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421 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
Business. 
HALE’S PEACH BUSIN FOSS. 
At the recent nurserymen’s convention, J. H. Hale of 
Connecticut, gave an extended account of his methods and 
successes in peach culture in answer to the question : Has 
He Ruined Eastern Farmers by His Success in Peach Cul¬ 
ture ? He said that, about 15 years ago, he noticed that a 
few seedling peach trees along the fences on high ground 
lived and bore fruit, though peach-growing was thought 
to be a thing of the past in that part of the country. So 
he secured pits from Tennessee, planted them, budded 
them and set the trees on the high hills on the farm. He 
had noticed that any considerable applications of nitrogen 
or stable manure caused short lived and unhealthy trees, 
be had also noticed that on abrupt slopes frosts ran off 
like so much water, and did not harm the blossoms or buds 
as they would on level ground : so he favors planting on 
abrupt slopes. He has had peaches after the thermometer 
had been down to 18 degrees below zero, but there were 
two feet of snow on the ground. He thins the fruit by 
pruning the trees after blooming, and afterward picks off 
from one half to four-fifths of the fruit. In setting the trees, 
holes three feet in diameter are dug. The soil is well 
loosened and ground bone is mixed with it. Muriate of 
potash is afterward scattered around the trees. Every 
year the orchards receive from 1,000 to 1,500 and even 2.000 
pounds of fine ground bone per acre, and from 300 to 500 
pounds of 80-percent, muriate of potash, applied separately 
early in the spring. The distribution is not evenly made, 
sandy places receiving more potash than those more loamy, 
and trees lacking in vigor receiving extra applications of 
bone. He always keeps on hand nitrate of soda to apply 
around trees lacking in vigor or showing leaf curl. He 
prefers this to auy other form of nitrogen on account of 
its non-lasting qualities, and even this should uot be applied 
later than June. 
After three or four years he applies sulphate of potash 
one year instead of muriate; it gives a higher colored and 
flavored fruit, but uot so vigorous a tree. He knows 
nothing about yellows. He thinks it is a condition similar 
to that of some people when they feel out of sorts and 
visit a doctor, who tells them they have malaria and gives 
them something to brace them up. This condition in 
peach trees he finds oftener among trees where stable 
manure has been used, and he has also found it where the 
ground between the rows was occupied by raspberries. 
When trees look unthrifty he scatters six or eight pounds 
of nitrate of soda arouud each tree, the next spring he 
prunes closely, puts on more bone, potash and soda, and 
generally gets a good crop of fruit. He doesn’t care if 
they have the yellows so long as they bear plenty of fruit. 
He uses a borer wash consisting of carbolic acid, potash, 
lime, etc., applied around the collar of the tree in May. 
• In September the trees are all examined. The fruit is 
picked very carefully, assorted by ladies of good taste, who 
are paid $2 per day ; it is then packed in new baskets made 
specially for this purpose from white poplar, labeled, and 
guaranteed to be just as good in the middle or bottom of 
the basket as on the top, and his fruit brings from 75 cents 
to$l more than any other. He makes four grades. Last 
year he sold 16,000 baskets, the best grade selling from $2.50 
to $3.50 per basket, the culls from 15 to 40 cents, the whole 
averaging about $1.56. 
Here comes the answer to Mr. Hale’s subject. He has 
been growing peaches for 15 years, has expended thous¬ 
ands of dollars and much study and experimenting, has 
used up the profits from his small fruit and nursery 
business in caring for his peach orchards, besides borrowing 
large sums; he has been entreated by friends and 
neighbors uot to sink any more money in such a hopeless 
undertaking, and two years ago he secured his first paying 
crop of 6,000 baskets. Last year he had 16,000 baskets, 
squared up the $9,000 which his orchards were indebted to 
him, and has a nice balance besides. All this in a country 
where peach-growing had been abandoned. Now, every¬ 
body has gone wild over his “ phenomenal ” success, and 
Is starting in to make a fortune by growing peaches. 
