1898 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
549 
Among the Marketmen 
WHAT I SEE AND HEAR. 
Hothouse Fruit. —But a few days ag-o, I saw several 
boxes filled with fine hothouse strawberries. They 
were beauties, not large, but such a bright, clear 
color, and so clean-looking. They were selling for 50 
cents a basket wholesale, not a high price for hot¬ 
house fruit, but it is a little out of season, and other 
fruits are so plentiful and cheap. Considerable quanti¬ 
ties of hothouse grapes are still in market, but prices 
are low. Some cucumbers, also, are coming from the 
hothouses, and the Boston gardeners are sending us 
some lettuce. Prices for these products are consider¬ 
ably below those ruling in the Winter, but they are 
much more cheaply produced now, hence are, probably, 
profitable. * 
X X X 
Melting Weather. —This is the term the market- 
men apply to the combination we have had during the 
past week—warm, damp, foggy, muggy, 
rainy, drizzly, sticky, uncomfortable 
generally. Many of the perishable fruits 
and vegetables seem literally to melt 
down. People seem so depressed by the 
weather that they don't buy with their 
usual freedom, retailers are afraid to 
stock up to any extent because goods 
won't keep, and the wholesalers find 
themselves overstocked, and pi-ices be¬ 
come as depressed as themselves. Com¬ 
mission merchants find their demand 
lessened, fruits, vegetables and poultry 
depreciating rapidly, and are forced to 
sell at lower prices or run the risk of a 
total loss. They console themselves by 
thinking of the comforting and congrat¬ 
ulatory things the consignors will say 
when they get the returns. It has been 
a most discouraging week all around, 
and it is to be hoped that we shall not 
have another such. 
XXX 
Smells in tlie Markets. —The head¬ 
ing of this department refers only to 
those things in the markets which are 
seen or heard ; but there are other ways 
of recognizing the presence of some 
things, and they make themselves known 
with great pungency. Some of the odors 
encountered are very agreeable, but not 
all are from Araby the Blest. Sometimes 
when cars of peaches are being unloaded, 
the whole atmosphere seems permeated 
with a delightful fragrance, for no other fimit seems 
to give off such pleasing odors. In a store filled 
with peaches, grapes and other fruits, the odors are 
not displeasing; but when during warm weather, 
one turns to such places as the fish stalls around Ful¬ 
ton market, the smells that greet the olfactories are 
enough to make him forswear fish forever after. So, 
too, around the stands and push-carts along Mulberry, 
Hester and other streets in the poorer quarters of the 
city, on which, despite the Board of Health, are many 
food products that smell to Heaven. The wonder is 
that people who eat these things don’t all die; but 
they are, probably, so inoculated with germs already 
that they are immune. I once quizzed an old market 
woman about some turkeys that smelled so loudly 
that one could almost hear them around the block, 
and she declared with great vigor that “ Them air as 
swate ez a rose! ” Perhaps they were—to her. 
X X X 
The Georgia Peach Basket.— This is a very 
neat, convenient package put out by the South Side 
Mfg. Company, 
Petersburg, Va. 
The one shown 
at Fig.255 holds 
15 pounds; they 
are, also, made 
holding 10 and 
20 pounds each. 
More Georgia 
peaches are 
coming in the 
six-till carriers this year, and the latter pack better 
in the cars than baskets with handles. Many peaches 
and other fruits from nearby points will be found in 
the handled baskets. Some makers sacrifice strength 
in all these packages in an endeavor to get them 
lighter and cheaper ; but this is a mistake. They 
should all be made strong enough to carry the fruit 
without loss. 
X X X 
it appears, too, and its fine appearance goes far towards 
selling it. It is nicely trimmed, tied up in neat 
bunches, and packed in clean cases that help out the 
looks. These people know how to grow good celery, 
and what is of equal importance, they know how to put 
it up so that it sells well. It pays them, too. f. h. v. 
A FIVE-TON GRASS CROP. 
IIOW IT IS PRODUCED AND MADE. 
Part II. 
[editorial correspondence.] 
