1889 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
8i5 
Swimdi.es Everywhere.— The only ob¬ 
ject of this department from its inception, 
over eight years ago, to the present day, 
has been to guard the readers of the paper 
against the multitude of swindles and 
humbugs of all sorts by which swarms of 
sharpers are constantly trying to victimize 
those who live in small towns and country 
places, because in the minds of all crooks 
and of several others, such people are much 
more easily deceived, bamboozled and 
gulled than dwellers in large towns and 
cities whose wits are supposed to be kept 
constantly “onedge” by friction with each 
other and who should be well posted on 
various forms of swindles by reading about 
them frequently in the papers. As a mat¬ 
ter of fact, however, it is very likely that 
the people of towns and cities are swindled 
just as often and just as egregiously as 
country-people. Indeed, hardly a day pass¬ 
es without the appearance in the papers of 
lengthy accounts of old, old swindles suc¬ 
cessfully practiced on town and city busi¬ 
ness men who have the reputation of un¬ 
usual smartness; while the people at large 
are swindled and humbugged so persis¬ 
tently that it would be too tiresome to give 
any account of their heavy losses, even if 
these became known to the police or the 
newspaper reporters. It is only when 
a large number of persons are known 
to have been defrauded by the same 
scheme and usually by the same person 
or gang, or where the trick is new 
and the losses have been heavy among 
a smaller number of people, that swindles 
on city folks are considered worthy of no¬ 
tice. Truly the swindler is multitudinous, 
ly abroad among the people in towns and 
cities as well as in country places, and he 
takes all sorts of shapes and disguises. It 
was said of old that the way of the trans¬ 
gressor is hard ; but nowadays this is true 
only or chiefly of the vulgar, thick-witted, 
law smashing rogue. How many very suc¬ 
cessful rascals now succeed in transferring 
their neighbors’ purses into their own pock¬ 
ets just within the letter but outside the 
moral of the law, and how many in per¬ 
forming the same fraudulent trick break 
the law so gently, so quietb and so care¬ 
fully that the fracture is hardly noticeable, 
and often resembles a natural flaw so very 
closely that a learned judge or several of 
them with the aid of half a dozen wrang¬ 
ling lawyers can hardly tell the difference? 
The town swindles although essentially 
of the same family, usually differ in one or 
more features from the country swindles ; 
but frequently the same form of fraud is 
equally successful in both places, al¬ 
though generally even then its dress under¬ 
goes some trifling changes in order that it 
may be in closer accordance with “ its sur¬ 
rounding.” A few, however, appeal in 
precisely the same shape and dress to the 
gullibility, greed or carelessness of town 
and country. Among these few land and 
town-site booms hold a prominent place. 
These are generally as loudly heralded in 
papers that fall under the eye of city-men 
as in those that are likely to be read by 
country-men, and a very fair proportion of 
the victims are among the former, espec. 
ially in case of town-site booms. Indeed 
in a recent case of a very novel character 
up in Minnesota, it is probable that nearly 
all the losers were town-folks. Now tin t 
this form of fraud has once been started t 
is certain to be again utilized and probably 
under conditions by which farmers are 
likely to be among the sufferers; hence it 
deserves a warniug place in this depart¬ 
ment. 
Smart Land Sharks. —Lake View Di¬ 
vision is a gilt-edged section of Duluth, 
Minnesota, worth from $-’,000 to $5,000 per 
lot. Lake View Addition is a tract of 20 
acres of poor land nine miles from Duluth. 
In September 1887 Lake View Addition was 
bought by speculators at the rate of $5 per 
acre. Eleven days afterwards the whole of 
it was transferred tor $06,000. Two hours 
later, on the same day, still another trans¬ 
fer was recorded for $ 100 , 000 , and this was 
followed a few days later by another deal 
in which the figure was $105,000. Thus in 
less than 15 days after the 20 acre tract of 
nearly worthless land had been l>ought for 
$100, it had acquired a fictitious value of 
$105,000! Then the sharpers prepared to 
cast their ints for gudgeons. Maps and 
diagrams of plats were widely distributed 
in places distant from Duluth, in which 
the fraudulent Addition was represented as 
occupying the place of the valuable Divis¬ 
ion. Then came an abundant- harvest. 