Agents are reaping a rich harvest selling all kinds of 
worthless trash, and Mr. Hale estimates that 100,000 trees 
were planted this spring, of which probably 60,000 will 
never bear a peach. Eveu Delaware men have come up 
there and want to trade their farms for some of that Con¬ 
necticut peach laud. Many will be ruined. A gentleman 
with more money thau experience formed a company sev¬ 
eral years ago to go into the peach business. They now 
have a large tract of land unfit for peach culture, planted 
to peaches, and it costs them over $10,000 annually for 
chemical fertilizers, and the only returns they have ever 
received were a few inferior peaches last year, which cost 
more to gather and market than they sold for. Yes, many 
of these neighbors will lose money and perhaps be ruined. 
Mr. Hale said that the prospect for a crop the coming year 
is not very good. He may have 1,000 baskets, and may 
possibly have 3,000 or 4,000. The Crawfords are killed; 
they are very tender both in tree and fruit. Hill’s Chili 
and Smock are among the most hardy varieties. Speak¬ 
ing of his experience in buyiug peach trees, Mr. Hale said 
that many trees had not been true to name, and this he 
attributed to the practice of budding from nursery rows 
instead of from bearing trees. This practice he con¬ 
demned severely and said that no reputable nurseryman 
should practice it. Only one nurseryman ventured to de¬ 
fend the practice on the ground of the difficulty of procur¬ 
ing buds from bearing trees. 
Mr. Albaugh, of Ohio, spoke about the peach orchards 
of the West and South. He said there were two peach 
belts in Ohio; one along the lake front and the other along 
the Ohio River; but the crops were uncertain. There had 
Vceu three or four successive crops of peaches across the 
river in Kentucky. One orchard contained about 40,000 
trees of such varieties as Salway, Smock, Henrietta and 
others; the trees are three to four years old and, last year, 
bore three to four bushels each, which were sold for $2.50 
per bushel. They were shipped to St. Paul, Minneapolis, 
and other Northern cities. There are now probably 200,000 
trees in bearing. There have been three successive crops 
in Indiana and Illinois when every living tree bore fruit 
but there are none this year. As showing the tendency of 
fruit-growing to change its location, Mr. Albaugh 
cited the fact that, years ago, hundreds of car-loads of 
water melons were grown and shipped annually from the 
southern parts of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois; but, now he 
doubts if a man could find a car-load at any point. The 
whole supply comas from Georgia, where the crop is more 
certain, and increased shipping facilities enable growers 
to market the product advantageously in the Northern 
cities. Peaches are following water-melons to Georgia, 
where they can be grown and shipped north to compete 
successfully with Northern growers. Trees are being ex¬ 
tensively planted, and this last spring the supply was so 
completely exhausted that not another tree could be pur¬ 
chased within six weeks of the close of the planting sea¬ 
son. At one place there will soon be 100,000 trees in one 
orchard. He spoke of one car of 300 bushels of Elbertas 
shipped to New York last summer, that netted, above all 
freights, commissions, storage and other charges, $1,600. 
He gave as his opinion of the most promising location for 
peacb-growing. Fort Valley in Houston County, about 100 
miles southeast of Atlanta. This opinion was shared by 
about 30 other horticulturists who had with him 
thoroughly looked over the ground. With the failure of 
peaches in so many of the peach-growing districts of the 
North, this region is likely to become the future source of 
supply for a large part of the Northern markets. 
THE BOSTON VEGETABLE MARKET. 
Boston is one of the most critical markets of the world 
for the sale of vegetables. Not only is the standard very 
high as to quality, but they must be put up and displayed 
according, it might be said, to iron-clad rules, if the top 
price is desired. A grower may be all right as to the qual¬ 
ity of his goods, but if he fails to comply with the demands 
of the market in his mode of putting-up, displaying, etc., 
woe be unto him : he will not only have to take a lower 
price, but he will be held up to the derision of his fellow 
cultivators. The writer can illustrate this point by stating 
that upon a certain occasion he chose to expose for sale 
some Tailby’s Hybrid cucumbers, which in a previous 
season he had found possessed of superior merits peculiar 
to the variety. But the trade won Id not take it, in spite 
of its fine qualities, for they had been educated to buying 
a bushel box containing 90 cucumbers by count, which the 
White Spine cucumbers filled, but the Tailby’s Hybrid 
did not. If a grower finds a meritorious vegetable, it is not 
safe to raise it to any great extent at first; he must feel his 
way along gradually. 
