187 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
WHAT I SEE AND IIEAK. 
Hothouse Asparagus. —I heard one buyer grumbling 1 
over the weight of the bunches of some very fine hot¬ 
house asparagus. They weighed one pound each, but 
the buyer wanted them to weigh 1 y 2 pound. The 
commission merchant said that one pound each is the 
usual weight per bunch, and at the prices for which 
this product usually sells, it would seem that this 
weight would bring the price per bunch sufficiently 
high. But if the retailers as a whole, really want 
heavier bunches, it will, probably, be to the interest 
of growers to make them heavier. The retailer is in 
the best position to learn just what the demand is. 
X X X 
Selling Skim-milk. —I asked one wholesale milk 
dealer why the sale of skim-milk shouldn’t be al¬ 
lowed, it being sold honestly for just what it is. 
He said, probably for the same reason that the sale 
of oleomargarine is prohibited ; dealers didn’t stop at 
selling it under its true name, but worked it off as 
butter. The same might be true of skim-milk, the 
dealer might forget that it is skimmed, and sell it for 
whole milk. So the easier way is to prohibit the sale 
entirely. This is too bad, for a large class would be 
benefited by the sale of this milk. After the butter 
is removed, the milk could be sold at a price that 
would bring it within the reach of many who cannot 
afford to buy whole milk in any quantity. There are 
many, too, who can eat skim-milk, who cannot eat 
whole milk. 
t i X 
Mr. King’s Spring Lambs.— We described the pro¬ 
duction of these last week. On Tuesday, I saw a con¬ 
signment of them that had arrived that morning. 
They were finely dressed, and put up in excellent 
shape, but a couple of them were too light, one weigh¬ 
ing only 26 pounds. Mr. King had, evidently, got in 
a hurry to work off all possible before prices declined. 
But there were too many more who had been in a 
hurry, and prices had declined materially under very 
heavy receipts. The history of the lamb trade lately 
has been a series of ups and downs. A scarcity pro¬ 
motes high prices ; these stimulate increased ship¬ 
ments, often exceeding the demand ; then prices go 
unreasonably low, sales are slow, shippers are disap¬ 
pointed, stop shipping, there is another scarcity, and 
the whole story is repeated with variations. Not only 
is this true of hothouse lambs, but of many other 
products. The price of lambs has gone very low this 
week because of the oversupply. 
X X X 
A Fraudulent Commission Merchant Trapped.— 
Several weeks ago, I told in this column about a fraud 
in Brooklyn who received permission from a barber 
whose customer he was, to have some express pack- 
ages delivered at his shop. Some crates of eggs, 
packages of poultry, dressed calves, pigs, and all 
sorts of country products began to arrive. The barber 
suspected something wrong, and refused to permit 
further abuse of his hospitality, so the packages were 
delivered at a stable. The receiver was one of the 
numerous frauds who are continually preying upon 
the farmers, securing consignments of farm products 
by hook or crook, and making few if any returns. But 
he has reached the end of his rope. A central New 
York farmer who had been taken in by him secured 
his arrest, and at last accounts, the miserable thief 
was awaiting the arrival of the sheriff to take him 
away to stand trial for his l'obberies. He has been 
masquerading under the name of Frank H. Kaufman; 
whether that is his real name nobody knows. But 
there are plenty more like him. He has, probably, 
done enough swindling to send him to prison for life, 
if other victims will only appear against him, and it 
is to be hoped that they will, and make an example 
of him. 
X % X 
Hotels as Buyers of Farm Products.—The R. N.-Y. 
frequently receives inquiries as to what methods must 
be followed that a producer may be able to secure the 
trade of some of the great city hotels and restaurants. 
The idea seems to be that large quantities of supplies 
can be sold, and extra prices secured. Occasionally, 
a producer secures such a customer, but not often. 
These hotels usually prefer to buy their products in 
the city markets, for several reasons : There they can 
nearly always get just the supplies required from day to 
nay, the year ai-ound. Few producers of any kind of 
products can guarantee such a supply. Then, too, by 
% taking advantage of a glutted market, they are often 
able to secure certain products at much lower rates. 
Even the swell hotels are not averse to saving a penny 
in this way. In most of them, the buying is done by 
stewards, and I have known of cases where they have 
bought inferior or damaged stuff, at lower prices, and 
presumably charged them up at full rates. So it is 
plain why it is generally difficult for the producer to 
secure such trade. But a story one wholesale dealer 
told me, would lead one to think some of it not worth 
securing. He said that many of these hotels are run 
by irresponsible managers, and that dealers who give 
them credit frequently sustain heavy losses. He had 
suffered himself, hy trusting the manager of a big 
hotel, who proved to have nothing but the clothes 
on his back. He spoke of one of the most aristocratic 
hotels in this city to-day, whose manager couldn’t se¬ 
cure any great amount of credit, though the building 
is owned by one of the wealthiest families in the coun- 
try. He knew of one dealer whose bill against this 
hotel amounts to $ 1 , 000 , and he said that he wouldn’t 
give him credit to any such amount. 
