1913. 
THE RUR A-L NEW-YORKER 
37 
EASTERN FRUIT GROWERS MEET. 
The third annual meeting of the Eastern 
Fruit Growers’ Association was held at 
the Hotel Raleigh, Washington, D. 0., on 
December 17 and 18, This association com¬ 
prises in its membership fruit growers in 
the five States of Pennsylvania, Maryland, 
Delaware, Virginia, and West Virginia. 
President S. L. Lupton in his annual ad¬ 
dress, told of the two laws passed by the 
last Congress which were of special in¬ 
terest to fruit-growers, the Sulzer apple- 
package bill and the national quarantine 
act for nursery stock, and of the efforts of 
the association in furthering the passage 
of these acts. Other topics touched on 
were the desirability of federal inspection 
of apples intended for export, as already 
in effect in Canada; national and State aid 
for county farm demonstration bureaus as 
provided in the Lever bill; and the need 
for more information with regard to mar¬ 
keting, perhaps best to be obtained through 
a federal bureau of markets. 
J. M. Rothwell of West Virginia, chair¬ 
man of the committee on freight rates, told 
of the efforts of his committee during the 
past year to obtain more favorable rates 
and of the refusal of the railroads to 
accede to their request. lie then outlined 
briefly their plan to take the matter before 
the Interstate Commerce Commission. It 
is hoped that a decision can be obtained 
from the Commission before the shipping 
season of 1913, and that rates will "be es¬ 
tablished which will give the territory of 
the association the advantages in South¬ 
ern markets to which its geographical lo¬ 
cation would seem to entitle it. In this 
effort to secure equitable freight rates, the 
association has the backing of the various 
State horticultural societies with which it 
is affiliated. 
On the question. “Are Eastern Orchard 
Investment Propositions Open to Criticism ?” 
President Lupton stated that he saw no 
reason why orchard investments by individ¬ 
uals or by stock companies properly or¬ 
ganized and managed, with at least one of 
the interested parties actually on the land, 
should not be a success, but he was in¬ 
clined to look with disfavor on the “unit 
orchard” schemes for city owners which of 
late have been so prominently advertised. 
In the discussion which followed, the mem¬ 
bers took the stand that extravagant state¬ 
ments of profits to be obtained from or¬ 
charding were to be condemned and that 
prospective investors should avail them¬ 
selves of the most reliable information ob¬ 
tainable. It was suggested- that the De¬ 
partment of Agriculture might help the 
work along by issuing a bulletin stating the 
essentials .'for success in orcharding, and 
the pitfalls which 'are likely to be en¬ 
countered, and giving a conservative esti¬ 
mate of returns. 
At the afternoon session, J. H. Arnold 
of the Office of Farm Management of the 
Department of Agriculture discussed “Some 
Principles of Orchard Management and Ac¬ 
counting, with Essential Reference to Peach 
Orcharding.” In this paper, figures ob¬ 
tained in a study of farming enterprises 
in Eastern West Virginia, in the peach- 
producing region around Keyser, were pre¬ 
sented. This study was undertaken to 
.determine the cost of the various opera¬ 
tions and to ascertain whether more or less 
money could be devoted profitably to culti¬ 
vation, spraying, etc. It was ‘ estimated 
that the cost of bringing a peach orchard 
to bearing age (five years) in this region 
was about $163 an acre, or approximately 
$1.25 a tree when 130 trees were grown to 
the acre. The principal items of expense 
were the original cost of land and equip¬ 
ment, interest on the investment, and cul¬ 
tivation. The annual running expenses after 
the orchard reaches bearing age were 
placed at $46 to the acre. 
W. T. Creasy of Pennsylvania talked on 
the subject, “How May Market News at 
Picking Time Be Made More Accurate?” 
Mr. Creasy emphasized the need of orchard- 
ists for reliable information about the size 
of the crop before harvest, and urged the 
collection of accurate statistics of fruit 
production. He told of the efforts which 
were being made by the State Grange of 
Pennsylvania in trying to get crop reports 
from the different sections of the State 
and cooperative movements intended “to 
get for the producer more of the dollar 
that the consumer is paying.” On this 
point, he brought in the experience of a 
dealer in his vicinity who bought apples iu 
Baltimore at $3 a barrel, one of which, 
when opened, was found to contain a card 
from the producer which read: “I got 
$1.10 a barrel. I'd like to know what you 
paid for them.” 
By invitation. Senator Hoke Smith of 
Georgia appeared before the association to 
explain his bill for the creation of a divi¬ 
sion of markets in the Bureau of Statistics 
of the Department of Agriculture. This bill, 
which has already passed the Senate and 
is now before the House Committee on 
Agriculture for consideration, provides for 
a division of markets “to investiagte sys¬ 
tems of marketing farm produce, co¬ 
operative or otherwise, in practice in the 
United States and in foreign countries, and 
to investigate the demand for farm prod¬ 
ucts, the current movements of such prod¬ 
ucts, and the methods of disposition, trans¬ 
mission and sale of crops in the United 
States and elsewhere” and “to make a con¬ 
tinuous study of supply and demand for 
the benefit of both producer and consumer.” 
Hon. A. F. Lever of South Carolina, author 
of the Lever bill for agricultural extension 
through county experts, also appeared be¬ 
fore the convention and discussed the mer¬ 
its of his bill, with the provisions of which 
the readers of The R. N.-Y. are already 
familiar. 
The need of Eastern fruit growers for 
additional credit facilities was discussed 
by T. Clark Iloge of Virginia. It was 
the opinion of the speaker that occasions 
frequently arose when fruit growers could 
make use of further credit to advantage 
if it was available, and that there was 
no apparent reason why an orcliardist 
should not capitalize the future possibili¬ 
ties of his growing orchard as readily as 
a manufacturer the output of his factory. 
