THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
76i 
Events of the Week, 
DOMESTIC.—John Alexander Dowie, head of the Chris¬ 
tian Catholic Church of Zion, left Chicago October 15 for 
his invasion ol New York. Ten special trains were en¬ 
gaged to carry his followers, who are said to be about 
■l.ouo strong. Dr. Dowie is a man of remarkable ability. 
He is a Scotchman, a native of Edinburgh. He is a man 
of enormous presumption, and claims to be Elijah 11. 
jjuwie was formerly a Congregational minister, and as 
.such worked for several years in Australia. In 1878 ne 
forsook his church to lead an evangelistic life along the 
lines of divine healing. For a time he succeeded in gel¬ 
ling a good following in Australia, but soon afterwards 
found his way to California and later to Chicago. He 
lirst attracted attention during the World’s Fair. In 
IMiy Dowie secured options on 6,500 acres of land on the 
shore of Lake Michigan, 42 miles north of Chicago, and 
there established and built Zion City in 1902. The faith- 
tul followed him thither from Chicago, and from recruit¬ 
ing stations opened in New England and elsewhere. Tho 
population of Dowie’s kingdom is to-day said to be over 
lO.uOO, and his followers throughout the United States 
aggregate 150,000. From the tithes which he receives 
Dowie has accumulated a fortune estimated at $15,000,000. 
with which he is thus enabled to carry on most suc<^ss- 
fully the work of propaganda of Zion.The Ohio 
Slate Board of Health has adopted a resolution by which 
the secretary is directed to take steps to prevent the ^le 
of “toy pistols and other explosive appurtenances. The 
resolution recites that 600 persons were killed, lOO rnade 
Mind and 1,000 others injured on the last Fourth of July. 
The board therefore declares it to be the duty of health 
authorities to abolish the evils attendant upon the cele¬ 
bration of Independence Day.Fire at Aberdeeru 
Wash., October 16, caused four deaths and destroyed 
property valued at approximately $1,000,000. It practi¬ 
cally wiped out the main business street of the town, 
which is built mostly of wmod. The fire was the natural 
result of building a wooden city upon wooden founda¬ 
tions on land filled in with sawdust, with streets planked 
with dry fir. Probably nowhere in the West was there 
another city so entirely built of combustible material. 
Both residents and insurance companies have long feared 
such a conflagration. Insurance rates have been raised 
.several times after protests by underwriters against a 
situation which invited a fierce fire sooner or later. The 
lire department was totally Inadequate to cope with the 
lire after it once started, as a stiff wind from Gray s 
H.arbor and Chehalis River swept it instantly across the 
.vtreets. The fire departments of Hoquiam and Montesano 
rendered some assistance, but the hose was soon burned 
or damaged so badly as to render it worthless. Not more 
than one-half of the loss Is covered by Insurance, the in¬ 
surance companies having refused to carry any greater 
risk cn account of the Inflammable material of which all 
the buildings in Aberdeen are constructed. Every busi¬ 
ness man in the city is a loser either by fire, water, re¬ 
moval, breakage, or loss by theft.A rear-end 
collision on the Pennsylvania Railroad near Washing¬ 
ton’s Crossing, N. J., October 17, killed 15 railroad laboi^ 
ers, and injured 40 others.Twenty tons of fish 
a dav delivered at the New York fish market is the task 
which C. K. Freer, of Sandusky, O., is to perform this 
Pall Wisconsin recently decided to rid its southern lakes 
of the German carp, which are rapidly destroying the 
bass and are also spoiling the wild celery beds which 
have furnished a feeding ground for canvasback ducks 
and made that part of the State a paradise for hunters. 
Mr. Freer will be permitted to use any method he wishes 
to rid the lakes of the carp, provided that he does not 
injure anv other fish. He began work at Lake Koshko- 
nong October 19 and expects to drain the lake partially 
and capture the carp with nets. He is to pay the State 
$1 a ton for the carp and expects to ship them to New 
Y'ork barreled in ice at the rate of three carloads a day. 
