THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
t89o 
Business. 
CO-OPERATIVE ORCHARDING. 
The business in California fruit has been so heavy this 
year that there is a disposition to plant more fruit trees 
there than ever. The Pacific Rural Press tells us that there 
is a gtowing disposition among fruit men to co-operate and 
form business partnerships. Three plans are proposed, and 
all are more or less practiced. 
1. Co-operative planting, in which experienced fruit¬ 
growers have secured large tracts of fine fruit laud and 
planted it either in joint ownership or in individual tracts, 
which, being adjacent, have been operated under a single 
system of planting and cultivation, has been in progress 
several years, and some of the most promising orchard 
areas of the State have been developed in this way. The 
advantages of this plan are many and the safety great be¬ 
cause the partners in the enterprise are acquainted with 
the business and have learned by years of experience just 
how to use their time and money to the best advantage. 
2. A number of city men combine and buy large tracts 
of fruit lands and hire superintendents or foremen to 
manage the work. The weakness of this plan lies in the 
difficulty of securing good managers. 
3. The organization of corporations. These have been in 
operation some years in large vineyard properties, and it 
is hinted that new corporations representing foreign 
capital are trying to secure control of many large orchards 
and vineyards. 
The California fruit trade cannot be conducted by indi¬ 
vidual effort. The market is too far away, and there is an 
Imperative necessity for uniform packing and p ickages. 
Co-operation of some sort is absolutely necessary and, no 
matter in what form it is made, the effect upon the East¬ 
ern fruit-grower and fruit consumer is settled. The first 
will be obliged to improve his methods of growing, sorting 
and marketing, while the second will be sure of a supply 
of fruit. 
GRANGE DEALING WITH GRANGE. 
On page 629 The R. N.-Y. quoted from a letter written 
from Ohio, showing what was being done in the way of 
making up a direct business between Granges in Ohio and 
in Maine. In that letter the fact was stated that the 
Granges of Knox County, Maine, were trying to establish 
a Farmers’ Exchange for the purpose of encouraging direct 
dealings with Western Granges. The following letter 
shows the progress that is being made in this project: 
“ Perhaps it may interest readers of The Rural to know 
that our exchange was organized on September 12. The 
directors have found in the West parties who will furnish 
grain directly from the growers, so that the services of 
some of the middlemen will not be needed. They are 
expecting to get the exchange in working order early this 
winter. If the officers prove honest, energetic and level¬ 
headed and the farmers stand by them, it seems as if the 
exchange might be a good thing for the farmers of the 
county. A Farmers’ League was formed in Warren, 
September 27—the first in the county; but the twenty-fourth 
in the State.” F. A. H. 
Warren, Me. 
From a copy of the by-laws we learn that the purposes 
of the corporation are to be the carrying on of a general 
store and the buying and selling of general merchandise 
and country produce at wholesale and retail. Member¬ 
ship is limited to the Patrons of Husbandry and each 
member must own at least one share of stock, valued at $5. 
The capital stock of the corporation is fixed at $9,500. 
COLORADO POTATO FARMERS. 
To-day I went out to buy 100 sacks of potatoes. I saw 
and entered quite a number of potato cellars, or dug-outs. 
The potato crops in this country of irrigation have been 
good. The farms I saw were all in the famous Union 
Colony, founded 20 years ago last spring. These farms are 
a part of what was once known as the Greit American 
Desert. Twenty years ago this summer, numbers of men 
looked upon this soil covered with gravel, Buffalo Grass 
and prickly pear, and cursed it loudly and started back for 
“ God’s Country,” so little do men comprehend what is 
directly under their noses. Duriug the dark days of the 
grasshopper plague, in the seventies, these lauds went 
begging at $10 per acre. This year, if I figure correctly, 
the best of them will yield over $175 worth of “spuds,” per 
acre. By some strange fatality the yield per acre on the 
farm of him who went to the mountains for a good time, 
is not half so much. Why a potato can’t keep on growing 
when a young fellow is taking a summer vacation remains 
a mystery. 
I saw a man and a team harrowing down the frost-killed 
potato vines, so as to give the potato-digger a good chance. 
Then four big horses, hitched to one of a dozen different 
kinds of digging machines that are used about here, 
walked off as fast as they could and the machine put its 
nose into the ground and the earth and potatoes were run 
on to a revolving open-work chain belt, and the potatoes 
were left on the top of the ground. Pickers came along 
tilling a long row of sacks, and wagons took them to the 
cellars or to the dealers in town, the price paid being $1.20 
and $1.25 per 100 pounds. In one new dug out were 2,080 
sacks of Pearl potatoes, weighing 115 pounds to the sack, 
gathered from 17 acres : that is, 14,130 pounds to the acre 
or a little over $175. There seems to be a wide-spread belief 
that potatoes are to be somewhat higher and the tendeney 
to hold on to the crop is general. The farmers have 
organized for mutual help, and the officers of the associa¬ 
tion have written far and near saying that the association 
has potatoes to sell, and as a result they already have some 
orders at $1.30 per hundredweight, on the cars, in Greeley. 
The farmers, it will be seen, mean to take a hand in mak¬ 
ing the prices of their produce. It is only fair to state 
that some of our best farmers say that only three times in 
the past 20 years has farming paid here. It is an unpleas¬ 
ant fact that mortgages are very common among us It is 
to be hoped that this year’s good crops will knock many of 
them in the head. O. H. 
Greeley, Colorado. _ 
Waste Rice Products.— Since The R. N.-Y. began to 
talk about the feeding value of rice bran, rice polish and 
other by-products of rice manufacture, many letters have 
been received from dairymen who want to buy the foods. 
