October 23, 1915. 
1264 
eral females may run with a male, but strong fer¬ 
tility is best obtained with but two females to a 
male. The laying season begins about the first of 
April and continues through till last of October; 
laying in the meantime, if properly fed, at least 100 
eggs, though frequently half as many again. In 
the wild state 50 was considered about usual 
amount. My first pearl female frequently laid two 
eggs a day. Perhaps it is unwise to make such a 
statement, but 1 assure you I am a person of truth 
and veracity, and I gain not by telling a yarn. 
Vermont. faith paddock ingrahah. 
“ More or Less” in Deed. 
I, Mr. A., buy a farm of Mr. B. for which Mr. B. 
gives me a warrantee deed of land containing 116 acres 
more or less. This farm was not surveyed at time of 
purchase on account of the linos running through woods 
which were left out at that time. Have had it surveyed 
since and to have 116 acres the lino between Mr. B. and 
myself must run above 11 acres of good hemlock timber 
which Mr. B. claims belongs on his farm, which .loins 
my farm on the east. When I looked over this farm 
before purchase Mr. B. was with me and showed me 
line fences on the northwest and south but, on the east, 
when we came to a wire fence he said : “I am not sure 
if this fence is on the line but it is about on it, as I 
am not sure where the corners are.” Now the point 
is this: lie will not give me these 11 acres of timber 
or will not settle it in any way, claiming that he sold 
me 116 acres more or less, and if it is less, it is less, 
and that is all there is to it. Mr. B. wants the line to 
inn from old corners which are on an old patent sur¬ 
vey but is not the corner of this wire fence of whicn 
Mr B was not sure, which, if run there, would leave 
me* 105 acres. Can I hold 116 acres, or must I take 
105 acres and pay for the 116 acres of which I hold 
deed? 
New York. 
HE words “more or less” and “about” are words 
of safety and precaution, and, when used in a 
deed, are intended to cover some slight or unim¬ 
portant inaccuracy, and, while enabling an adjust¬ 
ment to the imperative demands of fixed monuments, 
do not weaken or destroy the indications of distance 
and quantity when no other guides are furnished, 
and the man who sells land as containing a certain 
quantity, “more or less,” when he knows from an 
inspection of the title deed in his possession or 
otherwise that it contains a much less quantity, is 
bound in equity to make the deficiency good to the 
purchaser; and where a sale was made of land as 
containing 20 acres, though it only contained 13 
acres, which fact was not known to the purchaser, 
although it was known to one of the parties inter¬ 
ested in the sale who concealed such fact, it was 
set aside. So, in this case, if your vendor knew 
where the correct line was, and withheld the in¬ 
formation from you, and is now trying to make you 
take 105 acres instead of 116, you can compel him to 
give you the balance called for by your deed. If 
there is a dispute in regard to the division line, the 
one which would give you nearer the amount called 
for in the deed would be the one which should 
be taken. If you have not paid all of your pur¬ 
chase money, you would better settle this matter 
even to the extent of going to court to make him 
give you the proper amount of land. m. d. 
Potato Trade With South America. 
HE commerce report from the Department of 
Commerce at Washington states that tlieie is 
at present an unusual demand for potatoes in South 
America. This demand has grown out of the Euro¬ 
pean War. Formerly many potatoes were sent from 
Europe to South American markets. War condi¬ 
tions have reduced the supply and these South 
Americans must look to the United States. Before 
the war only a few potatoes* were shipped to South 
America. The European potatoes were sold for less 
money, and the shipping facilities were better. It 
is also easier for Europe to make banking connec¬ 
tion with South American countries. Many ship¬ 
pers seem to believe that the present opportunity 
for shipping from this country will last only as long 
as the war continues. It seems possible for Ameri¬ 
can potato growers and handlers to get into the 
market now with a fair chance of occupying it per¬ 
manently. The export trade begins in July; ship¬ 
ments beginning in that month arrive in South 
America when the local supply is about exhausted. 