Fine and Finished Soil. —Count the number of 
spires in a pound of hay, and you have an idea of the 
way the plants must stand on an acre to make 10,000 
pounds. A seed of grass is a little thing. Surround 
it with lumps or chunks of soil, and it never can make 
a good start. The little plant is a tender thing. Sur¬ 
round it with big, tough ragweeds, and you will soon 
see the last of it. The soil for grass seeding must be 
as fine as possible and free from weeds. 
Kalamazoo Ce 1 cry. —T his 
ket in considerable quantities. 
GETS 
Uncle Sam bangs out the notice that the common people have both the money and confidence 
enough in him to loan him what he needs. The people know that he pays his interest promptly, 
and have taken the whole loan in small amounts. The man who asked for as much as $5,000, didn’t 
get anything. The New York Herald artist depicts the surprised capitalist when he learns the 
facts in the case. 
Mr. Clark does not use a plow for preparing grass 
land. The plow, he says, turns the soil upside down 
with all the weeds, seeds and upper roots at the bot¬ 
tom of the furrow. This is just where they ought not 
to be. While the bottom soil thus thrown to the top 
may be smoothed and fined so that it looks nice, you 
have not destroyed the old grass and weeds—you have 
only put them out of sight. It is only a question of 
time before they will make their way to the surface 
and interfere with the grass crop. The thing to do 
with the weeds and stubble is to work them up and 
out where they may be killed. 
A weed is like a bad habit. You find a bad habit in 
your child, and you do not expect to destroy it by 
covering it up. Better bring it out and up where it 
can be destroyed. It is the sun and hot air that kill 
weeds and foul grass by drying out their roots. Mr. 
Clark devised the Cutaway harrow because he wanted 
a tool to throw the soil up rather than to turn it over. 
The first part of the Clark system is to fit the soil. 
This means that the Cutaway is run 10 or a dozen 
times up and down and across the field, tearing, 
slicing and chopping. This lets the air and sunshine 
into the soil, and turns the weeds and old grass to 
the surface, where the roots are destroyed. 
Then the field is scraped and graded with harrow 
and scraper attachment. You all know how the little 
pockets or hollows in the hay field are often filled with 
weeds or poor yellow grass. Grass cannot do well 
with water standing on it, and these little holes or 
pockets hold the surface water, and will surely injure 
the grass. The time to get rid of them is when the 
soil is being fitted for the seed. Mr. Clark does this 
with the harrow, aiming to secure a gentle, level 
grade to the surface of the field. 
Thorough Work Necessary. —It is easy to tell 
about this fitting of the soil, but few farmers are 
ready to carry it out perfectly. They may work the 
land twice more than they usually do, but then they 
are ready to stop and say “That’s good enough”. 
The soil must be turned and shaken until every lump 
is crushed and every weed broken up and thrown up 
to the sun—that is, if we expect to raise five tons of 
hay to the acre. A farmer may say that land well 
celery is now in mar- 
Very white and nice 
fitted for wheat is plenty good enough for grass. That 
is a mistake. The grass seeds are much smaller than 
the wheat, and the habit of growth of the grass plant 
is quite different. Ground well fitted for wheat has 
made only a good start toward first-class preparation 
for grass seed. Mr. Clark works the soil at least 25 
times with Cutaway and spike harrow before he calls 
the job done. He has a tool called a grass cultivator, 
like an ordinary one-horse cultivator with strong, 
hook-like teeth. This works down into the soil to 
break off and bring up the tough grass roots that 
grow lower down. If a man uses plow and spring- 
tooth for fitting such land, he should work the spring- 
tooth at least 15 times. Most farmers will consider 
this too much work, but this extra culture will all 
count in the grass crop. 
