i89o 
6o7 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
Business. 
EXPERIENCES IN WHOLESALE BUYING. 
T. B. TERRY. 
After the discussion on the subject of farmers buying at 
wholesale, that took place in The Rural lately, the fol¬ 
lowing experience may be of interest. Wanting some 
grain bags, these letters passed through the mails : 
Hudson, Ohio, July 29, ’90. 
Messrs.-, Cleveland, Ohio Please give me prices of 
Stark A and Amoskeag bags by the bale, cash with the 
order. T. b. terry. 
Cleveland, Ohio, Julv 30, ’90. 
Mr. T. B. Terry, Hudson, Ohio We refer you to Mr. B. 
of your town for prices on bags. 
Hudson, Ohio, July 30, ’90. 
Mr. T. B. Terry:—We quote you Amoskeag bags at 
$19.50; Stark A bags at $22 50. B. 
I had never had any trouble about buying at wholesale 
rites of Messrs.-, of Cleveland, before, and naturally 
whistled softly at receiving these let¬ 
ters. I was so indiscreet as to tell of 
my good fortune in buying bags at 
wholesale in TnE Rural, and friend 
B., I suppose, got hold of it and notified 
the wholesalers that they must not 
sell to his customers. So much for 
telling all one knows ! For a moment 1 
thought they had me. I had carelessly 
waited until I wanted to use the bags, 
supposing I could get them as hereto 
fore on short notice. The last bale of 
Amoskeags I had bought cost $16.50; 
B. wanted $3 more. The last Starks 
cost me $18.50; B. asked $4 advance. 
This was more than I could stand; but 
if it had been but 50 cents a bale 
there was another side to the matter: 
was I to meekly give up and be whip¬ 
ped into line and obliged to hire a 
middleman to do for me business that 
I could just as well do for myself ? I 
have a bank account in Cleveland as well as my friend B. 
and can send a check for what I want, pay 25 cents’ freight 
on, say, three bales of bags, and pocket a nice little profit. 
Well, I did not move into line. I thought of the tele¬ 
phone and telegraph, and Uncle Sam’s mail that a farmer 
could not be shut out of, and they were put to work in a 
hurry, and I had all the bags I wanted in good season, and 
Messrs. -, of Cleveland, did not even get the whole¬ 
saler’s profit. I wonder if they ever heard the story of the 
man who dropped the little goose to catch a larger one and 
lost them both ; $22.50 for a bale of Stark bags ! Why, I 
sold a neighbor 40 the other day for 20 cents each. But 
enough of this. I use several hundred shipping tags in 
the course of a year. Being in Cleveland the other day, 
it occurred to me that I was nearly out of tags, and I went 
into a retail store to buy 200 or 300. They asked me 25 
cents per 100. I bought 500 in Akron last fall and paid 
20 cents per 100. This advance in price set me to thinking. 
I looked at my watch and found I had over an hour to 
spare, and I declined the 25-cents-per-hundred tags, forced 
all the brass possible into my face, and started out to see 
what could be learned in this line. My face boldly led me 
into offices where I knew many tags must be used for 
shipping, and my tongue put the question : “ Where do you 
buy your tags?” After some rebuffs, one gentleman 
kindly told me where I could buy them at wholesale. I 
went to the place. When I inquired of a man who met 
me at the door, he eyed me rather suspiciously, and said : 
“ We do not retail tags.” 
Certainly not, if you did I should not be here,” was my 
reply. 
“Third floor to the right,” says he. There I found tags 
put up 1,000 in a box, for 50 cents a box ! Why, it almost 
took my breath away; but I tried to look as though I had 
many others. I was an entire stranger to all these parties, 
and what was done was within the reach of any man with 
any business talent about him. 
My wife says I would have got rich long ago if I had not 
told of my luck as soon as I got hold of anything good. 
There is some truth in this. We had a grand local market 
for potatoes, and our methods seemed to bring unusual 
crops. Every secret was told, and now we are surrounded 
by potato growers. We made some money out of straw¬ 
berries, and it looks now as though it might be cheaper to 
buy them in a year or two. I now hope to stir up thous¬ 
ands of farmers on this question of buying supplies at 
wholesale. The result to myself of the disclosures in this 
letter will probably be an attempt to shut me off from 
buying the articles named and otters in Cleveland, be¬ 
cause, forsooth ! I am only a farmer and not a dealer; but 
little care I, for the freight from Cincinnati, or Philadel 
phia, or New York, is little more than that from Cleve¬ 
land. It is hard for a bird to break out of his cage, but 
after he has once got a taste of freedom it is a difficult 
matter to catch him again. 
