1902 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
521 
MARKET NOTES 
POTATOES.—The market is weak, a lot 
of southern seconds and culls going as low 
as 50 to 75 cents per barrel. They are evi¬ 
dently the last run of the southern early 
crop. The conditions for Long Island tu¬ 
bers are better, $1 to $1.75 being received, 
although the latter figure is exceptional. 
There is no reason to look for higher prices 
until the bulk of the early crop is disposed 
of, as dealers plan to get rid of all of these, 
storing the later ones if any. 
PEACHES now hold first place in the 
fruit markets of this city, and will con¬ 
tinue at the head for some time. The re¬ 
tailers complain of the extravagant prices 
charged them. One street man said he had 
to pay $3.25 for a crate of peaches whole¬ 
saling at $2. It is difficult to sell them to 
consumers at a higher price than two for 
five cents, and he was scarcely getting his 
money back at this rate. Elberta and Belle 
of Georgia are leading other varieties in 
price at present. The flavor of the Elbertas 
that we have tested is unusually high; as 
a peach for eating out of hand it has the 
advantage of being very free, and can be 
eaten, like an apple, without soiling cloth¬ 
ing. Other varieties on hand quite largely 
now are Chinese Free, Lady Ingold, Thur- 
ber, Mountain Rose, Tillotson, Amelia and 
St. John. 
HEAVY HANDLING.—The freight hand¬ 
lers’ strike at Chicago has brought the 
work of laborers of this class quite con¬ 
spicuously before the public. Few people 
think that much but brute force is needed 
to handle heavy cases on a hand truck, but 
it is as really skilled labor as that of the 
carpenter or machinist. Some of the best 
freight handlers we nave seen on river 
boats and in railroad yards were slight, 
wiry men, weighing less than 140, and it 
is surprising with what apparent ease they 
will put an awkwardly shaped case weigh¬ 
ing several hundred pounds on a truck and 
walk away with it. A much more muscular 
man who did not have the knack would 
have a dreadful time loading the case, and 
probably smash his foot or run the load 
off one side of the gang plank before he 
got through with the job. The skilled man 
gets an idea of the action and resistance of 
weights and bulks in various forms. He 
is like a wrestler who learns the tricks of 
his opponent and is on guard to avoid be¬ 
ing thrown. The extent to which a strike 
of this kind ties up business gives an idea 
of the importance of the work of these 
handlers. A gang of inexperienced men 
would do much less, damage property, and 
be constantly in each other’s way. 
BUYING BARREL SHOOKS.—A reader 
asks: “Can I buy apple barrel in the fiat 
and put them together myself? They are 
bulky to ship put up, and we are often un¬ 
able to get all we want at picking time.’ 
Apple barrels may be had in pieces, but 
unless one is a fair cooper it will hardly 
pay him to put them together himselt. and 
we should not care to recommend the ex¬ 
periment. It looks very easy when an ex¬ 
pert does it, but there is more or less fit¬ 
ting to be done, and barrel staves are 
awkward things for an inexperienced man 
to handle. The local cooper might be em¬ 
ployed, but the probability is that he would 
make poor headway compared with one 
who, while not an all-around cooper, be¬ 
comes an expert at putting up apple bar¬ 
rels, on account of weeks or months of 
contstant work at this one line of busi¬ 
ness. Jf one wishes to find out definitely 
what he can do, the better way will be to 
get a small quantity of shooks and experi¬ 
ment the next rainy day. If reasonably 
handy with tools he may decide that it 
will pay. A popular method in some parts 
of the East is for some man to open a de¬ 
pot here and there throughout the apple 
districts, within convenient wagon haul of 
the growers. He keeps plenty of raw ma¬ 
terial at hand and puts on extra coopers as 
the demand for barrels Increases. We have 
known cases where this plan worked very 
well, although without a careful canvas of 
the apple situation and a thorough under¬ 
standing with the growers he is likely to 
become overstocked or run short in some 
localities. 
