1903 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
745 
Events of the Week. 
DOMESTIC.—Three persons killed, two fatally injured 
and 14 more or less seriously hurt, with enormous prop¬ 
erty damage, is the net result of tornadoes that prevailed 
near Hamilton, Greenwood County, and near Aliceville, 
Coffee County, Kan., October 9. Aliceville, which had 
200 inhabitants, was practically demolished. The same 
day a windstorm caused severe loss and killed one man 
at Omaha, Neb., and a storm at Manitowoc, Wis., de¬ 
stroyed the new 600-foot breakwater on the lake shore. 
. . . . The attack on the Northern Pacific Railroad 
Company by a band of conspirators who have made sev¬ 
eral attempts to wreck the overland passenger trains 
during the past few months is an instance without 
parallel in railroading. The system in Montana where 
the conspirators have banded to dynamite the trains has 
been patrolled all Summer by scores of detectives and 
deputy sheriffs, and while a few arrests have been made, 
the real culprits have so far escaped, and have been en¬ 
abled, notwithstanding the vigilance exercised, to set off 
bombs at frequent intervals. In June, General Passenger 
Agent Fee, of the Northern Pacific, received a letter de¬ 
manding $50,000 to be placed at a certain point on the 
road in Montana and threatening that if this was not 
done the trains of the company would be blown up. This 
threat was followed by others, and finally the limit of 
time for compliance by the company w'as set for October 
5. in the meantime several bridges having been destroyed 
and a great amount of rolling stock damaged by explo¬ 
sives set during the night. The situation has become so 
serious that the company is daily sending ahead of the 
passenger trains a pilot engine as a precaution against 
disaster to the passenger trains. Men on horses and on 
special engines and crews with bloodhounds are scat¬ 
tered along the track, but in spite of alt efforts to appre¬ 
hend the leaders of the blackmailing gang, they have thus 
far been able to keep under cover. Investigation leads 
to the belief that the dynamiters comprise a large party, 
and that the members are scattered along the line for a 
distance of probably 300 miles. It is believed that a num¬ 
ber of discharged employees have associated with them¬ 
selves a number of western desperadoes whom the 
Northern Pacific Company has been pursuing relentless¬ 
ly during the past few' years—men who have held up 
and robbed the trains and some of w'hom have been re¬ 
leased from the penitentiary after having been prose¬ 
cuted and sent to prison by the company.Octo¬ 
ber 9 a deluge of rain, accompanied by high winds, caused 
severe damage in and about New York. Ti’affic on all 
suburban railways was hampered or suspended, and 
hundreds of commuters were unable to get home. 
Paterson, N. J., suffered a loss of $2,000,000 from floods 
caused by the overflowing of the Passaic River; about 5,000 
persons were homeless, and it cost the city $35,000 to 
care for the destitute, but outside aid was declined, the 
city caring for its people as in the previous calamities 
of flood, fire and tornado. The little town of Wallington, 
below Paterson, was practically destroyed, and damage 
was done at Passaic amounting to $2,000,000. There was 
great damage along the Delaware River, in New York, 
New' Jersey and Pennsylvania. Railroad losses are 
enormous. The flood hit Orange County, N. Y., hard, 
'there have been six lives lost and the property damage 
is at least $1,000,000. The Erie Railway Company will 
lose at least $500,000. Some of the other losers are: Jonas 
Brick Works, at Danskamer, $20,000; Hedges Brick Yard, 
Cornwall, $15,000; Firth Carpet Company, Firthcliffe, $75,- 
000; Harrison & Gore Silk Company, Newburgh, $10,000; 
Little Falls Paper Company, Newburgh, $15,000; Garvin’s 
Paper Company, Moodna. $25,000; town of Cornwall, six 
bridges, $50,000; Arlington Paper Company, Salisbury 
Mills, $10,000. The same storm caused much loss to ship¬ 
ping in the north Atlantic.Mysterious Great 
Salt Lake has furnished another problem for scientists 
to solve. During the Summer the fall in the level of 
the lake has left great black spots in the north arm. 
Prospectors have just investigated these dark-colored 
islands and found that the black substance is asphaltum 
of a splendid quality. In an area of 50,000 acres, covered 
by water six to 18 inches deep, there are more than a 
hundred asphaltum spring's. Much asphaltum has hard¬ 
ened and is floating about the lake. Many claims are 
being staked. 
