lie 
THE RURAb NEW-YORKER 
January 25, 
CROPS 
After three days of freezing 1 weather in 
the southern California orange section the 
cold moderated January 9. While the 
lirst estimates of the loss were as high as 
70 per cent of the crop, the best experts 
now put the damage at 50 per cent, or 
*20,000,000. The first reports that all the 
young trees were killed and many of the 
older ones were so seriously hurt that they 
would not bear for several seasons were 
greatly exaggerated. The frost was not se¬ 
vere enough to kill anything except nursery 
stock, but it was enough to spoil many of 
the oranges and grapefruit on the trees 
and practically all the lemons. “Smudg¬ 
ing” was general in all the orange groves, 
and no doubt the smoke and warmth from 
these fires saved a large amount of fruit. 
While Pomona reported damage of 80 per 
cent of the crop, San Bernardino county- 
seemed to be the heaviest sufferer. San 
Bernardino includes the large Redlands 
orange section adjoining Riverside and it 
was declared that 90 per cent of the crop 
was ruined. In this county alone it was 
asserted that growers would lose from $9,- 
000,000 to $11,000,000. At the beginning 
of the season this year’s crop value was 
estimated at $50,000,000. According to the 
heads of the various fruit associations and 
firms, the damage done b.v the three days 
freeze will amount to nearly half the crop. 
Members of the California Fruit Growers 
Exchange met and discussed all phases of 
the calamity. Estimates of losses varied 
greatly, so that no one is able to arrive at 
actual losses. Probably 9,000 carloads of 
oranges have already been marketed, of 
which probably 2,000 were of late Valen¬ 
cias of the previous season’s reckoning. 
Prices of Farm Products. 
The U. S. Bureau of Statistics gives the 
following comparative figures: 
Jan. 
1, 3913 Jan.1, 1912 
Corn, bushel . 
$.489 
$.622 
Wheat, bushel . 
.762 
.880 
Oats, bushel . 
.732 
.451 
Barley, bushel . 
.499 
.864 
Kve, bushel . 
.638 
.827 
Buckwheat, bushel .. 
.668 
.737 
Flaxseed bushel . 
1.062 
1.871 
Potatoes, bushel .... 
.506 
.845 
Hay, ton . 
11.860 
14.850 
Cotton, pound . 
.122 
.084 
Butter, pound . 
.284 
.281 
Chickens, pound .... 
.107 
.098 
Eggs, dozen . 
.268 
.295 
Dec. 15, 3912. Dec. 
15. 1911. 
Hogs, 100 lbs. 
6.80 
5.72 
Beef cattle, 3 00 lbs.. 
5.33 
4.37 
Veal calves, 100 lbs.. 
6.88 
5.98 
Sheep, 100 lbs. 
4.21 
3.71 
Lamb, 100 lbs. 
5.70 
4.93 
Cabbage, 100 lbs. ... 
1.15 
1.83 
Apples, bushel . 
.73 
.86 
Beans, bushel . 
2.30 
2.42 
Onions, bushel . 
.84 
1.13 
(.’lover seed, bushel.. 
9.00 
10.62 
Timothy seed, bushel 
1.79 
6.72 
Alfalfa seed, bushel.. 
7.86 
. . . . 
Wool (unwashed) lb.. 
.186 
.155 
Hops, pound . 
.178 
.425 
Peanuts, pound . 
.046 
.044 
GERMAN HOUSEWIVES’ ASSOCIATION. 
Much has been printed in daily and 
other papers during the last year or two 
about the Housewives’ League in this city, 
which has given much intelligent energy to 
the problem of improved market conditions. 
We find, however, from a report submitted 
by Consul General Thackara of .Berlin, 
that German housewives started such a 
movement in 1898, and at the present time 
eastern Germany has 50 hausfrauenvereine, 
or housewives’ associations, composed of 
both city and country members. 
The most interesting activity of the 
housewives’ associations is the maintenance, 
through the medium of suborganizations, of 
market halls, known as sales places of the 
housewives’ associations. The market hall 
consists of one or more rooms centrally 
located; thither the country or producing 
members bring their goods for sale to the 
city or consuming members. They must 
pay yearly dues of $0.70 to $1.20 and 
must * agree to sell all their products 
through the hall, with certain exceptions as 
to- perishable goods or those which are very 
bulky. 
