1897 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
425 
WHAT I SEE AND HEAB. 
Butter dealers here say that the best trade de¬ 
mands goods in packages lined with parchment 
paper. The absence of the paper often spoils the 
sale of an otherwise fine lot of butter. When this 
paper can be procured so cheaply, and the advantages 
of its use are so apparent, it seems a short-sighted 
policy not to use it. 
X t X 
More complaints are made about the color of butter 
at this time of year than about almost any other de¬ 
fect. Receivers say that much of the butter is too 
highly colored. Often, too, the color varies between 
different shipments and between different tubs of the 
same shipment. The nearer the color comes to that 
produced by the grass the better, and oftentimes no 
artificial color is needed. 
X % X 
Before the old apples have disappeared from mar¬ 
ket, the new ones have come in. A few from North 
Carolina have made their appearance, but the price 
per barrel is considerably below that of the old stock. 
Receipts of both old and new are light, and there is 
not much demand for either. The crop of 1896 is 
practically a back: number, though there will be some 
light arrivals for a time longer. 
XXX 
The heavy receipts of southern new potatoes are a 
little later in arriving this year than usual; but they 
have come, and the price has declined accordingly. 
Some very good potatoes are in market. It seems 
strange that there should still be a demand for old 
stock, but there is, enough so that the price has not 
suffered the same decline as new stock. Some ship¬ 
pers occasionally make the mistake of shipping new 
potatoes in sacks. This spoils their appearance. 
Sacks should not be used until the potatoes are so 
well matured that the skins will not slip. 
X X X 
Large quantities of so-called buttermilk are sold 
from carts and stands in the city during the summer. 
Most of the restaurants furnish buttermilk, and many 
of them of very good quality; but much of that which 
is sold by the peddlers, generally at three cents per 
glass, is poor stuff. It is simply sour milk (which is 
no longer salable in its original state) churned and 
thus made into a beverage that many who drink it 
fondly imagine is full-fledged buttermilk. Pure 
buttermilk is a healthful and nutritious beverage, 
but this abomination is as much like the genuine 
article as oleomargarine is like genuine, fresh-made 
country butter. 
X t X 
Most of the fakirs who sell wares of various kinds 
about the city, are adepts in choosing just what is 
likely to appeal to the public. On a hot, sultry day, 
they may be selling fans or ice-cold lemonade, and if 
it rain next day, will be hawking umbrellas. They 
are quick, too, to adopt any method to catch public 
attention. There are great numbers of ice cream and 
lemonade venders during hot weather, at prices as 
lo sv as one and two cents per plate or glass. One of 
them has devised an ingenious scheme to catch trade. 
He has a large cask fitted upon a push cart, and 
labeled, OLD OAKEN BUCKET LEMONADE. There 
isn’t any moss on his oaken bucket, for it is nicely 
pamted, and looks as neat and clean as you please. 
Judging from appearances, the idea takes immensely, 
and there isn’t likely to be any moss on the dollars he 
coins from his unique idea. The point is to catch the 
eye of the public. 
X X X 
I noticed two village milkmen this morning. Both 
deliver the milk from their dairies direct to customers. 
One drives a fine-looking team of horses, wearing a 
well polished harness, and hitched to a bright new 
wagon, painted and lettered in an attractive manner. 
The name of the dairy displayed on the wagon is an 
attractive one. The driver is neat, clean, well aressed, 
and the whole outfit tends to inspire confidence. His 
milk is delivered in bottles. The other milkman 
drives a bony old horse, attached to a wagon which 
was, evidently, originally intended for some other 
purpose, and is now weather-beaten and dilapidated. 
His milk is carried in old tin cans rather the worse 
for wear, and the milkman himself is not an attract¬ 
ive looking object. The milk one carries may not 
be any better than that of the other, but if one were 
to choose his milkman just from the appearance of 
these two rigs, it wouldn’t take the most of us long 
to decide which it would be. 
One day, a man came into the store of a commis¬ 
sion merchant, looked over his stock of eggs, and re¬ 
marked that, when he got some good-looking ones, 
he wanted to get a sitting. This method is often 
resorted to by people who want to get a new stock of 
poultry. I have heard of people who watched the 
stores to which breeders of purebred stock took their 
eggs after the regular season was over, thinking thus 
to get choice eggs at the price of common ones. But 
the breeder had removed the males from his yards, 
and these individuals had their labor for their pains. 
When we get to the point that we can tell which eggs 
will hatch males and which females, it will be time 
enough to judge eggs for sitting by the appearance. 
