800 
November 21, 
though lie uses good judgment in his business, he is 
working his children beyond reason, and their edu¬ 
cational advantages are rendered very limited in order 
that a few more dollars may be added to the hoard. 
Most farmers make less money, but they live quite 
well. There are no mortgage foreclosures, and no 
assignments. Our farmers are doing well, generally, 
but they know how pretty well. H. H. LYON. 
Chenango Co., N. Y. 
THE BUYER’S SIDE OF FARM PRODUCE. 
What the Customer Says. 
I am not a farmer, but I have always been inter¬ 
ested in farm life, and have always taken one or two 
farm papers, and I hope that some time I may be able 
to own a farm. It seems to me that your campaign 
for honest goods, honestly packed, is of the utmost 
importance to farmers. I have often thought that 
farmers do not always look at the matter of selling 
farm produce from both sides, and I have thought that 
some of our experiences as purchasers of the products 
of the farm might help farmers to understand tTTe 
other side of the question. This is the experience of 
one family, but undoubtedly there are hundreds of 
thousands of other families that have had similar ex¬ 
periences. 
Our home is in a large manufacturing village. All 
the members of our family are very fond of sweet 
corn, and we would be glad to have it daily during the 
season if we could be sure of getting good corn. One 
year a man who has a small farm near the village 
brought along some sweet corn that was extra nice. 
We liked it so much that we took a dozen ears the 
second day. This also was good, and we gave a stand¬ 
ing order to bring a dozen ears each day, and to save 
trouble we paid the farmer for a week in advance. 
After a day or two we began to find poor ears. Some¬ 
times we were obliged to throw away two or three 
ears out of the dozen. At the end of the week, for 
which we had paid, we told the farmer that we should 
not need any more corn, and we have never bought 
anything from the man since. Of course the value of 
the corn that we threw away was small, but it was the 
principle of the thing that we did not like. 
At another time a man whose health compelled him 
to give up his regular business, purchased a small 
piece of ground and began to raise garden stuff which 
he took around in a small hand cart. He was a very 
honest man, and we said that here was a chance to get 
good stuff that would be fresh, and asked him to call 
daily. Our trading began at the time of sweet corn, 
and we took a dozen ears daily from the man, but 
after a few days we began to get poor corn, and we 
closed our business relations with this man. During 
the time that we purchased from him he saved per¬ 
haps a dozen ears of corn, but he lost a regular cus¬ 
tomer. The man charged the highest market price for 
his goods, and it was his business to see that every¬ 
thing that he sold was perfect. As a business propo¬ 
sition, it would have been far better for him to throw 
away the poor ears. Undoubtedly he worked hard to 
get his crops, and he disliked to throw away anything 
that he had grown. 
' For several reason? we never buy poultry at a mar¬ 
ket, but always try to get it direct from farmers. One 
Fall we started to take chickens every week from a 
farmer from an adjoining town. For a few weeks 
everything went nicely, and we thought that we had 
found the man that we had been looking for. One 
Sunday we had company, and we planned to have 
chickens for dinner. We did not look at the chickens 
until time to put them over to cook, and we allowed 
the usual time required for cooking young chickens. 
When they came on the table, one of the birds was 
nice and tender, but the other was as hard as when it 
was put over the fire, and of course we could not eat it. 
It was a particularly disagreeable incident for us, and 
we may be pardoned for feeling a little angry. The 
farmer had evidently been short of chickens of the 
right size and had substituted a small fowl. It is 
hardly necessary to state that this incident closed our 
business relations with this man. If the farmer had 
told us what he did, we could have cooked the fowl 
longer and the result would not have been so bad, 
but he said nothing, and as we paid the price for 
chickens we felt that we had a right to expect them. 
We made no explanation to the farmer and found no 
fault, as we have always made it a rule not to find 
fault, but simply to stop buying when we feel that we 
are not getting the right goods. 
A man started a cream route and gave very good 
cream. He soon had a demand for more cream than 
he could supply, and apparently he tried to increase 
the supply and the profit by setting his separator for 
very thin cream. One after another of his customers 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
dropped off, and he was soon obliged to give up his 
route. Another man started a cream route later and 
gave very nice thick cream. We were on the “waiting 
list” nearly six months before we could get cream 
from him, and then we took the place of a family that 
moved away. The quality of his cream is just as 
good now as when we began to furnish it, and so far 
as we know he has never lost a customer, while there 
are dozens of families that would consider it a privi¬ 
lege to be included in his list of customers if he could 
take them. 
