1038 
B75c RURAL NEW-YORKER 
cojiipletoly f-lieckod the natural circulation of air in 
the car. with the re.'^ult that the products arrived 
at tlieir destination in a itracticall.v worthless con¬ 
dition. This man's experience cost liiin tlie ditTer- 
ci:ce hetween the selling pi-ice of the car. with 
freight chai'ges to he still deducted, and $1.dS0. the 
market value of a properlj- loaded car arriving at 
llie .same time. 
CArsE.'^ OF DAMAOE.—Failure to .stow and 
iii'aci* ears ju’operl.v results in serious damage in 
fully twenty-live ]>er cent of the cars shii)ped. Load¬ 
ers tail t<t considei' the tremendous power in hack 
of twenty to thirt.v thousand pounds of fruits or 
vegei.ahh's. .V ver.v slight sjjace left hetween each 
paekage lengthwise of the car is sufiicient to Avreek 
the entire eontent.s. This is es))ecially true where the 
containers are made of light thin materials. Dam¬ 
ages to ('alifornia ])eaches, ])lums, grapes, etc,, re¬ 
sulting from the comhination of weak ])ackages. ]»oor 
loading and hracing. and rough handling in ti’ansit 
amounted to more than one-half million dollars dur¬ 
ing litIT. Practically every car of these fruits that 
arrived on the Eastern markets last year showed 
.'^(‘rions damage due to smashed loads. The Cali¬ 
fornia citrus growers, on the other hand, have so 
standardized their method of loading that it is the 
exceiition to find hadl.v damaged packages upon 
unloading their cars. All of the newer agricultural 
sections g(i through a ])eriod of development in 
which they purchase exj^erionce at a high jirice. The 
Eloi-ida growers are as a cla.ss ahout the jioorest car- 
loadei's in the country. Thi.s is due in a large 
mea.sui'e to lack of organization among a groat many 
of the growers, and the consequent lack of uniformity 
in methods. 'Phe railroads, through their freight 
1 radio dei)artmonts. are now endeavoring to .sjiread 
the gos]iel .tf better methods among the more back¬ 
ward growfM’s. and the results are already becoming 
apparent. 
POOP PEFKDJEPATIOX.—Much loss also results 
from the failui’e of gj-owers to refrigerate.their jirod- 
ucts. Certain ci-o])s may he shipped during the 
cooler pei'iods of the year without artificial refrigera¬ 
tion. dependence heing placed upon the maintenance 
of the ]iro)»e]- temperature by regulation of the 
ventilators. Late in the season Southern growers 
fre(|uently lake a chance that their cars of produce 
will .strike C(jo] weather o)i their Iri]! to tlu' Xoi-thern 
markets. 
FKEEZIXC IX TKAXSIT.—Another veiw serious 
soni-ce of h-.ss which is not so readily controlled, is 
freezing in tninsit. The Health Department of Xcav 
lork city re])orts that over .$.‘!()0,000 worth of fresh 
fi'uits :ind vegetables weye dumped by their depart- 
Jiient oi’ dnmi)ed h.y ownei's or consignees because of 
their frozen and eon.sequently worthle.ss condition 
during the month of .laimary, 15)1 S. The.se tigures 
include about six million pounds of potatoe.s, and 
.SIX million iiounds of onions, one million three hun- 
died and fifty thousand pounds .of gr.aiK'.s, two inii- 
lion pounds of citrus fruits, and about three million 
• Itounds of miscellaneous fruits and vegetables, all 
of which were thrown away in Xew York city 
alone. These figures apply only to ]»roducts that 
were rendered worthless by freezing. Thousands of 
cars of Xorthwestern apples, California vegetables 
and other products from various localities were also 
damaged to an extent that greatly reduced their 
market value, hut did not neccs.'-aidly render them 
unfit for food. D.-image of this character is occa- 
sioped by unfavoi-ahle weatlnw conditions, .-uid is 
to a l:)r,ge extent he.vond the control of the growers 
i'lid shi]i]iers. exce])t for certain precautions which 
the.A' should alwa.vs <»hserv(‘. Tlu! following sueges- 
^ tions. if adhered to, should reduce the probable loss 
from freezing in transit to a minimi; u : 
L Frost .'sensitive products should not be shipiied 
in uninsulated cars during cold weathei-. 
2. Heaters must be provided for very .sensitive 
jiroducts during extremely cold weather. These 
must be regulated and attended to by a messenger, 
if necessar.v. to prevent overheating which ma.v easily 
yause as much damage as freezin,g. 
T False floors or racks jiroviding a space of sev¬ 
eral inches between the floor of the car and the 
bottom of the load, will help to jirevent freezing b.v 
insuring a free and constant circulation of air. 
These false floors in refiagerator cars .should be 
slatted to iiermit the air to circulate readily through 
the packages in all parts of the load. Hacks of this 
type are now being installed liy many of the rail¬ 
roads as a permanent part of their refrigerator car 
equipment. 
4. Potato cars .'Should lie provided with false 
walls as well as a .<olid false floor, thus establishing 
a space for air to circulate all around the load. 
Potatoes are particularly .sensitive, and will even be 
damaged by exposui'e to tenqier.Mture slightly above 
the freezing point, and for this reason reipiire spe¬ 
cial protection. iMany consignments of potatoes 
reached Xew York city during last ^Yinter■s cold 
s])ells in ordinary uninsulated box cars, without the 
slightest ])i'otection against freezing. Xeedless to 
s:.y tli(‘ ma.joi-ity of these were ruined or very badly 
damaged. m.muv n. williams. 
