1899 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
899 
THE ELECTRIC ROAD IN CONNECTICUT. 
Its Effect Upon Farm Values. 
Our town is differently situated from most towns; 
nearly half-way between New Haven and Bridgeport, 
with the trolley as a connecting link, the merchants 
of both places making it an object for our people to 
have some fun, and get their money, which they have 
succeeded in doing.' A man who sells trolley tickets 
told my son that one Monday morning he turned over 
to the company $375 for tickets sold the previous 
week, and in making this statement to a Bridgeport 
merchant, I asked him if he did not believe that as 
much more was spent at the two ends of the line. His 
reply was “Yes, and I know we get our share.” This 
means $750 for one week that went out of Mil¬ 
ford. This was the first Summer after the trolley 
started, and our merchants are willing to admit that 
their trade bas fallen off. The above amount is, per¬ 
haps, more than an average for the Summer months, 
but if it were half the amount for the year, you can 
see that Milford is losing, rather than gaining, on the 
business side, by the introduction of the trolley. 
Only those farms that lie along the shore, where, 
the trolley runs, have advanced in value, and that 
only for residential purposes, and not for farm use. 
I do not think that it is a cause of, or demand for 
better roads; indeed, some who live near the line, as¬ 
sert that it is cheaper to use the trolley than to keep 
a horse, as the horse is an expense all the time, and 
the trolley is an expense only when they use it. I 
Wiink that as the trolley is spread out through the 
rural towns, and among farm homes, the rising gen 
eraition will wish to take life easier, and to spend less 
time on the farm. On many farms, the teams in the 
busy season are in use, so the women folk cannot al¬ 
ways have the horse, but if the trolley went by, they 
could be independent. Then again, the boys cannot 
always have the horse when they wish to take the 
girls to ride, so the trolley would be handy to use, 
thus making a drain on the income of the farm. Will 
not the young folks seek the town and city more, 
keep later hours, and not be in as good condition to 
enter on the day’s work? If the rural towns should 
be brought into closer connections with our larger 
markets, possibly with freight accommodations, mak¬ 
ing sharper competition with nearby producers, would 
that have a tendency to increase farm values? We 
know what has been the result in the East by close 
connection with the West, and if still closer connec¬ 
tion is made by the trolley, with our markets, will 
that increase farm values? 
4 
I see by Hope Farm Notes that it is only the early 
and late sweet corn in which there is any profit 
Is not this true of almost anything, except when a 
shortage occurs? Our population is increasing, but 
through scientific knowledge, and improved means 
and methods of culture, prices have not increased 
farm values, and I cannot see how the introduction of 
the trolley, at present, is going to offset the value of 
farm property, other than that which is located near 
by, so that men of small means can escape city taxa¬ 
tion. With regard to the demand for better roads, 
the taking of our narrow country roads for trolley 
use is a detriment to public travel, for many teams 
are not safe near the trolley, so the amount of travel 
will rather decrease, with its advent. Time alone 
will determine what will be the result. That it has 
come to stay, no one will deny, but I do not look 
for the increased prosperity to the farms in general 
that many predict. dennis fenn. 
Connecticut. 
TOO MUCH WOOD ON BLACKBERRIES. 
I read with much interest the discussion of the 
Failure of Blackberries, in The R. N.-Y. for December 
9, page 849. I am satisfied, from my long experience 
in growing blackberries, that the failure was due to 
excessive wood growth. There is no doubt that the 
fruiting canes were injured from the effect of the 
hail, and with this check the young wood got the 
start, and robbed the fruiting canes of their proper 
nourishment. If winterkilling had been the cause, 
there would have been no flowers. I think that where 
E. J. C. had fruit there was less new wood growth. 
I have frequently seen crops lost from excessive wood 
growth, when from some cause the fruiting canes had 
been weakened. To get a full crop of good fruit, we 
need a good soil (not excessively rich) and thorough 
cultivation up to the tin: 3 the fruit begins to ripen. 
If I have any reason to think that my fruiting canes 
are not strong and all right, I go over my plants 
when the young shoots are one to two feet high, and 
pull them nearly all out. Enough will come later 
for next year’s fruiting. This throws the growth 
to the fruit. 
