1900 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
565 
Events of the Week. 
DOMESTIC.—A temperature of 111 degrees was report¬ 
ed at Pierre, S. D., August 1. Intense heat prevailed 
during the last week in July through the Dakotas, Wy¬ 
oming and adjacent States.An earthquake 
shook the Tintic mining region, Utah, August 1. The 
shaft of the Mammoth mine was so thrown out of shape 
that it was impossible to get the cage below the 1,600- 
foot level.At Harvey, Ill., August 2, three per¬ 
sons were killed and four others made seriously ill by 
eating poisonous fungi, mistaken for wholesome mush¬ 
rooms.The elections in North Carolina, August 
2, gave the Democrats sweeping victories. Chas. B. Ay- 
cock was elected Governor by a majority of 50,000, and 
both branches of the Legislature are Democratic. 
Three cases of yellow fever, and one death are reported 
at Tampa, Fla. It is not feared that the disease will 
spread.A dredge boat was wrecked by the ex¬ 
plosion of a gasoline engine in Tampa Bay, Fla., August 
4; 20 lives lost.An explosion on a prominent 
business street at Scranton, Pa., August 4, injured 19 
persons; cause unknown.August 6, there were 
11 deaths from heat prostration in Chicago. A hot wave 
extended over a wide area. August 7 was the hottest 
August day in New York City for 27 years, the tempera¬ 
ture reaching 96 degrees.August 5, train robbers held 
up a passenger train on the Union Pacific, 80 miles east 
of Denver, Col., and killed W. J. Fay, of Anaheim, Cal., 
who resisted robbery.A tornado struck New 
Rochelle, N. Y., August 7, causing much damage to prop¬ 
erty.Owing to the ice blockade off the coast of 
Labrador, fishery prospects are very poor, the catch of 
cod being greatly decreased.A collision on the 
Cotton Belt railroad at Aurich, Ark., August 7, caused 
the death of five men and serious injuries to two others. 
.... The report of the Commissioner of Pensions for 
the year ending June 30, 1900, states that the number of 
pensioners now on the roll is 993,529, an increase of 2,010 
during the past year. The total amount disbursed for 
pensions since 1S66 is $2,528,373,147. The Government ex¬ 
pends 25 per cent of its total disbursements in pensions. 
.... A big water main under Tremont street, Boston, 
Mass., burst August 8, causing a loss of $75,000. 
A Milwaukee motorman was recently dangerously burned 
by the explosion of a celluloid collar which caught fire 
while he was connecting a switch. 
CUBA.—August 7, there were 50 cases of yellow fever 
under treatment at Havana, and the disease was in¬ 
creasing at Pinar del Rio. These conditions are said to 
be largely due to the advent of non-immune Spanish im¬ 
migrants, now numbering about 20,000.The trial 
of Rathbone, deposed Director of Posts, concerned in the 
Neely frauds, will begin in September. Deputy Auditor 
Lawshe, who has been investigating Mr. Rathbone's ac¬ 
counts, disallows items aggregating more than $25,000. 
These include unauthorized personal expenditures and 
stuffed pay rolls, together with a number of questionable 
contracts. 
PHILIPPINES.—A lieutenant and 15 men of the Engi¬ 
neer Corps were ambushed and captured by insurgents 
in Luzon recently. The Filipinos continue very active. 
A number of soldiers are to be sent from the Islands to 
China. 
GENERAL FOREIGN NEWS.—An attempt was made 
to assassinate the Shah of Persia in Paris August 2. 
The would-be murderer is a French anarchist. 
Further massacres of native Christians are reported from 
China. August 2, the Government at Washington sent 
an ultimatum to China, demanding communication with 
Conger. China announced that no communication would 
be allowed in cipher, and that the advance of the Allies 
would be the signal for the death of the Envoys. The 
Russians were defeated at Newchwang. August 5, the 
Allies fought the Chinese near Tien Tsin, the battle last¬ 
ing for seven hours. The Allies were victorious, but 
their loss is said to be about 1,200. August 6, China con¬ 
sented to the transmission of cipher despatches. 
Four cases of bubonic plague, and two deaths from it, 
have occurred in London, England. 
FARM AND GARDEN.—The third annual fair of the 
Ohio Valley Agricultural Association will be held at 
Moundsville, W. Va., September 18-20. 
A storm which passed over Illinois August 2 is said to 
have damaged the broom-corn crop to the extent of $1,- 
000,000. 
A hail storm passed over Buffalo County, Wis., August 
3, destroying the corn and vegetable crops in a district 
two miles wide and 15 long. 
The Orange County (N. Y.) Fair will be held at Middle- 
town, N. Y., September 11-14. 
Glanders has broken out among the army horses at 
the Presidio, San Francisco. There are about 1,200 horses 
there, belonging to various cavalry regiments, and await¬ 
ing shipment to China. 