FRUIT MINUS BRUISES.—We have 
heard people express surprise at the su¬ 
perior keeping qualities of the finer Cali¬ 
fornia cherries and plums as compared 
with most eastern fruit received at this 
market. There may be a number of rea¬ 
sons, but one that is enough to account for 
most of the difference is that the western 
fruit is not bruised. The pickers and 
handlers must be careful to a degree un¬ 
known in the East. The plums get the 
same care, the natural bloom being scarce¬ 
ly disturbed on many of them on their ar¬ 
rival here. Whatever may be said about 
California peaches, apricots or apples, the 
quality of these plums and cherries is ex¬ 
cellent, although perhaps they are not 
quite so juicy as the home-grown fruit, 
which is nearer ripe when picked. But few 
eastern cherries as they arrive in this mar¬ 
ket look well enough to sell on the better 
fruit stands. The cherries are clawed off 
the trees by the handful, picked into deep 
pails or baskets, where the weight is sure 
to bruise those underneath, and then 
poured into other vessels. Handled in this 
way they may do very well for preserving, 
but are not suitable for selling on fruit 
stands, as appearance counts for so much 
in this trade. Travelers often buy five 
cents worth of fruit because it looks fine¬ 
ly. Will it pay the eastern man to handle 
and pack his fruit as carefully as the 
Californians? If of equally good quality it 
certainly should, as he is 2,500 miles nearer 
his market. Even though it might not pay 
him to take so much pains with the bulk 
of his cherries, he would come out better 
if the fruit were picked in shallow vessels 
to avoid bruising by the weight, and lifted 
from one vessel to another by the stems, 
instead of pouring. 
PEACH VS. PLUM.—“Are we to under¬ 
stand from market reports that Japan 
plums are not of as good salable market 
value as peaches? What is a fair market 
estimate of this class of plums? Are they 
going to be depreciated, or will the market 
give them encouragement? Growers about 
to set out new orchards wish to know what 
to expect.” h. t. 
Oregon. 
Probably it will be noticed a little later, 
when Jersey and other nearby peaches ar¬ 
rive, that Japan plums will sell the higher 
bulk for bulk. So far as this market is 
concerned it will not be possible, until the 
tastes and habits of consumers are chang¬ 
ed, to sell anywhere near as many Japan, 
or any other plums, as peaches. A few raw 
plums are sold on the streets, but very few 
families use them in any way except 
cooked, and as a rule more peaches than 
plums are canned. It is altogether differ¬ 
ent with peaches. Large quantities are 
sold on the streets. Sliced peaches are 
served in thousands of families and in 
nearly all hotels and restaurants during the 
season. They are put in ice cream and 
crushed for use at soda fountains, thus 
being used for many purposes for which 
plums are not thought suitable. There is 
much more danger of overstocking the 
large city markets with plums than with 
peaches. Last year there was a surplus of 
plums for a time, but it did not last long, 
and prices remained at a fair figure most 
of the season. Every man who has fruit 
trees should include a few plums, both 
Japan and other desirable types, but the 
question of setting large plantations of 
plums is another matter. We see no reason 
for expecting a depreciation in the plum 
market, as most growers recognize its lim¬ 
ited demand as compared with other fruits. 
We certainly should not recommend any¬ 
one to go into the business on a large scale 
without knowing that he had a good out¬ 
let for a greatly increased yield, w. w. h. 
A Cuban Experience. 
I landed here with only $3 in my pocket, 
but with a good supply of seed. It cost me 
considerably more than I had anticipated. 
We immediately secured a piece of land 
and proceeded to plant with a hoe and 
spade. We got in a good quantity of seeds 
of various vegetables before the rainy sea¬ 
son closed. We also secured several va¬ 
rieties of soil and planted in various ways 
and times all through up to March 1, when 
we found our crops non est and ourselves 
in debt and extra work scarce, also money 
for same much more so. At that time we 
had had no rain for two months, and our 
prospects looked doubtful with one-half 
acre of potatoes (Irish), one acre tomatoes, 
one-half acre peppers, one-half acre water¬ 
melons, one-half acre cucumbers, beans, 
egg plants, etc., and one-half acre Bermuda 
onion set out by hand. Water was the 
great necessity. Soil heavy, black and low, 
also sour, being the second year from sod 
and not drained or lined. We came on 
here, and got work on railroad (Cuba Cen¬ 
tral). June 1 hastened to our crops; ex¬ 
pected to find some waste. We had left 
the place in charge of the owner. We 
found the potatoes, onions, etc., harvested; 
the place in possession of two men with a 
lease for five years, and the owner in Bos¬ 
ton. The owner was an old sanctimonious 
and rather pleasant gentlemanly looking 
fellow, and the renters had been on the 
place several times looking around before 
I left, and had told one of them some of 
my difficulties and how I expected to sur¬ 
mount them. There having been no rain 
the tomatoes which retail here at $6 per 
bushel, and wholesale at $3 Spanish money 
were not worth losing $100 per month for, 
and the Cuban laws were such that I could 
do nothing at all to punish the renters. 
