1903 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
25 
Events of the Week. 
DOMESTIC.—Fire in a sugar refinery in Brooklyn, N. 
Y., December 26, caused the death of three firemen, who 
were caught under a falling wall; three other persons 
were injured, and the property loss was $100,000. .... 
December 27 a collision occurred at Wanstead, Ont., on 
the Sarnia division of the Grand Trunk Railroad, in which 
30 persons were killed and as many more injured. An 
east-bound freight ran into the west-bound express, the 
result of confusion during a blizzard.Mrs. Jes¬ 
sie Benton Fremont, widow of Gen. Fremont, the “Path¬ 
finder,” died at Los Angeles, Cal., December 28, aged 78. 
Mrs. Fremont was daughter of Thomas A. Benton, for 
30 years a U. S. Senator.Dr. Arthur Mac¬ 
Donald, specialist of the United States Bureau of Edu¬ 
cation, in a Government report says that crime, suicide 
and insanity are increasing more rapidly than the popu¬ 
lation.Justice Clabaugh, of the District Su¬ 
preme Court, at Washington, is engaged in hearing a 
petition which has been filed by Antonio M. de Cyaza, a 
young Filipino, who is seeking to obtain naturalization 
papers. Cyaza came to this country after the signing 
of the treaty of peace between the United States and 
Spain. He applied for naturalization at Washington, but 
the local law requires that all applicants for citizenship 
must renounce allegiance to some country, Mr. Cyaza 
had no country to renounce, and on this ground he was 
denied papers by the clerk of the District Supreme Court. 
. ... At Eagle Lake, Tex., 75 convicts brought from 
the State Penitentiary to work on the convict plantation 
mutinied December 28. They barricaded themselves in a 
building and refused to come out until starved into sub¬ 
mission. 
ADMINISTRATION.—Such strong pressure has been 
brought to bear on Congress by the citizens of Alaska as 
to warrant the belief that the current session will witness 
an amendment to the land law which will materially im¬ 
prove conditions in that Territory. The present prospects 
are that the Homestead act, in its application to Alaska, 
will be so amended as to permit the taking up of home¬ 
steads of 320 acres in extent, and settlers will be per¬ 
mitted to prove up their claims in districts not yet sur¬ 
veyed by the Government officials. The existing commu¬ 
tation clause, however, will be repealed, in so far as it 
applies to that Territory. Senator Quarles has Introduced 
a bill repealing the stone and timber act, and the com¬ 
mutation clause as applied to all homestead entries; and, 
while this bill is likely to receive extensive consideration 
in committee, and may be reported, it is not likely to be 
enacted. The repeal of the stone and timber act is recom¬ 
mended by the President and the Secretary of the In¬ 
terior, but It is feared that lack of time will prevent 
action by Congress. Representative Lacey, of Iowa, is 
still working for his measure authorizing the Secretary 
of the Interior to lease the public lands for grazing pur¬ 
poses, and has secured many supporters for the bill, but 
lack of time will prevent its enactment. Meanwhile, the 
Alaskans are predicting that with a land law practicable 
under their conditions the fertile valleys of southern 
Alaska will rapidly replace the western range in the 
preparation of feeders for the corn belt and the growing 
of range cattle for market.Binger Herrmann. 
Commissioner of the General Land Office, has resigned, 
and will be succeeded by William A. Richard, now the 
Assistant Commissioner of the General Land Office. Mr. 
Herrmann’s resignation was requested by the Secretary 
of the Interior, and was Immediately presented. Charges 
have been preferred against two of the subordinate of¬ 
ficials of the Land Office, Involving Irregularities, and 
they have been given a specific time In which to make 
answer. These officials are Harry King, chief, and 
Fred P. Metzger, assistant chief of the draughtsman’s 
division of the General Land Office. The former is 
charged with neglect of duty, and the latter with mis¬ 
management and unsatisfactory administration of his 
duties.John Goodnow, United States Consul- 
General at Shanghai, has been made the object of formal 
attack by the American Association at Shanghai and the 
charges will be duly investigated by the State Depart¬ 
ment. The principal charge is connected with the trans¬ 
fer of a vessel from the Chinese to the American fiag. It 
is alleged that the Consul-General charged excessive fees 
for his part in the transfer. Again, it is charged that 
he refused to perform his duty in ordering a court of In¬ 
quiry to examine into the facts connected with the 
wreck of this ship. Mr. Goodnow has put in a vigorous 
defense, denying the charges. 
