i89o 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
357 
Business. 
Telling a Thing or Two About Trade. 
In answer to Edwin Taylor, page 323, T. B. Terry means 
to say, just exactly, “that the average farmer, without 
influence from outside sources or prestige of some sort in 
himself (except snap), has only to step up with the money 
in his hand (or send it in a letter) in order to buy sugar 
and most other things at wholesale prices,” that is, if he 
buys by the barrel, or box, or quantity. The fact that Mr. 
Taylor ran across a wholesale dealer in Kansas City, who 
wouldn’t sell to him doesn’t settle the matter. Hadn’t he 
ever heard of Chicago, or Philadelphia, or New York ? 
Why, this is a big country. One dealer cannot run it, nor 
a dozen. I wonder if friend Taylor quietly gave up, like a 
meek little farmer, and went home and bought his sugar 
at retail because one dealer snubbed him ? That snubbing 
would have roused the old Adam in some men. I think I 
know one who would have turned on his heel quickly, 
when the dealer said : “We must protect our trade,” and 
fired back : “And I must and will protect myself.” 
Now, this I know : one of the largest stores in Cleveland 
has the price of sugar marked on a card each day, and any 
man, farmer, or otherwise, can buy a barrel at the lowest 
wholesale quotations in the daily papers, and, unless the 
market is advancing, usually for one-eighth of a cent a 
pound less, and any other groceries can be bought by the 
package or quantity in the same way. I know lots of 
farmers who buy there. I know others who buy in Phila¬ 
delphia in the same way. I know that a wholesale dry 
goods house in Cleveland sent a farmer in this town grain 
bags by the bale at wholesale rates last year, although the 
merchants here buy at the same place. I know that the 
millers in Akron and other Ohio cities sell our farmers 
here feed at wholesale rates. If they did not, those who 
have the money (and it takes cash to buy feed) would 
quickly be sending to St. Louis or Minneapolis for their 
shorts. The president of an Ohio institute ordered a quan¬ 
tity of feed from a neighboring city mill The firm wrote 
back : “ Mr.-is our agent in your place ; please buy of 
him.” Perhaps this would have settled the matter for 
friend Taylor; but our Buckeye farmer quietly wrote 
back : “I buy of no agents. If you want to send me the 
feed at the same price you do to your agent, send it; if not 
I will look elsewhere.” He got it promptly; but with a 
request that he would say nothing about the price. This 
I know to be a fact, as I saw the letters. 
At the last farmers’ institute the writer attended this 
spring, a 1 armer told him he might as well sell his galvan¬ 
ized iron oil tank, used to hold a barrel of oil for home 
use, as the Standard Oil Company would not allow whole¬ 
sale dealers to sell to farmers any more. Well, I ordered 
a barrel a week or two ago, and it came promptly, billed 
at only a qnarter of a cent a gallon above quoted car load 
prices. Never yet has an order in'which a check or money- 
order was inclosed been returned to me, no matter where 
it was sent. I did, however, once write to the manufactur¬ 
ers of Ivory Soap for prices, and they very politely an¬ 
swered me that it would not do for them to sell to con¬ 
sumers ; but that any wholesale dealer in the State would 
sell to me at the wholesale rate. I haven’t bought any at 
retail in many years. Last month I concluded that the 
book stores in Cleveland were asking me too much for 
writing paper ; so I looked in an Eastern magazine and 
found the advertisement of a paper house in Boston. I 
sent them a money order for $5 (and a sample of the kind 
of paper wanted), and told them to send me its value in 
paper, by freight. Well, they sent me over 40 pounds, and 
after paying the freight I got my paper for a trifle over 
half what I had been paying. 
I will own, however, that once I had to “ whip the devil 
around the stump,” to get what I wanted. I went to a 
city mill for five barrels of flour, with my team. 
“ Where do you sell flour ? ” says the miller. 
“ I do not sell it; my wife and babies eat it.” 
“ Well (laughing), I can’t let you have it at wholesale 
prices, then.” 
“All right. Good day.” I walked along the street 
until I saw a good-natured young groceryman standing in 
his door. 
“ What will you work for me just one minute for,” says I. 
