6io 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
August 29 
able commodities go in larger quantities to other 
ports, and this cannot he prevented. 
11. We oppose it because those chiefly benefited by 
it will be the trusts, contractors and office holders. 
Buffalo may be benefited, because all her plans provide 
for the breaking of Lake cargoes there. The railroads 
own their own elevators, and Buffalo capitalists want 
to provide the elevators for the canals. 
12. We oppose it because the whole question of 
canal transportation has been settled by two well- 
known facts. The Mississippi River is a great natural 
waterway to New Orleans. Great lines of railways 
have been built on either side of It, and the river 
cannot stand the competition. While the commerce 
of New Orleans has greatly increased, that of the 
river has greatly fallen off. The Delaware and Hud¬ 
son Canal Company owned and operated a good canal 
from the coal regions of Pennsylvania to the Hudson 
River. They could not meet railroad competition, 
and therefore secured a railroad and abandoned their 
canal, at the same time giving up a very valuable dis¬ 
tributing point on the Hudson River at Rondout. 
13. We oppose it becaiKe every acre of land in the 
West competes with every acre in the State of New 
York in the markets of New York City, and we ob¬ 
ject to spending immense sums of our money to give 
them an unfair advantage over us. For the same rea¬ 
son it is unfair to tax the railroads of our State (and 
they are very heavy taxpayers) to build a competition 
to be operated at their and our expense. All are en¬ 
titled to fair treatment. “Give the devil his due.” 
14. We oppose it because all unnecessary taxation 
is unjust taxation. There is a lot of puerile talk 
about the taxes paid by the cities of New York and 
Buffalo; that as they pay about 85 per cent of the 
State taxes therefore they should spend whatever 
they choose. As well might we say because the per¬ 
centage of those who pay no taxes at all Is much 
greater in those cities than in the rest of the State, 
therefore those cities should not vote upon this propo¬ 
sition. The fact Is that the taxation is the same upon 
values all over the State, and if they pay more It is 
because they have more. 
15. We oppose it because if a great canal is to be 
built it should be done by the National Government. 
Other States are interested equally with New York 
in having a ship canal to the Lakes. The United 
States Government has had the project under consid¬ 
eration, has spent something like $500,000 upon sur¬ 
veys and plans, and has not yet reached a decision. It 
is most unwise for New York to take the matter out 
of the Nation’s hands. 
J. W, KERR ON TREE BREEDING. ' 
If there really is anything in this new gospel of 
tree breeding by selecting from trees that bear 
nuost abundantly of finest fruit the wood used for 
propagating purposes, it is mostly talk in my 
opinion. Take almost any variety of fruit, in almost 
any orchard, and you find in a given year trees pro¬ 
ducing fruit that Is inferior in size, quality, etc., to 
that produced by other trees of same variety in same 
rows, but a little more food and a little better cul¬ 
ture Invariably right such condition, as I have 
proven repeatedly to my entire satisfaction. A Bald¬ 
win apple tree, in the care of one individual, will 
produce Immensely finer fruit than In the care of an¬ 
other. The bulk of all the bearing fruit trees In 
America to-day were propagated on the principle first 
of genuineness as to variety, and second, healthiness 
of tree. Such eminent horticulturists as Downing, 
Wilder, Thomas, Barry, etc., possessed nearly or quite 
as keen a sense of the laws governing In such matters 
as the modern Solons, who are making a noise about 
selecting the finest twigs, from the finest trees, that 
produce the finest fruit, etc. The quartette above 
named never used such methods to blow themselves 
into public notice; they knew from practice and ob¬ 
servation that the Bartlett pear tree that produced 
poor fruit and little of it for one or two years would 
show results diametrically opposite when proper ma¬ 
nures and thorough culture were given. Favorable 
conditions make trees of known excellence every¬ 
where and of all varieties, and when same conditions 
are applied to the trees producing the Inferior fruit, 
results will demonstrate that the horticultural LL. 
