1908. 
THE RURAli NEW-YORKER 
"7 ) ^ 
“THAT AWFUL SMELL.” 
You will remember that on page Col a 
sufferer from New York spoke of a mysteri¬ 
ous odor which nearly drove him from home. 
The Hope Farm man guessed that it came 
from a disgusting mushroom (Phallales)). 
Here we have another experience: 
Regarding bad odor in house, as noted in 
Hope Farm Notes, we noticed a bad odor 
in our house, especially near an elm tree. 
Upon investigation we found that the tree 
was infested with the Elm leaf-beetle, to 
which we attributed the odor. We think 
this is the cause of the bad odor here, as 
we have not noticed it at any other time. 
This might Jje the case where the cause for 
the had odor cannot be found. m. j. s. 
Watertown, Mass. 
I was Interested in your answer to letter 
sent to the Hope Farm Notes by the man 
who has a bad smell in the house. About, 
one year ago we had the most awful smell 
about our house, and I was sure it must 
come from some dead carcass, rat, cat or 
sktiak, and I went to work to find it. I was 
satisfied the smell came from the outside, 
nnd so examined all under the steps and 
piazza without success, so I began to try 
to trace the smell by going where it 
seemed to he the strongest until I came to a 
clump of syringa bushes. On looking closely 
at the bottom among the stalks as they 
come from the ground, not a “very hand¬ 
some’’ but a very disgusting-looking thing 
that had grown up about seven or eight 
inches all the same size about 1% inch in 
diameter, a slimy, dirty-looking thing, which 
I found to be the cause, on the removal of 
which I had no more trouble. b. b. f. 
Massachusetts. 
It. N.-Y.—That was our friend (?) the 
mushroom. We believe it was responsible 
for the trouble noted in the original ques¬ 
tion. 
A BUSHEL OF BEANS. 
This community lias been much pleased 
with (lie results of your exposure of fraud 
(he past year, and to the successful ones 
those in trouble go. Our case is this: 
We raise beans as well as fruit, and our 
bean buyers, we think, are “doing us.” 
Our beans are various kinds of whites, 
legal standard 60 pounds, also various va¬ 
rieties of reds, 58 pounds per bushel. All 
of these varieties the dealers are buying 
from us, compelling us to give them 02 
pounds for a bushel. When we offer our 
beans for sale the dealers make an offer, 
say $1.50 per bushel basis, which means if 
all good they pay $1.50 per bushel for the 
beans. They always find bad beans in 
every lot and so they charge us back five 
cents per pound for every pound of bad 
beans. Thus, if our beans pick four pounds 
we would receive $1.30 net, the dealer keep¬ 
ing the four pounds picked, selling the 
same at 75 cents or $1 per hundred 
pounds. He pays about three cents a pound 
for picking them out. If our beans should 
pick 31 pounds at above basis we would 
have to pay the dealer five cents for taking 
62 pounds of beans from us. This is the 
disease, and at times our hearts fail us. 
Are you the doctor? After seeing the cure 
of seedless apples, the fitting cow papers, 
and graft politicians, we place the case in 
your hands, and hope to hear a favorable 
diagnosis of the bean disease and sure 
remedy. C. a, o. 
Orleans Co., N. Y. 
All that we can do in such a case is to 
get at the truth and print It. Wo have 
never yet known a case where the con¬ 
tinual printing of the facts did not finally 
correct any injustice or abuse. Here is the 
beginning of it, and we are ready to give 
the whole story : 
In reply to your question I would call 
your attention to Section 8 of the Domes¬ 
tic Commerce Laws, which reads as fol¬ 
lows : 
“Number of pounds to the bushel.— 
Whenever any commodity specified in this 
section is sold by the bushel, and no special 
agreement is made by the parties as to the 
mode of measuring, the bushel shall consist 
of 70 pounds of lime or coarse salt; 60 
pounds of wheat, peas, potatoes, clover- 
seed or beans; 57 pounds of onions; 56 
pounds of Indian corn, rye or fine salt : 55 
pounds of flaxseed; 54 pounds of sweet 
potatoes; 50 pounds of cornmeal, rye meal 
or carrots; 48 pounds of barley, apples or 
buckwheat; 45 pounds of herd’s-grass, 
Timothy seed or rough rice; 44 pounds of 
Sea Island cotton seed; 33 pounds of 
dried peaches; 32 pounds of oats: 30 
pounds of upland cotton seed; 25 pounds 
dried apples; 20 pounds of bran or shorts.” 
5 ou will note that the standards set 
forth therein are to control except in 
cases of special agreement. 
GEO. Jj. FI.ANDEHS. 
Asst. Commissioner of Agriculture. 
I know about the manner of buying and 
selling beans. It is a fact the buyer de¬ 
mands 02 pounds to the bushel, saving if 
anyone protests, “Why ’tis customary, all 
dealers do the same,” which is true but 
not right. Their manner of dealing savors 
somewhat of robbery, as I see it; for in¬ 
stance, I sold my bean crop of 1900 for 
$2 per bushel “on basis” (as the dealers 
term it). The buyer takes 62 pounds for 
a bushel, then picked the poor ones from 
samples taken, and announced that they 
Picked eight pounds to the bushel for which 
lie_ deducted five cents per pound from the 
original price, which left me $1.00 per 
bushel. I had reserved a few bushels for 
seed the following year, but in the Spring 
decided I would rather plant a more satis¬ 
factory crop, so took those beans without 
any preparation whatever to the same 
dealer, and he only made them four pounds 
to the bushel. Strange, wasn’t it. what 
Winter had done for those beans? Of 
course I made a few pointed remarks to 
the dealer, but they bad no effect. lie 
can well afford to ride in an automobile 
and I, well, I get out of the way if I can, 
as safety lies in that direction. I am glad 
this has been brought to your notice, as 
T think if well agitated good will come of 
it. Surely if is a wrong that needs right¬ 
ing. J. A. B. 
