1907. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
A $1,500.00 STRAWBERRY. 
New Varieties in Arkansas. 
Last Winter I read a paragraph in a paper stating 
fhat the Fruit Growers’ Association of Judsonia, Ark., 
lad bought the rights to a strawberry called the H & H, 
for $1,500, and that they were pledged not to sell or 
fcTgive away any plants of it for five years. I was 
already familiar with the fact that Judsonia had given 
to the world a number of standard varieties, such as 
Michel’s Early, Excelsior, Bismarck, Texas, Early 
Hathaway, besides a number of others, and I began 
to wonder what sort of soil or man was responsibility 
for this wealth of origination. So far as I know, 
there is no other place in the United States to compare 
with this village in Arkansas in the number 
and importance of its new varieties, includ¬ 
ing our two standard extra earlies, and the 
above paragraph would indicate that her 
fruit growers were still actively in the work 
of origination. It was with pleasure, then, 
that I embraced an opportunity last Spring 
to visit Judsonia and to meet the men who 
were making her such a Mecca in the straw¬ 
berry world. Judsonia is quite a small town, 
but an important shipping center for straw¬ 
berries, something near a hundred carloads 
being raised each year. On inquiry I was 
told that Michel’s Early was a chance seed¬ 
ling found by the man whose name it bears, 
but who is not an originator. He is still 
living and raising fruit. The originator of 
the $1,500 H & H proved to be Louis 
Hubach, the same man who originated the 
Excelsior and Early Hathaway. I called on 
Mr. Hubach, and found a man of 35, living 
in pioneer style in a house, partly log, on 
an 80-acre farm, just half cleared, on which 
he had struggled along in debt for years, 
handicapped by his passion for cross-breed¬ 
ing and hybridizing, which was a heavy tax on his ordi¬ 
nary farm work. I spent an enjoyable day with him, 
learning something of his methods and results. He came 
to this country when nine years old and soon began to 
evince an intense interest in the plant world. At the age 
of 20 lie planted 5,000 seedlings from a cross between the 
Hoffman and the old Wilson’s Albany, covering an acre 
of ground, and among them found only two worthy of 
survival, the Excelsior and Early Hathaway. Since then 
he has continued to raise seedlings, but made no effort 
to advertise or sell plants until the last year or two. Sev¬ 
eral of these seedlings arc now on trial and arc very 
promising, such as the Annie, Mellie and Fremont Wil¬ 
liams, the last a rival of the Gandy. It was last year that 
a member of the Fruit Association, in walking across the 
Hubach farm, discovered a berry, ripening just after the 
Excelsior, that surpassed any berry he had ever 
seen of that season. He reported his discovery 
to other members, and a committee was ap¬ 
pointed to go and investigate the merits of 
the new berry. The result was that a bargain 
was made by which the association acquired all 
rights to the plants for five years, and during 
that time neither its originator nor the mem¬ 
bers were to sell or give away a single plant. 
At the time of my visit, the season of the 
H & H was about over, and I could only find 
a berry here and there. Such as they were, 
even at that date, they fulfilled my expectations. 
Its pedigree is the Barton’s Eclipse crossed 
with Gandy, and that product crossed again 
with the Excelsior. Of this cross were saved 
the II & H and another named the Jim Dumas, 
which latter Mr. Hubach deems little if any 
inferior to the former. I was told that the 
berries of these varieties ran for a time from 
16 to 24 to the box, and then dropped to 30 
and 40. I saw a bed of his seedlings just com¬ 
ing up, in a moist place in the woods, sur¬ 
rounded by a pen of rails. I also saw a thorn¬ 
less blackberry on which he is still working. 
A number of seedling apple trees were loaded 
with fine-looking crops that he told me were 
better keepers than any of the standards in 
that climate. A short time ago Mr. Hubach 
attempted to propagate and sell his trees, but so little 
interest did his neighbors take, that he destroyed his 
nursery and only last year cut down over two hundred 
apple trees, the result of various crosses, that had not 
yet borne. Near Mr. Hubach’s place I found J. A. 
