83o 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
November 10, 
‘we have unusually fine weather this Fall, with little 
rain, but an unpredicted and unlooked-for snowstorm 
on October 11 caught about 75 yet out. The mercury 
fell to 28. No combs were frosted, but they suffered 
some discomfort. 
Catching chickens from the trees is not so difficult as 
might be imagined. We, three of us, select a rather 
dark night, have crates ready in convenient places, also 
a ladder and step-ladder, and a lantern that will give 
a clear, bright light. Then, having located the chick¬ 
ens somewhat, before dark, we commence the job as 
soon as it is fairly dark. One climbs the tree, grasps 
the fowl firmly by both legs (if by only one leg it may 
be broken in the struggle to get away), hands it to the 
one below, who carries it to the crate where the other 
deposits it and keeps count. Occasionally one will fly, 
but the lantern light seems to fascinate them, and 
they are quite likely to fly directly toward it. It is 
well not to crowd them in the crates, and to give them 
plenty of air. Our crates are slatted top, ends and 
sides, and by careful management we have safely 
moved 100 fowls at a time, three miles on a one-horse 
spring wagon. Fowls smother easily. A neighbor in 
moving 70 hens less than a mile, recently, smothered 
10 by having them all together in a large box. 
The final reckoning shows that out of the 680 chicks 
hatched we. have successfully raised 303 strong, hand¬ 
some pullets, and two cockerels good enough to keep. 
We have sold and eaten 220 cockerels, leaving. 155 
chicks unaccounted for. Some of these died in the 
brooders, and the rest were killed by rats and crows. 
We probably sell as good as or better cockerels than 
we keep, as they are sold too young to tell what they 
might develop into. 
The first egg was laid September 16 by a pullet four 
months and 13 days old; others soon followed, but we 
do not consider such early development of any advan¬ 
tage. The eggs are small, and for many reasons we 
think it better if the pullets can be held back from 
laying, but still kept growing, until they are housed in 
Winter quarters. The scarcity of help, indoors and 
out, in this section, as in many others, is driving 
farmers into the towns, to save themselves and their 
families from being worked to death, and we think 
best to follow the procession. A few years ago we 
had a fine berry and truck business going, with one of 
the best markets in the State. The market is still here, 
but “the man with the hoe” is nearly extinct, and the 
farmers’ daughters, who used to have leisure for berry 
picking, are gone away or needed at home, so the berry 
patch is a meadow, and Harry and Frank are to com¬ 
bine their poultry and truck interests on Hill Crest 
Farm, near the village, where help may be easier to 
get, and where, if one must be away, the other can 
keep things going, and the business built up and in¬ 
creased as fast as conditions may warrant. Harry has 
built a new 80x17 feet henhouse on the side hill, divided 
it with wire partitions into seven pens, and in this and 
another 40-foot house nearby, will try to winter 450 
White Leghorn pullets. The feed and storage room is 
separate and between the two houses. We realize that 
this number in the given space will need extra care and 
attention, and shall watch for Mr. Mapes’s reports of 
his 500 hens in one house. 
Mr. Cosgrove told of the cow, the hen and the fly, 
which story we fully credit. This last Summer our 
two Jersey cows have been in a pasture which the 
chickens had the run of, and it was an everyday sight 
to see chickens following the cows and picking the 
flies from them. When the cows wished to rest, they 
invariably came and laid down as near the fence divid¬ 
ing the pasture from the brooder yard as they could, 
and placidly chewed their cud, while chickens walked 
all over and around them, picking off the troublesome 
horn flies. The Jersey cow and the Leghorn hen are 
analogous, both are nervous, timid and distrustful of 
strangers, but appreciate kindness and petting, and 
show much affection for a favorite attendant, and both 
have more brains than the average of their species. 
Jefferson Co., N. Y. dell t. petrie. 
BULK SHIPMENTS OF APPLES. 
Do They Hurt the Regular Trade ? 
Whether or not such shipments injure legitimate 
trade, depends upon what you mean by the term. It 
undoubtedly hurts the trade on barreled apples, espe¬ 
cially those of a medium grade, but there are just as 
many apples sold, and we do not think it hurts in the 
least high-grade stock, as most of the bulk stock is of 
medium grade, and goes almost exclusively to the 
peddlers. These peddlers shovel them loose into their 
wagons and carts just as they came from the car, and 
sell them through the streets by the peck or half-peck. 
Occasionally part of a car comes good enough to barrel, 
but that is very seldom done. We do not think the 
apples bruise very much in transit. They will, of 
course, bruise somewhat in pouring into the car. At 
the present time in our market, Greening apples in 
bulk are selling at 50 and 60 cents per bushel, and $1.75 
to $2 per barrel. This would seem that the shipper of 
bulk apples is getting back fully as much for his stock 
as the shipper of barreled apples, if the cost of the 
barreling and package is considered. 
Philadelphia. the Hendrickson & Andrews co. 
There is no question in our mind at all that ship¬ 
ment of apples in bulk cheapens the price of all grades 
; 
KINSMAN APPLE. MUCH REDUCED. FlO. 354. 
See Ituralisms. Page 834. 
by reason of the fact that this fruit is dumped into the 
cars, and in many instances is badly bruised, and has 
to be sold to the peddler trade at low prices. In sea¬ 
sons gone by, where care has been taken in the han¬ 
dling of this fruit, even bulk was as good as if the 
stock had been barreled. This class of fruit sold to the 
better class of trade and in comparison brought about 
TWO PROMISING YOUNGSTERS. Fig. 355. 
