1903 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
6i7 
Events of the Week. 
domestic.—T he Silver Spray, a fishing boat, owned 
at Erie, Pa., was fired upon by the Canadian revenue 
(Utter Peti'el August 12 and badly shattered. The cutter 
look the American boat to be a poacher. The CanacTian 
authorities have had trouble with American fishermen 
for years, who were said to be poaching on their side of 
the lake, and the Petrel is kept constantly on the look¬ 
out for them. Captain Dunn, of the Petrel, says that 
when he was after the Silver Spray two other boats got 
away. He declares that he had the Silver Spray headed 
off and virtualy under arrest when she made a dash for 
liberty. 'Phen he treated her as a policeman treats a bur¬ 
glar who endeavors to escape, and fired at her. 'Phe im- 
;)res.<-'ion in the marine Department is that the shots were 
rifle shots. It is stated by high officials that there ha'^ 
been very bold fishing on the Dakes and that the Depart¬ 
ment is determined to put an end to it. ... A fiight- 
ful killing occurred at Winfield, Kan., August 1.2, while 
(’aman’s Band was playing its weekly concert in the 
main street of the towm to a crowd of 5,000 people. Gil¬ 
bert Twigg, a crazy man, 30 years of age, opened fire on 
the crowd with a double-barrelled shotgun loaded with 
bullets. As a result four persons are de.ad, three are dy¬ 
ing and 20 are wounded. With the crowd fleeing, the man 
fired at random in every direction, until Officer Nichols 
confronted the lunatic and fired a bullet into his head. 
Before he expired the demented man drew a revolver 
from his pocket and fired a shot into his own body, has¬ 
tening his death. Gilbert Twigg was a miller by trade 
and was commonly referred to as “Crazy” Twigg, but 
no one thought him dangerous. . . . Striking a match 
lost the life of William Hannon at Susquehanna Depot, 
Pa.. August 16. While waiting for a train he struck a 
match on a coil of pipe in the station waiting room. 
Sparks flew in all directions and Hannon fell dead. In¬ 
vestigation showed the pipe to be heavily charged with 
electricity, but from what source could not be ascer¬ 
tained. . . . August 17, at Lafayette, Ind., work began 
on the new standpipe at the county jail, and when it is 
finished the Jail will be proof against mob violence. It 
is the idea of Supt. Harrison that water is the best “per¬ 
suader” ever used upon a mob. He does not believe in 
shooting into a mob. The standpipe will be erected be¬ 
tween the front and rear entrances to the jail. The force 
of the stream will easily knock a man down, and played 
upon an entrance will keep out any number of men. . . 
. . Judge Rogers, in the United States Circuit Court at 
St. Louis, Mo., August 17, refused to issue a restraining 
order against the Western Union Telegraph Company on 
the application of the Commercial Telegraphers’ Union 
of America, or to Interfere in any way. The decision 
grows out of charges of blacklisting. The suit was 
brought to prevent the Western Union from discharging 
employees because of their connection with the union. 
The opinion holds that the telegraph company has the 
absolute right to dismiss employees because they belong 
to the union or for any other reason; that there can be 
no conspiracy to do a lawful act; and that the so-called 
“black list.” composed of the names of discharged em¬ 
ployees, may be maintained and given out for the use of 
others. . . . Noah Brooks, author of many popular 
boys’ books, and a well-known journalist, died at Pasa¬ 
dena, Cal., August 17, aged 73. ... A cl(\udburst in the 
mountains adjacent to Monterey, Cal., caused a flood in 
the Santa Catarina River, which flows through the lower 
part of the town August 17. More than 300 houses were 
washed away, making 1,000 people homeless. A number 
of lives were lost. 
ADMINISTRATION.—An official estimate of the land 
holdings of the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company ana 
its subsidiary corporations in Colorado accounts for 
750,000 acres of Government land that ha.s been u^^,uircd 
at various times in the last 10 years through homestead 
titles, or by the aid of entries under the timber and 
stone acts, which allow the title to pass from the Gov¬ 
ernment to the entrymen at the rate of $2.50 an acre, 
instead of flO, the regular price for coal and mineral 
lands. Some of this land was entered in good faith be¬ 
fore the valuable character of the soil became known, 
and cannot be questioned, but it is alleged that the 
larger part has been taken up covertly by agents of the 
company in the last five years. It is said that the 
amount due the Government will aggregate $10,000,000. 