Last year potatoes of the Green Mountain were 
most desired, but this year Early Bose and Early 
Ohio have been in demand. Medium-sized potatoes 
are chiefly wanted, and very large tubers are not 
desired. The interior markets in South America 
demand the smaller size, and during the past season 
there has been a strong demand for small potatoes 
from one inch to 1% inch in diameter. During the 
Winter these small tubers sold at good prices. This 
year, however, the demand for these little tubers 
has not been satisfactory. South Americans com¬ 
plain that a good deal of trash and scabby tubers 
the rural new-yorker 
were sent in these small potatoes, and such prac¬ 
tice will always injure a trade. It is clearly stated 
that the future of this trade rests with the grow¬ 
ers and dealers of this country rather than that of 
foreign factors. The tubers must be well graded 
and packed true to name with a constant supply. 
There is also an opportunity to supply first-class 
seed potatoes for the South American crop, if some 
one will take the matter in hand and carry it 
through. As for a package, the crate is liked best; 
barrels have been used but are not well suited to 
the conditions. The export crate largely used is 
made in two sizes. One holds 66 pounds net and 
the other 110 pounds net. The first sized crate is 
10x13%x22 1 / £ inches, the larger one 12x15x32 inches. 
The picture shown at Fig 467 illustrates the way 
these crates are made of one-half inch yellow pine 
slats with ends %-inch thick. This makes a con¬ 
venient and strong package. There is opportunity 
in this South American trade if some organization 
of growers will take hold of it, study the conditions 
and put it over properly. Arrangements must be 
made for banking and exchange with South Ameri¬ 
can countries and of course, there must be a con¬ 
stant supply with the greatest care taken to pack 
and grade perfectly. Here is an opportunity for 
the Maine growers to take up this trade, make a 
thorough study of it and handle it in a business-like 
way. They can arrange for ocean shipments right 
from Maine to South American ports. A real op¬ 
portunity is offered in this chance, and it must 
be taken up at once, or when the war is over Euro¬ 
pean growers will come back and take up the mar¬ 
ket once more. 
A Farm Cold Storage Plant. 
T HE accompanying engraving shows the farm 
cold storage plant of Mr. George Smith, who 
operates a very successful 50-acre apple and peach 
orchard near South Itiver, New Jersey. The build¬ 
ing is a four story, 3,000-barrel affair, with outside 
dimensions of 45x60 feet, constructed on a side hill, 
so as to give the advantages of a basement. This 
basement contains two cold rooms and a cooling 
room, besides a small shipping room, which com¬ 
municates with the floor above by an elevator. The 
second, or ground floor, contains two cold rooms 
and a large packing room, extending across the en¬ 
tire front of the building. In practice, the fruit 3S 
Cold Storage Building for Fruit. Fig. 468. 
brought in at the ground floor, where it is graded 
and packed, run down stairs, and either shipped 
from there or placed in the cold rooms. The third 
floor is given over to storage of noxes and similar 
material, while the fourth floor is given over to 
the ice tanks and the means of filling them. 
Built into the plant is a 400-ton icehouse, com¬ 
municating with the fourth floor by a trap-door. 
The house is cooled by a gravity brine system, whose 
operation is simplicity itself. All that is required is 
to haul the ice out of the icehouse where it has 
been cracked, using a small engine for the purpose, 
and to dump it into the tanks with the proper 
amount of salt. This is done not oftener than once 
a day, and then only when a lot of fruit is coming 
in. At other times it is not necessary to fill it so 
often. 
The icehouse has a capacity of 400 tons, and is 
filled from an artificial pond at the back of the 
plant. No insulating material is used between cakes, 
as the ice has to be cracked to go into the tanks, 
and wet sawdust would cause trouble there. Not 
only is there plenty of ice to run the plant—the 
house has never been emptied since it was built— 
but there is a surplus to sell to small dealers, which 
revenue, indeed, practically pays the cost of oper¬ 
ating the plant. 
