1913. 
'.HE RUR.A.I 
NEW-YORKER 
879 
FARM DRAMA. 
Pabt I. 
Place—150-acre truck farm, Glouces¬ 
ter, N. J. Time—June 30-July 5. 
CHARACTERS. 
Family—Trucker, Sr., owner and 
boss. Mrs. Trucker, Sr., home-maker 
and gets good meals. Trucker, Jr., part¬ 
ner and assistant boss. Mrs. Trucker, 
Jr., “the finest farmer’s wife on earth.” 
per Trucker, Jr. The Scribe. Daniel, 
Mrs. Trucker, Sr.’s assistant, handy boy. 
Day man—Arnold, strong as an ox, 
can do most anything. 
Men by month—George, 50-year-old 
chore boy. Joe, Russian, good when so¬ 
ber. Tony, Joe’s brother. No speak 
Hinglish—no drink liquor. 
Piece workers—Nicholas, Italian berry 
pickers’ boss. Imcy, his wife; pick to¬ 
matoes. 
Horses—Dandy, good as his name- 
driver, Ned—subject to colic, on diet 
of half-peck bran and little corn. Prince, 
line name but ornery as a duke. Teddy, 
string-halt, more “go” in him than T. R. 
Mike, fine draft horse. Joe, good, but 
blind. 
Monday morning dawned upon Indian 
Beach Farm with a week of work among 
the truck crops planned. The Saturday 
previous Trucker, Sr., had bought 14 
acres of fine Timothy grass at .$11 per 
acre. Last year he bought $108 worth 
from the same meadow and sold during 
the Winter and Spring $280 worth of 
hay besides saving enough to keep his 
horses and cows during the Wintei\ lie 
was so well pleased with last year’s spec¬ 
ulation that he has tried it over again. 
It was planned to get the truck cleaned 
up this week so as to be ready for the 
hay next, before tomatoes ripened in any 
quantity. 
An old berry bed of about six acres had 
been plowed and harrowed the week pre¬ 
vious. This was to be planted to late 
potatoes, so Truckers, Sr., and Jr., 
hitched Prince and Joe to a planter and 
with Nicholas and Lucy cutting the po¬ 
tatoes, started what a few years ago 
would have been a laborious job. Truck¬ 
er, Sr., had been farsighted enough to 
buy G5 baskets (%-bushel) the previous 
Fall for this purpose, at 35 cents per 
basket—quite a saving over this Spring’s 
prices. We are using the Iloosier variety 
as it has been tried out in this locality 
and grows well right through the heat of 
Summer. These potatoes will break up 
that old berry sod and leave the ground 
in prime condition for garden crops next 
year. Joe hitched Mike to the cultiva¬ 
tor and started for the cornfield. Trucker. 
Sr., had—all the text-books of agricul¬ 
ture to the contrary notwithstanding— 
set the cultivator to run deep and in ad¬ 
dition placed side plow-teeth on both the 
rear and side shanks, for Mr. Crab Grass 
had got the start of us in that cornfield, 
and we had to get it rooted out or buried 
before it got any larger. The Scribe 
with Ned hitched to another cultivator 
and Arnold and Tony following with 
hoes went for a 1^-acre plot of bush 
Limas. After cultivating a few rows, 
the Scribe looked to see how Tony was 
making out, and found him on the left 
side of the row hoeing with his back 
turned in the direction in which he was 
going. He was shown the proper way 
to hoe and thereafter was almost able to 
keep up with Arnold. After cultivating 
the beans, the Scribe cultivated the two- 
acre plot of eggplants and started in the 
peppers before the bell rang at 5.45. 
After caring for the horses and pigs 
(George, who had been cutting the weeds 
out of the onion patch where late toma¬ 
toes had been planted on every other 
row, had stopped in time to get the milk¬ 
ing done) we gathered about the supper 
table with appetites sharp enough to ap¬ 
preciate the good food which Mrs. Truck¬ 
er, Sr., had prepared for us. Arnold 
boards himself and Tony boards with 
Trucker, Jr. 