Cutworms are causing great damage to garden and 
farm crops in Oregon. One farmer, at Wilsonville, is 
meeting with success in a plan to keep the cutworms 
from devastating his five-acre potato field. At intervals 
of every three hours he drives around the margin of the 
field with a 10-foot roller, which kills all the worms on 
the road to his potato vines. The worms make slow 
headway in the deep dust, and are effectually caught in 
the regular trips of the roller. 
Chicago established a record-breaking price on Short¬ 
horn cattle at the stockyards August 8, when Mayflower 
V., a red heifer calf, brought $2,600, said to be the highest 
price ever paid for a Short-horn calf in the history of 
the live-stock world. The mother of Mayflower brought 
$2,050. Other sales, 60 in number, aggregated $67,550. Some 
of the highest-priced cattle were purchased by the fol¬ 
lowing persons: Mayflower V., by Col. G. M. Casey, 
Shawnee, Neb., $2,600; Mayflower IV., by E. W. Bowen, 
Delphi, Ind., $2,050; Cornelia, by C. L. Girlbaugh, Osbor- 
nos, $1,275; Fair Duchess, by F. A. Edwards, Webster 
City, la., $1,150. 
August 6 was farmers’ day at the Chautauqua meeting 
held at Pontiac, Ill. G. L. McNutt lectured on Feeding 
a Workingman’s Family, followed by an address on The 
Farm Home as a Factor in Our National Government. 
John M. Stahl delivered an address on A Farmer Abroad. 
The Government crop bulletin issued August 6 places 
the total wheat yield in Manitoba at 11,000,000 bushels, 
348,819 acres of wheat having been completely destroyed 
by winds, drought, etc. The yield of wheat is estimated 
at seven and one-half bushels per acre. 
The National Farmers’ Congress will meet at Colorado 
Springs, Col., August 21, continuing in session until Aug¬ 
ust 31. An elaborate programme has been arranged. 
The Indiana State Fair will be held at Indianapolis, 
September 17-21; G. P. Alexander, secretary. 
THE PHILIPPINES AND THE FILIPINOS. 
The following extract is made from a letter written 
several months ago by one of our readers on the Island 
of Java. Mr. Sinclair has spent many years in the East, 
and knows the country and people well: 
I see that our soldiers are making very slow head¬ 
way in conquering the natives of the Philippines. It 
was much easier to defeat the Spanish than it will 
be to defeat the natives of that country, and it is 
only a person who has lived here in the East some 
time who can understand the cause of it, and the 
difficulties our poor soldiers meet in those drenching 
rains, traveling through those sawas or rlcefields, up 
to the knees in water and mud, and that hot sun 
coming down to make a man feel that he is going 
to be roasted alive. They can never see the enemy, 
who are always hidden in their dense planted trees 
or in the jungles, or hills, where they know every 
inch of the country. They can stand the scorching 
sun much better than our people can do. I know it 
is really a discouraging work for our poor soldiers 
and officers marching through those unhealthy 
marshes and morasses, getting those malarial fevers, 
which take all ambition and strength, leaving the 
sufferer more dead than alive. Our poor soldiers 
DO YOU UNDERSTAND THAT?— New Yokk Hehai.u. 
have to march on day after day, God only knows 
where, in that uncivilized country, trying to get a 
fair fight. I am sure that this state of affairs will 
go on much longer than our Congressmen at home 
think it will; they have no idea what difficulties their 
poor soldiers have to undergo. I see now that there 
are 60,000 soldiers in the Philippines, but it will take 
them all, and perhaps more, to wipe out those natives, 
whom they thought in a few weeks would be wiped 
out of existence. I think this was a very unthank 
ful business for America to enter into, and one she 
will not forget for many years to come. They went 
to liberate people who, when they found their enemies 
whipped, turned around, and are now much a greater 
enemy of Americans then even the Spanish were, and 
they are determined to fight it out to the bitter end. 
I feel sure from what I know of the natives of that 
place that the American Government will have trou¬ 
ble there for years to come to keep those people 
quiet and in subjection without any thanks or profit 
from them. There is nearly nothing that can be 
produced in the Philippines, but what can be grown 
at home in the United States. I have also traveled 
nearly all over the United States, and I have scarcely 
seen anything that is grown here in the East but it 
could be also grown in many parts of the southern 
States, if the people would try, so that our people 
need not think that the Philippines will add much 
wealth to our country. On the contrary; those is¬ 
lands will be a burden to the United States so long 
as she will hold them. The American people will 
find this later on in their tax bill. I see in many 
parts of America that many are contemplating com¬ 
ing to the Philippines later on, thinking that they 
can do a good business there in many things. To 
such I would say that money is not to be picked up 
here in the East so easily as many think it is. If 
they make money there, it must first come from their 
own country, as in the Philippines there is little or 
no money belonging to the country itself. One or 
two years there, and they will get enough of that cli¬ 
mate, and will be glad to get back home again, es¬ 
pecially if the malarial fever gets hold of them once. 
