1899 
275 
Among the Marketmen. 
WHAT / SEE AND HEAR. 
Florida Strawberries.— These have 
been coming in quite plentifully the 
past week, so much so that the price de¬ 
clined materially early in the week, but 
later went somewhat higher again. The 
larger part of the berries are of very 
good quality, too, well-colored, and ar¬ 
rive firm and in nice condition. The 
refrigerator crates are a great success 
for carrying this fruit, and the extra ex¬ 
pense in icing must be much more than 
made up by the extra price received. 
X X X 
Hothouse Lambs. —These have been 
in pretty good supply recently, but the 
price is well maintained for those of good 
quality. Most shippers now have learned 
to dress them in good shape, and the re¬ 
sult is that they arrive in much better 
condition, as a rule, than in former years. 
The Board of Health for the last year or 
two has required that the heads and feet 
be removed the same as has always been 
the case with dressed calves. It took 
some shippers a considerable time to 
learn this, but now it is seldom that any 
are received without being dressed in 
compliance with the requirements. I 
have seen a number of lambs from which 
the heads had been taken off, but the 
skin of the head was left on. This is no 
advantage, as it injures the looks of the 
carcass. 
X X X 
Careless Shippers. — For several 
years back, The R. N.-Y. has been ring¬ 
ing the changes upon the subject of the 
carelessness of shippers. “ Just look at 
this bundle of letters,” said one com¬ 
mission merchant, as he brought out 
from his safe a bundle of, perhaps, 50, 
each of them containing an account 
sales, and a check for the amount, but 
which could not be sent to the person to 
whom it belonged, because he had failed 
to give any address. “ I suppose lots of 
these people are cursing us, and calling 
us thieves and robbers and all that, but 
we are just as anxious to have these 
checks go where they belong as the peo¬ 
ple who should have them are to get 
them ; but we cannot, because of lack of 
addresses. We get consignments, often¬ 
times, without either name or address ; 
many times without the addresses, and 
sometimes we hear nothing about the 
shipment by mail. This all makes us 
trouble, and we suppose, brings us into 
disrepute with the shippers, through no 
fault of our own.” The bundle of let¬ 
ters referred to covered every conceiv¬ 
able kind of produce; some of them 
were dated back many months, and in 
the aggregate amounted to several hun¬ 
dred dollars. This carelessness does not 
pay. 
X t t 
Dealers in Specialties. —In a large 
market like this, the trade naturally is 
divided among dealers who make special¬ 
ties of some particular product or some 
few products of similar nature. For in¬ 
stance, one handles fruits almost en¬ 
tirely ; another vegetables; another deals 
almost exclusively in poultry; another 
in butter, cheese and eggs, etc. It is 
needless to say that, by concentrating 
their attention upon a few products of 
this kind, they can do much better than 
by trying to handle everything, and it is 
to the advantage of shippers to send their 
products to those who make a specialty 
of them. I just saw three coops of live 
fowls which came in late in the after¬ 
noon to a man whose specialty is fruits, 
hothouse vegetables, etc., who was in no 
position to sell live fowls, as his custom¬ 
ers did not demand that sort of thing. 
The result is that he turned them over 
to a man who makes a specialty of live 
poultry, and thus secured for his shipper, 
probably as good prices as, or even better, 
than he would have been able to obtain 
himself ; but it necessitated handling the 
fowls again, and keeping them one more 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
day, which means a considerable loss in 
weight. It would have been better for 
the shipper to send direct to the man 
who makes that his business. 
X X I 
Mark the Calves.— One handler of 
dressed calves says : “You want to tell 
your readers to be more careful about 
marking the calves they ship. The bob- 
veal law requires that all dressed calves 
shipped to this market shall be marked 
with a tag giving the name of the raiser 
and the age of the calf. Many of the 
calves are shipped by dealers, and cards 
are used with spaces for their names on 
one side, the other side having a space 
for the name of the raiser and the age 
of the calf. Without saying anything 
about the merits or demerits of this 
law, carelessness in marking has made 
us a tremendous amount of trouble, and 
our accounts with calf raisers are all 
m’xed up. Some of the cards bear sim¬ 
ply the name of the raiser ; some have 
the name of the dealer on the side where 
the raiser’s name should be, and no other 
name. The result is that the people who 
should get the returns do not get them, 
and there is trouble, which goes to show 
that a little care would save a great deal 
of trouble sometimes.” f h. v. 
