THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
1903 
331 
Events of the Week. 
domestic.—A tornado passed over Hopewell Settle¬ 
ment, Ala., April 8, killing 12 persons and injuring a.s 
many more. The property loss was heavy. 
State Attorney-General Cunneen, in an opinion rendered 
in a situation in Dunkirk, N. Y., holds that the State 
Health law does not compQj the authorities of parochial 
.schools to exclude unvaccinated children from attendance, 
but that the local board of health may issue an ordinance 
directing general vaccination and providing a penalty 
for non-compliance.Attorney-General Webb, of 
California, has rendered an official opinion declaring the 
use of the Bible in the public schools unconstitutional. 
Not only is the use of the Scriptures as a text-book 
barred, but reading from them, as is the custom fre¬ 
quently at the opening exercises, is said to be illegal 
.... A 12-inch gun exploded in the forward turret of 
the battleship Iowa April 9, while at target practice near 
Pensacola. Fla. Three men were killed and five seriously 
Injured, and three decks were torn up. The explosion 
was caused by a defective fuse.A cyclone 
struck Altamont. Galena and Oswego, Kan., April 9, and 
much damage was done to property.The United 
States Circuit Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit 
handed down, at St. Paul, April 9, a unanimous decision 
declaring the $400,000,000 Northern Securities merger 
to be illegal and in violation of the Sherman Anti-Trust 
law. The court enjoins the Northern Securities Com¬ 
pany from acquiring any more stock of the Northern 
Pacific and Great Northern railroads and from voting 
on the stocks it holds; permits it to return such stocks 
to its stockholders and enjoins the Great Northern and 
the Northern Pacific from paying any dividends on such 
stocks to the company or permitting the company to ex¬ 
ercise any control over the affairs of the two roads. 
The plaintiff in the case was the United States, and the 
action was brought by Attorney-General Knox. The 
Northern Securities case is the first one tried under the 
"Expedition of Causes” law, passed by Congress at the 
laLSt session at the recommendation of Attorney-General 
Knox, and included in the programme of the anti-trust 
legislation by the Republican leaders. Without that act 
a decision could have been delayed for months, and per¬ 
haps years. The tribunal which tried the case was 
created by that act for the especial purpose of expediting 
such proceedings, and if the Securities attorneys decide to 
appeal from the Judgment rendered equal celerity will 
be observed, for the law provides that such cases shall 
have the right of way.At Philadelphia, Pa., 
April 11. three boys were playing upon an oil car, when 
a spark from one lad’s cigarette entered a tank in which 
gas had accumulated, and an explosion followed. The 
cigarette smoker was blown high into the air and killed. 
His companions were badly hurt.Smallpox is 
reported to be epidemic in lumber camps in Lycoming 
Co., Pa., and there is need for a general quarantine. 
There are many other centers of Infection in Pennsyl¬ 
vania, and the State Board of Health has appropriated 
$50,000 to fight the disease.The Colorado Court 
of Appeals allowed damages to an employee who was 
hired to take the place of strikers and who was shot by 
one of the latter. It was held that the employers should 
have warned the plaintiff of the fact of the strike and 
of his danger.Fire at Lake Pontchartrain, near 
New Orleans, La., April 14, burned a number of yachts 
and clubhouses; loss $100,000. 
ADMINISTRATION.—Startling revelations have re¬ 
sulted from the Investigations which have been going on 
for some time into Case No. 2 in the Post Office Depart¬ 
ment’s catalogue of scandals. Detailed charges have 
been filed at the Department alleging the existence of a 
powerful ‘‘promotion syndicate,” w'hose operations have 
included the postal service of the entire country and 
whose methods and Influence have rendered practically 
null and void the ‘‘merit .system” which is nominally in 
effect. The charges allege that the ‘‘promotion syndi- 
^ cate” was operated from Washington by officers of the 
Salary and Allowance Divl.sion, of which George W. 