Tuesday found us starting for the field 
about 0 A. M. Trucker, Sr., and Jr., 
continued with the potato planting, but 
found it slow work, for it. was so hot 
that the horses had to be given time to 
blow after every round, and even then 
Joe gave out by noon and Mike had to 
be substituted for him in the afternoon. 
Joe kept on with his harrowing in the 
corn. Arnold and Tony continued to 
scalp sweet potatoes which they had 
started Monday after finishing the hoe- 
jng of the beans. The Scribe, after fin¬ 
ishing the cultivation of the peppers, cul¬ 
tivated the squashes and cantaloupes, and 
dicn started to cultivate a small portion 
>'f our early tomatoes which were set in 
the field rather late. These last set 
plants, as is usually the case, are the 
latest in ripening fruit. From the patch 
which was set early Nicholas and Lucy 
picked 12 baskets which the Sci'ibe took, 
with Dandy hitched to the market 
wagon, to the Chester boat. They sold 
for $1.50 for the prime and 75 cents for 
the culls. Even these early-set plants 
are not picking as they should, for nearly 
all of the crown set was lost during the 
cold weather of late Spring. 
THE SC KIBE. 
DEVELOPING A FARMERS’ MARKET. 
All over the country both producers 
and consumers are studying how they 
may get together to cut out the useless 
middleman. We must all admit that 
there are useful middlemen in business, 
for a large share of our produce is grown 
at such distance from the market that 
there must be helpers to effect a sale. 
No one can quarrel with a useful mid¬ 
dleman. The present crusade is against 
the useless middlemen, who are about 
as much use in the economy of distribu¬ 
tion as the left hand picking up potatoes 
or apples and passing them to the right 
hand to be put into the basket. Farmers’ 
markets are solving something of this 
problem. At Orange, N. J., such a 
market has been well developed. This 
city is the home of people who do busi¬ 
ness in New York. It is a commuters’ 
town ; the inhabitants produce very little 
food, yet. demand the best. The growers 
and retailers generally bought vegetables 
and fruits from the commission men in 
Newark or New York. Thus a farmer 
or trucker with headquarters near Orange 
would carry his produce to the city and 
sell it to a commission man. This com¬ 
mission man would sell it back to the 
grocer or butcher in Orange, and the 
consumer would pay not only a fair 
price for the article, but in addition the 
cost of shipping it back and forth with 
half a dozen profits to the handlers 
thrown in. Many a time the New Jersey 
farmer in Orange, hauling his load to 
the city, would pass another wagon 
hauling back from the city to Orange the 
produce which that farmer had hauled 
down the day before. This situation is 
true not only of Orange, but of prac¬ 
tically every other town in Northern 
New Jersey. 
It is stated that Chas. Lemaster, a 
member of the common council in Orange, 
figured that a farmers’ market would 
solve much of this problem, so after 
considerable work he induced the council 
to open two blocks on Main Street for 
the use of farmers. This market was 
to be open on certain days, and for a 
certain time. The theory looked right, 
and after a time such permission was 
granted, but when Ihe day came only 
one farmer appeared, and for several 
days thereafter the same thing happened, 
one solitary farmer drove his wagon to 
the market. Of course, the storekeepers 
and middlemen made much of this, as 
did other enemies of the scheme, and it 
was given up by the city authorities. 
Mr. Lemaster seems to be one of those 
persistant characters who refuse to be 
beaten. He saw the point which is true 
of every such enterprise, that any such 
proposition must be advertised and de¬ 
veloped, before it will amount to any¬ 
thing. So he went around to the farm¬ 
ers within 15 miles of Orange, and made 
a personal campaign, urging them to 
come in and use the public market. 
Then he got the council to try it once 
more. This time the middlemen did not 
seem to know about Mr. Lemaster’s 
campaign. The scheme had failed be¬ 
fore, and they felt sure it would again. 