The only thing that the Philippines are renowned for 
is the fine tobacco leaf they produce. The tobacco is 
by far the best that can be produced in the East, and 
the Manila cigar is the best that can be found in the 
eastern market. It is also supposed to be rich in 
minerals of different kinds also, including gold, but 
it is not sufficiently explored to know whether that 
is true or not. In almost any of those eastern islands 
there are good traces of gold to be found, also sil¬ 
ver, copper, tin and petroleum. Now the tin mines 
of Banca Island are about the only paying business 
in the East except petroleum, but on the whole that 
is not a paying business. neil Sinclair. 
SOME REMARKS ABOUT CHINA. 
Many excitable persons are crying out for a war 
of revenge against China by all of the trading Chris¬ 
tian nations having diplomatic representatives in 
Peking at the time of the reported general massacre 
of foreigners. We do not think that this demand will 
meet with much success in this country, at least, 
when all the facts become better known. It is cer¬ 
tain that every male foreigner of mature age, possess¬ 
ed of ordinary discretion, must have known for a long 
time past that his presence was offensive to the 
Chinese, and that his life was in constant danger. 
It is not claimed that the massacre took place until 
tne Chinese forts at Taku had been bombarded and 
destroyed by the allied warships of the Christian 
nations, with the exception of those representing the 
United States; our admiral apparently having the 
good sense to keep aloof from such a needless act 
of aggression. Our country is comparatively blame¬ 
less in its official dealings with China, having noth¬ 
ing to answer for like the disgraceful opium war 
waged by the British in 1841 and the almost coercive 
recent acquisitions of territory by several other na¬ 
tions, but our exclusion of Chinese subjects from 
residence here, while demanding entrance into China 
for all sorts of American enterprises, has aroused -a 
deep resentment. China is the oldest and naturally 
the most peaceful nation on earth. For thousands 
of years they have cultivated the soil, supporting a 
vast population, variously estimated at from 300,000,- 
000 to 500,000,000, and have preserved and increased 
its fertility, something no other people, except the 
Japanese, have done. When we consider the prog¬ 
ress of Caucasian civilization, blighting the virgin 
lands like a horde of locusts—the sterile and defor¬ 
ested areas in Europe—the abandoned farms of New 
England, and the “old plantations’’ of the South— 
we realize how deficient we are in some of the true 
essentials of civilization, though we have made vast 
strides in other directions. Much as we may wish 
to sneer at the Chinese ways of conserving the fer¬ 
tility of the soil, while inducing it to feed countless 
numbers of people for untold centuries, we are com¬ 
pelled to admit that we are comparatively in the very 
infancy of agricultural science. The Chinaman is 
first and last a home-lover, and before he will per¬ 
mit any extensive invasion of his country will mass 
in such numbers and fight with such skill and cour¬ 
age that the resulting war is likely to be one of uie 
most horrible in history. The way of the United 
States seems clear to an unprejudiced mind. After 
exacting a reasonable compensation for the loss of 
American lives and property, we should get out of 
China and stay out, until we are welcomed pack, 
asking only such privileges as we are willing to ac¬ 
cord the Chinese; that of merely trading between the 
ports of the respective countries. w. v. e. 
TURNING OVER OLD MEADOWS. 
In your issue of July 21 my friend Geo. M. Clark, 
of Higganum, refers to one who turned over some 
sod land flat, rolling it firmly, then sowing Timothy 
and Red-top seed, and it proved a failure. No won¬ 
der, if that is all he did to the land. I have many 
times turned over the sod on mowing land that had 
run out, so as not to produce a good yield of hay, 
doing it as soon after mowing as possible, plowing it 
tnoroughly, not too deep, but turning all the turf 
bottom up, then putting on roller, packing it firm. If 
possessing plenty of barnyard manure, give it a 
good coat, thoroughly harrowing it with one of Mr. 
Clark’s Cutaway harrows, until it is thoroughly pul¬ 
verized, then using a smoothing harrow until it is 
nicely leveled, picking off all stones too large to 
roll in. Lastly, give it a good seeding with Timothy 
and Red-top, then a good rolling with roller heavily 
weighted, and you have reason to expect a heavy 
crop of hay next season. This should all be done be¬ 
fore August 15, or not later than September 1. I 
never had a failure. For my own use for the dairy 
I give it a good sowing of Red clover very early in 
the Spring, and another good rolling. I may not have 
nve tons per acre, but I have cut as heavy crops as 
I ever saw grow. n. c. p. 
Connecticut. 
