442 
TIIE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
June 4, 
the second in the afternoon and the third load some¬ 
times not reaching the market until eight o’clock. 
Fig. 188 shows a load for the local market. 
HOW TO PICK.—It is very important in the suc¬ 
cessful marketing of strawberries that the picking be 
attended to at the right time, and the work properly 
done. When possible the picking should be done in 
the cool of the morning after the vines are dry and late 
THE SECTIONAL BERRY CRATE. Fig. 190. 
in the afternoon. With a large acreage or when help 
is scarce this is not possible, and picking will have to 
be continued all day. All carelessness should be pre¬ 
vented and the berries picked without being mashed or 
bruised, and delivered to the packing shed in good con¬ 
dition. Fig. 189 shows our pickers at work. The day 
is past when we can succeed by placing our fruit upon 
the market in any but the best condition. The ordi¬ 
nary pickers cannot do grading, as their ideas of the 
various grades are all different. Each quart of the 
same grade should be as near alike as possible, and 
should contain as large, if not larger, berries at the 
bottom as those on top. It makes the grower feel bet¬ 
ter, to say the least, if he should hear a customer say: 
“These berries are all right. There are finer berries at 
the bottom than those on top.” The retailer can use 
this to an advantage as an argument in selling the 
fruit at a better price. We need not offer our custo¬ 
mers a quart of small, mashed or unattractive berries 
and ask them the same price as one that has been prop¬ 
erly grown, carefully picked and graded. 
GRADING.—In supplying the home market I believe 
the berries should be sorted into four grades, fancy, 
choice, No. 1 and culls, the last to contain all that are 
not fit for market. Fig. 192 shows the three marketable 
grades in sectional crates. Of course some varieties, if 
properly grown, would need but little sorting, yet they 
should be looked over. The fancy grade should contain 
all large perfect berries, and be maintained at a uni¬ 
form size and the price held the same, as near as possi¬ 
ble, through the entire season. This grade will go to 
customers who want the best all the time, and are per¬ 
fectly willing to pay for it. By the berries always being 
the same they will not look elsewhere, but will send 
their order to the same place each day. I he other two 
grades can be varied according to the market conditions. 
If there is a prospect of berries being scarce the next 
day more can be made into the choice and less into 
the No. 1, or if the competitors have nicer berries than 
the No. 1 then this grade must be made better. The 
idea is to have the No. 1 as good as those of any com¬ 
petitor, and sell these at a price to compete with them, 
and have the fancy and choice better, which will bring 
a higher price. Each quart must be well filled and the 
berries on top turned with the stem down. This takes 
time and costs money, but there is no other work that 
returns as great a clear profit and does more to build 
up a trade in the home market. 
A FEW ESSENTIALS.—A neatly printed card giv¬ 
ing the grower’s name and address, and stating where 
the same kind of berries can be secured each day, should 
be placed in each quart of the fancy and choice grades. 
When the berries are emptied the card falls out, and 
shows that the customer has been sent the berries he 
has ordered. Thus none can use your reputation for 
fancy berries to sell their own. Your name will not 
be seen on an old, stained and blackened basket, long 
past its usefulness as a strawberry quart, yet such is 
used by some to market their berries. In conclusion, I 
may give these reasons for success in building up the 
home market and making it the most profitable: The 
man himself; his -business ability, judgment, honesty, 
enthusiasm and energy. The grower must thoroughly 
understand the demands of the market, carefully watch¬ 
ing their changing conditions during the berry season, 
and personally superintending the grading and picking. 
He must have a reputation for always selling extra fine 
berries, carefully picked, honestly graded and guar¬ 
anteed to give satisfaction. The neatness and attrac¬ 
tiveness of the fruit when placed upon the market. 
These essentials apply to every locality but there are 
also purely local requirements, which each grower must 
study for himself. elmer g. tufts. 
Indiana. 
TROUBLE WITH AN INCUBATOR. 
