1900 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
773 
Events of the Week. 
DOMESTIC.—Representative Hardin, of Wilkes, a mem¬ 
ber of the Georgia Legislature, was seriously wounded, 
and Representative Cann and two other legislators were 
cut severely, in a fight with knives, which took place 
November 1 aboard a special train occupied by mem¬ 
bers of the Legislature on the way to Valdosta to at¬ 
tend the State Fair. Senator Hardaway is said to have 
done the stabbing.October 31, a violent storm 
caused much damage through northern and central 
Texas. Houses were wrecked in Kaufman, Ellis, Hill, 
Collin and Grayson counties; three persons were killed, 
and several severely injured.Smallpox has 
broken out on several western Indian reservations, and 
threatens to become epidemic.The ship Eva, 
which left Portland, Ore., for Vladivostok October 6, 
with a cargo of flour, has been lost at sea, and the fate 
of the crew is unknown. The value of vessel and cargo 
was $340,000.In a battle between strikers and 
non-union men at the National Tube Works, Riverdale, 
Va., November 2, one man was fatally injured. 
November 2, every store in Jackson Centre, O., was 
plundered, a bank was wrecked with nitroglycerin and 
$5,600 in money secured, the total plunder amounting to 
$10,000. The robberies were committed by an organized 
gang, which has raided other Ohio towns.The 
sound-money parade in New York City, November 3, took 
place in a steady drizzle which lasted all day. There 
were 109,000 men in line, the procession taking seven 
hours to pass a given point.J. N. Calloway, 
John Robinson, Allen Burks and Shepard Harris, young 
negroes from Booker T. Washington’s school at Tuske- 
gee, Ala., sailed November 3 aboard the Hamburg 
American liner Graf Waldersee for Hamburg, whence, 
as employees of the German government, they will go 
to the West Coast of Africa. They are to teach cotton 
raising and general agriculture to the natives of the 
German colony there. They take with them 10 bushels 
of cotton seed of several varieties, a cotton gin, lumber 
wagons, vegetable seeds and a lot of agricultural tools. 
Three of the young men are graduates of the Tuskegee 
Institute. Two are experienced agriculturists and the 
other is a mechanic. Calloway has been manager of the 
institute’s farm for several years. He will stay in Africa 
until the enterprise is well established.A ter¬ 
rific explosion occurred in a mine at Berrysburg, W. 
Va., November 3; 13 bodies have been taken from the 
mine.The Presidential election gave McKinley 
292 electoral votes, and Bryan 155. The vote was larger 
than in 1896, and the Republicans increased their majority 
in Congress.An explosion occurring with a fire 
in a factory in New York City November 5, caused $75,QUO 
damage; no one was hurt.The ocean liner St. 
Paul reached New York 24 hours late November 4, being 
disabled by the breaking of her propeller shaft. The 
free engine shook itself to pieces, and inflicted damage 
amounting to $250,000.At Washington, D. C., 
November 6, the Federal Supreme Court affirmed the de¬ 
cision of the lower court in the case of the American 
Sugar Refining Company vs. the State of Louisiana. 
This was brought on a writ of error from the Supreme 
Court of Louisiana and involved the right of Louisiana 
to exempt from the operation of a general license tax 
on manufacturers, planters and farmers who refine their 
own product. The court held that it had been the policy 
of both the States and the genei-al Government to enact 
legislation in favor of home products. 
PHILIPPINES.—The monitors Monterey and Monad- 
nock are to be laid up at Cavite. They are too hot for 
tropical duty, and many of the officers have already been 
invalided home.Attempts will be made to sup¬ 
press the Filipino Junta at Hong Kong, which is regard¬ 
ed as responsible for shipments of arms and other sup¬ 
plies to the Islands. 
CUBA.—The Constitutional Convention opened in Hav¬ 
ana November 5. There was much enthusiasm and many 
cheers for the United States. There were 31 delegates 
present. 