Summit County, O. 
tected fields were badly injured. The corn fully matured 
before another frost and yielded a good crop. In the 
spring of 1884 much injury was done to strawberry 
blossoms by late frosts in this part of the State. Several 
growers saved their crops by building fires which produced 
a heavy smoke around and among their beds. A New 
Jersey peach grower is reported to have saved his peach 
crop last spring by building a line of fires to the windward 
of his orchard. The man is reported to have burned all 
the fences and loose timber on the place; but as he has 
just sold a good crop of peaches at exorbitant prices, he 
probably considers the investment a good one. Many 
thousands of dollars’ worth of buckwheat, corn and other 
late maturing crops is annually lost throughout the State 
by unseasonable frosts. This part of the State is liable to 
frosts on low grounds about the last of August or first of 
September. Frost occurs usually on one, very rarely on 
two successive nights, and these are generally followed by 
a considerable period of warm weather before more of 
them occur. If any means can be devised for averting the 
effects of these one or two early frosts, the most of the 
crops will mature before there is further danger. In the 
spring, also, there are generally but 
one or two nights during which in 
jury to fruit blossoms will result; so 
the means taken for protection need 
not be long-continued. Anything that 
will produce a heavy smoke seems to 
fill the bill for a protector. V. H. F. 
Wayne County, N. Y. 
EIGHT SAMPLES OF BINDING TWINE. Fig. 258. 
A TEST OF BINDING TWINES. 
I herewith send the results of some binding twine tests. 
Eight kinds were tested—two balls of each kind. I send 
samples of each sort with the tag attached. See Fig. -5b. 
The trial consisted in simply counting the number of 
Price per 
First 
Second 
31 worth 
will bind 
pound. 
ball. 
ball. 
Total. 
bundles. 
.. SO. lu 
804 
7=18 
1564 
1874 
.. .14 
810 
900 
1740 
1491 
. .16 
8i9 
872 
1781 
1298 
.. .10 
1076 
924 
2 d 
2400 
.. .12*6 
733 
660 
1398 
1341 
.. .13 
£57 
780 
1637 
1511 
.. .13 
710 
714 
1424 
1314 
878 
£93 
1776 
1420 
New Use for a Tow-cart. Fig. 259. 
bought in that way all my life. All this took, perhaps, 20 
miuutes; 10 cents a minute seemed to me pretty big pay, 
and so I started out on another line. I wanted a few balls 
of fine hemp twine for sewing up sacks. I went into a re¬ 
tail store, and they asked 18 cents a ball. I looked at the 
man as though surprised that he asked so much, and he 
put a ball in the scales and said : “ Yes, that is right, 18 
ceuts a ball.” I had sometimes paid that, and at others 15 
cents. I concluded it did not suit, and put on “cheek” 
and started out again. Result, in 15 minutes a package, 
six balls, for 54 ceuts, or IS cents a pound, just half the re¬ 
tail price. All farmers will not want these same goods; 
but what can be done in these lines can also be done in 
bundles bound by each ball. The balls were supposed to 
weigh 4 1 6 pounds each. 12 of them making a 50 pound bale. 
The tension of the machine was not changed during the 
trial, and the bundles were of uniform size. The average 
length of the bands was just 24 inches. 
]. Composite Patent Sliver 
v. Hluejay .. 
3. Plymouth manllla. 
4. Met'ornil k jute . 
5. aicCorm'ck mixed . 
