1901 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
ii 9 
Market Briefs. 
PICKED UP HERE AND THERE. 
feeding a multitude.—I n the tene¬ 
ment sections of New York, where as many 
as 2,000 people live in a single block, a new 
problem, how to distribute food enough so 
that all may get at it, comes up. It is easy 
to store in a small barn sufficient hay to 
winter 50 sheep, but suppose the flock Is 
increased to 5,000, and there are no other 
storage buildings near and no places for 
haystacks? These people must be fed and 
clothed. Left to themselves their mer¬ 
chants have taken the common sense way 
of dividing up their goods into small quan¬ 
tities and selling them on the street.s. 
BACKWOODS AND CITY.—When a pio¬ 
neer struck out into the wilderness the 
question of a market did not trouble him 
much. He had little to sell except skins 
from his hunting and trapping. He bought 
meat with powder and bullet; raised all the 
vegetables and grain needed for himself 
and family; and, unless attacked by dis¬ 
ease, was independent of others. In thinly- 
settled sections where farmhouses are a 
mile or more apart, people are still to a 
large degree independent In country 
towns they must buy nearly everything ex¬ 
cept the product of a chicken yard, a 
small garden and a cow. In larger towns 
the garden, chickens and cow are done 
away with, and everything is bought. In 
parts of great cities like the Fifth or Madi¬ 
son avenue residence districts of New York, 
houses are not crowded, and there is no 
difficulty in supplying them with food. The 
corner groceries and meat markets with 
their delivery wagons attend to this all 
right. 
an east-side market.—T he Essex 
Market district below Grand Street is a 
good place to study this question. There 
is no large building with stalls in which 
the goods can be displayed. The sky is 
their roof, and their wares are arranged 
in carts or stands along the side of the 
streets. Within 10 blocks I counted over 
600 carts, about 100 being baby carriages 
fixed over, revised and improved, in all de¬ 
grees of repair or dilapidation. One had a 
box, and on top of this a second box loaded 
with two bushels of onions. Another held 
two crates of green pepiiers. Over 200 carts 
and stands were stocked with dry goods, 
comprising ready-made garments, second¬ 
hand linen collars, bolts of cotton and 
woollen cloth, and remnants and ribbons 
in tangled heaps. Also on some short 
blocks there are as many as 15 dry-goods 
and clothing stores. Bread and cake, flsh, 
fruits, cheese and sausage are sold from 
these carts. Of course it cannot be expect¬ 
ed that stuff left out of doors in this way, 
unprotected from the dirt of the street and 
hands of the buyer, should be clean. These 
people are not clean. How can they be, 
with their limited accommodations for 
washing? 
HOW MARKETING IS DONE.—The com¬ 
mon way is to go around with a basket 
here and there, picking out what is wanted. 
In one basket I saw bread, apples, potatoes 
and onions, and the woman was looking at 
some ribbons as a finisher. Another used 
her apron, in which was more than a peck 
of stuff, and she was ending up her pur¬ 
chases with a few eggs. I counted 125 fish 
peddlers. Their stock was in hand carts 
and boxes. One man had a novelty—live 
fish in a tub of water. When a customer 
came, he dipped the flsh out with a basin 
having a perforated bottom, and weighed 
them thus. A customer stopped in front of 
a potato stand. He seemed in doubt as to 
the quality of the tubers, so the woman 
at the stand bit a piece out of one and in¬ 
vited him to do the same. A meat peddler 
had a lot of tripe in a washtub. Some of 
the tripe hung over the edges of the tub, 
and an old cat was vigorously chewing on 
one piece. Red peppers and onions are 
used in large quantities, and a man with a 
lot of garlic on a string around his neck 
goes about calling: “Plenty garlic! Plenty 
garlic!” As may be supposed, there are, 
in warm weather especially, odors superior 
in strength at least to attar of roses. One 
illustration will be enough. A garbage 
cart man brought out of a store a tub two- 
ihirds full of rotten eggs, and poured them 
into the cart. People who have to liye in 
such an atmosphere are wise to eat plenty 
of onions. One might think that, where so 
many people are crowded together, there 
would be a large number of fights, or at 
least quarrels, but there seems to be very 
little friction. People move around and 
run into each other, but take it good-nat¬ 
uredly. I saw one apple peddler whose cart 
was upset, but instead of getting wrathy 
he scratched around and picked up his 
stock without making any extra fuss. 
w. w. n. 
$5 Send us a club of four subscrip¬ 
tions with § 4 , and we will advance 
your own subscription one year 
free—the five subscriptions for S'*. 
Native Plums in Wisconsin. 
Part II. 
The fruiting season of the native plums 
may extend over a period of three months. 
The Aitkin, Cheney and Le Due were the 
earliest, followed by the majority of the 
varieties mentioned, as w'ell as many 
others, 'classed as mid-season plums. The 
Wyant follows these, and lasts until the 
late varieties of the Miner type come in, 
such as California, Champion, Decker’s 
Seedling, Rose A., etc. Probably the most 
valuable lesson taught by the variety test 
is this fact, viz.: That every collection 
should contain a number of late varieties 
of this type. Long after the Americanas 
and Chicasaws were gone, the orchard was 
still reddened by the scattering trees of 
the varieties named. Later still than these 
to fruit were several trees of unknown 
origin, probably Myrobalan seedlings, that 
bore large quantities of small, bright red, 
shining fruits in the greatest abundance, 
that remained on the trees until heavy 
frost, and after being picked, they re¬ 
mained in good condition for several weeks. 