“ Twenty-five cents,” says he. 
“It’s a bargain. Here are $25, for five barrels of - 
flour (it was $5 a barrel wholesale); write on a slip of 
paper: ‘Messrs.-, deliver to the bearer five barrels 
of-flour and charge to me,’ and sign your name.” He 
looked at me in an amused way for a minute (I was an 
entire stranger), and then wrote, and took his quarter, and 
I went to the mill again, master of the situation. After I 
had got the flour in the wagon and myself on the seat, I 
told the miller my little game, and I haven’t had to pay 
that extra quarter since. 
Last fall I went into a large wholesale and retail store 
in Cleveland with a bill of groceries—about what we 
would want for a year. Not a soul in the store knew me 
nor did I known any one. (No “ influence or prestige ” ex¬ 
cept cash. Brother Taylor.) I went up to a clerk and 
showed him my bill. “Now,” I said, “this is about what 
we want for a year, (I am a farmer) will you kindly tell 
me if theie is anything that we could get cheaper by buy¬ 
ing more, and whether there are any of the articles that 
would not keep good for a year ?” Well, he took great 
pains to save me all he could on the bill, and I bought a 
little more of some things because by so doing I could have 
a package at the lowest wholesale rate. Let me give the 
saving in price on a few articles over the retail price in 
our town. On granulated sugar (barrel) 20 per cent. ; on 
rice (50 pounds) 64 per cent, (that is the saving was (34 per 
cent, interest on the money invested in rice); on saleratus 
64 per cent.; on Colmau’s best Euglish mustard (four- 
pound tin can) 100 per cent.; on lamp chimneys (one dozen 
each size) fully 100 per cent. So I might go on for a 
column, although on many things there was not so much 
profit; but on all there was a fair saving and the quality 
was the very best. 
Now, I am not telling this to show my smartness, but 
to try to awaken farmers up a little. Be more business¬ 
like. Get a little money ahead in the bank and pay cash 
for everything and buy at first hands by the quantity as 
far as you can. You can do it if you will. Quite a few 
Ohio farmers are doing it now. For such practice and 
talk the writer has been called (by farmers at institutes) 
a free-trader, one that would not do as he would be done 
by, and would not help to build up his own town, etc, etc. 
Well, now, how about this last point ? When I send 
money out of town is it to the injury of the town in the ag¬ 
gregate ? Suppose I pay a dealer here $30 for a barrel of 
, sugar, buying a dollar’s worth at a time. He sends $25 to 
Cleveland to pay for it. and puts 15 in his own pocket. 
Suppose again that I send the $25 to Cleveland, does any 
more money go out of the town ? No: it is just this and 
no more; shall the $5 be in my pocket or in the other 
fellow’s pocket? t. b. terry. 
Summit County, O. 
How Shall we Sell our Fruit? 
Shall we sell directly to the consumer or retail grocer, or 
shall we trust our products to the tender mercies of the 
commission merchant ? The “ Granger ” says : “ Down 
with the middleman I The specialist says : “ It is enough 
work for one man to grow the fruit; ” while the observing 
grower who has “ been there ” in both cases, will probably 
say: “ That depends” on circumstances. The fruitgrow¬ 
ers of Catawba Island have formed an association to 
market their own fruit. They employ a salesman who 
travels through the country, taking orders for the fruit 
(mostly peaches, but some plums, pears, grapes, etc.) The 
fruit is all graded and definite brands are established, so 
that the purchaser knows what is in the basket without 
examining down to the bottom layers. The working of 
the association has been satisfactory to the members. The 
expense of selling the fruit under this system has been 
about seven per cent. I think, however, that the great ad¬ 
vantage in this case is, not the three per cent, saved, but 
the fact that the fruit reaches the consumer with much 
less labor, expense and delay than if it were sent to some 
distant commission merchant for distribution. If we wish 
to increase the consumption of fruit we must put it before 
the consumer In as nearly a perfect condition as possible 
and it must be what it appears to be on the top of the 
package. I know of no association of this kind for the sale 
of small fruits nor do I consider it practical except it may 
be in exceptional cases. Berries are extremely perishable 
and in cases of an over-supply at any point, all the advan¬ 
tages of telegraph, telephone, and daily quotations are 
needed to aid in determining where to ship. These con¬ 
veniences and many more the commission merchant 
possesses, and if he be just and honest, he can secure for us 
more money for our berries then we would receive 
when selling them ourselves. I would think it advisable 
for berry growers to form associations, not for the purpose 
of selling their own fruit, but to correct any looseness or 
injustice in their relations to their commission merchants 
and express companies. The small grower can usually 
sell his fruit, directly to the consumers and has no need of 
associations or middlemen of any kind; while the exten¬ 
sive grower usually finds his mind and hands fully occupied 
in securing the crop in proper condition, and will do well, 
as a rule, to leave the selling to those who have the facili¬ 
ties and experience for that work. But I believe we 
should (in justice not only to ourselves but to the honest 
commission merchants) watch matters closely and spot all 
rogues plainly. w. w. Farnsworth. 
