1900 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER: 
553 
EVENTS OF THE WEEK. 
DOMESTIC.—An explosion In the Wind¬ 
sor Celluloid Collar Company’s factory at 
Chicago, Ill., July 25, caused the death of 
four women, and injured several persons. 
.... An explosion wrecked the factory 
of the Waco (Tex.) Ice and Refrigerator 
Company, July 25, killing two men and In¬ 
juring others.Geronimo, the fa¬ 
mous Apache chief, who has been impris¬ 
oned at Fort Sill., I. T., for 14 years, has 
become insane. He is one of the most 
blood-thirsty Indians in history, and it cost 
the Government $1,000,000 and hundreds of 
lives before he was safe behind the bars. 
. . . . The race rioting in New Orleans 
culminated July 27, in a battle between the 
police and citizens on the one side, and 
Robert Charles, a negro desperado, who 
had killed two policemen several days be¬ 
fore. In the conflict Charles killed three 
more persons, fatally wounded four and 
was himself “literally shot to pieces." 
There was more or less disorder in the city, 
and an aged negro woman was shot and 
killed by a mob.The premature 
explosion of a cannon at Camp Lincoln, 
Springfield, Ill., July 29, injured 12 persons, 
and two artillerymen will probably die. 
.... A terrific cloudburst in the valley 
of the Verde River, Ariz., July 31, drowned 
two men. It broke a protracted drought. 
.... Twelve persons were injured in a 
head-on collision of electric cars at Day- 
ton, O., July 30.The entire busi¬ 
ness portion of Cherokee, Iowa, was swept 
by fire July 30.At Ocean City, N. 
J., July 31, four women were carried out by 
the undertow while bathing, and drowned. 
Among the victims of this fatality were 
two daughters of Edwin Lonsdale, a well- 
known horticulturist, and member of the 
Pennsylvania State Board of Agriculture. 
PHILIPPINES.—At Oroquieta, Mindanao, 
two soldiers who went into a store to buy 
food were set upon by bolomen; one was 
killed and the other escaped and gave the 
alarm. A company of the Fortieth Infantry 
then went to Oroquieta and killed 89 na¬ 
tives, 30 in one house. The gunboat Callao 
then shelled the town. Insurgents under 
Alvarez are persistently troubling Min¬ 
danao.The United States is ne¬ 
gotiating with Spain for the purchase of 
two more islands belonging to the Philip¬ 
pine Archipelago, Sibutu and Cagayen, the 
price to be paid being $100,000. These isl¬ 
ands were overlooked in the Treaty of 
Paris, and their purchase is designed to 
prevent future complications. 
GENERAL FOREIGN NEWS.—The Chi¬ 
nese have risen against foreigners on Hai¬ 
nan Island, the most southern point of the 
Empire. News has been received from the 
British Minister, Sir Claude MacDonald, 
from which it appears that the besieged 
foreigners are holding out at Peking. The 
Chinese assert that they are holding them 
as hostages. This is contradicted by news, 
apparently authentic, received from the be¬ 
sieged. The Chinese government has, ap¬ 
parently, appealed separately to each of 
the Allies for aid in settling the disturb¬ 
ance, while at the same time an Imperial 
edict was issued commending the Boxers, 
and offering rewards for their services. 
. ... In presenting the Indian budget in 
the English House of Commons July 25, the 
Indian Secretary announced that during the 
past two years $60,000,000 had been expend¬ 
ed for famine relief. The population of the 
stricken area was 52,000,000.King 
Humbert, of Italy, was shot and killed by 
an assassin at Monza, near Milan, July 29. 
The murderer was an anarchist, Angelo 
Bresci, a native of Tuscany. Apparently 
the plot was hatched in the United States, 
the murderer belonging to a group of an¬ 
archists at Paterson, N. J., where he had 
been living. 
FARM AND GARDEN.—Congress in the 
recent session authorized agricultural ex¬ 
periment stations in Hawaii and Porto 
Rico. They will soon be opened and in full 
operation. Secretary Wilson directed Mr. 
Knapp, of the Louisiana Station, to go to 
Porto Rico and make a careful study of 
the Island and its first special needs in 
agriculture. Mr. Knapp was also told to 
report on the best location for an experi¬ 
ment station, and to give all necessary in¬ 
formation to carry out the law promptly. 
Dr. Stubbs, of the Louisiana Station, was 
sent to Hawaii on a similar errand. He is 
now there, and will spend five or six weeks 
in securing data for a report on the estab¬ 
lishment of a station for the Islands. 
