The Rural New-Yorker 
The Business Farmer’s Paper 
Vol. LXXIY. NEW YORK. SEPTEMBER 4. 1015. • No. 4342. 
Weekly, One Dollar Per Year 
Postpaid 
Single Copies, Five Cents 
Published by 
The Rural Publishing Co. 
333 W. 30th Street 
New York 
A Hudson River Apple Exhibit. 
Make the Most of This Favored Section. 
WO years ago we told how J. A. Hepworth of 
Milton, N. Y., captured most of the prizes for 
fine apples at the fruit shows. Hepworth is one of 
those men who believe in “coming back” and so, 
hist Winter, at the fruit meeting in Poughkeepsie, 
he put up about the largest and finest display of 
apples ever made by an individual grower in New 
York. When a man is known as a mighty hunter 
he has his picture taken alongside some good speci¬ 
men of game. The “sport” or athlete introduces 
himself into a picture of some of the medals or 
cups he has won. Why then should not the prize 
apple grower get in front of the camera when his 
fruit is shown? So here we have Mr. Hepworth 
and his two sons pictured with their fruit exhibit. 
These apples are fair samples of hundreds of bar¬ 
rels which go into the market and carry joy and 
good eating into the homes of consumers. Some 
apples are good to look at, but there they stop, for 
when you bite into them you are reminded of bees¬ 
wax and sawdust. These Hudson River Valley ap¬ 
ples are not only good to look at but they are better 
to eat. Put a pan of them into a pantry and shut 
the door for an hour or so. When you open the 
door once more there will burst upon you a fra¬ 
grance that would put a flower garden to shame. 
These apples are like sandalwood—they give off 
their fragrance continuously and yet never seem to 
lose the power to do so. As for quality, if this 
European war could he ended through good nature 
or neighborly feeling, there would he only one way 
to do it. Put a bunch of the rulers and leaders to¬ 
gether in a room with a pan of Hudson River Bald¬ 
wins. Spitzenburgs and Northern Spys. If that will 
not make men forget their troubles and differences 
they are stamped in too deep for human agencies 
to remove! 
But speaking seriously, the fruit growers in the 
Hudson Valley do not fully realize what Nature has 
done for them. Perhaps they think Nature has done 
so much that it is not necessary for man to do any 
more. The fact is that on the sunny hills which 
slope down to the Hudson. Nature has provided 
the soil and climate conditions which permit cer¬ 
tain varieties of apples to grow to perfection in 
color and flavor. There can he no question about 
that. There are a few favored spots on earth where 
certain fruits grow to perfection. Other sections 
may excel them in yield or in the production of 
what we may call pie fruit, but these few favored 
spots are unapproachable for the production of high 
quality dessert fruit. The water shed of the Hud¬ 
son Valley is one of these spots. Most of those who 
live in this valley know it, but only a few men like 
Mr. Hepworth have fully grasped the idea that con¬ 
sumers must be “shown,” and that man must make 
himself the advertising agent for Nature. 
The Hudson Valley men need a Publicity League 
which shall make a business of proving to the world 
that the great quartette of apples which these hills 
produce give the best specimens of fruit that any 
market can show. You may call this a large con¬ 
tract. and so it is, but a large contract is better than 
a small one when you have the goods to deliver. 
There can he no doubt that the apple business is 
now coming to a period when any profit more than 
ordinary must come, if at all. from growing fine 
fruit, packing it well and advertising it thoroughly. 
Other sections may sell pie fruit and make money 
by doing so, but the Hudson Valley growers should 
not he satisfied with anything short of dessert trade. 
Small Fruits and Truck Farming in St. 
Lawrence County, N. Y. 
T. LAWRENCE County is famous as a great dairy 
county, and few farmers think it is possible to 
succeed there except by tying up with the cow. This 
means close companionship for 12 months in the 
year. Now and then a farmer supplements his in¬ 
come from the dairy by growing cash crops, such 
as potatoes, cabbage and turnips, but very few have 
believed it possible to succeed with small fruits 
and garden truck. Occasionally small fruits are 
grown for home use, or for nearby markets on a 
small scale, but thousands of dollars’ worth are 
shipped into the county each year from Western 
New York. 
It did my heart good recently to find a farmer 
who had shaken himself loose from the accustomed 
trend and struck out on a new path. Mr. W. F. 
Kingsley is a native of the north woods, a trapper, 
hunter and guide, in his early years. When this 
business waned he drifted into farming and for sev¬ 
eral years rented dairy farms. His hunting spirit, 
however, chafed at the continual tie-up with the 
cow and he longed for some business that would 
give him liberty in the late Fall and Winter. This 
he saw in the growing of small fruits and truck, 
and so he bought an old farm that had formerly 
belonged to his grandmother but which had been 
neglected for many years. 
The location of the farm Mr. Kingsley felt was 
favorable for the business he wanted to develop, as 
it lay about midway between three thriving villages, 
and within a mile of a shipping station to the pros¬ 
perous city of Malone. The fact that the farm lay 
on top of a ridge, with several fields sloping to the 
east, he felt would be a protection from late Spring 
frosts, and this, together with a stony soil, has 
proven an advantage against frost injury. The soil 
of Mr. Kingsley’s farm is gravelly loam and natur¬ 
ally dry, hut the owner assured me he had no 
trouble in conserving plenty of water for crop 
growth if he began cultivation early in the Spring 
and thus conserved the water left from the heavy 
snows. In fact cultivation, he assured me, is his 
one great dependence for both water and plant food. 
By plowing under an occasional crop of weeds, 
grown when the land is otherwise idle, he is able, 
with a very little fertilizer, to keep up a vigorous 
plant growth. This year he proposes to sow early 
in August, on several fields, Hairy vetch and rye 
for plowing under early in the Spring. 
The feature that interested me most about Mr. 
Kingsley's work was his study of varieties, and the 
fact that the home selection of seeds and plants 
had become his practice. This plan was adopted 
after several failures with market seeds. Our sea¬ 
sons are short, and certain hardiness and “hustle” 
must become developed in all our crops, except those 
long established in northern climes, if thrift and 
fruitage are to be expected. For example, the 
early Golden Bantam sweet corn from local seed 
will withstand hardship, and be a week or more 