Much to their surprise when the time 
came, they found four heavily loaded 
farm wagons lined up in the market, 
with every kind of seasonable vegetables 
for sale. Since that day wagon after 
wagon has been added to the market; 88 
farmers all obtained permission to sell 
their goods, and it is estimated that on 
Saturdays nearly 3,000 customers buy 
direct from these farmers. All they 
needed was to be assured by some one 
that the scheme was genuine and prac¬ 
tical. AA’hen this was demonstrated they 
came in at once. These farmers received 
better prices than they ever did from the 
commission men. and they have been 
wise enough to avoid holding the price of 
their produce too high. Iu some cases 
these public markets have failed be¬ 
cause the farmers demanded too much, 
but iu this case they seem to have been 
fair. 
It is estimated that householders have 
made an average having of 25 per cent, 
on all kinds of produce, while ' it is 
probable that the farmers themselves 
have made nearly as much gain over the 
former prices paid by the commission 
men. A set of rules has been drawn up 
to regulate this market. There is no 
charge for market space. The farmers 
must not sell any produce not obtained 
from their own farms. It they were to 
adopt the plan of buying and selling 
they would become peddlers, and largely 
defeat the purpose of this market scheme. 
They are not permitted to use the public 
market for the purpose of selling their 
stuff at wholesale. The object of the 
whole thing is clear, to enable farmers 
to do a retail trade in their own produce 
at fair prices. Such retail prices as 
a rule run from 20 to 25 per cent, under 
the prices charged at the stores, and 
thus far the market seems to be a suc¬ 
cess. It is run on conservative, fair 
lines, and has demonstrated several 
things which farmers may well remem¬ 
ber. In order to make such a market 
a sucees,s the farmers must grow a va¬ 
riety of produce and stay by the mar¬ 
ket through thick and thin/ not being 
easily discouraged or driven away by 
temporary low prices. They must re¬ 
member that the retailer stays in busi¬ 
ness all the year, often selling some of 
his goods at a loss. lie gets his ad¬ 
vantage because he is on the job all the 
time. Farmers must imitate him in this 
respect, and make a definite plan to 
attend the market regularly with clean, 
guaranteed goods and then sell them at 
a fair price. 
MIDDLEMEN AND PURLIC MARKETS. 
In Denver, Col., a new scheme has 
been tried by the commission men, to 
drive the gardeners and farmers away 
from the city market. The Denver Post 
states that these commission men 
threaten that if the gardeners show up at 
the new public market the commission 
men will not buy another vegetable 
from them. As most of these gardeners 
are obliged to sell some of their stock 
at wholesale, most of them were fright¬ 
ened out by this threat. The Post states 
that on one day only one grower estab¬ 
lished a stand at the city market. This 
was a woman, and one would say that 
her act speaks well for woman suffrage 
in Colorado. AVhen the market opened 
the commission produce dealers had spies 
on hand, waiting to take the name of 
any gardener who dared to sell at retail. 
These commission men realize what will 
happen if the gardeners really have a 
chance at direct selling. As the Denver 
Post states: 
"It is their practice to buy all the 
vegetables and other garden truck raised 
by the growers, forcing the latter to take 
virtually nothing for their products, the 
trust fixing the prices the commission 
men will pay. The dealers then place a 
fancy price on what they figure they 
can dispose of that day and dump the 
remainder in the river.” 
In this way both producer and con¬ 
sumer have been robbed. The city gov¬ 
ernment, however, will not stand for 
this sort of business, and they propose 
to break up this robbing combination of 
dealers. The ease is to be carried to the 
grand jury, and we hope that some of 
these robbers will get what is coming to 
them. _ 
EVENTS OF THE WEEK. 
DOMESTIC.—Edward E. Phillips, of 
Syracuse, N. Y., found guilty with othei 
labor leaders at Indianapolis of conspir¬ 
acy to transport explosives illegally, was 
liberated from the Federal penitentiary at 
Leavenworth. Ivan., July 12, on $10,000 
bonds. Phillips was received at the 
prison January 1, under sentence of a 
year and a day. 
