6 
•She RURAL NEW-YORKER 
.Tamiary 6, 1917. 
The Car Shortage: Order Early 
I'licro is no doubt about the car short¬ 
age and the inability of manufacturers 
to vship goods as jtroinptly as they de¬ 
sire. Whetlier this shortage i.s legiti¬ 
mate or not is a question. Whei’ever 
we go we see many idle cars standing 
empty on the side track. There may be 
some reasons for this which we do not 
understand, but at any rate the cars are 
there out of commission. Wliether tlie 
railroads are resi)onsible for the shortage 
or not, it is clearly evident that the 
manufacturers are having trouble in de¬ 
livering their goods as promptly as they 
would like to do. There may be an im¬ 
provement of the situation during the 
Spring, hut in any event a farmer who is 
wise will realize the situation and en¬ 
deavor to got around it. I’lie best way 
to do that is to order his, necdc'd goods 
as early as possible. The manufacturers 
and dealers will ship in regular, order, 
and the man who gets in ahead now will 
stand the be.st chance of having his 
goods sent early. Such things as lime, 
fertilizer, many kinds of seeds, machin¬ 
ery .and similar goods should be oiah'red 
as early as jiossible. That wouhl give 
the manufacturers an opportunity to or¬ 
ganize their work and mak<* slrpm-nt 
early so as to insure delivery. A far¬ 
mer who waits until the last moment for 
ordering goods which might w('ll be or¬ 
dered now is .sure to have trouble, for 
the car shortage is real, whatever the 
cause for it may be. Our best adv’ce is 
to order as early as possible, and thus 
get high up on the list for <iuicker de¬ 
liveries? 
Rotation for Sweet Potatoes 
Should sweet potatoes 1 e raise 1 on 
shine ground continually? If so should the 
sw<>et potato fertilizer be used? w. S. 
New .Jersey. 
This question is an old one, and like 
many others, there is no fi.xed answer. 
Thirty or 40 years ago many well-in¬ 
formed sweet potato growers planted 
sweets on the same ground year after 
year. We have one field that produced 
fine sweets this year, yet in my grand¬ 
father’s time that field was planted in 
sweet potatoes for 20 years in succession. 
Such a practice, though, is not to be rec¬ 
ommended. It might and often does work 
out all right in a nevv territory with a 
new crop, but sooner or later trouble will 
commence. The field mentioned above 
became so infested with stem-rot that my 
father found it unprofitable to plant 
sweets on it more often than once in five 
years. 
A rotation that is safe for South .Ter- 
sey condtiions is one covering four years, 
as follows; First year, early tomatoes ; 
second year, clover sod ; third year, corn 
or cantaloupes; fourth year, sweet pota¬ 
toes. This can be modified to suit local 
conditions and other crops substituted. If 
the ground is manured for corn then only 
fertilizer is required for the sweets. 
Sweet potato fertilizer is valuable, but 
should be used to .supplement the ma¬ 
nure, and not as a substitute for it. 
TRUCKEK JR. 
Cleaning Maple Syrup 
Can you tell us how to refine or clean 
a quantity of maple syrup which con¬ 
tains leaves or sticks and is not of good 
color? S. J. 
After nearly 20 years in handling the 
maple product we have not been able to 
discover any method by which a nice 
quality of maple sugar or syrup can be 
obtained from poor quality goods. The 
quality of the product is determined by 
the producer, and if he is negligent in 
his work and makes poor quality we 
know of no method of improving it. If 
it is too thin we can finish the cooking, 
or if the nitre has been left in the syrup 
that can be taken out, and its mai-ket- 
able qualities improved, but when it is 
dark and strong it will remain so. We 
secure our supplies in barrels; and we 
secure good quality by careful grading 
of the goods received, and endeavor to 
send to each customer the quality wanted. 
There is quite an extensive market for 
the poor quality at a low price, and we 
send the poor goods to those who can 
use it. The poor quality syrup and 
sugar is used by manufacturers for fla¬ 
voring other substances. We are aw’are 
that many people have the same opinion 
as your correspondent—that the poor 
goods are renovated in some way and 
made of good quality—but so far as our 
information and experience goes this 
view is an error. v. i. spear. 
Vermont. 
Boston Produce Markets 
APPLE.S IX BETTER PEMAXn A.XD CHOICE 
FRUIT .SELLING HIGHER, 
Steady improvement is shown in the 
apple market as compared with a few 
weeks ago. The Winter weather has 
cliecked supply, while demand is fairly 
active, especially for the best grade.s. and 
juices are higher on some descrijitions. 
Said Hall & Cole: “Demand is better and 
nut much excejft box ai)ples are coming 
in. 'J'hese bring 10 to 50c more than the 
sanie apples would have brought a month 
ago. ranging from 75c to .$1.25, some a 
little more. Some fancy Baldwins sell 
at $5 ])er barrel and from that down to 
$1.50 for poor stuff. We feel sure the 
ai)ple market will work out all right if 
sjjace can be had for exi>ort. The un¬ 
certainty in that direction is the worst 
feature. A few thousand barrels reject¬ 
ed and thrown on the local market would 
weaken it and recovery would take time.” 
