996 
‘Ibe RURAL NEW-YORKER 
July 12, 1924 
Crops and Farm News 
L— . - ■ ■ . . 
Farming Both Ends of the 
Country 
I have a eon, a dentist, who wants to 
locate in I* lorida, to produce citrus fruits 
of various kinds. He does well at his 
profession, but does not think it is health¬ 
ful ; wants to get out in the open. He is 
country born _ and bred, has worked on 
farms, and will not be an entire novice, 
f\ e would like to see some experiences In 
The R. N.-Y. of those New .Jersey peo¬ 
ple who farm in Jersey in Summer and 
in Florida in Winter. How do they do 
it? What lines do they follow? What 
becomes of their Northern farms in Win¬ 
ter, and of their Southern farm stock, 
etc., in Summer. j. e. k. 
Cincinnati, O. 
We would all like to see how people 
succeeed in farming both ends of the 
country. We doubt if it can be done 
successfully unless one has a large fam¬ 
ily. We know of cases where elderly men 
leave their Northern farms in early Fall 
and go to Florida, where they plant a 
crop of potatoes or other vegetables— 
staying with it until April, when they 
come back north. In most cases these 
men leave the northern farm in the care 
of their boys or some good tenant. There 
are some cases where a man can put in a 
crop of strawberries at the North, culti¬ 
vate them well through the Summer, put 
them under mulch in November, and then 
close the farm for the Winter. In that 
event he can go South and grow a crop 
of potatoes or harvest a crop of fruit— 
coming back in time to pick the berries 
on the northern farm. We shall, no 
doubt, hear from people who are doing 
something of this sort, but most of the 
men who undertake to “farm both ends 
of the country” have good-sized families, 
some members of which remain on the 
farm during the Winter. Of course it is 
necessary to have some responsible per¬ 
son in charge of the Florida land during 
the Summer, especially if there is an 
orange grove on it. In fact, this idea of 
“farming both ends of the country" is a 
very pretty theory, but hard to work out 
in fact, unless there be a large family so 
that both ends may be occupied at once. 
Countrywide Situation 
SEASON MAKING UP FOR LOST TIME— 
FLOODS OF SOUTHERN PEACHES AND 
CANTALOUPES •— THE GEORGIA MELON 
DISPUTE-KING APPLE—THE WORLD AS 
AN APPLE EATER-WHERE THE BIG 
CROPS GO-TEN YEARS OF CHANGE— 
GOOD PROSPECTS FOR “CONSUMERS’ 
LEAGUE.” 
Warm weather the last half of June 
brought along the Summer rush all at 
once. It is rather a good year after all, 
to judge by the more hopeful tone from 
the producing regions and by heavy vol¬ 
ume of shipments. Wheat is looking bet¬ 
ter. Corn is making up for lost time. 
Farmers are rushing in a big hay crop 
along the southern half of the dairy coun¬ 
try. Cotton is slow and weedy, but im¬ 
proving. Fruit is late, but abundant in 
the East. It was one of the biggest ber¬ 
ry crops on record. Northwestern apples 
may not be over half a crop, and that les¬ 
sens the danger of over-supply on ac¬ 
count of a sizable crop in the East and 
Middle West. 
Markets are swamped with Southern 
peaches, with some breaking down of 
prices. Growers are not happy over their 
$1 to $1.50 per bu. If they had thrown 
away rhe poorest half of their crop they 
might be better off. The usual flood of 
California cantaloupes hit the markets 
•this month. The Japanese have been 
ousted from the Western cantaloupe coun¬ 
try, but the crop is as large as ever and 
the pi'oducers get only 3 or 4c for them. 
The melon season dropped a stitch when 
some Georgia veterinarian insisted on 
stopping Florida melons at the State line 
for fear of cattle ticks in the packing ma¬ 
terial. Plenty of Southern oratory was 
let loose-over the wires, but finally the 
railroads stepped in with a guarantee to 
stand the damage, if any. 
KING APPLE 
King Apple is a big chap, with red 
cheeks and yellow hair. His suit, it must 
be conceded, looks very much like a bar¬ 
rel. His hat resembles a bushel basket, 
and liis shoes are decidedly of the West¬ 
ern box-toe design; not a pretentious 
monarch, but very popular. His royal 
chariot is, of course, a freight car, al¬ 
though he rides sometimes on a motor 
truck. The center and stronghold of the 
apple kingdom is America. The United 
States is the home of the commercial ap¬ 
ple. This country raises two or three 
apples to every one that is grown by the 
rest of the world. We k«ep nine out of 
every 10 we raise, yet we sell sometimes 
to England as many as she raises in her 
own orchards, and we send millions of 
bushels to Northern Europe, South Amer¬ 
ica, Canada, Cuba, China and the Phil¬ 
ippines. The bright red juicy American 
apple may be bought almost anywhere in 
season. 