I have frequently seen young patches with but small 
fruiting canes throw up strong, vigorous young wood, 
and not set a perfect fruit, although there was plenty 
of bloom. I find in one section that the later we keep- 
our plants growing and healthy the better they stand 
the cold. When they stop growth in August a fungus 
attacks the leaf, and they are easily killed by cold. 
Such strong-growing varieties as Erie (or Lawton). 
Eldorado, Early King, etc., do not need as close 
pruning as Wilson or Early Harvest. The laterals 
should be left 12 to 18 inches long. Where practical, 
it is safer not to prune until the fruit is set, and then 
leave what is needed for a crop. With such large 
fruiting canes as he describes, I should say there 
would be no danger of an excessive wood growth next 
season. chas. black. 
New Jersey. 
ALL SORTS AND CONDITIONS. 
Bees and Fruit. —In The R. N.-Y. for November 
11, W. says that bees do sometimes puncture sound 
grapes. Anyone giving the subject serious at¬ 
tention cannot help seeing that our friend has 
made a great blunder. The skins of the bunches of 
grapes which, he thought, the bees had so damaged, 
were in the first place perforated by another insect, 
and the honey bees had discovered the juice exud¬ 
ing from the grapes, and were carrying it into their 
hives. This is a very old subject, and has been 
fully “exploded” in the bee journals, but has not 
been settled in the minds of the general public 
because the farm papers have failed practically to 
recognize bee-keeping as a part of farming, and there¬ 
fore leaving the subject in the dark. If W. cannot see 
why bees are not capable of puncturing sound grapes, 
let him try biting into a whole, large pumpkin. 
Honey-bees cannot injure sound fruit. l. e. k. 
Stafford, Kansas. 
TRUE GRINDSTONES.—The grindstone on the 
farm sees pretty hard usage. The softer the stone, 
the harder usage it receives. Its lot is almost as hard 
as that of the “boy on the farm,” who has to turn it 
by the hour. The grinding surface of the stone is 
UNTRUE AND TRUE GRINDSTONES. Fig. 332. 
more likely to be as shown at the left, in Fig. 332, 
than it is to have an even face, or slightly beveled 
surface, as at the right in the same picture. The 
former condition comes from grinding axes, scythes, 
machine knives, etc., with their edges lengthwise of 
the stone instead of across it. This cannot be helped 
in grinding some tools. But when the stone does as¬ 
sume this shape, making it impossible to grind a 
chisel, or any flat-edged tool decently, it is a good 
time to get a spade—spades are usually dull—and 
hold it on the stone until it is sharp, when the irregu¬ 
larities in the surface of the stone will have disap¬ 
peared. A grindstone, by the way, should never be 
left exposed to the sun. The weight of the handle 
will always cause one portion of the stone to remain 
uppermost, and this, from exposure, will assume a 
different degree of hardness from the under side, so 
that rfter a while the stone will be ground out of a 
circle. If the stone has to stand in the open, a flat 
box can easily be obtained to serve as a cover. 
CROPS UNDER GLASS.—Greenhouse crops have 
sold well, better than last year, during Autumn. At 
one time the prices declined, but now are doing bet¬ 
ter. Hundreds of acres are under glass around about 
Boston, and the crops sell well, as a whole, the sea¬ 
son through. All conditions can be regulated under 
glass, and there are no delays by storms or extremes 
of heat or- cold to interfere, as there are at the South. 
Home-grown greenhouse crops always sell when 
southern produce goes begging in the market. I 
think that the North has more effect on the South 
in prices than vice versa. My son went to south 
Florida to raise crops one Winter, and he found the 
conditions there were but a little better than at the 
North Pole for cucumbers and lettuce. That Winter 
was probably one of the hardest. At the same time 
the cold in New England was no greater or severer 
north than most Winters. If all the northern cities 
had large areas under glass like Boston suburbs, the 
South would have a poor market to sell lettuce and 
cucumbers or flowers. warren h. howe. 
Marlboro, Mass. 
The Fruit Trade Journal says that a man in Montana 
has an apple orchard containing 665,OQQ trees. 
BEET SUGAR IN MICHIGAN. 
An Interview with the Chemist of the Michigan 
Experiment Station. 
“Dr. Kedzie, have you some item of interest to the 
readers of The R. N.-Y. that you care to give out this 
morning?” I asked recently. 