The Arkansas State Fair will be held at 
Pine Bluff August 22-27. 
The California State Agricultural So¬ 
ciety will hold its fair at Sacramento Sep¬ 
tember 2-15. 
John Franks, a Noble township (Ind.) 
farmer, was swindled, July 24, out of $2,500. 
Two men, who registered as W. H. Harris, 
of Indiana, and W. C. Brown, of Hamilton, 
O., visited Franks for the ostensible pur¬ 
pose of buying his farm, telling him he 
must produce $2,500 to prove his responsi¬ 
bility. Franks put his money into a 
satchel. The men were to put $5,000 in an¬ 
other. They switched satchels and Franks 
got a bundle of paper. 
The Iowa State crop report issued July 
24 says that corn promises a yield far be¬ 
yond the average, but that Winter apples 
will fall short of the usual supply. Local 
damage has resulted to hay from heavy 
rains in the northwest, but all parts of the 
State have been saturated to the benefit of 
the pasture and corn crop. 
The Continental Dorset Club offers for 
the best flock registered in the Continental 
Dorset Club, the sum of $25 at each of the 
following shows of 1900: Syracuse, N. Y.; 
Columbus, O.; Indianapolis, Ind.; Spring- 
field, Ill.; Atlanta, Ga., and at the exhibi¬ 
tion at Chicago, Ill. The flock shall be 
made up according to the rules of the re¬ 
spective fair associations. The secretary 
of the Club is Joseph E. Wing, Mechanics- 
burg, O. 
Charbon is reported to be epidemic among 
cattle in western Texas, and the disease is 
attacking human beings. Much alarm has 
resulted, and the State Veterinarian is dis¬ 
cussing the situation with the Governor. 
Owing to a shortage in the broom-corn 
crop Evansville (Ind.) manufacturers say 
the price of brooms will be advanced soon. 
Broom corn now sells at $150 a ton. A dis¬ 
trict near here that produced 20,000 tons 
last year will harvest only 10,000 tons this 
season. 
A warrant has been issued at Kansas 
City for the arrest of Edward L. Swazey, a 
cattle commission merchant, charging 
irregularities in connection with cattle 
mortgages involving losses estimated at 
$70,000. Swazey is said to be on his way to 
South America. 
MARKET BRIEFS. 
Picked Up Here and There. 
BASKETS FOR PLUMS.—A nearby ship¬ 
per wishes to know whether there is any 
better package for Japan plums than the 
regular 16-quart peach basket. A smaller 
package is far more desirable, for instance, 
the eight-pound basket commonly used for 
grapes. The plums keep in better shape 
than in a large bulk, and they are much 
more convenient for the retailer, as many 
customers wish to buy only a small quan¬ 
tity at a time. 
A RUG BUILDER.—In the window of a 
Broadway store dealing in expensive rugs, 
sits a big, coarse-featured Turk, dressed in 
his national costume. His loom is a rough 
affair made of round sticks with the bark 
on, and one would judge that the man were 
better fitted to knock down cattle in a 
slaughterhouse than to handle minute 
threads and weave an artistic pattern. 
Yet he knows his business, and the beau¬ 
tiful, delicate-colored Turkish rug grows 
rapidly under his quick motions. 
CONSTANT CHANGE.—“This morning," 
said a fruit man, “apples were a little 
scarce. I had on hand a few early red ones 
in small crates, and readily sold them at 
60 cents, or at the rate of about $3 per 
barrel. When the shipper gets his returns, 
he will probably tell all his neighbors what 
a big price he got for apples in crates, and 
they will take it for granted that these 
conditions will always be the same, while 
the fact Is that it only happened so on ac¬ 
count of the temporary shortage. The 
same thing might take place to-morrow or 
next week, but there is no certainty of it.” 
The market for perishable goods in a great 
city is as uneasy and tricky as the ocean. 
Supply, demand, and weather are the 
forces that keep it in motion. The trans¬ 
portation lines pour in supplies from all 
directions, and a scarcity in the morning 
may change to a surplus before night. 
Very few really “cut-and-dried” rules for 
shippers can be given except the old ex¬ 
hortations to sort and pack properly, and 
ship only to reliable people. 
SIZE OF PACKAGES.—A reader asks what 
is meant by a crate, case, carrier, basket, 
etc., in the market quotations on fruits and 
vegetables. In handling many of these 
products but little attention is paid to the 
old standards of quarts or bushels. They 
are bought and sold by the package, and 
there is no doubt that quotations made in 
this way, while explicit enough for the 
city trade, are very indefinite elsewhere. I 
measured a lot of the standard packages 
In order to get their capacities in bushels 
or fractions. Of course, there are a lot of 
mongrel boxes and crates made from odds 
and ends of lumber and no two alike. 