. Ten men were killed and five seriously injured 
October 19 in an accident at the Pittsburg end of the new 
W.abash cantilever bridge being built by the American 
Bridge Company over the Monongahela River. The acci¬ 
dent was caused by the giving way of a two-inch steel 
cable, which was used as one of the guys to support the 
big crale. Five iron beams, weighing many tons, were 
being hoisted from the barge below to the superstructure 
of the bridge. When the cable gave w'ay the beams were 
above the structure. As the mass of iron fell, it struck 
the bridge, carrying away part of that structure and 
ianded on the barge 100 feet below. The portion of the 
structure which gave way, allowing the men to fall into 
the river, is known as the “cantilever crane,” one being 
placed at the end of either span of the new bridge, on 
ihe two sides of the river. The “traveler” does not form 
a jiart of the bridge structure itself, but enables the 
placing of additional portions of the span. On the top 
of the crane is a level platform or floor, on which Mc¬ 
Cloud. Fleming and Ballinger, three of the victims, were 
at work. A number of the other men employed as signal 
men. hoisters or “rammers,” were employed on the work 
farther down.As a result of the rnassacre of 
.seven Indians on the Blackfoot reservation in Montana 
recently by Little Plume, Miss Helen P. Clark, formerly 
Superintendent of Schools for Lewis and Clark counties, 
has preferred charges of maladministration against Major 
J. H. Monteath, agent of the Blackfoot (Plegan) reserva¬ 
tion. Miss Clark is a daughter of Malcolm Clark, the 
ifioneer friend of the Piegans. who married one of the 
tribe, and was later murdered. Miss Clark charges that 
whisky is being freely sold on the reservation, and that 
gambling is common. Miss Clark attributes the recent 
massacre to I.ittle Plume being crazed by liquor. . . . 
Olficial figures of the board of health covering a period 
of three vears show' that the number of persons klled 
annually in the streets of New Y'ork is increasing in an 
alarming degree. These fatalities are increasing on more 
than an even ratio with the growth of population and 
business, which indl.ates either that pedestrians are be¬ 
coming more careless of their safety in the streets or 
ihat drivers of cars and vehicles are growing more reck¬ 
less and the police less vigilant in enforcing the ordi¬ 
nances which now exist for the regulation of street traf- 
fice. In the year 1901 there were 432 persons killed by 
vehicles and street railways. In 1902 the number of such 
deaths' grew to 638. When the figures for 1903 are com¬ 
piled the death list from street accidents will have reached 
nearly one thousand, estimating from the number already 
recorded.Action will be instituted against the 
Ellsworth Coal Company, of Ellsworth, Pa., for whole¬ 
sale violation of the United States statutes forbidding 
the admission of contract labor. Evidence Is said to 
have been obtained in Philadelphia which Indicates that 
many miners have come from South Wales under con¬ 
tract with the Ellsworth company. It is alleged that the 
agreement entered into with the miners was violated, and 
.some of the immigrants have applied to immigration of¬ 
ficers to be sent back to Wales. Some of them disposed 
of all their personal effects to obtain money enough to 
come to America and are now destitute. Dissatisfaction 
with the manner in which the company treated them led 
a half dozen miners to lay bare the whole scheme. The 
Commissioner-General is understood to have their testi¬ 
mony in full.A log train of the Alma Gordo & 
Sacramento Mountain Railroad. Texas, got beyond con¬ 
trol on a steep grade October 20, and plunged over a de¬ 
clivity, killing eight laborers and wrecking the locomo¬ 
tive and cars. The railway is one of the most peculiar 
in the country, running up 9,000 feet high and constructed 
with switchbacks. The scene of the disaster is 100 miles 
north of El Paso. This is the first accident that has ever 
occurred on the road.The coast steamer South 
Portland was wrecked October 19 on Cape Blanco reef, 
near Coquille River, Oregon, while on her way from As¬ 
toria to San Francisco. Of the 12 passengers and 22 in 
the crew' only the captain, cook and five passengers have 
reached shore, though a life raft was 12 persons on board 
was sighted near Cape Blanco. The vessel ran on the 
rocks during a dense fog and sank in a few minutes. The 
sea was so heavy that each boat as it was launched was 
swamped. Life rafts were thrown overboard, and to these 
several clung.Dairy and Food Commissioner 
Warren of Pennsylvania has ordered his agents to bring 
365 prosecutions against liquor dealers. It was found that 
85 per cent of the liquor analj-zed contained salicylic acid, 
’the dealers reside in various parts of the State. 