The high nets from export have attract¬ 
ed notice in the market district. An¬ 
other firm tells of a shipment of. wind¬ 
fall Baldwins that netted $5 per bbl. 
clear, and many nets above $4 are re- 
imrted, but the exjmrt trade is considered 
risky because of the ocean freight situa¬ 
tion. Said W. W. Benjamin: “Demand 
is good and receipts light. We quote 
Baldwins, A-grade, $4; B-grade $2.75 
to $8.25. Most Greenings are poor but 
good ones bring ,$3 to $4. Tolman 
Sweets, .$2.50. Box api)les 75c to $1.25 
for Baldwins, and we have sold some as 
high as $1.75. If a man brings in a 
truck load of really choice Baldwins, 
large, clean and good color, he can de- 
])end on $1.25 per box anywhere. Such 
apples should be full, carefully packed 
and in new boxes.” 
APPLES AT AUCTION, 
Auction .sales of native apples have 
been rather few and scattering. Said 
Geo. S. Scott, a well known selling 
agent: “I do not think the auction plan 
has had a fair chance this year, becau.se 
everybody w'anted to export apjdes. Now 
that 'the pinch has come on steamer 
space, they are trying the auction plan. 
Harris, auctioneers, sold a Maine Ciirload 
Dec! 26. about 200 bbls. at a range for 
No. 1 Baldwins $8.S() to $4.10 and for 
No. 2’s $1.50 to .$2.50. Spies sold from 
$1.45 to $8.35. Greenings all showed 
decay, $1.60 to $2.05. A few Kings 
brought $8.85. Some wormy Baldwins 
sold at $2. It was a kind of coojierative 
shii)ment with several owners, and some 
had almost anything they could get into 
a barrel and hammer in, but they brought 
what they were worth. The principal 
shipi)er says he is well satisfied. I notice 
those who sell at auction have tried it 
again the second and third time. If car¬ 
loads of good and uniform fruit could 
be got together they would do well.” 
CRANBERRIES SELL SLOWLY. 
IVliile apples are doing better, cran¬ 
berries show no improvement but are 
selling slowly at $1 below early prices, 
$6 to $7 being the general range. Said 
a leading Faneuil Hall commi.ssion man : 
“The market is at a standstill. There 
is a connection between turkeys and 
cranberries. At Thanksgiving a part of 
the public concluded that turkeys were 
high and wouldn’t buy them, and that 
included cranberries. Stock has accumu¬ 
lated and the jtrice weakened until it has 
reached a point where it will take weeks 
to recover. Apples and cranberries often 
move together, but this year apples 
started low and people kept on using 
them, while cranberries started high and 
the i>ublic hesitated. That and the tur¬ 
key price is what ails the cranberry mar¬ 
ket.” There are a few pears, the good 
ones mostly from storage. Fancy Bose 
bring $5 or more per box. At the other 
extreme are native Kieffer at $1.50 to 
$2.50 per bbl. IMost of them are black 
skinned from bruises. Because this firm 
fleshed kind Avill stand rough handling 
without decay, it is often moved in bags 
or thrown about in picking and p.acking, 
but the result shows later. Frost, if 
heavy, also darkens the skin. 
POTATOES HIGHER. 
The demand is reported good for Maine 
stock, and with receijits limited by weath¬ 
er and scarcity of freight cars, the mar¬ 
ket has tended upward. Said the Bos- 
tou_ agents of the Farmers’ Union of 
Maine: “Ai'oostook potatoes are $8.50 
per 120-lb. bag at the yards. Maine 
.shippers ask $1.65 to $1.70 per bu. de¬ 
livered in Boston. There is some de- 
(Continued on i>age 10.) 
“For the Land’s Sake, use Bowker’s 
Fertilizers; they enrich the earth and 
those who till it,”— Adv. 
loneys Fruit and 
^Ornamental 
Y/ Grown in our upland nurseries (the largest in New York State), fresh 
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Our Apple, Peach, Pear, Cherry, Plum, Quince, Small Fruits 
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J. H. O’Dell, Cannelton, Ind., a well-known authority says: “Maloney 
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can have - whether he wants ten or ten thousand trees’’—Small or large 
orders Eetthesameattention.lt will pay youtosend for our free Whole¬ 
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“How to Care for Trees, Shrubs, Etc.,” sent free with catalog. 
MALONEY BROS. & WELLS CO., 39 East St., Dansville, N. Y. 
Dansville’a Pioneer Wholesale Nurseries 
Visit our iOO-acre nurseiHes 
THE BIGGEST FRUIT PROFITS 
go to growers who have learned that quality 
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Don’t be misled by absurdly low 
prices. Isn’t it safer to deal with an 
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Think about it, Mr, Grower, 
Our Catalog Y is ready. Sent free. 
ELLWANGER & BARRY ESTABi,isHED-ia40 
Mt. Hope Nurseries Rochester, N.Y. 
TREES 
APPLE 
PEACH 
PEAR 
Fnilt trees and plants of all kinds. Reliable, true to name 
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paper. 
The 
Box 8 
Barnes Brothers Nursery Company 
Yalesville, Conn. 
KELLY’S TREES 
are all high-grade, well-rooted, ma¬ 
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Our liaiidsonie 1917 Catalog goes 
into detiiil. Write for a free copy 
KELLY BROS. WHOLESALE NURSERIES 
61 Main Street, Dansville, N. Y. 
You’ll never regret planting Kelly Trees 
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