1903 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
425 
Events of the Week. 
domestic.—F ire in an armory at Philadelphia, Pa., 
May 20, cause a loss of $90,000. Spontaneous combustion 
is held responsible. On the same day another fire in a 
suburban section of that city destroyed large oilcloth 
works, causing a loss of $50,000.Fire at Calu¬ 
met, Mich., May 20, caused a loss of $250,000 on the saw¬ 
mill and stock of the Dollar Bay Land and Improvement 
Co. Incendiarism is suspected.May 21 a small 
gasoline automobile exploded twice within five minutes 
on a New York street, injuring six men in the fiist ex¬ 
plosion and five in the second.The decision of 
the United States Circuit Court at Pittsburg, Pa., May 
21 , that the Pennsylvania Railroad was at liberty to re¬ 
move Western Union poles and wires from the Pennsyl¬ 
vania’s right of way was followed immediately by drastic 
action on the part of the railroad. That corporation 
immediately began cutting down the poles of the West¬ 
ern Union Telegraph Company along the Cumberland 
Valley. Northern Central and the Pennsylvania lines. 
An army of men was employed to do the work, and the 
entire Western Union system along the Pennsylvania 
lines was practically destroyed. The Western Union, 
however, had prepared for such a move by completing 
its independent system and there was no serious inter¬ 
ruption to its business. The Pennsylvania Railroad 
Company, as soon as the decision was made known, 
started cutting gangs along its system. The damage is 
said to amount to $300,090.The Grand Jury of 
the United States Court at Montgomery, Ala., has found 
an indictment against Robert N. Franklin, a white citi¬ 
zen of Goodwater, Ala., charging him with having sold 
one Joe Patterson, a negro, to J. W. Pace, a land owner 
of Tallapoosa County, in a condition of peonage or in¬ 
voluntary service. The negro borrowed $1 from Frank¬ 
lin, promising to pay it back the next day. He failed 
to do so. He was arrested, convicted and fined for ob¬ 
taining money under false pretenses before a magistrate. 
He was sold for $25 to a Mr. Hardy, who worked him 
for a year. Then he was sold for $40 to Mr. Pace, who 
has been working him since for a year. This is only one 
of many such cases. Secret Service men are working upon 
the cases. It is said that many more negroes are still 
in bondage in three or four counties of this State. The 
magistrates fine negroes, have some one pay their fine, 
and work them, all the time having a guard over them 
all day and lock them up at night. They are sometimes 
brutally whipped. Franklin is in jail.Suit has 
been brought by Attorney-General Bell, of Texas, against 
nearly all the large wholesale grocery houses of San An¬ 
tonio for violation of the new anti-trust law of Texas, 
for having formed a trust and agreeing to maintain cer¬ 
tain prices for groceries sold to retail dealers. The suits 
demand $15,000 penalties and forfeiture of the charters 
of ail the offending companies.Fatal tornadoes 
occurred in sections of Kansas, Nebi’aska, Texas and 
Indian Territory May 21. Assyria, Kan., experienced 
thi-ee tornadoes in 24 hours.The forest fire% 
of the last few weeks have burned over nearly a million 
acres of Adirondack forests, often leaving the whiL 
sand bare of vegetation, stripping the rocky ledges of al' 
roots and soil and killing timber of inestimable value 
both on private and State lands. If the total loss could 
be reduced to figures it might be placed at $2,000,000. It 
will be 30 years before the forests recently visited by 
lires will again present as fine an appearance as they 
did before the flames struck them. The loss to game 
life throughout the mountains has also been heavy, for 
the nests of grouse have been destroyed wherever they 
were anywhere near the lires, and hundreds of fawns 
have been killed. Fire fighters throughout the moun¬ 
tains have been working steadily for more than three 
weeks in their efforts to hold the flames in check. The 
spread of the fires meant much to them, for their own 
safety and that of their homes was involved. Great 
damage has been done to lands owned by the poor farm¬ 
ers, wJiose meadows and woodlots have been overrun 
by lires, and to the great estates of wealthy men, who 
maintain parks and preserves for the sake of hunting, 
fishing and recreation. Thousands of acres of State 
lands have also been burned over.A cloud¬ 
burst near Enid, Gkla., May 23, caused a property loss 
of $390,000, and rendered hundreds of people homeless. 