Many of the standard packages do not 
seem to figure out any exact number of 
quarts, but the figures given are approxi¬ 
mately correct. The tomato crate is 12xlSx 
10 inches, nearly an exact bushel. This is 
also used for cucumbers, green peppers and 
egg plants, though some of the latter come 
in barrels and half-barrel boxes. The peach 
carrier is 11 x 22 x 10 inches, holding six three- 
quart baskets. This is one of the best pack¬ 
ages for shipping any distance, as the 
baskets are separated so that there is a 
circulation of air, and they yield with the 
jar in transportation, thus damaging the 
fruit less than where it is all thrown to¬ 
gether in one bulk. California plums come 
in carriers holding four square three-quart 
baskets. Most muskmelons come in half¬ 
barrel cases or baskets, though some are 
seen in half-bushel baskets, two in a crate. 
“HOT CORN.”—This is a familiar cry on 
some streets in Now’ York, and at the cheap 
seaside resorts. It means that the vender 
has fresh-boiled sweet corn for sale. His 
outfit is a pail or kettle holding 10 to 20 
gallons, under which is a fire of charcoal 
or some other fuel. When a customer 
comes up, the corn man takes a big fork, 
fishes out an ear, puts it on a plate, daubs 
a brush into a mess of butter, and paints 
it over. The eater salts and peppers it to 
suit himself, and then, taking hold of each 
end, gets away with it in the good, old- 
fashioned style. The price is five cents. 
Sometimes the whole outfit is put on 
wheels and trundled around. One man had 
his on a push cart, and was wheeling it 
over a rough pavement. The jar was too 
much; one of the axles broke, and down 
went the corn, water and fire in a heap. 
The owner, an Italian, looked at the siz¬ 
zling ruins and smiled. He was apparently 
a philosopher, and did not propose to worry 
over so small a matter as losing his entire 
stock-in-trade. The lazy, don’t-care of 
some of these people is past comprehension. 
CONEY ISLAND NOTES.—Throughout 
the East, Coney Island has a hard name. 
The man who said that the only decent 
thing he saw was the ocean was not far 
out of the way. It would seem as though 
all the fakes, frauds and indecent shows 
in the country were dumped here for the 
Summer. Two-headed people, a web-footed 
horse, men and women that eat live snakes, 
and numerous other impossible freaks are 
seen. Wild men are a favorite attraction 
(?), and most anyone who lets his hair and 
whiskers grow and daubs a little paint on 
his anatomy, will pass very well. He can 
look fierce and rattle his chains a little, 
and the signs and exhibitor will do the 
rest. People take these things as jokes, 
and know that they are swindled if they 
patronize them. In contrast with such 
ridiculous frauds are glass blowers, with 
remarkable specimens of skilled work; en¬ 
gravers, and charcoal artists, who can 
make your portrait in five minutes. The 
most Instructive exhibit this season is a 
colony of bees. They are under glass and 
wire screens, and the boxes are arranged 
so that the whole operation may be seen 
from the young bees wiggling out of their 
cells, to the filled comb with the workers 
sealing it. The bees have access to screen- 
covered boxes containing plants, water and 
artificial food, and are apparently as happy 
and busy as though they had all creation 
to fly around in. A man explains the whole 
thing and answers questions, and by spend¬ 
ing half an hour there one can pick up 
more real information about bees and 
honey than he could get in a month from 
books. The admission fee is five cents. It 
is a pity that every fair cannot have such 
an exhibit. Some who keep bees have only 
a vague idea of the way in which they do 
their work, and children are especially izs- 
terested. w. w. h. 
Strawberries in Connecticut. 
The late Spring frost injured a good 
many of the early blossoms, so that straw¬ 
berries began later than usual this year. 
Michel’s Early ripened first as usual, and 
seems to be the earliest berry around here. 
Some Connecticut strawberry growers, 
however, consider the new Excelsior much 
earlier and a better variety. We have not 
fruited it yet; it certainly is a strong 
grower. Clyde is pretty early with us, and 
is a good berry, but rather soft to keep 
any length of time. I should say it is the 
most prolific variety we have, and a strong 
grower, producing berries of good flavor. 
It seems w'cll suited to light soil, such as 
ours is. Perhaps this fact of light soil has 
prevented success with the Glen Mary. 