GENERAL FOREIGN NEWS.—Secretary Hay has 
transmitted to the British government the American re¬ 
ply to the Anglo-German agreement concerning China. 
The Government agrees to the principles set forth, ex¬ 
cepting the third section, which is regarded as contain¬ 
ing a threat to other powers.The Canadian 
elections sustain the present government, the Liberals 
being the winning party. 
FARM AND GARDEN.—The Secretary of Agriculture 
has added Hogansburg and Massena, N. Y., to the num¬ 
ber of animal quarantine stations for the inspection of 
animals imported into the United States. 
The agricultural department of the Iowa State College, 
at Ames, has been notified by the United States Depart¬ 
ment of Agriculture that the butter sent by the college 
creamery gained a gold medal at the Paris Exposition. 
Only six medals were awarded, and the competition was 
open to the world. The creameries competing from the 
United States were selected by the Agricultural Depart¬ 
ment at Washington, and out of the 40 which sent ex¬ 
hibits from this country the college creamery at Ames 
was among the first selected. 
The Maine State Pomological Society met at Norway, 
Me., November 13-14. 
The Association of Agricultural Colleges and Experi¬ 
ment Stations met at New Haven, Conn., November 13. 
The section on botany and horticulture discussed plant 
breeding, including the introduction of foreign kinds and 
the adaptation of varieties to localities; cooperative work 
between the United States Department of Agriculture and 
the experiment stations; the functions of the station 
horticulturist, and the station botanist, and the nature- 
study movement. 
The Central Illinois Horticultural Society will meet at 
Canton November 20-21; secretary, Prof. J. C. Blair, Ur- 
bana, Ill. 
The Pennsylvania Live Stock Breeders’ Association 
will hold its annual meeting at Harrisburg December 12- 
13. Those interested may obtain further information 
from the secretary, E. S. Bayard, East End, Pitts¬ 
burg, Pa, 
The Pennsylvania State Grange will meet at Lock 
Haven December 11-14; J. A. Herr, Cedar Springs, Pa., 
secretary. 
The California State Horticultural Society will meet at 
San Francisco December 4-7; secretary, W. J. Wickson, 
414 Day st., San Francisco. 
The Northern Illinois Horticultural Society will meet at 
Yorkville December 4-5; secretary, A. W. Bryant. 
Missouri State Horticultural Society will meet at West- 
port December 4-6; secretary, L. A. Goodman. 
The Kansas State Horticultural Society will meet at 
Topeka December 27-28. 
The Seed Corn Breeders’ Association was recently or¬ 
ganized at Springfield, Ill.; secretary, F. A. Warner, 
Sibley, Ill. The purpose of the organization is to regu¬ 
late the production and sale of seed corn by sending out 
seed corn testing not less than 95 per cent vitality, 
sending out seed corn in the ear unless otherwise or¬ 
dered, seeing to it that the breeder produces his own 
corn and does not sell inferior grades. 
The Minnesota State Grange will meet at Northfield, 
Rice Co., December 18; S. G. Baird, Master, Edina 
Mills, Minn. 
The annual meeting of the Virginia State Horticultural 
Society will be held at Roanoke November 20-21. Re¬ 
duced rates are offered by railroads and hotels. Among 
the speakers at this meeting are Edwin Van Alstyne, H. 
E. Van Deman, Wesley Webb and W. F. Massey, as well 
as a number of prominent Virginians. Secretary, Walter 
Whately, Crozet, Va. 
Heavy rains in the vicinity of Winona, Minn., have seri¬ 
ously damaged wheat; it has been impossible to thrash 
the grain, and it is beginning to sprout. 
At a meeting called at Chicago November 1 by Prof. 
John A. Craig, of Iowa, to arrange for an inter-collegiate 
live-stock judging contest to be held at Chicago during 
the International Live Stock Exposition, an organization 
was effected. It was decided to hold such a contest, and 
tentative rules were adopted governing such contest. 
Prof. Plumb, of Indiana, was elected president; Prof. 