Here are a few of the many incidents that have 
come to us in an experience of 20 years in housekeep¬ 
ing. We have found one farmer who always states 
exactly the condition of the things that he has to sell. 
If he has any chickens to spare we always take all 
he has without question. Every chicken that we ever 
bought from him was nicely dressed and exactly what 
he represented. If his apples are not quite perfect he 
states exactly what .they are. If he had 10 times the 
stuff to sell that he has we could easily help him to find 
customers among our friends. In writing this, it is 
not intended to state that farmers as a rule are not 
honest, or that they intend to deceive their customers. 
They are simply careless, and do not take pains to see 
that what they sell is perfect. It is far better, as a 
business proposition, for a farmer to throw away one- 
third of his produce, if necessary, so that what he 
sells shall be fully up to the standard. He will get 
more for the two-thirds than he would for the whole, 
and the trouble of selling it will be much less. Also, 
people like to feel that they are getting good measure. 
It is not the loss of goods so much as it is the un¬ 
pleasant feeling that is always caused by a short 
measure. Again, it is a great mistake for a farmer to 
think that because people live in a village they do not 
know what they are buying. L. B. s. 
THE HONEST APPLE QUESTION. 
. Good Fruit Wanted. 
I have read with interest many letters in your 
columns about good Baldwin apples, and have had 
it on my mind to write you before in much the same 
way as our friend J. F. T. has done, whose letter 
appeared on page 834. I also want good Baldwin 
apples, and have been “stung” more times than I care 
to think of by buying them from local grocers. I 
have almost given up having apples in the house at 
all, as pears, oranges, grape fruit, and more than all, 
bananas, are so much cheaper. Good apples seem to 
be a luxury, obtainable only by the rich, who are will¬ 
ing to pay three or four cents apiece for fancy 
Oregon fruit packed in small boxes. I, too, would 
like the names of the Presbyterian, the Baptist, the 
Methodist, the Dutch Reformed, the Quaker and the 
common or garden fruit packer. One of these is 
going to get an order for a sample barrel, with New 
York draft enclosed, if the price is anywhere near 
reasonable, as I have faith in the recommendation of 
The R. N.-Y. And there are half a dozen of my 
friends who will follow my lead, if it pilots them to 
good apples at a fair price. I see no reason why 
some one of the men you mention may not establish 
the nucleus of a profitable producer-direct-to-con- 
sumer side line, if he is willing to try it on. The 
people where I live want the apples badly enough. 
Long Island. c. g. a. 
R. N.-Y.—No doubt of it—many people in town and 
city have “almost given up having apples in the house 
at all.” Somehow the apple growers do not under¬ 
stand that apple eaters mostly live in places where 
they cannot keep large packages of food. The box is 
the true apple package for such people, but the Pacific 
coast boxes cost too much. Strange as it may seem, 
the western people have nearly a monopoly of the 
boxed apple trade—though eastern growers could well 
afford to put high class fruit here at retail for $1.50 
to $2 per box. We gladly give names of apple 
growers who ought to give fair measure and honest 
goods. We wish we could make them see what a 
chance some Grange or other association has to de¬ 
velop a trade in high-class app’es. 
The Church and Apple Packing, 
I have just read the “wail” from J. F. T. relative to 
Baldwin apples, and your reply. I am an apple 
grower on a limited scale, not because I love the busi¬ 
ness, but for the reason that I have the trees, and the' 
ladies of my household adore the blossoms. What 
does J. F. T. expect for 36 cents, which is the price 
per bushel I was offered this year for my No. 1 fruit, 
exclusive of picking and packing? I have no patience 
with men who do the sort of packing he complains of, 
yet I am of the opinion that if he had to pay the cul¬ 
tivating, spraying and fertilizing bills, plus taxes and 
interest on the investment, he would want to hunt 
some secluded spot to realize on his small ones, other 
than the cider mill at 20 cents per 100 pounds, or 10 
cents per bushel. Why did you not demonstrate your 
up-to-dateness by adding (this of all years) a Uni¬ 
tarian to your list? I do not claim to be the “only 
original honest square*deal Unitarian,” but believe I 
might fairly pose as a good understudy, for I weigh 
210 pounds, stand on my record of past apple deeds, 
and solemnly declare that if I am permitted to get in 
on this deal at $3.50 per barrel F. O. B. cars my sta¬ 
tion I will deliver next year (my this year’s crop being 
disposed of) to J. F. T., Baldwin goods that will 
beautify the center of his barrel and table as well as 
put gladness in his heart. We Unitarian Bills cannot 
do business on any other basis. w. e. g. 
