1900 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER: 
3 2 5 
Events of the Week. 
DOMESTIC.—The floods resulting from heavy rains in 
Mississippi will cause damages to railroads of over $1,- 
000,000. Many trains have been blocked by the wash¬ 
outs; near Chatawa nine miles of tracks were under 
water April 19. April 22, rain continued, and the situ¬ 
ation grew worse. Enormous damage is being done to 
the levees. Near Jackson, Miss., seven negroes were 
drowned. Food is said to be scarce in many Mississippi 
towns. At Enterprise, the water is five feet deep in the 
houses, at Meridian six feet. New Orleans is obliged 
to use rafts in some parts of the city.The 
authorities recently seized at Boston, Mass., 12 sacks of 
mail addressed to “Divine Healer” Truth, who was re¬ 
cently arrested for fraud. Truth charged $5 for "absent 
treatment,” and the seized letters contain large sums 
of money. They will be returned to their writers. 
.April 21, the town of Thorold, Ont., was 
shaken by a terrific explosion breaking nearly every pane 
of glass in the place. It was found that an attempt had 
been made to blow out the gates of the Welland Canal. 
Two strangers, both from the United States, were ar¬ 
rested in connection with the attempt. Had they suc¬ 
ceeded, they would have let down a mass of water half 
a mile long, 40 feet wide, and 20 feet deep, which would 
have carried out the entire system of locks, swept out 
a railroad tunnel, and submerged the town of Merriton, 
with 2,700 inhabitants.Great bush and prairie 
fires in southwestern Manitoba have caused a loss of 
property amounting to $1,000,000. Many settlers have 
lost everything they possessed.The packing 
house at the Ajax dynamite works, Kawkawlin,, Mich., 
blew up April 20, killing three men; cause unknown. 
.The village of Edinburg, N. D., was totally 
consumed by fire April 19; two women burned to death. 
.The Treasury Department is investigating the 
large Influx of Japanese coolies into this country, which 
continues by way of Canada. Since January 1, 7,000 have 
landed at Victoria, B. C., bound for the United States. 
It is believed that they come over as contract laborers, 
but it is difficult to prove this. It is said that the 
Japanese government will put a stop to the emigration, 
fearing that some of these Japanese may suffer hard¬ 
ships while waiting for employment.In New 
York City, April 25, three children were burned to death, 
three persons seriously hurt, and others more or less in¬ 
jured, in a tenement-house fire. The police and fire¬ 
men attribute the fatalities to the clogged condition of 
the fire escapes.Oberlin M. Carter, the cap¬ 
tain of engineers convicted of grave frauds against the 
Government in work on Savannah Harbor, was sent to 
Fort Leavenworth, Kan., April 25, where he will serve 
his five-years’ sentence.A fire in a carpet 
factory at Bhiladeiphia, Pa., April 25, caused a loss of 
$21)0,000.In a labor riot at Chicago, April 25, 
one man was shot and killed, another severely wounded 
with two bullets, and six others cut and bruised by 
brass knuckles and clubs. The shots were fired by a 
non-union man who was attacked when going home from 
work. The shooting affray was preceded by several other 
assaults caused by labor troubles, one non-union marble 
worker being beaten insensible, and his face literally 
pounded into a jelly by three men who attacked him 
when going home after work. The Chicago Chief of Po¬ 
lice has issued a vigorous order that all offenders guilty 
of assaults on non-union men shall be arrested and 
rigorously prosecuted, as conditions in that city compel 
non-union workmen to carry weapons to defend their 
lives. 
CONGRESS.—April 19, the Foraker resolution to pro¬ 
vide an ad interim government in Puerto Rico was 
passed in the Senate. In the House debate continued 
on the Naval bill, and the appropriation for surveys of 
the islands was cut from $100,000 to $10,000. Two pro¬ 
visions of the bill were stricken out; one authorized con¬ 
tracts for armor plate at $545 per ton, and the other re¬ 
pealing the $300 limit.The Ways and Means 
Committee considered, April 23, the resolutions of Rep¬ 
resentatives Tawney and Grout, calling on the Internal 
Revenue officials for specific information as to the in¬ 
gredients of oleo, and voted adversely on both resolu¬ 
tions.The Senate decided April 24, by a vote 
of 33 to 32, that M. S. Quay was not entitled to a seat in 
the House as a Senator from Pennsylvania. This is re¬ 
garded as the overthrow of Quay’s boss rule. 
April 25, the House, by a vote of 87 to 50, eliminated from 
the Post Office Appropriation bill the clause asking for 
$750,000 to extend the pneumatic tube service. 
Representatives of the brewery interests appeared be¬ 
fore a House committee and argued for the repeal of the 
$1 war tax on each barrel of beer. 
PHILIPPINES.—The military commission which tried 
three Filipinos at Leallamba for guerilla warfare, sen¬ 
tenced one to life imprisonment and the others to 30 
years each. Gen. Otis has approved the findings, but 
has reduced the sentences to 15 years each. 
