1897 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
697 
Prizes for House Plans. 
$15 $10 $5 
THE FOLLOWING LETTER WILL EXPLAIN ITSELF. 
Comfortable Farm House Wanted. 
Husband and I have been reading about an 
up-to-date barn, in The R. N.-Y., and discussing 
its merits. We often see good plans for barns, 
but I wish to ask for a plan of an up-to-date farm 
house—not a house for the retired farmer, but for 
those who are bearing the heat and burden of the 
day; one where all the employees through seed¬ 
ing, planting, haying, harvesting, thrashing and 
caring for the stock in winter, can be fed and 
lodged conveniently and economically to the 
farmer’s wife, and comfortably to the family the 
year through. There are so many demands upon 
the farm house that it ought to be the best struc¬ 
ture that can be designed. I am not asking for 
an expensive house that would be out of keeping 
with the price of land and farm produce, but for 
a convenient, comfortable, shapely dwelling for 
plain farmers. a farmer’s wife. 
The R. N.-Y. will offer prizes of $15. $10 and $5 for 
the first, second and third best plans for such a house 
as is called for in the above letter. 
We want drawings or photographs and estimates 
of cost. 
The contest will close on December 1, 1897. 
The judges will be the woman who wrote the above 
letter, the editor of The R. N.-Y., and a third party 
to be selected by the two first-named judges. 
Put on your thinking cap, and build your farm castle 
AMONG THE MARKETMEN. 
WHAT I SEE AND HEAR. 
And now large quantities of New York State grapes 
are being sold at action. The methods followed are 
the same as those for the sale of California fruits, 
which The R. N.-Y. has so often described. The 
offerings comprise all the leading varieties packed in 
5 and 10-pound baskets, also those intended for wine 
grapes packed in trays holding as much as several 
baskets. The sellers here claim that the results are 
satisfactory, and the system a success. The growers 
are yet to be heard from. An attempt was made 
several years ago to sell these grapes at auction, but 
it was not a success. f. h. y. 
CUT AND SHREDDED. 
The dissemination of weeds through the agency of 
irrigating ditches is a trouble noted on the Pacific 
coast. A California rancher reports the excessive 
growth of burdock in his fields, during the interval 
between harvesting and plowing, the seed being 
brought in the irrigating flume. So great was the 
growth of the weed that the only method of extirpa¬ 
tion was to mow the plants down with a scythe, 
draw them into windrows, and then burn them. 
Doubtless many other weeds are disseminated in the 
same way. 
During the long period of agricultural depression, 
the values of many western farms have fallen below 
the amount of mortgage indebtedness. Now, in con¬ 
sequence of improved conditions, many of these 
mortgages will soon be paid in full, or the farmers 
will be able to discharge arrears of interest, which 
will rehabilitate western credit. Much progress has 
already been made in canceling mortgage debts. This 
prosperity will be felt by the small eastern investors, 
who without being directly interested in crop returns, 
thus share the benefit of increasing farm values in 
the West. 
Still some shippers persist in using pony barrels, 
and lose money thereby. Buyers cannot afford to be 
so particular when there is a scarcity in the market, 
but these barrels are a fraud at all times, and there is 
no excuse for using them. Barrel heads should be not 
less than 163* or 17 inches in diameter. 
X X X 
Have you noticed that prices on fancy apples are 
higher than any quoted on pears except fancy Seckels? 
In the market to-day, one can buy a barrel of good 
pears for considerably less money than he can buy a 
barrel of good apples. The reason is simply that 
there is a heavy supply of the pears and a light one 
of apples. The pear trees this year, apparently, 
tried to make up for the shortage of the apple crop. 
X X X 
The Hebrew holidays for this autumn, which have 
given such a boom to the live poultry market, will be 
over before this paper reaches the readers. The sup¬ 
ply of poultry has been enormous, and prices towards 
the end have been low, extremely so, although, dur¬ 
ing the first of these holidays, prices were good. The 
next of these holidays is that of Purim, March 8, and 
the next the Passover, beginning April 7 and ending 
April 14, 1898. 
X t X 
It would be well for those who are packing apples 
for shipment to England, or indeed, to any other 
market, to bear in mind the methods of selling on 
the other side. Two barrels are selected at random 
from each lot, for samples; one of these barrels is 
dumped on a platform before all the buyers, and the 
other is simply unheaded and set alongside. The lot 
is sold at auction from these samples, the unheaded 
barrel going with the rest, and the dumped one being 
sold separately, usually at a lower price. But what 
chance does a packer have who faces up his barrels 
with fine fruit and puts inferior stuff in the middle ? 