X X X 
The earliest fruits don’t always catch the highest 
prices. Recently a shipment of white grapes arrived 
from Florida. They were labeled Niagara, but were 
not that variety. Some of the light crates in which 
they were shipped were badly broken, and the com¬ 
mission merchant to whom they were sent refused 
to receive them. They were turned over to another 
by the express company, but were slow of sale. The 
trouble was that they were too green to attract a 
first-class trade, also came into competition with 
heavy strawberry shipments. Even hothouse grapes, 
which have been arriving freely, have not sold for 
very high prices, and these go to a class that buys 
what it wishes regardless of price. The fact is that 
the strawberry is both king and queen while it lasts. 
X X X 
With the growth of export trade in butter, the 
matter of packages comes to the front. The favorite 
market package for the bu k of the butter in this 
country is the tub or firkin. For the English trade, 
however, a square box is desired, and from the fact 
that it is used largely by the Australiau butter ex¬ 
porters, it is commonly known as the Australian but¬ 
ter box. Retailers on the other side prefer a package 
of this shape, because, when it is stripped, it is in 
good shape to cut up for sale. Small quantities can 
be cut off from a square block in much better shape 
than from a round one. The box commonly used is 
12 inches square. Many experiments have been made 
in this country with the object of getting up a box 
that would meet all the requirements of an exacting 
butter trade. The wood must be such as will not im¬ 
part an unpleasant flavor to the butter, and will not 
warp or shrink. Strange as it may seem, this style of 
package does not meet with favor with the butter 
trade on this side. One of the disadvantages of this 
package is that, in packing on the steamers, the boxes 
fit so closely together that the cold air cannot pene¬ 
trate, and the butter in the middle of the mass is not 
sufficiently cooled, and often spoils. And now the 
Produce Review tells us of a package which has been 
registered by the Australian government, under the 
name of Glacier Export Butter Box. It is like the 
other in shape and size, but the sides are cut away in 
the form of a broad cross, leaving only a small square 
on each corner of the original flat surface. When 
these boxes are stowed away, there are channels on 
every side for the air to circulate. Now what we 
want is some smart Yankee who will get up a box 
better than this, for the use of Americans, to carry 
to the markets of the Old World the pure products of 
our American dairies. f. h. y. 
STRAWBERRIES FOR NEARBY MARKETS. 
FOUR GREAT VARIETIES FOR HEAVY SOIL. 
We were told last week about some of the troubles 
of the strawberry growers of southern New Jersey. 
These men are, evidently, anxious over the outlook. 
Their expenses are about as large as ever, while the 
prices they obtain for fruit are out of all proportion 
to the retail price and really leave no margin for 
wages or profit. It is a singular thing that, right in 
the same season, when these men are meeting with 
losses, other growers are making money. For ex¬ 
ample, our old friend, T. C. Kevitt, of Athenia, N. J., 
told me last week that this season will be the most 
profitable he has known in the strawberry business. 
A short time before my visit, one groceryman had 
sold 1,300 quarts of his berries in one day, and they 
brought at retail 12 and 15 cents per quart. 
You may say that Mr. Kevitt has a special market. 
That is true, and he prepares a special product for it. 
Nothing but firm and large berries ever go into his 
first-class baskets—no culls are ever sneaked in at the 
bottom. The boxes are all heaped up for good 
measure and, after filling, each box is neatly wrapped 
in a sheet of white parchment paper, such as is used 
by dairymen. Then these boxes are packed in flats 
holding 24 boxes in one layer. These flats have proved 
far more attractive than the old-fashioned crate. 
They give a better chance for display, and there is 
less danger of heating, while expressmen or handlers 
cannot throw them roughly about. The parchment 
paper keeps the berries clean. Not a speck of dust 
can reach them between the packinghouse and the 
consumer’s table. The red berries under the white 
paper make a striking appearance. Mr. Kevitt says 
this is the best thing he has struck yet, and for years 
he has been trying all sorts of schemes to make his 
fruit more attractive. Most of these berries are 
handled by one large grocery house in Passaic, N. J. 
Mr. Kevitt does not even haul the berries to town— 
this work being done by an expressman. 
Mr. Kevitt has been called a Parker Earle crank. 
He has made a great feature of the Parker Earle, and 
found it exactly suited to his soil and market. He 
grows it in hills, and has produced enormous crops of 
fine berries. This year, he has three new varieties 
which, he says, will fairly divide his market with 
Parker Earle. Parker Earle Jr. ripened this year 
with him on May 25, or 10 days ahead of the original 
Parker Earle. The berry has much the same appear¬ 
ance as the old variety—a longer neck and a bright, 
glossy skin, “looking as though it had been var¬ 
nished”. It is not so productive as the old variety, 
otherwise its habit of growth is much the same. 
