1900. 
263 
CREATING A HOME MARKET. 
The Experience of an Orange Grower. 
My little orange grove of five acres in central 
Florida is well cared for by a professional grower 
and packer. In the Summer of 1907 he wrote that 
buyers were offering $1.25 per box, on the trees, for 
the coming crop, which he estimated at 300 to 400 
boxes. The small crops before that, running from 
60 to 125 boxes, had brought only $1 per box; but 
thinking to spend the Winter there, and knowing they 
would be shipped early if sold, I decided to hold. 
Then came the panic. I did not go South, price of 
oranges dropped to 50 cents and poor sale; so when 
I got word latter part of February that fruit was so 
ripe it was beginning to drop I set about finding an 
outlet. The leading fruit dealer in this city (12,000 
inhabitants) declared it. too late for Floridas, “no use 
trying to compete with California navels now in full 
swing.” The leading commission man in Toledo, 30 
miles away, turned me down in same way, though he 
admitted that Floridas were sweeter and more juicy 
at that time of year than Californias, but the latter 
looked so pretty in the show windows and were such 
good keepers that retailers were bound to have them. 
I found that he once owned a nice grove in Florida 
“befo’ de freeze,” and had visited the small town 
where my grove is located, and when he learned that 
I had shipped quantities of small fruits to his father 
nearly 40 years before, he decided to help me out. 
We ordered by wire a carload shipped to him, and 
arranged to have shipped to me as many boxes as I 
could find market for at home. 
While awaiting arrival I gave a daily “orange 
talk” in our two home papers, using three to four 
inches solid reading matter. I allowed dealers 10 per 
cent for taking orders, and altogether we sold 85 
boxes, or over one-quarter car, going mostly to con¬ 
sumers by the box, although few had ever bought in 
that way before, and we were right in panicky times. 
The carload netted me about 60 cents per box; not 
over 25 per cent of selling price, but it paved the way 
for future business, as it needed only a few liner ad¬ 
vertisements to dispose of half of the first car of 1908 
crop, which arrived during the holidays. As this 
crop was more than double the last I • 
decided to bring a full carload 
through and took space enough in 
both papers to tell all about it with 
very satisfactory results.. I sold 100 
boxes to the Toledo man who was 
short certain sizes, but could have 
sold them all there. I did not have 
enough for another car, or I would 
have brought them on, as the demand 
seems “to grow on what it feeds on.” 
Many years ago I tried this plan of 
advertising new varieties of fruits 
and vegetables. For instance, when 
Little Gem peas first came out, deal¬ 
ers would pay no more than for com¬ 
mon field peas, but a little publicity 
brought them buyers of the “demand 
the genuine and take no other” class. 
I am feeling quite easy about this 
year’s crop, as already I have many 
spoken for. w. clement. 
Michigan. 
THE HUNT FOR LIME. 
I am sending you a sample of a 
very curious and useful formation of 
lime rock. You will notice it is a 
mass, loosely held together, of lime 
crystals, and I discovered it last 
Summer in a lime quarry near us. I 
have found it better than oyster 
shell and takes the place of both 
shell and grit/ It is such an odd 
formation that I thought it would 
interest the readers of The R. N.-Y. 
We drive into the quarry and get it 
for ourselves by paying a very small 
price per cubic yard, which is equal to 
a little more than one ton. I sent a 
sample to Cornell and had it an¬ 
alysed, fiqding it equal to the best quality of oyster 
shell. Our hens have analysed it even higher than 
the chemist at the university. They say it is just 
what they have been looking for. floyd q. white. 
R- N.-Y.—A picture of this queer formation is 
shown at Fig. 112, page 269. All over the Eastern 
States farmers and others are hunting for lime as 
never before, and they are finding deposits in places 
where they had no idea it was located. As we have 
stated before, anything containing lime, such as 
old plastering, molds or shells is in demand. We 
are coming to an age of lime in eastern farming, 
and it will be a good age. 
<TFTEJ RURAL NEW-YORKER 
A PEANUT CROP IN VIRGINIA. 
How It Enters a Rotation. 
As some of the readers of The R. N.-Y. may be in¬ 
terested in knowing how we farm down in tidewater 
Virginia I send the following brief account of a crop 
of bunch peanuts which wc raised last Summer as a 
second crop after having harvested a crop of Winter 
oats and vetch for hay: As soon as hay was off 
grpund was plowed about seven inches deep with two- 
horse plows, and harrowed smooth and fine. Then 
300 pounds per acre of a home-mixed fertilizer made 
by mixing 1700 pounds 16 per cent acid phosphate and 
300 pounds muriate of potash to make a ton was sown 
SEEDS OF HYBRID CATALPA (WORTHLESS). Fig. 109. 
with grain drill. Land was marked off in rows 2)4 
feet apart with a four-row sled marker, and carefully 
selected seed put in with a peanut planter, dropping 
one kernel in a place 12 inches apart in drill. Culti¬ 
vation was entirely with weeder and riding cultiva¬ 
tor, only 2->4 days of hand hoeing being done, and 
this only to cut out some cockleburs and other weeds 
which came up in the rows. 
