1899 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
71 
Among the Marketmen. 
WHAT / SEE AND HEAR. 
Moldy Butter. —A New York dealer 
of 30 years’ experience, who puts thou¬ 
sands of tubs of butter into cold storage 
every year, says that the great trouble 
with buttermakers is that they won’t do 
as they are told. He has written cream¬ 
eries repeatedly to soak the parchment 
paper in brine for 24 hours, but instead, 
most of them simply dip it in the brine, 
with the result that they have a large 
number of moldy tubs. It would seem 
wise to pay some attention to statements 
that come from men of long experience. 
X X X 
Oblong Butter Boxes. —I saw one 
lot of butter packed in five-pound wooden 
boxes, a number of these, perhaps a 
dozen, being put together in a light 
crate. These boxes make a rather neat¬ 
looking package, but it is said that they 
are not at all popular in the market. 
They are not liked, for one reason, be¬ 
cause the butter comes in contact with a 
larger surface of wood than in the same¬ 
sized round box. Square packages do 
not seem to take as well in this market. 
The Australian butter box, which is the 
favorite in the English market, does not 
take well. Our people seem to be wed¬ 
ded to the round package for butter. A 
great deal of butter is sent in at this 
time of the year in small, fancy pack¬ 
ages, sometimes in round, small wooden 
boxes which are neat and clean, and are 
very attractive; sometimes in tin pails 
holding five or ten pounds each. Any of 
these make nice packages for choice but¬ 
ter, but the difficulty is that often the 
package is the only nice part about it, 
the butter being of very poor quality. 
X t t 
About Fraudulent Commission 
Merchants. —We have received hun¬ 
dreds of inquiries in the past few years, 
asking about the standing of commission 
merchants who are quoting extremely 
high prices, and making extravagant 
promises. We have always advised ship¬ 
pers to let them alone. Here is what 
the editor of a leading price current has 
to say about them : 
We called the attention of shippers, immedi¬ 
ately before Christmas, to an irresponsible gang 
here, that called themselves commission mer¬ 
chants, and were flooding the 'country with pri¬ 
vate printed circulars, quoting prices that were 
not obtainable on this market. Hundreds of 
these circulars have been returned by the ship¬ 
pers, and we notice that turkeys are quoted at 
15 to 16 cents, with a possibility of getting more. 
No responsible house here advised its shippers 
over a 12-cent market for turkeys] for Christmas, 
except on fancy stock, which was expected to 
reach 13 cents, but to purchase live stock at safe 
prices. Country-dressed calves were quoted at 
11 cents per pound, which was also a misleading 
price. These few crooked concerns are a menace 
to the commission merchants of New York [also 
to the farmers of the country. Eds.], and will 
exist as long as they can induce shippers to send 
them goods. Their plan is to.ask for a trial 
shipment, when they invariably return more than 
the market warrants, in order to induce larger 
shipments, when they will completely disappear, 
only to rise again under a new name. Those 
misleading circulars have been turned over to 
the post office authorities, and it is hoped that 
the latter will not see lit to continue to distribute 
matter that is meant to deceive. Shippers are 
requested to continue to send those circulars to 
their commission merchant, and in that way it 
may be possible to wipe out these snides. 
X X t 
Apple Packages for England.— 
Our London correspondent says that, 
although most dealers prefer the large 
apple barrel—what we call the standard 
barrel, and some call, the three-bushel 
barrel—the introduction of a box or 
case similar to those used by the Califor¬ 
nian and Tasmanian^” apple shippers 
would improve sales and prices from 25 
per cent upwards. If the growers would 
keep their fruit free from||blemishes by 
spraying, and increase the size by thin¬ 
ning, it would give much better returns, 
besides putting the apple exporting in¬ 
dustry upon a sound and permanent 
basis. Western dealers seem favorable 
to this box for apple-'shipments. Some 
of its advantages are that fruit in the 
center can be reached more readily than 
in barrels, and that apples in small pack¬ 
ages are more salable. Still it will be a 
long time before the barrel is displaced 
for general use. Importers favor the 
ventilated barrel. 
X X X 
Marketing Southern Strawber¬ 
ries.—A South Carolina reader inquires 
about methods of shipping and market¬ 
ing southern berries In The R. N.-Y. 
of March 5 last, we gave an illustration 
and description of a refrigerator crate 
in use by Florida shippers, which seems 
to fill the bill the best of anything yet 
devised. The crate shown holds 64 
quarts, four tiers deep, 16 in each tier. 