Gardner is another great success on “Mr. Kevitt’s 
ground. This gives immense berries of rich, dark 
crimson color, fine flavor and very productive. Last 
week, Mr. Kevitt sold two boxes of Gardner berries 
at 50 cents each. A visitor took a fancy to the fruit 
and paid $1 for two quarts of the largest berries he 
could find. Two years ago, a man willingly paid $1 
for a single heavily fruited plant of Parker Earle. 
Of course such visitors do not come by every train, 
but this gives an idea of the market Mr. Kevitt is 
studying to please. 
Glen Mary is the fourth member of the great quar¬ 
tette. This variety gives large berries with a rich, 
dark color, and of fine quality. Mr. Kevitt is after 
large fruit. He wants the variety that will yield such 
fruit, and then tries to give the culture and care that 
will force such fruit along. I asked him what he 
would do with small berries. He said that he would 
either sell them for canning or for strawberry juice, 
or let them rot in the field. Under no circumstances 
would he put one into a box of first class strawberries. 
His opinion about the future of the strawberry busi¬ 
ness is that the money in it will be made by local 
growers who can sell in a nearby market and ship 
fine fruit straight from the vine. Large, high-colored 
fruit of fine quality, put up in attractive packages with 
the grower’s guarantee, will catch the local trade. He 
doubts whether strawberry growing in sections where 
the crop must be shipped for a long distance, will ever 
be as profitable as formerly. h. w. c. 
BUSINESS BiTS. 
We are just in receipt of a new summer catalogue of the Orange 
County Nurseries, issued by T. J. Dwyer, of Cornwall, N. Y. It is 
just double the size of Mr. Dwyer’s catalogue of a year ago, which 
serves to indicate the steady growth of his enterprise, which we 
are glad to note. It is an object lesson of practical, every-day 
business life, that industry, integrity and merit are sure to win. 
Tue Sandwich Mfg. Company, Sandwich, Ill,, are manufac¬ 
turers of agricultural machinery of a high order of merit, and 
are deserving of the patronage of the public. The advantages of 
their famous South wick baling press, a machine which has 
undergone the most rigorous tests and in every instance come oil 
victorious, are set forth in their advertisement. Write them for 
catalogue, prices, etc. 
One of the most important points in hay-making is to protect 
the hay from rain and dew. It is always well to have some hay 
caps on hand in case of a sudden shower. Half a dozen hay caps 
will cover about a ton of hay and save from 82 to $5 of its value. 
These caps cost not over $3 for half a dozen and last from four to 
five years. They may be had of Derby, Abercrombie & Co., 36 
South Street. New York City. 
Chloro-Naptuoleum is a non-poisonous disinfectant which is 
used as a lice and tick destroyer, for mange on cattle, etc. The 
disinfectant is easily soluble in water and the animals to be 
treated are dipped in this solution. It is said to free animals per¬ 
fectly from these pests with no injury to the animals. This is an 
important matter, for no animal can thrive so long as he is 
annoyed by parasites of any kind. It is poor economy to feed 
such animals. Full particulars by addressing the West Disin¬ 
fecting Company, 206-208 East 57th Street, New York City. 
No stable should be without a bottle of good liniment. It is 
especially valuable in the horse stable, but is needful with any 
kind of domestic animals. Tuttle’s Elixir is one of the safe lini¬ 
ments to have on hand ready when wanted. It will save many 
a blemish and limp on a horse if used in time. If it can’t be had 
at the druggists or country store, it will be sent direct at the same 
price, 50 cents a bottle, or sample for three two-cent stamps to 
pay postage. It is guaranteed to do as recommended or money 
refunded. For full information, address Dr. S. A. Tuttle, 27 Bev¬ 
erly Street, Boston, Mass. 
Mb. W. I. Moody, Nashua, Iowa, has just instituted a new plan 
in the operation of his creamery at that place. His plan is to put 
a hand-separator in each dairy. The fanner is to separate his 
own cream and use the skim-milk himself on the farm. The 
creamery sends a wagon around for the cream. This scheme 
saves the carting of the milk and leaves practically all the fertil¬ 
ity of the milk on the farm. Mr. Moody thiaks the saving to the 
farmers will pay for the separators, and he has already ordered 
500 machines, proposing that his patrons pay for them in install¬ 
ments in amounts not to exceed tae montnly savings through the 
new system. Tne macuines used are the Sharpies, made by P. M. 
Sharpies, Elgin, Ill. 