Don’t See<l with Grain. —There is no use trying 
to cut five tons per acre when the grass is seeded with 
wheat or other grain. When a farmer does that, he 
gauges the preparation of the ground by the needs of 
the wheat crop, and often stops far 
short of that. W heat ground is not fine 
enough for grass. There can be no ques¬ 
tion about that, and when grass and 
grain are sown together, the grain has 
by far the better chance. You do not 
obtain a perfect stand of grass anyway, 
and after the grain has been cut, you 
will find great bare patches all over the 
field. You cannot reseed these places, 
for Timothy will not spread by its 
roots, neither will new seed grow. With 
such seeding, you continue to cut grass 
from about half the field—for only half 
the surface is seeded. No matter how 
tall and rank the Timothy may grow, it 
cannot make five tons per acre, for there 
are not enough plants on the ground. 
Mr. Clark never uses grain with the 
grass. He says that he can sow the 
grain alone, cut the crop, and then work 
up the stubble and sow grass, and in 
two years, obtain far more grain and 
hay than he could in two years of the 
old system. He seeds heavily—using for 
each acre 14 quarts of Timothy, 14 quarts 
of Red-top and 4 quarts of clover seed. 
This is put on at three different sow- 
ings, and so scattered by hand and har¬ 
row that every square inch of soil has 
its share. The Red-top adds, at least 1 
ton of excellent hay per acre. It fills 
in the small spaces without interfering 
with the Timothy. Of course, all this 
costs time and money, but it would be 
a singular farmer who would not pay something to 
obtain five tons per acre. Five tons of hay will take 
out of the soil $30 worth of plant food. Where does 
that come from ? Let us see about that next week. 
_ h. w. c. 
BUSINESS BITS. 
If any of the readers of this paragraph want a farm in New 
York State, where they have the advantages of town life com¬ 
bined with those of country, we would like them to write L A. 
Waldo, Cauisteo, Steuben County, N. Y., for a description of his 
place. It seems to us like a most desirable place. 
A blanket that will stay on a horse, one in fact, that he can 
not get off, is a luxury. It protects the horse, and saves the 
blanket. Wm. Ayres & Son, Philadelphia, Pa., make such a 
blanket. Besides the fact that it stavson, it is made of a superior 
quality of goods. The firm have a little book about horse blankets 
that they will send you free. 
The Farmer’s Handy Wagon Co., of Saginaw, Mich., expect to 
go to the fairs this Fall with an attractive exhibition of moving 
pictures of the present war, and a lecture on broad-tired wagons. 
From what they tell us, this exhibition will be well worth seeing, 
and no doubt, many of our readers will have an opportunity of 
looking at it during the fair season. 
The readers of The R. N.-Y. are quite familiar with the merits 
of the Acme harrow in preparing the ground for crops. The manu¬ 
facturer, Mr. Duane H. Nash, Millington, N. J., makes the claim 
that the Acme is particularly adapted to the preparation of 
wheat ground where the drill is to be used, and to the covering of 
the seed where the drill is not used. lie backs up his claim by 
offering to send it to responsible farmers on trial to be returned 
at his expense if not entirely satisfactory. There is certainly no 
risk in this to the farmer. 
E. L. Clarkson, of Tivoli, N. Y., writes: “The agent of the 
McCormick binders was here a few days ago. He said that our 
field of Mammoth White Winter rye was the best he had seen. 
We shall advertise the seed with you soon. It was awarded the 
first prize of $10 at the Tennessee Centennial last year in a large 
class, also first at the Vermont and Massachusetts State Fairs, 
first at several New York State, and American Institute Fairs, 
and first at the St. Louis, Mo., State Fair. It is noted for its pro¬ 
ductiveness, both in grain and straw.” 
At the coming New York State Fair, the Worcester Salt Co., 
New York City, offers a $25 gold watch to the exhibitor of butter 
scoring the highest, salted with Worcester salt, and a $25 gold 
watch to the exhibitor of full-cream cheese, scoring the highest, 
salted with Worcester salt. Winners of these prizes can have 
their choice—either a lady’s or a gentleman’s watch. The Ver¬ 
mont Machine Co., of Bellows Falls, Vt., offers a special premium 
of $50 to the butter that takes the first and highest premium at 
the fair, providing this butter be made from cream separated by 
the Improved United States cream separator. 