Yet it is reported that this is just the kind of stuff 
that some shippers send over there. It costs too much 
to export apples—about $1 per barrel—to make this 
practice profitable. 
X X X 
The fourth and last of the first series of wool auc¬ 
tions was held at the Wool Exchange, October 18. A 
larger quantity was offered than at previous sales— 
about 1,400,000 pounds, mostly in large lots. There 
was sharp competition among buyers, especially on 
Montana, Oregon, Cape and Australian wools; prices 
obtained were, consequently, good, and in some cases, 
extreme as compared with ruling prices in the mar¬ 
kets. All the wools offered were disposed of except 
about a dozen lots of Texas and Territory that did 
not grade up to sample. The promoters of these auc¬ 
tion sales consider this the most successful of any 
they have held, and they feel that they have ample 
encouragement to perfect arrangements for another 
series. Thus is another product added to the long list 
disposed of at auction in our market. 
This is, certainly, getting to be a fast age. A new 
friction-geared locomotive has just been tried on the 
railroad between Camden, N. J. and Cape May. It 
drew three coaches a distance of 543* miles in 523* 
minutes, and was obliged to slow down eight times, 
or still greater speed would have been maintained. 
One mile was covered in 30 seconds, and the inventor 
says that, with a solid roadbed and heavier rails, his 
engine can make still better time. The fastest pre¬ 
vious mile on record was 32 seconds made on the New 
York Central in 1893. This is hurrying us through 
life at too rapid a pace. 
The cultivation of cotton in Queensland, Australia, 
which has steadily decreased since 1870, is now re¬ 
ceiving encouragement, and it is likely that attempts 
will be made to revive the industry. In 1871, the ex¬ 
ports of cotton from Queensland amounted to 2,602,100 
pounds, but since then, the quantity has fallen to noth¬ 
ing. Last year, 280 acres were planted. The Austra¬ 
lians follow a system of pruning the cotton plant, be¬ 
ginning when it is one year old ; this enables them to 
begin picking earlier, as the old plants mature their 
crop earlier than the young ones. With pruned 
bushes, picking will begin in Australia before Christ¬ 
mas, while with the young plants, the crop is not 
ready until February. 
The republic of Switzerland purposes to buy the 
five principal Swiss railroads and nationalize them. 
It purposes to give the railroad companies 25 times 
the average net annual earnings for the past 10 years. 
As estimated by the government, this would amount 
to $186,126,257. In this country, efforts have been 
made to have the Government foreclose the mortgage 
on the Union Pacific Railroad and practically control 
it. On November 1, the Union Pacific is to be sold at 
auction, and dark stories of scandals are told in con¬ 
nection with the various “ deals ” which have led up to 
this sale. We are, probably, not yet ready in America 
for government ownership of railroads ; but it is a 
good sign that, all over the country, there is a move¬ 
ment for town or city ownership of franchises out of 
which corporations have been coining money. 
Objections to free rural mail delivery on the score of 
expense, come from various quarters. On Thursday, a 
new plan, originated by Postmaster Van Cott, of New 
York, of delivering letters to passengers on incoming 
steamers, was put into practice. All letters and par¬ 
cels 60 addressed, are sent to the foreign department, 
and when a steamship is reported down the bay, all 
mail for her passengers will be sent down to her on a 
little steamboat chartered for the purpose. Recently, a 
special fast mail train was put on the Pennsylvania 
Railroad for Washington, principally that the New 
York daily papers might be put in the southern cities 
a little earlier in the day. As the Government is 
supposed to lose money in handling this kind of mail 
matter, it is difficult to see any reason for this new 
expenditure. But it’s poor taste to plead economy 
when free rural mail delivery is under discussion, so 
long as these expenditures are continued. 
An Australian stock farmer states that, in New 
South Wales, a telephone line is improvised on the 
great cattle runs by using one wire of the wire fenc¬ 
ing around the ranch as a telephone wire, communi¬ 
cation being thus maintained with adjacent stations, 
and also with distant towns. During damp weather, 
the communication is interrupted owing to the lack 
of insulation ; but still this line is found very useful 
on many occasions. 
