1602 
or should know, her city, and doubtless Mr. De Graff 
knows his territory, and each appreciates the diffi¬ 
culty that confronts their individual efforts, and not 
being familiar with these difficulties our comments 
may not be of much value. One thing, though, I 
can say pretty positively, and that is in regard to 
F. D. B.'s part in this controversy. He should be 
a grocer instead of a farmer, as there is 95 per cent 
more profit in selling a bushel of potatoes at a piofit 
of from 50 cents to $1.50 than there is in growing 
a bushel for 50 cents or less, and there have been 
hundreds of thousands of bushels sold for this figure. 
Would it not be possible for Mrs. Willcox. Mr. De 
Graff and thousands of others in different parts of 
the country to do something more than they have 
already done in their communities toward educating 
the people as they are educated in Lancaster County ? 
It may not be pleasant to deal with snobs, but why 
let that worry you? Ignore them (be as big a snob 
toward them as they are* if that appears effect i\ e) 
,and cater to the people who are intelligent enough 
to appreciate what you are trying to do. Would -it 
not be possible, now that you have made a start, to 
go to your friends and have them enlist their fiiends 
in the endless chain method, to grow a variety of 
crops, and endeavor to sell them co-operatively? 
COLLECTIVE ADVERTISING.—Instead of indi¬ 
vidual advertising, do it collectively. If you could 
reach, several influential men in the cities now 
affiliated with the grocery interests, say the bankers 
Mrs. Willcox mentions, and enlist their services, 
some kind of space could be secured for the display 
of the produce on several days of each week. Of 
course the snobs would not want to be seen carrying 
a basket, though you will always find the people who 
are really worth while do not think it anj degrada¬ 
tion to lug a couple of bundles or a basket round. 
Try to get this class interested, and the others will 
eventually follow. Here in Lancaster, on a market 
day, one can see the Chief Justice of the Supreme 
Court of Pennsylvania, an ex-Lieutenant-Governor of 
the State, the manufacturer, the merchant, the 
society woman, and on down the scale, cheei fully 
elbowing each other among the stalls, looking for a 
choice lot of produce or perhaps a bargain. 
A WELL-TRIED SYSTEM.—Some men of wisdom 
—or they may have been women—over 100 years 
ago started this method here, and each generation, 
as they grow up, know of no other method of supply¬ 
ing their wants, as there are no stores in the city 
to supply farm produce. This was tried out by a 
firm who thought the produce dealer in- the larger 
cities, and many smaller ones, too, had a very lucra¬ 
tive business. They installed a large refrigerating 
plant, and constructed everything in the most up-to- 
date manner to handle fruit and vegetables in a 
strictly fresh condition. This venture soon passed 
into history. The Lancaster housewife will simply 
not order her vegetables by ‘telephone, but prefer^ 
to go to the market and see what she buys. After 
market is ended, which is 10 a. m., there is occasion- 
, ally a surplus of eggs or potatoes, and butter that 
may not be of the highest grade, that is purchased 
by grocers (a city ordinance for the regulation of 
the markets prohibits such purchase for resale prior 
to market as forestalling) at a price that will allow 
them about two cents profit on a dozen of eggs, and 
the same on butter, with possibly 10 cents a bushel 
on potatoes. If a grocer here were to receive 50 
cents to $1.50 for selling a bushel of potatoes he 
would have nervous prostration in a minute, and 
something worse in a few hours. 
. THE GROCER’S SHARE.—The leading grocer ill 
the city sells a very large quantity of fruit each 
season for a man who is a very good grower, who 
does not care to retail it himself. This includes all 
kinds of berries, peaches and grapes. He has been 
handling this fruit on a 15 per cent commission basis, 
which is about as fair a proposition as a grower 
could wish for. Think what it would mean for all 
farm produce to be sold for 15 or even 20 per cent 
instead of 50 to 60 per cent or more! This giocei 
allows as much time on his customers’ accounts as 
they wish, within reason. 
