1896 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
?o9 
AMONG THE MARKETMEN. 
WHAT I SAW AND HEARD. 
A wholesale egg dealer tells me that the western 
refrigerator eggs come out of cold storage in better 
shape than the eastern ones. I asked him how he 
accounted for this difference, and he said that it is 
because the western eggs have thicker shells, which 
do not so readily permit the absorption of bad odors, 
and which better protect the contents. We all know 
how susceptible eggs are to taint, but it is a new idea 
that the different parts of the country furnish shells 
of a different thickness. Who has noticed anything 
of this? 
X X X 
The same dealer spoke of a shipper who had been 
sending in “ strictly fresh” eggs, which were, prob¬ 
ably, all fresh some time, but part of which were 
nothing but refrigerator eggs kept since summer, 
mixed with a few fresh ones. This shipper soon be¬ 
came so well known, that no one wanted his stock. 
About this time, my informant received a letter from 
another man in the same town, proposing to ship him 
fresh eggs. He wired him to send them on at once. 
They were identical in quality and style of package 
with those from the other shipper. Evidently, the 
same one was using a different name or getting some 
one else to ship his eggs. It’s a poor plan to do busi¬ 
ness in such a way that one must change his name ! 
It doesn’t pay ! 
X t t 
A large handler of butter says that receipts of 
dairy butter are constantly decreasing. Many owners 
of small dairies who formerly shipped dairy butter, 
have bought separators, and are making creamery 
butter. The holding of butter for months as was 
formerly done, is becoming more and more unpopular. 
Butter is now wanted for immediate consumption, 
about the only holding that is popular with dealers 
being the putting into cold storage of the surplus 
when the supply exceeds the demand. 
X t X 
I notice that the street fruit stands and push carts 
are selling large quantities of Twenty-ounce apples. 
They seem to be very popular with this trade. They 
are attractive in appearance because of their size and 
coloring, and their quality, though not of the best, 
suits the average customer. The price is so low this 
year that almost any one may eat apples, and I am 
glad to see the great American standby, the apple, so 
largely eaten. f. h. y. 
APPLES IN WESTERN NEW YORK. 
CULTIVATION, THINNING AND SPRAYING. 
A couple of weeks ago, I was in the orchard of 
Woodward & Jaques, near Lockport, to which Mr. J. 
S. Woodward has so often referred before the West¬ 
ern New York Horticultural Society as apparent proof 
that even high cultivation does not always bring 
apples, and that tillage may have no advantage over 
pasturage. The orchard contains about 300 trees, 
mostly Baldwins, perhaps 35 years of age. It has 
always received good treatment in the way of manur¬ 
ing and tillage. Yet it has not borne fruit while 
other orchards around which had been pastured with 
sheep, bore good crops. The orchard, this season, 
however, was loaded with fine apples as I have never 
seen any orchard loaded before. We estimated the 
average yield per tree to be from 15 to 20 barrels. 
No wonder, then, that a large share of the trees were 
broken down under their load, and many entirely 
wrecked and ruined. On many of the trees, not a 
branch was left; on others, only one or two. Some 
of the branches had been saved by wiring, as shown 
at Fig. 230. Stout fence wire was wound tightly 
around two limbs leaning in opposite directions, and 
the two strands then twisted up by means of a stick 
placed between them in the center (see dotted lines), 
until the branches were drawn tightly together. 
The effects of good cultivation were plainly to be 
seen in the enormous growth of the buckwheat, par¬ 
tially smothered by the fallen branches, in the fine 
color of the foliage and the strong wood growth, and 
in the good size of the fruit, even on these overloaded 
trees. Perhaps the lesson of the effectiveness of cul¬ 
tivation has never been so impressively put before 
the people. The failures are invariably in the neg¬ 
lected orchards. All trees that have had any kind of 
attention, these years, are full of fruit. 
Filling Vacancies. —After the apple harvest, and 
the cleaning up of the orchards, vacant spots will be 
a common thing. A large percentage of the older 
trees are so broken down, that the only thing to do 
with them, is to dig them up. The question came up 
as to what to plant to fill the vacant spots. In the 
Woodward and Jaques orchards there were, already, 
a few peach trees, planted three or four years ago in 
vacant spots. These, trees are now ready to bear 
fruit. It would hardly be wise to set apple trees now 
that the old trees are so large. When the young trees 
come into full bearing, we may expect that the old 
ones are about used up. If peach trees be planted, 
and well cared for, they will soon grow up, and, 
under the protection of the larger trees all around, 
bear full and regular, and surely, profitable crops, 
and may last nearly until the old apple trees are past 
their age of usefulness. 