ADMINISTRATION.—The official report of the Alaskan 
Boundary Commission was signed in London October 20 
It is signed by Lord Alverstone, the British commissioner 
and by the three American commissioners, who consti¬ 
tute a majority of the tribunal. Expressed in ordinary 
language, it awards the United States all the territory 
included within the modus vivendi of the past few years. 
It establishes the boundary on what is known as the 
old Hunters’ Line, giving the United States the heads of 
all the inlets. The decision in regard to Portland Canal 
gives Canada Pearse and Wales Islands. The United 
States gets Sitklan Island and the broad southern por¬ 
tion of the channel. The decision as a whole is an over- 
v/helming vindication of the claims of the United States. 
The award is a technical pronouncement without argu¬ 
ment. Within a year an Anglo-American survey will 
draw the line from Portland Channel to Mount St. Elias. 
In no case will the coast strip be broken by an inlet, nor 
will it exceed at any point a width of 10 leagues. Here 
and there, where a natural mountain boundary is located 
by the survey, the strip may be much narrower. The 
actual readjustment of territory at the southern end of 
the line concerns only two small Islands. The main point 
in the boundary controversy was whether the line of 
demarcation between the southeastern end of Alaska and 
the British northwest possessions cut through the inlets 
and estuaries of the Pacific or w’ent around them, leaving 
all these w'aterways in American territory and preventing 
Great Britain from access to the sea. The British govern¬ 
ment contended that the boundary line, which was de¬ 
fined by treaty as running parallel with the sinuosities 
of the coast a.:^ a distance of 30 marine miles inland, ex¬ 
cept where parallel mountain ranges were nearer, where 
it was te follow these ranges, was to be construed as 
running parallel to the coast of the Pacific and not paral¬ 
lel to the shores of the inlets of that sea. If the British 
contention had been granted, Dyea and Skagway, two im¬ 
portant ports on the Lynn Canal, and the prominent 
places of export and import for the Y'ukon and Klondike 
gold fields, would be in Canadian territory. So W'ould 
the Porcupine gold 'fields. As the tribunal decided Dyea, 
Skagway and Juneau, and also the Porcupine region, re¬ 
main in the jurisdiction of the TTnited States. These 
places were settled and developed by Americans, and 
had the award been otherwise those who held mining 
claims would have probably been dispossessed. In de¬ 
termining the boundary line the tribunal, while granting 
practically nothing claimed by Great Britain, did not 
sustain the United States in its assertion to ownership 
over all the territory south of the demarcation for which 
it argued. It is evident from the terms of the award 
that the tribunal endeavored to adhere strictly to the 
provisions of the original treaty defining the boundary 
making the nearest mountain ranges the line of demar¬ 
cation when they were nearer to tidewater than 30 ma¬ 
rine miles. 
FARM AND GARDEN.—The Holstein-Friesian Associa¬ 
tion of America has empowered a special committee con¬ 
sisting of W. J. Gillett. Rosendale, Wis.; F. B. Fargo, 
Lake Mills, '^'is.; M. E. Moore, Cameron, Mo.; W. B. 