NATION OF APPLE EATERS 
It is by no means an accident that the 
United States is a leading apple country. 
Apple production and marketing is a 
measure of a shipper’s intelligence and, 
on the other hand, the liberal eating of 
apples means more health, intelligence 
and prospei’ity. Rating people according 
to apple consumption, the average Amer¬ 
ican stands at the head, eating from two 
to four apples a week. The Englishman 
eats one or two a week, the rest of the 
world far less, while many countries are 
just beginning to know the luxury and 
health value of a good apple. 
In our own markets, apples lead every¬ 
thing else among what may be called the 
luxury foods. We eat a half dozen pounds 
of apples to every 1 or 2 lbs. of oranges 
and grapefruit, or peaches, and an occa¬ 
sional pear or plum, a handful of straw¬ 
berries or a small bunch of grapes. Of 
course we use more potatoes than apples, 
two to one, but vegetables in general are 
out of the running, beside the popular 
apple. 
» Out of every bushel we raise, the city 
and country, each class, takes about half. 
tober come the standard Winter kinds 
which make up two-thirds of the apple 
crop. 
CHANGES OF TEN YEARS 
Among the great changes in the apple 
industry in the past 10 years the follow¬ 
ing stand out: 
The development of the fancy Western 
boxed apple. 
The growth of commercial orcharding, 
with its systematic large scale operations. 
The dying out tendency of small farm 
orchards, owing to new pests and dis¬ 
eases, hard Winters, old age and neglect. 
Gold storage has almost superseded 
common storage for commercial purposes. 
East season nearly one-third of the mar¬ 
ket crop -was in cold storage at the height 
of the season. 
In short, the apple orchard is no longer 
a half-neglected annex to the farm fields 
and pastures, but has become a great, 
nation-wide, extensive industry, a main¬ 
stay of prosperity in a dozen State, and 
indispensable to the prosperity of hun¬ 
dreds of thousands of people, and to the 
health of many millions more throughout 
the world. 
It will be a good year for the apple 
crop, with plenty of opportunity for the 
average citizen to bring his share nearer 
to the apple-a-day that qualifies for mem¬ 
bership in the Apple Consumers’ League 
of loyal subjects of King Apple. G. B. F. 
Various Market Questions 
1. In speaking of tons of produce, such 
as hay, feed, etc., without any qualifica¬ 
tion, what is a ton? 2. On what basis 
are market quotations given? That is, at 
what point do the quotations apply? New 
There are many “picture 
cows” among the Hol- 
steins. The black and 
white is often distributed 
over their hide so as to 
make curious combina¬ 
tions. We have seen the 
profile of a man’s face 
clearly brought out in 
black, and many objects 
are painted in this way. 
The cow in the picture, 
as we see. has a heart 
painted in black on her 
left side. We never saw 
anything exactly like it 
before. 
York quotations f. o. b. New York or 
shipping point? If f. o. b. destination, 
does shipper assume all risk in transit? 
3. Is any produce business conducted on 
f. o. b. shipping point basis? 4. Can you 
furnish lists of approved dealers? 5. 
Does the shipper or the receiver estab¬ 
lish the grade of produce? I\ F. C. 
Monroe Co., N. Y. 
1. A ton of produce is ordinarily con¬ 
sidered 2,000 lbs., unless a “long ton” is 
specified. In that case 2,240 lbs. would 
be meant. 
2. New York market quotations are 
the prices received for what are consid¬ 
ered wholesale quantities, in stores, or 
raliroad yards or docks adjacent. The 
transportation company assumes respon¬ 
sibility to the extent specified in the 
bill of lading, though collection of dam¬ 
ages, even under conditions where the 
shipper apparently has a clear case, may 
be slow and difficult. 
3. Large quantities of farm products 
are bought in the fields by dealers who 
have men going about for this purpose. 
Some concerns start with the earliest 
Florida crops, and their buyers gradually 
work up through Georgia and the Caro- 
linas. The amount of this done in North¬ 
ern States depends on how much pro¬ 
duce is available in any section, and 
whether the growers care to do business 
in that way. New York concerns also 
have buyers in the far Western or coast 
States during seasons of special crops. 
