bor of cows for the same length of time, and 
the soil would have been in a more fertile con¬ 
dition and freer from weeds. I have been 
surprised at the amount of green fodder an 
acre of corn will furnish when planted closely 
in rows 31^ feet apart on rich soil. The time 
is coming when there will be no more pastur¬ 
ing on our fertile graiu aud fruit-growing 
farms of Western New York. 
WEEDS. 
I had a serious tussle with these pests, too. 
They had been permitted to have their own 
way so long that it was hard to conquer them. 
I planted, one Fall, a large plat of Gregg 
Raspberries, after fitting the ground with 
great care, flattering myself that we had suc¬ 
ceeded hi doiug a nice job. The next Spring, 
before the young raspberries appeared above 
the ground, the Canada Thistles lifted then- 
horny heads scarcely an inch apart over the 
entire tract, covering it like a blanket. We 
bad a hard tussle with these intruders, but 
finally secured a good stand of raspberry 
plants, and good crops there afterwards, 
but learned a lesson from our experience. It 
is a difficult task to war with weeds in any 
event, but most difficult of all where it is 
undertaken without a thorough determination 
to conquer completely. All half-way work 
in exterminating these pests is labor thrown 
away. Our soil is peculiarly difficult to sub¬ 
due, as it is a fertile clay loam, retaining 
moisture, in which the weeds retain life after 
the roots are severed. Quack Grass and 
thistles were the worst pests, but many others, 
such as burdocks, yellow dock, red root, mal¬ 
lows, mullein, bull thistles, and now aud then 
a patch of wild mustard, were discovered. 
Strolling over the farm fora pleasant walk, I 
was often detained for hours pulling out some 
of these obnoxious weeds that I met in my 
path. Few cau realize the inheritance they 
are handing down to their children in seeds 
of obnoxious weeds that they have allowed to 
mature on their premises. 
Monroe Co., N. Y. 
farm Cronomxj. 
THE NEW YORK FRUIT MARKET. 
Watermelons are about gone. There are 
a few piles to be seen about the market, but 
they seem remarkably lonesome. Musk- 
melons are fewer still, a few barrels only 
being seen. 
Peaches are remarkably poor this season. 
It is hard to find a really fine basket. Most 
of the fruit is small and spotted. Peaches 
make but a poor showing beside the magnifi¬ 
cent pears and apples with which the market 
is flooded. 
Prices are far below those of a year ago. 
Bartlett pears are quoted now at 83 to $5; at 
this time last year they brought $0 to $8. 
Apples are from 25c. to 50c. cheaper. Freight 
and cartage make sad havoc with profits 
this year. 
Market men will hail the proposed new nom¬ 
enclature with pleasure. They have hard 
work with some of the names. “Burry Dell” 
is comparatively easy, but “ Burry dang joe” 
or “ Burry dangle terry” is apt to spoil a sale. 
Fruit-mou should be careful how they pour 
the long Russian uames upon an innocent 
public through such a medium. 
Bartlett pears are about gone. The few 
that are left are of poor quality. Seckels held 
the monopoly for a few days. The fruit stands 
were browu with them. They have now been 
crowded out by Duehesse, Beurrc Diel, etc. 
Seckels are getting too soft to handle profit¬ 
ably. The Heokel is not so popular as a mar¬ 
ket pear as it should be. It is considered by 
many to be the richest of all pears, but its 
small size renders it unpopular, it is a fact 
that people in thiB age want fruit with some 
size to it. One cannot help louging for Pres¬ 
ident Wilder’s Ideal pear. What a magnifi¬ 
cent market variety it would make! 
The two pears most frequently seen for sale at 
present ore the Duehesse aud Beurrt? d’An jou. 
Sheldon. Louise Bonne, Beurrt? Bose and 
many others are here in small quantities. 
Dealers arc uot particularly careful about 
distinguishing sorts. Uuder the head of 
“Duehesse” are grouped half-a-dozen pears of 
somewhat similar appearance. The highest 
price is paid at present for Beurrc d’Anjou 
aud BeurriS Bose, though the price is from 
81.50 to #2 below that of oue year ago. Most 
of the pears come into market in barrels. 
