1914. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
11^67 
A PUBLIC MARKET IN POUGHKEEPSIE, N. Y. 
T HE women of the Housewives’ League and the 
farmers of the Dutchess County Cooperative As¬ 
sociation had an enthusiastic meeting in the 
Court House, Poughkeepsie, on Thursday evening, Oc¬ 
tober 14th. The immediate reason for this particular 
meeting was the opening of a producers’ open market 
in one of the open spaces of the city during the past 
week. This departure came into action largely through 
the local members of the Housewives’ League. Local 
growers during the present season have been receiv¬ 
ing from 30 to 50 per cent, less for their produce than 
they got last year; while the housewives complained 
that they were paying more this season than a year 
ago. This resulted in a demand on the local author¬ 
ities for opportunity for farmers to display their goods 
in an open market and to sell them direct to the people. 
Farmers come with their fruit and vegetables and were 
all sold «ut long before noon. The result was repeated 
day after day for five days, and then an opposition to 
the open markets developed by the local dealers. They 
distributed printed circulars attacking the open mar¬ 
kets and advised their customers not to patronize them. 
Neither the growers nor the women wanted any local 
dispute or hard feeling; and the meeting was called 
and everybody invited in the hope that a better un¬ 
derstanding might be reached. 
The complaint from the producers’ and consumers’ 
side was that dealers insisted on wanting a level of 
prices even when the surplus was greatest and in that 
way restricted consumption of cheap products; and 
while denying the consumer the benefit of surplus 
prices, caused the goods to rot on the farmers’ hands 
because there was no demand for them commensurate 
with the supply. It was charged that because of this 
state of affairs we have hungry children in the cities, 
while the best food in the world is rotting on the 
ground within a few miles of the empty kitchens of the 
town and city. Numerous instances were quoted to 
show that the price paid the producer bore no corres¬ 
ponding relation to the price charged the consumer. 
Individual dealers in different parts of Poughkeepsie 
offered different prices for the same grade of produce, 
and there being no standard of prices, farmers refused 
to bring goods to Poughkeepsie markets unless con¬ 
tracted for in advance. This worked to the disad¬ 
vantage of the consumer. 
The dealers contended that the housewives were 
partly to blame for high prices, because they exacted 
an expensive delivery service. They also complained 
that farmers were largely to blame in not properly 
packing and grading produce for local markets. 
It was an intelligent and enthusiastic meeting, well 
represented by the three classes of producers, dis¬ 
tributors and consumers. The general consensus was 
that the cost of distribution is higher than it should 
be; and the only question of contention was the means 
by which extravagance and waste could be eliminated. 
The open market is only a temporary expedient. A 
dozen or 15 farm wagons were at the market Thursday 
morning. They had choice, fresh goods, and the women 
were buying at reasonable prices. But the open 
wagon only changed one form of extravagance for an¬ 
other. If the producers had a covered market and 
packing house combined, three men could receive all 
their goods and handle them and sell them to better 
advantage than the 15 men, teams and wagons. The 
organized cooperative market woul’l permit the farm¬ 
ers to unload their produce, and go home with their 
teams while their representatives made the sales, and 
took proper care of the goods. The need of such local 
markets and packing and grading and storing facilities 
is apparent in every village and city of the State and 
country. There is no other way to save waste and 
reduce cost. Governor Glynn provided for the organi¬ 
zation of these local associations and markets as part 
of tin- system contemplated in the new Food and Mar¬ 
kets Department. He secured an appropriation of $20,- 
000 for the initial work in organization and this work 
is now going on ; but of course the State cannot be ex¬ 
pected to provide the buildings nor the operation of the 
markets. It is probable, however, that the Land Bank 
will be in a position to assist farmers in the financing 
of the building for local market purposes. Plans are 
already under consideration for a permanent covered 
market in Poughkeepsie, and from the temper of the 
people, and the progressive spirit of both farmers and 
housewives in that vicinity, the prediction is made 
that the market will soon become a reality. J. j. n. 
WORKING OFF THE APPLE CROP. 
A LL over the country where apples are grown the 
producers are alive to the fact that they must 
exert themselves to get rid of their fruit. No 
one is going to do it for them. The cotton growers 
have troubles of their own and serious ones at that. 
There is a movement on foot urging people to buy a 
bale of cotton and thus help finance the crop. Even 
the moving picture shows have been brought into this 
campaign, and night after night throughout the large 
cities pictures are shown of the growing of the cotton 
crop and the great need of selling the vast quantity now 
on hand. Those of us who grow apples must make a 
similar personal and popular campaign in order to get 
rid of our fruit. Foreign shipments will be cut off to 
a great extent, but there are people enough in this 
country to eat every apple we can grow and look 
around for more, if we can let them know about the 
fruit. The South offers a great opportunity in this 
line. Some of the Southern storekeepers are waking 
up to the fact. Here, for instance is an advertisement 
which appears in a local paper printed in Georgia: 
In that country apples are almost a novelty, and 
WANTED 
2,000 SCHOOL CHILDREN 45 SCHOOL TEACHERS 
5,000 HOUSEKEEPERS 
To know where they can buy’Fresh Fruits for 
lunches at the following - Prices: 
Concord Grapes (just received) 
3 lb.25c Basket 
Tokay Grapes (big purple ones).15c Pound 
Oranges (sweet and juicy).3<>c Dozen 
Oranges (sweet and juicy).35c Dozen 
Grape Fruit (large).15c Each 
Big variety of Virginia Cooking and 
Eating Apples. 40c to 50c Peck 
Native Pecans.20c to 50e Pound 
Bartlett Pears (Fine Flavor).25c Dozen 
Fresh Shipments Received Daily. 