“Inferior goods may not be supplied 
under any circumstances, and may be sent 
back by 'the saleswoman,” the by-laws of 
one association provide. “Eggs must al¬ 
ways be clean and bear the stamp of the 
seller. New-laid eggs must be stamped 
with blue or black ink; older eggs with 
red ink. All other articles must also be 
stamped or otherwise marked to show their 
origin. Prepared meats, such as sausage, 
ham, etc., must be accompanied by a cer¬ 
tificate of the official meat inspector; fresh 
meat must be stamped by the local veter¬ 
inarian or the slaughter house authorities.” 
The producers or sellers set the prices 
at which the goods are sold in monthly 
meetings, which the city members are at 
liberty to attend. The prices range, as a 
rule, slightly higher than in the genex - al 
markets, but, it is claimed, the greater pur¬ 
ity and general superiority of the articles 
sold are more than an offset. 
The work of receiving and selling the 
goods at the market halls is performed by 
saleswomen, who are directed by a com¬ 
mittee of the association also charged with 
the conduct of the other business of the 
market hall. This committee usually con¬ 
sists of two city members and one country 
member. The cost of maintaining the hall, 
paying the saleswoman, etc., is met out of 
a fund consisting of 10 per cent with¬ 
drawn monthly from the gross receipts of 
the hall. The remaining 90 per cent is 
paid to the country members for their 
goods, in proportion of course as they 
have provided them. Twenty-eight mar¬ 
ket halls, maintained by 31 associations in 
East Prussia, did an aggregate business in 
3911 amounting to $171,795,, an increase 
of $23,800 over the previous year. Poul¬ 
try and poultry products were dealt in to 
the value of $50,218. including eggs to the 
value of $3 9,902. The turnover in vege¬ 
tables was $10,948, of which potatoes rep¬ 
resented $7,3 40. Fruit was dealt in to the 
value of $14,280. This business, both sell¬ 
ing and buying, was done entirely within 
the confines of the membership of the sev¬ 
eral housewives’ associations. Outsiders 
are not allowed to participate in any way. 
The object of the halls is not only to 
enable the farmers’ wives to have a ready 
market in which to dispose of their wares 
and the city wives a center in which to 
buy goods of assured value and purity, but 
also to bring the two classes, producers and 
consumers, into better mutual understand¬ 
ing. The activities of the housewives’ as¬ 
sociations are not confined to the main¬ 
tenance of the market halls. In East Prus¬ 
sia particularly they are closely in touch 
with the provincial chamber of agriculture. 
Members of housewives’ associations have 
been admitted to certain of the chamber’s 
working committees, and certain subven¬ 
tions are allowed the associations by the 
chamber out of funds which the Prussian 
Ministry of Agriculture places at the dis¬ 
posal of all chambers of agriculture for 
the promotion of that branch of industry. 
The housewives’ associations are active in 
promoting poultry breeding and vegetable 
growing among the country women, and to 
assist in this work the chamber of agricul¬ 
ture in East Prussia has placed the services 
of its traveling lecturers on horticulture 
and poultry breeding at their disposal. 
BUFFALO MARKETS. 
For the first time this season Winter is 
down upon us in full force, driving the poor 
produce market venders in from their out¬ 
door booths to their poorly-built shacks 
and making them wonder why the wretched 
handling of the new retail market buildings 
under construction at Chippewa and Wash¬ 
ington streets has been allowed to keep 
them another Winter half frozen in order 
to do business. I am sorry that the plan 
is to stall them off instead of allowing 
them to do business all in a great enclos¬ 
ure, for that would have cost less and it 
would have suited the consumer better. 
There is much more green produce in sight 
than is usual at this time of the year, for 
not only has the late Fall kept northern 
lettuce, spinach and the like growing late, 
but it has seemed to help southern crops 
also. Still 10 cents for a head of lettuce 
is too much, even if it is a small cabbage 
for size. 
A feature of the retail markets that is 
not appreciated is the fact that the ven¬ 
ders prefer to sell by the quart and the 
small measure to selling by the bushel or 
the barrel. They find of course that a big 
percentage of profit is not so easily noticed 
by the buyer. Beans at 15 cents a quart 
means $4.80 a bushel, a price that few con¬ 
sumers would be willing to pay. The 
amount of apples offered by the measure of 
one or two quarts is great. These are al¬ 
ways pushed to the front while the bushel 
and barred lots stand back to replenish the 
quart measures. I saw pretty good Oregon 
Jonathan apples offered at a cent apiece 
this week, and what I have not noticed be¬ 
fore, a lot of fine western Ben Davis apples 
selling about on a par with our best home¬ 
grown apples, which is from five cents a 
quart up. The western Ben Davis is a 
firm, crisp apple, much like the Fameuse 
group in appearance, and by no means the 
woolly lump that the Ben Davis is when 
raised at home. The rule is the other way, 
though. Our apples are not got up for 
show, but they have the firmness and 
flavor. So we do not plant the Ben Davis 
much eastward. 
