70 
January 10, 1920 
The RURAL. NEW-YORKER 
Crops and Farm News 
This immediate neighborhood is not a 
farming district—all factories. I have 
only two cows, a few chickens and four 
pigs. We are getting 13c per qt. for 
milk, and offered 24c for 150-lb. pigs; 
35c per lb. for live chickens. Potatoes, 
$2 per bu.; cabbage, 5 to 9c per head. 
Bran is .$3.50 per cwt.; corn, $4.50 per 
cwt. p. a. D. 
Middlesex Co., N. J. 
We buy our groceries at a “cash-and- 
carry” store, so our things cost less than 
at any other grocery in town. The reg¬ 
ular old-fashioned groceries charge some 
outlandish prices. The cash store prices 
for some staples are: Butter, 79c; 
cheese, 43c; onions, per lb., 6c; potatoes, 
bu., $2.08; flour, 24 lbs., $1.85; sugar, 
13c: navy beans, per lb., 15c; rice, per 
lb., 20c; oatmeal, loose, lb., 26c.; candled 
eggs, 88c; condensed milk, 24c. Home 
dressed pork is 20c per lb., we paying the 
fees at city slaughter-house and taking 
risk of pig being condemned. Pork chops 
sell at some butchers for 50c per lb.; 
fat backs, 20c; heads. 25c; feet, the only 
loss, being sold at 15c per lb.; sausage 
this butcher sells at 50c. We see very 
few cases of prices at which the public 
buys being reduced. mrs. p. t. w. 
Middlesex Co., N. J. 
being gouged by every seller of commodi¬ 
ties that no resentment would be aroused 
by the Christmas tree hold-up. In this 
they were wrong, but their attitude has 
caused considerable loss and much disap¬ 
pointment to people of moderate* means, 
who are the largest buyers of Christmas 
trees. Holly wreaths and standing pine 
sold at ordinary rates; mistletoe was 
scarce and high-priceu. 
Many of the later Christmas trees were 
sold at very low prices to cemetery florists, 
who cut them up and used the branches 
for covering graves. Hemlock branches 
are very extensively used for this purpose, 
and as the available hemlock became 
scarce the Christmas trees made a cheap 
substitute. These hemlock branches are 
used as protection for English ivy on 
graves, as the ivy suffers from our severe 
Winters, and also to cover the raw earth 
of new graves. A great deal of elaborate 
cemetery work is called for at Christmas. 
Holly wreaths for graves are made in 
sizes up to three feet across, and are 
heavier than the light wreaths with wire 
foundations sold for ordinary decoration. 
The wooden foundation is mossed, and 
the . holly stuck into the moss ; sometimes 
the moss is covered with green paper, so 
that it will not show through the holly. 
Large wreaths of red immortelles are 
made in the same way, the foundation 
often being covered with red paper, to en¬ 
able the immortelles to be used less sol¬ 
idly. without showing the unsightly foun¬ 
dation. Wreaths of standing pine are 
usually trimmed with red immortelles. 
Another style of decoration is a rec¬ 
tangular frame of red immortelles out¬ 
lining the full size of the grave, the center 
being filled in with holly. These frames 
are made of 6-in. scantling, mossed and 
covered like a wreath. There is an enor¬ 
mous trade in such decorations for the 
great cemeteries around New York City. 
Cut flowers at Christmas were scarce 
and high in the vicinity of New York. 
Labor shortage, the uncertain coal situa¬ 
tion. transportation difficulties and plant 
quarantine all had something to do with 
this shortage. The wet Summer caused 
an unusual amount of stem rot and other 
troubles in field-grown carnations, so that 
plantings were curtailed, and these flow¬ 
ers were exceptionally high. Orchids for 
cut-flower use will be much affected by 
the quarantine, like many other florists’ 
flowers. In spite of the many economic 
and industrial troubles now affecting the 
florists, they show their faith in their 
business by a nation-wide advertising 
campaign, with the slogan “Say It With 
Flowers.” The level-headed optimism 
with which they are uniting to meet ad¬ 
verse conditions is a good example for all 
allied industries. 