Mr* Smith finds the plant invaluable to him in 
handling his peach crop, for it is a simple matter 
to run the fruit into a cold room for precooling; 
or to hold Saturday’s packing until Sunday night, 
when it is shipped, or even to hold the fruit a week 
or more in case of a glutted market. Of course, 
the plant was built primarily for the storage of 
apples; and from the appearance of the young or¬ 
chards which are just coming into bearing it will 
probably be well filled at the height of their pro¬ 
duction. B. L. SCIIARRING HANSEN. 
Take Care of Local Markets. 
A case is reported from Chicago, where two carloads 
of good peaches were shipped. The grower received 
word by telegraph that $18.60 were due to make up the 
shortage on freight and handling. He sent back word 
that he had no money, but would send another car of 
peaches if desired. Yet all through this thousands and 
thousands of people in town and city do not eat one 
peach where they ought to have eaten a dozen. If 
the children in New York City could only have eaten 
peaches one-half as freely as our children did on the 
farm every basket of fruit anywhere near this market 
could have promptly been disposed of. It is demoral¬ 
izing and discouraging to the growers and even worse 
than that for the consumers. One trouble always is 
that too many growers rush to dump their fruit into 
the big cities, regardless of the fact that the smaller 
towns between their farm and New York are not sup¬ 
plied with fruit. 
We had a talk last week with two young fruit men 
who told us that they send their peaches to the towns 
and cities along the southern tier of New York State, 
selling them out from the car door. They found a 
prompt sale for all their fruit at prices which ran at 
least 25 per cent, over the wholesale price in New 
York City. During August we were constantly asked 
by people in the smaller cities and towns, where they 
could buy peaches of fair quality. Their home markets 
were being neglected, as growers did not think it 
worth while to ship to these smaller markets. Peaches 
were sent to New York City and then sent back to the 
smaller towns, this double shipment resulting in in¬ 
creased cost to the consumer and of course adding to 
the loss from the fruit. The same thing is coming up 
all over the country. At the recent field meeting of 
the Connecticut Pomological Society it was reported 
that the State of Vermont could take care of 100,000 
baskets of peaches if some fair system of distribution 
could be worked out. New Hampshire can handle 
nearly as many more, while the people of Maine are 
constantly complaining that they cannot obtain fair 
quality of peaches. This home market in the smaller 
towns has been neglected by the large growers. They 
dump their fruit into the cities and thus they compete 
with each other, bring down the wholesale price, and 
make it impossible to dispose of this perishable fruit 
to advantage. Prof. Gulley of Connecticut suggested 
that the larger growers keep out of the smaller towns, 
leave that market to the smaller growers of the State, 
thus preventing too much local competition. It is evi¬ 
dent that our fruit growers must take care of the small¬ 
er markets, in order to relieve the pressure in the big 
cities and save the cost of transporting. 
In Missouri some years ago we met a man who told 
how he lived in a freight car during one entire Fall. 
There was a tremendous crop of apples, and the buyers 
were indifferent, expecting to get the fruit for nothing. 
This man had a good crop, but no way of selling ex¬ 
cept through the commission men or buyers, so he 
loaded up a car and went through the mining districts 
of Missouri, selling from the car door. He would come 
to a town of moderate size and fill the town with hand 
bills telling what he had to offer. After selling what 
he could he would move on to the next town, sell out 
and then go home for another carload. In this way he 
disposed of his crop to fine advantage, got good prices, 
made a lot of new friends and customers and found 
in these smaller towns a surprising trade, if a man 
would only go after it. He told many stories of meet¬ 
ing people who did not look as though they could buy 
a peck of apples and yet the man would pull out a 
roll of bills from his pocket and pay cash for two or 
three barrels, when he found he could get them prompt¬ 
ly and at a fair price. Our growers must learn to 
work all these plans for utilizing the local markets 
which have never yet been half cared for or half de¬ 
veloped. 