Cuba. __ j. a. c. 
I had two Baldwin apple trees that have 
never been very good, so this year I gave 
them one bushel apiece of dissolved rock 
and a load of manure each, and they look 
as though they would pay back. c. a. 
Orleans Co., N. Y. 
The Grape Leaf Hopper.— We go out in 
the morning when the dew is on the leaves 
with a bucket of air-slaked lime, a good- 
sized fire shovel; on the side of our vines 
so the lime will blow it right through the 
leaves and grapes, throw up and don’t be 
scared if your grapes and leaves are white; 
it will not hurt them if it stays on for 
weeks. The roughness on the underside of 
the leaf will hold the lime, but every last 
hopper will leave instantly, consequently 
you have good, sound grapes and no worms 
to feast on or sell. I have also used the 
same treatment for cherries, quinces and 
other small fruit with equal success. 
Richmond, Ind. r. b. m. 
Orange Co. Fruit.— My report to the 
Fruit Growers’ Association specifying that 
it applied to my own crops only, was as 
follows, taking 100 as basis for a full crop: 
Currants, 50; strawberries, 100; sweet cher¬ 
ries, 25; Japan plums, 5; peaches, 50; pears, 
75; apples. 100. Bartlett pears are a full 
crop with me, Bose likewise; Anjou a light 
half, Seckel about one-third. Foliage is 
good and we should have good fruit under 
normal conditions. C. R. Shons, of Wash- 
ingtonville, a large handler of apples, and 
generally pretty well posted, says his ob¬ 
servation had been somewhat limited, but 
from what he had seen apples did not 
promise very well. He reported peaches a 
full crop in that vicinity, also in the Pine 
Island district; said that Bartlett pears 
had dropped very heavily and would be 
light with them. j. r. c. 
Newburgh, N. Y. 
Insect-Catching Machine.— The Grape 
Belt describes a machine which Inspector 
J. J. Barden thinks will help to destroy tfie 
Grape root-worm or its parent. This insect 
has done great damage in the vineyards of 
western New York. “It consists of a V- 
shaped piece of tin about six feet long and 
four feet wide, like an inverted roof, at 
the bottom of which is an opening into a 
trough which is to hold kerosene oil. On 
one side of the ‘V’ a slot is cut over the 
stalk of the vine, enabling those who op¬ 
erate the outfit to place it underneath the 
wires in such position that it will catch the 
beetles as they are shaken from the vines. 
With an improvised machine made of 
table oilcloth and lying flat, instead of V- 
shaped, t.wo men named were able to catch 
a quart of beetles within two or three 
hours. The crude machine worked so suc¬ 
cessfully that its construction has been 
improved upon and a machine made that 
would seem to satisfy every requirement 
for a catcher. The idea is to run the ma¬ 
chine under the vines in proper position, 
then shake the vines. The beetles are in 
this manner shaken down, and striking on 
the smooth sloping sides of the sheet un¬ 
derneath, slide into the trough containing 
oil, which settles the question of their do¬ 
ing damage, without further debate.” 
Sleeplessness 
Is akin to insanity. Many a woman re¬ 
alizes this as she lies awake hour by 
hour, peopling the darkness with phan¬ 
toms, starting at the creaking of the bed 
or the rustle of 
the bedclothes. 
Such symp¬ 
toms in general 
point to disease 
of the delicate 
womanly or¬ 
gans, and a con¬ 
stant drain of 
the vital and 
nervous forces. 
This condition 
cannot be over¬ 
come by sleep¬ 
ing powders. 
The diseased 
condition must 
be cured before 
the conse- 
quences of dis¬ 
ease are re¬ 
moved. 
Dr. Pierce’s 
Favorite Pre¬ 
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the womanly 
diseases which 
cause nervous¬ 
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"Favorite Prescription.” 
« My wife was sick for over eight years," writes 
Albert H. Fulte, Esq. t of Altamont, Grundy Co.. 
Tenn. "She had uterine disease and was treated 
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well.” 
Dr. Pierce’s Pleasant Pellets should be 
used with " Favorite Prescription ” when¬ 
ever a laxative is required. 
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