Beavers, w'ho recently resigned under pressure, was the 
head, 'rhe New York Post Office is said to have been 
the largest field of operations of the “syndicate,” but its 
power and influence have been exerted in post offices, 
large and small, all over the country. So far as New 
York is concerned the “promotion price” is said to have 
been $25 to $50 down and a certain percentage each month 
of the amount of the promotion received by the clerk, 
it is reported that the investigation is being turned 
toward the substitution of the present sheet iron letter 
boxes for the old cast iron variety. There are over 91,000 
letter boxes in use, not counting the rural free delivery 
boxes. In 1901 the boxes were of cast iron. The Depart¬ 
ment decided last year to adopt the sheet iron variety, 
on the ground that the sheet iron kind did not weigh so 
much, and would not be so likely to be broken. At the 
same time a change in the style of letter carriers’ satchels 
was made, and the estimate for letter boxes, satchels 
and incidentals for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1904, 
was $300,000. Congress cut this down to $272,300. A year 
ago, in the Senate, Mr. Tillman brought in a rural free 
delivery box, w'hich he exhibited to his colleagues to 
show that it was in every respect a good box. He de¬ 
clared that the manufacturer offered this box to the 
Government at 49 cents; that the Post Office Department 
rejected it and other boxes, which were Just as good, and 
even cheaper, and compelled the people to buy rural free 
delivery boxes from one of 14 favored boxmakers. at a 
cost of $1.25 to $3. Mr. Tillman asserted that the Post 
Office Department w'as creating a monopoly. The Rural 
Free Delivery Division is involved, it being charged that 
whenever mail carriers are to be appointed on the rural 
free delivery routes advance information of the appoint¬ 
ments is furnished to certain w'agon-building firms. 
Representatives of these linns then go to the new car¬ 
riers and inform the latter that they will not receive 
their commissions as carriers unless the carts made by 
these firms are adopted for their routes. The carriers 
are convinced by the evident fact that the wagon build¬ 
ers have inside information that they are able to make 
good the threat and generally yield. 
PHILIPPINES.—A syndicate of American engineers 
with native divers and mechanics has succeeded in rais¬ 
ing the warship Reina Cristina, the flagship of Admiral 
Montojo, which was sunk by the fleet under Admiral 
Dewey in Manila Bay on May 1, 1898. There is a great 
hole in the vessel’s bow which was probably made by 
an eight-inch shell. There are 14 smaller holes in the 
hull. Inside the hull the vessel is badly warped from 
the fire which was raging as she went down and is filled 
with a mass of engine room wreckage. Many skeletons, 
estimated to number about 80, rest in the mud in the 
bows, where the hospital, in which an eight-inch shell 
exploded, was situated. The syndicate expects to suc¬ 
ceed in raising two other wrecks of Admiral Montojo’s 
fleet within a month. Most of the guns were removed 
from these vessels by the Insurgents, in the presence of 
Admiral Dewey’s fleet, previous to the surrender of Ma¬ 
nila, and many of them were repaired and afterward 
used against the American troops. 
FARM AND GARDEN.—The American Bornological 
Society will hold its next annual convention in Boston, 
Mass., September 10-12. The Society has adopted what 
is called the “ad Interim” method of competitions. Hith¬ 
erto it has been possible for competitors to show only 
such varieties at the annual competitions as may ripen 
and be in prime condition at the time when the meeting 
is held. This has shut out a vast number of meritorious 
productions. The “ad interim” plan will permit any in¬ 
vestigator to have his work examined by a committee of 
experts at the time when his fruit is in best condition 
to show it. It will be examined by a committee, which 
will report to the annual meeting,* and another commit¬ 
tee will give it consideration and estimate its claims in 
the general competition for honors. The great prize 
which horticulturists everywhere desire to win is the 
Marshall P. Wilder prize, for which there has been an¬ 
nual competition for over 30 years. The plan embraces 
seven committees, under the direction of a general chair¬ 
man. The committees are designated for “Pome Fruits,” 
“Stone Fruits.” “Grapes,” “Miscellaneous and Small 
Fruits.” “Citrus Fruits,” “Tropical and Sub-Tropical 
Fruits” and “Nuts.’J_ 
NOTES FROM NEW MEXICO. 
I have been interested In the notes on rural delivery 
boxes in the recent issues of Thk R. N.-Y. We have one 
here that has been in operation a month (March); has 
given entire satisfaction...and there has been no trouble 
about boxes. The people advanced the money as they 
were able in amounts of $10. $5 and $1 to buy the boxes, 
which we order direct from the manufacturer, the agent’s 
fee being allowed to go in on the general fund. The 
boxes are galvanized iron, and are of the 12 approved 
by the Department. There were a few who did not care 
to put up boxes; to such the boxes were taken and they 
were requested to put them up at the expense of the 
people. The Mexicans were eager for them, and those 
who were able to do so paid for them at once; the rest 
w’lll pay as they can in instalments. When we want 
money orders we place the application (keep blanks on 
hand) and cash in the box; the carrier sends it off and 
places a receipt in the box. The farmers of the Pecos 
Valley are a progressive up-tordate class, and having 
been in the habit of paying $1 a year for boxes in the 
post office and going six miles or more for it. never 
dreamed of kicking on the price (ours were $1.60) or of 
putting up a homemade makeshift when they can have 
the postal law protection. The weekly paper has doubled 
its pages and is now" a semi-weekly keeping farmers in 
close touch with the markets. 