Orleans Co., N. Y. 
T do not regard the difference of weight 
demanded by dealers as a serious trouble. 
Most of tbe beans are sold to the dealers 
unpicked, that is, with the cull beans all 
in. The dealer does the picking over him¬ 
self. Tlfe farmer usually submits a sam¬ 
ple and from this fhe dealer and grower 
establish an estimate of about how many 
pounds will sort out fo the bushel. This 
amount varies according to the quality of 
the beans. I believe there is little or no 
cause for complaint along this line in this 
Section. c. J. ARMSTRONG. 
Wayne Co., N. Y. 
Sixty-two pounds has always been the 
bushel by custom in this section, and will 
continue, for in buying the buyers says, 
“I will give you so much for 02 pounds,” 
and lie doesn’t necessarily call it a bushel. 
Some dealers in Genesee County call (if) 
pounds a bushel. The custom is to pay 
so much for 00 or 62 pounds and five cents 
per pound is taken out for dirt and poor 
beans, and the buyer has the poor beans. 
I know of no fairer way to handle beans 
if the dealer is honest, but if lie is not he 
can pick a sample and his test scales can 
be made to say any number of pounds per 
bushel lie wants, and out comes five cents 
per pound for what lie picks. If a buyer 
pays $1.86 per bushel of 02 pounds and 
they pick five pounds per bushel lie takes 
out 25 cents, which gives the grower $1.01 
or $1.00. The buyer runs the beans through 
a bean sorter that fakes out the dirt, 
cracked beans and the rough bad ones; 
then if they still have colored beans they 
pass over wide belts and girls and women 
pick out the poor beans. It all costs 
money, and, the dealer has paid three 
cents per pound for all the beans, both 
good and poor, and that and the cost of 
picking and waste in handling counts up. 
All the poor beans are worth is market 
TWIN POTATO FREAKS. Fig. 333. 
price for poor beans, which is from 50 
cents per 100 pounds up to $1. c. a. 
Orleans Co., N. Y. 
I know nothing about any trouble that 
farmers have in selling beans to dealers. 
’I'he history of the bean trade relating to 
the weights is tills: Importers use 00 
pounds for a bushel, and the entire West 
the same. There was for many years, a 
law in this State making 62 pounds a 
bushel of beans, but a very few years ago 
it was changed to 60 pounds, and I do not 
suppose one dealer out* of 10 sold at 02 
pounds. Red kidneys were sold in New 
York and lioston at 58 pounds, and many 
years ago Marrows were sold at 04 pounds, 
being lighter than peas. The trade some 
two to three years since made sales at 00 
pounds to a bushel, and still kept buying at 
02 pounds. At: the time a reduction was 
made in sales. I contended there should be 
one rule, that was- buying and selling at 
60 pounds, but the trade generally did not 
seriously consider it, and so the custom 
has gone on to the present of buying at: 
62 pounds and selling al 60 pounds. If 
makes no difference, for if the buyer can 
buy at 00 pounds at one price, lie would 
la- willing to sell at 62 pounds same price ; 
that is the dealer considers first -place 02 
pounds in getting at the value of his beans, 
and also considers screenings, pickings, dirt 
and the like, in order to get the value of 
the lot of beans. Personally, I am not 
largely interested in beans, as my trade is 
more in green and evaporated fruit. In re¬ 
gard to beans, there are more sides of the 
trade which must be considered than there 
are in grain of any kind. Beans are dam¬ 
aged all the way from one to 20 pounds, 
and all of the waste must come out. Deal¬ 
ers are at a large expense in procuring 
machinery of various kinds to clean what 
they can, and then turn over to the women 
to pick and make the beans perfect. The 
expense of getting in order one lot of beans 
is more than another; that is, one lot 
will pick six to seven pounds, and will 
cost more to get the waste all out than in 
another lot, and this sometimes puzzles the 
dealer. When beans were $1 to $1.25 per 
bushel, the rule universal in this State 
was to deduct five cents per pound of 
waste, and it was about an even tiling (o 
make this discount, as the cost of picking 
is a loss of so many pounds of beans paid 
for. r am well acquainted with the trade 
in this country, and I have heard no com¬ 
plaints in regard to the weights, and all 
seem to understand that if they sold their 
beans at 60 pounds to the bushel they 
would get just so much less money for 
their beans per bushel. I think that'with¬ 
in a year the matter will resolve in sell¬ 
ing and buying at 60 pounds, and that is 
the universal rule as I understand It the 
world over. s. c. BOWEN. 
Medina, N. Y r . 
TK© Roof thai 
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Painting*. 
Yes, In\ 
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For these reasons thousands of successful far 
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ittsy 
mf/0 
•k -iff; ■ 
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