350 
TH3 EatPE&Afe NEW-YORKER 
March 8, 
Victor-Victrola XVI 
$200 
Mahogany or quartered oak 
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tor-Victrola VI, $25 Victor-Victrola IX, $50 
Oak Mahogany or oak 
Other styles $15, $40, $100, $150. Victors $10 to $100 _ 
Victor-Victrola 
Mahogany 
IHiiiSiiimiiTniiTiiirii 
J • "TTTTv' V- .V~ 
k “lilS MASTERS VOICE 
VARIOUS QUESTIONS. 
L. C. P., Charlottesville, Pa. —1. Will the 
use of tomato cans as pots to transplant 
in for tomatoes, etc., pay for the trouble 
where plenty of them can be obtained 
instead of buying three-inch pots? What 
do the three-inch pots cost and if there 
is any objection to the use of the cans 
what is the objection? 2. What crops 
are injured and what not by manure having 
shavings in it, used for bedding? 3. Is 
lime, air-slaked, injurious to compost, or 
will the earth in compost retain the am¬ 
monia as the lime breaks up the nitro¬ 
genous compounds? 4. Does everybody 
else get the same kind of seed from the 
government as those I have just returned 
to Mr. James Ilay (my Congressman) ? 
They are Moss Curled parsley, French 
Breakfast radish, Brussels' sprouts, Stone 
tomato and some very poor looking strain 
of garden corn. My father has been get¬ 
ting these same seeds with some slight 
change every decade or so, for the last 25 
years certainly. 5. Will the tarry sub¬ 
stances in the ammonia liquor from a gas 
plant, used to moisten compost, injure 
crops upon which that compost might be 
used ? 
Ans. —1. I have never found that it 
pays to take time to tinker with the 
old cans for plants when one can buy 
flower pots so cheaply. I have tried all 
sorts of substitutes and find that the 
regular standard flower pot is the best 
and cheapest in the long run. You can 
buy three-inch pots for about $4.50 to 
$5 a thousand, and smaller ones for less, 
and four-inch pots for less than a cent 
apiece by the thousand. Taken care of 
they last for many years, and even 
with the occasional breakage, they are 
the cheapest thing in which to grow 
plants. If a man’s time Is worth any¬ 
thing it certainly does not pay to spend 
it fixing cans for use. Then the paper 
flower pots are still cheaper at the start, 
but in the long run the regular earthen 
pots are cheaper than anything else. 
2- My objection to manure in which 
shavings and sawdust are used for bed¬ 
ding is that the stuff decays slowly and 
in my sandy soil damages in dry weather 
the growth of any plant, as the mate¬ 
rial causes acidity in the soil. I never 
use manure made in this way. 
3. I would never use lime in a com¬ 
post with manure and other organic 
materials, as it will certainly carbonate 
the ammonia and in that state it is vola¬ 
tile and will escape. There may be less 
loss if there is a large amount of earth 
in the compost that will absorb the am¬ 
monia. I have found it a good thing 
to mix lime with swamp muck and let 
the heap stand a year, and by that time 
the muck will be sweetened and of use 
on the soil- I have used this on can¬ 
taloupes with some addition of fertilizer 
in the hills, and had good results from 
it. 
4. The seeds sent out by Congress¬ 
men are the commonest sorts and the 
papers are so small that they amount 
to very little. For instance I have re¬ 
ceived a package containing Half-long 
Smooth beet, Curled Scotch kale, Long 
Scarlet radish and Florida Favorite 
watermelon, and on each package is the 
request “Please report the result of your 
trial to this Department.” In my case 
they will have to get the report from 
the birds, for I empty the packages out 
where the sparrows feed, as I have a 
great abundance of seed that I have 
confidence in, and have no confidence in 
the Congressional seeds, and never plant 
them. 5. I have had no experience with 
the tarry substance you mention, but I 
would assume that it will be poisonous 
to yegetation. w. f. massev. 
THE CANNER’S SIDE. 
