1S99 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
io7 
THE RAILROADS AND FRUIT GROWERS. 
TRIALS OF WESTERN NEW YORK GROWERS. 
I 
“Common Stock” in a Great Corporation. 
[Synopsis of a paper read by W. N. Britton at the Western New 
York Horticultural Society’s meeting ] 
Farmers Hold “Common Stock”. —We grow 
the produce ; the transportation companies deliver it 
at the points of consumption. Both these parts are 
necessary to the enterprise, and each is dependent on 
the other for its welfare. We act as an unorganized 
company. We divide the proceeds as in other partner¬ 
ship affairs, only it is a matter of each get all he can, 
instead of being divided in any particular manner. 
The grower represents all the “common stock” in 
said company. In corporations, often a certain 
amount of stock is “ preferred ”. This stock is entitled 
to a certain dividend, whether or no, therefore, the 
holders of the common stock take all the chances and, 
in fact, any losses by mismanagement, neglect, bad 
debts, etc., affect only the common stock. In this 
transaction, the railroad has a named rate for freight; 
the commission merchant a net percentage, and the 
grower has the rest, therefore, represents the holder 
of the common stock, and all losses eventually rest on 
him. 
lie Takes What’s Lel't. —I often wonder whether 
the merchant in London realizes that seven shillings 
a barrel mean nothing for the fruit on the trees, 
while nine shillings a barrel mean a half dollar for 
the fruit, as it takes the first seven shillings to bear 
the expense of picking and packing, transportation 
and selling. Is the transportation company render¬ 
ing services in proportion to the share it claims ? 
Beginning with August 1, last year, we find, from our 
books, when we had paid the growers $100,000 for 
produce, we had, also, paid the transportation com¬ 
pany nearly 850,000 to carry it to its destination. The 
extreme high price of apples was nearly offset by the 
low price of cabbage, so that last year was not far 
from an average one. It is safe to say that the trans¬ 
portation company claims one-third of the sales of our 
produce, and pays less than 1-20 of our tax, which 
would indicate that they have only 1-20 of the money 
invested, and they employ less than 1-20 as much help 
as the producers. The above figuring, showing that 
transportation companies claim about one-half as 
much as the producers for their share, is based on 
freight only. Goods going by express, I think, would 
show a much greater proportion. 
Nothing in Apples. —Let us take the apple crop 
of 1896. The growers in western New York with a 
crop of, at least, 13,000.000 barrels of apples, did not 
realize anything for their crop. In some instances 
they were sold so that they netted a small revenue, 
but in a great many other instances, they brought 
enough less than the cost of picking and packing so 
that the total crop proved of do value to the grower. 
This, of course, figures the amount lost by shippers 
failing to pay at all. 
In October, when we commenced harvesting them, 
they were worth an equivalent in our money of 82 per 
barrel in London. This was divided as follows : 85 
cents to the transportation company, 10 cents to the 
loader, 10 cents to the shipper, 20 cents to the com¬ 
mission house for selling the goods and guaranteeing 
the collection, 30 cents to the cooper, 15 cents to the 
laborer for picking and packing the fruit, leaving the 
farmer 30 cents for his fruit on the tree. A little later, 
the water transportation companies saw that the 
grower was r getting 30 cents, so they advanced the 
rate 20 cents per 100 pounds, or 30 cents a barrel. The 
price remained the same in London, and all the rest 
remained the same, but the grower delivered his fruit 
at the railroad station for the cost of picking and 
packing. 
A Car Famine. —On December 1, 1896, we had, on 
our books, orders for over 100 car-loads of apples, and 
were receiving and filling orders at the rate of about 
10 cars per day. Apples are fifth-class freight. It 
was found there were only enough available refriger¬ 
ators to transport poultry for the holidays. As poultry 
is a higher class of freight, and produces a larger 
revenue, an order was issued that every M. D. T. re¬ 
frigerator, when emptied, be forwarded only to points 
where ordered for poultry. We were, therefore, able 
to move only one-third as many apples as we would 
otherwise have done that month. We suffer great 
losses on account of the deficiency of cars to distribute 
the produce properly. 
There was a small amount of fruit to move last 
Fall, compared with that of two years ago, yet it will 
long be remembered as the Fall of the car famine. 