There are few crates used except for the 
smaller sorts. There is a vust difference be¬ 
tween the wholesale and retail prices for 
pears. A barrel will be bought in the market 
for #3 50. Two blocks away they sell for |l 
per basket, while at a distance of two miles 
the price will k rise to |1.50. These pears will 
he retailed at from one to live cents each. 
Quinces are abundant. Most of them are 
of the common apple-shaped variety. The 
pear-shaped fruit commands a lower price; 
best lots find sale at $3.50 per barrel, or 81.00 
per basket. Most lots are poor. The fruit is 
small and badly spotted. Many carelessly 
packed lots rot badly. The quince season 
has not really begun yet. The fruit is used 
entirely for preserving, and most housekeep¬ 
ers wait until later in the season before pur¬ 
chasing. 
There are tons of grapes to be seen. The 
Concord, of course, leads in quantity, many 
stands being fairly blue with the fruit. Prices 
are lower than at this time last year. People 
are eatiDg more grapes'than ever before. 
Concords retail at 3 to ' 3 % cents per pound, 
while Delawares on the same stand bring 
eight cents and Niagaras 12 cents. The ten- 
pound basket is the most popular size for re¬ 
tailers. They are often sold as 10 or 15-pound 
baskets, to those who do not know the size. 
flooded, the price dropped to 82.00 and 82.50. 
Now, when the season is about over, choice 
lots are sold at f5.00. Exactly the same story 
was told last year. The “time” in the affairs 
of the fruit-grower should not always be 
“taken at its flood.” 
It seems strange that fruit-growers will not 
learn that neatness and taste in packing are 
sure to be rewarded. We see this fact illus- 
strated every day, 'Where fruit is tossed 
promiscuously into a box or barrel, without 
regard tosize, shape or color, it simply will not 
command an extra price, no matter how good 
it may be. Even the retail dealers appreciate 
this fact. Two apple stands are often placed 
near each other. One sells little, while the 
other does a good business. On one the fruit 
is thiown into a confused mass; on the other, 
the apples are sorted and arranged as regards 
color, shape and size. It is needless to say 
which one does the business. 
E-f 
Appl« 
.yy 27 
12 3+5 67 
— ~ o 
3 :<} :s 
■i si 
: 
diagram 
THE * 
HALF-AC BE OF POOR SOIL 
ILLffSTfUTMO THE 
HURAI.’a 
TRENCH-MULCH SYSTEM 
or 
POTATO OULTUHH, 
DIAGRAM OF RURAL POOR-SOIL POTATO PLOT [12-25 of an acre]. Fig. 465. 
(See page 708.) 
There are some fine cranberries to be seen. 
Light colored berries range from $1.25 to 81.50 
less per barrel than the dark-colored. Most 
of them are shipped in barrels: the-e are 
comparatively few crates. The use of the 
cranberry is on the increase. At the restau¬ 
rants, just now, crauberry and pumpkin pies 
are the favorites. Probably nine-tenths of 
the berries at the market are classed as “Cape 
Cod.” Considering the comparatively small 
extent of marsh on the Cape and the vast 
quantity of berries, there must have been a 
phenomenal yield. This may be due to the 
fact that there is a difference of from 50 to 75 
cents per crate between Cape Cod and Jersey 
berries. 
Dealers iu fruits should bear in mind that 
the best prices tire secured at the opening and 
at the end of the season. Take, for instance, 
prices this year for Bartlett pears. The first 
that came in sold at 84.50 per barrel. At the 
middle of the season, when the market was 
(£\)t Poullnj* 
RURAL MARKET NOTES. 
MARKETING POULTRY. 
W hat a shame it is to send chickens into 
market in such poor shape. They are crowded 
into dose aud uncomfortable crates where they 
trample over oue another till they present a 
filthy appearance. During the warm weather 
some shippers use crates made of wire netting. 
There is a simple wooden frame with the net¬ 
ting stretched over it. This makes an airy 
coop and the fowls are much more easily exam¬ 
ined. Another good form of shipment is a 
large basket bottom with several broad han¬ 
dles over which a wire netting, with wide 
meshes, is placed and fastened with strings or 
clasps. This can be taken off at will and re¬ 
turned when emptied. The tendency is to 
<L\)t Ptmllri^arir. 
crowd the birds too closely together. They 
are not sardines, though many shippers seem 
to have an idea that they belong to the her¬ 
ring family, Most of the live poultry reaches 
market in poor shape—trampled and bruised 
and suffering from thirst. Much of it too is 
very lousy. Most of the live birds seem to be 
“scrubs” or mongrels, with tremendous legs, 
and necks all out of proportion to their bodies. 