The sharpers preferred cash ; but were will¬ 
ing to take in exchange valuable property 
in Minneapolis, Chicago, Indianapolis and 
other cities, and a few eligible farms that 
could be readily disposed of were also gob¬ 
bled up. As soon as the deeds were re¬ 
corded the crooks would sell the property 
and realize handsomely. Then came a lull 
in real estate transactions in the bogus sec¬ 
tion ; but about a fortnight ago the swindle 
bobbed up serenely again with a transfer 
of $19,500 worth of fraudulent lots. The 
record of the transactions was accidentally 
noticed by a Duluth newspaper, which at 
once set a special reporter to investigate 
the matter. He traced the scheme back to 
its original starting point, and found that 
over $335,000 worth of transfers had been re¬ 
corded and mortgages for nearly half as 
much more had been filed. Many deeds 
had, no doubt, not been recorded, so that it 
is very likely the aggregate loss must be 
considerably over half a million dollars. 
Will the swindlers ever be punished by 
the law? No doubt they speedily got be¬ 
yond its reach into Canada or some other 
convenient refuge for dishonest rascality. 
CATALOGUES, ETC., RECEIVED. 
B ed-bugs and red ants.— in in. 
sect Life for October, 1889 Prof. C. V. 
Riley records a fact which he says is not 
generally known, viz :—that the red ant 
will destroy bed-bugs. 
“ One of Prof. R.’s assistants, had an op¬ 
portunity at Meridian. Miss., during the 
war, of seeing an old building used as 
barracks and filled with bed-bugs, invaded 
by countless numbers of red ants. Sever¬ 
al ants would attack a single full grown 
bed-bug, pull off his legs and carry away 
the helpless body. They penetrated the 
closest cracks of the rough beds and drag¬ 
ged out old and young bugs and eggs. 
There is, then, some slight consolation in 
having the ants about one’s house, but 
with care and cleanliness, especially at 
the North, there is no excuse for the occur¬ 
rence of either pest.” 
Prof. R. says he occasionally meets a fa¬ 
vored individual who has never seen a bed¬ 
bug, but such fortunate people are rare. It 
is said that the pest was brought to Eng¬ 
land in 1503 and reached America soon after 
extensive settlement. Certain English 
writers try to father the pest on America, 
but “ there is strong evidence that it was 
known to Aristophanes, Dioscorides, Pliny 
and Aristotle ” (!) Most of us care but lit¬ 
tle about its origin ; we are after its life. 
The following facts, taken from the article 
are interesting: 
“The number of annual generations de¬ 
pends on conditions of food and warmth. 
With plenty of food and an even tempera¬ 
ture they will multiply with great rapidity, 
while under contrary conditions reproduc¬ 
tion may be greatly retarded. Adult bugs 
have been known to remain alive for more 
than a year without a single meal. It is this 
fasting capacity, together with its form so 
well adapted for hiding, which renders it so 
difficult to thoroughly disinfect an infested 
house. 
Here again benzine must be our strongest 
weapon. Finely sprayed with a hand atom¬ 
izer it will penetrate the minutest cracks, 
and is sure death to the insect in all its 
stages, including the eggs. It is a certain 
remedy, and used thoroughly will destroy 
every bug in a house. Kerosene is almost 
as good and is a little more lasting in its 
effects. Many preventives have been ad¬ 
vised, but none are permanent. One of 
the best formulas for a substance with 
which to paint the cracks in a bedstead or 
the wall is one ounce corrosive sublimate, 
half pint alcohol, and one-fourth pint 
spirits of turpentine ” 
Those who introduce red ants for the pur¬ 
pose of killing bed-buns will find that they 
must kill off the ants too or life will still 
be a burden for them. Speaking of this 
warfare, Prof. R. says: 
“The first recommendation is to find the 
point from which they all come. Then see 
if they have built the nest in some acces¬ 
sible spot, in which case a little kerosene 
will end a large part if not all of the 
trouble. If the nest is in the wall or under 
the floor and taking up a board will not 
bring it within reach, find the nearest ac¬ 
cessible point and devote your energies to 
killing the ants off as they appear. Where 
the nests are outside nothing is easier than 
to find them and to destroy the inhabitants 
with kerosene or bisulphide of carbon. The 
nests are almost always in the immediate 
vicinity of the house. The ants are pecul¬ 
iarly susceptible to the action of pyretnrum 
in any form, be it Persian or Dalmatian 
powder orbuhach.and a free and persis¬ 
tent use of this powder will accomplish 
much.” 