H. Standard Ituect-preparec 
7. Superior H. & (5. sisal ... 
8. Plymouth mixed. 
In the table tne McCormick jute seems to be ahead of 
all; but it has one very bad fault—it is too soft and hence 
apt to snarl at the end of the ball. The Plymouth mixed 
twine (supposed to be sisal and manilla), seemed to be 
made of green or damp material, and caused some trouble 
by becoming tangled. The Standard Insect-prepared was 
badly spun, being as large in some parts as a lead pencil 
and in others as small as a fine knitting-needle. All the 
other kinds were evenly spun and caused no trouble by 
breaking or becoming tangled. The Composite Patent 
Silver, which seems to be made of jute and flax, would be 
my choice, judging from this somewhat limited trial. In 
some sections of the country it may be necessary to guard 
against insects which gnaw the bands ; but here we have 
never been seriously troubled in that way, so that it is 
impossible to know which kinds the insects trouble most. 
All the twines seem to be strong enough; for no bands have 
been broken in handling the sheaves. JAS. M. DREW. 
Minnesota City, Minn. 
[R N.-Y".—Careful drawings (shown at Figure 258) were 
made of the samples sent us. Of course those loose 
samples were not as tightly twisted as the twine in the 
ball would be.] 
IMPLEMENT NOTES. 
Haying Appliances.— We have had 
considerable to say about the tow-carts 
used by many Long Island farmers: on 
page 282 we gave a picture of one. As a 
matter of fact, a “ tow-cart ” is noth¬ 
ing but the front axle and wheels of a 
wagon so arranged that they can be 
hitched to any vehicle when extra power 
is required. Mr. Hicks, who gave us 
the previous information regarding 
this useful device, has discovered a 
new use for it. His son, Henry Hicks, writes as follows 
concerning it: “ Figure 259 shows a pair of hooks to be 
attached to a tow-cart,—the front wheels of a farm 
wagon, the pole of which has been made rigid. The 
draft rope from a horse hay-fork, worked with a car¬ 
rier, is attached to the upper hook, and can be jerked off 
at the proper moment without stopping the team. A 
good man on the load will have another forkful ready by 
the time the team gets back. From the second hook a 
chain can be conveniently used in hauling empty wagons 
off the barn floor, and in bringing in the loaded wagons 
from the barnyard. We have also used a catch which re¬ 
leases the draft rope by pressing a lever, thus enabling the 
driver to ride.” 
Still Another Potato Sorter.— In The Rural of July 
26, page 485, I noticed illustrations of two potato sorters, 
and that The Rural would like to have drawings of home¬ 
made articles sent in. I do not know that there has been 
any special demand in this region for such an article, but 
I immediately thought how I would go to work to make 
one, and I send you two rude drawings—see Figures 260 and 
261—from which the artist may be able to see what I mean. 
I would have two wire-covered cylinders, one within the 
other. The inside one should be of a larger mesh so that 
nothing but earth and small potatoes could pass through, 
and the outside one of such mesh as to allow only the passage 
of the dirt. By the addition of another cylinder, another 
sorting of potatoes could be made. The inside cylinder 
should extend about four inches farther than the outside 
one, so as to make a more convenient fitting for the boxes 
through which the potatoes would slide. I think such an 
arrangement would be much better than either of the 
sorters illustrated. It would be better than the Hoover sor¬ 
ter, because the dirt would be separated from the small 
potatoes, and two sortings could be made, if needed. One 
advantage it would have over the Collins sorter, would be 
FIGHTING FROST WITH FIRE. 
The matter of protection from frosts referred to on page 
587, of The R.N.-Y., is an important one; but not so new 
as The Rural seems to regard it. I knew of its being 
used more than a score of years ago. A low, stumpy field 
was planted with corn in the spring. Before plowing, all 
of the stumps which it was possible to remove were piled 
around the immovable ones. In early autumn the low 
temperature threatened frost before morning. In the 
evening the stump piles were fired, and the fires and the 
smoke protected the immature corn, while many unpro- 
Home-made Potato Sorter. Fig. 26 1. 
that there would be more certainty of separating the soil 
from the small tubers. I should suppose that in the Col¬ 
lins sorter, if the potatoes were thrown in too fast, the 
small ones would fall out beyond the lower screen and 
tumble to the ground. In the device I have attempted to 
describe, an arrangement might be made whereby one end 
of the cylinder could be raised or lowered, making it more 
or less slanting. If the dirt clung to the potatoes, it would 
be rolled off if the cylinder were nearly level, and if it did 
not cling the potatoes would pass through much more 
quickly if the cylinder were quite slanting. w. D. 
Webster, Mass. 