4. New York State publishes a list of 
licensed and bonded commission men, 
which may be had from the Department 
of Farms and Markets, Albany, N. Y r . 
5. Associations and many individual 
shippers establish grades recognized by 
receivers, because found to be dependable. 
Of course, the quality and condition of 
goods on arrival in market determine the 
selling value, and the sellers have to use 
their judgment about this in making their 
price. This works all right for the ship¬ 
pers if receivers are honest, but all wrong 
if they are not. 
Destroying Bedbugs 
We have a tenement of three rooms, 
used by another family for some time, 
now vacant. The bedroom has bedbugs 
in it quite badly. The furniture is left 
with us. We have used about 2^4 lbs. 
of sulphur, burning it in the bedroom, 
but it does not kill the bugs. I have 
burned the mattress and most of the car¬ 
peting and clothes which could not be 
washed; have taken the paper off the 
bedroom and will take it off the other 
rooms. We want to paper and paint. I 
should like to keep some of the chairs if 
it would be safe. The bed is iron ; have 
taken it out doors and will use kerosene 
on it, and apply fire also; think that 
will make the bed safe. The rooms con¬ 
tain about 3,000 cu. ft., are all connect¬ 
ed. Windows are not extra tight; there 
are also rooms on second floor and rooms 
in the other side of the house where we 
now live. Can you give us any remedy 
that will be sure and safe? We have 
United States Department of Agriculture 
Bulletin No. 754 on the bedbug, which 
speaks of hydrocyanic acid gas, but does 
not give directions for same. The rooms 
have been in use for 12 years by the 
same persons, so you can see it is quite 
long standing. Once in a while we have 
found one or two in the chamber above 
the bedroom. f. e. w. s. 
We would not advise the use of hydro¬ 
cyanic acid gas fumigation to destroy 
vermin in this case. While it is absolute¬ 
ly certain in its effects, it is extremely 
dangerous, and should only be used in a 
vacant house. It would not be safe to 
use it in a house where a portion of the 
building was occupied. During the past 
year two deaths were reported which 
were traced to the use of this fumigant 
in an apartment below wdiere the deaths 
occurred, the deadly gas creeping through 
the minute crevices around the plumbing. 
Such fumigation should only be used by 
experts under close supervision, and with 
a full understanding of its danger. 
In a room where the windows are not 
really tight we do not think sulphur 
fumigation would be effective. Standard 
insecticides for this purpose are kerosene, 
gasoline, turpentine, alone or combined 
with household ammonia, corrosive sub¬ 
limate, and pyrethrum or buhach powder. 
It is our experience that several different 
things, used alternately, are more effec¬ 
tive than one remedy only. Whatever is 
used must be applied conscientiously and 
repeatedly; first every other day for two 
weeks, then twice a week for a month, 
then once a week until there is no further 
appearance of the vermin. 
The iron bed can be made perfectly 
clean by scrubbing with gasoline, the 
work being done out of doors. You speak 
of applying fire. We see no need of do¬ 
ing that, and it would be likely to deface 
the iron. Give the gasoline treatment 
thoroughly twice, and it would be well jf 
the bed had a coat of enamel paint or 
varnish. Treat the chairs in the same 
way. Gasoline is more desirable than 
kerosene, because it is not greasy, does 
not stain, and evaporates rapidly, while 
the kerosene odor is very persistent. 
As the rooms are to be papered and 
painted you have an opportunity io 
cleanse them thoroughly. After remov¬ 
ing the paper, treat all cracks with gaso¬ 
line or with turpentine and household 
ammonia, half and half, giving special 
care to places where you see signs of in¬ 
festation. Fill up cracks in walls and 
ceiling before papering. Give floors a 
coat of stain, followed by varnish. Do 
not cover floors with matting or carpet 
tacked down. One of our friends who 
had a hard battle in an old house wrote 
us that varnish was the best thing she 
had ever used to control these vermin. 
She used turpentine and ammonia on the 
beds, and then used varnish liberally on 
the floors, which were full of cracks. 