I had my incubator set with 43 eggs, and did not get any 
chickens. The first week the temperature was kept 102 de¬ 
grees, the second 103 and the third 104. The eighteenth day 
I took water warmed to 103 degrees and placed some fertile 
eggs in it They floated with the large end out about the 
size of a quarter of a dollar. As the incubator has no 
moisture pans I took a tin basin about five inches in diam¬ 
eter, filled it about half full of water, placed it on the 
empty side of the egg tray; the nineteenth day I tested them 
again and found them to be the same as before. The twen¬ 
ty-second day 1 removed the eggs from the incubator and 
broke them. Every fertile egg contained a live chicken 
with a bunch grown to it, resembling the yolk. 1 had one 
hatch before and got a small per cent The chickens seeiped 
too weak to pick themselves out of the shell, and some that 
were picked did not hatch at all. Could you tell me what 
the trouble is? If they lack moisture tell me how to supply 
it. READER. 
When an incubator hatch fails it is difficult to locate 
the trouble; there are so many causes, any one of which 
will either kill or weaken the bird so that it is unable 
successfully to terminate the final struggle from the 
shell. Supposing the eggs are from vigorous, healthy, 
rightly fed and cared-for stock, the incubator is thor¬ 
oughly warmed up and in steady running order when 
the eggs go in and at 102J4 degrees temperature. As 
life develops, in four or five days, the eggs will throw 
out heat and gradually raise the temperature to 103 de¬ 
grees. From then till about the sixteenth day it 
will slowly work up to 103J4 degrees, and when 
the eggs pip, will continue to increase to 104, 10414 
and 105 during the final struggle. Higher than this in¬ 
jures the hatch and below 103 has the same effect. 
When birds properly develop their last act before libera¬ 
tion from the shell is to absorb through the vent the last 
of the yolk, Nature thus providing sustenance for 48 
hours. The bunch grown to your chicks is thus ex¬ 
plained. You ran your rig a little low, which made 
the eggs a trifle slow in hatching and somewhat weak¬ 
ened them. If you had kept the machine running 24 
hours longer the birds would probably have hatched. 
Regarding moisture, the amount required depends en¬ 
tirely on your locality and the condition of the atmos- 
SECTIONAL CRATE TAKEN APART. Fig. 191. 
phere during the hatch. Where the evaporation is very 
rapid, too much moisture can scarcely be applied; when 
it is humid, and near lake or river, very little is re¬ 
quired. If the egg shells are thick, it is a good' plan to 
soak them from one to five minutes in tepid water, espe¬ 
cially during the last week once or twice, and at final 
closing of the machine. f. e. w. 
HOW TO THIN FRUIT. 
One of our western readers wishes to know whether we 
can give him an economical and satisfactory method of thin¬ 
ning fruit on apple trees, and also at what stage oj growth 
the thinning ought to be done. We are often advised by the 
scientific men to thin the fruit so as to give what is left on 
the tree a better chance to develop, but how can we do it? 
With the present, price of labor we cannot afford to pick 
these apples off one at a time. Will you tell us when and 
how you thin the fruit? 
I do not know that I have any suggestion to make in 
regard to thinning fruit on apple trees, except to suggest 
that thinning may be done by the pruning. Fruit spurs 
may be cut off at least from the larger limbs, and the 
branches thinned out so that it would be impossible for 
the tree to be seriously overladen. Charles a. green. 
So far as I know I believe there is no way to thin 
fruit except by hand picking. It is not so big or expen¬ 
sive a job as one would think. As yet T have only had 
a limited experience thinning apples, but what I have 
had fully convinces me that when the 12,000 apple trees 
I now have in my Connecticut orchards come into full 
bearing I shall as regularly thin the fruit as I shall culti¬ 
vate, prune and spray. First, start with low-headed 
trees. What is the use of a trunk to a tree anyhow? 
Why not start the first branches within a few inches of 
the ground? There is always more or less drop in the 
orchard when the little apples are about half an inch in 
diameter. As soon as this ceases begin the thinning. 
If you leave the apples all on they must be picked some 
time, and it is easier and faster work to drop them to 
the ground when small than later to pick them into 
baskets in the Fall, and then handle them over two or 
three times before finally rejecting them for the cider 
mill, or a market that will not pay expenses. If smart 
nimble boys can be hired they can climb about like 
monkeys and do much of the work without the use 
of a ladder. It will pay to shake each limb a little 
before beginning to thin. Any fruit that has a weak 
hold on the tree will thus be got out of the way, but 
the main part of the work must be done by hand. The 
consumer of the better fruit that is left will pay the bill. 