North East, Pa. 
R. N.-Y.—Certainly—we cheerfully add the Unitar¬ 
ian to our list—or any other citizen who will deliver 
“Baldwins that will beautify the center of the barrel.” 
That’s where the beauty ought to be in a true test of 
“handsome is that handsome does.” The R. N.-Y. 
stands ready to help the cause along. Among its 
readers are thousands of apple eaters who have been 
“stung” by honest Baldwins. Where are the growers 
who can take the sting out? None other need apply! 
HOT WATER SUPPLY FOR FARM KITCHENS. 
Nowhere would abundance of hot water be more 
appreciated than in farmhouses. However, such a 
supply from a faucet at the sink is usually thought to 
be out of the question, unless the house is fitted with 
a complete water system, which, of course, is expen¬ 
sive. It may be interesting to know the following 
inexpensive method used in one farm kitchen. There 
was already a pump at the sink drawing water from 
a cistern. Another pump of the ordinary cistern type 
was put in the room over the kitchen and connected 
with the same pipe as the first. It was considered 
somewhat of an experiment to have two pumps, one 
higher than the other, connected with the same pipe, 
but it works perfectly. A 1 ^4-inch tee was put just 
below the original pump at the sink and from that the 
pipe was run to the floor above. Here under the 
spout was put an ordinary gasoline barrel open at 
one end. From this 34-inch galvanized pipe goes to 
the kitchen range and returns. A waterfront costs 
four or five dollars, but a loop or turn of pipe with 
a return bend can be put across the front at a cost 
of 40 or 50 cents. The writer had difficulty in getting 
a galvanized return bend and so used what is called 
a street elbow in connection with an ordinary elbow. 
These elbows cost eight or 10 cents each. 
It is best to have both pipes enter the bottom of the 
barrel. For one thing it is easier to make a tight 
joint on the flat surface than on a curving stave 
and then with this arrangement the water will circu¬ 
late as long as there is any in the barrel. If the 
barrel is emptied while the fire is going the water will 
boil in the pipes which run to the stove and the con¬ 
densing steam will make a hammering there, but will 
not do any harm. To make a tight joint where the 
pipes enter the barrel bore a hole large enough to 
let the pipe in, make rather a long thread on the pipe 
and screw a lock nut down far enough to enable 
another lock nut to be put on after allowing for the 
thickness of the barrel head. Around the pipe inside 
the barrel put a rubber washer and screw the upper 
lock nut down into it. The supply pipe to the sink 
should come not out of the barrel, but out of the 
circulating pipe just below the kitchen ceiling. Put 
a tee in here for the purpose. Drawing water at the 
sink will then quicken the circulation and bring the 
hottest water to the sink, that which has just been 
through the waterfront. In the system put in by the 
writer the current tends to go the other way and in 
the morning when the fire is first started before any 
water is drawn it does go the other way. But draw¬ 
ing at the sink reverses it and then it stays reversed. 
By having the pipe to the sink go just under the 
ceiling of the kitchen the water does not get as cold 
when it stands in the pipe as if it went along the 
floor above. The wooden barrel keeps the heat in 
more than a metal tank, so that the water gets hotter. 
Still the tank will heat the room in which it is sit¬ 
uated and make a great difference in the comfort of 
it in Winter. The tank can be placed in any second- 
story room it is desired to heat, and need not be 
directly over the kitchen. I do not know how long 
a wooden tank will last for hot water, but if only two 
years it will make the cost only 50 cents a year. 
In putting in the suction pipe for the pump if there 
is any leak at the joints the air will go in, and when 
the pump is not in action the water below will grad¬ 
ually run back. There is a very easy way to stop l 
small leak in a suction pipe, and that is to paint the 
place with white lead. The pressure of the air will 
draw the lead into the place and stop it perfectly. 
Kitchen pumps are often used when they fail to hold 