The Ohio Thrashers’ Convention 
The tenth annual convention of the 
Ohio Brotherhood of Thrashermen will be 
held at Columbus, Ohio, at the U. C. T. 
Hall, West Ooodale Street, Jan. 20 and 
21, followed by an insurance meeting on 
the 22d. This will be the greatest meet¬ 
ing of thrashers ever held in the State 
of Ohio. There will be 5,000 thrasher- 
men attending this convention. There 
will be speakers from Ohio, Indiana, Wis¬ 
consin and Illinois. This association is 
for the purpose of protecting our rights 
and to advance our interest as thrashers, 
to protect all operators of thrashing 
machinery from unfair competition; to 
build up an organization where all worthy 
members may participate in the discus¬ 
sion of those practical problems upon the 
solution of which depends our welfare 
and prosperity as thrashers: to form a 
better acquaintance with each other and 
to promote a feeling of good fellowship 
among the members. The thrashers’ or¬ 
ganization in Ohio has increased the 
morals of the thrashers 90 per cent. The 
waste of grain through the inefBeieut 
operation of thrashing machines though 
not a serious matter to the individual 
farmer, is a matter of perhaps millions 
of bushels to the nation as a whole; when 
we consider that there are six million 
farms in the United .States it is evident 
that a waste of only a bushel a set would 
be an enormous loss in the aggregate. 
A. E. FISHER, 
President. 
It was a dark night at Camp Grant. 
Footsteps of a horse were heard approach¬ 
ing. “Halt! Who’s there?” barked the 
rookie. “Regimental Commander.” “Dis¬ 
mount, Colonel, and advance to be recog¬ 
nized.” The colonel dismounted and came 
over to the rookie, who presented arms 
with a snap. “Proceed, colouel.” he said. 
As he laboriously got back on his horse 
the colonel ,*mked. “By the way, who post¬ 
ed you there?” “Oh, nobody.” replied the 
sentry. “I’m just practicing.”—American 
Legion. 
“Mbs. .Tibbs’ temper can’t be of the 
best. She complains that her husband is 
continually putting her out.” “What else 
can she expect in marrying a fireman?” 
-—Baltimore American. 
Farmers in this section are interested 
in dairying. Holstein cattle seem to be the 
choice. An old brewery at Tarrs has 
been converted into a milk condensery, 
and sends out trucks to the farms in a 
radius of 20 miles or more. Each far¬ 
mer has his cans, and all are numbered. 
The truck driver gets the full cans and 
leaves empty, clean cans. This saves a 
great deal of work for the farmer’s wife. 
The milk is tested once a week ; 3.5 per 
cent milk is $3.85 per cwt., less 25c per 
cwt. for haulage. Crops have been very 
good this year, excepting potatoes, a fail¬ 
ure. Corn was exceptionally good; the 
best in years, and sells at $1.50 to $1.75 
per bu. We had very little fruit, owing 
to the late heavy frost in the Spring. 
Prices are as follows: Country butter, 
75c to 78c; eggs, 95c to $1 per doz.; 
milk. 14c to 16c per qt., delivered : Tim¬ 
othy hay, $26 per ton; clover hay, $20; 
wheat, $2.20; potatoes are few and sell 
at $1.75 to $2 bu. D. f. w. 
Westmoreland Co., Pa. 
These are prices received in Albany: 
Turnips, $2 to $2.25 per bbl.; potatoes, 
$5.50 per bbl.; onions. $3 per bu.; car¬ 
rots. $2 to $2.50 per bbl.; cabbage. $6 per 
100 lbs.; beets, $3 per bbl.; squash. $1.50 
per bbl.; parsnips, $2.50 to $2.75 per 
bbl.; apples, $6 to $8. according to qual¬ 
ity: hay, from $25 to $30; straw. $12 to 
$14; eggs, 90c to $1; chickens, 40 to 45c 
per lb.; butter, 75c per lb. Not much 
corn or oats sold on market, as farmers 
feed it nearly all at home. Farm con¬ 
ditions are good, excepting the labor ques¬ 
tion. The average farmer cannot work 
his farm, as it ought to be because he can¬ 
not get the help, other business paying 
more wages than he can afford, and the 
average man will not work on the farm. 
