1900 
THE KUKAL NKW-YORKERJ 
373 
Events of the Week. 
DOMESTIC.—The regular Populists’ National Conven¬ 
tion, in session at Sioux Palls, S. D., nominated W. J. 
Bryan for President by acclamation May 10. The plat¬ 
form adopted demands silver at 16 to 1, condemns trusts, 
and declares sympathy with the Boers. The middle-of- 
the-road Populists, in convention at Cincinnati, nomi¬ 
nated Wharton Barker for President, and Ignatius Don¬ 
nelly for Vice-President.A disastrous tire at 
Camden, N. J., May 13, caused a loss of $175,000. 
Two employees of the Chicago Water Office were caught 
May 13, in the act of altering the dials on water meters, 
for the purpose of defrauding the city. It is believed 
that such frauds have cost the city $200,000.A 
hot wave extended over a wide area May 13-15. In New 
York it was the hottest May 14 on record, the tempera¬ 
ture reaching 87; in Winnipeg, Man., 91 degrees, and in 
Chicago 86, while on the same day two sailors had their 
ears frostbitten on Lake Michigan. Numerous heat pros¬ 
trations were reported in the great cities.The 
administrators of the estate of August Dahlin have 
brought suit, in Chicago, against two doctors, for in¬ 
juries received in giving Dr. Murphy’s treatment for 
consumption. Damages of $25,000 are wanted from Dr. 
J. B. Murphy and Dr. A. P. Lemke, who applied the 
treatment, which consisted of passing a needle and tube 
through the wall of the chest into the lungs and tilling 
the lungs with gas. Attorney P. H. Atwood alleges that 
the shock to the nervous system from this insertion was 
so great that the whole left side was paralyzed and re¬ 
mained so until Dahlin’s death.Through the 
negligence of a tower signalman, who fell asleep at his 
post, a disastrous freight wreck occurred in a B. & O. 
tunnel at Philadelphia, Pa., May 14; seven dead. 
Two persons were killed and 15 injured in a fire which 
destroyed the Hotel Helene at Chicago May 16. 
The town of Pisher, Mich., was almost entirely destroyed 
by fire May 15; loss, $390,000. 
CONGRESS.—The proposition to admit free from Cuba 
and Porto Rico molasses and materials used in making 
sugar was not adopted by the Ways and Means Com¬ 
mittee.May 12, the Senate rejected the propo¬ 
sitions for the establishment of a Government armor 
plate factory by a vote of 22 to 24.In response 
to a resolution asking why criminals in Puerto Rico were 
executed by the garrote, instead of by hanging, the Presi¬ 
dent transmitted to the Senate the reply of Gov. Davis, 
who states that such executions are in accordance with 
the legal method of capital punishment in the Island, 
and that the garrote is less revolting than hanging. 
. . . . May 14, the Senate passed the Navy Appropria¬ 
tion bill. The Secretary of the Navy is authorized to 
buy armor plate at $445 a ton, if he can get it; if not at 
$545 a ton, and to erect a plant to cost not more than 
$4,000,000. The bill also directs the purchase of five Hol¬ 
land boats, at a cost of not more than $170,000 each. 
. . . . The House Committee on Judiciary adopted, 
May 15, a Constitutional Amendment giving to Congress 
the power to define, regulate, prohibit, control or dissolve 
trusts, monopolies and combinations. 
PHILIPPINES.—The insurgents have suffered heavy 
loss at Tabako, near Legaspi, where they attacked the 
town, being repulsed with heavy loss.There 
are fears of a native uprising in Manila.At 
Catubig a small force of Americans defeated 600 besieg¬ 
ing Filipinos, after three days’ continuous fighting. 
CUBA.—Official inquiry at Havana shows the postal 
frauds to be much greater than first supposed. Governor 
Wood has ordered all property in Neely’s name to be 
turned over to the Government. The Cabinet at Wash¬ 
ington decides that the National Government is legally 
liable for Neely’s shortage. It is now said that the short¬ 
age will not exceed $100,000. There is some doubt whether 
Neely can be extradited for trial in Cuba. Warrants 
were issued May 16 for the arrest of E. P. Thompson, 
postmaster of Havana; W. H. Reeves, deputy auditor of 
the Island, and two Cuban clerks. It is expected that 
other arrests will follow. 
