*1018 
Tht  RURAL.  NEW-YORKER 
August  4,  1923 
Construction  Day  by  Day 
So  great  and  so  constant  is  the  growth  of  demand  for  tele¬ 
phone  service  that  the  Bell  System  invests  throughout  the 
country  an  average  of  three-quarters  of  a  million  dollars  every 
working  day  for  new  telephone  plant. 
New  aerial  lines  are  always  under  construction  or  extension, 
new  subways  are  being  dug  and  cables  laid,  larger  building 
accommodations  are  under  way,  more  switchboards  are  in 
process  of  building  or  installation,  and  added  facilities  of  every 
description  being  mustered  into  service  to  care  for  the  half 
million  or  more  new  subscribers  linked  to  the  System  every  year. 
This  nation-wide  construction,  this  large  expenditure  of 
funds,  could  not  be  carried  out  efficiently  or  economically  by 
unrelated,  independent  telephone  organizations  acting  without 
co-operation  in  different  sections  of  the  country.  Neither  could 
it  be  carried  out  efficiently  or  economically  by  any  one  organiza¬ 
tion  dictating  from  one  place  the  activities  of  all.  In  the  Bell 
System  all  the  associated  companies  share  common  manufactur¬ 
ing  and  purchasing  facilities  which  save  millions  of  dollars 
annually.  They  share  scientific  discoveries  and  inventions,  engi¬ 
neering  achievements,  and  operating  benefits  which  save  further 
millions.  But  the  management  of  service  in  each  given  territory 
is  in  the  hands  of  the  company  which  serves  that  territory  and 
which  knows  its  needs  and  conditions. 
By  thus  combining  the  advantages  of  union  and  co-operation 
with  the  advantages  of  local  initiative  and  responsibility,  the 
Bell  System  has  provided  the  nation  with  the  only  type  of 
organization  which  could  spend  with  efficiency  and  economy, 
the  millions  of  dollars  being  invested  in  telephone  service. 
“  Bell  System* 
American  Telephone  and  Telegraph  Company 
And  associated  Companies 
One  Policy,  One  System,  Universal  Service,  and  all  directed 
toward  Better  Service 
Long-Time  Farm  Loans 
This  Bank  has  loaned  to  the  farmers  in  New  England, 
New  York  and  New  Jersey  over  $25,000,000  and  has  re¬ 
turned  to  them  over  $137,000  in  dividends. 
If  you  operate  your  own  farm  or  intend  to  purchase  a  farm,  we  are 
prepared  to  make  a  long-time,  easy-payment  loan.  Interest  at  5'/2 %. 
Payments  semi-annually.  Loans  run  for  33  years  but  can  be  paid  at 
borrowers’  option  any  time  after  5  years.  Local  representative  in 
every  district. 
Look  ahead!  If  you  will  need  a  loan  this  season  write  now  for  information. 
The  FEDERAL  LAND  BANK  of  SPRINGFIELD,  MASS. 
Serving  New  England,  New  York  and  New  Jersey 
THE  HOPE  FARM  BOOK 
This  attractive  234-page  book  has  some  of 
the  best  of  the  Hope  Farm  Man’s  popular 
sketches — philosophy,  humor,  and  sympathetic 
human  touch.  Price  $1.50. 
For  Sale  by  RURAL  NEW-YORKER 
335  West  30th  Street,  New  York 
When  you  write  advertisers  mention  The  R.  N.-Y.  and  you'll  get  a 
quick  reply  and  a  “square  deal.”  See  guarantee  editorial  page. 
Selling  Peaches  in  the  Orchard 
How  the  Land  Lies. — I  have  an  in¬ 
terest  in  a  large  apple  and  peach  orchard 
located  near  Cairo,  W.  Va.  This  orchard 
contains  about  10,000  peach  trees  and  as 
many  apple  trees.  It  consists  of  three 
divisions,  and  each  division  is  on  a  dif¬ 
ferent  hill.  Division  one  is  an  apple  or¬ 
chard,  while  divisions  two  and  three 
contain  both  apple  and  peach  trees.  All 
three  divisions  are  about  a  mile  from  the 
county  road,  but  since  we  have  graded 
roads  leading  to  them,  an  automobile  or 
any  vehicle  can  easily  be  driven  right 
into  them.  My  brother  is  general  mana¬ 
ger  of  the  orchard.  Last  Summer  he 
asked  me  to  assist  him  during  the  week 
when  the  Elberta  peaches  were  being  har¬ 
vested.  I  had  helped  in  previous  years, 
so  this  was  not  a  new  experience  for  me. 
This  crop,  however,  was  by  far  the 
largest  that  we  ever  had  grown.  For 
this  reason  it  was  exceedingly  interesting 
to  work  in  the  orchard  and  to  see  the 
trees  loaded  with  big  yellow  peaches  tint¬ 
ed  with  crimson. 