In many instances, we have had orders for cars, at 
certain points, three and four weeks. Consequently, 
the car would be placed and loaded just as we would 
receive a telegram canceling the order on account of 
delay in shipment. Then the car for which we had 
waited not less than three weeks, would be loaded, 
and while we would have plenty of orders in other 
directions, yet this car would not run, so we were 
obliged to leave it on track, paying the railroad 81 
per day demurrage, until we could place it, to consid¬ 
erable disadvantage, at some point where it might be 
allowed to run. When this shortage of cars first be¬ 
came apparent, each railroad took advantage of it by 
refusing to deliver to any other road an empty car, 
unless said road would agree that such would be fur¬ 
nished only on an order to run back over that 
road. The railroads of western New York have very 
few suitable cars for the fruit traffic, and many of 
them not any. They are, therefore, dependent upon 
the transportation companies, and other roads, for 
every car they use. 
Shortage in AVeight. —Are there other points to be 
looked after besides the inability of roads to furnish 
cars ? We have, not one, but dozens of instances 
where we load, take certificates of weights from the 
weigher, or our account of barrels, and the bill is 
marked, “ Shipper’s count or tally,” except where we 
ship from the large cities. When the car reaches its 
destination, the purchaser reports it to be so many 
hundredweight short. The railroads again furnish 
the city scale weights, and we are obliged to pay 
freight for 2,000, and often 3,000 pounds, or 5 and 10 
barrels of apples short at $3 per barrel for which we 
are unable to collect. Is it asking too much, under 
these circumstances, that every railroad know what 
it receives and delivers ? Or, must we continue to 
trust our valuables in their hands with equivalent to 
no receipt, and no way to get redress for shortage 
except by more expenses than it comes to ? 
All “Charged Back.”—I had thought to call 
your attention, in detail, to 12 or 15 more difficulties 
which we encounter dealing with the railroad, but 
instead, I will just mention, briefly, a few of the more 
prominent, such as overcharges of freights, destruc¬ 
tion of fruits by ill handling in transportation, lack 
of ventilated cars, the fact that we must name the 
destination of our goods when we order cars, and 
often the market will have changed entirely before 
the railroad furnishes such a car; yet we must send 
it to that market, which fact accounts for the con¬ 
tinued large arrival of goods, for several days, in 
markets which are completely glutted. Losses from 
all these sources, as I have before illustrated, must be 
charged back to the parties holding the common 
stock, which represents the producers. I wish to ask 
what luck you think I would have in interesting a 
capitalist in the common stock of this immense com¬ 
pany which I have just described ? Bear in mind, we 
must have in the articles of incorporation the follow¬ 
ing truth: The parties holding the preferred stock, 
the railroad, to have the privilege of making and 
changing any regulations, even to the extent of in¬ 
creasing the percentage of dividends to be paid on 
their own stock without interference from represent¬ 
atives of the parties holding the common stock. You 
can readily see that I would have hard work placing 
this stock. Well, that is exactly what I am doing 
when I offer to sell a man a farm. 
Events of the Week. 
Domestic —Returning transatlantic passengers, as the result 
of a new order from the Treasury Department, are now com¬ 
pelled to declare in detail every article purchased abroad.. Here¬ 
tofore articles amounting in value to 8100 or less were not charged, 
but now every foreign purchase must be named specifically. . . 
Fourteen Franciscan nuns from Syracuse, N. Y„ have gone to 
Molokai, Hawaiian Islands, to nurse the outcast lepers. . 
January 26 two firemen and four coal passers were cleaning a 
boiler on the cruiser New York, at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, when 
live steam was turned into the boiler. The six men were shock¬ 
ingly scalded, and one, who was rescued by another fireman at 
the risk of his own life, is likely to die. . . Smallpox is raging 
in Arkansas. The disease was brought to Fulton County by a re¬ 
turned soldier, and there have been over -100 cases in two months. 
The local doctors did not realize the character of the disease, and 
no quarantine was enforced. . . January 27, the ice jam in the 
gorge at Niagara was greater than ever known, and the water 
was nearly 30 feet above its normal mark. Men were busy blast¬ 
ing away ice from the abutments of the bridge to relieve the 
pressure. . . The Assembly Bribery Investigating Committee, 
examining into charges against candidates for the California 
senatorship, finds that U. S. Grant Jr. expended 820,000 in various 
districts. The commission censures Grant, declaring that his 
actions tend to debauch political morals, and to deter poor men 
of ability from entering a senatorial contest. . . A large num¬ 
ber of Alaskan miners have been frozen to death on the Valdes 
glacier. . . An accommodation train on the Colorado <fc South¬ 
ern railway, which left Kokomo, Col., January 26, was lost in a 
canon, and it is feared that it has been engulfed by an avalanche. 
