626 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
September 14 
tiers, or become investors, and these will be a grow¬ 
ing stream as our fruit growers and gardeners reaiize 
the rare opportunities now open there. Next week I 
will try to give in some detail an account of the 
various openings in horticulture on the Island. Figs. 
274, 275, 276 and 277 represent scenes in Porto Rico. 
F. M. PENITOCK. 
THE cows AT THE PAN-AMEHWAN. 
The dairy contest is still going on, and will con¬ 
tinue until November 1. Week before last the Jer¬ 
seys made a little spurt but, as will be seen by the 
following record for week ending August 20, the 
Guernseys are still leading. Good judges who study 
the cows say they are well pleased with the Red 
Polled cattle. They come near to filling the bill for 
“general purpose”: 
Value Cost Profit 
Milk, 
Butter, 
of 
of 
on 
Breeds. 
lbs. 
est. lbs. 
butter. 
feed. 
butter. 
Short-horn . 
....1129.4 
48.00 
12.00 
6.07 
6.98 
Holstein . 
,...1393.7 
53.63 
13.40 
6.58 
6.82 
Ayrshire . 
....1112.7 
50.73 
12.68 
6.05 
7.68 
Jersey . 
.... 982.7 
50.86 
12.71 
4.60 
8.11 
Guernsey . 
.... 938.6 
52.66 
13.16 
4.49 
8.67 
Brown Swiss .... 
....1078.7 
47.33 
11.83 
4.85 
6.98 
Red Polled . 
....1068.7 
49.87 
12.47 
5.10 
7.37 
Polled Jersey ... 
.... 765.3 
41.91 
10.47 
4.00 
6.47 
Dutch Belted ... 
.... 971.5 
39.37 
9.84 
4.78 
6.06 
French-Canadlan 
.. 830.3 
39.26 
9.81 
3.64 
6.17 
The following table gives the 
record 
for the week 
ending August 27. The Jers^s 
gain a 
little ' 
on the 
Guernseys in actual profit. The larger breeds, like 
Holstein. Short-horn and Brown Swiss, are 
giving 
most milk, though the 
Ayrshire crowds them 
hard. 
It will be seen 
that if 
one is figuring from a 
milk- 
man’s standpoint, a quart of 
natural 
milk 
would 
come cheaper from the 
Ayrshires than 
from Jerseys 
or Guernseys. 
Why does the 
Polled 
Jersey 
make 
such a poor showing? 
Value 
Cost 
Profit 
Milk, 
Butter, 
of 
of 
on 
Breeds. 
lbs. 
est. lbs. 
butter. 
feed. 
butter. 
Short-horn . 
...1005.5 
44.20 
11.05 
5.85 
6.20 
Holstein . 
...1272.5 
49.63 
12.40 
6.31 
6.09* 
Ayrshire . 
...1004.4 
44.32 
11.08 
4.65 
6.43 
Jersey . 
... 880.6 
48.74 
12.17 
4.36 
7.81 
Guernsey . 
... 871.6 
49.60 
12.40 
4.42 
7.98 
Brown Swiss .... 
...1008.8 
43.44 
10.86 
4.71 
6.16 
Red Polled . 
... 945.6 
45.68 
11.42 
4.69 
6.73 
Polled Jersey ... 
... 676.0 
38.49 
9.62 
3.81 
6.81 
Dutch Belted .... 
.... 838.7 
34.57 
8.64 
4.63 
4.01 
French-Canadlan 
.. 792.2 
38.98 
9.74 
3.55 
6.19 
THE GOVERNMENT AND THE APPLE TRADE. 
The Agricultural Department Tries Experiment 
Reference has been made to the plan of the National 
Agricultural Department to develop the export trade In 
apples. Some of the daily papers have criticised the 
plan, claiming that it establishes the principle of a 
bounty on exports. We are glad to give the following 
clear statement of what the Department has in mind: 
The contemplated experimental export shipments 
of fruit are to be made primarily for the purpose of 
determining the requirements of the export trade in 
these products, with a view to insuring the safe de¬ 
livery of American fresh fruits in sound condition in 
foreign markets. It has been found true in many 
cases that fruit, apparently sound when shipped, de¬ 
teriorates rapidly in transit, arrives in bad condition, 
and sells at prices so low that no profit remains to 
either the producer or the shipper. Part of this de¬ 
terioration is believed to be due to unsuitable tem¬ 
peratures and conditions in transit. Mucn of it is un¬ 
doubtedly due to improper methods of picking, pack¬ 
ing, storing and handling on the farm, and somewhat 
to the use of packages poorly adapted to the pur¬ 
poses for which they are used. To determine as ac¬ 
curately as possible just what the requirements of 
this trade are, it is proposed to make certain experi¬ 
ments in fruit marketing, storage and shipment, as 
authorized by Ciongress under the appropriation for 
“Pomological Investigations,” for the fiscal year 1902. 
