15)13. 
THE RURAX. NEW-YORKER 
told me that such yarn as Grandma spun cannot be 
made here in New England to-day, because we have 
not the long staple wool such as is raised in Scotland 
or Australia. I know that it is not staple alone that 
makes the difference. A very few women still spin 
the tight strong yarn of other years, and knit stock¬ 
ings that wear for years, but that yarn is a little 
rough, and the stockings do not shine as bought ones 
do. Yet the difference in value is just as great as 
between the flimsy flannel of to-day and the good 
old homespun. Will this manufacturer spin yarns as 
strong as we want? Knit heavy stockings, and mit¬ 
tens that will keep out wind? Can he make real 
homespun of varying weights, and “army” blankets 
—not the filled fluffy sort gone in a tenth of the 
time of the old ones? And last, but not least, will 
he make us wool puffs, or the thick wool wadding 
we need? If so, we can find him a real consumers’ 
market. mrs. Helen dodd 
Vermont. 
It. N.-Y.—This refers to the statement by a manu¬ 
facturer of knit goods that he can take fair-sized 
quantities of wool direct from farmers and return 
“all-wool” goods to suit the family requirements. 
This manufacturer is fully responsible and can make 
the “old-fashioned” yarn or goods. His object is 
to see if farmers are willing to unite, lump their 
wool together, and save the cost of half a dozen 
handlers. This manufacturer is also a farmer, and 
in selling his wool to dealers was struck with the 
great difference between what they allowed the 
farmer and what they demanded of the smaller inde¬ 
pendent manufacturer. If it is desirable to add to 
the 35-cent dollar in selling farm produce it is 
equally desirable to clip the $1.75 dollar which we 
pay for necessities. Here is a chance to obtain 
somewhat more for the wool and to buy the knit 
goods at considerable saving through direct dealing. 
Of course such a manufacturer could not handle a 
lew fleeces to advantage. This is a case where mem- 
beis of a Grange or some other farm organization 
should work together and produce a good supply 
of wool. 
THE HEART OF THE APPLE COUNTRY. 
The Fruit of Wayne County, N.Y. 
Part I. 
handled earlier. Heretofore he had used bags of 
various styles and sizes hanging from one shoulder 
or both, some extending even all the way around 
a man’s waist and holding from one to 1 y 2 bushels. 
All agreed as to the disadvantage of bags. A care¬ 
less picker would let his bag bump on the rungs of 
the ladder all the way to the ground and dump it 
into a slatted crate, with the result that most of 
the apples would be dented and bruised before they 
even got out of the orchard. This had been most 
markedly the case where the picking was done “by 
From Orchard to Cold Storage. Fig. 446. 
the bushel,” not “by the day.” The New York man 
was strongly advocating the use of baskets. 
“These apples,” he was saying, “will bring 50 to 
75 cents more per barrel.” 
“But,” objected some one, “what about the extra 
cost of labor?” 
“Perhaps five cents more per barrel,” said our 
farmer. 
“And can you get men to do it? Don't most pick¬ 
ers insist on working by the bushel?” 
“Well, we had a lot of trouble that way last year. 
Men claimed they could earn $5 per day and they 
were good pickers, but we were losing more than 
we could estimate in bruised fruit. We found it 
too expensive a proposition to go on with. We are 
paying the men good wages by the day this season 
and depending partly on foreign labor.” 
Glancing around we saw on the ladders several 
sons of sunny Italy, brought up to an outdoor life 
among the vine-clad hills and olive trees, and now 
busily engaged in “picka da ap” in their adopted 
country. We learned that our host had been fort¬ 
unate in securing "good Italians,” for there are all 
degrees of goodness and badness among them just 
as there are among us Americans; that these men 
Picking From Old Apple Trees. Fig. 447. 
It is pleasant Autumn weather in the country; 
away on the far horizon the haze of October forms a 
fitting background for the orchards bending under 
their load of fruit. This season calls for strong 
men, and as the sound of the seven o’clock whistle 
comes to us from the flour mill on the creek the 
men appear. The foreman marshals his little army 
and all disappear among the bending trees. We 
follow, anxious to miss no step on this work of 
harvesting the crops, for the “back-to-the-lander” 
is ever curious, and the housewife equally interested 
in the evolution of the apple-pie. We see that the 
young Wealthy orchards have already been de¬ 
nuded of their brilliant fruit, an easy task, as the 
trees are small and for the first few years of then- 
lives carefully trained to branch out near the 
ground. There is a great advantage, the back-to-the- 
lamler is told, in being able to set your own trees, 
for as friend Solomon might have said “Train up 
a tree in the way it should grow, and when you are 
old you will not have to pick the fruit from a 40- 
tt. ladder.” Gone also are the Alexanders and the 
Pippins. Most of the early varieties were barreled 
nnd shipped to New York immediately in order to 
tak e advantage of the good prices. The work now 
is among the Greenings, and it is a Greening year. 
Out just here unusual conditions are explained to 
us. When the picking began, it was found that on 
some orchards there were practically no No. 2 ap¬ 
ples in size. This was where the spraying had been 
done thoroughly and often. But many of these large 
upples which had grown on the inside of the trees 
were defaced by fungus and scab. In the packing 
bouse this specked fruit is carefully sorted and 
barreled and marked by itself. It is of first grade 
in size and perhaps in usefulness, though it will 
not keep quite as long. It seems that fungus is 
general throughout Wayne Co. orchards, owing per¬ 
haps to wet days early in the season when there was 
no wind to shake the moisture out of the trees and 
no sun to dry them. Also the size of the apples var¬ 
ies greatly. In. orchards not a mile away from 
nnr host the barreling was in the proportion 
' 1 two barrels of second grade to every one barrel 
ol' first grade, a discouraging proposition in a year 
when prices for perfect fruit promise to be high. 
s landing near us in the orchard a group of men 
v ah a New York apple buyer in the center were 
'hseussing picking methods. Our host this Fall foi¬ 
ble first time was having his apples picked in tliree- 
fieek splint baskets just as the peaches had been 
boarded themselves, being supplied with beds, light 
and fuel, were very quiet and got on excellently with 
the other help. 