Secretary Ohio Horticultural Society. 
IMPLEMENT NOTES. 
An Orchard Cultivator. 
The following note refers to a tool that is extensively 
used by orchardists in Michigan. The R. N.-Y. is surprised 
that there are not more special tools designed for working 
among trees and vines. 
“We use the Pearce orchard cultivator here almost 
wholly in cultivating our orchards for all rows over six 
feet wide. This cultivator is 12 feet wide when opened to 
its full width, and six feet wide as used for grapes, rasp¬ 
berries, etc. It is low, so that it passes readily under the 
trees. It is held up on four wheels three inches wide, and 
is easily adjusted, and any ordinary driver can use it. As 
put together, it is one of our best cultivators for fallow 
or other work. It works corn or oat stubble without clog¬ 
ging. The plowing of orchards does not meet with much 
favor here, as it ridges up in one place and makes a dead 
furrow that comes near the roots, and leaves them exposed, 
and then the strip left betweeen the trees is more difficult 
to get at. The men who bring the best peaches and other 
fruits to market cultivate thoroughly from tree to tree, 
level and not very deep, commencing in early spring—this 
is about the first work they do on the farm—and keeping it 
up until the middle of July, and if there is a heavy crop of 
fruit on the trees and the weather is dry, they cultivate till 
well up in August or until rains come, the intervals 
between the several cultivations averaging from two to 
three weeks. Orchards throughout the county are iD all 
states of cultivation, from sod to perfectly clean ground. 
But the cheapest way of tending an orchard is to keep It 
entirely clean, and the trees in such aij orchard as well as 
their owners appear the most thrifty. Rows that are less 
than six feet apart we cultivate with some of the five-tooth 
and spring-tooth cultivators.” j. a. p. 
More About Hay Caps. 
Two weeks ago Prof. Wing told us about the great value 
of hay caps. Judging from a number of letters we have 
received, the past wet seasons have caused farmers to 
take a lively interest in these caps. The wood-pulp caps 
mentioned by Prof. W. are entirely water-proof and very 
durable. They are said to be fully as cheap as the old- 
style canvas covers. The R.N.-Y. has asked a number of 
parties who have used these caps to tell its readers what 
they think of them. 
♦ * ♦ 
G. W. Pratt, Rhode Island, says: “These caps are a 
great improvement over the old style canvas kinds, and 
with them no more than one-fourth of the time and labor 
is required for covering the hay cocks. For my use in cut¬ 
ting 700 to 800 tons of hay, a larger size would be better, as 
we have to make large cocks; the ordinary kinds are of 
infinite value to the smaller farmers.” 
♦ * * 
F. B. Redfield, Genesee Co., N. Y., says: “The hay 
caps made from the wood-pulp are very much better than 
any cloth covers. They are a great protection to the hay 
cocks, and do not often blow off. On grain the wind will 
sometimes get under them so as to make it difficult to 
keep them on unless they are fastened down. I consider 
them a valuable invention after the experience I have had 
with them.” 