What Our Farmers Want 
I AIM a reader of Ttif. K. X.-Y. :ind know yon are 
doing a noble work for the a.griculturist and 
dairyman, and in tliis way foi- ail hum.-inity. Y<mr 
Uitrifilits Should I‘'i1 HqHtirclii Ao'ohh Ends 
(if Eiich'iiijcs. Fit). o21 
Domafic From the Use of Rotten or Defective 
Bracing. Fig. 522 
I'onest.v and lighting policies, trying to obtain more 
<4 the ho-cent dollar for the producer, where it is 
sorely needed to build up and encoui-age agriculture 
and dairying, is. I assure you. greatly ajiprociated by 
the farmers and rur.-il folks of this .section. I have 
just read the article in the Augu.st 17 issue, fir.st 
page, entitled “Efticiency in ^larketing," and I ivish 
every loyal Americ.-tn could read it and sense its 
meaning and the effect it would have on the country 
by putting such a system into pnictice. 
If our distributing system of food production (and 
other things as well) could onl.v be reorganized into 
a system, whereby all unnecessary middlemen are 
eliminated, thus distributing food products most 
direct from producer to the consumer, paying the 
1 loducer and necessary middleman a fair profit and 
giving the consumer a fair exchange for his mone.v, 
this reform would wurK oue of the greatest bless- 
Septonihor 7, 101S 
ings which not only we but future .generations 
should greatly apiireciate and enjoy. 
It .seems to me that the system of disfibution now 
in operation has a .great tendency to deteriorate the 
.soils of our country and has a demoralizing effect 
on the farmer and dairyman. I am working my 
<iairy farm where I have lived for the past 15 years 
.' 11(1 have the deed granted from the original patent 
to my great-grandfather, and the farm has always 
been owned since by some of his descendants. I have 
Cl ine to the conclusion that some of the things we 
as farmers and dairymen want are these: 
Head and study more, so as to be better able to 
better our condition, ."^taiid by The H. X.-Y. by read¬ 
ing every issue, if we have to read by lamplight after 
the da.v's work is done. I believe it is our true and 
lone.st friend. 
Send our best and most fit farmers to our Legis¬ 
lature that we ma.v be reiiresented by men who have 
the best interests of humanity at heart. Every As¬ 
sembly and Senate district should h.ai’e such a can¬ 
didate to vote for this Fall. 
Fight for a distributin,g .sy.stem that ivill convey 
food products most direct from the producer to the 
consumer. 
Stick to the Dairymen's League and light; fight 
to have it organized as .lolin .1. Dillon sets forth 
on page 1)2.‘{. under the heading. “AVhat Does Dillon 
Want?’’ This article tells ju.st what we farmers 
and dairymen do want, and an.v dairyman who I'eads 
it .should know that it is hone.st, fair and absolutely 
ri.gbt. I believe the League can bo righted if every 
dairyman will get back of it and tight. ‘'Eternal 
vigilance is the jirice of liberty,” and liberty and 
bettei- conditions are what we want and must hav(\ 
Heforms come only when the people are educated 
to them, and truly this world should be made by 
man ((Jod is doing his jiart) “a better place to live 
in." We have the great natural resources in this 
.great country and world, and if the intelligence of 
man can be directed along the ri.ght channels of 
tliou.ght and progre.ssion, then this old world will be 
trjily a better place to live in eternally and forever. 
Allegany Do., X. Y. c. x. iiammoxu. 
New Grainfield Hired Man 
I T was con.'^idered a long stei) from Cyrus Mc¬ 
Cormick's machine, which lirst cut grain for the 
Virginia farmer, to the machine which would also 
lun the grain over a belt, through a device, and drop 
the as.sembled sheaves ready tied for the shock out 
on the opposite side. The next great stej) has bei'ii 
taken in the recent completion of the machine shock¬ 
er, which was successfully used by more than a 
thousand farmers durin.g the 11)1S harvest season, 
so that its actual results may be estimated upon its 
record. 
4'he accompanying illustration. Fig. 520, shows 
two reapers and binders bein.g drawn behind it ^rac- 
t(jr, reaiiing. binding and autdmatically shocking at 
the rate of 50 acres of heavy grain i)er day. (>ne 
man had, in all, 15i) acres of grain this year, and 
with the aid of this device attiichod to his reaper 
was able to handle all the crop ivithout hired help, 
whereas last .season, without the machine, it reipiired 
two men to shock the grain. 
Another farmer, whose land does not lie as lei el, 
being gently sloping, harvested 100 acres of grain 
'.vlth the aid of .a man to follow the I'eaper and help 
set up those which failed to stand on the sloping 
ground. The machine is best .‘ulaiued to land which 
lies well, as no machine can Ix' expected to stand 
grain automatically on a .sidi' hill. The great i'd- 
'•antage <»f the shocker device is that it shocks the 
grain as fast as it is harvested. Shocked under 
the.se conditions, grain is not so apt to be .spoiled bj’ 
rains, which, linked with the fact that it shells off 
grain less than hand .shocking, is a material saving 
to the farmer. 
The shocker may be set either for a shock of 
.'■even, ei.ght, nine, 10 or 11-bundle shocks, according 
to the size of the bundles. The.se bundles, it has 
been demonstrated, will shed water, with a free cir- 
(.Illation of air. Instead of capping ivith a bundle, 
the top is tied with twine, but this added expense 
is more than compensated for because of the Labor 
saving. 
The shocker is attached just behind the binder, 
being carried on a low-wheeled truck, which may be 
raised or lowered, to provide space for the bundles, 
according to the hei.ght of the grain. When suffi¬ 
cient number of Imndles have been tlropped into the 
fingers of the shocker, it autonuuically trips itself, 
opens the 'oottoms of the bundles, closes the tops to¬ 
gether, ties them together, and sets the shock into 
I-luce ou the ground. kakle w. caoe. 