There is little doubt that Congress at the coming se.ssion 
will demand a full investigation of the land frauds In 
Colorado. The Interior Department has been looking 
into the reported fraudulent entries, and considerable 
information is now filed with the Department. It has 
been proved that persons have filed claims in the names 
of dead men, have forged names and have paid small 
sums outright for the use of names. A Government of¬ 
ficer familiar with the coal fields surrounding Trinidad 
is authority for the statement that fully 90 per cent of 
the coal lands now owned in that region were irregularly 
filed upon.Secretary of the Interior Hitchcock 
issued an order August 10 to Superintendent Seger, of the 
Seger Indian Training School, of Oklahoma, to remain 
in Washington and make complete oral and written re¬ 
ports of the recent “personally conducted” sun dance, 
given for the edification of Prof. Mooney, of the Bureau 
of Ethnology, and Prof. Dorsey, of the Field Museum 
of Chicago, by the Cheyenne and Arapahoe Indians of 
Oklahoma. Secretary Hitchcock is highly Incensed over 
the holding of the sun dance under the direction of 
Government officials. He said: “If it is found that any 
persons, whether in the Government service or not, were 
instrumental in inciting the Indians to the sun dance 
torture, they shall be reached and punished if there is 
a law on the statute books under which it can be done.” 
GENERAIi FOREIGN NEWS.—The hurricane in the 
West Indies August 10-11 caused great damage In Ja¬ 
maica. The southeastern portion of the Island was com¬ 
pletely denuded of its crops, the rivers were flooded, and 
many men were carried out to sea and drowned. Con¬ 
sidering the damage to property by the hurricane, the 
loss of life was comparatively small, although the death 
list will reach 200. Hundreds of persons were injured, 
and there were numerous hairbreadth escapes. The 
property loss is estimated at $15,000,000. Villages have 
been wiped out, and public buildings and churches de¬ 
molished. Thousands of the peasantry, rendered - home¬ 
less and destitute, are wandering about seeking food 
and shelter. 'I’he destruction of the banana plantations 
was complete, and the fruit trade will be paralyzed for 
the next 12 months. Hundreds of prosperous fruit grow¬ 
ers have been brought to bankruptcy and ruin. The 
western end of the island, w'hich was at first supposed 
I’.ad escai)ed. also suffered severely, though the damage 
is not so heavy as in the eastern section. New banana 
plan ations there- \ pai’lly destroyed, and the orange 
;:nd tof.'ee crops v. fre al.so In.iured. Only six houses are 
■standing in the town of San Antonio. Fifteen hundred 
jicrsons there are homeless, 'i'wo thousand are homeless 
in Port Antonio. Onl.v the tail of the hurricane struck 
Kingston, which was less damaged than the other towns, 
althou.gh tlK- electric lighting and water plants were dam¬ 
aged and all the shipping was more or less injured. . . 
. . Vesuvius f-ontinues active, and llte eruption has now 
lasted tv o weeks. On nights when there is no moon¬ 
light the spectacle is magnificent, the crater belching 
flames and sm' ke to the hei.ght of nearly 4,000 feet. In 
spite of the legend that Naples will be destroyed by Vesu¬ 
vius. the Neapolit.-ins firmly believe that their patron 
saint. San Gennaro. will stop the flow of lava with a ges¬ 
ture should it advance too near Naples. The stream of 
lava, after flowing 2,G50 feet in the direction of Ottajano, 
has stopped, while the other stream is still moving and 
has reached a point 2,550 feet toward Pompeii. 
FARM AND GARDEN.—The Twenty-fourth annual 
meeting of the National Farmers’ Congress at Niagara 
Falls, N. Y., opening September 22, promises to attract 
many farmers of the State. Excursion rates can be pro¬ 
cured from all railroads, on the certificate plan. The 
delegates are commissioned by the governors of the sev- 
eraL States, and any farmer is eligible to appointment. 
For information in regard to appointment as delegates, 
write to John M. Stahl, Secretary, 4328 Langley Ave., 
Chicago, Ill. 
The meeting of the Wayne County, N. Y., Fruit Grow¬ 
ers’ Association on the farm of J. H. Teats & Sons at 
HON. JAMES WOOD, MOUNT KISCO, N. Y. Fig. 233. 