The Mexicans are one of the chief objections to the, 
admission of the Territory as a State. We have lived in 
New Mexico for 12 years; they are a quiet inoffen.sive 
people, send their children to school and are very anx¬ 
ious for them to learn Engli.sh. Their chief failure is 
lack of push, though some have it. Mexicans out of em¬ 
ployment are entertained by other Mexicans till they 
can again secure work. Can New York say as much for 
its foreign population (w'e are really the foreigners here 
as they are the ori.ginal owners)? The Senatorial Inves¬ 
tigating Committee passed through Carlsbad, where they 
spent 35 minutes for supper. The citizens had made 
preparations to entertain them, but they declined to stay; 
hadn’t time. Not one glance did they take of the costly 
irrigation plant, one of the finest in the States, on which 
millions have been spent (the wooden flume is being re¬ 
placed by a concrete one this Winter at an expense of 
$40,000). The Senators passed through Roswell in the 
night, but spent 10 days in the Rio Grande Valley (where 
Mexicans predominate), taking snap-shots of Mexican 
Justices of the peace; did not go to the White Oaks 
country (Americans predominate), and spent but 35 min¬ 
utes in the Pecos Valley. m. 
n FARMER ON MORTGAGES. 
I am going to take your advice and lick a stamp for 
the benefit of the farmer in regard to the taxation of 
mortgages. As practice is of a great deal more use than 
theory I will state my own case. Thirty-four years ago 
I purchased the farm where I am now living, of 50 acres, 
for $4,250; gave a mortgage for $1,600 due in instalments, 
$320 per year; besides the interest, and assumed another 
that was already due, but was from a moneyed man, 
who. if interest was paid, would give unlimited time. 
When I saw I could not meet my first payment without 
selling my hay, which w’as selling for a song, I went to 
see the man of whom I purchased, and told him the cir¬ 
cumstances, asking as a favor that he would wait for 
the remainder of the payment until I could turn my hay 
into money. He refused, saying, “I want what is com¬ 
ing,” consequently I borrowed $180 and made my payment 
and sold my hay by holding it one year for more than 
double the price I could have got the first year, making 
my payment and paying my note of $180 (of course other 
produce raised and sold helped with the hay to do this). 
After I had paid for my farm and saved a little more 
I purchased a farm of an old neighbor w,ho had placed 
two mortgages on his farm and had failed to pay the 
interest on both for nearly two years. Both mortgages 
were overdue, but were from moneyed men and could 
run indefinitely if interest was paid. I bought this second 
farm by giving a standing offer and giving them the 
privilege to do better if they could in three months’ time. 
They failed to do better and I got the farm of 65 acres. 
'I’wo years ago I exchanged this farm with a man from 
an adjoining town for a 150-acre farm with two mort¬ 
gages upon that one, interest unpaid and one of 
them wholly due, but was held by a moneyed man and 
could run any length of time If only interest was kept 
promptly paid. Now, when I purchased these farms I 
was assessed for them in full; paid my taxes easily, be¬ 
cause there was not a mortgagee insisting on having 
everything due (they were moneyed men and they are a 
great benefit to the community, no matter if everyone is 
slinging mud at them). I ask what would have been the 
result if there had been a tax levied upon the mortgages? 
In the case of my first purchase the holder would have 
insisted on my paying it, which I could not have done, 
and I should have lost all I had paid down, $1,400. In 
the case of the second farm I would not have bought and 
my neighbor would have lost his farm or his interest in 
it. In the case of the third he would have lost that. I 
think of all mortgages on farms in the State there are 
one-third of them that could be foreclosed now» and if 
they should be., who will furnish the money to buy unless 
the mortgagor pays the tax? Then if taxes are too heavy 
already on farm property, w’hy put another on the mort¬ 
gage? Double them up, put the farmers out of business 
and let the lawyers take a hand; they make our laws; 
they can levy and collect a double fee and it is legal, 
no doubt. H. D. m’k. 