. . . . Fire in a great warehouse in Philadelphia May 24 
destroyed property amounting to $1,000,000.A 
storm, accompanied by an enormous fall of hail, swept 
over a large area 30 miles west of Richmond, Va., May 
25. Trees were blown down or stripped of their leaves, 
chimneys and roofs were blown away and windows were 
broken. Six inches of hail was left on the ground. Not 
a blade of grass was standing, and no produce left for 
cattle.A series of heavy storms, two of which 
developed into the worst tornadoes which have visited 
southern Nebraska for years, passed over portions of 
Clay, Franklin and Kearney counties May 24. Sixteen 
persons are known to have lost their lives and more 
than a score of persons were more or less seriously in¬ 
jured.Fire at Laconia, N. H., May 26, de¬ 
stroyed 200 dwellings, two churches and several mills, 
causing a loss of $500,000. The burned territory is about 
two miles square.Five tornadoes occurred in 
Iowa May 25-26, killing six pei'sons near Des Moines. 
The most serious phase of the storms is the phenomenal 
rainfall, which has turned every stream into raging 
floods, inundating many square miles of territory. Hun¬ 
dreds have been di'iven from their homes, two drowned 
and half a dozen wrecks, attended with fatalities, have 
been traced to washouts. Damage to stock and crops 
is already enormous. Hail, wind, lightning and rain 
have combined to cause unprecedented havoc. Lincoln, 
Neb., was visited by a tornado and cloudburst May 26, 
causing property loss of $200,000.A gas explo¬ 
sion in a mine at Federal, Pa., May 26, killed four men, 
fatally hurt five, and injured several others. 
FARM AND GARDEN.—The next biennial meeting of 
the American Pomological Society will be held in Horti¬ 
cultural Hall, Boston, Mass., September 10-12. 
A farmers’ picnic will be held at Purdue University, 
Lafayette, Ind., June 12. Arrangements have been made 
with the Central Passenger Association by which anyone 
in the State may secure 1 1-3 fare round trip tickets to 
Lafayette from the local agent, on June 11 and 12, and 
good returning to and including June 13. 
The management of the Iowa State Fair has added a 
new feature to the Fair programme. A scholarship in 
the regular agricultural course at the Iowa State Col¬ 
lege of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts at Ames, valued 
at $200, will be awarded to the boy who does the most 
proficient work in judging certain classes of horses and 
cattle, and samples of corn assigned for this purpose. 
All contestants must send their applications for entry to 
J. C. Simpson, Secretary Department of Agriculture, 
Des Moines, la., by August 12, 1903. An entrance fee 
of $2 will be charged each contestant. Any boy living in 
the State of Iowa, under 21 years of age, who has not 
been regularly classified in any agricultural college, may 
enter this contest; but this restriction does not apply to 
those who have attended only two weeks special course. 
The Missouri State Horticultural Society will hold its 
Summer meeting at Pertle Springs (.Warrensburg), June 
3-5. 
CROP PROSPtCTS. 
Reports from the West and Southwest shows that the 
damage to the fruit from the late frost was severe. The 
berry crop has evidently been badly hurt. Apples appear 
to have been severv v injured, in the Southwest and 
through the section vhere the Ben Davis is largely 
planted it is evident that a short crop will follow. The 
peach crop is also reported badly injured through the 
West, it is a fact, however, that in former years re¬ 
ports of this kind have been made only to be followed 
by a fair crop, and this only goes to show that most re¬ 
ports made at this time are mere guesses at the truth. 
Drought with us is fearful; the worst for hay I have 
known. A good many potatoes are coming up poorly 
Corn planted will not come up until we have rain. Al¬ 
together prospects are quite gloomy. d. c. lewis. 
Middlesex Co., N. J, 
This is a peculiar season, when May weather came in 
March and July weather in May with frost and ice in 
April and not rain enough to lay the dust from April 15 
to the present time save a half hour’s shower on May 
14. The March weather was so fine that raspberries, 
blackberries, currants and gooseberries were all cleaned 
and plantings made, and the growth has been good, but 
of strawberries we have set out few plants, and those 
mostly died, practically a failure. Without we have rain 
in a few days the strawberry crop will be a failure also. 
