1898 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
597 
^y^MQNG the <4 
ARKETttEN. 
WHAT I SEE AND HEAR. 
Sal way Peaches. —This variety is coming' in lim¬ 
ited quantities from Georgia, as it is one of our latest 
varieties. Most of the peaches are rather small, and 
although of fairly good quality, cannot hold a candle 
to the earlier varieties received from the same locality. 
In a season of full crops in the Delaware and New 
Jersey orchards, these would not sell very well, hut 
under present conditions, they bring fair prices. 
X X X 
When School Opens. —“ Business is dull and is 
likely to stay so until after school opens, next month,” 
said one commission merchant who handles fruits and 
vegetables largely. “ What has that to do with it ? ” 
I asked him. “ It has a great deal to do with it. 
There are tens of thousands of children whose parents 
are away from the city during the Summer, but who 
return in time for the opening of school. Taken alto¬ 
gether, this means an immense number of people 
who are not now buying food products, but who will 
be when school opens, and they are back in the city 
again.” Come to think of it, this factor is more im¬ 
portant than one is likely to think. 
X X X 
On to Cuba. —The close of the war has started 
shipments of food products to Cuba and Porto Rico as 
well as to other points in the West Indies and Central 
America with which communication was suspended 
during the continuance of hostilities. Some of the 
leading products now going forward to the West In¬ 
dies are beans, live poultry and eggs. While the 
shipments are not large, taken altogether they form 
quite an item, and are likely to continue to some ex¬ 
tent. It is not likely that shipments will be so heavy 
in that direction as they would be if it were not for 
the fact that the people who are left down there are 
mostly so everlastingly poor that they cannot buy 
nearly so much of the food they so sadly need. 
X X X 
Live Poultry Shipments. — I noticed large quan¬ 
tities of live poultry in one commission house, and 
asked the merchant why he did not sell it instead of 
keeping it around. “ Because there is no sale for it,” 
he said. “ Last week the market was good, demand 
heavy, and we received fair prices ; but this week 
there seems to be almost a complete stagnation, and 
we have large quantities on hand.” And that is the 
way the market often rims. The quick sales and good 
prices often influence the shippers to send along con¬ 
siderable quantities, and the result is that the busi¬ 
ness is overdone, prices decline and disappointment 
results all around, to every one, unless to the buyers. 
The best season for live poultry is during the Hebrew 
holidays, as sales are then heavy. The first will be 
the New Year, September 17 and 18. Fowls, turkeys, 
ducks and geese are then most in demand, and should 
reach the market from September 12 to 15. The next 
holiday is September 2(5, when all prime live poultry 
is in demand, but especially chickens and roosters. 
These should reach the market from September 19 to 
23. The next holiday is October 1 and 2, and fowls, 
ducks, and good fat geese are most in demand. The 
best market days are September 27 to 29. The last of 
the Fall holidays is October 8 and 9, when all kinds of 
live poultry are wanted, and should reach here Oc¬ 
tober 3 to G. 
X X X 
Apple Prospects. —“ What have you to say about 
the apple crop ?” I asked one of the largest exporters. 
“ In a single word, light. The crop in some small 
localities is good, but these are not large enough in 
extent to influence the market materially as a whole. 
The crop in Canada is somewhat larger than last year, 
but the quality inferior. The Hudson River crop is 
larger than last year, but the quality inferior ; fail- 
crops in Vermont. In western New York, the outlook 
is poor. In Michigan there is a fair supply of inferior 
quality. In the apple sections of Missouri, Kansas 
and Arkansas, the crop is very light.” J. C. Houghton 
& Co. say that reports have been received from all the 
principal apple districts in the United Kingdom. They 
state that apples in England are much under the mar¬ 
ket, while they are above the average in Scotland and 
nearly up to the standard in Ireland. They also state 
that, throughout Europe generally, apple crops will 
be short. This indicates that the supply from the 
other side of the water will be considerably below the 
average, and that good American apples will be 
wanted there at good prices. Excessive shipments 
alone will depress prices, and from the outlook in 
this country, it seems quite probable that there will 
be all this. A little later, full information in z-egard 
to packing and shipping apples for export will be 
given. f. h. v. 
SUGAR BEETS IN NEW YORK STATE. 
PRESENT CONDITION OF THE CROP. 
Crop Doing 1 Well. —The interest taken in the 
question of sugar-beet growing in the United States 
is so general that, no doubt, the readers of The R. 