PORTO RICO.—The American Federation of Labor 
made a demonstration at San Juan October 11 against 
the administration. Some of those in the procession 
carried black flags, while the American flag was carried 
draped in black. As the paraders became disorderly, the 
police w’erc ordered to disperse them. The paraders re¬ 
sisted, with the result that the police used their clubs 
freely. Many of the paraders and their supporters were 
hurt. Four policemen were injured. Seven labor leaders 
were arrested and convicted. Among the prisoners is 
Luardo Conde, w'ho was recently sentenced for Insulting 
the flag and w'ho was subsequently acquitted by the 
District Court. A mass meeting was held October 11 to 
protest against the action of the administration and the 
arrest of the labor leaders. The police with difflculty 
averted a riot. The feeling of the labor party against 
the administration is bitter. The Americans and the bet¬ 
ter class of Porto Ricans are indignant at the treatment 
accorded the flag by the members of the labor party 
and at their seditious utterances. The Government has 
pledged itself to maintain order. 
PHILIPPINES.—John Miller, a former immigration 
inspector at Manila, has been arrested on a charge of 
issuing false Chinese certificates. A warrant has also 
been issued for the arrest of Ballantine, another former 
inspector, who is now in China, on the same charge. A 
contract found in Miller’s possession mentions Carl John¬ 
son, the acting American Consul at Amoy, and his sec¬ 
retary and interpreter as beneficiaries of the fraud. 
These men are accused of having passed several hun¬ 
dred Chinese coolies as merchants. A detective dis¬ 
guised as a coolie paid $400 for a certificate and reached 
Manila wdthout any trouble. The contract signed by 
Miller and Ballantine also mentioned Robert M. Mc- 
Wade, the American Consul-General at Canton, as one 
of the beneficiaries of the fraud. It is alleged that sev¬ 
eral hundred false certificates of former residence have 
been issued to Chinamen, w'ho gained admittance to 
Manila on the strength of these papers.Eight 
ladrones, convicted of highw'ay robbery, have been sen¬ 
tenced to be hanged. Two others, on account of their 
extreme youth, were sentenced to 25 years’ imprisonment. 
A band of ladrones raided the town of Ibajay, on the 
Island of Panay, and killed 13 peasants.Her¬ 
mann and .lohnson, the two constabulary officers who 
seized the steamer Victoria and turned pirates, are re¬ 
ported to have abandoned the banca in which they left 
the Victoria after the steamer was run aground by her 
crew. They left the banca on the western coast of the 
Island of Negros, and, taking supplies with them, jour¬ 
neyed to Guimbal, a town 18 miles from Iloilo, where 
they obtained a larger boat and fled in the direction of 
Cagayanes Island. They were accompanied by two other 
men who deserted from the. constabulary.Five 
hundred head hunters in the Province of Nueva Vizcaya^ 
Island of Luzon, some of them armed with rifles, recently 
attacked a native lieutenant and 30 of the constabulary. 
Two of the latter were killed. The head hunters lost 53 
killed and many wounded. 
FARM AND GARDEN.—The International Live Stock 
Exposition will be held at Chicago November 28 to De¬ 
cember 5 inclusive. 
'Phe forty-sixth annual meeting of the Missouri State 
Horticultural Society will be held at Columbia, Mo., 
December 8-10. There will be an extensive fruit display, 
and other interesling features. 
The West Virginia State Horticultural Society will hold 
its annual meeting this year at Wheeling December 1-2. 
Some of the best fruit sections of the State are having 
a full crop, and arrangements are being made for an 
unusually large exhibit of apples at this meeting. Alex. 
Eiohan, Martinsburg, is president; Fred Brooks, French 
Creek, secretary. 
CROP NOTES. 
In this section of southern Wayne County cabbage is 
about one-third crop, with not as large acreage as last 
year. Buyers are offering $10 to $12 per ton with very 
few takers, most growers holding for better figures. I 
have heard of some sales in Ontario County, a few miles 
from here, at $12.50. Potatoes are badly blighted and not 
half a crop. Some are digging and find some rot, but 
the blight checked the growth so potatoes are small; 
m.arket 50 cents. C- E- C- 
New'ark, N. Y. 
The apple crop in eastern Kentucky was almost an 
entire failure. Western Kentucky bid fair for a good 
crop, but the fruit fell off so badly before mature that 
there will not be enough to supply the home market. All 
the windfalls were sold to the distillers at 20 cents per 
100 pounds. Winesap and Ben Davis are about the only 
varieties that hung on until gathering time; they are 
rather small but perfect. Some crops were sold at from 
$1 to $1.50 per barrel, but are worth $3 at this time. 
Kieffer pears were not one-fourth crop, but very fine; 
prices good. J- K- 
Owensboro, Ky. 
Cabbage is not more than one-fourth of a crop here 
this year, and buyers are offering from $8 to $10 per ton. 
The immense crop of last year discouraged growers, so 
that only about half of the acreage was planted this 
season, and it has grown very slowly and unevenly on 
account of v/et weather. Storage cabbage will grow yet, 
though, and I look for it to be higher. Potatoes are 
blighted badly and are a light crop, selling at about 50 
cents per bushel in carload lots. Corn is very late and 
will, with favorable w'eather, lack considerable of being 
a full set. Apples are vei-y nice in size and quality and 
are selling at about $2 per barrel, or as some are buying 
in bulk at 90 cents per 100 pounds. Barrels are scarce 
and are selling as high as 50 cents each. o. J. B. 
