RURAL NEW-YORKER 
9 
N. J. State Horticultural Society 
Annual Meeting at Newark 
The New .Tei'sey State Horticultural 
Society was again unfortunate in having 
most disagreeable weatlier for its forty- 
third annual meeting at Newark, the ex- 
trt'ine cold preventing many members and 
some speakers from attending. Those 
piesent, however, were well repaid, as the 
meeting was a very lively and profitable 
(im*. This year war conditions necessar¬ 
ily came to the front, and it was not. at 
all unusual to hear a g-ower say he had 
iiev«*r worked harder than d\niug the sea¬ 
son just closed, with its great shortage 
of experienced farm labor. The feeling 
was general that the New .Tersey growers 
would do all they could, but unless men 
wer»“ to be had to work tlu' farms, produc¬ 
tion must be much reduced. Monday 
afternoon was taken \ip with the reports 
of the officers present. 'I'he president be¬ 
ing absent on account of a death in his 
family, the vice-president. L. AV. Minch 
of P.ridgeton, presided. Itoth he and the 
secretary called attention to the need of 
more active members wlu^ would take 
more responsibility for the meetings and 
annual dues were suggested as a means 
of finding who they are. Attention was 
also called to the necessity of the farmers 
claiming protection in all their contracts 
with the canners. with a clause clearing 
them of responsibility of non-delivei’y _ of 
tlu'ir jtroducts if labor and transportation 
were not to be had to move them when 
rea.ly for the factory. T.arge corpora¬ 
tions have had protecting clauses in their 
contracts for year.s. and it is time nov.' for 
tl;e faimu'rs to demand the same. 
11. AV. Collingwood gave a very lively 
ai.'l timely address on the “Farmers’ flide 
of tiie Food Question.” with object lessons 
of bacon and wheat i)i‘odncts. showing in 
those .articles the farmer did not receive 
more than the well-known “.‘ko cents” of 
the consumer’s dollar. Tustead of lessen¬ 
ing the consumption of foo<l let the pro¬ 
ducer be ])aid a proner comi»ensation and 
moi- would be rais(>d. No .saving bread 
by the slic(' could compensate for taking 
farmei-s from the land, thns preventing 
tin* r:iising of wheat by the bushel. As 
it is an impossibility for the grower to 
compete in wages with industries .-(ble to 
|)ay extravagant wages, the result will 
inevitably be that many farms cannot be 
run to produce their limit. 
Tue.sday morning found a larger attend¬ 
ance ready to hear how the Providence 
mark(>t gardeners were abb* to secui'e a 
suitable market where the grower and 
consnmer could meet. They also by daily 
reports were able to call attention in the 
jiapt'rs to coming supplies, thus enabling 
tin* women to fill their cans with good ina- 
l(*rials at a reasonable cost, and also pre¬ 
vent the loss of crops by gluts- in the 
market which would not pay for the co.st 
cC withering. Clark Allis of Aledina. N. 
Y.. had a store of information along lines 
most interesting to .Ter.seymen. Telling 
how he started his orchards, he presented 
an idea new to many when he said he 
would never plant .a tree which had been 
headed back. Tattle trimming, except 
thinning until the trees reached bearing 
age. was his rnle. Another important 
point w'.as the injustice of holding a man 
responsible for fruit in packages bearing 
his name wherever found, the )irop(*r i)lace 
for insi)ection being where the fruit was 
packed and where the one repsonsible 
could he found. Allowance b.v percent:iges 
for imj)erfect fruit found in the barrel 
was also another source of trouble with 
inspectors looking for it. Coming down 
to actual war conditions, we were told 
that it was almost impossible for a pri¬ 
vate individual to get grain moved from 
a farm in Illinois to another farm in 
AA’estorn Ncav A'ork. as all such movements 
seem to be controlled by the feed associa¬ 
tions. This will in part account for the 
reports of milch cows being sold weekly 
to the butchers for laci of feed and the 
milk supply dwindling in the same pr’o- 
portion. At the afternoon session Hr. 
TTeadlee told how and when to spray for 
the apple aphis which was so prevalent 
tin* pjist season, showing the necessit.v for 
apidying the lu-oper spray at the right 
time, while the buds are still showing the 
green pfunts before the covers spread 
enough to protect the lice. Again the 
(|uery arises, how can this be done without 
efficient labor? Hr. Cook folllowed with 
a brief account of the diseases of the year 
on our crops. I‘rof. M. A. Hlake. with 
suitable pictures, showed the vital im- 
l)ortance of proper grading and i)acking 
our fruits, especiall.v peaches, if New Jer¬ 
sey is to hold its own in the open markets. 
