1897 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
345 
WHAT I SEE AND HEAB. 
A fibe in a cold storage house damaged about 
10,000 cases of eggs, and these were afterwards sold 
at auction for the insurance companies. They brought 
from 75 cents to $2 a case, most of them bringing from 
§1 to $1.50. It is the poorer class of trade that boys 
such goods. It was reported that most of these went 
out of the city. 
X X t 
A Michigan subscriber wishes to know where he 
can contract several car-loads of squashes to be 
grown this season. The only persons likely to make 
contracts, especially at fixed prices, are the canners. 
Contracting crops to be grown is nothing but a lot¬ 
tery. Their value would depend on many circum¬ 
stances which are all in the future. It would be well 
to correspond with dealers in regard to the sale of 
such products, but there is little likelihood of being 
able to contract for them ahead. 
t t t 
The daily papers are constantly evolving some 
wonderful bits of news about agriculture in some of 
its forms. One of them has just gravely informed its 
readers that, for a long time, American cheese has 
been highly thought of and has been an important 
commodity in the English markets, and that now ex¬ 
perimental shipments of butter are to be made to that 
market. The fact is that both butter and cheese 
have been sent to the English markets for a long 
time, and that, because of the fraud practiced in its 
manufacture, cheese from the United States has 
fallen into disrepute, and shipments have largely 
declined. At the same time, because of its superior 
quality, shipments of cheese from Canada have in¬ 
creased more than 400 per cent in the few years just 
past. The butter from the United States is in better 
favor than the cheese, the greatest objections so far 
being that the manufacturers do not cater to the 
requirements of the English market in the matter of 
the amount of salt, color, style of packages and other 
details. 
% X X 
One of The R. N.-Y.’s good friends who has been 
raising hothouse lambs up in central New York for 
several years, called on us the other day. He was in 
the city looking after the receivers of his lambs. He 
said that, when he began shipping, he resolved to 
devote the price of two lambs every year to keeping 
an eye on the market end of the business, and that it 
had been a very profitable investment. He has raised 
good lambs to begin with, and by the exercise of 
good care in preparing them for market, and in put¬ 
ting them on the market, he has succeeded in making 
a good profit. Still, he says that, if every farmer 
went into the business, no one would make any 
money, because the demand for these lambs at prices 
that would make the raising of them profitable, is 
necessarily limited. But the special point to which I 
wish to call attention is the watch he keeps over 
those who sell his lambs. He ships now entirely to 
one dealer, and keeps in close communication with 
him. 
X t t 
Anotheb of his errands in the city was to call on 
the officials of the express company that transports 
his lambs, with a view to securing better service. He 
went direct to headquarters, stated the grievances of 
himself and fellow shippers, received a respectful 
hearing and a promise that better facilities should be 
provided. A large number of hothouse lambs as well 
as dressed veals are shipped from that locality, some¬ 
times so many that the whole end of an express car 
would be filled with them. The result would be that 
many of them would heat and sour, even in cold 
weather. The lambs which were in the middle of 
the heap would suffer most and would often arrive 
almost worthless, though, perhaps, among the best 
when they started; the result was that somebody 
would get almost nothing for the lambs sent. The 
shippers want some provision made for hanging up 
the lambs so that the air can circulate around them 
in cool weather, and also, want a refrigerator car for 
warm weather. They have large enough quantities 
to ship to secure attention, and by going to head¬ 
quarters and presenting their case in a business-like 
way, are likely to secure their demands, which were 
recognized as reasonable. Speaking of the way some 
shippers send in lambs, and the reasons why some do 
not secure better prices, this man said that not only 
had he seen many improperly dressed, but he had 
actually seen some of these carcasses wrapped up in 
old phosphate sacks which still exhaled the odor of 
their original contents. Just think of the stupidity 
of putting a fancy product that is expected to bring 
a high price, into such wrappings ! 
X X X 
A westebn shipper asks about the terms carrier, 
crate, basket, etc., as used in New York market re¬ 
ports. The carrier is a style of package that has 
been growing rapidly in favor. It varies somewhat 
from different localities, but, usually, consists of a 
light case carrying two layers of baskets, three in 
each layer. These baskets are about twice as long as 
their depth and width, and hold, usually, about five 
pounds each, sometimes more. Thus a carrier con¬ 
tains about 30 pounds of fruit, often a little more. 
These are used for the southern tomatoes, peaches, 
plums, grapes, etc., and find great favor in market. 