Some housekeepers place traps for the 
ants. These traps are small pieces of 
sponge moistened with sweetened water, 
These are left where the ants congregate, 
and once a day or so, when the ants have 
collected on them, soaked in hot water and 
replaced. 
Cattle Foods and Feeding Rations.— 
The enterprising director of the Geneva, N. 
Y. Experiment Station has given in Bulle¬ 
tin 17, an exceedingly valuable dairy feed¬ 
ing manual. It is just such information as 
is printed in this pamphlet that dairymen 
want, just such problems that they ought 
to study. Dr. Collier states that the aver¬ 
age New York State cow produces less than 
3,000 pounds of milk per year or less than 
130 pounds of butter. Such dairying “ don’t 
pay.” While proper breeding and selection 
have much to do in the work of improving 
our dairy cows, good care and judicious 
feeding must also accompany them. Dr. 
Collier gives tables showing the analyses 
of various grasses and grains, as well as 
the digestibility of these substances and 
the amounts of each required to make suit¬ 
able rations. Added to these are a number 
of rations given by New York dairymen 
from their actual practice. Each of these 
rations is explained and analyzed in a way 
that will show the feeder just what is need¬ 
ed or just what should be left out. 
For example, one herd of 12 Jersey cows 
average 320 pounds of butter per year. The 
daily feed for each cow is : 
12 pounds Meadow hay. 
3 “ corn meal. 
3 “ wheat-bran. 
3 “ linseed-meal. 
3 “ oat-meal. 
This ration is considered by Dr. Collier 
as very close to what American experience 
seems to indicate as profitable and econom¬ 
ical. It is well worthy of study by dairy¬ 
men. We would like to have every reader 
of the R, N.-Y. read this bulletin. 
Experiment Orchard. Small Fruits. 
—Bulletin No. 2 of the Virginia Experi¬ 
ment Station. Some months ago the R. 
N.-Y. spoke of the experiment orchard 
started at the Maryland Station. Now we 
have to record the planting of a simi¬ 
lar one at the Virginia Station. We regard 
this as an excellent experiment in every 
way. Farmers of Virginia may learn some 
excellent lessons regarding varieties best 
suited to their soil and climate at this ex¬ 
periment orchard. 
Soils and Alkali. -Bulletin No. 9 from 
the Colorado Experiment Station. While 
this bulletin deals with local conditions— 
those peculiar to the Colorado soil and cli¬ 
mate, it is of general interest to all who 
care to investigate questions pertaining to 
geology or chemistry. 
gttterrllatteoug JlUmtijSmg. 
in 8 Per Cent. Income. 
Kansas City Property Exclusively. 
Real Estate Bonds 
8 Per Cent. 8 Per Cent. 
Proflc participating. Interest guaranteed. 
April a d October eouyocs payable In Boston. 
Guaranteed First Mortgages. 
8 Per Cent. 8 Per Cent. 
2 > per cent special deposit additional security 
with American Loan and Trust Company. 
Improved Business Property 
Bonds. 
6 Per Cent. 6 Per Cent. 
Office and Panking Bu'ldlng, with 50 per cent.. 
Stock Bonus 
Other enotee Investments Yielding 6 per cent 
anil upwards. 
send for nt mihly eireula’s, pamphle s, references 
and papers. 
Winer. Investment Cmpuy, 
WILLIAM H. PARMENTER, 
General Aon nt, SO State Stkkkt, Poston. 
V. O. TAYLOR, Special Agent, 
Providence. R L, Equitable Building, l Custom 
House -traet. 
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The Cabinet i igan was introduced in its present 
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