Barney, Hampton, Iowa; H. B. Daggett, Lake Mills, 
Wis., and Robert W. ^Maguire, St. Louis, with authority 
concerning the Association’s special prizes on Hoistein- 
Friesian cattle at the W'orld’s Fair. The committee has 
notified Chief Coburn that $1,472.50 has been set aside for 
this purpose, arranged with special intention to encourage 
the smaller breeders of Holstein-Friesian cattie to ex¬ 
hibit at St. I.ouis. The regular prizes offered by the 
I.oulsiana Purchase Exposition to Holstein-Friesian ex¬ 
hibitors amount to $3,995. 
The Farmers’ Cooperative Shipping Association, com¬ 
monly called the farmers’ trust, has legally entered the 
State of Nebraska, the Secretary of State having re¬ 
ceived its incorporation papers. The capital stock is $2u0,- 
000, and the purpose of the Association is to handle grain 
and live stock and to eliminate the middlemen. It is a 
Kansas corporation, and has about 800 stockholders in 
that State. It is planned to build a number of elevators 
in this State, and to absorb the other cooperative com¬ 
panies now doing business in Nebraska. 
Dr. J. Stay man died October 4, at his home in Leaven¬ 
worth, Kan. He was in his 87th year. Dr. Stayman was 
know’n as the pioneer horticulturist in that section of 
the country. He came to Ijoavenworth in 1859 from the 
State of Illinois, but was born in Cumberland County, 
Pa. As a horticulturist he originated many varieties of 
apples, grapes and strawberries, and gave names to many 
of them. He first gave his attention to apples, but later 
to grapes and other small fruit. He was prominent in 
this line of Investigation and was looked upon by horti¬ 
culturists throughout the United States as an authority 
on such matters. In National and State exhibits he al¬ 
ways had exhibits and did as much toward the develop¬ 
ment of horticulture as any one man. He was an origi¬ 
nal investigator and a tireless worker, and his views 
were respected by all. The first horticultural society in 
the State of Kansas, the I-eavenworth County Horticul¬ 
tural Society, was organized by him and much original 
work w'as done by that body. 
The eighth annual session of the Virginia State Horti¬ 
cultural Society will be held at Pulaski, Va., December 
2-3: secretary, Walter Whately, Crozet, Va. 
The eighth annual exhibition of poultry, pigeons and 
pet stock, under the auspices of the National Fanciers’ 
and Breeders’ Association of Chicago, will be held Janu¬ 
ary 25 to 30 Inclusive. 1904; secretary, Fred ly. Kimmey, 
315 Dearborn St., Chicago. 
CROP NOTES. 
I now have reports from over 300 orchardists in Kansas, 
and our apple crop is not W’orih talking about. It is the 
poorest for years and years. An occasional young, thrifty 
orchard has done w'ell. but it is a phenomenon. We can 
scarcely get any for St. lyouis. william h. barn'es. 
Kansas State Hort. Society. 
Cabbage is not grown here as a shipping crop, only 
small fields of from one to three acres for home market. 
Crop is extra good, best since 1896. It is selling now at 
one cent per pound, heads averaging 10 pounds each; 
mostly sells to farmers in 100 and 200-pound lots. Home 
supply will fill the market here till about Christmas, when 
we shall have to ship in. We are not able to use car lots, 
and will have to buy in local way. Cabbage could be 
grown successfully here for shipping, but there is more 
money in other crops such as potatoes and corn. It is 
my impression that late cabbage is a good crop all over 
the West. ii. f. 
Shenandoah. Iowa. 
We are about at the close of an extraordinary season. 
Beginning with the night of December 9. 1902, before buds 
had become thoroughly hardened, with the unprecedented 
cold for that date of 12 to 14 degrees below zero, the 
greater part of the fruit buds of the peach, sweet cherry 
and most varieties of Japan plums were destroyed, as 
well as honeysuckles and many shrubs heretofore con¬ 
sidered hardy. A mild Winter followed, succeeded by a 
March so warm that we had but a trifle of frost during 
the month. April was nearly a normal month, but tho 
vicious cold and frosts of May and June destroyed the 
greater part of the buds that escaped the December 
freeze, as well as greatly injuring all early crops not 
frost-proof, and reducing the cranberry crop probably 
over half. May and the first half of June as dry perhaps 
as we have ever known added to our tribulations. The 
results are no peaches, nor cherries, very few plums, a. 
fair crop of pears of not the best quality, a quarter of 
a crop of the poorest apples on record, all berries and 
currants a poor crop, hay good, potatoes good only for 
considerable rot; truck crops ver>' variable, but averag¬ 
ing light. Prices have been high, which has helped to 
quite an extent, and almost all seem to be full of hope 
and courage for the contests of another season. 