Fntirely too man.v marks are ust*d for best 
results, and if the growers would agree to 
use uniform systems the results would be 
far better. New .Tersey “Fancy” or “Ex- 
tr.-i” should mean the same for the same 
quality and variety of fruit the State 
ov<*i*. 
I'rof. A. ,T. Farley followed with results 
obt.-tiiied in experinH*n:s with sprays and 
dusting pe.-iches, not so very different re- 
s"!ts being seen from eitiier treatment 
wliere the work was well done. Preston 
T. Iloberts of Moorestown told of the ex- 
l)eriments tried out with the dust treat¬ 
ment in one of his orchards, where the 
material seemed to have a bad effect, pre¬ 
maturing the fruit, even in the season fol¬ 
lowing. 
Prof. Blake in the evening session 
showed smne especially fine pictures of 
New .Ter.sey’s industries, from the inten¬ 
sive market gardens of North .Tersey, the 
orchards of Middlesex. Alercer and Bur¬ 
lington, the corn and asparagus and horse¬ 
radish fields of the latter, the orchards. 
Alfalfa, irrigation plants of Cumberland 
and the tomato and pumpkin industries 
of oth(>r sections of South Jersey. After 
a greeting from the State Chamber of 
Commerce by the chairman of its agricul¬ 
tural committee an experience meeting 
was held on frnit graders or sizers. These 
five-minute talks proved a pleasing break 
in the program, and many items of value 
were brought out informall.v. The printed 
questions, referi’cd to men suppo.sed to 
know what they were ask(*d iibout. 
made good openings for other pertinent 
questions. 
AA’ednesday morning AA'alter L. Minch 
of Bridgeton told.of tlieir experinients in 
growing their own seed potatoes from the 
seed held in cold storage until time to 
plant that especial variety, from the last 
of .Tune until August. This method has 
proved so satisfactory that many hundred 
bushels are now grown every year in 
.South .ler.sey in that way, giving better 
results than the higher-priced seed from 
the North. Francis (k Stokes of the 
Stokes Seed T’arm described an experi¬ 
ment that should be an incentive to a 
great improvement in selecting our seed 
potatoes. A trial plot was planted, each 
tuber by itself, and it was a most interest¬ 
ing object lesson to tliose on a farm dem¬ 
onstrator’s tour, when it was possible to 
see how worthless some potatoes proved to 
be. AVhen these poor hills were seen to¬ 
gether it was much more noticeable than 
if these poor hills were found here and 
there in the plot, as they would be in or- 
dinar.y metho<ls of planting. From the 
good liills a stock will be selected for the 
foundation of an iinprov<'<l strain for 
propagation. This method i.s worthy of 
a much wider trial in man.y sections. 
(r. A. Drew of (^onyers h'arm, Connecti¬ 
cut, gave the methods used in their or¬ 
chards in ConnecticTit. both in growing 
the orchards and marketing lu’oblems. The 
labor shortage was felt in that section, 
but they had more help from the young 
women than in most sections. Some of 
them w’ere college girls, but they went to 
their work in suitable clothes and received 
the name “farmerettes,” but the name did 
not prevent thci.i from proving their worth 
in many lines, from hoAng to picking and 
packing the fruit. Howard AV. Riley of 
Cornell Universit.v handled a very im¬ 
portant topic. “Tractors from the A'i»*w- 
point of the Mechanical Engineer,” giving 
good and weak points of different ways of 
building tractors. 
The election of officers resulted in few 
changes, L. AA’^illard Minch of liridgeton 
becoming president after serving the usual 
two years as vice-president. Prof. AT. A. 
Blake, State Horticulturist of the Experi¬ 
ment Station at New Brunswick, was 
elected vice-presidmit as a very si ,g! t 
recognition of his services to the horticul¬ 
tural interests of New .fersey. H. 
A Farna Hand in Town 
From farm work to aeroplanes is a 
long jump, yet up to seven weeks ago I 
did farm work. For seven years past I 
worked in the States of Now York, Mas¬ 
sachusetts and Vermont, and like farm 
work first-rate. Years ago one was able 
to live economically in a small town, but 
not .so t*>day. The farm pa.y has not gone 
up and the cost of living has. I can buy 
cheaper and better, even farm produce, 
right here in a city than f c.in in a small 
town. In a working week of .10 hours I 
earn three times as much is I did in the 
same number of hours on a farm. Is it 
any wonder farm help is S(*arce? Of 
course I have a trade; three, in fact, and 
in farm work I specialize in jionltry, and 
arn not over the draft age limit by -sev- 
ei al years. 