GETTING TOGETHER.—It is very unfortunate 
that so few communities in the country have this 
method of exchange between producer and con¬ 
sumer, and to extend it now is going to require a 
lot of hard, determined effort. A fixed habit is 
indeed hard to change, and too many people are 
willing to let things go as they are after they strike a 
little opposition to some plan they know would 
benefit them. Too many think or say “What’s the 
use? Life is too short to be fighting all the time. 
Our fathers lived, and guess we can, too.” Some time 
when you feel this way just stop to deteimine if 
you are really living—or only existing. You can 
depend upon it it is not living on one per cent, the 
‘The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
scale the man lives on who so gladly relieves you of 
the responsibility of selling your produce. Those 
fellows are together everywhere (except in Lancaster 
and a few similar communities). 
DO IT YOURSELVES.—During the last Winter 
of the war I remember reading a report in one of 
the Philadelphia newspapers of a commission mer¬ 
chants’ banquet at the most aristocratic hotel in the 
city. We were all asked to cut down on food and 
other articles, though this reporter stated that there 
was no lack there, either of food, fine raiment or 
- November 1, 1919 
idea of size. This tree gave me seven bushels, and 
those shown were seven inches in circumference. 
I have just shipped the last of my apples, and the 
little place of nine acres has paid its bills, taxes 
and interest and all labor and fertilizer, seed, etc., 
and leaves me $-1 per day for every day I have put 
in since April 14. I can prove by figures that farm¬ 
ing pays, for each year since the first has shown a 
marked and steady increase in receipts. I have lost 
patience with this habit of crying down the farmer. 
Having had these 12 years’ experience I think I 
could step back into the ranks of the middle-aged 
men and tackle a bigger operation. The desire is 
strong, but the 72 years against will hold to this 
little field. There’s nothing here but good fair busi¬ 
ness farming, to be duplicated easily on thousands 
of fields in Maine. o. m. twitchell. 
Celery Paclccd for Retail Trade. Fig. 517 
jewels. Why can’t the farmers do a little of this 
get-together banqueting now, when there are no 
restrictions? Try to get the influential men who 
may be a help to the cause from the city to meet 
with you, and surely many opening wedges can be 
driven in "this larger portion of*tlie consumer’s dollar 
that you do not get now. This is something that 
you cannot pass on to “George." If you want some¬ 
thing done you will have *to pitch in and do it not 
singly or spasmodically, but all together. There is 
a commission in Philadelphia that has been working 
hard to establish curb markets in various parts of 
the city on the same plan that they are operated in 
Lancaster, and they are meeting with pretty fair 
success, though they do not have as large a per¬ 
centage of real truckers on the market as we do. 
The huckster fraternity rather predominates. They 
do seem to have plenty of buyers, or did have on the 
various times* that I have been there, but it is going 
to take some time to get -the public going to market 
as»we have them going in Lancaster. The last time 
I was by the Philadelphia market at the Brill car 
shops I asked the price of sweet corn. The best was 
selling for 25 cents per dozen ears. I then drove 
eight squares to the home of some friends, who just 
paid 60 cents per dozen. They said they were going 
to the market in future. elmer J. weaver. 
