1903 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
Events of the Week. 
DOMESTIC.—July 29, at Lowell, Mass., two small gun¬ 
powder magazines in the midst of the humble homes of 
mill operatives, mostly French, exploded with a fright¬ 
ful concussion, killing 21 persons and injuring 50 others. 
Half a dozen men who were loading kegs of powder from 
one of the magazines were blown to pieces, four boys 
200 yards away were killed by the force of the explosion, 
and 14 frame houses within a radius of 400 yards went 
down as if they had been built of cards. Seven of these 
houses Immediately caught fire, probably from the 
kitchen stoves, and wei’e completely consumed. At least 
three persons were caught in the ruins and burned to 
death, while seven or eight others, who were rescued, 
died subsequently of their injuries. It is estimated that 
70 separate pieces of property, including those already 
mentioned, were destroyed, while the force of the ex¬ 
plosion wrecked windows for five or six miles around, 
and its thunder could be heard distinctly more than 60 
miles away. The accident was due to the error of an 
employee, who poured nitric acid over leaking nitro¬ 
glycerine, under the impression that it was water. The 
property loss is estimated at $100,000.A terrific 
wind and rain storm, accompanied by hail, passed over 
Alpena County, Mich., July 28, and wrought much de¬ 
struction. Orchards were leveled and crops in the fields 
were destroyed. James Fingleton’s house, in Wilson 
Township, was struck by lightning, and Fingleton was 
instantly killed, while his wife and daughter were badly 
burned. Walter Fillsbury’s farmhouse at Greeley was 
also struck and burned. His son was badly but not 
fatally injured by the lightning. At Harrisville, in Al¬ 
cona County, on the lake shore below there, lightning in¬ 
stantly killed James De Forrest and his wife in their 
home. Dell Crothers, a farmer near Onaway, in Fresque 
County, was killed July 28 by lightning. In Long Hapids, 
Andrew Hansen and a young girl were both killed in¬ 
stantly, and Hansen's uncle was seriously injured while 
they were sitting in their parlor watching the storm. 
.... Since the last Hew Hampshire Legislature placed 
a bounty of 25 cents on the hedgehogs, 26 towns, one-tenth 
of the whole number, have settled with the State Treas¬ 
urer and have turned in 7,yu6 pelts, for which the State 
has paid in bounties $1,976.50. The 464 people in the town 
of Washington killed in 90 days 1,240 of the pests, and 
Canaan comes next with 1,021.At a mass meet¬ 
ing of citizens of Idaho Springs, Col., July 27, at which 
lynching and other violent measures were advocated, 
cooler counsel prevailed, and it was decided to expel the 
oificers and principal agitators of the Miners’ Union, who 
were arrested on suspicion of complicity in recent dyna¬ 
mite outrages. The mass meeting adjourned, those pres¬ 
ent marching to the jail. The sheriff made no resist¬ 
ance, and the 14 suspects were taken out, conducted to 
the city limits and told to leave the district and never 
return. A bucket of tar and a supply of feathers had 
been provided in case they refused to go, but they de¬ 
parted promptly. The citizens have given notice that 
they are weary of the terrorizing by union miners so 
long in vogue there, and will have no more of it. 
Over 200 people were precipitated 40 feet into the Wil¬ 
lamette River from the Morrison Street bridge at Port¬ 
land, Ore., July 31. Three bodies were recovered from 
the water, 12 people severely injured, and a score or more 
were also hurt. An armless man had been advertised to 
swim the Willamette, and the bridges on both sides of 
the course were crowded with people. A great crowd 
had collected on the east end of the bridge to see the 
finish. Three deckhands from a steamer in the river 
were skylarking and the crowd surged to the south rail 
of the bridge to view their antics. The rail bent outward, 
cracked, and broke, and at the same time a section of 
the passenger way sank. Like wheat in a hopper the un¬ 
fortunates poured down this opening or fell headlong 
over the side through the broken railing. Struggle as 
they might, the unfortunates on the edge of the chasm 
could not keep their footing, but toppled and fell on the 
struggling mass beneath. A houseboat was directly under 
the break in the passenger way, and many of the first 
to go through hung on to this for a moment only to be 
knocked off by the human avalanche from above. 
From the facts and figures sent to the office of Forest 
Commissioner Edgar E. Ring, of Maine, and contained 
in a lengthy report, the loss to the State by the forest 
fires of the Spring of 1903 practically was 277,495 acres, 
with an estimated money value of $1,041,210. The acreage 
is about two per cent of the wooded area of the State. 
While in 83 cases the origin of the fire was unknown, the 
following causes are shown: Clearing land, 58; railroads, 
37; fishermen, 37; smokers, 12; camping parties, 9; porcu¬ 
pine hunters, 17; burning blueberry lands, 9; hunters, 3. 