“ Where can the products be bought f” is the oft repeated 
question.' This is exactly what we would like to know. 
We have repeatedly written to merchants and others in 
New Orleans and other Southern cities asking about these 
foods, but have not yet found one who seems desirous of 
building up a profitable trade. This is certainly a curious 
way to do business. 
IMPLEMENT NOTES. 
Foot Power Thrasher.— The picture shown at Figure 
348, is re-engraved from an advertisement in a Scottish agri¬ 
cultural paper. The machine is made at Aberdeen, and is 
sold for $35 (carriage paid). As may be seen, it is fitted 
with suitable attachments, so that either hand or foot 
power can be used. There are many farmers in the East- 
Foot Power Thrasher. Fig. 348. 
machines is a case in point. For years manufacturers 
apparently made little effort to put such a tool before the 
public. Now they are making fortunes out of the simple 
sled with knives at the sides. 
SOME NEW PATENTS. 
A Calf Weaker. —We do not understand how a patent 
could be granted on the device shown at Fig. 350. We 
have often seen similar muzzles in use, and they prove 
A Calf Weaner. Fig. 350. 
quite effective. The device Is so simple that it hardly re¬ 
quires an explanation. The visor through which the sharp 
nails are driven is made of leather. 
A New Harness.— The object of this device is to give 
the team more power in backing. As will be noticed, 
there is a heavy strap connecting with the breeching and 
fastened to a wooden single yoke in front. These yokes 
A New Harness. Fig. 35 1. 
are in turn fastened to the donble yoke by chains. This, 
it is said, makes the horse’s weight far more available in 
backing than when the old style under-straps are used. 
A Cow Yoke.— This yoke or “poke,” as it is frequently 
called, is intended to keep cattle from breaking down bars. 
Some cows are very bad at this trick—if a rail is at all 
ern States who grow but a few acres of grain—hardly 
enough to make it worth while to hire a thrasher’s full out¬ 
fit. There might, perhaps, be enough of a demand among 
such small farmers to warrant some American manufac¬ 
turer in making such a machine. 
Cooking Food for Stock.— Last year The R. N.-Y. gave 
considerable space to a discussion of the economy of cook¬ 
ing food for stock. Most of those who took part in the 
discussion were hog feeders, and the verdict seemed to be 
that cooking does pay for the reason that it enables the 
feeder to utilize many waste products that would be other¬ 
wise unused. Another point well determined was that 
the old-fashioned boiler and kettle will not answer. The 
steam cookers made nowadays not only save fuel and time, 
but are automatic and will “ run themselves,” besides 
being useful for a variety of purposes. A first-rate steam 
cooker is made by J. K Purington & Co., DesMoines, Iowa. 
Victor Strainer Pail.—T he advantages of having a 
good milk pail can hardly be overestimated. A thin, light 
pail, with a poor strainer, is an abomination. It begins to 
leak just when you want it to be sound and the strainer 
gives out when you are feeling too good-natured to put a 
cloth over it. The result is that you lose milk ana do not 
Victor Strainer Pail. Fig. 349. 
properly clean what you save. The Victor pail—see Figure 
349—has two detachable strainers and is made of heavy tin 
in the most thorough manner. It will last and it will clean 
the milk. If you cannot get it at your store The R. N.-Y. 
can supply it as a premium. 
That New Sorghum Machine.— On page 647, Mr. J. C. 
Stribling described a machine which he claimed would be 
of great service to Southern sorghum growers. It was to 
be a combination cutter, fanner and crusher, so that after 
the cane was cut, it would fall upon rollers which would 
crush out the juice. The plan seemed feasible and it is 
evident that Southern farmers would find such a machine 
very useful. We sent the plan to a number of manufac¬ 
turers of ensilage cutters. They all say that such a ma¬ 
chine is entirely practicable and could be made at a reason¬ 
able expense, but they seem to have no particular desire to 
attempt its manufacture, probably because they do not 
appreciate its value to the sorghum growers. If they 
could be made to understand how such a machine would 
develop the sorghum-growing industry, they would work 
day and night to perfect it. The history of corn harvesting 
A Cow Yoke. Fig. 352. 
loose they will work it out and get through the fence. 
The inventor claims that this “ poke ” will prevent their 
working their heads through the rails. Do you think so ? 
CATALOGUES, ETC., RECEIVED. 
Catalogue of the Star Manufacturing Co., New 
Lexington, Ohio.— This firm manufactures grinding mills 
for horse or steam power. Grind your grain and make it 
last longer. 
A Picket Fence Machine is made by the Lansing 
Wheelbarrow Co., of Lansing, Michigan, that has the 
merits of being both cheap and serviceable. It will pay 
farmers to look this machine up. 
A Silo Encyclopedia is what the S. Freeman & Sons’ 
Manufacturing Co., of Racine, Wisconsin, call their last 
catalogue. While intended to illustrate and describe the 
ensilage cutters, fanning mills, sowers, etc., made by this 
firm, the pamphlet contains so much interesting informa¬ 
tion regarding silos and ensilage that it is well worthy 
of its name. 
Catalogue from the G. H. Grimm Manufacturing 
C o., Hudson, Ohio.— This catalogue describes the Cham¬ 
pion Evaporator which is used by many maple sugar 
makers. The pamphlet fully describes the evaporator, so 
that any one may see how it is made and how it differs 
from others. There ought to be a “ boom ” in maple sugar 
making next season. The catalogue also describes spouts, 
pails and loops used in sap gathering. 