After discussion by the association, a 
committee was appointed to investigate the 
extension of credit to fruit growers and 
report at the next annual meeting. 
Resolutions were adopted commending 
the committee on freight rate discrimina¬ 
tion for their efforts and pledging the as¬ 
sociation to continue the work; advising 
those contemplating investment in fruit 
lands to consult authorities iu the De¬ 
V 
partment of Agriculture and the experi¬ 
ment stations; urging better statistics of 
fruit production; endorsing the Lever and 
Page bills for agricultural extension and 
education and the Hoke Smith bill for a 
Federal bureau of markets; advocating the 
strengthening of the national quarantine 
law for nursery stock: and suggesting the 
cooperation of growers with the various 
sale agencies. 
Officers for 1913 were elected as fol¬ 
lows : S. L. Lupton, Winchester, Va., presi¬ 
dent; G. P. Miller, Romney, W. Va.; E. 
P. Cohill, Hancock, Md.; S. S. Guerrant, 
Callaway, Va.; G. L. Soper, Magnolia, 
Del., and C. J. Tyson, Floradale, Pa„ vice- 
presidents ; E. I. Oswald, Chewsville, Md., 
treasurer, and Nat. T. Frame, Martins- 
burg, W. Va., secretary. 
C. W. WARBURTON. 
NOTES AND COMMENTS. 
Storing Manure.— I have seen pits and 
covered sheds for storing manure, but I 
have never seen any method of keeping 
manure that is not wasteful. The only 
storage place where it docs not waste 
rapidly is under the feet of the animals 
in box stalls. The most economical way 
to handle manure is to put it into a 
manure spreader as fast as made and when 
a load is accumulated drive off and leave 
it spre'ad on the land. This can best be 
done on a sod that is to go iu corn in the 
Spring and by Spring it will be in good 
shape to turn under and feed the crop. 
There is less loss in getting the manure 
on the land as fast as made than in any 
other way I have ever tried. Better in¬ 
vest the money it would take to build a 
manure pit in a manure spreader and keep 
it always at hand, and save so much hand¬ 
ling of the manure. The worst plan is to 
haul manure out and fork it off the wagon 
into little heaps that will in all proba¬ 
bility lie there till Spring, and then an¬ 
other handling will he needed, and spots 
made all * over the field for grain to grow 
rank and lodge. ^ 
A Hotbed. —The directions on page 1265 
for making a concrete hotbed are all right 
if one wants to stoop over a bed outdoors 
in all sorts of weather. I have made a 
hotbed of different character. Right back 
of my office on its sunny end I have built 
a little lean-to structure six feet wide and 
10 feet long. This gives me a bench 4 x 1 o 
feet, which is' large enough to start all 
the seed I want for transplanting to the 
frames. This little place is heated by a 
small heft water boiler and a coil of radiat¬ 
ing pipes which with a very moderate fire 
give an abundance of heat. I can walk 
into the little greenhouse directly from my 
desk, and can work there in comfort, while 
with a hotbed outside one is exposed to 
the weather and has to stoop over it and 
work at a disadvantage. I long since 
abandoned hotbeds, though I still use a 
large number of sashes on frames in the 
Winter and Spring. 
Japan Walnuts. —I have grown a great 
many trees of the Japan walnut from seed, 
and never knew one to produce butternuts, 
but always the true Japan walnut. Per¬ 
haps P. P. (page 1265) has got his crossed 
by a butternut tree in the neighborhood. 
Kieffeu Pears. —If Kieffer pears are 
gathered as soon as they attain their full 
size and before there are any signs of 
softening, and are placed in a cool and 
perfectly dark cellar, single layers, on 
shelving, they will keep very well till 
Christmas, and ripened in this way the 
Kieffer is not bad eating at all. I have 
them without any grittiness down to the 
seed, and while not of high quality they 
are sweet and juicy and not at ail poor 
eating. The Kieffer in fact attains a bet¬ 
ter quality as we come south, and in 
North Carolina is far better than even 
here, while here it is better than north. 
They attain a larger size in the South than 
here, and at the State Fair in Raleigh. 
N. 0., there are every Fall plenty of 
Kieffers as large as a small cantaloupe. 
Maryland. W. F. MASSEY. 
When you write advertisers mention The 
R. N.-Y. and you’ll get a quick reply and a 
“square deal.” See guarantee editorial page. 
THE BEST TEACHER 
Old Experience Still Holds ihe Palm. 
For real practical reliability and some¬ 
thing to swear by, experience—plainj old 
experience—is able to carry a big load 
yet without getting swaybacked. 
A So. Dak. woman found some things 
about food from Old Experience a good 
reliable teacher. 
She writes: 
“I think I have used almost every 
breakfast food manufactured, but none 
equal Grape-Nuts in my estimation. 
“I was greatly bothered with weak 
stomach and indigestion, with formation 
of gas after eating, and tried many 
remedies for it but did not find relief. 
“Then I decided I must diet and see if 
T could overcome the difficulty that way. 
My choice of food was Grape-Nuts be¬ 
cause the doctor told me I could nof 
digest starchy food. 
Grape-Nuts food lias been a great 
benefit to me for I feel like a different 
person since I began to eat it. It is 
wonderful to me how strong my nerves 
have become. I advise everyone to try 
it, for experience is the best teacher. 
“If you have any stomach trouble— 
can’t digest your food, use Grape-Nuts 
food for breakfast, at least, and you 
won’t be able to praise it enough when 
you see how different you feel.” Name 
given by Postum Co.. Battle Creek. Mich. 
Read the little book “The Road to Well- 
ville,” in pkgs. “There’s a Reason.” 
Ever read the above letter ? A new one 
appears from time to time. They are genu¬ 
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