Therefore the farmer does what he can 
himself and lets the rest go. The leading 
industries are general farming and gar¬ 
dening. The gardeners have a good mar¬ 
ket at Albany for their produce 
Albany Co., N. Y. ,t. h. s. 
Potatoes, $1.35; eggs, 85c; hay, $25; 
dressed pork, 22c. light: dressed pork. 
20c. heavy; butterfat. 80c, delivered at 
Buffalo; chickens. 25c per lb.: veal, 
prime, liog-dressed, 22c: buckwheat.$2.75; 
beef, light, dressed, 14c. No wheat or 
.corn raised here for market. Crops are 
quite well marketed for this year, and 
tinder the present price of labor and the 
present price of farm products the pros¬ 
pects are not very favorable. w. h. s. 
Potter Co., Pa. 
The Trade in Christmas Greens 
Last season a variety of cause* resulted 
in a shortage of Christmas trees, and as 
a natural result prices were unusually 
high, the usual 35 to 50-ceut tree retailing 
for $2 and over. This year, with the gen¬ 
eral public spending money as freely as 
though it grew on bushes, the first arri¬ 
vals of Christmas trees were priced very 
high, in some cases $6 to $10 each, al- | 
though enormous shipments were reaching i 
the city. It was soon necessary to lower 
prices, and a week before Christmas fine 
large trees were offered for $2 to $4. De¬ 
mand seemed less than usual, and two 
days before Christmas they had dropped 
to old-time prices, 35 cents to $1. On 
Christmas Eve stores and stands piled 
high with trees were actually giving them 
away, sometimes labeling them with the 
sign, “Please take one.” December 26 
dealers were paying out money to have 
them hauled away. This situation will 
bring a heavy loss to many rural shippers 
who have consigned on commission. It 
is true that the market was overstocked, 
but much of this loss is directly due to 
the greed of speculators, who believed that 
the buying public was so accustomed to 
“Happy as a Lark!”— Pete Robinson 
“I am happy as a lark now, since 
I got my Perfection Milker,” says 
Pete Robinson. “I have used two 
different kinds of milking machines 
but I find the Perfection superior to 
both. The^ construction of the teat cup, 
the manner in which it draws the milk, the 
small amount of vacuum required and the 
adjustment to suit different cows puts the 
Perfection in a class by itself. In my 
opinion there are only two classes of milking 
machines—The Perfection and all others.” 
Get Rid of Hand Milking 
Wouldn’t you be a happier man if you 
could get rid of milking by hand ? There 
are thousands of Perfection owners like 
Pete Robinson who are rid of milking 
drudgery forever. 
The Perfection and one man take the 
place of from 3 to 5 men milking by hand. 
It is so simple 
that your wife or 
daughter can easi¬ 
ly handle it. 
You too will 
be “Happy as a 
lark”, when you 1 
have a Perfection 
to help you. 
Write for Names, Addresses 
and Catalog 
Find out about the Perfection Milker. 
Why worry over the way to get the milk¬ 
ing done when the Perfection will milk for 
you and pay for Itself in the wages it saves. 
Write us and we’ll send you names and 
addresses of Perfection owners to whom 
you can write, together with a free copy of, 
“What the Dairyman Wants to Know”, 
the great hook that answers every question about 
milking machines. Why mii^ by hand ? 
Perfection Manufacturing Company 
2115 E. Hennepin Avenue Minneapolis, Minn. 
The Perfection is the Milker with the Downward Squeeze Like the Calf 
