1909. 
“EXTRA FANCY” APPLE PACKING. 
I have read with interest the various articles in The 
R. N.-Y., called out by that “Barrel of Western New 
York Baldwins,” and I thought, perhaps, my ex¬ 
perience this Fall might be interesting, as giving the 
other extreme. I sold my fruit, principally Northern 
Spys, to a Chicago fancy fruit man, I to pick and put 
on table, furnish barrels and draw to car and board 
packers. Apples to be free from worms, and lie tak¬ 
ing those with not over three fungus or scab spots. 
First he built his table 11 feet long, 40 inches wide, a 
simple frame on legs, and covered with two thick¬ 
nesses of burlap. On this the fruit, very carefully 
handled by pickers, was as carefully emptied by the 
men. Every apple was taken up separately and looked 
over carefully and deposited in its proper basket, any 
scab spots were scraped off with a knife by packer. 
The barrel, properly papered, received first, a face 
head of perfect but not the largest apples, selected 
as having good color, and the stems were broken off 
half way; over this a layer, with red side down, just 
as good and placed on their sides followed. The bar¬ 
rel was then filled with all good fruit according to 
grade, no faulty fruit in these barrels. They were 
lightly shaken and then “topped off " by hand; that is 
tiered and placed so as to be perfectly even and 
slightly higher than the chine. The buyer would only 
use a screw press and corrugated paper under head, 
and the apples, when barrel was reopened, did not 
show a broken skin and only a little flattening. He 
made seven grades at first sorting, as follows: No. 1. 
red; No. 1, green; large red, large green, No. 2, and 
ripe No. 1 and ripe No. 2; being apples showing earlier 
maturity. After the throw-outs were sorted, for an¬ 
other grade, at another price. 
I have had one of the best fancy apple men in the 
East sort my Spy, but I never saw work like this. 
It was simply artistic, and a buyer could rely on 
every apple being good in the barrel. My fruit was 
exhibited at Paris and St. Louis, but it never was put 
in such shape before. I have not a word to say against 
the buyer; he did just as he agreed, and I tried to, 
but when four pickers kept four packers more than 
busy, I tell you I looked anxiously at the weather re¬ 
ports. In fact it was extra good, fruit-house 
work, done in the orchard, and takes too much 
time. Of course he paid me an extra price 
and equally, of course, expects to sell at a 
large advance, and I hope he will. He in¬ 
formed me he had been at such work over 20 
years, so some one must get good apples, if 
they are willing to pay the price. Such fruit 
must sell high; the packing cost the buyer 
nearly 50 cents a barrel (lie employed experts 
from the West) and I think I won’t say what 
it cost me extra. When making the bar¬ 
gain with this buyer. I reserved the right 
to put my brand on barrels, but after¬ 
ward I concluded not to, as I feared it 
Would fall Off. W. L. BRADLEY. 
Genesee Co., N. Y. 
LIVING FARM PROBLEMS. 
Referring to the interesting letter of J. 
Grant Morse, on page 945, I was glad to find 
him emphasizing the importance to the dairy 
farmers of raising his grain for feed. He 
does not say how many cows he is keeping on 
his 200 acres, but if he has 50 cows and 
realizes $60 gross per cow he is doing well; 
much better in fact than the average dairyman. 
1 his would mean receipts of $3,000 from 200 
acres or $15 per acre, less the cost of the feed 
he says he has been buying. Now, how much 
per acre can he expect to realize from the 
land which he would devote to growing grain? 
Forty bushels of oats and peas per acre from 
some of his well-manured land would not be 
unreasonable to expect. At 50 cents per bushel 
and $5 for straw this would be $25 per acre. 
Barley would do about the same; 70 bushels 
of flint corn per acre at 80 cents would be 
$56, and the fodder besides. Wheat at 35 
bushels per acre would mean $35, besides the 
straw. Buckwheat would bring as much per 
acre, so that if he had 50 acres in grain and 
corn it would bring him an average of $30 
per acre; $1500, half as much as he now gets 
from 200 acres if he does as well with his 
cows as outlined above. Potatoes would bring 
$60 to $70 per acre, and cabbage $100 to $150. It 
would be easy to get the above prices for grain if sold 
oft" the farm, but I doubt very much if they could be 
realized by feeding it to the cows. If we eastern 
dairy farmers would reduce our dairies one-half, keep 
better cows, diversify our farming more, we would 
get a better price for the milk we would then produce, 
as there would be less of it. The net returns from 
our farms would be much greater, and the value of 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
our lands would increase very rapid'y. With land 
capable of yielding $30 to $50 per acre-it seems short¬ 
sighted, to say the least, to be satisfied with the small 
returns of the farms devoted exclusively to dairying; 
particularly as it involves so much extra labor for 
both the farmer and his wife, and is expensive in the 
way of investment, maintenance, feed and Pbor. The 
increase in the price of grain, which it now seems has 
come to stay, has made it possible for the eastern 
farmer to grow these crops at a good profit. With a 
proper rotation, including clover, and by keeping 
enough of the very best cows to feed up the roughage 
THE BIG STICK IN MASSACHtlETTS. Fig. 3. 
and pasture the few places not easi'y tillable, the fer¬ 
tility of the farm could be better maintained than on 
many dairy farms as now run when meadows and 
pastures arc not producing one. quarter of what they 
are capable of yielding, being in need of plowing and 
overrun with weeds. 