Thinning the Fruit. —No doubt the damage to the 
trees resulting from breakage of branches might have 
been avoided by timely thinning. We may feel con¬ 
fident that, by resorting to this, we may be able to 
prevent overbearing, to obtain annual instead of 
biennial crops, and to improve the fruit in size, color 
and flavor. But the question arises : Is it practicable 
with the apple ? When apples are so cheap, can we 
afford to expend so much labor on the thinning pro¬ 
cess ? If we undertake this at all, we shall have to 
do the job in the quickest and cheapest way, by shak¬ 
ing the fruit off, or striking into the trees with long 
poles, without regard to single specimens, letting fall 
what will fall, or leaving on what will hang. We 
cannot go over the whole tree to pick off the imper¬ 
fect specimens, because this work would not pay for 
our high-priced labor. 
There is also a limit, in some cases, to what may be 
called desirable size. This year, at least, the trees 
seem to be bound to produce an extraordinary yield. 
Reduce the number of specimens on a tree, and the 
latter will try to make up for it in extraordinary size 
of the specimens left on. Of many varieties, we do 
not care for overgrown fruit. This is notably the 
case with the Baldwins. Very large specimens will 
not keep well. For long keeping, give us the small 
and medium-sized apples. The overloaded Baldwin 
trees, this year, give us just about the right size. 
Thinning the Trees. —Another lesson that this 
year’s crop should impress very forcibly upon our 
minds, is the need of a great deal more room for each 
WIRING OVERLOADED APPLE TREES. Fig. 230. 
individual tree than the planters of 30 or more years 
ago thought proper. Nearly all our older orchards 
were planted too thickly. Now the branches of ad¬ 
jacent trees interfere and overlap. It is hard work, 
and often almost impossible to move the ladders 
about the trees as required. This, however, is only 
one, and really, a minor disadvantage. The greater 
one, is the want of color in the apples that grow in 
the shadier portions of the trees. Even on Baldwins 
and other red-fruited trees which stand alone, we find 
dull or green apples on the under side of the branches. 
It needs the direct rays of the sun to paint a bright 
cheek on the apple. The colorless fruit is flavorless, 
too. Go where you may among the orchards of the 
State, and you will find that almost all the older 
orchards need a severe thinning of the trees. There 
can hardly be a better time for this work than after 
the harvest of this year’s crop. Many of the trees are 
wrecked or sadly damaged. It is not likely that after 
so heavy a yield we are going to have a crop next 
year. Cut every other tree out of these orchard 
forests, and give to the remaining ones a chance to 
recruit, and to make the most of their enlarged 
opportunities in and after 1898. 
Spraying. —This year’s apple crop is, probably, a 
sad blow to the spraying enthusiasts, and also to the 
manufacturers of spraying machines. Sprayed or 
unsprayed, our apple trees have remained exempt 
from scab, etc., and the apples remarkably free from 
Codling worms. The Codling, undoubtedly, had been 
starved out, in many localities, by the repeated fail¬ 
ures of the apple crop. Now we have few worms and 
many apples. The average ordinary grower seems in¬ 
clined to make light of the spray question. Why go 
to the trouble of spraying, when apples grow just as 
well on the unsprayed as on the sprayed trees ? This 
is the sentiment I find prevailing everywhere among 
those who are not fully informed as to the objects 
and aims of spraying. True, spraying may have 
shown no marked results this year. But, as Mr. 
Woodward told me, spraying is to be considered in 
the light of insurance. We simply provide for an 
emergency or accident. We do not expect that- our 
house or barn will burn down. Still, we pay the 
small insurance fee to be on the safe side. If scab do 
come, or if insect enemies do attack our fruit, we save 
the latter, and have a good crop, perhaps, when other 
people have none, or poor stuff, at best. Our chance 
to make money is in bad fruit seasons, when scab and 
insects ruin the crops of those who have failed to 
spray. But as to the accumulative effect of spraying 
—little is to be seen on our apple crops this year. 
Niagara County, N. Y. t. greiner. 
ALL SORTS. 
