1808 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
341 
WirAT I SEE AND HEAR. 
Too Large Eggs. —One wholesaler said that, in 
every case ot eggs received from one shipper, several 
were broken because of their size. The cases and 
fillers are made to hold fair-sized eggs, but these were 
of such extra size that they stuck up above the general 
level, hence, in filling and handling the cases, were 
crushed. It isn’t often that large size is an objection 
in eggs, hut it seems to be in this case. The best way 
in marketing eggs is to take out all that are very large 
or very small, as uniformity in size adds to their good 
appearance. 
t t t 
Another Produce Swindler. —A commission mer¬ 
chant has just told me of another sharper who suc¬ 
cessfully practiced the trick of getting something for 
nothing. A man in northern New York shipped a 
boat-load of potatoes to this city, and intrusted the 
sale of them to the boatman. Some men representing 
themselves as the American Potato Company, and giv¬ 
ing an address on Washington Street, right in the 
midst of the commission district, came to the boatman 
and wished to buy a truck-load of potatoes. “You 
can have them for so much per bushel, but I must 
have the cash before they are moved.” “ Oh, we’ll give 
you a check for them all right.” “ Hut I don’t know 
anything about your check.” “But 
you can telephone to our bank 
and find out about our reliability 
before you accept it.” So the 
telephoning was done, and the 
seller was assured that the check 
was all right, and the would-be 
buyers were good for all they 
wished to buy. So the truck-load 
was sold, the check given, and 
before night it was cashed all 
right. The next day, the same 
parties came for another truck- 
load of potatoes, gave another 
check on the same bank, and got 
the potatoes. This time, the 
seller did not cash the check, sup¬ 
posing it to be all right. Again 
and again the men came for more 
potatoes, each time giving a 
check. Finally the owner of the 
potatoes came to town to see how 
trade was progressing. “ Good ! 
Sold several truck-loads at a 
good price.” “ Where is the 
money?” “Oh. here are the 
checks ! ” “All by one firm ! 
We’ll see about them before they 
get any more potatoes ! ” So he 
posted to the bank and presented 
the checks. “ No deposit here ! ” 
“ But didn’t you say these men 
were all right?” “They were 
then; they had money on deposit here, but they 
have withdrawn it.” The number given by them as 
their place of business is the location of one of the 
most substantial firms in the wholesale fruit trade, 
and the names they gave were never known there. 
The bank figuring in the transaction is one that is 
known among business men as a Sheeny bank. No 
reputable bank would allow such methods of deposit¬ 
ing and drawing out money. The giving of good 
financial characters to some of these disreputable de¬ 
positors seems to be a part of the regular business of 
these fraud banks, for which they are unquestion¬ 
ably paid in some way. These same rascals are re¬ 
ported to have swindled some experienced commission 
men, yet it is said that there is no law that will reach 
them, There certainly ought to be. One lesson from 
this is that a man may have money in bank, or be 
thoroughly reliable to-day, and be without resources 
to-morrow. Another, that bank references aren’t 
necessarily of any value. 
i t t 
Baked Beans Becoming a Luxury. —Bean prices 
have been advancing rapidly, and the prospects are 
that our Yankee bean-loving friends will find their 
traditional dish an expensive one. I asked a dealer 
as to what kinds there was most advance in, and he 
said that the Marrows and lied Kidneys had shown 
most activity. The latter are in demand for export, and 
the former seem to be most largely used for consump¬ 
tion in this country. The consumption of beans is in¬ 
creasing because of the hig^ price of potatoes and the 
advance in prices of flour. Beans have been very low 
in price for a long time, and perhaps the result will 
be more remunerative returns for the growers. F. h. v. 
REGULATING THE SAN JOSE SCALE BY LAW 
DOES INSPECTION OF NURSERY STOCK REALLY INSPECT ? 
In The R. N.-Y. for February 19 and March 5, is a 
communication from Wm. B. Alwood on the subject of 
the San Jos6 scale and legislation, in which I am 
taken to task for the stand I have taken in this mat¬ 
ter. Mr. Alwood writes in the first person singular, 
and his criticism derives its weight from his personal 
standing, not from the fact that he happens to be 
chairman of a Washington convention. It is each 
man’s privilege to have his own opinion and to express 
it, hence no possible fault can be found with this 
criticism, particularly as he does not suggest, as has 
been done in some instances, that I had personal ends 
to gain in stating my position. Mr. Alwood quotes 
from my published remarks, and correctly ; but the 
conclusions that he draws from them are not justified, 
because he has not fully stated all the facts. Thus, 
in referring to my Brooklyn remarks, which are cor¬ 
rectly quoted, the last sentence reads, after stating 
the facts as they were then known to me, “ I see no 
reason why it cannot, with us, be completely stamped 
out ”. From the knowledge that we had at that time 
I was justified in all that I said, and I have nothing to 
apologize for ; but two important facts were unknown 
to me at that time, neither were they known to any 
others, so far as I a in aware. 
The first of these facts is, that there are in New 
Jersey no less than four centers of infestation that 
had been supplied by New York State nurseries. Up 
to the time of my quoted remark, and for some time 
thereafter, it was believed that New Jersey nurseries 
had been alone at fault in distributing the scale. 
Subsequently I found one orchard of 20 acres horribly 
infested, all the stock of which was obtained from a 
northern New York nursery. Another orchard in 
which several hundred trees are infested, also secured 
its stock from New York nurseries exclusively, and a 
third ease has recently come to my knowledge where 
every infested tree on the place was purchased in 
New York, the conditions being such that there can 
be no question that the trees were infested when re¬ 
ceived. These infested centers, to which I had no 
clue, were not discovered until after my Brooklyn 
statement was made, and it is from two of those 
points that we have had the spread into uncultivated 
land. 