Onondaga Co., N. Y. 
ORGANIZATION TO SAVE FARM HELP. 
Referring to the question of your Massachusetts reader, 
page 246, I believe he is making a move in the right di¬ 
rection, and there ought to be a hearty encouragement 
given by the farmers to such an enterprise. It is very 
important, of course, that anyone engaging in such a 
business should thoroughly understand it before starting 
in; so that his work, as shown by results, will recom¬ 
mend itself. Portable outfits for thrashing, hay baling, 
reaping, etc., have been owned and operated and moved 
from farm to farm in the eastern grain and hay-growing 
sections for many years. Why not extend the same 
method to other branches of farm work? Spraying, for 
example, is becoming a general necessity and it reeds 
to be properly done. Not every owner of a small orchard 
can afford to purchase the necessary outfit for this work, 
and but few as yet know the proper combinations of 
arsenical or other poi.sons and how to make and apply 
them. At best it is an undesirable Job. and to have an 
outfit for every farm having but a small orchard, the 
expense is correspondingly greater than it would be could 
these poisons be purchased, mixed and applied in a whole¬ 
sale way. In California this service has been extended 
to the work of destroying insects injurious to the fruit 
interests. Men have found it profitable to equip them¬ 
selves with a complete spraying outfit of machinery, 
materials and men going from farm to farm and doing 
this work as few farmers would be able to do it. In 
this way trees are treated with hydrocyanic gas by 
dropping a tent over the trees and thereby holding the 
gas to its work until the tree is cleared of pests. 
I believe if there is a right spirit of encouragement 
and codperatlon given by farmers In the East, men will 
soon be found in every progressive farming community 
who will equip themselves with the necessary tools to 
do much of other farm work as well as spraying that is 
now. a burden, owing to the scarcity of farm help. Scarce, 
perhaps, because men are not willing to work alone with 
the individual farmer, who would be willing to do farm 
work with a gang of men. The amount of money re¬ 
quired to carry on such work would not be large. An¬ 
other plan w'ould be a combination of farmers in a given 
neighborhood owning an outfit and having some one 
qualified to run it. frankpyn pye. 
New Jersey. _ 
BUSINESS BITS. 
The outlook for draft hor.ses has never been more 
promising than at the present time. The French Coach 
and Percherons are unquestionably the most desirable 
breeds in the draft class. McLaughlin Bros., Columbus. 
O., import more of these horses than any other firm, and 
their stock is always of the sort that win first prize in 
the show ring. 
The catalogue of Morrill & Morley, of Benton Harbor, 
Mich., makers of the Eclipse Spray Pumps, is full of 
valuable matter, compiled from years of practical ex¬ 
perience representing tests that have cost the makers 
thousands of dollars. Readers using spray machinery 
should write for a copy of this catalogue and give it 
careful study. 
An Interesting catalogue, telling all about spraying- 
how, when, and what sprayer to us—is Issued for free 
distribution by Thomas Peppier, Hightstown, N. J., man¬ 
ufacturer of the famous Perfection, and Climax, six-row 
sprayers; also the Peppier two-row. sprinkler. Improved 
Riggs plows and furrowers, potato sorters, etc. This 
interesting booklet will be sent free upon request. 
The American Cream Separator, manufactured at Bain- 
bridge, N. Y,, by the company whose name it bears, is 
a clean skimmer, runs easily and is durably made, the 
essentials of all good separators. The price at which 
the American is sold makes it profitable for the dairy¬ 
man who only has a few cows. It is sold freely on test 
of its merits. You receive, examine and test thoroughly 
at your own home, and may return at manufacturers’ 
expense if it should prove unsatisfactory. 
Phe Rider and Ericsson hot air pumps have been made 
the De Lamater Iron Works and Rider Engine Co. for 
years, and the many thousands in use are convincing 
oof that people are outgrowing the idea that a slight 
fference in first cost should be a determining argument 
so important a matter as a supply of pure water for 
e country home, 'rhe Rider-Ericsson Ebgine Co., which 
ls bought the entire business of both of these com- 
nles has reduced prices nearl:^0 per cent. The wm- 
.ny has offices as follows: .35 Warren St., New York; 
) and 241 Franklin St.. Boston: 40 Dearborn St., Chicago; 
North Seventh St., Philadelphia; 692 Craig St., Montreal, 
Q., and a letter to any of these would bring a oata- 
gue with special information desired. 