D.s who are pretending to propagate their trees only 
from bearing trees, such as produce fruit of known 
excellence, will have to alternate their selections of 
trees to cut from, as the trees producing Inferior fruit 
one year often produce the best fruit the year follow¬ 
ing. I might recite you the facts of a number of ex¬ 
periments, proving the correctness of the foregoing, 
but in these days of scientific Investigation, that 
would be wholly useless. To be really scientific for¬ 
bids full credence as to results obtained from any ex¬ 
periment not really ggeq pp conducted by yourself. 
Mfir7lah4. W, SEBB. 
COST OF A CANNING FACTORY. 
Will you give as complete data as possible as to the 
cost of establishing and operating a canning factory? 
State capacity of plant described. What is usually paid 
for the staple fruits and vegetables? There is talk of a 
factory being established in our vicinity in the near 
future, but no definite proposition has so far been made. 
We want to know something of the matter before giving 
a decision. v. w. n. 
New Plymouth, O. 
Since you do not sthte size of factory concerning 
which Information Is desired, I will confine myself-to 
the subject of small factories. These factories may be 
operated by the Individual or by small communities. 
The first outlay Is so small that no great risk of loss 
is incurred in purchase. A superior grade of hand- 
packed goods can be put up by these small factories 
and will drive out the inferior machine-packed goods 
that may be shipped to the small towns. It does not 
take so much business capacity to run a small fac¬ 
tory successfully, and if It should be thought advis¬ 
able to enlarge the factory later on when more ex¬ 
perience is obtained and the Interest of the com¬ 
munity becomes aroused It can be easily done. 
For the factory that I built and experimented with 
the following apparatus was purchased: One closed- 
topped kettle with attachments, $115; one exhaust 
kettle and steam cross, $17; one scalding kettle and 
steam cross, $15; two gasoline fire pots, complete, $15; 
one set of crane fixtures, $10; four capping steels, $10; 
two tipping cappers, $1; one vice, $5.50; two pairs 
can tongs, 50 cents; three files, $1.20; two wire scald¬ 
ing baskets, $2.50; one fioor truck, $10; one dozen 
peeling knives, 90 cents; one syrup gauge, $1; one 
A TALL THISTLE. Pig. 230. See Ruraeisms, Page 614. 
dozen buckets, $3; two exnaust crates, $8; two peach 
parers, $2.38; total, $217.98. The capacity of this fac¬ 
tory wate estimated at 5,000 cans per day, but I do not 
think the factory would put up that many. An old 
one-story building, 20x40, was used. A second-hand 
boiler, upon which some repairing was done, sup¬ 
plied the steam. Both of the above items are not 
enumerated in the cost given. It may often be con¬ 
venient to use steam from a local boiler, and do the 
canning in some vacant building, thus saving the cost 
of these two large items. A cannery with a 5,000- 
capacity per day will require a 15 horse-power boiler. 
The building should be large, and have two rooms, 
one for processing and another for paring and storing. 
A good supply of clean water Is necessary. 
Now, as to operating the cannery, success will de¬ 
pend very largely upon the business capacity of those 
who manage the factory. In many respects the man¬ 
agement of a canning factory Is very much like man¬ 
aging a large retail store. The work should be paid 
for by the job or piece; for cutting corn off cob three 
cents a bucket; string beans, four cents a bucket; 
paring peaches, two cents a bucket; slicing peaches, 
three cents a bucket, etc. Sugar corn is purchased 
at the factory for about $8 a ton; peaches $1.25 per 
bushel, depending upon the quality; pears about the 
same price; tomatoes, 20 cents per bushel, etc. One 
bushel of peaches or of pears will fill 18 three-pound 
cans. One bushel of tomatoes- will fill about 20 three- 
pound cans. Hence, it is an easy matter to calculate 
the cost of canning when all the items entering into 
the canning process are known to a certainty. Then, 
wbea tli& selling: prlp3 pf the flijlsfeecj product Is 
known the profit or loss can readily be determined. 
The profit or loss should be estimated at the close 
of each day, so that those fruits or vegetables that 
pay best may be more largely used in canning. A 
good, honest can should be packed so that all goods 
can be guaranteed. An attractive label Is not the 
least thing that contributes to the success of the 
factory. 
In starting a factory on the cooperative plan all 
agreements should be entered into In writing. A good 
processor should be employed at least until some 
factory hand can be trained. While those who sell 
canning machinery furnish instructions for setting up 
the machinery and running the factory, still It Is a 
good Idea to visit a good factory while in operation. 