The towns along the road are short of provisions, and Kokomo is 
in danger of starvation, aDd is also threatened with destruction 
by snow slides. . . A baud of Whitecaps endeavored to take 
Tom Jackson, a Harlan County, Ky., farmer, from his home to 
abuse him, January 27. Jackson’s wife rescued him with a shot¬ 
gun, killing one man and fatally wounding a second. The woman 
has not been arrested. . . Smallpox is reported as prevalent 
in many parts of the United States. In St. Louis, the disease 
started from infected rags. It exists in many parts of Pennsyl¬ 
vania, New York, New England, and the South and Southwest. 
, . An explosion in the boiler room of the Chicago Tribune, 
January 28, scalded four men, one being fatally injured. . . 
Commissioner-General of Immigration Powderly is arousing 
comment by putting all ocean travelers through the examination 
as to character, health, education and personal means, which 
has heretofore applied to steerage passengers only. A distin¬ 
guished foreign official who recently sailed for New York was 
highly incensed by this examination. . . Gov. Pingree, of Mich¬ 
igan, is considering a bill compelling the great copper mining 
corporations to pay a State tax on the market value of their 
stock. At present, they pay only a small county tax. Should the 
bill pass, these companies would pay 10 times as great taxes as 
now. . . Geneva, N. Y., is meditating the passage of a curfew 
ordinance. . . Sixty-seven cadets of the Pennsylvania Military 
Academy, at Chester, were poisoned January 30 by eating cold- 
storage turkey. . . A roundhouse at Rogers Pass, on the Cana¬ 
dian Pacific Railroad, was destroyed by a snowslide January 31, 
seven persons being killed. . . 1,200 negro soldiers, comprising 
the Tenth U. S. Cavalry, on their way to San Antonio, arrived at 
Texarkana January 31 in the condition of a drunken mob, and 
endeavored to tear up the town. The negroes were driven to the 
train, where they stood off the town officers with leaded rifles. 
The Governor was communicated with, and the train was held 
for seven hours, the negroes being held in check only by the fact 
that citizens of Texarkana surrounded the train with dynamite, 
threatening total destruction if further disorder appeared. . . 
Severe cold and blizzards extended over a large area of country 
January 30 and 31. In Iowa, Nebraska. Minnesota, the Dakotas, 
Wisconsin and Illinois, stock is reported as suffering severely, 
and it is feared that the wheat crop is seriously damaged. Fatal¬ 
ities among cattle are numerous in Texas. Five men and 18 
horses perished in a snowslide at Lincoln Gulch, Colo , February 
1. The men were trying to take food to a snowbound mining 
camp. . . As a result of anti-saloon agitation at Akron, O , the 
saloon-keepers of that city intend to close every saloon for two 
years. They will do this to show the effect on city revenues 
should the saloons be closed and the State tax cut off. 
War Investigation.—Gen. Eagan defended himself before the 
court martial by stating that he was nearly crazed by GeD. 
Miles’s charges. . . Secretary Alger testified before the In¬ 
vestigating Commission January 26. He stated that he gave per¬ 
sonal attention to all the bureaus in his department; that there 
were no complaints of food from the army itself; and that he had 
received no official complaints concerning the quality of the beef 
. . . A Philadelphia doctor has sent to Gen. Miles an affidavit 
declaring that, while in South Omaha last June, he saw a liquid 
injected into beef by employees of Swift & Co., the packers, who, 
at that time, had a contract to supply army meat. Commenting 
on this, one expert says that the packers inject a solution of rock 
salt and sugar into hams, beeves and shoulders before putting 
into brine for salting, as this hastens the process. . . Gen. 
Mlle^ now declares that the so-called canned roast beef was 
merely the pulp left after making meat extract. These criticisms 
have caused serious friction, and it is asserted that Gen. Miles 
will be court-martialed for his utterances. The beef shipped to 
Havana on the Michigan, for which a board of survey was 
ordered, proved to be excellent in quality. . . Col. Albert A. 
Pope, of Boston, offers 81,000 to prove that chemicals were used 
to embalm beef for soldiers’ use. 