There were 13 deaths from bubonic plague in Manila dur¬ 
ing the week ending April 20.During the week 
ending April 21, the insurgents lost 378 officers and men 
killed, 256 captured, and many more wounded. The total 
American loss was nine killed, 16 wounded. Fighting 
was continued. One hundred escaped Spanish prisoners 
from South Luzon arrived at Manila. The insurgents 
have 400 more Spaniards in that district.Gen. 
Bell’s troops encountered 300 Filipinos at Neuva Caceras 
April 16, and in the fight which ensued 80 insurgents were 
killed. Most of them were armed with bolos, and there 
wei’e no American casualties. Many squads of bolomen 
are encountered, and Gen. Bell Is waging relentless war¬ 
fare against them. 
GENERAL FOREIGN NEWS.—Anti-American feeling 
is reported to be growing in Japan. It is due to the 
attitude towards Japanese laborers in Hawaii. 
The Turkish torpedo boat Schamyl blew up in the harbor 
at Beyroot, Syria, April 21, killing 23 persons. 
The British commissioner at Koomassie, Ashanti, has 
been in great peril through a native uprising, being en¬ 
tirely cut off from communication with white settle¬ 
ments, but the trouble is now subsiding.Con¬ 
tinued fighting is maintained in the Orange Free State. 
The British force besieged at Wepener has been re¬ 
lieved, and De Wetsdorp captured. 
FARM AND GARDEN.—An employee of the Chicago 
Stock Yards has written to German newspapers, saying 
that meat inspection in Chicago Is farcical, and that the 
Meat Inspection bill would be, if passed, a blessing to 
both the United States and Germany. 
The Board of Agriculture of Great Britain has issued 
a notification at Deptford, the landing place for cattle, 
near London, ordering all arrivals of cattle from South 
America to be slaughtered within 36 hours, and arrivals 
from the United States to be slaughtered within five 
days. It is presumed that this action has been taken in 
connection with the discovery of foot-and-mouth disease 
among South American cattle. 
The prolonged rain and snowstorm in Colorado April 
16-17 caused heavy losses among live stock. It is reported 
that near Trinidad, Col., 20,000 sheep perished. 
Cattle from Singapore have introduced foot-and-mouth 
disease into Manila. Quarantine has been declared 
against cattle from that place, in addition to that already 
in force against North Luzon and Batanzas. 
April 25, the Philadelphia Pure Butter Protective Asso¬ 
ciation held a meeting to discuss means of fighting oleo 
frauds. Invitations were sent to 974 creameries and 1,650 
Granges in the State of Pennsylvania. Congressman 
Grout, of Vermont, author of the Grout bill, addressed 
the meeting on National legislation in the protection of 
farm products. Charles G. Knight, secretary of the 
National Dairy Union, discussed the Grout bill. Other 
speakers were Agricultural Commissioner Kracke, of 
New York State; Joseph H. Bingham, Assistant Secre¬ 
tary of Agriculture, and Master of the National Grange, 
and Dr. Wiley, chemist of the United States Department 
of Agriculture. _ 
SOME FACTS CONCERNING POTATOES. 
SOURING LAND TO PREVENT SCAB—In reply 
to a query in The R. N.-Y. a few weeks ago, Prof 
Wheeler says: “Doubtless the plowing under of rye 
A POOR CHANCE FOR THE SHORT SPOON. Fio. 99. 
Reproduced from the Philadelphia Record. 
or buckwheat would lessen the tendency to scab, 
though it would probably take considerable time to 
exert an appreciable influence in this manner, and 
the ultimate expense would be greater than by means 
of a system which furnishes manure for the growing 
of profitable crops during the time (that the change in 
the soil is being brought about.” The R. N.-Y., in 
comment upon 'this, says: “It never occurred to us 
before that such green crops could affect the soil so 
as to reduce the scab.” The problem of controlling the 
Potato scab became a serious one in my farming many 
years ago, as the potato is an old crop to our soil, and 
the fungous and insect foes of the potato become well 
established in a locality that has been devoted to the 
crop for several decades. Five years ago I began the 
souring of scabby soil by plowing down a growth of 
rye in the Spring, watching and studying the plan as 
closely as is possible to one who has not had thorough 
training in agricultural chemistry. While a consid¬ 
erable acreage has been seeded to rye each Fall, to 
be broken for potatoes the next Spring, I have made 
a more thorough test in the case of one small field 
that was very badly infested with scab, planting it 
with potatoes each Spring on a rye sod, the sixth suc¬ 
cessive crop having been planted a few days ago. The 
experiment was begun to test the value of rye in kill¬ 
ing scab germs, and has been continued both for this 
purpose, and also to test the value of a growth of rye 
in furnishing available plant food for potatoes, from 
the stores of tough fertility 'in a naturally strong soil. 