N.-Y. will be pleased to leai-n of the condition of the 
crop now growing in the State of New York for the 
beet-sugar factories at Rome and Binghamton. These 
are the only beet-sugar factories in the United States 
east of Nebraska. That at Rome made its first cam¬ 
paign last season, while the factory at Binghamton is 
now in process of erection, with evei-y prospect of 
being in readiness to begin the manufacture of sugar 
about October 1. The experiences, this season, of 
manufacturers and growers will, therefore, be 
watched with interest, and will have great influence 
in hastening or retarding the development of the in- 
dustry in the East. 
About 1,800 farmers in New Yoz-k State contz-acted 
to grow beets this season, and the area contracted for 
was approximately 3,500 acz-es. About 8 per cent of 
this area was lost, either fz-om a failizre to sow the 
seed, or a failizz-e to get a stand that would warrant 
tillage, leaving about 3,200 acres of growing beets. 
The season for seeding was vez-y zznfavorable by rea¬ 
son of excessive rains, which accounts for this heavy 
loss of area. 
An official of the beet-sugar company at Rome re¬ 
ports that a recent inspection of a large number of 
fields indicates that about 5 per cent of the az-ea may be 
rated as poor, 27 per cent of the area znay be rated as 
fair to good, and 68 per cent of the area may be rated as 
good to A No. 1. I have recently passed through 
Broome, Tioga, Chemizng and Stezzben counties, where 
the gz-eater part of the crop for the Binghamton fac- 
toz-y is being grown, and would place the condition of 
the cz-op in these counties fully as high as the above, 
which means that 90 to 95 per cent of the area now in 
beets will make satisfactory crops. The drought of 
July was beginning to be sevez-ely felt in much of this 
terz-itory and was telling on the beets, as well as on 
crops in general, but when the rains came, it was sur- 
prising how quickly they revived, and at this writing, 
they are growing most vigoz-ously. 
Weeds Played Havoc. —Effort was made to ascer¬ 
tain how the farmers who are growing these ez*ops 
are impressed by their experience to date. It was 
found that their enthizsiasm was very much in pz-o- 
portion to their szzccess with the crop. Those who, 
by good management or a fortunate timing of the 
work, had experienced little difficulty in getting the 
crop thinned and weeded, are well pleased with present 
prospects, and express their willingness to inez-ease 
their acreage largely another season, while those whose 
crops, at any time or from any cause, became badly 
overrun with weeds, have fozznd the expense of again 
gaining mastery of the sitzzation so gz-eat as to leave 
the matter of ultimate profit izz doubt. It is believed 
that by far the larger number of present growers are 
in the first class, and that the labor of getting the 
necessary acz-eage for the successful opez-ation of the 
factories another season will be much less than this. 
More farmez-s got into difficulty with the cz-op, and 
jeopardized ultimate profits, by failing to do the 
thinning and weeding while the beets were small 
and before the weeds gained much of a foothold, than 
in aziy other way. Izz some cases, improper fitting of 
the soil, or too deep sowing of the seed, z-eszzlted in a 
poor stand. Very few cases were observed where the 
crop seemed to be suffering from want of plant food, 
bzzt nearly all the failures are due to improperly-fitted 
land, impz-oper seedizzg, or very unfavorable weather 
immediately after seeding, reszzlting in a poor stand, 
or neglect of pz-oper tillage at the right time. For- 
tunately, these difficulties can be laz-gely overcome 
when the farmers become more familiar with the cz-op, 
and better zzndez-stand the conditions of its svzecessful 
cizltivation. j. i,. stone. 
LIVE NOTES FROM ILLINOIS. 
Japan Plums Rot. —Japan plums have all rotted 
here this year. They are certainly more liable to rot 
and curculio than our native kinds are. One tree was 
sprayed twice very heavily with Bordeaux, but the 
fz-uit went all the same. There is no doubt about 
the Bordeaux spray lessening the rot in grapes, but 
when it rains most of the time in May and June, this 
“rot” is certainly vez-y hard to control. I sprayed 
my grapes last Fall, very early this Spring, and thz-ee 
or four times at intervals later on, and had plenty of 
rot after all. It is not usually held that spraying has 
much effect on antlzracnose, yet I can say that, four 
or five years ago, anthz-acnose was a dz-eaded disease 
with me, affecting 25 per cent of my crop. I have 
sprayed more or less every year, and each year the 
trouble has diminished in the vineyard, zzntil now 
scarcely a trace is seen. So, right or wrong, I am in¬ 
clined to give the credit to spraying with Bordeaux. 
Izz a recent R. N.-Y. I mentioned a new currant dis¬ 
ease which caused the frzzit to rot, much like rot of 
gz*apes, cherries, etc. Specimens sent to Washington 
brought out the fact that the disease is not new, but 
was desez-ibed in an Iowa State bulletin report several 
years ago. The remedy was the usual dose of Bor¬ 
deaux. 