Congress.—The Hull bill for the reorganization of the army 
has been amended, fixing the minimum of the force at 50,000 men, 
with a provision authorizing the President, in time of emergency, 
to Increase the force to 100,000. Other new amendments abolish 
army canteens, and prohibit the appointment of civilians to the 
engineer corps. This bill was passed by the House January 31, 
with a vote of 166 to 126, but its fate in the Senate is uncertain, 
and the general opinion is that it will never come to a vote. It is 
thought that some makeshift measure, to-serve until the Fifty- 
sixth Congress meets, will be prepared by the joint efforts of both 
Democrats aDd Republicans. The present bill has met with op¬ 
position from both parties. Organized labor is opposed to an 
Increased army. . . Consideration of the River and Harbor 
Bill began February 2; this calls for the expenditure 812,506,6-19 
during the next fiscal year. . . The Army Appropriation bill, 
to be taken up February 6, is framed on a basis of 100,000 men, 
and carries 890,000,000. 
Cuba.—The agitation concerning the payment of the Cuban 
army is growing. . . Cubans are protesting against the 100 
doctors who are investigating the sanitary condition of Havana. 
They cost the city 810,000 a month, and the Cubans say that the 
police and municipal doctors could make the investigation at 
far less cost. . . Gen. Brooke has appointed a commission to 
determine whether the meat brought to Havana on the transport 
Michigan is in good condition and fit to be issued to the army. 
It is suspected that it is bad. . . A large sugar estate in 
the Province of Matanzas has been destroyed by fire, the work of 
Cuban bandits. . . The municipality of Matanzas made a 
formal protest January 27 against Gen. Sanger’s order requiring 
all moneys collected by the Matanzas Custom House to be sent to 
Havana. . . Prominent Cubans have called a mass meeting, 
to be held February 6, in the Tacon Theater, Havana, for the 
purpose of founding a great Cuban independent party to oppose 
annexation by the United States, and to demand that the reso¬ 
lution of the American Congress recognizing the Independence 
of Cuba be carried out. . . Much lawlessness is reported in 
the Province of Santiago, and brigandage and incendiarism are 
frequent. Most of the large plantations are being operated 
under armed guards. The negroes are arrogant and trouble¬ 
some, and American restrictions on lawlessnessjare arousing the 
same spirit of revolt as under Spanish rule. Capt. Lee reports 
that it is necessary to maintain a constant guard along the tele¬ 
graph and telephone lines in order to prevent them from being 
cut by irresponsible natives. . . The tax-collection concession 
held by the Bank of Spain of Havana has been revoked, and the 
taxes will be collected by Americans. A new estimate of taxable 
property has been made. Gen. Brooke proposes to levy five per 
cent on products and rents. . . The Havana Council asks for 
an appropriation of 840,000,000 to pay the Cuban army. The Ad¬ 
ministration at Washington is trying to arrange a disbandment 
on the basis of 8100 to each Cuban soldier. Fully 83,000,000 would 
be required for this, which would be advanced by the United 
States Government as a loan, to be repaid by Cuban revenues. 
Since January 1, the Cubans have had everything they wanted; 
our Government has distributed 2,000,000 rations, and another 
1,000,000 have been ordered. The Cubans have received most of 
the civil positions, and it is predicted that they will be demoral¬ 
ized by the favors shown them. . . January 30, a large quan¬ 
tity of concealed arms and ammunition were found by the 
American authorities near Santiago. They were guarded by 
Cubans, who showed resistance when discovered. More than 1,000 
Mauser rifles, and a large supply of ammunition were, also, dis¬ 
covered under Cuban guard near Holguin recently. These mat¬ 
ters are being investigated, as it is considered that the conceal¬ 
ment of the arms is significant of a certain party among the 
Cubans. 
Philippines.—Agoncillo, the agent sent by Aguinaldo to Wash¬ 
ington, has been sending treasonable dispatches to the Filipino 
Junta at Hongkong, telling the insurgents to provoke hostilities 
before Gen. Otis can receive reenforcements. The situation is 
grave. . . The insurgents of the Visayan States at Iloilo have 
elected a president, who acknowledges allegiance to Aguinaldo. 
. . . Gen. Otis reports 14 deaths from smallpox among the 
troops during the last three weeks of January. The War De¬ 
partment feels no uneasiness as to the spread of this disease. 
