HO 
The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
January 19, 1924 
Collect Nature’s Reward for 
Timely Work 
Many of the most successful farmers in 
America will tell you that their prosperity 
is largely due to the better, more timely 
work they are doing with Case tractors 
because: 
They speed up farm work. A generous 
reserve of power and unfailing depend¬ 
ability keep the Case tractor going steadily 
as fast as good work can be done, day and 
night, if need be. 
They are adapted to many kinds of 
work. Heavy plowing, seed bed prepara¬ 
tion, weed killing; the rush of harvesting; 
the grind of threshing and silo filling— 
Case tractors excel at all these operations 
because of their adaptability and unusual 
efficiency. 
You can do more, better and more timely 
work with a dependable, durable Case 
tractor. A new book ‘ ‘Modern TractorF arm¬ 
ing” tells you how. Write for it TODAY. 
AND W FOREIGN COUNTRIES. 
r<UOE MARKS REG U S RAT off _ 
J.LCASE THRESHING MACHINE COMPANY 
, ESTABLISHED IB AS 
I0EPT. N22 RACINE. WISCONSIN. 
NOTE: Our plows and harrow are NOT the 
Case plows and harrows made by 
The J. I. Case Flow Works Co, 
n 
ft* i l&L dsS&Uk 
III 
1 
mam 
Wl/I- 
DITCHER 
TERRACER 
Actually turned one flooded acre into 
this record crop payer. Makes thou¬ 
sands of dollars cash crop gains. 
Send for Free Book 
and 10 Day Freo Trial 
. Offer. Works In any 
l soil. Horses or Trae- 
Itor. AH steel, adiust- 
fable, reversible. Doesi 
’ work of 100 men. Open 
drainage,tiling or irri¬ 
gation. Lov. price. 
Owensboro Ditcher 
& Grader Co., Inc. 
Bo* 2034 Owensboro, Ky. 
When you write advertisers mention 
The Rural New- Yorker and you’ll get 
a Quick reply and a “square deal.” See 
guarantee editorial page. : i : 
S 5iH Set Onion Planter 
S aves Wor K. of 12 Men 
ONLY 
$65.00 
Makes narrow row- 
drops the sets, and 
covers,!.Plants Galdi- 
bulblets or any size 
sets. 
Pays for itself 
over and over. En¬ 
dorsed by leading 
? rowers. Write 
or folder and 
testimonials. 
S&HSet OnionTlanter Co. 
Pleasant Valley, Iowa Box C 
Put in a 
garden 
Time spent with 
a Planet Jr. seeder 
or wheel hoe in the 
garden pays the 
biggest cash return 
on the farm. Grow 
what you eat and 
keep that 400 at 
home which the Department of Agriculture says is what the 
American farm home spends out of every food dollar for “store” 
food. Planting with the Planet Jr. No. 4 combination drill and 
wheel hoe is a matter of minutes. Use the horse hoe if you will, 
the wheel hoe for closer work. 
Planet Jr. implements are made by a house specializing for 50 years on 
seeding and cultivation equipment, the largest manufacturers of field and gar¬ 
den tillage tools exclusively in the world. The new catalogue tells the story. 
Get one from your dealer or from us. 
S. L. ALLEN & CO., Inc. 
Largest Manufacturers of Specialized 
Field and Garden Tools in the World 
Look for "Planet Jr. ‘ 
Dept. 38 
5th & Glenwood Ave. 
Philadelphia 
Planet Jr. 
Crops and Farm News 
Countrywide Produce Situation 
THE DULL SEASON—WHAT MAKES THE 
PRICE-LONG RANGE FORCES-PRO¬ 
DUCTION COST AND COMPETITION. 
As usual around the turn of the year 
the produce markets are quiet and fea¬ 
tureless. Retailers are busy trying to 
clear up stocks on hand, but not buying 
much. Producers are not making effort 
to force supplies on a dull market. The 
result is a quiet situation of the kind 
which can be predicted for this time every 
year with fair certainty. It may be 
worth while to take this quiet week to 
consider some of the forces that help 
make the prices. 
EFFECTS AT LONG RANGE 
The fruit and vegetable market shares 
in the conditions which bring about infla¬ 
tion of general commodity prices in times 
of great business activity or which cause 
a general decline during periods of defla¬ 
tion and hard times. Thus, in some re¬ 
cent seasons the war-time conditions 
brought on a general upward price tend¬ 
ency which led all other market forces. 
When short crops and inflation or heavy 
crops and deflation work together in the 
same season, the effect is very marked. 
to the supply. If the early peach crop, 
for instance, includes much fruit of small 
size and poor color and worm infested, 
the price may stay low, even with mod¬ 
erate supply. If the potato crop from 
important sections is unusually rough or 
overgrown or subject to rot, the large 
supplies of doubtful stock affect the 
whole market. A crop of apples includ¬ 
ing much stock that is poorly colored on 
account of weather conditions, tends to¬ 
wards average prices lower than the vol¬ 
ume of supply warrants. In some sea¬ 
sons excessive rains and lack of sunshine 
have produced melon crops of poor, ir¬ 
regular quality, tending to check de¬ 
mand and weaken the price. A cool Sum¬ 
mer may have the same effect. 
