5194 
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December 16, 
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Show Rooms in Principal Cities 
LE 
Higher Cost of Living 
Does not Include Fence 
Ten years ago it 
took 2 bushels of corn 
to buy 1 rod of fence. To¬ 
day 1 bushel of corn will buy 2 
rods of • better fence. 
Price Low—Quality Better Than Ever 
Top-working Apples on Stark. 
H. T., Sodas, Mich .—Stark apple trees 
are being planted to be top-worked to 
Grimes Golden and Jonathan. At what age 
should the trees be worked over? As the 
Grimes and Jonathan are rather hard to 
get up to size here, do you think anything 
could be gained in the way of larger fruit 
by grafting the trees as late as possible, 
with the idea that the older' the Stark 
trees become ‘ the more they retain their 
vigorous growth and root system with the 
consequent added ability to furnish plant 
food? Can Northern Spy be brought into 
hearing earlier by top-working it on Stark, 
or perhaps some weaker growing variety? 
An old grower and dealer in this vicinity 
maintains that all the strong-growing late- 
bearing kinds can be brought into bearing 
earlier by top-working. 
A ns.— There is no doubt that a vigor¬ 
ous root system gives the top more vigor 
than a feeble one. There is a corre¬ 
spondence or equilibrium maintained be¬ 
tween them, and whatever is failing or 
lacking in one is apt to correspondingly 
affect the other. Stark is a very thrifty 
tree and Grimes and Jonathan will do 
well on it as a stock. When the trees 
have well-formed heads, say two or 
three years from planting in the orchard 
would be the stage in which I would 
top-graft them. To let them get older 
and larger would not make any material 
difference, so I believe. Northern Spy 
is a very thrifty grower, and I do not 
think it would be brought into earlier 
bearing by grafting it onto Stark, but it 
might be well to try it in adjoining rows 
and give the rest of us the benefit of 
whatever may be learned. 
H. E. VAN DEMAN. 
“THE CONSUMER’S DOLLAR.” 
The inquiry on page 1131, as to how to 
do business with the farmer direct, shows 
that the middleman’s sword is double- 
pointed. City folks have to buy—they can¬ 
not grow produce, and a large factor would 
like to secure their food straight from the 
field. This would insure freshness, better 
quality and lower price. Many would like 
to buy from the farmers, because city toil¬ 
ers know that the grower has been sucking 
n 35-cent lemon while the commission bond¬ 
holder lias been carving the melons. A 
sense of a fair shake is in us all. The 
reasons they do not buy of the farmer 
more extensively are that they wish small 
quantities, good quality in neat packages: 
they do not know the grower; fear of culls, 
delays in carriage. When the producer 
can overcome these objections he has a 
vast field. He can secure the trade of pri¬ 
vate families, boarding houses, hotels, fruit 
stands and grocers. All like to buy from 
a man who knows his goods and stands 
back of them with a warranty of quality 
I have lived among city folk and also 
shipped to them as a producer. A pleased 
patron soon writes for their entire list of 
fruits and vegetables, besides poultry and 
eggs. A farmer can advertise in city 
papers, can canvass personally, can secure 
lists of names from a telephone book, or 
write to board of trade for list of grocers 
etc. The producer should see that his 
goods are delivered, as city people do not 
care to engage truckmen to haul goods. 
Sometimes they become impatient because 
the farmer cannot produce the variety need¬ 
ed and early enough. When you learn the 
rating of a patron yon can safely give him 
credit; his practice may be to pay monthly. 
As an example. I found one Italian fruit 
vender who paid $5 per barrel for medium 
Baldwins, while 1 could deliver them to 
him for $3.50. The field is worth working. 
Yadkin Valley, N. C. i. h. 
I am very much interested in you and 
your readers’ plans as to how the producer 
can get all or most of the consumer’s dol¬ 
lar. This question has been in operation in 
Faducab for more than 50 years. The re¬ 
sult is a city market house, 300 feet long 
and 30 feet wide, occupying the center of a 
wide street. Facing the market on the 
sides are grocery stores and every sort of 
retail business, and produce commission 
houses which retail with the farmers on 
the market house benches, both getting 
what their stuff is worth at retail. All the 
butchers are here also. We have no butcher 
shops or greengrocers. The market is open 
from 5 a. m. to 9 a. m„ only four hours, 
but in that time the housekeepers of a 
city of 25.000 people have bought their 
meat, poultry and vegetables, and their 
baskets were left at their grocers, where 
their groceries were put in the baskets and 
delivered by 11 a. m„ a nice lot of work 
for six hours. The market is open all day 
Saturday and after dark. Fifty years’ 
theory and practice and the rubbing to¬ 
gether of the producer and consumer has 
produced a highly valuable hook of city 
ordinances and rules governing this traffic. 