PHILIPPINES.—Moros on the island of Mindanao re¬ 
port that the cholera is depopulating the villages on the 
east side of Lake Lanao. At Maciu there is an average 
of 60 deaths a day. The disease also prevails at Bacolod. 
It has appeared on all sides of Lake Lanao, but the Vlsay- 
an residents of the island do not yet seem to have been 
attacked. 
VENEZUELA.—The German government has excluded 
from the scope of arbitration of the Venezuelan difficulty 
a claim of 1,700,000 bolivars, which must be paid immedi¬ 
ately in cash before arbitration is begun. A bolivar, the 
monetary unit of Venezuela, is worth about 19 cents. Up 
to December 31 President Castro had not formally ac¬ 
cepted the offer of arbitration by the Hague Tribunal, 
but hostilities between the Allies and Venezuela were 
suspended. Castro’s power is threatened by the revolu¬ 
tionists. Public sentiment in Great Britain is opposed 
to the aggressive German policy, 
GENERAL FOREIGN NEWS.—Rev. Dr. Frederick 
Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury and Primate of all 
England and Its colonies, died December 23, aged 82. Dr. 
Temple was a brilliant mathematician, and widely known 
as an educator. In 1858 he was head master of the fa¬ 
mous public school at Rugby, and became Bishop of Ex¬ 
eter in 1869, and Bishop of London in 1885, He became 
Lord Primate In 1896. He was strongly in sympathy with 
modern thought, and was regarded as daringly liberal 
in political views.Fire in a coal mine at Bach- 
mut, Russia. December 27, caused the death of 80 miners. 
.News was received December 28 of a collision 
between two steamships in the Straits of Malacca, in 
which 60 lives were lost. 
FARM AND GARDEN.—Thousands of cattle are re¬ 
ported to be starving on the range in northwestern Colo¬ 
rado. The Humane Society appealed to the owners to 
rescue their stock, and they have replied that they are 
powerless to do so. The cattle are snowed in on the high 
range in Routt and Rio Blanco counties without pasture 
and without water. It is impossible to get feed to them 
and equally impossible to drive them into suitable Winter 
quarters. 
The thirtieth annual meeting of the New Jersey State 
Board of Agriculture will be held at the State House, 
Trenton, N. J., January 14-16. 
The New Jersey State Horticultural Society held its 
twenty-eighth annual meeting at Trenton, January 7-8. 
The twenty-first annual meeting of the American For¬ 
estry Association was held at Washington, December 31. 
The morning session was a business meeting at which 
the president of the association. Secretary Wilson, 
presided. At the afternoon session a number of papers 
were read. Among the speakers were George B. 
Sudworth, Overton W. Price.^F. E. Olmstead and William 
L. Hall, of the Bureau of Forestry; Dr. B. F. Fernow, 
director of the New York State College of Forestry; 
Professor Henry Solon Graves, director of the Yale 
Forest Schools; Dr. C. A. Schenk, director of the Bilt- 
more Forest School; Filbert Roth, chief of the Division 
of Forest Reserves in the General Land Office, and Dr. 
Chase Bessy, of the University of Nebraska. 
The residents of Middleburg, N. Y. and vicinity have 
an Anti-Horse Thief Society. There are a large number 
of members, and the object is for mutual protection 
against a band of horse thieves that has long infested 
the Schoharie hills._ 
A VOTE FOR PROF. L H. BAILEY. 