■ . . . A heavy earthquake shock was felt through 
central California August 3. The shock was heavy in the 
Yosemite Valley. 
ADMINISTRATION.—TTie Post Office investigation de¬ 
veloped another sensation July 31, when the Federal 
Grand Jury returned seven additional indictments, in¬ 
volving nine persons, for alleged conspiracy and bribery 
in connection with postal affairs. August W. Machen, 
for many years the head of the free delivery service and 
already under indictment, was named jointly with others 
in four of the indictments. The other persons named 
are William Gordon Crawford, who was Deputy Auditor 
for the Post Office Department from June 12, 1893, to 
September 15, 1897, and is a member of one of the exclu¬ 
sive clubs in Washington; Leopold J. Stern, of Baltimore; 
George E. Lorenz, of Toledo, formerly a prominent Gov¬ 
ernment official, and Martha J. Lorenz, his wife; John T. 
Cupper, Mayor of Lock Haven, Pa.; William C. Long, 
an Ohio man, who has spent much time in Washington 
in recent years and is an intimate friend of Machen; 
Maurice Runkel, a contractor of New York City, and 
Thomas W. McGregor, a protege of Machen, who was 
a messenger at the beginning of Machen’s administra¬ 
tion of the free delivery service, and In recent years has 
been in charge of the supplies for the rural free delivery 
service. 
MEXICO.—The people living in the vicinity of Mount 
Colima are again in a state of terror. The volcano had 
another violent outburst August 2. A number of new 
■craters have been opened on the eastern slope of the 
mountain, and from these streams of lava are pouring. 
In former outbreaks the lava poured from the crater 
down the western slope and did little damage to the 
growing crops of the valley. It is evident that the vol¬ 
cano Is about to blow off its head, as the old crater is 
incapable of giving vent to the lava and gas within. The 
eruption has caused a temporary cessation of work on 
the construction of the Mexican Central’s line to the 
Pacific coast. This line has reached a point within a few 
miles of the volcano. 
GENERAL FOREIGN NEWS.—Cardinal Giuseppe Sar¬ 
to, Patriarch of Venice, who now follows Leo XIII, 
under the name of Pius X., as the 264th successor of St. 
Peter, was born at Riese, a village in the diocese of 
Treviso, north of Venice, on June 2, 1835. He is conse¬ 
quently 68 years and two months old, a little older than 
was Leo XIII. at his accession. He studied in the semi¬ 
naries of Treviso and Padua and was ordained priest in 
Castelfranco in 1858. For many years he performed the 
ordinary duties of parish priest in several parts of the 
Venetian territory, which was then under Austrian domi¬ 
nation. It was not till 1875 that he was employed in sub¬ 
ordinate diocesan offices in the diocese of Treviso. In 
1884 he was made Bishop of Mantua by Pope Leo, who, 
in the consistory of June 12, 1893, created him Cardinal, 
and three days later appointed him Patriarch of Venice. 
He was Cardinal Priest of the title of San Bernardo alle 
Terme. The Pope is of humble origin, but his family for 
generations has been noted for its fervent piety. His 
grandfather, Leone Sarto, was a soldier in the Papal 
Army under Gregory XVI. His mother was noted for 
her charitable works and great faith. He is one of eight 
children, two sons and six daughters. One of his sisters 
is a dressmaker, another is married to a sacristan and 
peddler, a third married a wineshop keeper, and the 
others are unmarried. The eider brother of the Pope, 
Angelo, lives in the village of Dellegrazie, Province of 
Mantua, being the postman of the district and receiving 
$80 a year for his duties. He adds to his income by keep-, 
ing a shop in which he sells tobacco and pork. The new 
Pope is described as possessing great charm of person 
and manner. He is honored by all for his purity, for 
the strict uprightness of his life and for liberal ideas. 
He is a modest and agreeable man, highly cultivated and 
very kindhearted. Pie has never taken great part in the 
political and public life- of the Church, but divided his 
time between study and good works. He is not a mem¬ 
ber of a religious order. 
FARM AND GARDEN.—The Maryland Horticultural 
Society and Peninsula Horticultural Society held a field 
meeting August 6, on the farm of W. F. Allen, Salisbury. 
Md. The visitors witnessed the picking, packing and 
shipping of cantaloupes from a 60-acre field. 