REDUCING THE SCAB.—The soil of this small 
field was full of scab germs—an almost unmerchant¬ 
able lot of potatoes bad been gotten from it. The 
first rye sod gave a crop much cleaner, and the really 
unmerchantable tubers were few. Each Fall the rye 
was seeded as soon as the potatoes were dug. The 
second crop on the rye sod was quite clean. In this 
scabby field I have since been growing nice potatoes. 
The litmus-paper test shows considerable acidity, but 
apparently not enough to be harmful to growth of 
crops. No seed for this field has been treated with 
corrosive sublimate, formalin or sulphur, and the 
northern seed that I have used in planting has not 
been usually entirely free of scab. This year the test 
will be more severe than I like, because the seed had 
more scab than usual, requiring treatment for land 
that is not acid, and the rye on this field could not 
have affected the acidity of the soil to any appreciable 
extent, as the Spring was cold and dry, and the growth 
of rye small. But I believe that the crop next Fall 
will be clean. It will be the sixth successive crop on 
rye. Some of my friends have succeeded with this 
method, and a few have failed. The reasonable con¬ 
clusion is that the character of the soil is the prime 
factor. If it is very alkaline, even a heavy growth of 
rye turned under in hot, wet weather might not pro¬ 
duce any observable sourness, while a neutral soil 
might be made sufficiently acid by the decomposition 
of a growth of rye a foot high turned under in time 
for early planting of potatoes. It has been proved 
that the effect of the sulphur treatment for scab de¬ 
pends upon the character of the soil in respect to al¬ 
kalinity, and this should be similarly true of rye 
plowed down. 
VARIATIONS WITH RYE.—It is also true that in 
the same soil a growth of rye at one time will not 
produce as much acidity when plowed down as a simi¬ 
lar growth at another time. The weather conditions 
largely control this matter, as we know from experi¬ 
ence in plowing green crops under for manure. In a 
cold, dry Spring one should not expect any marked 
result from rye turned under to check scab. When 
growing rye as a Winter cover crop, it is a natural 
mistake to let it get too high before turning it under. 
Rye dries out the soil, and as soon as the stalks be¬ 
come woody, they do harm in the bottom of the fur¬ 
row. Rye sown a little before time of seeding wheat 
in the Fall will make a growth a foot high by the 
time ground becomes dry enough for Spring plowing 
in a season of ordinary rainfall. Then is the time to 
turn it under. The roots fill the ground, having run 
deeper than the plow goes. The expense of growing 
such a green crop for controlling scab is small. It 
grows when the ground might otherwise be idle. 
That it has wonderful power in providing available 
fertility for a Spring crcp cannot be successfully ques¬ 
tioned; but that is another story. Concerning scab, 
it is probable that the fact, as finally stated, will be 
this: Acidity checks the disease, and in a neutral or 
slightly alkaline soil this acidity can be secured by 
plowing a green crop down. 
SHALLOW COVERING FOR POTATO SEED.—For 
years we threw a ridge of soil over the potato seed 
when planting. This nearly universal practice may 
be all right for porous sbils, but it does not seem 
right for heavy, close soils. The potato starts the 
strongest bud when in the light. In heavy soils it 
was my experience that the sprout of the deeply-cov¬ 
ered seed piece was seldom nearly as large Where it 
left the potato as it became at the surface of the 
ground that bad been made loose With the weeder. 
There it got the needed light, and ceased to stretch 
for it. But the potatoes should be planted deep. 
Three years ago I hit upon a plan that seems a modi¬ 
fication of the Rural trench method of planting. The 
opening shovel and covering disks of the Robbins 
planter were taken off, and a section of a small log 
was fastened to the seat of the planter with a wire, 
in such a way that it would drag in the furrow made 
by the shoe of the planter. The ground had been 
made loose and fine by use of disk harrow and plank 
float. The shoe made an opening for the seed piece, 
and an inch or so of loose soil fell back upon it. The 
log equalized this shallow covering on the seed, and 
the field when planted had the appearance of being 
furrowed out ready for hand-planting. For three 
years this method of planting has given me much 
stronger sprouts than I secured before. They start 
near the light, and come stocky. The weeder fills the 
furrows as the plants come on. In dry weather mois¬ 
ture rises around the seed; in wet weather the ground 
around the seed loses surplus moisture more quickly 
than 'it would if a>r and sunlight could not reach it. 
In soils not very porous this method means stronger, 
thriftier plants than When several inches of soil ex¬ 
clude the light from the seed. As a minor point, it 
means much less draft to the team that draws the 
planter. It gives absolute control of weeds. 
Ohio. ALVA AGEE. 
R. N.-Y.—We have come to consider the digging 
problem when planting potatoes. While deep plant¬ 
ing in heavy soil may ensure a heavy yield, the cost 
and laJbor of getting the crop out is greatly increased. 
In a wet season, on heavy soil, the deep-planted crop 
is often in danger. Most of our own crop will be 
dropped by hand this year in hills, as the soil is so 
heavy that it seems necessary to work it both ways. 
We agree with the plan of Shallow covering when 
planting. 