The R. N.-Y. made the right move in the right way 
when It proposed Prof. L. H. Bailey for the Dean of the 
College of Agriculture at Cornell University. He is ex¬ 
actly the kind of man we want for that position. I do 
not know of anyone who so completely answers all the 
requirements. He is broad enough to comprehend the 
needs of all the departments of agricultural education; 
Phof. L. II. UAIfiEY. Fio. 10. 
his literary attainments command the respect of educa¬ 
tors and scientists throughout the world; his practical 
work as writer, speaker and investigator has won for 
him the admiration of horticulturists and farmers every¬ 
where, and his broad sympathies have always Inspired 
a genuine love from his many students. Those who 
know Prof. Bailey best hold him in the highest esteem. 
Perhaps no greater compliment can be paid to a teacher 
than to say he is loved by his students. It Implies the 
ability to lead them in right paths of thinking, and the 
power to inspire them to their best efforts. The selection 
of Prof. Bailey to head the Agricultural College would 
give universal satisfaction to the agricultural students 
of Cornell and to people generally who understand the 
real needs of the position for a progressive man, one who 
is a natural leader who has high ideals and the ability 
to execute them. His selection would extend Cornell’s 
fame throughout the world more perhaps than any other 
choice that could be made, and would guarantee to Cor¬ 
nell’s many well wishers, and to farmers and legislators 
in New York State in particular, that the work of agri¬ 
cultural education would go forward with a push and a 
scope that would be a credit to the university and to the 
Empire State. 
You are right; Prof. Bailey is too big a man to seek 
the place. But I hope and believe he is too far-sighted 
and too logical to decline it if it should come to him. 
The fact that Prof. Bailey has been identified for so 
many years with the work of the Agricultural College 
and Experiment Station at Cornell, and the fact that he 
enjoys the confidence and respect of the faculty and the 
student body is no small item in his favor. With Presi¬ 
dent Schurman’s face now turned toward agriculture and 
all his force behind a determination to make agricultural 
education In all Its branches at Cornell second to no 
other college in the world, the State should lose no time 
and spare no expense which may be necessary to bring 
It to pass. The college needs more land, more teachers, 
more and larger buildings and better equipments. The 
State can afford to do its part to supply this need. In 
fact, it cannot afford not to do it. New York must com¬ 
pete with other States, and with nations, in the close 
race for the markets of the world. She can onl^ win by 
having the mo.st intelligent and best educated farmers. 
1 have faith to believe that the farmers of our State will 
realize the situation, that they will rise to the emer¬ 
gency and will ask the Legislature to make the necessary 
appropriation. The day has come when the farmers can 
have anything they ask for at the hands of our law¬ 
makers that is reasonable and right, and they ask no 
more. james e. rice. 
Westchester Co., N. Y. 
MILK MATTERS. 
There is no doubt that the “manipulation method” of 
drawing milk from the udder is desirable, particularly 
if the udder should be at all swollen. It is customary 
during the “drying off” period to allow a longer time to 
elapse than is usual between the milking. This period 
may be one or several days the length of time depend¬ 
ing on the amount of milk accumulating in the udder. 
Sometimes there is noticeable a slight swelling. In this 
case it is desirable to handle the udder gently so that 
all the milk may be drawn out and the udder left in good 
condition. h. f. p. 
The milk flow is about the same as one year ago. The 
milk here is bought by the Seiller Bros., of Newark, N. 
J. They ship about 60 cans per day at present. The 
price is low when the farmer has to pay the high price 
for feeds. The codperative creameries that are near us 
have paid better for the last year than any of the milk 
stations that bought the milk for New York prices, and 
some let the patrons have the skim-milk back extra. 
Unless the prices are higher than formerly the outlook 
is not very bright. m. c. b. 
McGrawvllle, N. Y. 
As regarding the practicability of a method of milking 
as is practiced in Sweden and Denmark, I would say that 
my experience of the past six weeks leads me to believe 
that It would be quite useful. Being short of cream I 
tried to get just all of the milk possible from my cows, 
and in so doing I did more stripping than usual; in con¬ 
sequence some of my milk, though not very much, was 
exceedingly rich in butter fats. I have not had it tested, 
but should think it would test as much as eight per cent 
if not more. I think It pays from the extra milk and 
cream we get, but I think that with heifers it would nat¬ 
urally induce them to give more milk and for a longer 
length of time. c. c. z. 