6 PARKER ST., Back of Phoenix Hotel, PHONE 141 
WILLIAMS COMMISSION CO. 
rarely eaten by the common people. They ought to 
be eaten more freely than bananas or oranges and they 
would be, if our growers would wake up, and like the 
Western apple men, stand ready to give a fair share 
of their crop for the purposes of advertising. We 
must not only resort to advertising but to song and 
story as well in order to get rid of our fruit. The 
Rochester people announce apple day with its demand 
that every one who lives anywhere near that city shall 
eat apples and eat many of them too. There will be 
BARRELS OF ROSIN AND TURPENTINE. 
speeches and stories and songs in addition to apples 
and among others the following song is announced: 
Seems like I’m crazy for apples— 
Been without any so long: 
Now that it’s time for the fruit to be prime. 
Say, I just burst into song. 
Other fruit’s good in its season. 
But. ah. how I welcome the Fall, 
That part of the year when the apples are here 
The bulliest fruit of them all. 
There’s a tang to the taste of an apple, 
A zest like the keen Autumn breeze, 
With a savor that’s won from the smile of the sun 
When it ripened the fruit on the trees. 
Oh, I’ve hungered and thirsted for apples, 
With the appetite keen of a boy. 
And the season which brings in this viand of kings 
For me is a reason of joy. 
For Autumn means rosy-cheeked apples. 
And apples mean cider and pie. 
And dumplings and such which you can’ praise 
too much. 
No matter how hard you may try 
So here’s to his Highness the Apple. 
Who comes with the crispness of Fall. 
When my palate’s a thrill as I take in my fill 
Of the bulliest fruit of them all! 
No one seems to have fitted a tune to it yet, but that 
is a small matter in a campaign like this. The point 
is for every man who has apples for sale this year to 
grade them properly, put only the best on the market 
and talk apples and sing apples and eat apples wher¬ 
ever he goes, whether indoors or out. That is the way 
to move popular thought, and nothing except popular 
thought can get rid of our fruit this year. 
Pine Tree Products. 
HE picture shows turpentine and rosin just un¬ 
loaded at New York from a Savannah steamer. 
There were about (100 barrels of turpentine and 
300 of rosin in the lot. The rosin is in the long irregu¬ 
lar shaped barrels, which are made of rough material 
and can be used but once. 
New York State News. 
ANY NEW GRANGES. New York lias organ¬ 
ized 30 new Granges during the year ending 
September 30. The tottil number organized the 
country over is 490, and 2S have been reorgan¬ 
ized. There has been a great growth in membership in 
the West, as we find that Kansas has OS new Granges, 
Nebraska 57. Ohio 55. Washington 2S, and North 
Dakota 20. In the East, Pennsylvania leads, with 38 
new and seven reorganized Granges. 
IIOW THE LAW WORKS.—The new compensation 
law is being “operated” diligently these days but there 
is no hope of the Commission ever catching up with 
their work. The law has been in operation now three 
months and about 4.000 cases have been settled out of 
18,000 claims filed. If the same rate of progress con¬ 
tinues, the end of the year will find 10.000 claims dis¬ 
posed of and 04,000 still pending. 
PROF. FLICK ADDRESSES HOLSTEIN MEN. 
—The IIolstein-Friesian Club of Syracuse at its recent 
smoker given at a Syracuse hotel, heard Prof. A. C. 
Flick of Syracuse University on the effect of the Euro¬ 
pean War on the Holstein industry of Holland. After 
discussing the war at length, he declared that America, 
not Holland, would be the center of the Holstein in¬ 
dustry in the future. He believes that Holland will 
have to send all its cattle to the block to keep up the 
food supply. A committee from the IIolstein-Friesian 
Club of New York was present and discussed means 
for getting larger returns in the milk business. It is 
the. plan of the committee to get in touch with the 
Dairymen’s League and the Housewives’ League, in re¬ 
gard to this matter. 