Stanley, N. Y. _ 
FROG RAISING. 
Can you give me any information regarding the raising 
of frogs for market? Possibly you can refer me to some 
work on the raising of frogs. We are thinking of start¬ 
ing a frog ranch and w'ould like to gather all data we 
can before giving it a trial. J. J. t. 
Colorado. 
Every year or so this “frog ranch” idea is started. It 
is much like skunk farming! Most of the frogs and all 
the profits are started by a lead pencil in some news¬ 
paper office. Thousands of pounds of frogs’ legs are 
sold every year in the large cities. In New York there is 
a good demand for these “dainties,” but so far as we 
can learn the frogs are caught one by one by people who 
make a business of hunting them in creeks and swamps, 
chiefly in northern New York and New England. So far 
as we can learn there is no such thing as a frog ranch 
—which we take it is a place where frogs are to be 
bred and cared for artificially. The scheme will not suc¬ 
ceed largely because the big frogs eat the little ones up, 
and pay no such prices for the privilege as humans will. 
'Ihe U. S. Fish Commission at Washington has issued 
a pamphlet on the frog which is worth reading. We 
have no desire to start frog farming. The loss that 
would surely come from it would make croakers out of 
every one. 
A PROBLEM FROM BRITISH COLUMBIA. 
1 have this Spring planted 20 acres to all varieties of 
standard fruits. 'I'he orchard is at the foot of the moun¬ 
tain, having a northerly aspect. The soil is gravelly, on 
which originally stood a dense grow’th of mountain ever¬ 
greens. The land has been devastated twice by forest 
fires within the last 60 or 70 years, the last time being 
five or six years ago. As a consequence, all organic mat¬ 
ter has been entirely destroyed in the soil, and although 
wild brush growth is yet wonderfully vigorous, cereals, 
grasses and all root crops are an absolute failure. Pot¬ 
ash, phosphoric acid and lime should be plentiful in the 
soil, but no doubt nitrogen is nil. The orchard land is 
too stony and gravelly to plow up and cultivate, so I 
have been endeavoring to get a catch of Red clover 
and eventually adopt the Hitchings “mulch method.” 
Wherever Red clover is established in this district it 
grows most vigorously—branching out into stalks three 
and even four feet long. Up to the present my efforts 
to get a stand, both on cultivated and uncultivated land, 
have been futile; indeed. 1 find that the clover does 
better on the subsoil or the railway track than on my 
surface soil. Where clover and 'Pimothy were sown to¬ 
gether in the Spring of 1902 the latter is still growing and 
establishing itself, while the clover has entirely disap¬ 
peared. How is this, when clover has the power of 
taking its nitrogen from the air? One hears all kinds of 
theories advanced as to why the land will not yield at 
first: some say that it is the “lye,” others the “turpen¬ 
tine,” and again “the pitch and pine needles” the soil 
contains that makes two or three years’ cultivation es¬ 
sential to crop production. What is the real cause of 
the failure of the leguminous family of plants, for peas, 
beans, etc., seem to fare no better than the clover? What 
will be the best mode of procedure to obtain a leguminous 
cover crop for the orchard? J. w. p. 
Proctor. B. C. 
R. N.-Y.—We call for a discussion of this problem. 
ONION CROP REPORT. 
The Jerome B. Rice Co., Cambudge, N. Y., give the 
following onion crop report. In the table the principal 
onion counties are given below the State: 
Output compared with 1902, 
per cent, acreage. 
greater. 
less. 
1903. 
1902. 
NEW YORK. 
Wayne, Madison, Onondaga_ 
35 
2,000 
2,000 
Ijivingston, Genesee .. 
, 20 
300 
275 
Orange .. 
50 
1.600 
1,600 
OHIO. 
Hardin . 
. 80 
1,500 
1,000 
Medina. Wayne . 
. 20 
, , 
500 
500 
Lake . 
. 10 
925 
875 
ljucas . 
. 0 
6 
300 
225 
Wyandotte . 
20 
165 
240 
Rutnam .. 
, 20 
, , 
30 
30 
'Trumbull (and Crawford, Pa.) 
. 40 
165 
100 
Logan . 
30 
10 
Licking . 
.300 
. , 
13 
10 
INDIANA. 
Jasper . 
.300 
350 
445 
St. Joseph . 
. 0 
0 
3!K) 
250 
Elkhart . 
. 0 
0 
450 
700 
Kosciusko . 
40 
90 
140 
Noble . 
.100 
485 
200 
MICHIGAN. 
Washtenaw . 
20 
225 
300 
Oakland . 
40 
9 
VanBuren . . 