In This R. N.-Y., on page 215, a Mary¬ 
land correspondent tells about commercial 
canning of tomatoes in bis section. He 
says the growers receive .$11 a ton for their 
tomatoes, the price having increased from 
$8 in the last two years, owing to compe¬ 
tition ; that the canner gets 70 cents a 
dozen for his canned goods, amounting to 
$24.50 a ton—estimating that a ton of to¬ 
matoes will pack 35 dozen cans—and he is 
unable to understand where the large differ¬ 
ence of $13.50 between the cost and selling 
price goes. 
The writer has had some experience both 
as a grower of tomatoes for a cannery and 
in canning them when purchased from other 
growers, and perhaps can throw some light 
upon this point which seems to trouble the 
writer of the article referred to. The mis¬ 
take he makes is in supposing that the 
cost of the tomatoes is the only item of 
expense in the manufacture of the canned 
product. If he has ever been around a 
cannery when in operation he has noticed 
quite a force of men and women at work, 
receiving and weighing the tomatoes, scald¬ 
ing, peeling, packing into cans, sealing the 
caps, cooking, labeling and boxing for ship¬ 
ment. This labor expense usually exceeds 
the cost of the tomatoes, but is not taken 
into consideration by this writer in figur¬ 
ing out the canner’s profit. Then there 
are other items of expense, such as cans, 
which cost $20 per 1000 (more if of the 
“sanitary” capping kind) ; the cases in 
which the goods are shipped, the labels, 
the fuel, gasoline, solder, and other neces¬ 
sary items of cost in turning the raw pro¬ 
duct into the packed form. The iuterest on 
the investment and depreciation of the 
plant, the only other item mentioned by 
the writer besides the cost of the tomatoes, 
amounts to little compared to some of those 
mentioned. These will reduce the difference 
stated between the buying and selling price 
two-thirds. In addition to these expenses 
the canner must pay a commission of two 
per cent to a broker for finding a buyer for 
his goods, and must also stand a discount 
of iy 2 per cent for cash payment, which 
the purchaser insists on making rather than 
take the usual terms of 30 days’ credit, and 
which the seller js quite willing to allow, 
as he needs the money in his business. 
The price paid for tomatoes, as stated 
by Mr. Merritt, is more, but the selling 
price less, than it is in this section, which 
has become a great canning section. The 
selling price for tomatoes is $8 a ton, 
and the selling price has not been less than 
75 cents a dozen cans for several years, 
and for the last two seasons has been 85 
to 00 cents. At these prices the profit 
on a dozen cans of tomatoes averages 25 
to 30 cents, and unless 10 or more car¬ 
loads are put up in a season, the result 
will hardly justify the establishing of a 
large plant as it must stand idle fully 10 
months of the year. Even when he makes 
shipment of his goods he is not sure of his 
apparent profit. His sale contract requires 
him to guarantee against leaks and swells 
and other defects in his pack, of which 
there are always more or less, caused by 
imperfect sealing of the tops, or unripe to¬ 
matoes going into the cans and causing fer¬ 
mentation. This guaranty covers a period 
of six months _ after the shipment of the 
goods, and he is sometimes called upon to 
make these defects good. Growers of to¬ 
matoes are apt to pick over their fields a 
little too thoroughly at times, and deliver 
some tomatoes not ripe enough for can¬ 
ning, although the contract specifies that 
they must be “well ripened all over, but 
not soft, ’ and in that case his tomatoes 
must be assorted or the load rejected. Not 
infrequently a canner who does not exercise 
the proper care in this respect has his ship¬ 
ment rejected on inspection, with resulting 
heavy loss. Viewing this matter from the 
double standpoint of grower and operator, 
the writer is able to state that fairness 
and square dealing is not a monopoly of 
one side. h. w. 
Missouri. 
Subduing Weeds. 
I have a patch of land which has had 
nothing on for years, except tansy. I am 
trying to subue it. The ground appears 
to be very fertile. My Intention is to 
plant it to onion sets. Will they be likely 
to do well? 
It is doubtful unless you can give the 
onions the best of care—more than would 
realy be profitable. We would “subdue” 
that field by planting corn or potatoes in 
hills and giving horse cultivation both 
ways. The onions will require much hand 
culture which will cost too much. 
When you write advertisers mention The 
B. N.-Y. and you’ll get a quick reply and a 
“square deal.” See guarantee editorial page. 
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