* * *• 
L. W. Payne, of Massachusetts, says: “ We used 400 of 
them last year and liked them very much. I have had no 
experience with cloth caps, but have observed that it 
would take some time to adjust the strings to keep the 
cloth ones on, and where the cloth would bag the depres¬ 
sions would hold the water and let it soak in. We put the 
paper caps on a stone-boat and could put them on quite 
fast. I think they are a good thing. I understand the 
company are talking of making a larger size; if they do so 
I think the step would be an improvement.” 
* * * 
A. Taylor, Manager, Shelburne Farm, Vermont, says: 
“ I have had considerable experience with the patent hay 
and grain caps, and I have found them to answer their 
purpose perfectly I think them a great improvement on 
the old-style sorts, as no wind seems to blew them off. 
This, in itself, I call a great convenience. As to the last¬ 
ing qualities of these caps, I cannot say, as I have not had 
them long enough to determine that point. The only ob¬ 
jection that I see to them is the price per hundred—it is 
still high for general use.” 
* * * 
The Ames Plow Company of Boston make a good one- 
horse mower. 
Self-Binding Rye Thrasher. —The New Jersey Agri¬ 
cultural Works, of Trenton, N. J., have perfected a 
thrasher that will find much favor with rye growers. 
This machine not only does clean work, but it thrashes 
the straw straight, and binds it all ready for market. 
This is not an attachment to be placed on a thrasher, but 
it is a machine invented and built throughout for the 
express purpose of thrashing straw straight and unbroken. 
It is designed for use in sections where straw commands a 
high market price. It will thrash oats and wheat as well 
as rye. Many farmers have heretofore been obliged either 
to use two machines or thrash their rye by hand. Rye 
straw is one of the few coarse crops that do the farm more 
good in the market than in the manure pile, if a part of 
the money obtained for it is spent for fertilizers. This 
thrasher will enable the farmer to handle his rye straw 
most economically. 
Manure Handling Made Easy. —Among the many 
ways and means of cleaning the cow stable, I have noticed 
two which I have never seen described in print. In one 
case a track was hung from the timbers over the manure 
gutter, like those used with a horse hay fork. From this 
track where it ended at the door, a wire rope extended 
across the barn-yard to a heavy post at the back of a shed, 
in which the manure was all kept under cover. Hanging 
from the track was a box swung like a hay fork ; this just 
cleared the door sill as it ran out, so that not much pitch¬ 
ing was required to fill it from the gutter. This box car 
was given a smart push, and ran out to a block on the 
wire rope, where it hit a bar across the shed, which 
loosened a catch letting it turn over. There being a slight 
up-hill slope to the shed, momentum took the car there, 
and gravitation brought it back to the stable door, where 
it was received, the box turned over, the catch adjusted, 
and the operation repeated until the stable was cleaned. 
In the other case, in the stable there was a very deep 
gutter, large enough to hold all the manure made in a 
week. This was covered with a grating floor. Each day a 
little plaster and enough dry muck to absorb all the urine 
were thrown on the manure. At the end of the gutter a 
door was cut in the side of the barn, and the gutter ex¬ 
tended a little beyond the side of the stable, so that it pro¬ 
jected over a wagon backed up or driven alongside. A 
scraDer like a hoe, a very little narrower than the gutter, 
was used. The grating floor turned up, the scraper was 
set back to a suitable distance, then a horse at the end of a 
rope hauled out into the cart or wagon a load which was 
at once driven to the field and spread. A few hours’ work 
did all the stable cleaning for the week and loaded it on 
the wagon as well, all being done by horse power except 
the spreading, and even this could be “dodged ” by using a 
manure-spreader, for the manure that goes through a 
grating is fine, and again, such a floor keeps cows clean 
and dry, and saves nine-tenths of the bedding. f. h. c. 
BUSINESS BITS. 
Evaporated Vegetables.— The R. N.-Y. learns that a 
compauy has been formed in San Francisco for the purpose 
of drying and packing onions, turnips, carrots and potatoes. 
The vegetables are carefully washed and peeled and then 
cut into small cubes by suitable machines. They are then 
evaporated in a dryer, coming out about as dry as evapor¬ 
ated sweet-corn. Six pounds of fresh potatoes are required 
to make one of evaporated. After evaporation, the vege¬ 
tables are packed in tin cases, and are proof against frost, 