Nuts were dug by running small plow without mold 
board under them to loosen them; then they were 
lifted, dirt shaken out and thrown into windrows 
with pitchforks. They were shocked or stacked in 
small stacks about six feet high and 2)4 feet thick, 
built around stakes set in the ground, where they were 
left to cure out. When thoroughly cured the nuts 
were picked from the vines by hand by colored 
women and children, for which they received 10 cents 
per bushel. The last item of expense was bags, the 
regular four-bushel peanut bags costing eight cents 
each by the hundred. The crop was sold to a Suffolk 
peanut mill at three cents per pound delivered at rail¬ 
road station near the farm, and the product of the 
four-acre plot brought $195.15. The cured vines 
make the finest of hay, and can be sold for $60, which 
brings the total value of the crop to $255.15. 
The total cost of production including preparation 
of land, fertilizer, seed, cultivation, harvesting and 
bags was $98.78, leaving a clear profit of $156.37. The 
crop was planted June 10; dug October 23, and picked 
November 10 to 12. After peanuts were harvested 
land was disked and seeded to wheat, which is look¬ 
ing fine at present. After wheat is harvested land will 
be plowed and sown in cow peas, or may be manured 
and a full crop of corn grown and removed in time 
to reseed to oats, wheat, rye or Crimson clover. 
Norfolk Co., Va. JOHN B. LEWIS. 
THE USE OF A MANURE SPREADER. 
How It Works in South Dakota. 
My machine is the 50-bushel size, and was guar¬ 
anteed to give satisfaction, being shipped on 30 days 
trial. It has filled every requirement so far. The 
first work done with it was to clean out a shed in 
which 100 to 200 head of range cattle had sheltered 
for about seven Winters without bedding. This 
manure was packed so hard that it came out in large 
chunks, which were thrown into the spreader as they 
were, and I used part of it for top-dressing a three- 
acre garden. The spreader ground most of the lumps 
to a powder, leaving a few small ones here and there. 
We could not have spread this manure by hand, as 
repeated planking and disking did not crush many of 
the lumps that were left. The next trial was at the 
hogpens which had suffered from an overflow of the 
creek. Not having any other litter I used a lot of 
long slough hay to absorb the moisture, when the 
water went down. This made a fine mess, as I had 
previously thrown in some clay to level the floors, 
thinking it would pack down hard. I told the man 
that I believed we were stuck, as we could hardly 
handle the stuff with forks. To our surprise it 
handled this oozy, stringy mass easier and better than 
it had the lumps. 
Again I had my doubts when the snow came; but 
again it made good. There are 18 mud lugs furnished 
with the machine, which clamp on to the tires. I use 
only 14 of these lugs on two wheels, one at evory 
other spoke. My nine-year-old boy puts them on 
while I am putting on the first load when there is 
snow or very soft ground; otherwise 
they are not needed. The land here 
being level, I haul the manure from 
the barn direct to the fields, having 
no use for litter carriers or other 
devices, as I drive'into the barn and 
load from the stalls to the spreader. 
It is a pleasure to clean stables in 
this way, as you have the satisfac¬ 
tion of having the manure where it 
belongs and where it will do the 
most good, no unsightly, wasting 
piles to breed flies and fire-fang in 
Summer, or freeze solid in Winter 
so they cannot be moved till Spring. 
In fact, manure handled in this way 
goes to the land in the best possible 
condition, and there is a great sav¬ 
ing of time; one man can haul out 
and spread, in better shape, more 
than two men can by hand. One can 
naturally work faster loading when 
the work of unloading is done by the 
horses, without trouble to the opera¬ 
tor. Men like this way of cleaning 
stables, as it takes a disagreeable job 
out of the chore list, and puts it 
in the day’s work. 
The wagon-box spreader is a suc¬ 
cess in every way than I have tried 
it, fully equal to the large flat-car 
machines, and much more practical 
if one has light horses. I use one 
1000-pound mare and one 1150-pound 
horse on this rig, and they have no 
trouble to handle it easily. It would 
require four horses of this size on 
a regular spreader. For the amount 
of benefit derived, the outlay is very 
small, being about one-third the price 
of the large machines. Anyone who 
has a wagon can have a practical manure spreader, 
at small cost, and if he once tries one, there will be 
nc manure wasted on that farm; as it turns this much- 
hated drudgery to a positive pleasure, with ample 
pay. There is not as much trouble about putting the 
spreader box on or off the wagon as there is with the 
wagon box, there being no connections to make or un¬ 
make, such as brake rods, etc. Of course the best 
work is done when the manure is taken directly from 
the stables each day, as it is then in the best condi¬ 
tion for spreading; but this machine seems to do its 
work surprisingly well under what would seem impos¬ 
sible conditions of lumps, mud, snow, frozen chunks, 
strings, burlap sacks, cornstalks, long hay, ashes, com¬ 
mon soil, rotten manure, etc., all seem to have but one 
end—the rear of the spreader. john m. haas. 
SEEDS OF CATALPA BIGNONIOIDES (WORTHLESS). Fig. 110. 
SEEDS OF CATALPA SPECIOSA (VALUABLE). Fig. Ill 