X X X 
Honey from Far and Near —The market for honey 
has been extremely dull and prices low all Winter 
until recently. There was a big crop last Summer. 
1 he approach of the Hebrew holidays, during which 
large quantities of honey are used by these people, 
has stimulated trade, and helped sell a large part of 
the surplus, but has not helped prices to a very great 
extent. Hildreth Bros. & Segelken, large jobbers of 
honey, say that this improved market will last only 
through these holidays, and it will then be dull again. 
Still almost no first-class honey is left in this market, 
it having about all been sold. Large quantities of 
California honey are sold here, most of it extracted. 
It comes mostly in tins holding (50 pounds each, two 
in a case. The retailers put it up in packages to suit 
their trade, and much of it is sold to bakers. There 
is a great variety in the packages in which comb honey 
is packed. In some, each section is inclosed in a paper 
carton, and although these do not show off the honey 
to so good advantage as those which expose the sec¬ 
tions, it would seem that it would carry better when 
so protected. Hildreth Bros. & Segelken say that 
many retailers want crates containing 25 sections, 
but which weigh only 22 to 23 pounds, they, of course, 
selling each section for one pound, thus gaining two 
or three pounds on each package. They also say that, 
outside the fancy groceries, hardly a pound of pure 
honey is sold in the city ; most of it is adulterated 
with glucose, and many people prefer the adulterated 
to the pure article. p. H> v . 
CUT AND SHREDDED. 
A farmer in New Jersey recently discovered a petri¬ 
fied apple on his farm. The variety is not given, but 
we infer that it was an Illinois Ben Davis. 
The San Jos6 scale has made its appearance in Aus¬ 
tralia. Active measures are being taken for its extir¬ 
pation and, under the Vegetation Diseases Act, the 
owners of infested orchards are compelled to destroy 
the scale, and are prohibited from sending out cut¬ 
tings or infected fruit. 
An American grain elevator is being built at Man¬ 
chester, England, upon the great ship canal. Man¬ 
chester is the distributing point for a population of 
about 8,000,000. The elevator will have a storage 
capacity of 40,000 tons, and will be fitted with an un¬ 
loading plant with a capacity of 350 tons per hour. 
A bill of great importance to farmers has been in¬ 
troduced into Congress, and it is to be hoped that it 
may become a law. It provides that, in order to pre¬ 
vent the false branding or other marking of merchan¬ 
dise intended for foreign or interstate commerce, the 
governors of the various States shall be authorized to 
adopt a public trademark, a description of which is to 
be filed at the Patent Office, and which is to be used 
subject to the laws of the respective States. Rigid 
provisions are made to prevent the fraudulent use of 
such trademarks. One section provides that, if any 
person shall brand or mark any goods or packages 
which are articles of foreign or interstate commerce, 
in such manner as to deceive or mislead a purchaser as 
to their true character, or as to their place of origin, 
he shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor. In case 
this bill become a law, it would be dangerous busi¬ 
ness for a western manufacturer of filled cheese, to 
brand it as New York State Full Cream, or for a 
southern Ohio dairyman to label his butter Elgin 
Creamery. There has long been a crying need of such 
a law. rigidly enforced. It would be a boon, not only 
to the States that have suffered because their special 
and superior produets have been counterfeited, but to 
the whole country at large in building up its export 
trade. The dairy industry has, perhaps, been the 
greatest sufferer from this false branding, and every 
honest producer should inundate his Senator and Rep¬ 
resentative with letters and postal cards urging the 
speedy passage of this bill. The New York Mercantile 
Exchange has adopted resolutions urging its passage. 
Several years ago, it was asserted that Brazilian 
sugar planters had succeeded in improving the quality 
of their stock by grafting the canes, and some of this 
grafted cane was imported into the South. It did not 
appear, however, to possess unusual value, and finally, 
dropped out of cultivation. Recently, statements have 
been received regarding the successful grafting of the 
cane in Queensland, Australia. Short sections of the 
cane have been split in two, avoiding injury to the 
eye, and while the plant canes produced the first year 
from these cuttings have shown no change, the rat- 
toons (second-year canes) show a marked improve¬ 
ment. Cane planters are anxious to procure improved 
varieties, as of late years, disease has attacked the 
cane in many places, lessening its sucrose content. 
