own general repairing, 
how long would the high and lordly labor trusts hold 
together, and what would keep their members alive? 
Things aplenty would happen, but the farmer could 
stand it as long as anybody. 
UPS AND DOWNS COMING—Fortunately it. 
need not come to that, say the experts, because time 
and force of circumstances are always tending to 
even up or smooth down all impossible situations 
such as we have now. Even while the sky is darkest 
the clouds may not he so thick as they seem. Years 
may pass before cost comes down to stay. The pro¬ 
fessors say we are at the beginning of a long down¬ 
ward swing of cost and values, a swing such as 
always has come sooner or later after great wars, 
and the down slope may extend through 20 years 
or so. But there are always many shorter ups and 
downs in such a period, and just now we seem at 
the beginning of one of those shorter up-swings, 
which like ocean waves may go rather high, even 
while the tide is going out. Tf so, wages and costs 
cannot be expected to come down during the next 
year or two. hut may go up again for a while. Gen¬ 
eral business conditions, according to commercial 
reports, are hack close to normal, and prices of 
miscellaneous goods show a tendency to rise. Some 
farm products seem to feel the beginning of these 
influences. In case of continued rising prices farm 
products are bound to feel the advance before long, 
and such a movement should bring the farmer’s re¬ 
ceipts nearer to his cost level. His products should 
gain more than most others, because his start was 
lower. 
SIZING UP THE SEASON.—However that may 
be, what about, this season? Let us size it up very 
briefly. The corn crop, although very large, is a 
little less than last season, but other grains are 
producing somewhat more. Grain prices tend to 
move upward when war notes hit the market, and 
it seems wise or at least safe to sell on the advances. 
Canada is exporting grain very freely, which tends 
to keep down the price in the long run. Canadian 
farmers are forcing sales because, like other farm¬ 
ers, they need ready money. Cotton holds well above 
20 cents, which looks high beside the old days of 5 
to 10 cent cotton, but low beside the top of 85 cents 
ill war times. The crop is so small that the grower 
finds little money in it. Where the boll weevil is at 
work the yield, though less than usual, is a little 
short of the crop of last season. The good yields 
are on the outskirts of the cotton belt, including 
such states as Virginia, Tennessee. Missouri, Arizona, 
Arkansas and California, while ihe Far South is 
■very short. The weevil got into South Carolina last, 
season and cut condition figures to 46, compared 
with 68 tile season before, and North Carolina is 
just beginning to light the pest. Live stock is in 
rather moderate supply and is likely to sell higher 
on war news and to find better home demand as 
business picks up. g. b. f. 
(To Bo Continued) 
Suggestions For An Icehouse 
I would like to build an icehouse and wish your 
advice. 1 have a small (dace, and I want to put up a 
house, say 10x12 or 12x11, S or 0 ft. under eaves. Some 
tell rue to build it with 2x1 studding and till up between 
with sawdust. Olliers say 2 in. on the outside for an 
air space, like the plan shown. I cannot get any hem¬ 
lock sawdust, only hardwood, such as beech and maple 
What do you think of that, and what would you advise 
—roof paper or shingles? C. w. 
New York. 
OU are right in planning your icehouse in a 
nearly cubical shape. An icehouse in the shape 
of a cube exposes the least outside surface in pro¬ 
portion to its contents of any shape in which square 
blocks of ice can be tightly packed. A house built 
12x12 ft. with 12-ft. studdings will pack about 5U 
tons of ice when allowance is made for sawdust 
packing. This is considered sufficient for cooling 
the iuilk from a dairy of 10 to 15 cows and for 
household use. Where cream only is cooled this 
will go about twice as far. In fact, many dairies 
get along with less. 
As to construction, a very satisfactory and com¬ 
paratively cheap method of building a presentable 
icehouse is to set a concrete foundation well into the 
ground and to the top bolt thoroughly ereosoted 
sills. Studding is erected on these and ceiled on 
the inside with sliiplap or plain lumber. No par¬ 
ticular effort need be made to make it tight, simply 
strong and sufficiently tight to retain sawdust. The 
outside of the studding is then covered with novelty 
siding or an outside finish corresponding to the rest 
of the buildings. The bottom board is left up a 
little from the sill and the top one does not reach 
quite to the plate, permitting a circulation of air up 
between the .studding, keeping it dry and tending 
to prevent decay. 
Heat insulation is secured by a blanket of saw¬ 
dust at least l ft. iu thickness entirely surrounding 
the ice, top, sides and bottom. Soft, wood sawdust 
is the best hut hardwood sawdust can be used, it 
should be dry and sound. Wet, rotten sawdust has 
less heat insulating value. The floor should he made 
of cinders or gravel beneath the sawdust and good 
•drainage provided; also an opening should he left 
in each gable to provide free circulation of air be¬ 
neath the roof. The type of roof covering used 
should depend largely upon the roof. If a flat pitch 
paper will make a better roof than shingles. If the 
pitch is comparatively steep, however, and the shin¬ 
gles are well-selected and put on, a good roof will 
result. The location of the house has something to 
do with its keeping qualities, a shady location, pro¬ 
vided drainage is good, keeping ice better than a 
location chosen in the sun. Where too much shade 
is in evidence, however, shingles sometimes become 
mossgrown and decay. R. h. s. 