Preston, Conn. 
I read with much Interest in a recent issue of The R. 
N.-Y. about the new method of milking, and determined 
to try it. I would not trust any of the men for fear 
they would not follow instructions carefully, and so did 
the work myself. I studied all the motions carefully and 
know that the work was properly done. We are now 
milking 19 cows, and after spending nearly an hour oii 
seven of them I had nearly 1% pound of milk to pay for 
my trouble. One cow giving 35 pounds a day, gave up 
about half a pound; the next largest was about three 
ounces, four didn’t give a tablespoonful apiece. One 
hour and a quarter after stripping the first cow I went 
back to her to see if any milk had come down, but 
couldn’t get a spoonful, which to me was pretty good 
proof that there was no more milk there. For years we 
have been extremely particular about having our cows 
well stripped. A man who can usually milk 12 cows an 
hour can milk only nine as we want it done. We milk 
persistently but never knead the udder. Our own 
opinion is that cows that have been thus persistently 
milked for years, get into the habit of giving down their 
milk under the ordinary manipulation. w. s. i,. 
So. Framingham, Mass. * 
POULTRY PROSPECTS. 
There is less poultry in our territory than for years; 
all kinds, especially turkeys, are very scarce. Ruling 
prices to-day (December 17) 17 to 18 cents per pound, head* 
and feet off, undrawn; dressed hens 11 to 12; Spring chick¬ 
ens 13 to 14 cents. Egg market is active, fresh laid article 
bringing 27 to 28 cents; early storage 22 to 24 cents. The 
first snow of the season and zero weather. We draw our 
egg supply from eastern Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska and 
lexas; have handled six cars April storage eggs this 
season, contracted when they went into storage. Hens 
we find are very scarce and being held for Spring layers. 
Pueblo, Col. the sutton mercantile co. 
and chickens were light, and prices advanced from one- 
half to one cent per pound. This caused very heavy re¬ 
ceipts for the past five days, and our market is now 
lower, with a further decline anticipated for next week. 
Live turkeys have been on the boom for the past 15 days, 
and prices advanced from 11 cents per pound to 12% for 
gobblers and hens mixed. This advance was due to heavy 
01 ders being placed on this market, which receivers were 
anxious to fill. There is every Indication that prices will 
rule high from now until January 1. Fresh eggs have ad¬ 
vanced from 24 cents per dozen to 26 cents since December 
1, and we look for a 28-cent market next week. The cold- 
storage eggs which are here now are generally of poor 
quality, and when recandled sell for 21 to 22 cents Larea 
^ rabbits are arriving from Missouri and TeL 
selling to-day (December 15) at $1.20 to $1.50 per 
cents per pair; other varieties of ducks 
New OrVansfH’^’' 
THE TENANT QUESTION. 
I read with Interest what Mr. Cook said on paae 847 
regarding tenants. When he says If you ‘’get a good man 
pay to be liberal with him,” he voices 
If” Prog^resslve landlords. The estate 
w th their^t^nanY« Connected has but little trouble 
witn tneir tenants, either on the share system or iindf^r 
tenant *^Wo' never had but one lawsuit with a 
tenant. We have one man who will have comnleted his 
fortie^ year the first of next April, and have had seven 
years, I 5 from 10 to 15 years, and many from five 
are only two things necessary for 
the united success of landlord and tenant a landlord 
who understands farming and human nature and la 
honSlir^l^ef,*' a tenant who desires to Se r^oney 
Deliver rne from a tenant who is too shiftless 
^P*^°fit. He is as undesirable as the dishonest 
are much ^betTe^ tenants on large farms who 
Petter off than many farmers on their own 
places, solely because they are progressive and wllllne 
i rather than saddle themselve^ wi"^ 
Sussex Co ^J years of drudgery to pay off. 
* A. B, Iv* 