'The Russian Department of Agriculture invites com¬ 
petition in trials of apparatus for the Pasteurization of 
of milk, for premiums of 1,500 and 500 rubies and honorary 
aw’ards. 'The trials will take place at St. Petersburg at 
the Imperial Agricultural Museum in Spring of 1904, be¬ 
ginning March 20 (old styiej. Persons wishing to take 
part in those trials must make it known, in writing, be¬ 
fore February 15, 1904 (old style), to the Department of 
Agriculture, St Petersburg. Russian as well as foreign 
machines may be sent for the trial, the cost of transpor¬ 
tation (going and returning) being at the inventors’ or 
makers’ own charge. Machines forwarded from abroad 
will be admitted free of custom duty. Awards are to be 
granted only for the apparatus constructed in the ordi- 
nai’y size and fully equipped for work. The participation 
in the trials safeguards the right of patenting the ap¬ 
paratus. 
CROP PROSPECTS. 
The fruit crop will be an ideal one, the trees being just 
enough laden to produce large fruit. Oats were very 
backward in early Spring, but when the rains came grew 
very rank, and did not develop heads fully. Corn is un¬ 
even and looks far from a full crop, but is growing rap¬ 
idly. E. K. D. 
Barto, Pa. 
'The corn with ashes is better than my neighbor’s with 
manure, but neither worth bragging about. Oats, grass 
and potatoes are fine in northeastern part of Fulton 
County. Our 62 days’ drought retarded the haying, but 
we shall get a larger crop than in 1902. Corn is no good, 
not one-fourth crop in prospect, and the weather is cold, 
45 to 50 degrees each morning for several days. 
Northville, N. Y. m. k. w. 
Information gathered for .us by our county correspond¬ 
ents shows no particular change in crop conditions. There 
is some improvement in grapes which promise two-thirds 
f a crop. Apples are suffering from dry weather; the 
excessive Spring rains with no freezing through the 
Winter have left the soil in a very compact condition, 
which quickly loses moisture. Cultivated orchards are 
making the best showing under such conditions. The 
scab is prevalent in many counties, lessening very much 
the output of marketable fruit. w. b. flick. 
Indiana Horticultural Society. 
Apple prospects are improving all the while, but the 
crop will be only about 75 per cent of last year. We 
noticed some injury by spraying; Greening and Belmont 
show it the most. The fruits around the blossom end 
have a burnt or rusty appearance. Aphis has done con¬ 
siderable injury in our young orchards. The plum crop 
will be large, and low prices are looked for except for 
late varieties. Rot has not appeared yet, neither the 
scab on apples. Blight is very prevalent. It seems im¬ 
possible to control it on Bartlett pears. Quinces, which 
are generally considered frost-proof, are again killed this 
year. The acreage in beans is large. Potatoes are not 
upto the average w. a. b. 
Farmer, N. Y. 
We have had a peculiar season; April rather wet, a 
three weeks’ drought in May, which nearly ruined the 
Spring seeding of clover. June too wet and too cold; 
about 10 days of fair weather in July with frequent rains 
since. Hay was somewhat shortened by the May drought, 
but was still a good fair crop, secured in good condition 
if not cut too early or too late. Wheat and rye more or 
less damaged by rain. Corn is backward, but promises a 
fair crop where not drowned out In low places. Beans 
were mostly planted late on account of incessant rains 
585 
at usual planting time. I have two acres of sugar beets 
which are looking well. Few beets are raised around 
here. This is my first attempt with them. H. m. w. 
Howell, Mich. 
ONIONS IN INDIANA.—The raising of onions on a 
commercial scale is almost in its infancy in this part of 
the country, as far as years are concerned, but the 
amount of onions is large. One day last Fall I passed 
a small station on the B. & O. Railroad four miles west 
of where I live, and there were six cars loaded or load¬ 
ing with onions that day. I have no idea how many 
were shipped during the season. I think that the acreage 
this year will be twice what it was last year. The acre¬ 
age can be largely increased if the business continues 
profitable. The ground is made as fine as possible. The 
seed is drilled in rows. The rows are somewhere near 
16 Inches apart. The drilling and hoeing is done by hand 
machinery. Growers hire small boys to pull the weeds 
that are left by the hoes. There is no transplanting done. 
The crop is mostly bought by buyers from the cities 
who come here and contract. But little if any fertilizing 
is done, but that will come in later years, as it has on 
the grain farms. There has been a large amount of dredge 
ditching done in the county in the last six or eight years, 
and the onions are all raised on low land. TTie soil looks 
as if it was composed of decayed vegetable matter and 
is light and loose. w. t. c. 
Albion, Ind. 