While the behavior of the named varieties 
has been a matter of great Interest, the 
study of the seedlings has been intenselv 
interesting and profitable work. Plums 
have been found in the seedling orchard 
excelling in many points any named va¬ 
riety in our collection. The most surpris¬ 
ing fact in connection with the seedlings 
Is the fact that the majority are good 
plums, as good as the parents, and a very 
large percentage are better than the parent 
varieties. In this connection the seed-bear¬ 
ing parent is meant, as all are undoubtedly 
crosses, the lack of self-fertility in the na¬ 
tive plums having been quite fully demon¬ 
strated. Many of the seedlings showed 
strong evidence of a Japan cross; in fact, 
the best seedlings were Americana varieties 
with Abundance or Burbank markings. It 
would be unwise, however, to lay great 
stress on this, the first crop of the seedling 
trees, as further developments may neces¬ 
sitate a revision of opinions. 
The orchards are mainly located on 
land that had been infested, for an in¬ 
definite period, with Quack grass. The ex¬ 
termination of this has proved one of the 
most difficult problems that we have been 
called on to solve. Partly on account of 
this pest, and partly for experiments in 
other directions, the main part of the or¬ 
chards has been repeatedly and heavily 
mulched with marsh hay. There is no 
doubt as to the value of this method of 
culture, the mulched trees having made a 
remarkable growth of wood, as well as pro¬ 
ducing enormous crops of plums of ex¬ 
cellent quality, while the trees not mulched 
made but little growth, and the plums 
borne were small and lacking in juiciness. 
The high degree of culture induced by this 
method possibly accounts, in a measure, 
for the excellent showing of the seedling 
orchard. It is probable that the experi¬ 
ment of mulching will be extended to in¬ 
clude the entire plantation. The main ob¬ 
jection to this plan is the danger from fire 
in dry weather. Four rows, 72 trees, of 
the new commercial orchard were de¬ 
stroyed by fire last Summer, and it was 
only by heroic efforts that the remainder 
was saved. 
One of the faults of the native plums is 
the tendency of most varieties to overbear. 
In order to have fruit of good size and 
quality it is usually necessary to thin it. 
During the second week in July the fruit 
was thinned on all trees that appeared to 
be overbearing. At this time the plums 
were more than one-half grown, and the 
work probably could have been done earlier 
with greater profit. It is better, however, 
to thin late than not to thin at all. Of 
two trees of Hammer that were overlooked 
at the first thinning, and were breaking 
down with fruit, one was thinned Septem¬ 
ber I after the fruit had begun to color; on 
September 15 a marked difference could be 
noted in the size of the plums in favor of 
the thinned fruits. The plums that were 
pulled off ripened on the ground, and were 
salable as “seconds.” 
The earlier plums were marketed in berry 
boxes, and the later in baskets holding 
one-sixth of a bushel. The berry boxes 
will probably be discarded in future in 
favor of the baskets. Only very choice 
plums suitable for dessert use can be sold 
in this shape for a price large enough to 
be profitable. The bulk of the crop was 
sold at $1.50 per bushel, wholesale prices, 
or 25 cents a basket. These sold at retail 
for 35 and 40 cents a basket. The price 
might as well have been held up to $2 a 
bushel, as the demand far exceeded the 
supply at all times. Early plums have not 
been in so great demand as the mid-season 
and late plums. f. cranefield. 
Wisconsin Experiment Station. 
A Tough Problem.— A subscriber sends 
us this little note: “I asked a man yester¬ 
day to subscribe for The R. N.-Y. He 
said he did not take much stock in these 
papers; one of his neighbors wanted him 
to take one he liked, and gave him a 
sample. The first thing he read was how 
many kernels of corn to plant in a hill, 
and he had been planting corn for 50 years. 
and up went his nose. What can one do 
with such a man?’’ Keep right at him! 
Tell him the world needs his information, 
for he seems to know it all. It is no sign 
that a practice is right because a man has 
followed it for years! Age may fatten 
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Buffalo, N. Y. 
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How to Drain Land Profitably. 
On every farm there l.s prob.-ibly some land 
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important to Horticulturists, Nurserymen, Etc. 
TO INSURE NURSEBY STOCK against San Jos 6 scale .and all other Insect 
liests, practice the new and cheap system of fumigation, described in the American 
Agriculturist weeklits February 16, by the associate editor, Prof. W. G. Johnson, 
late state entomologist of Maryland. Other important articles to follow by the same 
and other authorities. 
SPECIAL HORTICULTURAL NUMBER March 2. Every seedsman, nurserymen, 
florists, or commercial horticulturist should subscribe, to get the latest and best 
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A SL'OAR BEET GROWERS’ CONTEST, with thousands of dollars in prizes, 
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