The packages for packing and displaying most of the 
varieties of vegetables, are the wooden, square, bushel 
box, and the larger, square, barrel box. The former cost 
10, and the latter 40 cents each. As the produce is sold, 
the package containing it goes with it; but buyers are al¬ 
ways provided with “ empties,” which are exchanged ; 
otherwise the price of the packages is added to the market 
price of the product, and the money is refunded upon the 
return of the “ empties.” 
A barrel box of long radishes should contain 100 bunches 
of nine radishes each, so that the individual radishes 
should be pulled when of a certain size, so that after 
bunching, the requisite number will fill the box even with 
the top. All these demands having been complied with, 
another is, that the bunches should be tied with raffia 
tying material—an imported dried grass—half way be¬ 
tween the top of the leaves and where they join the root; 
if this is done the bunch will lie flat in the box and on the 
dealer’s table. We have been getting from the South this 
year a few radishes tied close up to the root. This ar¬ 
rangement makes the roots stand out like the quills of a 
porcupine, presenting anything but an attractive appear¬ 
ance. 
The demands of the trade in lettuce are quite as rigid. 
Commonly speaking, a box of lettuce grown under glass 
should contain not more than six dozen heads. For a box 
with more than that number a lower price must be ex¬ 
pected. The trade know that if a box contains more than 
six dozen, the quality must be light; that is, the heads 
will be deficient. White, tender heads are what they are 
looklug for, and they know by the number in the box the 
quality of its contents. Boxes are often offered contain¬ 
ing a less number. As our greenhouse cultivators are 
becoming more proficient in producing firmer and larger 
heads than are possible in a hot-bed, their packages often 
contain but four dozen, and still the boxes are even full. 
Of course the trade know that the quality is better and in 
some instances will give more for a box than if it contained 
six dozen. This all applies to a market that is being 
reasonably well supplied ; but should the market be short, 
it will take an inferior quality at a longer price. 
Prices in the New York market govern those of the 
Boston market somewhat. If our cultivators depended 
altogether upon the home market, their product would 
not bring anywhere near the price that it does at times. 
We have a class of middlemen who ship large quantities 
to the New York market when the prices there admit. In 
that case the lettuce is taken out of our barrel boxes and 
packed in double-headed barrels. If the weather is at all 
moderate, broken ice is sprinkled among it to prevent 
heating in transit. It has occurred to me if our Southern 
cultivators would ship their lettuce North, with broken 
ice among it, it would come through all right. I know 
that ice is not very plentiful in that regiou, but the ma¬ 
chines for manufacturing it artificially are used some¬ 
what, and the ice could be obtained from that source. 
The varieties demanded by the Boston market are, for 
glass culture, the White-seeded Tennisball, and for out¬ 
side culture the Black-seeded Tennisball and Boston Fine- 
curled. The market will not take any other sorts. 
E. P. K. 
BUSINESS BITS. 
Philadelphia 4-cent milk.— Some of the farmers supply¬ 
ing Philadelphia with milk are talking of becoming middle¬ 
men as well as producers. The Easton Creamery Association 
controls 200,000 quarts of milk daily, and proposes to try to 
do its own retail business. It is said that milk can be sold 
to tne consumer at four cents per quart and still net the 
producer two cents, which is half a cent more than he now 
receives. 
GRAIN bags.— Grain farmers on the Pacific coast are 
greatly concerned just now over the grain bag question. 