Starting  tiie  Work. — Bright  and 
early  Monday  morning  we  started  into 
division  two  with  about  40  pickers.  Each 
picker  was  eager  to  be  the  first  to  fill 
his  basket.  Though  all  of  us  worked 
hard  that  forenoon,  we  could  hardly  tell 
where  we  had  picked,  because  the  trees 
were  so  full  of  fruit  and  the  orchard  so 
big.  Three  teams  were  kept  busy  hauling 
the  filled  baskets  on  sleds  to  the  top  of 
the  hill,  where  they  were  sorted.  There 
were  three  men  with  each  team  ;  one  to 
drive  and  the  other  two  to  lid  and  load 
the  baskets.  In  some  places  the  ground 
was  steep  and  the  men  had  to  watch 
carefully  to  prevent  the  sled  from  sliding 
into  the  trees  and  damaging  them. 
Sorting. — My  brother  and  five  other 
men  sorted  the  peaches  into  three  grades. 
Grade  1  was  the  biggest,  most  solid 
peaches  that  could  be  held  on  the  market 
for  several  days  without  spoiling.  Grade 
2  included  peaches  that  were  very  ripe 
and  mellow,  and  that  had  to  he  used  at 
once  to  keep  them  from  spoiling.  Grade 
3  was  the  culls  and  knotty  peaches  that 
could  be  used  to  make  peach  butter,  or 
be  cooked  for  immediate  use.  We  sold 
these  peaches  as  follows :  Grade  1,  $2.50 
a  basket ;  Grade  2,  $1.50,  and  Grade  3, 
$1.  Two  men  worked  together  in  sorting 
the  peaches,  or  rather  one  man  sorted 
and  the  other  furnished  him  with  ma¬ 
terials.  The  sorter  sat  on  a  box  from 
morning  'until  , night.  He  sorted  the 
peaches  that  were  placed  on  another  box 
at  his  right  into  a  Grade  1  basket  that 
was  placed  between  his  knees  by  his 
helper.  Grades  2  and  3  were  placed  in 
baskets  at  his  left.  The  helper  was  kept 
busy  all  day,  too,  for  he  had  to  place  bas¬ 
kets  in  convenient  position  for  the  sorter, 
carry  away  and  lid  the  sorted  baskets, 
and  perform  any  odd  jobs  that  came  up. 
The  Buyers  Arrive, — It  was  known 
all  over  the  country  that  the  peaches 
would  he  ripe  that  week,  and  we  had 
hardly  started  picking  before  people  be¬ 
gan  to  come  in  automobiles,  trucks  and 
wagons,  and  some  of  the  nearer  neigh¬ 
bors  even  walked  and  brought  baskets  to 
carry  their  peaches  in.  It  was  ATery  in¬ 
teresting  to  see  the  people  come,  look  the 
orchard  over,  buy  peaches  and  leave 
with  a  full  stomach.  The  first  thing  a 
buyer  did  on  arriving  in  the  orchard  was 
to  grab  a  peach  and  eat  it.  Then  he 
would  look  around  at  the  loaded  trees  and 
probably  take  some  pictures.  Sometimes 
he  would  step  down  the  bank  and  watch 
the  men  pick  awhile,  and  finally  come 
back  and  buy  his  peaches. 
The  Demand  for  More. — One  man 
came  in  a  Ford  from  Smithville,  a  little 
town  about  18  miles  away.  He  took 
home  with  him  12  bushels  of  peaches  and 
left  word  that  probably  he  would  he  hack 
that  afternoon  for  more  if  his  neighbors 
wanted  him  to  haul  them  some.  About 
3  :30  he  was  back  and  wanted  15  bushels 
more.  It  was  hard  to  get  that  many 
peaches  in  a  Ford  touring  car.  but  by 
the  help  of  sacks,  boxes  and  baskets,  he 
finally  got  them  tied  on  and  started  on  his 
way  home  again. 
Interested  Consumers. — At  one  time 
there  were  15  automobiles  in  the  orchard. 
There  was  never  a  time  that  there  wasn’t 
someone  there  to  buy.  It  kept  two  men 
busy  all  the  time  selling,  and  sometimes 
several  others  had  to  be  called  from  the 
picking  crowd  to  sell.  Grocerymen  of 
the  different  towns  in  the  country  sent 
their  trucks  to  the  orchard,  and  took  as 
high  as  40  bushels  at  a  load  to  sell  to 
those  who  couldn’t  come  themselves. 
Some  people  would  come  into  the  orchard, 
spend  an  hour  or  two  looking  around,  and 
finally  buy  a  half  bushel  or  probably  a 
bushel  of  peaches.  The  average  number 
of  bushels  per  buyer,  however,  was  be¬ 
tween  four  and  five.  They  commonly  took 
two  bushels  of  Grade  1,  one  of  Grade  2 
and  one  or  two  of  Grade  3.  or  probably 
all  of  Grade  1. 