Claiming that contract prison labor iu 
Rhode Island is slavery under the State 
constitution, and therefore forbidden by 
the United States Constitution. William 
E. Anderson, a former convict, has insti¬ 
tuted suits to recover wages at the union 
scale from the firms holding State con¬ 
tracts for which he worked while a pris¬ 
oner at Cranston, R. I. The suits arc 
directed against the Sterling Manufac¬ 
turing Company, which held the shirt 
contract up to a few months ago, when it 
was terminated by agreement, and 
against Gabriel Salant and others, who, 
it is alleged, are receiving the benefits un¬ 
der the present contract with the Cres¬ 
cent Garment Company. Anderson seeks 
$3,000 from the Sterling company and 
$1,000 from the Salants. This is stated 
to be the first time in the history of the 
country that such a question has been 
taken into court upon the particular con¬ 
ditions which arise in Rhode Island and 
in no other State because of the wording 
of the slavery provision in the State con¬ 
stitution. This particular wording is 
said to offer the opportunity for the suits. 
Investigators from the New York 
State bureau of industries and immigra¬ 
tion began July 12 to investigate the 
2,000 labor camps, housing more than 
100,000 immigrant laborers. They will 
make a thorough examination to see that 
the camps are sanitary and protected 
against fire and that the laws are com¬ 
plied with. They also will distribute 
cards telling the immigrants what to do 
if they are ill treated. 
Postmaster-General Burleson has or¬ 
dered the discontinuance of the cumber¬ 
some parcel post map as a means of de¬ 
termining rates of postage so far as the 
public and postmasters are concerned. In 
future a chart will be prepared especially 
for each unit of area showing the loca¬ 
tion of the various units from that par¬ 
ticular point. This arrangement will 
make it possible to locate a unit and de¬ 
termine the rate of postage on a parcel 
more readily. It will only be necessary 
to refer to the muni of the post office in 
tne guide to learn the number of the unit 
and then consult the special chart for 
the zone location of the unit. 
In the arrest of Manuel B. Reaser at 
New York, July 15. Post Office Inspector 
Kenyon and Pollitt say that they have 
discovered the “Lucretia” who for several 
years has been using the mails to sell 
love powders and magic charms to Croa¬ 
tian* in this country. Reaser was held 
in $1,000 bail for the Federal Grand 
Jury by United States Commissioner 
Shields. In his circulars signed “Lucre¬ 
tia” Reaser is charged with having of¬ 
fered for sale for $1 a magic ring which 
would enable its wearer to win at poker 
or corner the market. It is also charged 
that he advertised a magic knot by means 
of which the owner could bring back 
money loaned and a pocketbook which 
possessed the occult power of returning 
to its owner every dollar that he spent. 
The Panama Canal is practically com¬ 
pleted and only finishing touches and sup¬ 
plemental draining work remains to be 
done. According to the Canal Record, 
the official organ of the canal commis¬ 
sion, the canal was practically completed 
on June 27. when the spillway of Gatun 
Lake was finally closed. The lake is to 
form one of the links in the canal, and 
all that now remains, so far as the link 
is concerned, is for sufficient rains to fall 
to bring the lake level and the water 
throughout the greater length of the 
canal up to its final height of eighty-five 
feet above sea level. The water is now 
at approximately 4S feet above sea 
level, and the desired depth will be at¬ 
tained, it is calculated, not later than 
December 1, and should the rainfall in the 
meantime be above the normal it will 
be reached even sooner. As it is not in¬ 
tended to open the sluice gates again, the 
lake may may be considered to be on its 
final rise to operating level. The lake 
will have a channel 21 feet deep by Octo¬ 
ber 1, but it is not intended to permit 
the water to enter Culebra cut until the 
lake reaches a level of 78.2 feet above sea 
level, which is the height of the dike at 
Gamboa, protecting the cut from flooding 
through its north end. It is expected 
that this level will be reached about No¬ 
vember 1. 