If the furniture in the infested rooms 
is thoroughly treated, the walls and ceil¬ 
ings papered or tinted and the woodwork 
painted, we think there will be no fur¬ 
ther trouble, but we think it much safer 
to tint or paint walls and ceilings, instead 
of applying paper. Decorators tell us 
that bedrooms are more often tinted with 
one of the prepared kalsomines, known 
under various trade names, or painted 
with flat finish paints, than papered, be¬ 
cause modern taste demands a wall fin¬ 
ish that is sanitary and affords no har¬ 
bor for vermin. In this case, where it is 
known that the room has been infested, 
we would certainly prefer flat paint. This 
could be washed (kalsomine could not), 
and would afford no harbor for the in¬ 
sects. Soft shades of pale gray, cream, 
fawn or a faint bluish green makes a 
pretty and restful wall. After the room 
is in use, it should be watched for any 
reappearance of vermin, and it is wise to 
give the bed an occasional treatment ot 
gasoline or of turpentine and ammonia, 
even if the insects are not noticed. A 
small oil can. such as one uses for the 
sewing machine, is convenient to apply 
the turpentine and ammonia, as the liquid 
can be squirted into crevices by pressure 
on the bottom of the can. 
Destroying a Hornet’s Nest 
Noting your article on how to get rid 
of a hornet or yellow jacket nest, page 
807, will give my plan. First get some 
sulphur, melt it, and swab in some old 
rags. (This is what they call brimstone 
for killing bees.) Next get a can that 
will just fit up againsts the nest (not go 
■over it) ; take a small wire and paste on 
a piece of brimstone about the size of a 
hickorynut, or larger, and then bend the 
wire over the side of can so that the 
brimstone hangs about two-thirds down 
in the can. Then fasten can to pole long 
enough to reach nest, light brimstone nnd 
press can lightly up against nest for a 
minute or two, and those yellow-jackets 
will be very quiet. If it is done in the 
evening there will be none to bother next 
day. Of course, remove the nest, as more 
would hatch out. m. j. w. 
Carbondale, Pa. 
Customer : “I’d like to see something 
cheap in a straw hat.” Clerk : “Try this 
on. The mirror is on your left.—Boston 
Transcript. 
About one-fifth are used for manufac¬ 
tures, of which cider and vinegar take by 
far the greater part, although 3,000,000 
bu. are used for canning, and about half 
that quantity for drying. 
The favorite haunts of King Apple 
are on fertile rolling lands not too far 
from the ocean or the Great Lakes. Over 
half the market supply in the United 
States comes from the shores, of Lake 
Ontario and Western New York, the 
Michigan apple belt, the Valley of the 
Potomac, and its tributaries, and from 
two or three productive little valleys in 
the State of Washington. 
Last season was a breaker of apple 
records in the United States. There were 
about two bushels produced for each per¬ 
son. Across the boundary line, Canada 
produced about one bushel to our five, 
but having fewer mouths to be filled in 
Canada, our northern neighbor exports 
one-third as many apples as we do. It 
was a busy year for the apple man, and 
a great test of salesmanship. 
WHERE THE CROP WENT 
How did the citizen dispose of his aver¬ 
age two bushels of apples? He set aside 
nearly half a bushel for the factories, 
mostly cider and vinegar, used a quart of 
apples for canning, and a pint for drying, 
and sold about a peck to his foreign cus¬ 
tomers. American apples were pushed 
into new markets. Apple shipments for 
the season filled about 140.000 cars. This 
would make a train over 1,000 miles long, 
with the engine in New York City and 
the caboose in St. Louis. With this enor¬ 
mous crop, wholesale prices had to go 
lower. Prevailing ranges for standard 
kinds in the city markets were mostly 
$3.50 to $4.50 per bbh, and $2 to $2.50 
per Western boxed. With present day 
cost of production, few growers, East or 
West, made any considerable profit. 
Costs of producing and marketing are 
high nowadays, and the grower gets some¬ 
times no more than one cent out of the 
nickel which the consumer pays for his 
apple at lunch time. Some of the apples 
in Uncle Sam’s back lots went to waste, 
but Mr. Consumer has eaten most of the 
others in fruit lunches and desserts, pies 
and apple sauce, and his health was never 
better, thank you. There is still about 
1 per cent of the crop left, and the fruit 
stands will offer Winesaps and Pippins 
for some time yet, and the price has not 
gone up much. 
It is almost between seasons now. The 
fruit stands display only one or two 
kinds, but the quality is still good, thanks 
to modern cold storage. Meanwhile the 
new crop apples are on the rails, Yellow 
Transparent from Georgia, Tennessee and 
Illinois, and juicy striped Gravensteins 
from California. All sorts of early local 
apples will be offered soon. Then come 
the Oldenberg and Wealthy, rather sour 
but fine for cooking. Then the rest of 
the Fall kinds, and in September to Oc¬ 