Williamson August 11, was largely attended and proved 
one of the most successful meetings in the history of the 
Association, fully 300 being present. Among the speakers 
were Prof. L. A. Clinton, Prof. S. A. Beach, and J. II. 
Hale. 
The botanical department of the Vermont Experiment 
Station is making a study of stem-rot diseases of toma- 
toe.s and potatoes, and wishes to secure specimens of any 
plants showing trouble - of this nature, especially from 
New Elngland, New York or adjacent Canadian territory. 
The plants thus far seen have been dead or dying at trie 
base of the stem, while the upper part of the stem and 
the leaves were still green, as the disease progresses the 
top suddenly wilts and dies. Anyone observing this 
trouble will confer a favor by sending a few such dis¬ 
eased stems, preferably in the earlier stages of the dis¬ 
ease, to the Experiment Station. Most of the foliage can 
be cut away and the stems bent and simply rolled up in 
new’spaper. marked with the name of the sender and ad¬ 
dressed. Botanical Department, Experiment Station, Bur¬ 
lington, Vt. 
The dedication of the agricultural and horticultural 
buildings at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, St. Louis, 
will take place on or about October 15, and it is the wish 
of the authorities to invite all members of the agricul¬ 
tural press to be present. 
The late Potato blight is on th’e rampage all through 
the State of Vermont as result of the wet weather. Im¬ 
mediate spraying inside of a week may save a part of 
some blighted crops, using Bordeaux Mixture—six pounds 
copper sulphate or blue vitriol, four pounds of stone lime 
to a barrel of water. To him who has not the apparatus 
or the chemicals and who must get them, however, the 
chance for the saving of the crop is gone. If the pota¬ 
toes are of fair size and appear ripe, and one cannot 
spray, it is probably best to dig at once. There is less 
likelihood of rot, though the yield will probably be small. 
We have a very fine apple crop here this year and it is 
moving. All goes to Europe. The early varieties have so 
far realized fine prices, up to $4.50, and now the Baldwins 
are being attacked; too bad, they are yet so immature. 
Dutchess Co., N. Y. w. s t 
NOTES FROM THE HITCHINGS ORCHARD. 
Our home orchards stood the extreme drought without 
any damage, and when rain came responded to its effect 
very much quicker than in the orchard I am cultivating 
for comparison. This has invariably been my experience; 
a light shower shows a marked effect on a mulched or¬ 
chard, with none at all on one cultivated. It does not 
penetrate the earth mulch to the r®ots. and soon evap¬ 
orates, while in mulched orchard the feeding roots being 
close to surface, absorb the moisture, and the growing 
grass and mulch prevent rapid evaporation. The String- 
fellow peach trees average in appearance now fully as 
well as the others; I think they are gaining a little. The 
mulched peach trees are not growing as vigorously as 
those cultivated, but the wood seems firmer, and I be¬ 
lieve will stand the cold better. The farm never looked 
better than it does to-day; the young trees that we set 
this Spring nearly all lived, and with the grass cut and 
the new growth coming on they certainly look nice. I 
hope you will not be tempted to take too much hay out 
of the orchard. My experience has taught me that in 
the long run it does not pay. grant q. hitchings. 
Onondaga Co., N. Y. 
A PECULIAR FORM OF APPLE AND PEAR 
BLICHT. 
The apple and pear orchards between St. Catherines 
and Hamilton. Ontario, Canada, have suffered a good 
deal this year from our old enemy “fire blight” or “twig 
blight.” Pears are affected in the ordinary way—that is 
to say, branches entire and in part are affected here and 
there, while an occasional tree is completely involved 
and should be cut down. In the case of the apples, the 
character of the injury is quite unusual. Instead of 
branches and twigs being affected, the injury is almost 
exclusively confined to the fruit spurs. Especially is this 
true of the Greenings, where in some instances, two- 
thirds of the spurs are affected. The disease seems to 
have entered by way of the blossom, which it destroyed 
with the entire fruit spur from which it sprung. In most 
instances in the Greenings, the injury did not extend be¬ 
yond the spur. In the Spies, however, there is to be seen 
a good deal of twig blight. At first sight the injury ap¬ 
pears very severe, but a close examination reveals the 
fact that the greatest damage occurs on trees that would 
otherwise have been overloaded. The blight then has had 
the effect of thinning the fruit. It also thinned the 
leaves unfortunately but I am of the opinion that there 
was more of the former than the latter, and that the 
ultimate reckoning will not indicate a heavy loss. It is 
probable that it will favorably influence the setting of 
fruit buds for next year’s crops. Perhaps the most seri¬ 
ous possibility is to be viewed in the amount of diseased 
wood now on the trees. With these diseased twigs on the 
tree, next year, coupled with favorable conditions for the 
development of blight, it is reasonable to expect another 
invasion of blight, and perhaps of a more serious char- 
JOHN CRAIG. 