This makes a strong plant, but so far has 
produced only a small crop of fruit, which 
is too acid to suit one’s taste; the green 
tip is another objection to this berry. The 
Bismarck has done splendidly on our soil, 
and is a good eating berry, always sweet 
and rich; the late pickings, however, are 
sometimes rather small fruit, but early in 
the season the size is medium to large. No 
berry is more popular here than Brandy¬ 
wine. It succeeds well in growth of plant, 
size of fruit, quality and handsome appear¬ 
ance, despite the excess of hull. It has 
paid me the best of any variety I grow. 
Haverland is here, as all over the country, 
a popular and successful variety. One 
grower In town is making a specialty of 
the Marshall, and it seems to pay him. 
The fruit is extra big. Very dark color and 
of fair quality and holds on until late. 
Strawberries coming medium to late 
after the rush of southern fruit is over, are 
most profitable with us. My choice of va¬ 
rieties, after this year’s experience, would 
be Clyde, Brandywine, Haverland, Bis¬ 
marck and perhaps Bubach. Othei fruits 
that are behaving satisfactorily this season 
with me are Red Cross currant, which is 
as large as Cherry or Fay and longer 
branches. London Market, a fine late cur¬ 
rant, not much talked about; White Im¬ 
perial, which is of the very highest quality 
but not salable in the markets. Loudon 
red raspberry is large, productive and 
stands drought well; New Phoenix red 
raspberry is fine, early and holds out well 
to the end of season. Miller’s Red gave us 
some good fruit early, but seems to be too 
small to be satisfactory. The excessively 
dry weather has cut short the raspberry 
crop very much, and blackberries bid fair 
to be poor unless rains come soon. 
Milford, Conn. h. c. c. m. 
"I am the mother of four children,” 
writes Mrs. Euphemia Falconer, of 
Trent, Muskegon Co., Mich. "My first 
two babies were still-born, and I suffered 
every thing but death. My friends all 
thought I could never recover. I was 
reduced to 109 pounds. When I was 
three months along for my third child I 
was taken with hemorrhage or flooding 
and came near having a miscarriage 
from female weakness. For two months 
I was under the care of our doctor, but 
was getting weaker all the time until 
one day I happened to come across one 
of your little books and I read it through, 
and the next day I sent and got three 
bottles of ‘ Favorite Prescription ’ and 
one bottle of ‘Pellets.’ I improved so 
fast I continued to take your medicine 
until baby was born, and he is healthy 
and all right. My health has been good 
ever since. I now weigh 165 pounds.” 
“Favorite Prescrip¬ 
tion” makes Weak 
Women Strong , and 
Sick Women Well, 
D airymen and stockmen 
realize more and more each year the mil¬ 
lions of dollars lost bv the shrinking of 
MILK and FLESH in their cattle by the torment of 
Hies. Numerous preventives have been tested and 
advertised. Thus far. nothing has been discovered 
to compare with the original •* Shoo-Fly.” which lias 
been used by the same dairymen since 1885. Kxperi- 
ment Stations publishing one quart of it. protected 
Hfty cows two days ; thousands write each cow 
gained two qts. milk at cost of half-cent. “ Shoo- 
JS'ly ” can be obtained In most every county in the 
Union, or by sending 25c. to the Shoo-Fly Mfg. Co.. 
1005 Fairmount Ave., Philadelphia, Pa. They will 
refund money if cows are not protected. Get the 
genuine. Beware of imitations. 
AND RAPID. 
There is no other potato 
digger made which does 
such clean and rapid 
work as 
THE !■ 
DOWDEN 
DIGGER 
Our book explains the principle, so that you can see for 
yourself Its superiority. Fully Guaranteed. Book free. 
liOWDK.V MFG. CO. Box 22 Brulrle City, lows. 
CHEAP FEED. 
Experience has demonstrated to a certainty I 
that ensilage is the 
cheapest stock food on 
earth. 
The 
very best 
and 
clip a peat 
wny to 
proparo 
it Is Kith 
_the 
GALE - BALDWIN 
BALDWIN 
Ensilage and Dry Fodder Cutters. Wh..l Because 
they require less power than any similar machine 
made; they cut faster, areeasiertofeedandoperato 
and outwear any other machine. They cut4 conven¬ 
ient lengths .Can be equipped with any length of ele¬ 
vator. Has safety fly wheel andsafety treddle lever. 
THE BELCHER & TAYLOR A. T. CO., 
Box 75, Chicopee Falls, Mass. 