20 
30 
40 
Lenawee . 
20 
10 
Ingham, Eaton . 
GI> 
*> 
9 
WISCONSIN. 
Brown . 
25 
200 
175 
MINNESOTA. 
Dakota . 
20 
45 
45 
Wright . 
50 
15 
15 
ILLINOIS. 
Cook . 
.150 
500 
500 
I.asalle . 
. 25 
9 
9 
MASSACHUSETTS. 
Hampshire . 
30 
1,000 
925 
RHODE ISLAND. 
Newport . 
VERMONT. 
. 20 
• * 
225 
200 
Windham . 
50 
20 
20 
CONNECTICUT. 
Fairfield . 
50 
1 100 
900 
GROWING ONION SEED.—I notice that the Hope 
Farm man is a little in the dark regarding the growing 
of onion seed. By all means plant those bulbs this Fall— 
or better yet, so that you can try both ways, plant some 
now, the rest in Spring. My plan is to plant them as 
soon as I can after they have fully matured, throwing 
out good furrows about six inches deep. Use a mixture 
of muriate of potash and acid phosphate, 400 muriate to 
1,600 phosphate. Apply about one-half ton per acre in the 
drill and mix well before planting. Avoid too much nitro¬ 
gen, as it tends to make a succulent growth the follow¬ 
ing season and favors blight. We like to get a good root 
growth established in the Fall, but they will winter in 
the ground all right, especially if a little coarse litter is 
scattered over the rows on the approach of cold weather. 
The growth generally begins in Spring long before it 
is safe to go on the ground with a team. Another reason 
in favor of Fall planting is the seed matures before the 
extreme heat of Summer, thus insuring heavier seed. I 
find a little irrigation to be a w'onderful help sometimes 
in the development of a seed crop, and before another 
season is over we may realize its importance. 
Pennsylvania. garrahan. 
WORK OF THE FLOOD.—In a recent ride along the 
line of the Erie Railroad in southern New York State 
it was easy to find evidence of the damage done by the 
recent storm. The whole valley was strewn with wreck¬ 
age. 'rhe river had jumped out of its bed, flooded the low¬ 
lands, and bitten at every bank that was not protected 
by sod. 'rhe railroad bed was cut by gullies, and in 
some places whole sections of track had been under¬ 
mined so that they hung like broken spider webs over the 
river, 'i’he flood had swept through the streets of some 
of the little towns, tilling them with weeds and sticks 
and washing out cellars. In the cultivated fields on Ihe 
low bottom lands all sorts of strange sights were visible. 
Fences were decorated with weeds and grass as though 
some careful hand had fastened them there. Corn was 
laid flat on the ground with mud piled on top of it. 
Other cornfields stood erect, with mud plastered over 
the stalks above the ears. Buckwheat and millet lay flat 
with the heads down stream. Thousands of pumpkins 
had been washed out of low fields and carried down 
stream—often deposited on high land where pumpkins 
never grew before. I saw one good-sized pumpkin up in 
a tree. 'I'he flood had carried it there and the vine had 
caught on a limb. It was easy to see how seeds may be 
carried in this way hundreds of miles, thus carrying 
new plants into new sections. In spite of all this wreck¬ 
age farmers will continue to prefer the richer low¬ 
lands to the thinner hillsides. c. 
BUSINESS BITS. 
This is the twentieth anniversary of the origin of the 
ready-mixed Rogers’ carriage paints manufactured by 
the Detroit White Lead Works, Detroit. Mich. 'These 
paints are specially prepared, and do not require a 
skilled mechanic to make a good job. A booklet, giving 
full information, may be had for the asking, and if you 
will send the name ot a paint dealer who does not handle 
Rogers paints you will receive one of the anniversary 
souvenirs. 
The “most complete line of gasoline engines in the 
world” is the claim made by Charter Gas Engine Co., 
Box 26, Sterling, Ill. We know they were among the 
first manufacturers to appeal for farm trade, and during 
the past seven or eight years many of our readers have 
been supplied with these engines. 'That they are giving 
satisfaction is assured by the fact that we have never 
had a complaint, and that many have praised them 
highly. If interested in farm power address the manu¬ 
facturers as above. 
One of the most conspicuous and flourishing mail order 
houses in Chicago is the Marvin Smith Company, who 
are well known to many of our readers. By their system 
of department catalogues, which fully illustrate and 
minutely describe every article, with prices in plain fig¬ 
ures, they practically display their goods before their 
readers, and enable them to make selections and pur¬ 
chases more satisfactorily than in any other way. These 
department catalogues they mail free upon request. Their 
large general catalogue. No. 44, contains all of the de¬ 
partments in one large book, and this is also sent free 
when sent with goods, but owing to its large size, when 
requested sent by mail, 15 cents should be sent them to 
help pay the postage. It is brimful of interest to old 
and young. 