FRUIT GROWING THAT PAYS.—Last week the 
writer visited the fruit farm of A. Jansen in Ulster 
County. It is not a large farm, only about 1,200 
trees in the apple orchards, but it is exceeding profit¬ 
able. Last year lie marketed 2.500 barrels but this 
year the crop will not exceed half that number. We 
found Mr. Jansen and his men running the sorter on 
a lot of McIntosh Reds that were sold at $4 per bar¬ 
rel ; this vvhen_ most growers are wondering how 
they can get $1.50 for their crop. This latter price is 
what Mr. Jansen gets for windfalls. He doesn’t believe 
in sending windfalls to the cider mill when the assort¬ 
ed jruit. scarcely differing from the picked, will bring 
$1.50. He does not sell windfalls as picked fruit, but 
labels the barrels in large letters WINDFALLS, and 
the consumer knows he is getting windfalls. Last year 
McIntosh sold for $6 in New York, so did Spys, and 
Baldwins brought $7 or more. Perhaps we haven’t the 
full secret of these top-notcli prices and a little better, 
but we have one secret, namely that Mr. Jansen has 
shipped to the same commission house in New York 
for 20 years, and it takes all the fruit he can raise. 
The commission man knows precisely what be is get¬ 
ting when he reads the Jansen labels and so do the 
customers, the consumers, in the city. It is chiefly this 
that enables Mr. Jansen to get about $1 per barrel 
more than the market price for this choice fruit. The 
new packing and grading law doesn't trouble him in 
the least. He has been doing the very thing the law 
requires for years. He says the law is all right and 
will bring to account those men who have been ac¬ 
customed to use a stove pipe in the middle of the bar¬ 
rel while packing. Those growers who favor culti¬ 
vation of orchards will not find much here to support 
their theory. Here are hundreds of trees, set 17 years 
ago. through and between which no plow has been 
driven in 12 years. These trees are averaging seven 
barrels, some running as high as 11 barrels, to the 
tree - . J. w. D. 
The New York Apple Crop. 
T HE apple market so far has been decidedly slow. 
Warm weather early in October also has re¬ 
acted on many Wayne growers. Ordinarily all cars 
can be shipped without icing, but from reports in 
some parts of the county there would have been a gain 
in using cooled cars. Some dealers report that they 
are unable to dispose of any stock at $1.75 per barrel. 
Under these conditions not all of them are anxious 
to buy for early delivery. A large number of growers 
are not disposed to move on the market at the present 
quotations, and are placing their fruit either in cold or 
common storage. It is thought by many that when 
the plethora of undersized, inferior fruit is taken care 
of there will he much more of a chance for the better 
grades of fruit. One grower stated that he knew of a 
deal for seven cars at $2.25 per barrel. He averred 
that it was quite likely the next few days would see 
him buying for future selling. 
The Wayne County Cold Storage and Ice Company 
has been incorporated at Newark. The amount of the 
capital stock is $125,(XX). divided into 1.250 shares of 
$100 each. The Lyons Cold Storage Company has 
about completed its plant, which is of reinforced con¬ 
crete and terra cotta tile. It is three stories high, 
without A basement. The first floor contains the of¬ 
fice, receiving room and engine room, with a storage 1 
capacity of 12,000 barrels, packing room and two eleva¬ 
tors on the same floor. On the second floor is a stor¬ 
age room with a capacity of 15.000 barrels and a pack¬ 
ing room; the third floor is given over to storage en¬ 
tirely, holding 17.000 barrels and making a total capa¬ 
city of 44,000 barrels for the plant. Some fruit is 
already coming in. The plant was built by*the Voshall- 
Percy Company; the machinery was installed by the 
Frick Construction Company. Work was started on 
the plant about the middle of June. The total cost 
will he $i 0,000. The directors of the company are 
Charles Coffey, N. A. Mestler, E. W. Hamm, S. B. 
Gavitt and C. W. Barrick. 
The War and Commerce. 
URING the first 10 days of October New York 
sent to European ports 2.600,000 bushels of wheat, 
500,000 of corn. 530,000 of oats. 10,000 tons of 
flour and 26.000 tons of raw sugar. 
The Department of State has ruled that private 
citizens of the United States can sell army supplies 
to any of the warring nations of Europe without vio¬ 
lation of neutrality. Of course such goods would be 
contraband and liable to seizure by an enemy on the 
sea. War expeditions fitted out in our ports or on 
land, are contrary to law. 
A Pennsylvania concern has an order for 50,000 
stretchers from Europe for removing wounded from the 
field, delivery to be made at the rate of 1.000 per week. 
One peculiar result of the war is the failure of the 
Brazil Railway Co., which has been forced into re¬ 
ceivership on complaint of stockholders. The Brazil 
Railway and subsidiary corporations is capitalized at 
$71,000,000, with debts said to exceed $118,000,000. 
Great Britain embargo on wool shipments promises 
to make a slight increase in prices here, perhaps one 
cent per pound or more on specially desired varieties. 
Boston, the greatest wool market in this country, now 
has about 50.000.000 pounds in storage, on which 
$500,000 or more will be made by speculators. We 
produce about half the quantity of wool used here, and 
there will he practically no further supplies brought 
in until Spring, when the clip from Australia and other 
South Temperate Zone points will be on hand. The 
first lots may reach Boston in January. The outlook 
is for lower prices then, as Europe’s manufacturing 
demand is so small. Sales of domestic wool at Boston 
are ranging from 1!) to 26 cents. Some three-eighths 
blood Ohio has brought 28 cents; delaine unwashed, 22 
to 24; and Montana, 19 to 22. 