This clause is as follows: “To investigate in coopera¬ 
tion with the other divisions of the Department and 
experiment stations of the several States, the market 
conditions affecting the fruit trade of the United 
States and foreign countries, and the methods of har¬ 
vesting, packing, storing or shipping fruits and 
vegetables, and for experimental shipments of fruits 
to foreign countries, for the purpose of increasing the 
exportation of American fruits, and for all necessary 
expenses connected with the practical work of the 
same.” 
In the experimental shipments it is of course neces¬ 
sary to utilize existing commercial facilities for trans¬ 
portation and refrigeration. As the fruit for these 
shipments cannot be produced by the Department, it 
is necessary to secure it from other sources, and as 
the shipments are to be of experimental character, to 
determine the requirements of the export trade, some 
of them must be expected to result in the loss of a part 
or even the whole of the shipment. An experiment 
that demonstrates that a certain method is impractic¬ 
able, or is at least attended with great risks, is fre¬ 
quently of value in pointing out to the farmer what 
he should avoid. It was to cover such cases as this 
that the appropriation was recommended by the Sec¬ 
retary of Agriculture in his Annual Report for 1900, 
upon which the item in the appropriation was based. 
Cooperation with fruit producers and dealers being 
considered desirable in this work, and in fact neces¬ 
sary, to accomplish the desired end, it is proposed to 
guarantee to those who furnish fruit for these experi¬ 
ments, which are to be under the supervision of the 
pomologist in the Bureau of Plant Industry, a definite 
net return per package on fruit thus shipped under 
the direction of the Department, rather than to pur¬ 
chase the fruit outright and sell it on Department ac¬ 
count. The advantages of this plan over others that 
have been suggested appear so obvious, both as af¬ 
fecting the outcome of the experiments and the dis¬ 
semination among fruit growers and shippers of the 
information sought to be obtained through the work, 
as to need no further comment. The shipments, 
though necessarily made through commercial chan¬ 
nels, are to be conducted wholly along experimental 
lines in accordance with the letter and spirit of the 
law, as expressed in the clause above quoted. The De¬ 
partment does not enter into partnership with the 
growers, nor offer them a bounty or subsidy in any 
form, but simply guarantees to them the home value 
of the fruit needed for use in the cooperative experi¬ 
ments. Certain criticisms recently expressed in some 
of the daily papers appear to be based upon a mis¬ 
conception of the purpose of the Department, and of 
the intention of Congress in framing the bill which 
authorizes the work. j. h. brigiiam. 
Abting Secretary Department of Agriculture. 
J. H. HALE TALKS. 
A representative of The R. N.-Y. recently met Mr. 
Hale, the peach man, and had a few minutes’ con¬ 
versation with him. 
“Do you have more trouble with fungus diseases in 
your Georgia orchards than at the North?” 
“Not so much. About the only fungus disease that 
bothers us is brown rot.’ 
treatment do you use for this?” 
“Before the buds started last Spring we sprayed 
VIEW OF SAN CRISTOBAL, PORTO RICO. Fia. 277. 
with Bordeaux Mixture until everything was blue. 
Then we sprayed later with a weaker solution. This 
is a help, but there is some danger of burning the 
leaves, even with a half-and-half solution.” 
“Do you find it possible to save the early, easily- 
rotting varieties in this way?’ 
“Some of the early sorts seem less resistant to 
disease than others. I experimented with two plots 
of Carman, sprayed both equally the first time, but 
gave only one the second spraying. The plot that 
got only one dose rotted more than the others.’' 
“Does curculio trouble you much?” 
“Yes; we did a big job of jarring off and catching 
them this Spring. People said that I could not jar 
so many trees, but I told them that it was only a 
matter of arithmetic.” 
“Did you use the wheelbarrow machine?” 
“O, no! That’s too slow. It does very well for a 
garden patch or small orchard, but where there are 
thousands of trees to jar some hustling is needed. 
We took two sheets, with a notch in the edge of one, 
so.that it would go around the trunk of the tree. 
These sheets covered a space 12 feet square. A boy 
took hold of each corner; a man walked with them to 
hit each tree a hard whack, and we got along rapidly. 
I sent the bugs to the experiment station people, who 
counted them, and will give the number destroyed in 
their next statistical report.” 
“How do Carman, Waddell, and Emma do with 
you?” 
“Carman is a fine peach; there is not much choice 
between that and Waddell. I want a year or two 
more to decide which is really the better. I would 
not advise planting Emma. It is a good peach and 
sells well, but it is a shy bearer.” 
“What would you advise planting for the South 
other than Elberta?” 
“Blberta has been overdone. Any good peach that 
will grow and ripen earlier will sell well. Belle of 
Georgia is a desirable variety.” 
“Are you in the apple business to any extent?” 
