Wk RURAL NEW-YORKER 
1441 
Notes From New England 
Cheap Apples. —Onr* point has been 
largely overlooked in all the discussion 
about quality tipples, ami the desirability 
of packing fruit in boxes so as to bring 
the highest prices. In every city there 
are thousands of people who are not look¬ 
ing for unblemished apples wrapped in 
tissue paper or handsomely polished. 
They waut ordinary fruit at as low a 
price as they can buy it for making pies 
and apple sauce. The Boston papers 
have published reports of apples going to 
waste on the farms or selling for a .Suing, 
and yet it lias been impossible to buy 
apples at a low price from the fruit 
stands or even from hucksters. In the 
last few weeks, though, a new factor has 
come into the field. The Atlantic and 
Pacific Tea Company has sent men all 
through New York Srate buying up the 
apples which were uot considered good 
enough to ship, or which could nor be 
sold through the regular channels at a 
profit. These apples have been brought 
into New England by the carload. Up 
to the present time something like 40.000 
bushels have been sold in and around 
Boston in the A. & P. stores. The uni¬ 
form price of 25 cents for six pounds has 
been charged. All the apples handled in 
this way are hand-picked and sound, but 
not graded, and many of them ruu pretty 
small. They are being handled wholly 
in bushel baskets, no barrels being used. 
Seep and Fbrtilizkk outlook. —The 
people in the trade have been casting up 
the situation next year as regards prices 
on seeds, fertilizers and other supplies. 
It looked a month or two ago as though 
grass seed would be much cheaper, but 
there have been two or three advances 
within the past few weeks, and the out¬ 
look now is somewhat uncertain. Flower 
seeds and those of some vegetables are 
likely to be a little cheaper than this 
year. Iu some lines, however, there is 
a conspicuous shortage. This is particu¬ 
larly true of parsnip seed. The parsnip 
crop abroad seems to have been almost 
a complete loss, so that very little seed 
will come into the country. R. Vi. 
Brown, chairman of the Farm Bureau 
Purchasing Committee, is prophesying 
higher prices for fertilizer the coming 
season, and thinks there may be some 
difficulty in regard to shipments, owing 
to the freight car shortage. The Eastern 
States Farmers' Exchange is organizing 
their third fertilizer pool, and is featur¬ 
ing non-filler fertilizers. Massachusetts 
farmers are being advised not to buy low- 
grade fertilizers, even though they are 
cheap. One official estimates that the 
plant food bought by Massachusetts 
farmers in 1921 in the form of low 
analysis fertilizers cost them about $94,- 
000 more than if they had bought in the 
form of high analysis mixtures. With¬ 
out much question the high-grade fertil¬ 
izers are the cheapest when the amount 
of plant food contained is considered. 
The Use of Attn Phosphate. —In¬ 
creasing attention is being given to the 
use of acid phosphate in connection with 
natural manure-. Market gardeners as 
well as geucral farmers are realizing that 
they can prevent much loss if they use 
some sort of preservative. Although 
o her kinds, like pent and gypsum, have 
been experimented with, acid phosphate 
-eems by all means the most satisfactory, 
farmers who raise live stock are begin¬ 
ning to follow the advice of the Geneva 
(N. Y. I Experiment Station to use two 
handfuls of Hi per cent acid phosphate 
on the excretions of each animal each 
day. If the animals are in box stalls or 
run under sheds, the phosphate is scat¬ 
tered in the lifter. Poultry keepers arc 
also using acid phosphate on the drop¬ 
pings board-, or under the rousts if n o 
droppings boards are used, in this way 
preventing a loss of ammonia and at the 
same time greatly increasing the plant 
food in the manure. 
Florists Feel Manure Shortage.— 
florists as well as market gardeners are 
feeling the shortage of manure. This is 
particularly true of rose growers, who 
need cow manure in large quantities for 
rheir plants. Some growers have tried 
running a small dairy with more or less 
success, but a better plau seems to have 
been worked out by William II. Elliott, 
whose mammoth greenhouses at Mad- 
bnry, N. It., are among the largest in 
rlie world. There is a large farm Iu con¬ 
nection with the greenhouse plant, and 
this farm has been turned over to a 
dairyman who keeps ISO cows. Mr. 
Elliott pays the farmer a bonus of $20 a 
cow, and for that compensation has all 
of the manure which he needs. Mr. 
Elliott al-o has another rose-growing 
establishment in Brighton. Mass., where 
a similar plan is being worked out. al¬ 
though only 10 cows will be accommo¬ 
dated there. 
The Use of Nails in Celery. —The 
question of using tape or raffia instead 
of nails when bunching celery has again 
come up. East year the Massachusetts 
Federation of Women's Clubs sent out a 
circular through its economics depart¬ 
ment suggesting that the club members 
protest against the use of uails in celery. 