Drilling' Cow Peas.—Cow peas and Soy beans az*e 
new crops in this locality, although much planted in the 
soizthern end of the State. Neither will succeed sown 
on gz-ound foul with weed seeds, without cultivation 
after planting—this from experience. Sown on good 
clean ground the last of May, cow peas promise to be 
a szzccess. Planted with a drill between rows of black¬ 
berries after picking time—or the last of July—the 
Soy bean must, jzzdging frozn the pz-esent outlook, 
prove a failizre. The ground was well fined, nice 
showers followed, but they came up very unevenly. 
The gz-owth is slow, almost sickly, and there are no 
shekels in the result. Next year, I purpose to plant 
with a drill in May and cultivate. The Eldorado black- 
berz-y still proves quite unproductive, but seems 
z-ather better in quality than I thought last year. 
Minnewaski is fairly well thought of by growers here, 
but the local varieties, Leader and Surprise, especially 
the latter, have the preference for market in this 
vicinity. Neither is very good in quality, but produc- 
tiveness, size and appearance az-e the counting points 
in a market berz-y here—and in most berz-y markets. 
The Hired Man.—I have been considerably 
amused at the “ hired-man ” discussion. Mr. Shawver 
seems to desire perfection in a hiz-ed man. Well, he 
won’t find it. Doubtful whether the hii*ed man can 
find perfection among employers. Once I was com¬ 
plaining to a neighbor (a man who yearly plants over 
1,000 acres of corn) of the little irregularities of my 
hired help, and he asked, “ Were you looking for an 
angel?” Of course, one doesn't want to “ dig into 
it’’and work “ evez-y day and all the time like a 
slave,” but-I have noticed that, if I worked morning and 
evening and tbz-ough the day with my hired men, I 
felt less disposition to grumble, than if I came around 
to see how the men were getting along, only occasion¬ 
ally. Sometimes a job of work is more difficult to 
manage than I have calculated on. If I am on the 
ground, I can see why —if in the house in the rocking 
chair, I incline to blame the man. I have had all the 
kinds of men that J. H. S. mentions, and sometimes 
they are very annoying. 
Don’t Expect Perfection.—I expect to find 
some defects in all, but if the good points overbalance, 
I try to mend or overlook the fault, and make the 
best of it; otherwise, I let the man go, and try again. 
I realize that I find plenty of hired men who az-e much 
more patient anti just as z-easonable as I am. By the 
way, how does Mr. S. z-econcile rising at 4 A. m., with 
the mentioned 10 hours daily work ? I work my men 
12 hours daily, and it really looks as though Mr. S. 
wanted 14 hours or more from them. Some of the 
best workers I ever had were obliged (?), when the crav¬ 
ing took possession of them, to dz-aw their two or 
three months’ wages, hie to town, and spend the 
whole in a drunken revelry of three or four days. 
After the effects were over, they would comeback and 
woz-k faithfully until the next spell. Such are to be 
z-eformed if possible, but pitied at all events. Human 
perfection is a scarce article. benj. buckman. 
Sangamon County, Ill. 
BUSINESS BITS. 
The Silver Mfg. Co., Salem, O., say that the capacity of their 
feed and ensilage cutters is limited only by the ability to get the 
feed to the machine. They will send you a book on ensilage free 
if you ask them. 
The Improved Convex dehorner is claimed to be the simplest, 
strongest, easiest-operated, smoothest-cutting and cheapest horn 
cutter yet invented. Webster & Dickinson, Christiana, Pa., the 
manufacturers, will tell all about it on request. 
The Marvin Smith Co., of Chicago, Ill., have an extensive line 
of ensilage and fodder cutters and shredders. They claim espe-. 
cial promptness in making shipments, which is often an impor¬ 
tant point when one has delayed too long in ordering. 
The wheels are the.most important part of the wagon. The 
Electric Wheel Co., Box 88, Quincy, Ill., make wheels, as well as 
wagons, that they claim are perfection. The wheels can be fitted 
to any wagon. Write them for a free book which tells all about 
their wagons and wheels. 
Improvements in farm machinery continue to be the order of 
the day. The Gem Full Circle hay and straw press, made by 
George Ertel Co., Quincy, Ill., contains improvements the result 
of many years’ study. It is made almost entirely of wrought 
steel, therefore is light and durable. Full particulars free on ap¬ 
plication. 
There’s no question about the profit in having a mill to grind 
grain, etc. Many small farmers and poultrymen think that they 
cannot afford a large power mill. The C. S. Bell Co., Hillsboro, 
O., make a hand mill that they say is the most rapid grinder, 
most durable and the cheapest mill made. Write them for 
particulars. 