J. II. HALE. 
I do not believe that there is any easy way of thin¬ 
ning apples or other fruits. When trees are over¬ 
loaded the only proper way in my opinion is to thin the 
fruit by hand. It cannot be shaken off satisfactorily, 
although it is possible to do something in this way just 
about the time that the June drop occurs. But any 
ijiethod, such as beating the fruit off with poles or jar¬ 
ring the branches with curculio mallets or raking the 
trees down with any rake-like implement, is not only 
unsatisfactory, but is likely to result in injury to the 
branches. Wound injuries encourage canker, and much 
of this type of injury is to be attributed to the damage 
of the picking ladder and the hames on the horse drag¬ 
ging the cultivator. I do not believe that it will pay us 
to thin the standard varieties of apples. Fancy sorts 
can be treated in the same way as peaches are managed, 
but this work must be done by hand. Again, early 
varieties can be successively picked. This will improve 
the size of the fruit and will also relieve the strain on 
the tree. The whole problem is one that must be 
worked out by the individual grower. john craig. 
While my experience in thinning fruit has not been 
extensive, I have employed help for picking off the 
young peaches, and after doing what seemed a good job 
have failed to realize the expected improvement in size 
and quality. To a more limited extent we have thinned 
plums, pears and apples by hand picking. In the latter 
fruits we have simply removed imperfect specimens in 
reach from the ground. On the whole, this work seems 
of uncertain value, but in the case of peaches we seem 
to have obtained the desired results by a change in our 
system of pruning. We are now heading our peach 
trees back very severely, producing a very broad, low 
tree, the top of which is much reduced as compared 
with the root system, and all parts of which are fully 
exposed to sunshine and air. The result has been greatly 
to improve the size and quality of the fruit. If it should 
become necessary to thin the fruit by hand it would be 
a much easier and cheaper job on these low trees than 
on the old-style tall ones. Possibly the problem of thin¬ 
ning other fruits may be solved in some degree by prun¬ 
ing. _ w. T. MANN. 
SHORT STORIES. 
MIXING BORDEAUX MIXTURE.—I was much 
interested in Mr. Spencer’s account of making Bordeaux 
Mixture on page 277, and would suggest one change; 
that while Billy Boy is putting scallops in the pie Uncle 
John put the lime in the barrel first, and dilute to two- 
thirds of a barrel and s*ir well before adding his stock 
solution of copper sulphate. He will get a finer grained 
Bordeaux Mixture that will stay in suspension longer 
than if made in the way he describes. If you doubt it 
try. b. d. v. b. 
VALUE OF ORCHARDS.—The value of a bearing 
apple orchard depends very much upon the location and 
varieties planted, but I believe that a young orchard just 
coming into bearing, and planted to good varieties, is 
worth from $200 to $300, and an apple orchard in full 
bearing $300 to $400. I base these figures on the price 
of apples the past few years, and a knowledge of the 
actual returns from quite a number of bearing apple 
orchards in the apple-growing districts of New York 
State. b. d. v. b. 
SALT FOR CABBAGE MAGGOTS.—I see just now 
a good many suggestions as to the best treatment of the 
Cabbage maggot; among them clay, ashes, lime, sulphur, 
wood-pulp breeches, etc., but up to date nobody, so far 
as I have noticed, has suggested common salt. Many 
years ago I noticed my cabbage garden in distress just 
after a fine rain, as the morning sun touched the leaves. 
An examination enabled me to make my first acquaint¬ 
ance with the maggot, of which I had never even heard. 
At once I called to mind the custom of the housewives 
of 50 years ago, in treating their cabbage roots with salt, 
of which the plant was considered to be very tolerant, 
and which they considered to be “good for cabbages.” 
GRADES OF BERRIES. Fig. 192. 
Acting on the presumption that the little naked worms 
might prove less tolerant than their host, I at once 
treated every rootstalk with a thimbleful, more or less, 
of the cheap medicine, with the result that the very next 
day the plants began to recover their spirit, and since 
that 1 have never asked anybody how to treat the Cab¬ 
bage maggot, nor have T ever had any trouble in routing 
the pest. On a large field the trouble of application 
would of course be considerable, but less, I think, than 
that of treating each plant with a pair of wood-pulp 
breeches. One application has generally been sufficient. 
Pennsylvania. e. w. 