One of the hardest things for farmers to realize, is 
the fact that some apparently dry substances like 
bran, hay or ordinary soil, contain 10 per cent or more 
of water. It does not seem possible that, in buying a 
ton of average Timothy hay, we pay for 250 pounds of 
pure water ; yet it is true. A soil that seems to be 
nothing but dry dust at the surface, may be found to 
contain 15 per cent of water, if sampled to the depth 
of two feet. One of the simplest and most interesting 
experiments a farmer can make, is to determine the 
amount of water in various substances. To do it 
successfully, he must have a scale that will weigh to 
grains. Then take just a pound of soil, or bran, or 
hay, heat it to 212 degrees F. for a few hours, and 
then weigh it again. Keep weighing and heating at 
this temperature until you cannot make it weigh any 
less. You will be surprised to see bow much water 
has been driven off by the heat. You will know that 
it must be water that has disappeared, for no other 
part of the substance would be driven away at that 
temperature. The Cornell Experiment Station (Ithaca, 
N. Y.) has just issued a bulletin (No. 120) by L. A. Clin¬ 
ton, which discusses the question of moisture in the 
soil. We would like to have every one of our readers 
study it. 
O 
We have been reading an account of a Western 
farmer who came to town with a load of oats, which 
he sold at six cents a bushel. He then went into a 
restaurant and bought a ham sandwich and a cup of 
coffee which cost 20 cents, so that his lunch repre¬ 
sented 3% bushels of oats. Granting that the figures 
are correct, we think that the farmer is to blame for 
eating up three bushels of his oats in that lunch. 
That farmer’s wife could have made him a larger and 
better sandwich without spending one cent of cash. 
The ham, the butter and the bread could all have 
been produced at home. All the farmer had to do 
was to bring it with him, and the person who will 
charge more than five cents for a cup of good coffee 
has no business to deal with farmers. Don’t give him 
your trade. Make him come down to a reasonable 
price. If that farmer had brought two sandwiches 
and a bottle of cold coffee or milk with him, he might 
have carried his 20 cents home either as cash or in the 
form of a present for his wife. We don’t see why he 
should complain about his lunch, except at himself 
for keeping a useless middleman in the field ! 
BUSINESS BITS. 
There are two ways of keeping stock warm. One is to keep the 
cold air out by keeping them in a warm building, another is to 
give them plenty of good food and water not too cold. Give them 
ice water to drink, and a good share of their food will be needed 
to takeoff the chill. Warm their drinking water, and all that 
food will be saved and go toward making meat or milk. For 
warming stock water, the I X L heater has been popular. The 
U. S. Wind Engine and Pump Co., Batavia, Ill., have met the 
demand for something cheaper, by bringing out the United States 
heater. Write them about it. 
The Portland Mfg. Co., Portland, Mich., are now making Ter- 
riff’s Perfect washing machine, and say that it is giving such gen¬ 
eral satisfaction that, even in these times of depression in trade, 
they are meeting with the greatest success. Their success is 
directly attributed to the fact that their machines are sold under 
a positive guarantee to wash as clean as can be done on the wash 
board, and the unqualified offer to refund the money if fouud not 
to be as represented. This position makes easy work for their 
agents, as every one is anxious to lighten the labor of wash day. 
Agents ought to find this pleasant and profitable work. 
The difficulty of disposing of fruit stones.has, doubtless, made 
them a part of our pie system; the danger of their use has brought 
into existence the most necessary as well as the neatest and 
handiest of all kitchen utensils in the Enterprise Raisin and Grape 
Seeder, manufactured by the Enterprise Mfg. Co., of Philadelphia. 
This little machine fastens on the table, and is so simple a child 
can manage it, and seeds a pound of fruit a minute without waste. 
It never gets out of order and is very readily cleaned. A woman’s 
time and patience are too valuable, though she be only your cook, 
to sit for hours preparing raisins and grapes by the old method, 
pinching the seeds out with her fingers, when you can, for a 
nominal sum, provide this modern time and labor saver. 
In speaking recently of Mr. Chipman’s combination wire fence 
tool, we said it was not being advertised. Neither was it, but Mr. 
Chipman has sent tis an advertisement this week. We also re¬ 
ferred to it as a little tool, which Mr. Chipman thinks is mislead¬ 
ing, and we don’t know but it is. It is really a combination of 
four tools, a wire stretcher, a staple puller, a two-foot measure, 
and a wire cutter which cuts wire or briars or small brush or 
woven wire, like shears. We have referred to it again because 
we liked it so much in our own practice, and because the price is 
so low that we fear that Mr. Chipman will not be able to adver¬ 
tise it sufficiently to make its merits sufficiently known. He also 
offers to return the money to any one not satisfied. His address 
is, H. M. Chipman, Waterbury, Conn. 