From a single wagon-load of crates, heads of 
every conceivable shape and color will be 
seen protruding. The well-known Plymouth 
Rock color is well sprinkled all through the 
crates. These natty, shapely birds shine by 
contrast with their long legged, dirty com¬ 
panions. Now and then we find a crate of 
ihese “speckled beauties" by themselves, and 
they always attract extra attention. 
Shippers would be wise to grade their fowls, 
putting the best together. One or two poor 
chicks in a crate of good oues, will often spoil 
the appearance of the whole. It is surprising 
bow little attention is paid by some farmers 
to poultry improvement. The old “dung-hill” 
still reign3 supreme on many a farm. Many 
farmers say they can't afford the necessary 
time and money. Almost any man can afford 
to buy a single sitting of Plymouth Rock or 
Wyandotte eggs. These can be hatched under 
any hen. Let them run with the flock and 
make meat out of all the “dung-hill” roosters, 
and improvement cannot very well be helped. 
The yard will be speckled with chickens in a 
year, and chickens too that will bring a bet¬ 
ter price in the markets. Much of the live 
poultry sent in here is bought by men who 
kill and dress it for customers. The retail 
trade is not very large, and most of it is of a 
cheap character. The sale of dressed poultry 
depends much upon its appearance. Torn 
skins, careless packing and an abundance of 
pin-feathers will surely cut down the price 
and spoil the reputation of the shipper. The 
poultry man should be able to quote Othello 
in regard to a “good name.” A shipment of 
poultry may be lost or stolen; the next lot will 
still command a good price. Let the reputa¬ 
tion of the dealer be lost, however, by dishon¬ 
esty or carelessness, and the extra cent or 
more per pound is gone forever. Quite a 
number of chickens come into market with 
broken breast bones. This is done by ship¬ 
pers evidently to give a plumper and rounder 
appearance to the bird. In some chickens, 
otherwise first-class, the breast bone is so 
prominent that it seems like a deformity. 
On tbefarm little attention is generally paid 
to the method of killing poultry. The head is 
laid over the chopping-block and cut off with 
the axe. and the bird left to flap Its blood 
away in the grass or dust. We have known 
dead birds to bide themselves in this way so 
that a long search was necessary to find them. 
We have seen negroes at the Sooth kill a 
turkey by hanging it by the legs to a nail 
driven into a tree. Then with a sharp knife 
the head was cut away and the bird left to 
flap about and shed its blood without getting 
into the dirt. This sort of thing will not do 
for market. The proper way is to leave the 
head on and kill the bird by cutting the vein 
at the back of the mouth—just under the eyes. 
The bird quickly bleeds to death, and a smart 
blow on the back of the head will render it un¬ 
conscious, so that plucking can begin at once. 
VINEYARD NOTES FOR NORTHERN 
NEW YORK. 
It is very interesting to watch and note the 
changes in the development of different in¬ 
dividual vines,and in the families and classes, 
as the seasons come aud go; the effects of 
seen aud unstea causes, the character of the 
changes wrought by climatic variations. 
Great is the difficulty of uoticing subtle and 
delicate distinctions,that should be made with 
careful, slow, deliberation, in order to at¬ 
tribute effects to the right causes, especially 
the peculiar and profound impressions that a 
change of but a few miles in the locality will 
sometimes make. We have all been seeking 
for a universal grape that would prosper 
everywhere; but another year adds its evi¬ 
dence to the conclusion that there can be no 
such thing in Nature, and that there is no use 
in looking to the future to furnish it for us. 
A grape that is perfect of its kind in one 
locality, may be almost worthless even in the 
more propitious climate of another place. To 
illustrate: Upon the Rural Grounds, Victoria 
gets unstiuted praise; here, iu a better climate, 
it grows feeble and lacks the prime essentials 
of a vigorous, well developed viue. Again, 
Centennial is condemned there for deficiency 
of vigor in the vine; here, as a skilled viti¬ 
culturist who was looking over my vines 
yesterday, said: “It is the most valuable 
variety in the vineyard, with abundance of 
vigor. ’ The analysis of its wine,just received 
from Hammuudsport, N. Y., where it is also 