During the last two weeks we have spent much 
time riding through the “Apple-Tie Belt.” which 
here iu Wayne Co. borders the shores of old Ontario. 
Trees clean, straight, groomed like race-horses 
stretch before us in majestic rows. We pass young 
orchards whose luxuriant growth and obvious vital¬ 
ity give great promise for the future; old orchards 
where dishorning has been practiced on the sky¬ 
scrapers; veteran trees of SO years noblv bearing 
1176 
crops until the last, and whose old limbs, brittle 
with age, may fail before the next windstorm. Oc¬ 
casionally we pass an orchard of a different type 
where weeds, ■ broken limbs, signs of San Jose scale 
and little wormy apples mutely testify of the guard¬ 
ian's neglect. And we slyly poke a little fun at our 
back-to-the-lander, telling him that here one of his 
brethren must have abandoned hope and gone back 
to the city. Farther inland away from the modify¬ 
ing influence of the old lake, we find evidences of 
the dry weather which has been so prevalent. It 
has affected the size of the fruit and caused it to 
ripen a little early. Everywhere we have noticed 
comparatively few apples on the ground. This is 
the fruit which with the culls goes to the evapor¬ 
ators. 
Yesterday, we started out with the express pur¬ 
pose of studying packing methods, at least so our 
guide announced. Ilis thirst for information is 
well-known to us, his family, but not taken very 
seriously, as he says himself it may be 20 years be¬ 
fore he can buy his farm. The children piled joy¬ 
ously into the machine and we followed with a lit¬ 
tle more outward dignity, sure of a beautiful ride in 
the glowing afternoon. At first we ran across a 
number of farms where all the fruit had been sold 
“orchard run.” Everything large, small and middle- 
sized was being picked, loaded in bushel crates and 
baskets, in some cases iu barrels and hauled away. 
A large number of dealers usually appear every Fall 
to buy the fruit in this way. They have it hauled 
to the large chemical storages where later on it is 
repacked and shipped. Sometimes the fruit is sold 
on the trees, sometimes it is to be picked and de¬ 
livered by the farmer, and a large proportion of it is 
handled this way every year. It seems the simplest 
way for the man who has perhaps only 200 to 500 
barrels of apples, as transportation facilities at 
present are not adapted to his needs. 
FLORENCE M. CORNWALL. 
SOLUTION WAS TOO STRONG. 
I would like advice concerning wheat which I treated 
witli_a solution, consisting of formaldehyde one ounce 
to 4.) ounces of water, to every 2*4 bushels of wheat, 
which I sowed to the acre. It has been slow in com¬ 
ing up and very thin. About one-quarter showed in 10 
days; some keeps coming through, while some has just 
sprouted. I cannot find any that has rotted. The 
ground was in ideal condition, both for moisture and 
cultivation. Do you think the solution was too strong, 
and would cause this uneveuoss? A. w. ii 
Kent, N. Y. 
I judge that A. TV. II. made a treatment to con¬ 
trol the loose smut in wheat. If so he has made 
a mistake in using the formalin treatment. A few 
words will explain why. There are three groups of 
these smut fungi. The first group comprises the 
stinking smut of wheat, the covered smut of barley 
aiul the smut of oats, and the spores of these smuts 
are near or on the outside of the seed. These are 
controlled by the hot water, the formalin, the cup¬ 
per sulphate or the so-called Sar treatments. The 
second group comprises the loose smuts of wheat 
and barley, the fungus of which lives iu the seed. 
These are controlled by the hot water treatment 
The third group comprises the corn smut, which 
fungus lives over on the infested cornstalks in man¬ 
ure or in the field. The corn smut is controlled to 
some extent by not allowing infested manure or 
cornstalks to be placed on the field where corn is 
to be grown. 
In New York wheat is attacked by the loose smut 
only, so the proper treatment is hot water. The 
formalin treatment is used for our common oat 
smut. The inquirer’s wheat should have been treat¬ 
ed with hot water. The proportion of one ounce 
formalin to 45 ounces of water for 2% bushels of 
grain is too strong, even for treating oats. One 
ounce of formalin should be diluted with 360 ounces 
of water for every 1 9-16 to 3% bushels of grain. It 
is very likely that the seed wheat was injured with 
the formalin treatment at the strength it was used. 
The hot water treatment is described fully in 
Bulletin No. 283 of Cornell University Agricultural 
Experiment Station, Ithaca, N. Y., and in Farmer’s 
Bulletin No. 507 of the U. S. Department of Agricul¬ 
ture. Washington, D. C. The method of this treat¬ 
ment, in substance, is to soak the seed in cold water 
for four or five hours, then remove, drain, and treat 
with hot water. The usual way is to have three 
barrels, No. 1 with water kept between 115 deg. 
Fhr. and 120 deg. Flir.; No. 2 with water kept at 
133 deg. Fhr. and No. 3 is partly filled with cold 
water. A basket one-half or two-thirds full of wheat 
is lowered into barrel No. 1 for a few minutes, then 
drained, held in barrel No. 2 for 10 minutes, drained, 
and dipped into barrel No. 3 to cool the grain. It is 
absolutely necessary to keep the temperature of the 
water in barrel No. 2 between 130 deg. and 135 deg. 
Fhr. After treatment the seed when dry is ready 
to sow. l. P . s> 