Plymouth Co., Mass. c. w. m. 
A WOMAN FARMER’S NOTES. 
'Ihere is but little woodland on Cherry Mount Farm, 
possibly five acres of scattering trees. Two years ago 
it became necessary to make some repairs on the barn, 
and the previous Winter 1 had a quantity of hard maple 
cut and sold the logs at a neighboring sawmill. The tops 
were sold, to neighbors for firewood. The amount realized 
paid for cutting and drawing the logs, and gave a surplus 
which nearly covered the cost of the needed repairs. 
Care was taken in cutting the trees to damage the under¬ 
growth as little as possible, for a young forest has sprung 
up to replace the old one, and the trees are well advanced, 
some of them six inches in diameter. There is consider¬ 
able beech in the woods, and the trees are past their .est. 
1 hope to sell them next Winter. If the uncultivated 
products of the farm will pay for needed repairs, there 
is no excuse for neglecting them. 
Apple picking began here about October 1. Two great 
annoyances vex the orchardists this Fall: Labor is scarce 
and high, and barrels are hard to obtain at any price. 
Coopers have sent their great racks filled with barrels to 
our doors in other years. Now we must draw the barrels 
ourselves and even then it is difficult to get more than 
50 at once. The price is 40 cents, with a drive of nearly 
20 miles for the round trip in hauling them. Apples must 
bring a good price if the farmer comes out even. 
With the exception of about four quarts per day of 
wheat bran and middlings my nine Cheshires get noth¬ 
ing but_ apples and grass. They are now fat, but the 
youngsters grow rapidly and the older breeders are well 
rounded and in the pink of condition. They will need 
more grain when the weather is colder, but Cheshires 
will live well on clover in mild w’eather. 
Seneca County Fair, w'hich is held every year at Water¬ 
loo, N. _Y., has developed a full-fledged poultry show as 
one of its attractions. Sixteen hundred birds were ex- 
I'.ibitcd this year, many of them being of exceptional 
merit. The liberal premiums offered hav’e drawn fine ex¬ 
hibits from ail over the country, and the home birds had 
to bestir themselves if they won their share of honors, 
[fhe price of eggs was never .so high at this season as it 
is this year. Strictly fresh eggs retail readily at 25 cents 
I'er dozen. Spring chickens sell at 18 cents per pound, 
an unusually high price for this section. A recent rainy 
day was utilized in whitewashing the henhouse. Every¬ 
thing movable w’as taken out and what remained was 
deluged with lime wash well perfumed with carbolic acid. 
New nest boxes and roosts were put in and the house 
.seems sweet and clean. It is time the pullets were in 
Winter quarters, and the surplus cockerels in the frying 
pan. little. 
WEST VIRGINIA NOTES. 