FARM AND GARDEN.—The visit of 
the American Agricultural Commission 
to Ireland was inaugurated at Dublin 
July 12 by a reception tendered the com¬ 
missioners at the College of Science. The 
Earl of Aberdeen, the Lord-Lieutenant 
of Ireland, and the Countess attended in 
state. The Right Hon. Thomas AA’allaee 
Russell, vice-president of the Depart¬ 
ment of Agriculture and Technical In¬ 
struction for Ireland and author of sev¬ 
eral books on the land question, wel¬ 
comed the members of the commission to 
Ireland. Sir Horace Plunkett, to whose 
efforts the present favorable land condi¬ 
tions in Ireland are greatly due, after¬ 
ward received the commissioners at Plun¬ 
kett House. Sir Horace made a speech 
on co-operative work in Ireland, which, 
he said, had been obliged to surmount 
every kind of opposition which the wit of 
man could devise. The commission held 
a conference July 15 at Plunkett House. 
George Russell., editor of the Irish 
Homestead, read a paper on rural com¬ 
munities, and Lady Findall, president of 
the United Irish AA r omen’s Society, de¬ 
scribed the work of that organization. 
Dr. Kenyon Butterfield, acting president 
of the commission, expressed apprecia¬ 
tion of what the members of that body 
had learned in Ireland—that ideal co-op¬ 
eration was not a dream in that country. 
They had also learned, he said, the fun¬ 
damental division of functions betw r een 
State assistance of agriculture and volun¬ 
tary effort. 
At the last meeting of the Board of 
Trustees of Cornell University, the w'ork 
of the Department of Horticulture was 
divided between the two Departments of 
Floriculture and A’egetable Culture. Dr. 
A. C. Beal was appointed professor of 
floriculture, and Mr. Paul AA’ork will be 
in charge of the work in vegetable gar¬ 
dening. 
At the convention of the Society of 
American Florists iu Minneapolis, Prof. 
H. II. AA’hetzel, of Cornell University, 
Official Pathologist, will have on exhibi¬ 
tion an extensive collection of specimens 
and descriptive material covering plant 
diseases. The educational value of this 
exhibit was clearly demonstrated at the 
Chicago convention. The exhibit will be 
in charge of Roy C. Faulwetler. 
A meeting was called by the Missouri 
State Board of Horticulture at St. Jo¬ 
seph. July 16 to file a formal protest 
to the railroads against discriminatory 
freight rates. AA’estern fruit growers, 
according to data compiled by them, now 
are paying 25 to 100 per cent higher 
freight rates on apples than do Eastern 
growers to the same markets. The Kan¬ 
sas Agricultural College was represented 
at the meeting by Albert Dickens, head 
of the horticultural department, and 
George O. Greene, horticulturist with the 
extension division of the college. 
COMING FARMERS’ MEETINGS. 
Sixteenth annual convention of the 
Canadian Horticultural Association will 
be held at Peterboro, Ont., in August. 
Apple show and convention of the In¬ 
ternational Apple Shippers’ Association, 
Hotel Statler. Cleveland. O., August 6-8. 
AVisconsin State Horticultural Society, 
Sturgeon Bay. August 20-21. 
New York State Fair and Grand Cir¬ 
cuit Meeting, Syracuse, N. Y., September 
8-13. 
Lancaster Fair, Lancaster, Pa., Sep¬ 
tember 30-October 3. 
Vermont Corn Show, AVindsor, Vt., 
November 5-7. 
Third Indiana Apple Show, Indianapo¬ 
lis. November 5-11. 
National Grange, Annual Meeting, 
Manchester, N. II.. November 12. 
Maryland State Horticultural Society, 
Maryland Crop Improvement Association, 
Maryland Dairymen’s Association, Mary¬ 
land Beekeepers' Association, and Farm¬ 
ers' League. Baltimore. November 17-22. 
St. Mary’s Poultry Club, first annual 
show, St. Mary’s, Pa., December 18-15). 
Peninsula Horticultural Society, an¬ 
nual Winter meeting, Easton, Md., Jan¬ 
uary 13-15, 15)14. 