Any city contemplating a city market 
could not do better than to send a repre¬ 
sentative and observe its workings for a 
week. It is an immense success. g. e. h. 
Paducah, Ivy. 
I have noticed that you quote full cream 
cheese, the best, at 13 to 14% cents per 
pound. It costs one cent per pound to lay 
them down In this market. We pay 25 
cents per pound for every pound we buy, 
and the cheese is not full cream or whole 
milk. This looks to me as too much profit 
for the retailer to make per pound. 
Columbus, Ga. j. J. w. 
A Commission Rettrn. —I sent 25 bas¬ 
kets of apples to Philadelphia the other 
day and wrote in the bottom of the bas¬ 
kets my name and ‘‘What did this cost 
you?” I got returns at 45 cents. 20- 
pound basket, and got a card from a man 
who said he bought the lot at 50 cents! 
I wrote him for the seller, thinking the 
firm had jobbed them, so if he gives the 
firm as having sold to him direct I shall 
write them for an accounting. And yet 
they are a reliable firm in excellent stand¬ 
ing. I think perhaps the salesman grafted 
the extra nickel. d. j. 
That is a now one when the jobber an¬ 
swers such questions. They must be all 
looking for that "inside ballot.” 
A Tight Cellar Wanted. 
I want to put a cellar under a building 
40x60 feet; want it for fruit storage. I 
wish to build the walls of stone, 10 feet 
high, and use cement as mortar, then put 
in concrete floor. Can I build this way and 
be sure to keep the water out? The site Is 
at the foot, of a hill. The soil becomes 
very full of water when it rains heavily 
and in the Spring. s. O. 
Pennsylvania. 
Yes. I think you can build your cellar 
and have it perfectly dry if you use your 
head along with the museuinr part of the 
work. When the excavating is done any 
wet-looking place that will be under the 
floor should he thoroughly drained. Put 
a good drain all the way round under side- 
walls. having a good grade so the water 
ran run off quickly during a period of wet 
weather, and yon will have no trouble. 
When laying the sidewalls make your form 
as tight as possible; If watertight all the 
better. Make your mortar one cement, two 
sand, and just thin enough to work easily 
hut not like slop, as we often see it used. 
Put in about four inches of cement in the 
form as far as one hatch will reach : then if 
you have a straight spade with a square 
point work the cement down thoroughly 
along the edge of forms, being more partic¬ 
ular about the outer than inside of form. 
When you have the cement worked down 
along the edges, place all the stone in that 
the cement will cover: press them down 
with the hand, keeping them hack about one 
inch from either side of form boards. 
When that batch will not take any more 
stone fill another stretch, going right 
around the building until the desired height 
is reached, keeping the work as nearly level 
as possible from start to finish. When you 
put the bottom in get busy: as soon as the 
first shoveful of concrete Is placed work it 
down firm in the bottom, not depending on 
a 11 tie fancy troweling after the bottom is 
laid, which often does more harm than 
good. A good concrete floor that will 
stand the test must be put down right, 
using good material. A little fancy skim 
coat of good material over a lot of poor 
has spoiled many otherwise nice jobs of 
cement work. w. a . b. 
Baled Corn Fodder, 
A shortage of the hay crop is reported 
this year, and no doubt substitutes for hay 
will he offered. Will you tell us what the 
chances are for offering shredded or cut 
corn fodder? Some years ago experiments 
were tried in selling it, but it did not go 
well. This year there might be a greater 
demand. Do you expect to handle it, and 
if so. about what will it sell for? 
Very little corn fodder is used here. 
Baltimore. Md. j. m. frisch & co. 
We have had but one experience in sell¬ 
ing corn fodder, and unless we had some 
demand would only handle same on com¬ 
mission. c. M. MUNROE & SON. 
Providence, R. I. 