Farmers’ Institutes have been held in most of the 
counties of the State, and the attendance has been better 
than that of any previous year. Our farmers are reading 
more agricultural papers, and consequently doing better 
work than ever before. Wherever The It. N.-Y. is read 
it is highly appreciated. I say to our farmers if they 
want a scientific as well as a practical farm paper there 
is none better. Its horticultural department is worth to 
a farmer growing fruit all the paper costs. Our farmers 
are just now beginning to learn that it is possible to 
make their farms richer each year and still harvest large 
crops therefrom; hence they are turning their attention 
to growing cow peas, more clover and other leguminous 
crops. This is more a grazing than a farming State, and 
our farmers are anxious to learn how to maintain the 
permanent pastures. This subject has been discussed in 
many of our meetings. The advice generally given by our 
instructor is to cease grazing so closely and to discon¬ 
tinue Winter pasturing entirely. The shiftless method 
of stacking the rough food out of doors and feeding the 
live stock outside also is being superseded by the more 
sensible, humane and economical method of housing 
everything. Better and more commodious barns are being 
built. The Grange, which has had such a hearty support 
from The R. N.-Y'., is enjoying a season of prosperity 
unparalleled in this State. The number of Subordinate 
Granges has doubled since the State Grange met in Janu¬ 
ary last. There is a fight on in this State between the 
corporations and the agricultural class. An effort is be¬ 
ing made to bring about uniformity of assessments, and 
the Governor has come out w'ith no uncertain sou.nd, 
declaring th.at the farmers are paying nearly three- 
fourths of the taxes, while they own but one-fourth of 
the wealth, and on account of this courageous stand he 
has been branded by the money pow'ers as a fanatic and 
as one who is opposing the development of the State. In 
lirevious campaigns in this State money has .alw.ays won. 
It is hard to tell how it will turn out. The people are 
with the Governor, but the corporations have no regard 
for their rights. w. d. z. 
Farm h.ands are very scarce in my locality because the 
majority of young men that were brought up here have 
gone West where work is more plentiful, wages higher 
and land cheaper. While some good hands can be ob¬ 
tained, yet all are not the kind one w’ould desire. I do 
not see how’ a labor union among farm hands could be 
of any benefit to our farmers. c. p. h. 
Tobinsport, Ind._ 
NIAGARA CO. APPLES.—The apple crop is more vari¬ 
able this year than I ever saw it before. In some parts 
of the county the quality is splendid; 90 per cent will 
barrel as No. 1. In other parts the aphis did so much 
damage and fungus is so prevalent that people are shak¬ 
ing the fruit, selling to the evaporators, saying it would 
not pay to sort. It is evident that we must substitute some 
other package for the barrel. They started in at 30 cents, 
and have been steadily going up. until to-day they have 
touched 60 cents and could not be had at that price. We 
are picking some very fine apples from an orchard that 
has not been plowed in 40 years or more, large, firm and 
high colored. J. s. woodward. 
BUSINESS BITS. 
Gombal'lt’s Caustic Balsam applied just as you are 
turning the horse out. will be of great benefit. One 
great advantage in using this remedy is that after it is 
applied it needs no care or attention. Of course it can 
be used with equal success while horses are in the stable, 
but many people in turning their horses out would use 
Caustic Balsam if they were reminded of it. 
We have many letters showing the popularity of Tuttle’s 
Elixir with horsemen. We print below a sample: “Dr. 
S. A. Tuttle, Dear Sir:—I wrote you some time ago in 
regard to a young stallion that was off a little in his 
front legs. I procured some the Elixir and used it as 
you directed, and it is straightenlne him up all right. I 
was offered $600 for him yesterday. It is a w’onderful 
medicine, and deserves the attention of all horsemen.” 
The Banking by Mail system which the Pittsburg Bank 
for Savings of Pittsburg originated seven or eight years 
ago makes it possible for every reader of The R. N.-Y., no 
matter where he resides, to have an investment or savings 
account with this strong old-established institution, and 
banking can be done with the same ease and safety as 
residents of Pittsburg enjoy, ail of which is explained 
in new booklet mailed free with a souvenir of Pittsburg 
if you will mention The R. N.-Y. 
The remarkable business being done by P. M. Sharpies, 
manufacturer of the Sharpies tubular separator, at West 
Chester, Pa., is witnessed by the fact that he is again 
enlarging his plant. It was only last year that large 
aditions w’ere made which it W'as supposed would meet 
all demands for manufacturing and storage, but the in¬ 
ability to keep up with their orders during the past year 
determined the necessity for the building.s now being 
erected. Nothing short of a phenomenal demand for the 
popular tubular could make necessary the extensive en¬ 
largements at this time. 