There is a strong and deep-rooted prejudice against ship¬ 
ping grain in bulk, and in handling the grain from the 
fields to the elevators bags are absolutely necessary. Bags 
are cheaper this year, mainly, as we are told, because 
prison labor was employed in making them, and because 
it was insisted that the prison authorities should supply 
them at cost to actual farmers. All farmers need bags for 
handling grain, potatoes and other products; and few 
realize fully what the “bag money” amounts to. We 
hope to tell our readers before long how some of our 
friends succeed in purchasing their bags at the lowest 
price. There is nothing like saving money when you can. 
IMPLEMENT NOTES. 
Iron Chimney Caps. —It is claimed that these caps will 
protect a chimney and. at the same time, serve as an orna¬ 
ment. Both of these objects are desirable. J. Mayne, of 
Oneonta, N. Y., makes a chimney cap that is well liked by 
many who have used it. 
Diggers Superseding Plows.— There is a belief among 
many farmers that the increased use of the new diggers 
and cutting harrows is to be condemned, because such 
tools lessen the use of the plow and lead to shallow tillage 
—the soil is not stirred deep enough. The R. N.-Y. is col¬ 
lecting what information it can get from those who have 
used this tool, and before the time for fall seeding we shall 
have some facts to put before our readers. 
The “Boss” Sprinkler.— This is a device sold by 
Oliver A. Smith, Clarkston, Mich. It consists of a large 
tin can which is carried on the back like a knapsack. A 
rubber tube furnished with a rose.ruDs from the lower part 
of the can. The Paris-green and water mixed in the can 
is driven out by the force of its own weight. This is a 
handy machine. The only objection to it is that there is 
no way of keeping the Paris-green stirred up in the water. 
Some of the statements made in the circular had better be 
left out. For example, we are told that five tea-spoonfuls 
of Paris-green will be enough for an acre ! Again, we are 
advised to mix the Paris-green and water one day before 
using, while nothing is said about the necessity of keeping 
the mixture well stirred. 
Knapsack Sprayers.— There is a good demand for a 
cheap sprayer, with tank pump and nozzle, which can be 
easily carried on the back. The sprayers of this character 
now on the market, cost too much for those who have an 
average amount of work to do. We learn that a new 
sprayer, to cost about $5, will soon be placed on the mar¬ 
ket. It will hold about five gallons and will do good 
work. It was designed, as we understand, by Professor 
Riley. 
Machine for Hilling Celery.— A Michigan man has 
patented a machine for doing this laborious work. On a 
frame like that used on a riding cultivator, two mold- 
boards turning towards each other are hung, quite a dis¬ 
tance apart at their forward ends and nearer together at 
the rear. The rider can control these mold boards, raising 
or spreading them at will. The mold-boards are run on 
either side of the row throwing the earth towards the 
plants. 
Hay Loaders for Grain.—A considerable number of 
readers want to know if the hay-loaders, so useful in the 
hay field, cannot be used for loading loose grain, particu¬ 
larly oats and barley. We do not know from our own ex¬ 
perience, but shall welcome any information from those 
who have tried the experiment. Prof. A. J. Cook writes 
us as follows: “I am asked if the Keystone can be used to 
load loose grain. I have not tried it, except to load the 
rakings in the wheat and oat fields. There it worked well, 
and I feel sure it would carry up all the unbound grain 
from swath or windrow just as well. My brother, who is 
conservative in such matters, says that if he had only 15 or 
20 acres of hay to cut, he would certainly have a Keystone 
loader.” 
One successful tool helps create confidence in the possi¬ 
bilities of another. A man may use a potato planter with 
considerable “fear and trembling,” and pass an auxious 
week after the planting. But when he finds that the 
plants do come up evenly and well, he is led to believe 
that a machine may be devised that will dig as well as 
plant. If the planter had not been successful, there would 
never have been any chance for the digger. We can 
hardly expect to harvest by hand what we plant by ma¬ 
chinery. 
Hand Corn Planters —Many fanners persist in plant¬ 
ing corn aud beaus with the hoe, dropping the seed by 
hand, because “they know where the seed is” when they 
drop it from their hands. The writer planted an acre of 
beaus the other day, using aMacumber plauter. He knows 
this planter dropped the beaus regularly, because he saw 
them fall every time, just a* distiuctly aa though they 
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