THE PAPERS MISFIT THE APPLES. here, within a few miles of me, I run against people 
Who Is Responsible? 
In The R. N.-Y., page 121, I notice W. T. S. makes- 
complaint of too many apples, no market, and The 
R. N.-Y. gives one reason for the condition. I am 
sending you sample fruit in separate package taken 
from a barrel branded “Choice Baldwins, New York,” 
which, when you examine them, will give another 
reason for the condition of the apple market North. 
This fruit is shipped in car lots to Winston-Salem, 
N. C., and from there sent out in small lots. This 
barrel cost $3.45 at my town. At least 10 per cent 
will class with the sample sent you, the remainder 
somewhat better, though I venture the assertion that 
a northern apple man would not pay 40 cents for 
the best bushel that could be selected from the bar¬ 
rel. I do not believe honest apple growers of the 
North know anything about this stuff that is palmed 
off on the South. We like apples, and will pay a 
fair price for many thousand bushels of your surplus 
fruit, though it is hard for a man to feel as though 
he is getting his money’s worth when trying to eat 
this stuff, as I know from experience. This barrel 
: s not an exception; I bought some 
last Winter no better. I have much 
confidence in The R. N.-Y.’s ability 
to run down frauds. Is there no 
way to spot the man that packs this 
fruit? I wish a barrel of this fruit 
could be opened at one of your hor¬ 
ticultural meetings. Find some way 
to make the “apples fit the barrel,” 
and you may put us down as a life 
subscriber. My father was a sub¬ 
scriber 40 years ago. r. l. wolff. 
North Carolina. 
R- N.-Y.—We had those apples 
photographed just as they came. 
Here they are, in Fig. 107, “life 
size.” The entire lot weighed just 
4 V 2 ounces. If we could make sure 
of the name of the man who is re¬ 
sponsible for this outrage we would 
like to print it where all may see. 
Mr. Wolff does not put it half 
strong enough when he shows how 
such rascally work hurts the apple 
trade. “Choice Baldwins, New 
York!” A nice brand that to go on 
a package which contains such look¬ 
ing fruit. The worst of it is this work may be 
done so as to discredit the growers of an entire sec¬ 
tion who sell fruit at wholesale. Here is another 
argument in favor of co-operative packing and sell¬ 
ing. You never could find such fruit coming out 
of a box of apples from the Pacific Coast. These 
western growers know that such fruit would kill 
their trade in short order. Their only hope is to 
make the papers fit the apples, and have them packed 
upon honor. A man caught selling oleo for butter, 
or a bogus cow for a purebred, or corncobs and dirt 
for cow feed should have his name posted, for he 
is a germ of disease in honest trade. Just the same, 
a man who would send out such apples in a pack¬ 
age marked “Choice Baldwins” ought to be fumi¬ 
gated with printer’s ink. The chances are, though, 
that the packer was slick enough to keep his name 
off that package. 
The Montana Apple Situation. 
I was struck by the letter from that fruit grower 
on page 121, who said that the apples were rotting 
under the trees, and no buyer had been within 100 
miles of them this year. There must be something 
wrong there; varieties, packing, or organization. Even 
who complained that they could not get apples to 
eat, and one would think that impossible in the mid¬ 
dle of a fruit growing section. I enclose clippings 
from our local paper, which will show you that there 
is none of that kind of talk here. The only kickers 
are those with large blocks, often half a section, of 
unsalable varieties, which in many cases were sold to 
them for good varieties that they did order, and 
which are selling at $1.75 to $2 a box, by the carload. 
Top-grafting has not generally proved successful 
here, and like your correspondent, they find them¬ 
selves with a large crop to harvest and no demand, 
a hard combination to work against. The success of 
the other men who did get a square deal in nursery 
stock, with no better judgment as to what varieties 
to plant, when everything was experiment and chance, 
makes these unfortunate ones naturally jealous and 
sore. You would feel that way yourself. Now the 
newcomers you would think would have every ad¬ 
vantage, and so they do in one way, but owing to 
the enormous rise in land values they have to pay for 
these experiences. Another kick for the unfortunate 
ones mentioned above is that the orchards planted 
on $10 an acre land to the right varieties are selling 
readily at enormous value, $200 to $1,000 and more 
an acre, while no one wants the enormous Ben Davis 
and other orchards at any price. By the bye, I in¬ 
spected a shipment of nursery stock from a local 
nursery here, that was going to the Government 
experiment station in Alaska, C. FI. W. Fleideman, 
the late secretary of our Horticultural Society, in 
charge. If anyone can make fruit grow there C. H. 