Bauer, a young man, whose father introduced the 
Excelsior and originated the Bismarck and some others. 
The father is now dead, but the son last year intro¬ 
duced the Almo as his own work, and this year the 
St. Louis, which, of course, are yet untested. These 
two men are the only ones engaged in originating new 
varieties that I could hear of, but if their labors con¬ 
tinue to be as good as their past records, the straw¬ 
berry world may have to acknowledge still more indebt¬ 
edness to the little hamlet of Judsonia. l. r. johnson. 
MAKING ALCOHOL ON THE FARM. 
Requirements of a Rural Distillery. 
Alcohol can be made on the farm from potatoes, 
corn or sorghum, the preference being given in dif¬ 
ferent localities to the crop which yields best and can 
be grown on a large scale without too much cost. It 
will, as has been stated by the Herman Sticr Manu¬ 
facturing Co., page 682, be necessary to build a com¬ 
plete distillery and it would not pay to run it unless 
100 bushels are used per day. The manufacture of 
alcohol from potatoes, as it is carried on on numerous 
farms in Germany is thus: The potatoes are first 
washed to free them from dirt and stones, then steamed, 
mashed, and to the mash green malt is added at the 
JIM DUMAS STRAWBERRY. H. & H. STRAWBERRY. Fig. 368. 
rate of five pounds to every 100 pounds of potatoes, 
to convert the starch into sugar. This takes place at 
105 degrees Fahrenheit, at which temperature the mash 
has to be kept for two hours. It is then drawn off, 
yeast added, to convert the sugar into alcohol; cooled, 
and drawn off into the fermenting vats. In about six 
days the fermentation is finished and the alcohol is 
distilled off. Both the green malt and the yeast used in 
the process have to be made in the distillery. Though 
the whole process is simple and can be learned by any 
intelligent man in two or three months, it requires 
constant watching and the used vats, vessels, buckets, 
etc., have to be kept scrupulously clean, to prevent the 
formation of harmful acids. The making of malt re¬ 
quires skill and experience, and the temperature of the 
mash, during the different processes it undergoes, re- 
A GOOD FORCING MELON. Fig. 369. 
See Ruralisms, Page 754. 
quires constant attention. Changes in the temperature 
of the weather influence the temperature in the rooms 
in the distillery, and may hasten or retard the different 
processes. Very few farmers will find time to give 
the running of a distillery the needed attention. 
In Germany we find these potato distilleries only on 
large farms, where at least 200 acres are planted with 
potatoes. The farmers conducting such a distillery can 
afford to hire a “stillmaster,” a man who has made the 
running of a country distillery his business and whose 
services can be obtained at a moderate salary. To judge 
from a four years’ experience on a large farm in Ger¬ 
many I do not think that it would pay a farmer having 
less than 1,000 acres under the plow to build a distil¬ 
lery. For farmers farming 100 acres or so the form¬ 
ing of co-operative farmers’ companies would be the 
way to make a success of it. It should, however, be 
understood that the main benefit derived from the run¬ 
ning of a distillery is not so much the profit derived 
from the manufacture of alcohol as the retaining of 
the most valuable and costly constituents of the crops, 
the nitrogenous and mineral matter, for maintaining the 
fertility of the soil. This refers especially to the light 
soils. If potatoes, corn or sorghum arc grown on a 
large scale, we will say on one-third of the tilled area, 
the sale of these crops would be a heavy drain on the 
fertility, especially on the humus content of the soil. 
By converting the starch of these crops into alcohol 
and feeding the remaining parts to live stock the fer¬ 
tility of the soil through the production of large quan¬ 
tities of a rich manure is constantly in¬ 
creased. 