GENERAL FOREIGN NEWS—The Boers were routed 
by Roberts’s forces at the Zand River May 10. 
Portuguese authorities at Lorenzo Marques now refuse 
to clear corned beef or clothing for the Boers, holding 
it contraband. May 12, the British forces entered Kroon- 
stad, the Boers fleeing. Gen. Buller occupied Biggars- 
berg. Special advices from Pretoria state that President 
Kruger’s Peace Envoy, now in the United States, is em¬ 
powered to ask the United States to assume a protec¬ 
torate over the Boer Republics, with a view to their 
eventual annexation to this country.The plague has 
appeared in Alexandria, Egypt.The German 
authorities in Africa have forcibly seized 3,000 square 
miles of Congo territory, which is under a Belgian pro¬ 
tectorate.May 15, there was a heavy fall of 
snow in Germany. 
FARM AND GARDEN.—The Ohio State Board of Agri¬ 
culture estimates the prospective wheat crop of the State 
at only 41 per cent of an average, or about 16,000,000 to 
18,000,000 bushels. 
Lyman Bickeford, of Macedon, N. Y., has been declared 
insane by a Sheriff’s jury. When nearly 80 years old he 
invented grain drills, founding the Bickeford & Huff¬ 
man Company at Macedon, the largest manufacturers of 
grain drills in the United States. Mr. Bickeford has 
been prominent in Democratic politics. 
The Italian prune crop in Clark County, Wash., is said 
to be practically ruined by protracted cold weather. It 
appears as though the damage is rather the result of 
arrested sap circulation than of frost. At La Grande, 
Ore., six inches of snow fell April 26, but the freeze was 
slight, and orchardists do not fear damage. 
President Orlando F. Thomas, of the Empire State 
Sugar Company, who is erecting a $600,000 beet sugar 
plant at Lyons, N. Y., has given an order to the General 
Carriage Company of New York for 10 auto-trucks, five 
tons capacity each, to be used to cart sugar beets from 
farms to the refinery. The company has 5,500 acres con¬ 
tracted for. 
The Texas Agricultural College will hold the first Sum¬ 
mer school of horticulture ever held in the South at Col¬ 
lege Station; a six-weeks’ session will be held, beginning 
June 18, and ending July 28. The object of this short 
course is to teach some of the underlying principles of 
successful fruit culture and truck farming in Texas. 
Treasury officials at Boston, Mass., have discovered ex¬ 
tensive operations in smuggling wool from Canada, and 
large quantities of smuggled wool have been seized. The 
wool has been brought by way of Nova Scotia, in sailing 
vessels, and landed at various points on the New Eng¬ 
land coast. The great demand for wool, and the avoid¬ 
ance of the heavy duty upon it, has made this smuggling 
extremely profitable. 
The Chicago health officials are engaged in a crusade 
against impure milk. Especial attention will be paid 
to cases where the use of preservatives is suspected. 
Milk dealers throughout the city disclaim the use of 
drugs, and declare that if any are used they must be 
put into the milk before it reaches their hands. The 
Health Commissioner has notified four firms mak¬ 
ing preservatives that they must not sell their product. 
One of the materials thus barred is preservaline. 
THE MILK SITU A TIOH. 
LATEST SCHEME FOR HANDLING THE SUPPLY. 
What is the Prospect? 