“I have set out several fair-sized orchards in Con¬ 
necticut, nearly all Baldwin. That is the best variety 
for this section,” 
“What about Ben Davis, Mr. Hale?” said a by¬ 
stander. “There are some Ben Davis trees that are 
well loaded and will bring a good price this year.” 
“Yes; and I can show you a whole lot of places 
where one can make money by keeping a saloon; 
but a man won’t do his fellow man much good by 
keeping a saloon or raising Ben Davis apples.” 
_ w. w. H. 
WAGES IN THE GRAPE BELT. 
Wages in this section are for men about to $1.25 
per day in grape harvest; boys, 75 cents to $1. Some 
good hands are in demand at better than $1.25; this 
is for day hands without board. By the month with 
board $18 to $25; probably $20 would be a good aver¬ 
age. By the year on fruit and grape farms $15 to $25, 
with house, garden, cow pasture, etc. Some good men 
are in demand at $30 to $40, with allowances as above. 
Trimming is mostly done by men in February and 
March at about $1 per day, or about $1.25 per acre. 
Tying is a woman’s job; pay about 75 cents per day, 
or $1 to $1.25 per acre. March and April is the time; 
no Summer tying is done. Picking and packing is 
mostly done by women and girls; over 5,000 find em¬ 
ployment from six to eight weeks every Fall in this 
belt. Not much day work is done by these people; it 
is mostly by the basket or crate. Crates or trays for 
bulk stock hold usually about 35 pounds; the price 
paid the women is from 2% to three cents per crate. 
Crates are taken to vineyard and when filled are cov¬ 
ered and drawn away by day help, men or boys. About 
40 to 45 crates is the average day’s work for the pick¬ 
ers; some, however, easily do 60 to 75 a day. Grapes 
go to market in these packages, going from vineyard 
direct to cars. Baskets used are eight-pound and four- 
pound, holding about seven pounds and 3% pounds 
of grapes respectively. A large amount of grapes is 
packed in these baskets in the vineyard. Women re¬ 
ceive for this work from one cent to cent for large 
basket and one-half cent to six-tenths cent for small. 
About 100 baskets per day is good work, but some 
can put up 150 to 175 of the eight-pound size. They 
are filled about one-half inch more than full, and 
then drawn to packing house, where they are left till 
next day. By this time the stems will have wilted 
and grapes settled so cover can be put on without 
injury. This work is done by day help. Another 
method is for women working by day at i6 cents to 
80 cents to pick grapes into trays to be repacked next 
day by other women in the packing houses. Prices 
for packing in the house are same as in field, so it 
of course costs the grower more. Grape time is a 
busy time here, as in this belt from about Silver 
Creek, N. Y., to Erie, Pa., there are 8,000 carloads 
of grapes to be disposed of in 60 days. a. i. loop. 
Pennsylvania. 
DO RAILROADS WANT PASSENGER TRAFFIC? 
While certain business methods of farmers are often 
held up to ridicule, there are some things common 
enough in the business world that might well aston¬ 
ish the ordinary farmer. I have before me a poster 
announcing excursions to the Pan-American. If the 
outside Pan-Americans, from Panama to Patagonia, 
have as much difficulty as we do in getting there, the 
show must be conspicuous by their absence. It might 
be supposed that the railroads are anxious for pas¬ 
sengers, inasmuch as they were created to haul people 
as well as freight. But the restrictions, conditions, 
time limits and general red tape and uncertainty con¬ 
nected with these tours are enough to scare the most 
adventurous Yankee. If he doesn’t read his ticket 
every meal as regularly as he takes his food, he is 
liable to get left. In Buffalo some of the railroads 
require that the ticket bought at this end of the line 
be “registered” before it will be accepted on return, 
and for this “registry” charge an extra dollar. It 
may have been lost, strayed or stolen, and failure to 
prove property every little while leads to the in¬ 
ference that the holder is a thief. In other words, 
there is more anxiety to hedge in passengers with 
barbed-wire restrictions of all kinds than there is to 
get their money for carrying them around. At the 
present rate of progress it will not be long before 
a certificate of good moral character will be exacted 
of all to whom tickets are “sold at a reduced rate,” 
the same as now in some States it is required of those 
who apply for admission to the bar, and it would be 
little less ridiculous in the one case than in the other. 
How many apples would a farmer sell if he asked 
$2 per barrel in consideration that they should not 
be “assigned” or “transferred,” otherwise the price 
would be $2.50, with the still further “condition” that 
if not eaten within 10 days they be returned to the 
seller? What difference does it make to any com¬ 
pany whether it carries a man or his neighbor, so 
long as so many miles of travel have been paid for in 
advance? There is no doubt but “good reasons” exist 
for the limits and restrictions in railroad tickets, 
nevertheless I submit that if money is what they are 
after, they could pay larger dividends by oiling the 
wheels of travel, rather than by tying them or put¬ 
ting on brakes. o. s. paine. 
Maine. 