BULLETINS BOILED DOWN. 
Grain Trials in Canada —Bulletin No. 32, of 
the Central Farm, at Ottawa, Canada, deals with 
the results obtained from trial plots of grain, 
fodder, corn and roots. The results of these ex¬ 
periments show the Importance of choosing the 
most prolific and vigorous varieties for seed, and 
also proves that the tendency to great produc¬ 
tiveness in certain sorts is, to a large extent, 
permanent. The variations between the largest 
and smallest plots in the test plots were very 
large. In oats, the crops ranged from 89 bushels 
14 pounds to 42 bushels 12 pounds; in two-rowed 
barley, from 55 bushels 20 pounds to 31 bushels 10 
pounds; in six-rowed barley, from 58 bushels 10 
pounds to 33 bushels 16 pounds; in Spring wheat, 
from 31 bushels 15 pounds to 15 bu'hels. The bul¬ 
letin would repay study on the part of northern 
farmers. 
The Adulteration op Flour —Bulletin No. 
156, of the North Carolina Experiment Station 
(Raleigh), deals with the adulteration of Ameri¬ 
can flour. Corn flour is largely used in the adul¬ 
teration. Some mills exist which have the prep¬ 
aration of corn flour for use as an adulterant as 
their only business, 16 per cent of the flours ex¬ 
amined containing corn meal. Foreign flour is 
largely adulterated with mineral matter, such as 
clay and plaster of Paris. In North Carolina, 
ground soapstone has been sold as an adulterant 
for flour. Alum is sometimes found in American 
flour, some authorities stating that this is the 
most common adulterant, but the work done at 
this Station shows corn flour as the leading adul¬ 
terant. The law which requires an internal 
revenue stamp affixed to packages of flour with 
which corn flour has been mixed, is without 
effect, there being no one to execute the law. 
Small Fruits in Ohio.— Bulletin 98 of the Ohio 
Experiment Station (Wooster), gives the result 
of tests with strawberries, raspberries, black¬ 
berries, currants and gooseberries. It is worth 
noting that the strawberries, which require a 
large quantity of water, obtain this more readily 
by thorough cultivation than by irrigation. In 
an experiment made in 1897, there -were found to 
be nearly 500 barrels of water more per acre in 
the cultivated than in the hoed plot. This gradu¬ 
ally influenced the growth, and in the succeeding 
season, increased the crop from 10 to 68 per cent. 
Peach Growing in New Jersey— Bulletin 133, 
of the New Jersey Experiment Station (New 
Brunswick), shows that the peach was the first 
fruit to receive commercial attention in this 
State, and is now its principal fruit industry, ex¬ 
ceeding in area all others, by Dearly 100 acres. 
Crawford’s Late, Mountain Rose, Oldmixon, 
Stump and Reeves Favorite are the most popular 
of the older varieties. Of the newer varieties, the 
Elberta, Globe and Susquehanna are favorites. 
It is advised that nitrogenous fertilizers be used 
carefully, both in respect to kind and time of ap¬ 
plication. Nitrate of soda is a good form, and 
should be applied early, and in amounts not to 
exceed 150 pounds per acre. Mixtures of 1)4 part 
of ground bone and one of muriate of potash, or 
ground bone, acid phosphate and muriate of 
potash in equal parts, are advised, the applica¬ 
tion of either of these to range from 300 to 500 
pounds per acre. 
Fungous Diseases of the Sugar Beet.— Bul¬ 
letin 163, of the Cornell Experiment Station 
(Ithaca), deals with three important diseases in 
the sugar beet—root rot, leaf spot and beet scab. 