“We are into sugar beets up to the eyes,” he re¬ 
plied. “While we are not as yet ready to make report 
for this season’s campaign, we have hopes that our 
people will not be discouraged, though the season has 
been unfavorable. Early there was an excess of rain¬ 
fall, which was succeeded by a severe drought. The 
Fall rains started growth again, with the result that 
the beets this year are lower in percentage of sugar 
and purity of juice than was the case last year. From 
the large number of analyses made here m the years 
gone by we believe that Michigan beets lead the 
world in sugar content and purity—unless a possible 
exception be made in favor of the State of New York, 
where the beets seem to do as well as ours, though the 
tests have not been conducted so many years. Our 
factories are turning out a most beautiful product 
this year. See here!” and the chemist held up a flask 
which contained some beet sugar from the Michigan 
Sugar Company, of Bay City. “Could anything be 
nicer?” he asked enthusiastically. “It is not only 
white as driven snow, but the sweetness is there; try 
a tongue test, that is the test.” 
I tasted a sample from the sack at hand, while the 
venerable chemist turned the flask, feasting his eyes 
on the sugar pouring upon itself. “There is no need 
of refining this sugar further. It is 99.§ per cent 
sucrose already, as shown by analyses made in this 
laboratory. It is all ready for consumption.” 
“Do the refining companies enjoy this?” I inquired. 
“Not a bit. It strikes at their business.” 
“For two seasons,” I observed, “the grocers have 
been supplied with bags bearing the advertisements 
of sugar refiners. Do they work in other ways to 
fight our factories?” 
“Perhaps! There is some evidence of jealousy. A 
rumor was industriously whispered about that while 
beet sugar might be suitable for immediate consump¬ 
tion, it would not do for use in preserving fruit, where 
keeping qualities are in view. Things would be likely 
to spoil if canned with it. I gave a package of beet 
sugar to the Dean of our Woman’s Department, ask¬ 
ing her to arrange for testing it in canning. After a 
time some jelly came back to me. The other day w -3 
brought this out for inspection at dinner time, and 
though the package is not opened as yet, I judge by 
its tempting look that it is sure not to keep long; it 
is in danger of quick consumption.” 
“It is popularly supposed that granulated cane 
sugar differs from granulated beet sugar. How is 
this?” I asked. 
“There is no chemical or physical difference be¬ 
tween these sugars. We have for years, presumably, 
been consuming imported beet sugar, and must ex¬ 
pect to do so for a considerable time to come, it 
comes over now in shiploads; why, one of our faculty 
returned from Germany recently on a big steamshiu 
laden with sugar for one firm of refiners. Ours is 
an enormous market for sugar. I was told by the 
superintendent of the Bay City factory last year that 
his factory would not produce enough by 750 tons to 
supply Bay and Saginaw Counties for the year.” 
HOWARD B. CANNON. 
SCIONS. 
The Michigan Tradesman says that money talks, but it 
never remains with us long enough to become a bore. 
A New Jersey concern has just completed what is said 
to be the largest locomotive ever constructed. It weighs 
232,500 pounds and has 417 flues in the boiler. 
One of the largest jam factories in England, in Cam¬ 
bridgeshire, has 1,000 acres in fruit, the factory being in 
the circle of fruit fields, so that there is no delay in 
handling. The factory employs 800 people. 
Ordinary paints containing white lead and turpentine 
should never be used to paint the hot-water pipes in a 
greenhouse. A mixture of vegetable black, boiled lin¬ 
seed oil and a little drier gives good results. 
An exchange says that a Connecticut firm is at work 
on an automobile intended for towing power on the 
Erie Canal. It will be powerful enough to tow’ six or 
eight canal boats at once, and the cost of building it 
will be more than $4,000. 
The Fruit Trade Journal says that the peanut trust is 
now an assured fact. A syndicate, backed by $5,000,000 
capital, has bought out the old Columbian Peanut Com¬ 
pany, and it is said that the stockholders of the old com¬ 
pany received 100 per cent above par for their holdings. 
The Fruit Trade Journal says that the vacant lots in 
Buffalo turned over to the poor to raise potatoes upon 
the past year yielded 10,164 bushels; also 1,452 bushels of 
beans, and small quantities of beets, cabbage and other 
vegetables were raised. According to the report of the 
city clerk, the total value of all these crops at market 
prices was $6,733.60. 