25 to 50 cents per barrel less than barreled stock would 
have under the same conditions, and of the same qual¬ 
ity. One reason why bulk is so popular with the ped¬ 
dler trade, which largely handles same, is due to the 
fact that they are allowed to throw out the specked 
fruit. 'They will not buy stock as it runs except by 
the making of a considerable concession to the peddler 
VIRGINIA BEAUTY APPLE. MUCH REDUCED. 
Fig. 350. See Ruralisms, Page 834. 
trade, who don’t barrel stock, but hawk it from their 
wagons in which the fruit is usually loaded loose. As 
a rule the fruit is all bruised when it is loaded in bulk. 
Sometimes it is the fault of the shipper at the other 
end, who mishandles it; also by the fact that bulk is 
loaded in too heavily loaded cars, in some instances as 
high as 45,000 pounds being loaded in an ordinary car. 
Cincinnati. the weil-brockman co. 
“Do bulk shipments injure legitimate trade?” That 
has been argued for many seasons, and there still re¬ 
main two parties with different ideas. To the regular 
apple operator who wishes to bring forth a good, fine 
article it looks as if it did injure the trade. Apples in 
bulk are picked from the trees, good, poor and indif¬ 
ferent, and many times from under the trees, put right 
into the car. On arriving at market centers like Bos¬ 
ton (a wire shovel is often used), apples are shoveled 
into barrels and sold to the street peddlers or hawkers 
at so much per barrel, barrel not going with the apples, 
merely used as a package or measure. First-class 
grocers rarely make any purchases. Apples are not 
very much bruised, simply because they are usually the 
hard apples which are forwarded in bulk, like Bald¬ 
wins at this season of year. We never knew any soft 
apples shipped in bulk. While shipping in bulk may 
get a good many apples to the very poorest, to use 
market language, we have always had an idea it did 
hurt legitimate trade. patch & Roberts. 
Boston, Mass. 
Bulk apples are working a great injury to the legiti¬ 
mate trade. We don’t think that we ever saw it any 
worse than this Fall. Car after car is coming in here 
from the West filled with bulk Ben Davis; they are 
unloaded in bushel baskets and crates, and sell at so 
much per 100 pounds, or about one-half of what good 
barrel stock would bring. Those that are hand-picked 
generally come through in good shape, but the wind¬ 
falls are more or less bruised. The apples are sold to 
the cheap Jew and Italian peddlers, and the effect upon 
the market is very bad, so much so that there is very 
little trade done in barrel stock, while bulk hold the 
sway. It is getting worse every year, and something 
ought to be done to regulate it or wipe it out entirely. 
Cleveland, O. j. j. pitts & co. 
We have handled apple shipments in bulk for very 
many years, and the results have been satisfactory, 
seldom detrimental to the legitimate trade. Apple ship¬ 
ments in bulk as handled on our market are usually sold 
to those engaged in the peddling trade. The quality of 
apples so handled are usually that grade known as the 
No. 2 stock; sometimes also the drops and culls are 
so shipped, but the shipment of this latter kind of 
apples we discourage as a rule. In a year when the 
apple crop is very heavy, and where it pays to barrel 
only strictly No. 1 fruit, and to place it in cold storage, 
or use it for reshipping purposes, the No. 2 stock would 
be entirely neglected if it could not be shipped in bulk. 
To ship it in that manner the apples are placed in ordi¬ 
nary box cars, not poured, but placed into them very 
carefully. Each variety of apples is kept separate by 
bins. The car is so loaded that it will present as at¬ 
tractive an appearance as is possible. When such a 
car reaches the market it is usually sold to the peddler 
trade as already mentioned above. The peddler weighs 
his wagon before he loads it, and weighs it again after 
he has taken his load. The apples are sold by the 100 
pounds. Now, these peddlers will go with their cheap 
but wholesome apples into the localities that are inhab¬ 
ited by the poorer classes of our population, and they 
are thus enabled with very little money to partake of 
that most wholesome of American fruit products. It 
is seldom that these apples are barreled after they 
reach destination. They usually go at once into con¬ 
sumption. Shipping apples in bulk seldom interferes 
with the legitimate trade of strictly No. 1 apples, for 
the stock is sold to two different classes of trade. 
Should, however, No. 2 or poor stock be put into 
barrels, then there is an interference; to determine 
with any amount of certainty the relative prices of 
apples shipped in bulk and apples shipped in barrels 
would be a difficult matter. We have seen it that 
apples shipped in bulk brought relatively more money 
than those shipped in barrels, and also vice versa. 
Early this season, when the number of peddlers was 
very small on the Chicago market, apples shipped in 
bulk sold exceptionally low, but the low prices were an 
attraction for those who could secure a wagon and a 
license, and the number of apple peddlers has increased 
very considerably. From about 100 to 200 apple ped¬ 
dlers we understand that the number of apple peddlers 
has increased to 400 or 500. This force of men is 
doing a great deal to relieve our market of the poor 
stock, and is giving to the South, who have a large 
number of No. 2 apples to dispose of, an outlet at 
remunerative prices for their No. 2 stock. We, as a 
commission house, do not discourage the shipment of 
bulk apples, but encourage it. We consider it a bene¬ 
fit, not only for the grower and shipper, but also for 
the dealer. Conditions in Chicago may differ from the 
large eastern markets which draw largely on other 
territory for supplies. barnett bros. 
Chicago, Ill. _ 
Dandelion root is often used in medicine as a tonic or 
for stomach troubles. It is evidently more useful than the 
high-priced ginseng. The decoction is made by putting one 
ounce of dried root, sliced and bruised, in a pint of water 
and boiling for 10 minutes. 