The barrel crates mentioned are of a size to hold a 
barrel, and are made in the style of the orange and 
lemon boxes, only larger. Crates holding a bushel 
are, also, often used. Many of the baskets used are 
of the same style as the regular peach baskets, only 
larger. Most of them hold one-half barrel, others 
one bushel, but the size is generally given in the 
quotations. Boxes holding these amounts are, also, 
often used. Southern and hothouse tomatoes, oranges, 
and most of the California fruits are wrapped in 
papers. As a general thing, each locality has some 
packages peculiar to itself, and these may vary from 
time to time. The packages now seen in the markets 
are quite different from those seen a half dozen years 
ago. f. h. v. 
HORTICULTURE FOR THE CHILDREN. 
Here is something easy, entertaining and useful for 
the boys, and it will not hurt the girls to try it. When 
I was 10 years old, a visitor at our house did a little 
budding on the sprouts, under the shade of some 
fruit trees one hot August day, just to show my father 
how it was done. I watched him closely, and, think¬ 
ing that I could do it, too, after he went away I tried 
it. My buds took about as well as those he set; so, 
the next spring, I got father to give me a little coiner 
of the garden, dug up little seedling peach sprouts 
just as they showed above ground and set them in 
rows. I kept them hoed clean, and they grew so well 
that, by August, most of them were big enough to 
bud. We had some of the choicest varieties of peaches 
in our orchard then known, and I took buds from them 
and scoured the neighborhood for other kinds. The 
next year, I had all the choice budded peach trees 
father wanted to plant, and some to sell for pocket 
money. 
This is just the season when little peach, apple and 
other fruit seedlings are coming up wherever seeds 
happened to get into the soil. Boys, why not dig them 
up with plenty of earth, and plant a little nursery row 
or two for your own pleasure and profit ? Ten good 
budded trees will be worth a dollar in hard cash, and 
more, if planted in the orchard. You can have 100 or 
more in two years, if you will begin at once. You can 
get buds from the best trees of which you know in 
your own or the neighbors’ orchards. When the time 
comes, I will try to tell you just how to bud them. It 
is easily and quickly done, and any bright boy or girl 
can do it. h. e. van deman. 
APPLES IN WESTERN COLD STORAGE. 
We had in cold storage this year about 55,000 barrels 
of apples, 29,000 barrels being stored by the American 
Fruit Growers’ Union, all of them New York apples. 
A good many of these apples were packed without 
any regard whatever for business principles, or ordi¬ 
nary commercial procedure. We have found a great 
many barrels that were packed with No. 2 apples that 
ought to have been sold on the ground. Many barrels 
had the tops nicely faced, but the centers contained 
poor trash. A number of cars of apples reached us 
in bad shape, in many cases the apples being frost¬ 
bitten. 
Naturally, it has been a hard year for apples, but 
particularly for anything that is not in the best of 
condition, and in taking these apples out of cold 
storage, and repacking, we have often been confronted 
with a probable shrinkage that was a great deal more 
troublesome than anything we have ever experienced 
in that line. Notwithstanding all these disadvantages, 
however, we marketed the New York stock for the 
Union at from $1.35 to $2 per barrel, and had all the 
apples been as carefully selected and as well packed 
as were some of the better ones, we would have been 
able to make returns that would have paid the grower 
handsomely for storing. As it was, however, the 
claims for allowances, etc., simply knocked out the 
possibility of profit. 
We kept these apples in a temperature of 33 degrees, 
even, and at no time, from the first of November 
until the first of May, was there a difference of one- 
half degree up or down. The ventilation was so per¬ 
fect, in fact, that a match could be struck in any part 
of the cold storage rooms with no trouble whatever. 
Last year our shrinkage on Missouri apples (Ben 
Davis and Winesaps) did not run five per cent. This 
year, our shrinkage on western apples was possibly 
20 per cent, while the average shrinkage on the New 
York stock was over 30 per cent, due, I think, to the 
fact that New York apples were not as carefully 
selected or as well packed as was the western stock. 