For the root rot, lime is suggested as a possible 
preventive. In general, it seems that the soils of 
New York State are usually in need of liming, 
and where this beet disease appears, it would be 
well to make an application of lime; 60 to 70 
bushels of air-slaked lime per acre would be a 
cheap and effective means of securing the desir¬ 
able alkalinity. It is desirable to make this ap¬ 
plication in the AutumD, or before the ground is 
turned, so that the lime would be well distrib¬ 
uted. This rot first appears at the base of the 
leaves, a blackening being noticed first on the 
outer parts of the leaves, so that stalks become 
unable to support the blades, and the leaves may 
lie prostrate on the ground. The disease soon 
works into the crown and root, causing the in¬ 
fested parts to turn brown. If conditions are 
favorable, in time the whole top rots away, and 
the beet gradually disappears. Cold weather or 
dryness may so retard the disease that plants 
only slightly affected may recover entirely. 
Leaf spot of the beet begins as small brown 
spots, with a reddish-purple margin, which grad¬ 
ually become ashen gray in the center. In time, 
the leaf shows a parched appearance, and grad¬ 
ually begins to blacken. In the effort to supply 
the deficiency of leaves which have been shed, 
the plant continues to develop new ones from the 
center, in consequence of which the crown be¬ 
comes considerably elongated. It is believed by 
the use of early spraying with Bordeaux Mix 
ture that this leaf spot may be almost entirely 
prevented. Where it appears that the disease is 
introduced by means of the seed, this should be 
treated with hot water, a copper sulphate solu¬ 
tion, or some other fungicide before germinating. 
Beet scab consists in warty or scabby excres¬ 
cences on the surface of the beet root. It is con¬ 
sidered identical with potato scab, and land on 
which scabby potatoes have been produced will 
produce scabby beets. Experiments with liming, 
sulphuring, etc., have not given satisfactory re¬ 
sults, so that the only course open is that of 
avoiding growth of beets on any soil which has 
produced scabby roots. 
Peach Leaf Curl.— Bulletin 164, Cornell Ex¬ 
periment Station (Ithaca, N. Y.). In this bul¬ 
letin, an account is given of various treatments, 
which show that Bordeaux Mixture applied be¬ 
fore the buds swell resulted in foliage almost en¬ 
tirely free from the curl during the first year of 
treatment. Early treatment is, evidently, of 
great importance, though subsequent treatments 
may prove of value in restricting the extent of 
the disease the following season. Strong Bor¬ 
deaux Mixture should be used, and every twig 
should be so well covered that the blue color ap¬ 
pears as a distinct coating after the application 
is dry. 
This bulletin also treats on the shot-hole effect 
of peaches and plums. Among Japan plums 
there was no Indication of fuDgus to cause this 
shot-hole appearance, and it was wholly absent 
In young shoots growing out beyond the region 
covered by the spraying. No doubt is felt that 
this appearance of a shot-hole fungus on the 
Japan plums was due directly to the spraying. 
Later experiments on the Chabot confirm the 
previous work, indicating that, under certain 
conditions, Bordeaux Mixture may be Injurious 
to the foliage of the Japan plums, much more so 
than to that of the peach. Japan plums are so 
free from shot-hole fungi that there appears no 
necessity for spraying them for this disease, and 
thus encourage the shot-hole effect due to spray¬ 
ing. Where the plum rot is bad, it will be neces¬ 
sary to spray, and one must disregard the slight 
injuries to the foliage resulting from the use of 
properly made Bordeaux Mixture. 
Clover Ensilage. —Oats and peas can be en¬ 
silaged successfully, and the same should be true 
of clover. It is probable that crops rich in pro¬ 
tein are more difficult to hit right than corn. If 
too green or too wet or too dry, the protein crop 
is, probably, more susceptible to rot or mold than 
the more carbonaceous corn crop. I would not 
hesitate to ensilage clover, but I would be careful 
to cut it just at full bloom, with no dew or 
water on it. If the wagon could not keep up with 
the mowing machine, the clover should be thrown 
into heaps before wilting. B . c . birgk. 