The articles from your Tennessee correspondent, 
“F. B.”, page 939, is also worthy of the most care¬ 
ful consideration of all producers and consumers as 
well, both North and South. He shows how the South 
wanted our “cabbage, apples and other produce” last 
Fall and Winter, and how “thousands and thousands 
of bushels of fine Elberta peaches” were seeking- 
markets in the North last July, and that th*e railroad 
charges were so high (75 cents per bushel on peaches 
and $S per ton on cabbage) that it made the ex¬ 
change of these commodities between North and South 
impossible. There will be no “transportation at a 
cost equitable to all our citizens” until we have gov¬ 
ernment ownership of the railroads and a thorough 
development of all our inland waterways. This ques¬ 
tion of transportation is one of the most important 
3 
matters relating to the welfare of the farmer, and if 
The R. N.-Y. will take it up with its usual energy and 
fearlessness, and get its many readers enlisted in a 
campaign to remedy the present unjust conditions, it 
will be doing a work which can only be done by the 
molding of public opinion, and one which will bring 
to it the gratitude and esteem- of' the whole country. 
When grain from the West is transported 2,000 miles 
for from one-fifth to one-tenth its cost of production, 
why should it cost from two to three times the cost 
of production to move cabbages and peaches 200 to 300 
miles? “F. B.” deserves .great, credit and thanks for 
bringing out the fact in this great question so plainly 
and forcefully. ; . p. w. c. 
Little Falls, N. Y. 
A GOOD CROP OF POTATOES. 
Crimson clover in corn stubble was plowed, and 
every third furrow had cut potatoes pressed four 
inches below the upturned surface of the furrow about 
14 inches apart. When finished the field was leveled 
with a smoothing harrow, and left until the potatoes 
sprouted, here and there coming to the surface, when 
the smoothing harrow, with teeth slanting back, or a 
weeder is used for loosening the soil and destroying 
any weeds then sprouting. After this operation, with 
a grain drill 800 pounds of a high-grade fertilizer is 
drilled in with the points raised so as not to break 
many sprouts; after this the weeder is used until re¬ 
placed by the cultivator between the rows, and the 
rows slightly hilled. We have used rye in the same 
way with good results, turning the rye when begin¬ 
ning to head. Careful work and ground free from 
stone is necessary to turn heavy rye down on the 
rows. The reason for deferring the application of 
fertilizer until the sprouts appear is because the 
soluble nitrogen is no doubt largely wasted during 
rains between the time of planting and the forming 
of roots to utilize the available plant food contained 
in 4-6-10 compound. After planting, usually a period 
of three weeks or longer intervenes before roots are 
formed that are able to assimilate the required food; 
while the seed supplies what food is actually neces¬ 
sary to the plants at this particular time in order to 
Start growth properly. 
Pennsylvania. w. h. stout. 
VALUE OF LIME.—When Prof. H. J. 
Wheeler, of Rhode Island, some years ago 
began a systematic study of the need of 
lime on most soils no one would have pre¬ 
dicted the outcome. Pie demonstrated be¬ 
yond a doubt that many of our farm lands 
are sour. This was especially true of soils 
in the East which had been long under 
cultivation. This explained why many a 
good farm well fertilized and cared for did 
not respond to fertilizers as it should. 
Cases of so-called “clover sickness” revealed 
the fact that there is a direct relation be¬ 
tween the use of lime and the behavior of 
certain farm crops. The patient work of 
Prof. Wheeler in determining the effect of 
lime upon various crops has been produc¬ 
tive of great results. Many of us can re¬ 
member when a reference to the use of 
lime would be turned off with the state¬ 
ment that it would enrich the father but 
make the son poor. There are now a good 
many fathers who realize that the son will 
have a poor farm at least if they do not 
use lime. People now understand that lime 
is the foundation of Alfalfa culture. As 
the cultivation of that plant spreads forms of 
lime long neglected are again coming into 
use. We hear of a body of Wisconsin farm¬ 
ers who think of buying the machinery to 
crush limestone and also grind a deposit 
found within hills. Men are digging into 
marl beds and spreading the marl on the 
Alfalfa and clover. This is like going back 
40 years, when marl was used in place of 
commercial fertilizer. At the regular lime¬ 
kilns the trade in agricultural lime has reached 
immense proportions. It is a good thing, be¬ 
cause this lime is mostly used on clover, 
Alfalfa or other crops which take nitrogen 
from the air. Thus it puts the soil in more 
productive condition, and indirectly adds plant 
food. We have long believed that on most 
of our old farms lime is as essential as nitro¬ 
gen, potash and phosphoric acid. The danger is that 
some farmers will conclude from first results that 
lime will take the place of the other three elements. 
It will not do so. If you have any such belief we 
advise you to forget it at once. A careful study 
of the elements needed will tell you why we give 
this advice. _ 
There are 2.81 r> members in the Wisconsin Horticultural 
Society—the largest, we believe in the country. 
MACOMBER SEEDLING GRAPE. NATURAL SIZE. Fig. 4. 
See Ruralisms, Page 8. 