By working overtime Saturday after¬ 
noon and Sunday I earn in those two 
days of nine working hours each as much 
as in six days on a farm, and my pay 
while at farm work was from .'<170 to ,$Sy 
per month. I owe a good deal of my 
knowledge anr' training to the farm, and 
yet why siiould such o perverse comlition 
of affairs exist, when the farm is really 
the basis and foundation of our cities and 
life itself? AA’'hy do cities thrive and 
grow? ('o-operation and community ideas 
do it, and organizations. Farmers should 
organize—form communities and thus 
strengthen themselves, and in this way do 
themselves good and help their country. 
One such farmers’ organization is of more 
benefit than 10 labor unions, esi)(*cially 
such as the railroad men’s: union, c. f. 
Buffalo, N. Y, 
You want quality 
fruits quickly 
Everltody who plants fruit trees—whether for 
home orcliard or commercial purposes—is after 
the S.VIMlf results:—Quick bearing; Quality 
fruit and Quantity yield with regularity. These 
are the three cues to orchard success. 
To get these result.s YOU MUST START with the best 
strains of fruits and sturdy, vigorous rooted trees. You 
cannot afford to take chances 'with ordinary nursery 
.stock, for the sake of a few cents saving per tree now, 
when the whole result of your orchard investment, in 
land, time and care, depends on the QU.ALITY of trees 
that you plant. 
Stark City trees 
strains; and they 
to produce the results 
arc ALL of the highest grade fruit 
are propagated, trained and developed 
growers arc after. 
Results from Stark City Stock 
(tevelopnieut is murvi'lou.i." 
root 
Me.xico. 
C. TCRT.V. 
"'I'lic 
New 
“The Ciiro with which .vou 
certainly recomiiiciKl them 
UKKAKUI, Jlliiiois. 
“(ireatly plcasetl and impressed hy tlio fine roots of your 
berry plants and yonr trees. Never saw any so large and 
strong.” \V. II. S.VKGKNT, New Ifatiipshire. 
form the tops of yonr trees Will 
to experienced planters." .lOS. 
flue, well-ilcveloped trees and jjhints in 
started nowing like toncliing an elee- 
CAItUOLI.. IllinoJS. 
mnclt larger now tlia.i 
W. W. WOODRUFF, 
“I haven’t soon .sucli 
2.5 year.s. Kvery one 
trie button.” W. C. 
“Your trees started riglit o'f iind are 
.some I luive had out for tliree years.” 
I’enn.sylvania. 
Get these books, too 
“Inside Facts on Profitable Fruit Growino” is a oompleta 
iliustrated instruction book. “How to Beautify Your Homo 
Grounds” shows how to lay out and care for ornamentals, 
etc. Each 10c—but free with orders. 
that all fruit 
Both roots and bodies of Stark 
City trees are specially trained 
for this purpose 
Stark City root.s arc developed c.xtra large and heavy, 
iiy .scientific methods, aided by an ideal climate and a 
rare soil of highland limestone and grit formation. 
These heavy, wide-spreading roots have a great store of 
vitality, which enables the newly transplanted tree to 
establish itself quickly and make rapid growth. 
Stark City trees are specially trained from tlu* start, so 
that you won’t lose any time in reshaping the tops. The 
buds on the main trunks and branches arc strong and 
healthy and can be depended upon to start thrifty shoots. 
All Stark City trees are GUARANTEED 
—to reach you in prime condition. 
—to be absolutely true to name. 
—to live and make satisfactory growth. 
We sell direct from the Nursery. No agents or other 
middlemen represent ns. This insures you the genuine, 
original Stark City trees and gives you the first hand 
resiKMisihility of the Nursery. 
Let ui help you START RIGHT—services FREE 
The proprietors of the Stark City Nurseries arc nation¬ 
ally known fruit experts—men who have devoted their 
lives to this business. Their experience and advice arc 
at your service at any time, without charge. Consult us 
as often as you wish—we are interested in your success 
after you buy, as well as before. 
1918 Fruit Book FREE 
Describes best fruits, color, qualitv, ripening season— 
hardiness, growing habits. Tells 'which are the best 
varieties for your section, etc. .\pple.s, pears, peaches, 
plums, quinces, cherries, grapc.s, bush trees. Get this 
book now—write today. 
W^^RStark Nurseries 
To V/ILLIA,VI P. STARK NURSERI 
Please seucl books as eheeked: 
ES. Oox 51, Stark City, Mo. 
1 am interested in p-unting; 
191S Catalog—Free 
□ 
Approximate 
Iiumber nf 
For 
Big Markets 
□ 
“InshU* }TiT‘ts’' 
(10c unclosed) 
□ 
. trees 
For 
I.oeal Markets 
□ 
How to Reautifv 
Y'our Ifome Grounds 
□ 
JilantS 
For 
Home L'vj 
□ 
(iOc enclosed) 
Name . 
.Address 