L’ornell University. 
ONIONS ON A LARGE SCALE. 
Near Orrvllle, O., are located several hundred acres of 
muck land suitable for growing the onion to perfection 
from seed. I recently talked with the manager and part 
owner of the largest and most scientifically conducted 
onion farm. He superintends the planting and care of 
loo acres of red and yellow globes. Seed is sown early 
m March in rows 12 inches apart, requiring 41/2 pounds 
of seed per acre. They are very carefully weeded by 
hand and cultivated by man power. This furnishes work 
tor a large number of boys and men. From an industrial 
point it is a useful establishment, but from a moral 
standpoint it is a breeder of all that boys of questionable 
character can_ develop, when congregated in large num¬ 
bers. Each 15 or 20 boys is presided over by a watch¬ 
man, while the hand cultivators go in squads of five to 
eight men. Subduing weeds on muck land is difficult, 
when fed as this farm is, and it requires the greatest tact 
to manage this large horde of humanity in order to make 
It pay. The land is plowed in the Fall and four tons of 
wood ashes, spread from wagons, hauled on each acre 
In March following 800 pounds of complete fertilizer is 
sown with a grain drill. From such manuring and tillage 
this man has a 10-year average of 600 bushels per acre, 
while the largest yield ever secured from any one acre 
was 1,000 bushels. The harvesting of 100,000 bushels of 
onions is a big undertaking, but by October 1 they will 
be in storage for Winter shipments, and in cribs for 
shipment before cold weather comes. Women and chil¬ 
dren are paid by the bushel for topping, while boys pull 
and throw into windrows, by the day. Six teams, each 
drawing 100 bushels per load, haul to the sorting ma¬ 
chines where about 20 men sort, barrel and place in Win¬ 
ter warehouses of which they have two modern frost¬ 
proof structures. About one-twentieth of the onions are 
lost by rotting. The farm is in five-acre fields, with 
ditches and driveways between, while between each acre 
is a small ditch about 12 inches deep. Every foot not 
in onions is kept clean by hoeing, and that in gra.ss, as 
along the edges and roads, is mown. It is a veritable 
garden kept up-to-date as a commercial enterprise. 
Wayne Co., Ohio. __ aaron hursh. 
BUSINESS BITS. 
The Geneva bushel crate will appeal to all farmers 
with fruit or vegetables to market. They are cheap and 
the ventilating feature makes them preferable to all other 
packages. Write to the Geneva Cooperage Co., Geneva. 
O., for full particulars and prices. 
We should like to direct the attention of our readers 
to the well-drilling machine made by J. J. Koger & Sons 
Mooresburg, Tenn. The old style of dug wells are a thing 
of the past and there is good money to be made operat¬ 
ing one of these modern machines in any community. 
A PRACTICAL line of farmers’ machinery, which meets 
the everyday wants on the farm, is manufactured by the 
S. Freeman & Sons Mfg. Co., Racine, Wis. such as feed 
and silage cutters, windmills, wood saws,’corn shellers, 
etc. The Freeman line of machinery not only occupies 
the right ground, being articles that the farmer has al¬ 
most daily need for, but they represent, severally, the 
best things manufactured for their Intended use Write 
for a catalogue, which will be found instructive. 
The weekly wash means heavy and fatiguing work at 
this seasoix and any means of lightening it is genuine 
economy. Many housekeepers have been prejudiced 
against washing machines by experience with inadequate 
appliances undeserving of that name. Their views would 
be changed by study of a modern machine built upon 
correct principles, such as the Syracuse Easy washer 
The clothes are washed by forcing soap suds through 
them by compressed air. The wacher Is made of gal¬ 
vanized steel, is mounted on rollers, and only weighs 28 
pounds. The makers. Dodge & Zuill, 535 So Clinton St 
Syracuse, N. Y., offer 30 days’ trial of the imchine- it 
will pay to write them for further information 