HESSIAN FLY IN OHIO.—In Bulletin 136 of the Ohio 
Station (Wooster) an excellent statement of the known 
facts about this insect is given. The following methods 
of preventing damage are taken from the bulletin: “The 
more practical method of combating this pest would 
seem to be, when danger from fiy is apprehended, to sow 
a part of the crop at a moderately early date—say from * 
about September 5 in the lake shore counties to about 
September 18 along the Ohio River—then watch the young 
plants closely for the minute, reddish eggs of the fly. If 
none is found when the plants are 10 to 12 days old, sow 
the remainder of the crop; but if the young plants are 
found to be considerably infested, wait another week be¬ 
fore sowing. Another method which might commend 
itself to some would be to make sevei’al sowings, a few 
days apart, in the hope that some of these would draw 
the main attack of the tty, and thus save the others. It 
has been repeatedly observed that wheat sown one day 
may be severely injured by the fly, while that sown the 
next day may escape; the apparent explanation being 
that the first sowing has drawn the full force of the fly 
attack and thus protected that sown later. For this out¬ 
come to be realized it is evident that ihe first sowing 
must be large enough to furnish plants enough for all 
the flies. We have not observed that the one-tenth acre 
plots used in our early and late sowings had any appre¬ 
ciable effect in protecting ihe large fields adjoining. The 
practical farmer would much rather lose all the wheat 
on one-third of his acreage than to lose one-third of the 
wheat on all his acreage; and if by sacrificing a part of 
his crop in this manner he could save the remainder, he 
would gladly do so.” 
CLOVER IN OREGON.—In a recent bulletin from the 
Oregon Station (Corvallis), John B. Stump makes the 
following statement to show the value of clover in hia 
State: "I will refer you to a piece of land containing 115 
acres which was sown to clover and oats. Seeding was 
finished May 15. The following September sowed four 
pounds of Timothy seed per acre. Harvested 4,000 bushels 
of oats. 'These were sold at 35 cents per bushel, bringing 
$1,400. The following year cut 275 tons of hay; some of 
this hay was sold at $14 per ton on the farm, but say we 
estimate it at $5 per ton, which would net $1,376. The 
same year in September cut the second crop for seed, 
which yielded 21,275 pounds of seed, which brought nine 
cents per pound or $1,944.75. 'The second year there were 
cut from the field 250 tons of 'Timothy and clover hay, for 
which we will allow $5 per ton (which is a low figure), 
$1,250. In September cut patches in the field for ‘seed 
getting 1,600 pounds at 10 cents per pound, making $160. 
'Third year cut 300 tons of 'Timothy hay. Sold this for 
$9 per ton, or $2,700. This would make the total gross re¬ 
ceipts for the 115 acres for three years of $8,789.75. Now 
we will allow our neighbor who Summer-fallowed at that 
time 115 acres. Summer-fallowed the first year and sec¬ 
ond year harvested his wheat; allowing the wheat yield 
30 bushels per acre, sold for $1 per bushel or $3,460. A 
good many farmers would reseed this field in the Fall 
to wheat, and we will allow them 25 bushels per acre, or 
$2,875 for this crop, thus making a total of $6,326 f?i the 
three years as against $8,789.75 for the 115 acres of clover, 
making a difference in favor of the clover of $2,464.75, and 
a greater difference would be in the farming of the land, 
that had been in clover for the next five or six years.” 
BUSINESS BITS. 
The time to kill Canada thistles Is all the time. Farmers 
will have more leisure for such work now that the har¬ 
vest Is over, and we would advise a trial of Thistleine 
to those troubled with this most damaging weed. 'This- 
tleine is said to destroy any of the noxious weeds if used 
in accordance with directions. Write the Lindgren 
Chemical Co., 8 So. Ionia St.. Grand Rapids, Mich., for 
full information. 
No Investment on the’.farm pays better than the pur¬ 
chase of new blood, whether it be in live stock or seeds. 
Wheat sowing time will soon be at hand, and there are 
a number of first-class houses represented in our adver¬ 
tising columns that will be glad to furnish a fine quality 
of seed wheat. We wish to call attention particularly to 
the new variety, “Malakoff,” offered by Ratekin’s Seed 
Hou.se, Shenandoah, la., which is said to have yielded 
as high as 60 bushels per acre. 
The Interest shown in gasoline engines is remarkable. 
We hear of people everywhere who are investigating this 
power. This interest has stimulated manufacturers to 
improve their machines until they are more faithful than 
most hired men, and come as close to actual brain work 
as metal can. The catalogue issued by the Charter Gas 
Engine Co.. Sterling. Ill., is a model. One who studies it 
cannot fail to understand how these engines operate. 
This old and well known house is thoroughly reliable. 
Notwithstanding the availability of steam, gas, gaso¬ 
line, oil and other engines and water wheels, and motors 
and electric motors over the greatest part of this coun¬ 
try horses and other farm animals continue to supply 
much of the power required in successful farm opera¬ 
tions. The Fearless horse power which is manufactured 
by the Harder Mfg. Co., Cobleskill, N, Y., possesses fea¬ 
tures peculiarly its own. The Harder people publish a 
very excellent catalogue, fully illustrating and describ¬ 
ing it. 'Phey will mail this catalogue fre« to all who 
request it. 