The Ben Davis has the reputation of being a good 
keeper, but we have found a new apple this year that 
beats everything on the list, not only as a good keep¬ 
ing apple, but as a fine appearing apple, having the 
added advantage (which is not possessed by the Ben 
Davis) of being juicy and palatable. It is the Ingram 
apple, raised by W. T. Clark, of Golden City, Mo. This 
apple is a cross between a Ben Davis and a Gennetting, 
and the apple is not quite as large as the largest Ben 
Davis. It is beautifully marked in red and yellow, 
and has a fine flavor. To give you an idea of the 
excellent keeping quality of these apples, I will say 
that we had in stock 304 barrels, put in about Novem¬ 
ber 1, and did not commence to move them until the 
first of May. At that time, we took out the first 
apples at $2,25 per barrel, and found them in perfect 
condition, with no deterioration either in juiciness or 
flavor. Since that time, the price has been advanced 
to $3.50, and we expect before closing them all out to 
realize $4 to $4.50 per barrel, which is at least $2 25 
per barrel more than any apple has yet brought in 
this market this year. Oat of 150 barrels sold so 
far, we have found but one barrel that contained 
imperfect apples, and this barrel had so few that the 
shrinkage practically amounted to nothing. It looks 
as though the Ingram apple is the coming apple for 
the West. h. e. f. 
Kansas City, Mo. 
On January 1, 1892 tlere were 15,498,140 horses in 
this country, worth $1,007,593,036. Five years later, 
at the opening of this year, there were but 14,364,067 
horses, worth $452,649,396. In other words, the horse 
stock of the country was worth less than half of its 
value five years ago. Dozens of reasons have been 
assigned for this awful depreciation in values. It is 
a singular fact that the prices and values of mules 
have not fallen in anything like the proportion of 
losses in horse values. The Statistician of the United 
States Agricultural Department does not think the 
bicycle and the electric motor have been the chief 
cause of this loss of values. He says : 
In truth, the fall in the price of horses is exceptionally heavy, 
and some cause not universally operative is needed to explain it. 
May it not be found in the rapid multiplication of horses for many 
years in the vast grazing regions opened up by the construction 
of transcontinental railroads, where animals could be produced 
at a nominal cost for subsistence; in the gradual overstocking of 
the ranges, which in the meantime, are diminished in extent by 
the progress of agricultural settlement, and in the consequent 
forcing of the surplus into the market ? 
There is, probably, much truth in that view of the 
matter. Horse breeders in the Middle West have 
found it impossible to compete with stockmen on the 
plains who paid practically no taxes or land rent. 
The cheap, free Government land has produced the 
horses that have destroyed the profit in the business. 
The same thing would follow with other products if 
the great schemes for irrigating the western deserts 
at Government expense were carried out. An im¬ 
mense area of food-producing land would be opened, 
and the men who have worked to earn their farms 
would be crowded still harder. There is plenty of 
land under cultivation now—too much, in fact. We 
should learn to make better use of what we have, 
rather than to try to open a larger area. 
BUSINESS BITS. 
Readers are invited to investigate the claims of the Hartman 
Stockade fence, made by the Hartman Mfg. Company, Ellwood 
City, Pa. It is said to combine all the essentials of a good fence, 
at a low price. Address as above for catalogue, prices, etc. 
The DeKalb Fence Company, DeKalb, Ill., have had extended 
experience in the manufacture of wire fencing, and the DeKalb 
woven wire fence is the result of that experience. It is made in 
various widths so as to make a fence of almost any desired 
height, and is neat, strong, durable and rust-proof, being most 
thoroughly galvanized. Write the manufacturers for circulars. 
The tools for farmers and gardeners made by the Withington 
& Cooley Mfg. Company, of Jackson, Mich., embrace nearly 100 
kinds and styles. The most prominent are the Ivan hoe, V-shape 
shuffle hoe, Acme weeding hoe, solid steel bow-rake and Acme 
hay and manure forks. The firm also manufacture a line of 
wheelbarrows. Their W. & C. book will be mailed free to any one 
that writes for it. 
The difference between profit and loss is frequently a very 
small amount indeed. Those things which possess a money¬ 
earning power almost invariably become bills of expense the 
moment they cease to be active. For instance, should anything 
happen to deprive you of the use of a horse, the moment he ceases 
to be useful he becomes a bill of expense. If he could be cured 
by a few simple applications of any remedy, this loss would im¬ 
mediately cease and be converted into a profit. Bickmore’s Gall 
Cure will work this change. The manufacturers guarantee a 
complete cure of collar, saddle or harness gall when the horse is 
being worked, It is said to be of equal value in treating grease- 
heel, speed cracks, cuts and all forms of external sores on both 
horses and cattle. Write the Bickmore Gall Cure Company, Old- 
town, Me., for circulars, etc. 