Onion prices at times have been affect¬ 
ed by prevailing undersize stock, or poor 
shipping and keeping quality; also cab¬ 
bage, by oversize or presence of much 
partly frozen stock. Large supplies of 
any product unusually poor in quality 
or condition tend to depress the market 
for the better grades. 
Competition 
Partial absence of general competition 
may cause a product to sell very high, 
even under liberal supplies. The effect 
Homemade Lime Spreader. —One of 
the orofessors at the Michigan Agricul¬ 
tural College has sent me a picture of a 
homemade lime spreader which is being 
used in that section, and which, it seems 
to me, might readily be adopted by the 
farmers of New England. An ordinary 
cart, with high wooden wheels, is used. 
A trough for the lime is fastened at the 
back of the cart, with a long, narrow 
opening at the bottom. A hinged cover 
is made to open and shut at intervals by 
a wooden trip, which engages with pins 
driven into four boards fastened firmly 
to the rear wheels on the right side of 
the cart. It is a simple and somewhat 
crude arrangement, but entirely effective 
in its operation, and greatly reduces the 
amount of labor required for spreading 
lime. E. I. FARRINGTON. 
A striking example of the combined effect 
of deflation and heavy production was 
seen in 1920. when nearly all farm pro¬ 
ducts sank to levels far below those of 
the preceding year. 
Active business conditions, besides 
tending to a general rise in prices, have 
also a direct bearing upon the demand for 
some fruits and vegetables. There is lit¬ 
tle evidence that the demand for staples, 
like potatoes, cabbage and onions, vary 
to any great extent with business condi¬ 
tions.'but apparently there is a better de¬ 
mand for the luxury crops, including des- 
sert fruits and the salad crops, such as 
lettuce and celery. 
COST AND PRICE 
The effect of cost of production upon 
prices is somewhat indirect. The pro¬ 
ducer is forced to sell for the best price 
he can get, and the dealer or consumer 
buys as cheaply as he can, regardless of 
the cost of production, but the indirect 
result of selling below the cost of produc¬ 
tion is to discourage production the fol¬ 
lowing season, and thus bring about 
higher prices. „ „ . , 
The difference in cost of freight some¬ 
times has considerable effect on the price. 
Shippers will not market their produce, 
knowing in advance that the proceeds will 
not cover the freight bills. Hence, as 
prices decline, distant sections stop ship¬ 
ping, the supply decreases and prices 
tend to recover. For this reason, in sea¬ 
sons when the bulk of the supply is situ¬ 
ated at a great distance from the prin¬ 
cipal consuming markets, -prices tend to 
range higher than in seasons when the 
crop is abundant close to the market. 
Often toward the end of a season when 
supplies nearby are exhausted, the market 
will rise until the higher prices attract 
shipments from distant producing regions. 
SEASONAL EFFECTS 
Following the price variation of. fruits 
and vegetables over a long period of 
years, the effect of production generally 
has had more influence continuously than 
o-eneral inflation or deflation . of prices. 
The ups and downs of the fruit and veg- 
etable market from one season to another 
have corresponded rather closely with the 
ups and downs of production. 
The poor quality of the season s crop 
in main producing sections sometimes 
bring price depressions out of proportion 
of competition of similar products is 
hard to measure, although such competi¬ 
tion is frequently mentioned as partly ex¬ 
plaining the market condition. One kind 
of fruit may be substituted for another 
to a limited extent. In 1921, when most 
lines of domestic fruit were in short sup¬ 
ply, the demand was especially active and 
the prices high for the few lines that 
were in full supply including Southern 
peaches, strawberries, watermelons and 
Western boxed apples. These products 
offset, to some extent, the shortage of 
other domestic fruits. Citrus fruits, and 
imported tropical fruits, even with a 
large supply, tend to bring high prices 
if other fruits are scarce. On the other 
hand, the demand for Northern fruit, and 
the price, is usually considered to be af¬ 
fected somewhat by unusually liberal of¬ 
ferings of Florida and California oranges. 
Substitutes 
Substitution of vegetables is less no¬ 
ticeable in the markets. Tomatoes being 
on the borderline between fruits and 
vegetables are supposed to be in better 
demand when fruit is scarce. The root 
crops are substituted, one for another, 
only to a limited extent. Sometimes beets, 
carrots, turnips and parsnips are rela¬ 
tively higher than potatoes and sometimes 
lower. Many dealers assert that the de¬ 
mand for turnips increases considerably 
when potatoes are high in price and a 
similar claim is occasionally made for 
other vegetables. Even sweet potatoes 
do not move in harmony with the mar¬ 
ket for white potatoes, but often stay 
relatively lower or higher for a consider¬ 
able period. The force of habit seems to 
be stronger than temporary price consid¬ 
erations in limiting the substitution of 
such products. Special happenings, like 
railroad strikes, severe Winter storms, 
periods of cold or hot weather, constant 
demand for export, or extremely severe 
losses by freezing and decay, all affect 
the general market and the local ones 
also. G. B. F. 
Lady (to barrow man) : ^“Aren’t 
these gooseberries rather dirty?” Haw¬ 
ker : “Dirty! Dirty! Expect a bloke to 
wash ’em an’ part their ’air down the 
middle for tlirupence a pound?”—Credit 
Lost. 