It has been very difficult to upset the 
long-established custom of market gar¬ 
deners in this respect, hm the fact that 
some celery is now being put on the mar¬ 
ket tied with raffia leads the women to 
point out that this method obviously is 
feasible. Several years ago one or two 
growers tied their celery with tape on 
which their names were printed, but the 
plan was not generally adopted. Prob¬ 
ably there would lie less complaint about 
the use of nails if care was taken nor to 
drive them through the celery stalks 
themselves, but only through the piece 
of root at the bottom of each bunch. 
Still, some housewives object to having 
even the roots mutilated in this way, 
claiming that they can be used in salads 
or dried for seasoning. 
Storing Celery.— W hile it is the prac¬ 
tice of marker gardeners iu New Eng¬ 
land to store their late celery in boarded 
pits, celery which is to be marketed early 
can be kept until Thanksgiving or early 
December if placed in trenches. This is 
a plan which can he used to advantage 
in the home garden. Well-drained land 
is needed, and the trenches are made 
about a foot wide and equally deep. The 
celery as set in these trenches extends 
two or three inches above the level of the 
ground. Then two boards are placed in 
A-fnshion over the trenches, giving pro¬ 
tection from the rain and permitting ven¬ 
tilation. As colder weather comes on 
the trench hoards are covered with 
strawy manure and closed at the ends. 
This plan, with some modifications, is 
followed in many parts of the North. 
Even in Canada it gives good results. 
On private estates it is a common plan 
to bank up the celery almost to the top 
with earth, making the mound so wide 
that the frost does not penetrate it. The 
earth freezes on the surface, of course, 
and can be taken off in chunks when the 
celery is wanted for the table. Celery 
bleached and stored iu this way is be¬ 
lieved to have a particularly fiue nutty 
flavor, but of course the expense for 
labor is considerable. 
Storing Dahlias. —Amateur garden 
makers who grow Dahlias have found it 
very difficult to Winter certain kinds. 
Geisha being an example. All too often 
when Spring comes the roots are found 
to have decayed to such an extent that 
they are worthless. On one of the big¬ 
gest Dahlia-growing farms iu New Eng¬ 
land it has been found that the remedy 
lies in dividing the roots as soon as pos¬ 
sible after they have been dug, .-"metimes 
within a week or two. Tne division is 
accomplished by separating the tubers 
from the stalks, taking care of course to 
keep an eye with each piece. The loose 
roots are also cut off. Handled in this 
way even these hard to-keep varieties^ go 
through the Winter successfully. With 
all Dahlia clumps that are stored it is 
important to have the stub which is left 
on the stalk point downward so that the 
fluid which ft contains will drain out. 
Unless this is dene decay is almost cer¬ 
tain to follow. Dahlias will keep well 
in open bins or on shelves in a cellar 
which is cool but frost-proof, provided 
the atmosphere is noc too dry. If the 
tubers are stored in a heated cellar it is 
better to put them in box 2 s wi:k layers 
of sand between, or with leaves if the 
sand is not available. When this is done 
there is less likelihood that the tubers 
will shrivel up before Spring. 
E. I. FARRINGTON. 
in the 
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CONTENTS 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. DEC. 9. 1922 
FARM TOPICS 
1446 
1449 
1449 
400 CANDLE POWER 
LAMP ON Craa Trial 
Hope Farm Notes.... 
President Howard on Agricultural Outlook. 
New York State Notes. 
LIVE STOCK AND DAIRY 
Hints on Starting: a Milk Route....,. 
Sweet Potatoes for Cows.•• 
Feeding for Butter..... 
Dairying and Farm Fertility. 
Improving a Ration... 
THE HENYARD 
Fitting Poultry for the Show. 
Alarm Clock and Electric Lights. 
Does Poultry-keeping Pay ?. 
Gapeworn.s and Ttirkeys.. 
Ohio Woman's Hens. 
Feeding Chicks ....... 
Cleaning Up After Disease. 
HORTICULTURE 
Self-grafted Apples . 
Notes from a Ma-vland Garden.1440. 
Notes from New England. 
Large Grapevine . 
Promising Hybrid Pear. 
WOMAN AND HOME 
From Day to Day .,,,, .. • • 
Some Excellent Candies. 
The Rural Patterns. .. 
Apple Suggestions .. 
Househo'd Accounts . 1450. 
What We Did With the Hot Lunch. 
Prison-mad- Woven Bedspreads. 
Helps to the Housekeeper... 
Cleaning Stoves .... 
MISCELLANEOUS 
Both Si 'es of the Consolidated School 
Question .1437. 
Insurance Against Poisoned Pies. 
"A Night on the Market" Brought to 
Daylight—Part II. 
The Earth's Rotatiou. . 
Distillate from Potatoes.. 
A Glue Substitute.. 
Asphalt Roofing Paint. 
Insulatiou for Boiler .. . 
Recharging Flashlight Batteries.. 
The Cost of Education.. 
School Tax Collectors and Their Pay..... 
Construction of Cistern. 
Trouhle With Water System. 
Barn Water Supply. 
Ram for Small Spring. 
Editorials . .. 
Miners and Their Wages. 
Amount of Concrete Needed. 
Publisher’s Desk ... 
Strawberry Book Free-Worth $$$$$ 
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