As far as the profit from the manufacture 
of alcohol is concerned, the German farmers 
are, as a rule, content if the sold alcohol 
covers all the expenses, including the value 
of the potatoes and the by-product, the slop, 
is free; or if about 22 cents are realized for 
a bushel of potatoes. The potatoes used for 
making alcohol must be rich in starch. At 
the present time our farmers grow potatoes 
with the only view of obtaining the largest 
number of bushels per acre and regardless 
of the starch contents. If they want to go 
into the manufacture of alcohol from pota¬ 
toes they have to grow potatoes rich in 
starch. Crop rotation, manuring and ferti¬ 
lizing would have to be changed accord¬ 
ingly. All those interested in the uses of 
alcohol will find the desired information in 
Dr. Wiley’s Farmers’ Bulletin No. 269, “In¬ 
dustrial Alcohol,” issued by the U. S. Depart¬ 
ment of Agriculture. Dr. Wiley’s opinion 
that the business will develop on the same 
lines as the manufacture of beet sugar seems 
justified, though discouraging to those who looked for¬ 
ward to it as a farm enterprise. h. winkleman. 
PACKING PLUMS 
In order to sell plums to advantage it is necessary 
to pack them in suitable packages. In many parts of 
the country the markets are glutted with plums in large 
boxes, market baskets and other vessels in which the 
fruit neither keeps, carries nor sells well. Small quan¬ 
tities for local use may be marketed in this manner, but 
for shipping it is absolutely essential to pack in small, 
neat packages. In the new Northwest five-pound baskets 
are used, four baskets being packed in a crate. The 
baskets are eight inches square and 3J4 inches deep, and 
cost \ l / 2 cent each. The crates are made of two end 
pieces, 16J4x4-ktx54 inches, two side pieces, 17J4x3J^x-J^ 
inches, two bottom pieces, 17J4 x7xJ 4 inches, and 
two top pieces an inch wider than the bottom 
boards, and cost 10 cents each. The plums are 
picked in buckets and poured on to a table con¬ 
sisting of a frame with gunny-sacking stretched 
loose over the top. This is similar to an apple¬ 
packing table, there being supports for a crate 
at each side of the table. From two to four 
layers or tiers of plums are packed in a basket, 
usually three. They usually pack best stem end 
down, but sometimes it is necessary to lay the 
plums on one side, or part on end and part on 
side. Small varieties like Blue Damson are 
poured in the baskets loose. Fig. 367 shows a 
case of two-tier Bradshaws, 32 in a basket. The 
egg lying beside the plum shows the compara¬ 
tive size of the latter. We have grown Pond’s 
Seedling plum 2V\ long by 1J4 inches thick, and 
a neighbor says he had them so large that he 
could get only nine in a basket. 
The Domestica class of plums are grown here 
almost exclusively. The best varieties for eating 
out of hand are Peach, Bradshaw and Pond 
Seedling, ripening in the order named. The best 
for canning are Lombard, Blue Damson and 
Green Gage, all late varieties. Other varieties 
grown are Columbian, Yellow Egg, Italian 
Prune and French Prune. The Japanese varie¬ 
ties are too tender in the bud, and the natives 
are too small and late. We have a Red June tree that 
bore a bushel of very fine fruit this year, the first crop 
in five years. The price received varies from 75 cents 
to $1 per case. We have no fungus or insect pests 
except the Plum aphis, and they seldom do much dam¬ 
age. We do not irrigate, and the fruit must nearly 
always be thinned to prevent the trees from breaking 
down. O. H. BARNHILL. 
Flathead Co., Montana. 
CROPS IN STEUBEN CO.—The season has been late and 
too dry for the proper development of most crops. Hay 
below average; wheat about 20 bushels per aere; oats light; 
beans little more than half a crop; buckwheat small acre¬ 
age, fair yield. Potatoes promise well If they don't rot; 
market opened at 50 cents. Apples light crop and poor quality. 
Way land, N. Y. w. a- l. 