A Booster for Farming 
I HAVE never had any experience with side-hill 
fruit picking. Some manage with ladders, others 
make a platform for ladder to rest on. but this must 
be staked to prevent slipping. On page 1502 you 
Plums from Tree with Acid Phosphate. Fig. 518 
mention Baldwins dropping. Have you tried acid 
phosphate, 10 lbs. to a well grown tree? While 
mulching trees heavily and fertilizing others I have 
got good results in many ways from use of acid 
phosphate. I am confident it has checked stem rot 
in my plums. I do not prune, but after cutting out 
all shoots running into the trees I cut back the 
branches severely. Sometimes I cut a limb an inch 
through. This forces the fruit spurs back on the 
main branches and trunks. Eight pounds of acid 
phosphate per tree, set in 1909, has given me a yearly 
crop and greatly increased size and quality, as well 
as checking rot. Picking 110 bushels this year, I do 
not believe one peck rotted, while the drops were 
very few. This picture. Fig. 518, will give you an 
Pasture and Bam Notes 
A nswering advertisements.—A while ago 
we had two or three purebred heifer calves 
which we decided to sell instead of marketing some 
of our older animals. Accordingly, we put a short 
“Fore Sale” announcement in two of the agricultural 
papers. Before the ads. were published a man came 
to the farm and bought the calves. As soon as the 
papers came out inquiries, especially from the notice 
in The R. N.-Y., began to pour in to us. They came 
so fast that we could not begin to reply to them, 
and when they numbered over 50 we gave the job up. 
The other night, however, I got to looking them 
over and for the first time realized that there is a 
great difference in the inquiries which people write 
to an advertiser, and that we had answered some of 
the inquiries and not paid any attention to others 
simply because of this difference. Here is one of 
them that we did not answer: 
Dear Sir: Kindly send me breeding and price of 
cattle which you advertise in the -. Yours truly, 
Here is one that ice did: 
Dear Mr.-: We are desirous of starting a purebred 
herd of Guernseys. We would prefer buying a couple 
of bred heifers, but. so far have not found what we want. 
We may decide to get heifer calves instead if we can get 
some within our means. Kindly send us full description 
and the price of those you have for sale. Very truly 
yours. 
Now possibly the first man was just as much in¬ 
terested as the second, but in the case of the latter, 
even though the calves were sold, we took a direct 
personal interest in his case and wrote him a letter 
calculated to help him with his problem. 
SOME COST FACTORS.—All Summer we have 
been reading in the papers about various investiga¬ 
tions into the cost of milk production. The other 
uight one of our cows came into the barn in great 
distress, evidently choked on something. I ran my 
arm down her throat, clear to the shoulder, and 
pulled out a wire six inches long which was caught 
crossways of the food tube and embedded in the 
walls a couple of inches or so on each side. Natural¬ 
ly it hurt the cow terribly, and while it looks now as 
though she were going to recover from it, she went 
without eating and drinking so long that she has 
gone entirely dry. During the same week veterinary 
treatment of another cow resulted in her practically 
drying up, so as we milked the other night we 
mentally ran over the sickness and accident^ which 
have happened in our own herd in the last three or 
four months. Here are some of them: (1) A fresh 
cow caught in a barbwire fence: I’esult, partial loss 
of one quarter and big reduction in milk flow; (2) 
three cases of the fouls; result, a 50 per cent de¬ 
crease in the milk flow of the three animals; (3) 
several cases of cowpox; result, 10 or In per cent de¬ 
crease in milk flow; (4) three cases of cystic ovaries 
calling for veterinary treatment, which dried up one 
of the cows and seriously checked the milk flow of 
two others; (5) a cow choked on a wire, as related 
above. These represent just some of the chief 
troubles that have happened. In no investigation 
that I have ever read about have the losses from 
such causes been adequately brought out. 
SILO TOO BIG.—We are having an experience 
with one of our silos which may be of value to some¬ 
one who is going to build. Certainly it is of no value 
to us. This silo is an old one, built before much was 
known about silage, and has a diameter of 19 feet. 
At present writing we are feeding from it at the rate 
of about 50 bushels a day. The weather is unseason¬ 
ably warm part of the time, and as a result we have 
to throw out a lot of spoiled silage each day, and 
that which we feed the cows is of low' quality. From 
our experience with this silo and other’s, w r e aie con¬ 
vinced that a 12-foot silo is big enough for a herd of 
20 cow's or thereabouts, and that the higher it can 
be built the better. In fact, when we do get the 
money to replace this old silo that is giving us so 
much trouble we are going to figure on one 12 feet in 
diameter by 42 feet high. dairyman. 