Foreign fruits of the Citrus class are 
cheap, and bananas are always cheap here, 
but the reports from the Pacific coast of 
frost may put prices up. New navel oranges 
from California, the only section where this 
variety does well, are in and compete 
with the Floridas, that sell for 15 cents a 
dozen at retail. The egg market has been 
easy all through the period of molting of 
the fowls and prices now run all the way 
from 20 cents a dozen for storage to 42 
cents for guaranteed fresh-laid. The late 
cold spell iu the West has stiffened the 
market. This section does not begin to 
produce the eggs it uses, but depends on 
western shipments. New Bermuda potatoes 
have arrived, but are bought by people 
mostly to whom the high cost of living is 
merely a sentiment. Others retail at 75 
to 80 cents. Good country butter, fr'om 
the farmer direct, brings 35 cents, but is 
above 40 at retail. 
JOHX W. CHAM BERLIN. 
Calves, 9%; hogs, 10; beef cattle, local, 
eight to nine; dairy cows, $41 to $82; hay, 
baled, 85 cents per 100; straw, baled, $12 
per ton ; dressed chickens, 14 to 16 cents; 
potatoes, 85 to 90. t. h. g. 
Lansdale, Pa. 
The prices of some farm products are 
not as high as three or four weeks ago 
as regards the matter of eggs and butter. 
The present price for eggs is 25 to 26 
cents; butter, good, 25; lard, 10; cabbage, 
one-half to one cent per pound; potatoes, 
45 cents per bushel; ducks, geese and 
chickens, 10 cents; turkeys, 15 to 17. 
Wheat, $1.01 per bushel; corn, yellow, 57 
cents per 100; corn, white, 54 cents per 
100; oats, 30 * cents per bushel; rye, 55 
cents per bushel; barley, 55. Hay, No. 1 
Timothy, $11.25 per ton; mixed, $10; 
clover, $8.50 to $9. The buyer bales it on 
the place where sold, the farmer delivers 
it to the shipping station. Straw, $6.50 
baled and delivered. Hogs, heavy, 6% to 
seven; sheep, two to three; calves, seven 
to eight; cows, fat, $2 to $3.50 per 100; 
steers, fat, $3.50 to $6 per 100. Milch 
cows, $45 to $65 per head; horses, good 
drafters and fat, $175 to $225; plugs, $50 
to $60; colts, weanlings, $75 to $100. 
Monroeville, Ind. it. C. 
In this part of the country farmers are 
mostly growing corn, generally a three-year 
rotation, one year in oats and two in corn. 
The land is a rich dark prairie soil, yield¬ 
ing from 40 to 60 bushels of oats, same 
with corn, sometimes more. Not much hay 
is raised to sell; most of the hay con¬ 
sumed by the 1000 or 1200 mules employed 
in about 15 mines is mostly shipped in 
from other places, mostly from the west, 
the price for home-grown being from $18 
to $22 a ton. Farmers’ butter brings 
about 28 cents; creamery about 35 cents. 
Not many potatoes are' raised here; po¬ 
tatoes shipped in have been selling at 70 
to 75 cents; corn at the feed stores, 80 
cents a bushel; middlings, $1.60 per 3 00; 
shorts, $1.50. This is not much of a fruit 
country. Last year was the best for apples 
that I can remember, but this year there 
are none. Grapes made a full crop. Peaches 
froze out last Winter, many trees killed 
entirely. Farmers seem to be doing well.; 
nearly every one owns an automobile, even 
some of the renters have them. i\ j. n. 
4. ■ •: ,- j 
'-- ~ 
Concrete 
Poultry Houses 
To keep your chickens warm in 
winter, cool in summer, healthy 
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More eggs and better chickens are 
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are no cracks or crevices for lice. 
And concrete is quickly and easily 
cleaned. 
Build with concrete—but be sure 
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PORTLAND CEMENT 
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You need these books. 
Write to 
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WRITE FOR FREE BOOKS 
Illustrated Grinding Mill catalog and 45th 
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Dept.E 3740 Filbert St., 
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Dept. T 3709 So. Ashland 
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48 Elm St., Qulncji 1 
High 
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