Von Mueller says that sugar cane cannot be propa¬ 
gated indefinitely from the same stock without de¬ 
teriorating; for this reason, planters in Mauritius 
have replanted with the wild growing cane from Fiji 
and New Caledonia. 
Experiments in the subirrigation of greenhouse 
benches have been practiced at the Indiana Experi¬ 
ment Station (Lafayet^e) during the past two years,* 
with very satisfactory results. The bench is made 
watertight by a zinc lining, and the bottom then filled 
with porous building brick, placed upon edge, the 
lower angles being chipped away, to give freer pas¬ 
sage to the water. The soil is placed upon the top of 
the bricks. Vertical pipes, reaching to the bottom of 
the bench, are placed at intervals along the edge, 
these being connected with a horizonal water pipe 
which runs the entire length of the bench. By turn¬ 
ing on the water at one end of the house, it flows 
through the vertical pipes to every part of the bench, 
overflow pipes being provided along the back of the 
bench. The labor of watering is greatly simplified, 
while the risk of fungous disease arising from exces¬ 
sive moisture on the foliage is entirely averted. Sub¬ 
irrigated lettuce has grown very rapidly, and the 
treatment is now urged for Carnations, which, while 
needing moisture, suffer greatly from excess of water 
over foliage and surface soil, when in the greenhouse. 
About this time of year, The R. N.-Y. usually re¬ 
ceives a great many inquiries from the country as to 
where immigrant labor can be secured. There is a 
free labor bureau in this city maintained by the Ger¬ 
man Society of the City of New York, and the Irish 
Emigrant Society, which furnishes laborers of every 
nationality. It was formerly located at the United 
States Barge Office, but has been removed to No. 45 
Pearl Street. The services of this bureau are free to 
both emploj^ers and employees, no fee being charged 
to either. Immigrants of all nationalities have equal 
privileges, and the wishes of employers are consulted 
in that respect. The bureau furnishes domestic help, 
farm and unskilled laborers, mechanics, etc. Any one 
wishing help should write to VV. H. Meara, Free Labor 
Bureau, 45 Pearl Street, New York, state just what 
kind of help is wanted, whether for the house or farm, 
or for any special work, the wages that will be paid, 
and what nationality is preferred. He must, also, 
give satisfactory references, and must pay the trans¬ 
portation of the laborer to his destination. The bureau 
has nothing to do with fixing the wages or making 
any contracts. Mr. Meara informs us that he has re¬ 
ceived many inquiries in past years from a wide ex¬ 
tent of country, as a result of what we have published, 
and has sent out many laborers. We have a curiosity 
to know from those who have tried these immigrants, 
whether the experiment has proved satisfactory. The 
supply of immigrants now here seems to be as large 
as ever. 
BUSINESS BITS. 
Evkky man who has tried to destroy weeds with a common hoe 
ought to know something about the hand cultivator made by the 
Ulrich Mfg. Co., 20 River Street, Rock Falls, Ill. 
A plowshare that is always sharp saves lots of horseflesh, just 
as sharp sections reduce draught in a mowing machine. The 
S. S. Plow Company, Albany, N. Y., want to tell you all about 
their self-sharpening shares. A postal card will bring the in¬ 
formation. 
Ip you have a spring or brook where there is a little fall of 
water, the hydraulic ram may be used to good advantage to force 
the water where it is wanted at elevations higher than the spring. 
F. B. Hanson, 173 Centre Street, New York, makes a ram, and 
will be glad to furnish particulars and estimates. 
The Mapes Fertilizer Company, 143 Liberty Street, New York, 
has always made a feature of its pamphlets and circulars. The 
company issues several of these pamphlets, dealing with pota¬ 
toes, tobacco, Florida products and other crops, giving valuable 
and accurate information about plants and their feeding. This 
well-known and reliable Arm has been noted for its trade in high 
grade standard fertilizers, and its reputation has always been 
above par. All who are interested in fertilizers should send for 
these pamphlets. 
We have seen wagons run on the road without greasing until 
the bearing became so hot that the wheel would not turn. Some 
wagons are so loose on the axle that they will not do this, but the 
creaking noise tells the story, together with the jaded team. The 
way to avoid this is to have one of Lane Bros., Poughkeepsie, N. 
A., carriage jacks, and a box of Frazer’s wagon grease handy. 
This outfit will enable you to grease up any wagon of any size or 
weight in a few minutes, and it will save lots of repairs to wagon, 
and grief for the team. 