Cherries, plums and peaches are all gone; fair crop of 
pears promised, and large setting of apples. In conse¬ 
quence of snow covering the ground all Winter Crim¬ 
son clover wintered well. 1 had a very heavy crop 
where sown in my sweet corn, but the crop of rye and 
Crimson grown on an old strawberry bed sown on Au¬ 
gust 13, 1902, has surprised me. This piece of 2^ acres 
was sown to be plowed under for corn in the Spring, but 
weather conditions prevented, and it was left to grow 
until May 13, when it was mown and having a very dry 
hot week it has been secured in fine condition, with an 
estimated weight of over seven tons. 'The surprise comes 
from the fact that but one bushel of rye was sown, and 
about 50 pounds of clover. The rye stooled out to such 
an extent that from 16 to 30 stallts were grown from a 
single grain of rye, and from eight to 16 stalks of clover 
from a single seed. The rye when cut was from five to 
over six feet in height, and not yet in bloom. The Crim¬ 
son clover was from 20 to 25 inches high and in full 
bloom. You may imagine what a beautiful sight it was. 
The waving plumes of the rye in its setting of beauty 
was expressed by one who saw it as the most beau¬ 
tiful sight he had ever seen. One point 1 want to call 
attention to it the fact that given plenty of fertility one- 
half the seed usually sown may be saved. 
Poughkeepsie, N. Y. wai..ter f. taber. 
DELAWARE FRUIT NOTES.—Notwithstanding a se¬ 
vere drought of nearly six weeks’ duration 80 carloads of 
strawberries, or 800,000 quarts, were carried over the 
Delaware Railroad on Saturday, May 23, and up to this 
date the shipments are 1,000,000 quarts ahead of those for 
the same period of 1902. The prices have been very good 
indeed, running about eight or 10 cents per quart at the 
railroad stations. Sussex Co., Delaware, produces more 
strawberries than any other county in the world, the 
yield in 1899 being 7,166,330 quarts. It is estimated to have 
been fully 10,000,000 quarts in 1902 and if this season had 
been entirely favorable it probably would have reached 
13,000,000 quarts. Wheat will be light, a long period of 
cold and wet weather being followed by a drought which 
baked the ground. Timothy hay and Red clover will also 
be very short. But there probably never was a larger 
or better crop of Crimson clover hay, nor was it ever 
harvested in better condition than this year. The Fall 
was favorable to its growth and farmers sowed it every¬ 
where, in their orchards, cornfields, tomato patches and 
wherever possible. Kieffer pears will not be very 
abundant this year, but there will be some. Many 
peach orchards have a good sprinkling of fruit 
which promises to come to maturity and be very fine. 
Apples were never more abundant. wesley webb. 
Dover. Del. ______________ 
THE STORED EGG SITUATION. 
Sales of Tested” Eggs. 
From the best information obtainable 1 find there were 
not nearly so many eggs in storage April 1 as in former 
years; but they have been putting them in at a lively 
rate thus far this month. It is also generally thought 
that there are not so many put up by outside parties as 
is former years. It looks as though the egg business 
would be confined to the legitimate trade. 
Kansas City, Mo. d. a. trimble & co. 
As near as we are able to find out there are about the 
same number of eggs in storage in. Chicago this year as 
last. This, however, is not authentic information, simply 
talk that we hear in our rounds. We have no means of 
finding out to a certainty what there are in storage here. 
We have done no business in eggs that have been tested 
out of the incubator, and do not know of parties using 
this class of stock. a. h. barber & co. 
Chicago, Ill. 
Our Judgment is that there are not half as many eggs 
stored here as we had last year. The price has been so 
high that very few of our large handlers have taken on 
any eggs at all. It looks to us like a very dangerous 
proposition to put away eggs at present prices. We do 
not know of any eggs tested out of the incubator being 
sold on this market. We would think this kind of an 
egg would be unfit for any use. There are very few 
incubators used in this section. a. m. lamb & bro. 
Baltimore, Md, 
A conservative system places the amount of eggs in 
cold storage in Denver at 40 per cent more than a year 
ago. Most of the eggs, however, are held by the com¬ 
mission merchants who have an established trade, and 
can easily dispose of their holdings to their regular cus¬ 
tomers. We do not believe that the speculators have 
put away a single case in the coolers here, while the 
meat packers have but vei’y lew stored. But all the 
egg dealers think that the market is a little high for a 
profitable sale of stock next Fall and Winter. 
Denver, Col. l. l. melcher. 
The stock of eggs in cold storage in this market April 
4 was 124,939 cases, being 45,156 cases more than at the 
same time last year. There will probably be about 225,000 
cases stored here. Regarding incubator eggs, we have 
never heard of their being sold here as such, but we 
have had them shipped in mixed with fancy stock; such 
conduct on the part of shippers is very inexcusable and 
works to their disadvantage, as it hurts their reputation 
with the people who buy their eggs. Market is very 
firm for eggs at present time. amos keyes & co. 