The crate is very solidly built, and is 
about two feet two inches, by two feet 
six inches, by two feet seven inches, out¬ 
side measure. A ventilator through the 
center of the crate from top to bottom 
divides it into two parts. An ice-pan 
of galvanized iron fits into the top of the 
crate over the berries, and covers them 
completely. A drain pipe extends from 
the bottom of the crate nearly to the 
bottom of the pan, and into this, a pipe 
from the latter conducts the water from 
the melting ice. The air is cooled over 
the whole surface by the melting ice, 
and this settles down through the ber¬ 
ries, keeping them in good condition, 
better than any other device ever brought 
to this market. The cover is fastened 
on with bolts, which are set stationary 
in the crate and project through the 
cover, being fastened on with nuts. 
There are different devices for fastening. 
also, different sized crates, some holding 
80 quarts—five tiers of baskets instead 
of four. The principle is in having the 
ice-pan cover the whole upper surface of 
the berries. f. h. y. 
THE UNION AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
The managers of town fairs of the State of 
New York have an organization known as the 
Union Agricultural Society. Its annual meeting 
was held at Albany, January 19. About 70 dele¬ 
gates were present. The treasurer reported total 
receipts for the year, $516.09; total expenditures, 
$57.31; balance on hand, $458 78. The following 
officers were elected: President, Geo. I. Wilbur, 
Oneonta. Vice-presidents, J. B. Wilson, Dryden; 
T. D. Short, Richmond Mills; W. Wallace, New 
York; Louis Reynolds, Walton; Albert Dinehart, 
West Copake. Secretary, Geo. B. Harmon, Brock- 
port. Treasurer, D. C. Dow, Cobleskill. Exec\i- 
tive Committee, Geo. I. Wilbur, Geo. B. Harmon, 
Geo. A. Davis, Lancaster; E. A. Fay, Potsdam; 
Jacob E. Vanderbilt, New York. Legislative 
Committee, Geo. I. Wilbur, Geo. B. Harmon, 
Julius E. Rogers, Binghamton. 
MR. STORMONT THORPE 
Is a man of forty, perhaps; a man of great force of char¬ 
acter; a tremendous and at the same time an inscrutable 
personality ; but a schemer, a speculator, a promoter, one 
of the chartered privateers of commerce. He has pene¬ 
trated the four corners of the earth in his search for fortune, 
and has just missed it everywhere. 
Finally, coming back to London with some thousands 
of pounds and a Mexican rubber concession, he floats a 
company. At every turn he is blackmailed and bled. 
The u Kaffir crowd,” the group of wrecker-brokers, “with 
names like Rhine wines,” play with him and throw him 
down. But at last the indomitable nerve of the man 
conquers. The press is. silenced, the blackmailers quieted, 
and a board of directors secured, with “ a noble marquis ” 
for a chairman, and Lord Plowden, “ the handsomest man 
in England,” as its star member. But investors fail to 
take the stock. Out of 500,000 shares all but an insignifi¬ 
cant 5000 or so are unsubscribed for; and the “wreckers” 
start selling the stock “ short.” 
Thorpe is desperate, ruined; but when he totters at 
the edge of bankruptcy, when he has ‘nothing but a grand 
suite of offices and a single coin left, “ the big idea ” comes 
to him. Only a few thousand shares or so of the stock 
are owned outside; he holds the rest; the wreckers are 
offering Rubber Consols which they haven’t got; if he 
day comes he can make them pay his price for the shares 
that they must deliver. In ten minutes his broker is quietly snapping up every 
offer of Rubber Consols, and the great corner is under way. 
Of all his dummy directors, Lord Plowden is the only one who sees what 
1 liorpe is planning. And by casting his vote with him at a directors’ meeting 
he enables him to carry through those plans, and assures him a free hand in 
running the corner. After the meeting, Thorpe, expanding in the sunshine of 
his new prosperity, promises Plowden, who has everything in the world but 
money, to make him rich, to give him 100,000 shares of Rubber Consols. 
Stunned with gratitude, “ the noble lord ” tells him of his poverty, his struggle 
to keep up appearances, and his ambitions, winding up by inviting him to visit 
his country place. Thorpe accepts, borrows thirty pounds from his sister, and 
starts for Hadlow House with Lord Plowden. 
The Market-Place 
Harold Frederic’s story, grows in interest with each succeeding installment. 
T HE SA T UR D AY 
EVENING POST 
With the above synopsis you can begin this story this week. Fully illustrated. 
5 CENTS THE COPY. $2.50 YEARLY. ALL NEWSMEN 
THE CURTIS PUBLISHING COMPANY, PHILADELPHIA 