W. H. will do it, I know. h. c. b. colvile. 
Montana. 
R. N.-Y.—We doubt if anyone will make a perma¬ 
nent success of selling Ben Davis or other very large 
apples in boxes. Our own small package trade pre¬ 
fers a medium-sized, well-colored apple. Apples 
in Alaska! We may well ask—what next? 
THE MANURE SPREADER QUESTION. 
A Jersey Farmer’s Friend. 
As far as we know, there is no manure spreader 
yet manufactured that will work successfully when 
there is a heavy body of snow on the ground. 
Neither do we know of any sled or sleigh that can 
be used successfully in drawing manure on the bare 
ground. Still we will venture to assert that T. E. R., 
Clinton, N. Y., page 167, does not discard his sled 
because he cannot use it more than three or four 
months in the year, and we are therefore at a loss 
to understand the logic of his argument when he 
condemns the manure spreader that can be used from 
eight to 10 months of the twelve. T. E. R. un¬ 
doubtedly has more snow to contend with than we 
have in northern New Jersey, and we freely admit, 
if any inventive genius could give us a manure 
spreader that would overcome the snow banks, he 
would confer a benefit to the farmer, that would 
(in the estimation of said farmer) entitle his name 
to a niche in the Temple of Fame. 
We have used a manure spreader for six years, 
and have repeatedly asserted we would rather dis¬ 
pense with any piece of machinery on our farm than 
with our spreader. This does not mean that we have 
no other machinery, for we are well provided with 
nearly everything that tends to lighten manual labor, 
including an excellent gasoline engine, which seems 
almost indispensable. Neither does it mean we are 
in any way whatever interested in pushing the sale 
of manure spreaders, except in so far as we believe 
it to be to the interest of every farmer to be the 
happy possessor of one. After care¬ 
fully noting for six years the marked 
difference in the crop results of hand 
and machine spreading we are 
firmly convinced the claims the 
manufacturers are making of from 
20 to 25. per cent increase of value 
in machine-spread manure over the 
hand-spread, is fully warranted. We 
do not imagine that our method of 
using the spreader is faultless, but 
will briefly set it forth and leave it 
for comment and criticism. 
We make each year nearly 300 
loads, of 30 bushels each, of barn¬ 
yard manure. This is drawn in the 
spreader every day, if possible. If 
there is a body of snow on the 
ground we draw on the sled or 
wagon, and deposit in large heaps 
in the field in which it is to be 
spread later on. \\ hen but one or 
two loads each day are thus drawn, 
it almost invariably freezes, and as 
no fermentation ensues, there is but 
little loss of nitrogen. In the early 
Spring, as rapidly as the frost allows, 
we begin using the spreader, and as the haul is very 
short, we have no difficulty in spreading from 35 
to 40 loads in a day of 10 hours, using two good 
heavy horses and two men. As the great bulk of 
the manure has been previously spread, this seldom 
takes over two days’ time, and we are easily ready 
for the plowing as soon as the ground is ready. 
We vary the quantity used to the acre, being gov¬ 
erned by the condition of the soil as well as by the 
crop that is to follow. It has been shown to our 
entire satisfaction that manure spread as it is drawn 
from the stables produces better results than that 
which is thrown in heaps and spread in the Spring. 
I his we do not think is caused by any deterioration 
of the manure that has been lying in the heaps, but 
by reason of a much more rapid and thorough as¬ 
similation with the soil, on account of the earlier 
spreading. We usually apply most of our manure 
to corn ground and turn it under. There is in our 
mind but little doubt that this is a mistake, of which 
we had a convincing proof last year. Contrary to 
our established custom, we allowed 10 or a dozen 
loads to accumulate in our barnyard during our busy 
week of corn planting. The following week we 
spread it on a small lot containing about an acre, 
TFIE HEART OF A BARREL OF “CHOICE” BALDW INS. Fig. 107. 