Boston, Mass, 
The egg situation here is a very firm one. Receipts 
are much heavier than one year ago and at present we 
have about 100 per cent more eggs in cold storage than 
we had last year, and as near as we can learn the same 
condition exists in New York and Boston; or, in other 
words, early eggs have been stored in the East this year 
rather than in the West. Regarding eggs that are tested 
out of incubators we know very little of them; we had 
some little experience with that class of eggs, but it 
has not been at all satisfactory. We presume the Italians 
could use them; they can use almost anything. 
Fhiladelphia, Fa. moffit, went worth & co. 
We think the cold storage situation this year is a 
dangerous one. It is practically impossible to give you 
an estimate of the number of eggs in storage, but we 
are of the opinion that they are considerably in excess 
of the number stored last year at this time. In regard 
to the story about using incubator rejections, we believe 
there is a great deal of exaggeration in it. While it is 
true that some eggs of a doubtful character are used 
every year in manufacturing, yet as a whole, we find 
there is practically no demand for them. We handle the 
largest quantity of eggs of any house in this city and 
would come in contact with such a demand, but there is 
so little of it that we consider it practically nothing. To 
understand the question of the difference in eggs thor¬ 
oughly, it is necessary to be fully familiar with the 
various grades, and while tor family and table use it 
requires a strictly fresh egg, yet an egg that is two or 
three weeks old is not at all objectionable to use for 
baking or in manufacturing. Of course, if they get be¬ 
yond the stale period and approach the decaying and 
rotten state, then they should be discarded and thrown 
away, which we invariably do with ours. 
St. Louis, Mo. F. w. BROCKMAN COMMISSION CO. 
BUSINESS BITS. 
W. F. Ely, Madison, N. J., has 200 homer pigeons for 
sale. These are best for squab raising. Write him for 
particulars. 
A SICKLE lawn mower has been invented by the 
Leavitt Mfg. Co., Tuscola, 111. This is a wonderful im¬ 
provement on old style mowers. The lly-wheel gives it 
a steady power and clears the guards at the finish, 
'riiis machine may be obtained direct from the makers; 
circular and particulars free. 
Most of the lawn swings made, while affording un¬ 
limited fun for the children, are not specially comfortable 
for others, and are also without means of providing 
necessary shade. The Hutchins horizontal roller swing 
is free from these objections; it is as easy as a rocking 
cliair, gives a very pleasant motion, and, with its canopy 
top, makes a delightful resting place on a Summer day. 
Send to the Hutchins Roller Swing Co., Box 104, Alton, 
ill., for description and terms to agents. 
It is now just 20 years since the manufacture of Swan’s 
felt roofing was begun. It is a meritorious article and 
admirably adapted to a wide range of uses about the 
farm. Wherever protection from wind, snow, rain or 
frost is needed it serves a good puriiose. Asphanite for 
painting metal roofs has a world-wide reputation; it is 
superior to oil paint and costs about half as much. Both 
are manufactured by the A. F. Swan Co., 116 Nassau 
St., New York. Anyone unfamiliar with their products 
may receive samples and full descriptions by writing the 
company. 
Our attention has been attracted by a unique little 
book which is issued by the Elkhart Carriage and 
Harness Manufacturing Co., Elkhart, Ind., and sent 
out with new catalogue. It shows on opposite pages the 
styles of 30 years ago and the corresponding patterns of 
to-day. The large catalogue issued by this advertiser 
will be sent free to any reader who will write for it. These 
people make everything they sell and sell only to the 
consumer. They have no agents or branch houses, and 
so all extra profits and expenses are done away. Write 
to-day. 
A proclamation has been issued by the State of 
Wyoming, in which Dr. Seabury, State Veterinarian, 
specifies Chloro-Naptholeum Dip as the preparation to 
be used for the treatment of live stock affected with 
mange, itch and lice. Dr. Seabury has carried on exten¬ 
sive experiments with all the dips, and his decision to 
use Chloro-Naptholeum Dip exclusively is based on the 
results which he has secured and which breeders with 
whom he is acquainted have secured by the use of Chloro- 
Naptholeum Dip, In every instance Chloro-Naptholeum 
Dip has been proven the safest, best and most reliable 
preparation of its kind, and one that can always be relied 
upon for successful results. To the farmers who have 
not yet used Chloro-Naptholeum this proclamation will 
be assuring. Write the West Disinfecting Co., 4 E. 59th 
St., New York City. Some attractive offers are being 
made at this time. 