The National Horse-Shoers’ Association has been 
in session in St. Louis, and the statistician of that 
organization reports that, contrary to the general 
opinion that the horse is becoming a back number, 
there has been no decrease in its use, the country 
over. Not only this, but the States of Wisconsin, 
Kentucky, Minnesota, Nebraska, Illinois and Massa¬ 
chusetts, show a total increase of 102,302 horses in 
actual service, over 1890. Indiana reported an in¬ 
crease of 9,612 since 1895. Evidently horse power is 
yet popular, notwithstanding the trolley and bicycle. 
So far as the latter is concerned, many people own 
and use it who wouldn’t, and couldn’t if they would, 
own a horse. Oats and hay are still in demand. 
In 1891, the Michigan Legislature passed a law re¬ 
quiring all railroad companies operating in that State 
to sell 1,000-mile tickets good for any member of the 
purchaser’s family, and valid for two years. The 
price was to be $20 in the main part of the State. The 
railroad companies refused to comply with this law, 
but the State Supreme Court has decided against 
them, and they will now be compelled to sell the 
tickets and perform the service. This same result 
was reached last year in New York State in a suit 
brought against the Erie Railroad. Farmers and 
others should remember that, in New York and Mich¬ 
igan, the railroads are now obliged to sell them 1,000- 
mile tickets at the rate of two cents a mile. 
The free seed distribution is as much of a bugaboo 
as ever. Secretary Wilson was inclined to distribute 
the seeds according to the original design, which was 
to import and distribute new, rare and promising spec¬ 
ialties. But the Comptroller of the Treasury has de¬ 
cided that the language of the appropriation as 
passed by Congress is mandatory, and that the only 
course left open to the Secretary is to advertise for 
seeds all put up ready for distribution, and the com¬ 
monest kind of seeds at that. He can’t even buy the 
seeds and have them put up for distribution. The 
whole thing is a farce. The writer received some of 
these seeds the past spring, as he has for several years, 
and among them were varieties grown by market gar¬ 
deners for the past 40 years. But the system must 
tickle the farmers, as it must please the Congressmen 
who think that they can buy the farmers for a pinch 
of cabbage or onion seed. 
One good thing about the Dingley tariff law is the 
provision that prohibits the importation of “ any lot¬ 
tery ticket or any advertisement of any lottery.” The 
Wilson law, also, had the same provisions. At a re¬ 
cent conference between representatives of the Post- 
Office Department and the customs officers, it was de¬ 
cided that the postmasters should be the ones to act. 
If any package is suspected of containing lottery 
tickets or other matter not mailable according to 
law, it is stamped accordingly and the addressee 
notified. The latter must then open the package in 
the presence of the postmaster, and if it contain any 
prohibited matter, it is at once destroyed without any 
more fuss and feathers. Under the McKinley law, 
the customs officers classed lottery tickets as unenum¬ 
erated manufactured articles liable to a duty of 20 
per cent. When asked how they could assess such a 
thing as a lottery ticket, one of the old officers said : 
“We assumed that the lottery company was acting 
in entire good faith with its customers, and that any 
ticket was liable to draw the capital prize ; so, if we 
found that the prize was $1,000,000, we appraised the 
ticket at a million and assessed duty accordingly. I 
give you my word of honor that we never knew an 
importer to pay the duty and take the ticket, but 
we were compelled to confiscate every one that fell 
into our hands.” 
BUSINESS BITS. 
A reader wishes a second-hand two-horse tread power in good 
repair. Send particulars to The R. N.-Y. 
The Blizzard horse shoe is something that ought to sell in any 
neighborhood where horses are obliged to walk on frozen ground 
and ice. S. W. Kent, Meriden, Conn., will send particulars. He 
wants agents to sell these shoes. 
Palmer’s hotbed mats ought to be popular with those who 
have cold frames and hotbeds to protect. They, certainly, have 
advantages over the straw mat in other respects as well as being 
cheaper. The R. T. Palmer Co., 113 Worth Street, New York, will 
be glad to send particulars about them. 
New York Citt has been obliged to condemn a lot of property 
in Westchester County in order to secure pure water for the city 
supply. Among other things, they have been obliged to remove 
a condensed milk factory at Purdy’s Station, N. Y., and the ma¬ 
chinery will be sold at auction on October 26, at the above place. 
It will, probably, be a bargain for some one. Edward L. Allen, 
280 Broadway, New York, is the party to refer to for information. 