This feed can be used on the farm very 
satisfactorily but it is not a food for any 
market, and the trade here would not take 
it for a gift. It will not be handled no 
matter how short the hay crop may be, 
in our opinion, henry h. freeman & co 
Chicago, III. 
We can do nothing whatever on this 
market with shredded corn fodder. We 
have tried it several times and it will not 
sell. Apparently it is an impossibility to 
market this commodity without heating. 
As a rule it arrives at destination In dam¬ 
aged condition. 
DANIEL M’CAFFREY’S SONS CO. 
Pittsburg. Pa. 
We never have sold shredded or cut corn 
fodder and we doubt very much if it will 
be sold in this market. It is a feed more 
for cows than anything else, and there prob¬ 
ably would not be any chance to sell it for 
that purpose on this market until March or 
April of next year. There is enough mixed 
hay and Blue grass and other mixtures to 
take care of the cattle trade in this terri¬ 
tory up to that time. That is our opinion 
of the situation. We feel that the squeeze 
on hay, if we get it at all. will be in the 
early Spring. hornell hay co. 
Hornell. N. Y. 
While there may he a slight shortage of 
the hay crop, we do not believe it is as 
short as was originally thought, and it is 
very apparent that not as much hay is re¬ 
quired to supply the demand as in other 
seasons: in other words, the markets have 
declined frequently this season on light re¬ 
ceipts. We have handled in the past a few 
cars of shredded corn fodder, but it has 
not been a satisfactory experiment. It 
seems almost impossible for the farmers 
to get their shredded fodder sufficiently 
dried out and cured so that it can be 
bought with safety. While some of the ears 
go through all right, other cars contain 
at destination many moldy and unsound 
bales, while the same shredded fodder was 
all right and in good condition when 
pressed. the irvin t. fangboner co. 
Bellevue, O. 
Keeping a Record. —For several years I 
have been filing away what I thought were 
the best issues of the several farm papers I 
read. I found it a very disagreeable job to 
hunt through this collection in search of 
some information on any given subject. A 
better way is to save all the papers until I 
can take the time (about once each 
month) ; then I cut out the index from 
every issue of The R. N.-Y. and file them 
away where they are safe and handy. The 
paper itself T lay flat in a box in the attic 
to which the lid fits snug into the box: 
then I place a weight on the lid. If I find 
something in any other publication I cut 
it out, number or date it: next T place this 
date, or number opposite a similar item in 
my index file: the clipping I place in the 
number and page to correspond with the 
index: thus with ease and dispatch one 
can look up any subject published in The 
R. N.-Y. and selections from other sources. 
Cincinnati, Q. nr. w. h. 
Within ten years farm prod¬ 
ucts have greatly advanced in 
market value while the price of 
woven wire fence has been re¬ 
duced. These are the reasons: 
Newer and improved methods 
of digging the ore, shipping to 
the furnaces, melting into steel 
and making into finished prod¬ 
ucts are in force. Ten years 
ago operations were on a small 
scale. Today the plan of oper¬ 
ation is vast. The manufac¬ 
turer is able to deliver the fin¬ 
ished goods quickly, of better 
quality and at a lower price. 
American fence is made bet¬ 
ter than ever. It is a thorough¬ 
ly galvanized square mesh fence 
of weight, strength and dura¬ 
bility. Large wires are used 
and the whole fabric is woven 
together with the American 
hinged joint (patented)—the 
most substantial and flexible 
union possible. Both wires are 
positively locked and firmly held 
against side slip and yet are free 
to act like a hinge in yielding 
to pressure, returning quickly 
to place without bending or 
injuring the metal. 
FlpaLvc IT VPt*VurIlP1*A Stocks of American Fence are carried in every place 
* IjVCI Jf W11C1C where farm supplies are sold. The Fence is shipped 
to these points in carload lots, thereby securing the cheapest transportation, and the saving in 
freight thus made enables it to be sold at the lowest prices. Look for the American Fence dealer 
and get the substantial advantages he is enabled to offer. He is there to serve the purchaser in 
person, offer the variety of selection and save the buyer money in many ways. 
FRANK BAACKES, Vice-President and General Sales Agent 
American Steel & Wire Company 
r 
Chicago New York Denver San Francisco 
Send'for copy of" American Fence News," Profusely illustrated, devoted to the interests of farmers and 
showing hour fence may be employed to enhance the earning power of a farm. Furnished free upon application. 