Fallen  Peaches. — We  didn’t  pay 
much  attention  to  the  peaches  that  had 
fallen  to  the  ground,  or  had  been  knocked 
off  by  the  pickers.  Some  of  our  helpers 
picked  up  what  they  wanted  from  the 
ground  at  25  cents  a  basket.  These 
peaches  were  very  nice,  but  we  couldn’t 
afford  to  pick  them  up  and  sort  them  for 
what  we  would  get  for  them. 
How  the  Week  Passed. — Monday 
proved  to  be  our  biggest  day  in  the  or¬ 
chard.  Tuesday  was  good,  but  there  were 
not  so  many  buyers.  On  Wednesday  and 
Thursday  few  people  came  to  the  orchard. 
We  therefore  had  to  dispose  of  them  by 
shipping  to  nearby  towns.  We  thus  dis¬ 
posed  of  three  carloads.  The  home  peo¬ 
ple  came  back  again  Friday  and  bought 
every  peach  that  was  ripe..  This  ended 
the  most  successful  week  we  ever  had  in 
our  peach  business.  We  sold  over  2,500 
bushels  of  peaches  that  week,  and  scarce¬ 
ly  a  peach  spoiled.  glenn  c.  law. 
Those  Seedling  Peaches  from  New  Jersey 
Two  years  ago  and  last  year  you  made 
some  rather  startling  statements  about 
certain  varieties  of  peaches  that  were 
originated  at  the  New  Jersey  Experiment 
Station.  We  would  like  to  know  what 
has  become  of  them.  s.  r. 
The  experiment  station  cannot  be  ex¬ 
pected  to  “boom”  its  products  as  a  nur¬ 
seryman  would  do.  Prof.  Blake  and 
Prof.  Conners  started  out  not  to  find,  but 
to  breed  new  varieties  that  will  be  of  pos¬ 
itive  benefit  to  New  Jersey  growers.  Few 
people  can  realize  how  thoroughly  and 
carefully  this  work  has  been  done. 
While  convinced  that  they  have  superior 
varieties,  they  will  not  let  them  out  for 
general  planting  until  they  are  sure.  New 
Jersey  made  her  great  reputation  as  a 
peach  State  with  the  Crawford  varieties. 
These  failed,  but  it  is  hoped  that  these 
new  varieties  will  enable  New  Jersey  to 
repeat  her  success.  This  is  what  Prof. 
Blake  now  says : 
We  have  propagated  a  number  of  trees 
of  four  seedlings  that  ripen  about  the 
Carman  season,  and  have  distributed 
them  to  a  number  of  growers  in  the  State. 
We  think  that  one  or  two  of  these  four 
are  superior  to  the  others,  but  a  compari¬ 
son  of  just  the  original  trees  is  perhaps 
hardly  fair,  and  so  we  have  propagated 
and  sent  out  a  number  of  each  to  a  num¬ 
ber  of  our  growers.  We  have  also  dis¬ 
tributed  some  buds.  It  is  expected  that 
a  few  of  these  sources  of  distribution 
will  have  a  few  peaches  this  year,  so  that 
we  may  have  additional  evidence  as  to 
whether  one  of  the  seedlings  is  better 
than  the  others.  I  personally  believe 
that  at  least  two  of  the  four  are  easily 
superior  to  Carman,  but  I  think  it  is  best 
to  have  some  of  the  growers  test  them 
and  form  their  own  opinions  before  I 
urge  planting  too  strongly. 
We  have  two  or  three  other  seedlings 
ripening  at  different  times  which  have 
appeared  promis.ng,  and  we  shall  prob- 
ablv  have  a  toral  of  about  3,300  one- 
year-old  trees  this  Fall  which  can  be  dis¬ 
tributed  to  our  growers.  There  is  a  good 
set  of  fruit  upon  most  of  the  original 
trees,  and  some  of  it  is  exceptionally  large 
in  size.  I  really  believe  we  shall  have 
some  most  attractive  specimens  when 
they  ripen,  and  at  the  close  of  this  fruit¬ 
ing  season  I  think  we  shall  have  reached 
a  point  where,  to  some  degree  at  least, 
we  can  recommend  that  growers  in  New 
Jersey  plant  these  new  seedlings  in  place 
of  some  of  the  other  varieties.  I  really 
hope  that  in  the  very  near  future  we 
shall  be  able  to  replace  Carman,  Hiley 
and  Champion,  at  least  in  the  commercial 
plantings.  m.  b.  blake. 
“So  you  sold  your  car?”  “Yes;  cost 
too  much  for  repairs.”  “Heavy  garage 
bills,  eh?”  “No;  never  got  out  of  order. 
But  I  had  to  pay  for  repairing  the  people 
it  ran  over.” — Boston  Evening  Trans¬ 
cript. 