Western Views of the East 
N page 1254 was printed a quotation from an 
article by Prof. W. J. Fraser of Illinois. 
That may be a true picture of a single instance, 
but it is not typical of New England farming as a 
class. Wc will guarantee to find in Illinois plenty 
of cases of lazy and disreputable farming by tenants 
and owners, yet we would not. come hack and point 
them out as fair specimens of farm life in the Mid¬ 
dle West, Or, take this picture of New York fann¬ 
ers ; 
A typical example of farming in much of the back- 
hill country in the East is well illustrated by a farm in 
Northern New York, on which four days were spent. 
The farmer and son lived <>n adjoining farms, and the 
total source of motive power for the two good-sized 
farms was one horse. They had only two or three till¬ 
able acres on which were raised the family vegetables 
and a little corn. The live stock consisted of three 
COWS, a calf, a few pigs, and some chickens. They had 
some "cleared" land where a one horse mower could 
be run over several patches between large rocks, 
and other patches where (he rocks were so numerous 
that the grass was mowed with a scythe and raked by 
hand. When cured, the hay was hauled to the barn in 
small oue-llorse jags. This haying was the chief job 
of the year that required strenuous labor, and a con¬ 
siderable rest was taken after each jag of hay was 
put into the barn, notwithstanding a three-hour noon¬ 
ing. 
Here again is a case which might be found any¬ 
where. yet it. is not hi any way typical of the thou¬ 
sands of tine farms which spread over New York 
State. The Eastern farmer willingly admits that 
the soil of the Middle West is. for the most part, 
level and strong. The figures show that our crop 
yields arc higher, that our markets are better, and 
that land values are lower. We should never think 
of taking some confessed failure as a farmer and 
putting him before the world as typical of Western 
farming. 
Potato Eating and the Market 
It does not seem possible to me that your statement 
on page 1204 about the change in diet cau have affected 
the potato market, Is it really true that any large 
number of people are eating less of potato? S. J. 
ES, it is true, as may bo demonstrated by any¬ 
one who will come to this city and see just how 
people live. There are many reasons for this state 
of affairs. During the Great War potatoes reached 
n very high price. Many people could«not afford to 
buy them, and they hunted for substitutes. They 
began eating rice, macaroni, coni meal aud similar 
foods - . These foods were new. and in some cases 
they were not well relished, but as time went on 
new food habits were formed. After the war many 
of these people never came back fully to a potato 
diet. The substitutes are sold in small, neat pack¬ 
ages; there is little if any waste, and they keep 
indefinitely. It is also’ less trouble to cook them. 
Potatoes must be washed and pared, and often there 
is some loss from rot and soul). They do not keep 
well in the tenements and apartments. 
All these things are having an effect upon city 
diet, and it is beginning to show in the market. 
There has been a great increase in the consumption 
of sueh vegetables as tomatoes and lettuce. We find 
many restaurants serving rice in ptaec of potato. 
Personally we know of four cases where doctors 
have ordered their patients to step eating potato 
entirely, or cut down the supply one-half or more. 
We must also remember that in this great city about 
70 per cent of the people are of foreign blood. A 
very large proportion of these come from Southern 
and Eastern Europe, where the potato never was 
such a prime article of diet as it is in the north of 
Europe. All these things must be considered in try¬ 
ing to understand the potato situation in a great 
city. There can bo no question that changes of diet 
are rapidly working out and that they actually in¬ 
fluence the market to some extent. 
To those of us who live in the country and who 
have for years, like our ancestors before us, made 
“meat and potato” the staple of our diet, all this 
seems incredible and foolish. We must, however, 
face the fads. The writer of this can well remem¬ 
ber when brown bread and molasses was a staple 
article of diet in farm homes. The rye and corn 
needed to make this bread was mostly grown on the 
home farm, and very little of our modern white and 
bolted Hour was used. It would he hard to say just 
what brought about this change to white bread and 
butter. It was probably largely a matter of fashion 
or attempts to imitate a city diet. At any rate, the 
change was made and there is no doubt that a 
change from potato is starEng. This is all wrong, 
for in many ways tin* potato gives the best form of 
carbohydrates and bulky food that can be served. 
Like the apple among fruit, the potato can he cooked 
in so many different ways that it will always repre¬ 
sent the most practical vegetable food. It will be 
necessary to start a potato campaign to show city 
people once more the true value of potato. We have 
come to think that no one needs instruction about 
potatoes. With all this talk about new ideas in diet 
such instruction is more necessary than ever. 