A small jelly factory and a small pickle factory could 
easily be established in connection with the canning 
factory. These factories cost but little, and are likely 
to pay well. We want to see courses on canning, pre¬ 
serving and pickling given in our agricultural col¬ 
leges, so that these small factories may become more 
common on our fruit and truck farms, r, h. price. 
Virginia. 
LARGE STONE FOR CONCRETE WORK. 
About Laying a Concrete Foundation. 
We were much interested in the inquiry of J. J., page 
498, about laying a concrete foundation. Is it true as H 
E. C. states, that “these stones will have to be crushed 
fine?’’ Could not the wall be laid by putting a course of 
stone In the form, then pouring in cement to cover or 
nearly cover, then another course of stone? We have 
enough stone, some fiat and some round, from two to 12 
Inches In diameter, to put up a cement wall if we can use 
them. Only a small per cent is even enough to work to 
advantage in a laid wall, and we could not afford to 
crush. 
Jamestown, N. Y. 
Yes, a wall could be laid in the manner mentioned-^ 
a course of stone of any size and a course of sand and 
cement. But this would be nothing more or less than 
the usual mason work except that cement would take 
the place of quicklime and consequently be more ex¬ 
pensive. The quality of standard concrete construc¬ 
tion depends upon the thorough mixing of good ce¬ 
ment with clean, coarse, sharp sand as the first step, 
and that the broken surface of each piece of stone 
used shall come in close contact with the cement so 
that the force between them, which is adhesive, may 
later have a cohesive power; in other words, that the 
union of stone and cement shall be such that In break¬ 
ing the cleavage will as likely occur between parts of 
the stone itself as between cement and stone. If these 
stones are large and no doubt flat, having a broad 
surface, it would be impossible to pour cement around 
them and expect it to reach every part of the stone, 
and each space left open would mean just so much 
weakness for the wall, I think S. B. will readily see 
the force of this statement. If he desires to use large 
stones he will build cheaply with quicklime and a 
little cement added. If anxious to build a concrete 
wall, do so with small crushed stone or very small 
cobble or field stone. h. e. cook. 
MORE ABOUT A BARREN PEAR ORCHARD. 
A reader in Ohio, C. C. Sterling, has called my at¬ 
tention to one Important point in connection with the 
barren pear orchard mentioned on page 500, that was 
overlooked by me. It is the fact that all of the 200 
trees are Bartletts, which he says “would alone be 
sufficient to make them barren.” This is in a great 
measure true, for the Bartlett is partially self-sterile. 
Experiments In pollenizing the flowers of this va¬ 
riety with those of Anjou, Buffum and some other 
kinds have proved that they have a marked effect io 
causing the fruit to set better and to be larger, and 
of a somewhat different shape from the usual type of 
self-fertilized Bartletts. This latter statement must 
not be construed as proving that the characteristics 
of the other varieties were transmitted through their 
pollen to the fruit of Bartlett. There is no doubt 
that the seeds were so affected, and any seedlings 
that might have been grown from them would have 
a share of such characteristics. But, the foreign 
pollen, being more potent than its own, caused the 
Bartlett pears to develop seeds, which is rare in self- 
pollinated Bartlett pears, and the flesh surrounding 
them to attain more perfect development, as well. 
Therefore these pears were larger and plumper in 
shape than the common type In orchards where there 
were only Bartlett trees. 
If a few grafts of Anjou, Buffum, Seckel and some 
other varieties were set In about one-fifth of the trees 
In the orchard under discussion it would probably 
have a marked effect for the better. There may be 
others who have similar trouble with their Bartlett 
trees not bearing well and the application of this plan 
might be a great benefit. The matter of the benefits 
to be derived from the cross-pollination of our fruits 
is one that has not been worked out thoroughly, and 
here lies a field for our experiment stations that is 
well worth their ablest efforts. The time will come 
when we shall know just what varieties, self-fertile 
to plant alone, and which must be planted to¬ 
gether to attain the best results. Private orchardlsts 
can rarely afford to lu^e tb,q necessary experiiqeflta. 
eyea when they are 