THE LATEST SCHEME.—The New York City 
papers are shouting themselves hoarse over what 
they are pleased to call “the attempts of a milk trust 
to control the price of New York milk.” The city 
papers have made the mistake of going to the mem¬ 
bers of the Consolidated Milk Exchange, and other 
dealers for their information, and not to the pro¬ 
ducers or consumers of milk, nor to anyone interested 
in either producer or consumer. The claim is made 
that Flint & Co., of 30 Broad Street, New York 
City, have organized a trust, and are endeavoring to 
increase the price to New York consumers. The truth 
of the matter is that there is no company or trust 
formed, and Flint & Co. have not contracted for any 
milk, nor do they propose to do so. Mr. William 
Graves, who is connected with Flint & Co., has sim¬ 
ply made an arrangement with the officers of the Five 
States Milk Producers’ Association, under which he 
is acting as the agent of the Association and its mat¬ 
ters. Mr. Graves receives no milk, handles no milk, 
and becomes responsible for no milk. He is simply 
acting as agent for the producers who are members of 
the Five States Association. He has issued a circular 
to the producers and dealers, making the price for the 
month of May two cents per quart at the receiving 
stations, with five cents per can added. A differen¬ 
tial freight rate of three cents per can is to be added 
in the 29-cent shipping zone; six cents in the 26-cent 
zone; seven cents in the 25-cent zone, and nine cents 
in the 23-cent zone. To this price will be added five 
cents per can, which will go to Mr. Graves for com¬ 
pensation for his service as agent. The milk is being 
shipped direct to dealers, as heretofore, and Mr. 
Graves advised me Wednesday morning that he esti¬ 
mated at least 10,000 cans were being sold on this 
basis; that at least half of the dealers have accepted 
this price, dealers to pay freight charges. The up¬ 
state farmers have simply found that they are not 
able to produce milk at the prices previously paid, 
and they are either going to have a better price, or 
many of them will go out of the business. Since Mr. 
Graves has been acting as agent, many of the mem¬ 
bers of the Five States Milk Producers’ Association 
have been holding back their milk, a shortage on 
some lines amounting to as much as four or five cars 
some days last week. Because the producers have de¬ 
clined to furnish milk for less than the cost of pro¬ 
duction, and Mr. Graves, as their agent, has been in¬ 
teresting himself in securing a better price, the deal¬ 
ers and city papers set up the howl about trusts, and 
have gone so far as to threaten to arrest the farmers’ 
representatives under the Anti-Trust law. Of course, 
all this talk is for effect, because there being no trust, 
no one can be responsible for it. 
A MILK TRUST.—If the authorities are anxious to 
break up trusts, however, they can begin to look up 
the matters of the Consolidated Milk Exchange. That 
is a trust that has controlled the price of milk in New 
York City for the last 15 years. The trust as such 
does not handle a single quart of milk; its individual 
members are milk dealers, and go out into the coun¬ 
try and establish creameries and shipping stations. 
At these creameries they contract with the farmers to 
pay one cent per quart less than the New York Ex¬ 
change prices. Then they come back to New York, 
and compete with each other in cutting down the 
price by making long contracts for the supply of milk 
to large consumers. These same men then meet as 
members of the Consolidated Milk Exchange, and 
help each other out by establishing low prices. If 
the supply should commence to be short, they will 
meet and make an advance until farmers have stocked 
up with extra cows and feed, and as soon as the sup¬ 
ply is sufficient to meet the demand they meet again 
and reduce the price. The farmers in the meantime 
are stocked up with new milkers and a supply of 
grain, and are forced, under the circumstances, to 
continue shipping at the lower price. This thing has 
been worked from year to year and season to season 
with unvarying regularity. The dealers are just now 
attempting to make city consumers believe that the 
advance asked by the producers is an attempt to cor¬ 
ner the market and advance the price to consumers. 
As a matter of fact, of course the little advance asked 
by the producer would create no such necessity on the 
part of the dealers. I have been paying seven cents 
per quart for the milk used in my family in New York 
City for the last 10 years. During all that time I have 
been interested in the production of milk on the farm, 
part of the time receiving three cents a quart, and at 
one time as low as 1 1-10 cent a quart. When the 
price was reduced from three to 1 1-10 cent the deal¬ 
ers never made any reduction to me in the price of 
my family supply. If the producers are successful in 
compelling the dealers to pay this price there will be 
no advance to the consumers. Indeed, the retail price 
could be made less than it now is, and a fair margin 
of profit still result to the dealer. 