Connecticut. 
DLIml DfidlVLlG " in* a. wire-stapu 
“ h!r ^ berry ba8ket cheaDer tha 
ever before. These are stronger and more durab 
than a band-made basket. Write for our catalogi 
“■“d price-list. WEBSTER BASKET CO., Webste 
Lock Box 43, Monroe County, N. Y 
Early Vegetables 
need a quick and powerful stimu¬ 
lant—something to force growth to 
the limit. The money is in earliness. 
Nitrate of Soda 
fits the case exactly. Apply in small 
quantities during the early growing 
period of the plants. 
It adds color, flavor , crispness and ten¬ 
derness to all vegetables. Would you know 
more about it, send for free book “Food 
for Plants” to John A Myers, 12 O John 
Street, New York. Nitrate for sale by 
BALFOUR, WILLIAMSON & CO. 
27, William St., New York. 
Bowker’s 
Fertilizers 
Have stood practical farm 
tests for over 25 years. Their 
sale has increased in that 
time from nothing to over 
30,000 tons a year. The 
BOWKER FERTILIZER CO. 
has ample capital and exper¬ 
ience to produce fertilizers of 
unsurpassed crop-producing 
power at low prices to the 
farmer. 
See local agents, or send' 
to us for free copy of our 
new Catalogue. 
Bowker Fertilizer Co., 
43 Chatham St., Boston, 
68 Broad St., New York. 
yBAliiAAiAAAliAiiAHAiilliHiiiAlHii4AAHiAAAAi,X 
1 SEED TIME It 
- 99 
is going to be late this season. Cold, 
frosty weather has held on longer than 
usual and when the proper time comes 
3J it will be necessary to get seeds Into 
-y the ground In a hurry. 
1 The “PLANET JR 
Seed Drill will l>e found the funtCMt 
und moMt effective* 
Drills all kinds of garden seeds evenly and per- 
fectly. The entire line of “Planet Jr” goods— 
Hand Drills, Wheel Hoes and Horse Hoes are 
unequaled In material and quality of work. 
Don’t buy until you get our new catalog— free. 
ALLEN & C0 ” Box 1107 v ’ Phllade, P h,a - * 
KfTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTfnTTTTffTTTTTTTTTfTTTfmTTm* 
Good Fruit 
always finds a ready market, but to bring top 
prices it must be put up in neat, attractive 
and substantial packages. We have every¬ 
thing in the basket line. All sizes of 
Baskets, 
Peach and Grape Crates* 
Buy direct from the manufacturers and 
save money. Write to-day for catalogue and 
new price list Special price in carload lots. 
A. H. MONTAGUE & SON, 
120 Warren Street, New York City. 
Cabot’s Insulating“Quilt” 
is ten times as warm as resin paper, and costs but a 
fraction over lc. a foot. It Is a soft, thick cushion of 
oead air spaces—the most perfect insulator. 
Send for samples and full information. Free. 
SAMUEL CABOT, Sole Manufacture!, 
81 Kilby Street, Boston, Mass. 
Agents at all Central Points. 
4875 Iron Age implements hMeheen* 
f5®^ 1 '/ a P« rfect ed—working out mechanical 
ideas that have lifted many burdens from uver- 
worked farmers. A step in advance 
ready—the new No. 7 Iron Ago 
\Uor.e Hoe and Cultivator. Has 
a new lever expander 
which gives perfect 
■- rigidity at what- 
K ever point the 
tool is set. 
Send for the Iron 
Ago Hook for 1899 
(sent free) ami read 
the full description of 
the No. 7 Horse Hoe. 
Combines all tho good 
features of lever-ex¬ 
pander and old-style 
clamp expander. 
Blades quickly and 
finely adjusted. Thor¬ 
oughly tested in work¬ 
shop and field. Send 
your name on a postal. 
kateuan nru. co„ ; 
Box 1020 renloeh, N. J. 