The second fact which was unknown at the time, 
was that the Californian experience with San Jos6 
scale could not be relied upon to guide us in the East. 
The United States Department of Agriculture had 
published, only a short time before, a formula for 
fumigating with hydrocyanic acid gas, which was 
supposed to be entirely effective in destroying scale 
life on infested nursery stock. Arrangements had 
been made for fumigating all the stock in the infested 
nurseries, and I was justified from our then knowledge 
in believing that the treatment would be effective. I 
discovered afterward on my visit to California, that 
the formula as published in the circular referred to, 
had been recently discredited in that State, and that 
quite a different grade of cyanide was being used. 
Also that other quite important modifications had 
been made by Californians of which we in the East 
had no practical knowledge. 
Before quoting my statements made at the Moores- 
town Farmers’ Institute last December, Mr. Alwood 
suggests that if New Jersey had, at that time, adopted 
a rigid law providing for the stamping out of the 
scale in the then infested areas, and strict control of 
the nurseries so that their premises might have been 
cleared of the scale, “the lamentable statement made 
by Prof. Smith recently would never have been called 
for.” 
This lamentable statement is that I believe the 
scale can never be eradicated in New Jersey, which 
does not mean that it cannot be practically controlled. 
As a matter of fact, even the most rigid laws passed 
at the time the scale was first discovered in New Jer¬ 
sey would have put us in no better condition than we 
are to-day. The mischief was done ; most of the so- 
called spread was accomplished, and part of it is based 
upon the undiscovered nurseries supplied with New 
York stock. Several cases have been discovered, 
also, where the stock was furnished from southern 
nurseries, and one case, the fourth from New York, 
where the supply of trees was received from Long 
Island. I do not mean to suggest that the New York 
nurseries that sent out the stock are now infested by 
the scale, or that, as a matter of fact, they ever were 
infested, for that is a point on which I have no per¬ 
sonal information. My statement is to be understood 
just as I make it; that the infested stock was received 
from them. 
While, according to the statements quoted by Mr. 
Alwood, the area of infestation is greater in New 
Jersey than it was known to be in the past, neverthe¬ 
less the situation as a whole is distinctly better. In 
every instance, points where the scale was known to 
exist when my Brooklyn state¬ 
ment was made, are in very much 
better condition to-day than 
they were at that time, and as 
centers of distribution, are no 
longer to be feared. Many hun¬ 
dreds of trees have been almost 
entirely cleaned, and have borne 
crops of fruit ever since. I have 
never felt, and do not now feel 
justified in directing a man to 
destroy a tree which brings him 
a revenue, when it can be cleaned 
at a less cost than the profit to be 
derived from the tree. Fruit 
growing pays none too well, and 
if a man is compelled to destroy 
a tree which brings a present 
revenue, it means that he loses 
that revenue until another tree 
can he brought into the same 
condition, a period of from three 
to five years. 
Mr. Alwood unintentionally 
misstates my position in refer¬ 
ence to inspection. My point is 
that it will not do to rely upon 
certificates, and that fact I wish 
to repeat in the most emphatic 
manner. Mr. Alwood says of 
stock having been received, bear¬ 
ing certificates and yet infested : 
“This may well have occurred in 
a few instances * * * But to argue that because some 
error or oversight or even some dishonest practices 
may occur under inspection, we are not to try to stop 
the dissemination of this pest, seems to me simply to 
be begging the question ”. It seems to me that here¬ 
in Mr. Alwood admits that stock bearing a certificate 
may be infested. Does not this admission practically 
confirm my contention that the purchaser should not 
altogether rely upon the certificate, but add his own 
careful inspection or the nurseryman’s guarantee ? 
How does he know that he is not the exceptional man, 
who gets the infested stock ? Since the previous state¬ 
ment made by me on this subject, three other cases 
have been discovered in New Jersey from three dif¬ 
ferent nurseries where infested stock has been re¬ 
ceived under certificates. The stock was carefully 
examined by the purchaser, specimens were sent to 
me, and the planting out of the infested specimens 
was avoided. Had these men relied upon certificates 
alone, they would have set out the stock and, in three 
years, there would have been just that many more in¬ 
fested orchards. The danger in the certificate system 
is that the certificate is too much relied upon. It is 
absurd to say that I oppose efforts to prevent dis¬ 
semination of the pest. On the contrary, I am heartily 
in favor of every measure that may cheek distribution 
through nursery stock or otherwise. Inspect by all 
means, as thoroughly as possible, in order to discover 
infestation and to prevent distribution; but while 
we can say with definiteness that a given block of 
trees is infested, if we find tbe scale, we cannot say 
with equal definiteness that it is not infested if we do 
not find it. John B. smith. 
(To be continued.) 
This maxi, rel*ngraved from The Outlook, shows at a ({lance the scene of the war. Part of our fleet is now block¬ 
ading Havana. Its first guns were fired in silencing the batteries at Matanzas, where, it is expected, soldiers will 
be landed to cooperate with the Cuban insurgents. One of our largest warships is coming up the coast of South 
America. The Flying Squadron is at Fort Monroe ready to sail anywhere to meet the Sxmnish fleet which had 
assembled at the Cape Verde Islands. Both Spanish and American cruisers are on the ocean hunting for 
merchantmen which they hope to capture. The American plan seems to be to pen up the Spaniards in Cuba and 
capture that island and Porto Rico, when all plans are ready. The Spaniards seem to have decided to prey upon 
American shipping, and wait for some of the American warships to become disabled or lost. They may then make 
a dash for some Atlantic seaport, or attack a ])art of our fleet. 