IN ORANGE COUNTY.—Heretofore the Orange 
County producers have taken little part in the organ¬ 
ization of the Five States Milk Producers’ Associa¬ 
tion, because of the difference of opinion in reference 
to the adjustment of the freight rates. This matter 
has now, however, been satisfactorily adjusted, and 
Orange County milkmen are ready and anxious to 
organize and become members of the Association. An 
adjourned meeting of the Orange County producers 
was held in Goshen on Tuesday afternoon, May 15. F. 
M. Crist, West Coldenham, reported a union of 30 
members, with John Ahrens as president. C. H. Tut¬ 
tle, of Washingtonville, reported an organization 
formed there consisting of from 30 to 40 members. 
Meadowbrook formbd a union May 14, with C. C. 
Smith as president. Westtown has an organization 
of about 30 members, E. V. R. Gardner president. 
Unionville has an organization of about 20 members, 
B. J. Haight president. Ebenezer Bull, of Hamburg, 
reported an organization under way at Campbell Hall. 
N. Y. There is also a union at Oxford and Little 
Britain. H. H. Brown, of WintertQwn, N. Y., is in¬ 
teresting himself in the organization of the Orange 
County producers. It being a busy time for farmers, 
the meeting at Goshen was not as large as might have 
been expected, but there was considerable enthusiasm 
manifested by those present. Some of the producers 
who had been shipping to members of the Exchange, 
complained that they were not getting their money 
promptly, checks for March milk in some cases had 
not yet been received. The meeting adjourned for 
two weeks, when they will meet again for further re¬ 
port and organization. 
V THE PROSPECT GOOD.—The Five States Milk 
Producers’ Association seemed to be in better shape 
than ever before. They have in Mr. Graves a business 
man acting as their agent in the city, and there are 
no stock-jobbing schemes involved in their plan but 
Promoter Briggs, and his lieutenants, are happily 
eliminated from the present work entirely. There are 
a great many cooperative creameries throughout the 
territory, and these should be used to their full ca¬ 
pacity at the present time to make up the milk into 
butter and cheese. This is one of the hardest months 
in the whole year to attempt to curtail the supply, 
and yet the dealers on the west side of New York, at 
this writing, have had a shortage for several days, and 
have become extremely anxious over the situation. I 
am of the opinion that if all the cooperative cream¬ 
eries in territories supplying New York City were 
worked to their full capacity, in caring for and manu¬ 
facturing of milk for butter and cheese, the limited 
supply in New York would result in a prompt ac¬ 
ceptance of the present demand of the producers in 
the matter of price. The cooperative creamery is the 
best friend that the producers have at their disposal. 
The numbers have been very much increasing of late, 
and I predict that there will be more of them in the 
future. j. j. d. 
Kaffir Corn.— I see by a recent R. N.-Y. that Hope 
Farm Intends to plant some White Kaffir corn. There 
are two serious objections to this variety on account of 
which It is no longer used in this county, (Greenwood), 
the largest Kaffir-producing county in the State. The 
leaves do not unfold from base of head, causing much 
loss in moldy grain, and it shatters badly. Red is 
much better, and Black-Capped White is best of all. 
Eureka, Kan. e. t. r. 
Cow Peas in Corn.—I have only used the Whippoorwill 
cow pea for planting with corn; the Clay, I think, 
would make too much vine. Finished planting a 15-acre 
piece to-day, mixing the seed, two-thirds corn and one- 
third peas, and setting the drill to put the seed In thick 
enough so the corn is one bushel to eight acres. i shall 
have in about 30 acres planted this way. I am trying 
several varieties in the orchard, will also put In four 
varieties of Soy beans. I am also trying a few vetches, 
have had a few in the garden for two years, and if field 
culture will do half as well I shall be well pleased 
with the crop. a. a. h. 
Du Bols, Ill. 