Hunt, of Ohio, vice-president, and Prof. Mumford, of 
Michigan, secretary and treasurer. The executive com¬ 
mittee consists of Profs. Plumb, Mumford, Craig and 
Kennedy. 
The National Grange, Patrons of Husbandry, will meet 
at Washington, D. C., December 14. 
The convention of the National Live Stock Association 
will meet at Salt Lake City, Utah, January 15-18, 1901. 
The American Farmers’ Institute Association will meet 
at Delavan, Wis., December 15-17; president, F. E. Daw- 
ley, Fayetteville, N. Y. 
The farmers’ institutes of New York State will open 
in St. Lawrence, Erie and Albany counties, December 
3. The speakers for the coming season will be much the 
same as heretofore. The “wind-up” meetings will be 
held at Geneva January 2-3, 1901, and at Cornell (Ithaca), 
January 4. _ 
THE PO TA TO CROP. 
In Canada. 
Potatoes this year are, with most farmers, a good crop 
above the average. Our best varieties are the Calico or 
Chenango and Dakota Reds. There will be large quan¬ 
tities of potatoes shipped from P. E. Island this Fall 
and Winter. j. b. 
Throughout this neighborhood the crop was heavy, but 
loss from rot will nearly amount to two-thirds of crop, 
due, no doubt, to very wet season while crop was im¬ 
mature, sprayed fields suffering nearly as much as un¬ 
sprayed, although haulms remained greener for greater 
length of time on sprayed fields. My own crop is better 
than for two years, which I consider due to very early 
planting, this being the first work done in the Spring. 
I might add the experience of a neighbor, who said 
that if he did not get his crop in very early he would 
only grow enough for the house. On the Island of Mon¬ 
treal there was great complaint of rot, and potatoes 
have been plentiful on the market. To-day’s quotations 
are 45 cents per 90-pound bag. Taking things altogether 
I do not think that there will be a great quantity to 
ship from the sections in the neighborhood of Montreal. 
When I first came to Chateauguay, Bliss Triumph was 
a favorite, but it has gone under, and now Miles Prize 
is claiming the lead. The tubers are large and hand¬ 
some, although a trifle coarse, but good keepers. For 
myself I prefer Burpee’s Great Divide, thin skin, splen¬ 
did keeper, not a sprout till after planting, and white 
mealy cooker. In regard to culture, potatoes generally 
follow the crop used to break up lea, but I’ve several 
times planted in the sod, which was turned in the Fall 
(in orchard culture). Plowing, followed by the proper 
mellowing of the soil, drilling with the double-mold 
plow (no planters in this section), cultivation by broad¬ 
toothed cultivator. I run a Hallock weeder and fine- 
tooth cultivator, then drill up with plow, and the crop 
is plowed out. None of the later styles of tools are in 
common use here, and very little fertilizer is used. 
PETER REID. 
On Long Island. 
The potato crop in this section was very light, not over 
half a crop. I think three-fourths of the crop has been 
sold, and there will be very few to sell this Winter. 
Westhampton. w. f. j. 
Quite a number of bushels of potatoes are being held 
back, several thousand bushels in this vicinity. From 
what I see and hear, I think the best of the crop is 
stored. w. p. h. 
Jericho. 
Potatoes have been a very poor crop this season in 
this location. Farmers are not keeping many of them 
through the Winter, as they are showing signs of rot 
already. Corn is an extra good crop here. J. e. 
Melville. 
In Pennsylvania. 
Our potatoes are all dug and sold. Carman No. 1 was 
the best producer, and of good quality. Sir Walter 
Raleigh produced more merchantable tubers per acre, 
and suits our taste quite well. Carman No. 3 is equal 
to the latter in every respect. The Freeman is perfec¬ 
tion in quality, and the potato we eat and sell to a few 
private customers, but 50 per cent are small. I am afraid 
we shall have to discontinue planting the Freeman on 
this account. We shall try it next year with liberal ma¬ 
nuring and tillage. Bovee yields well, but the quality is 
indifferent, and it diverges from the type too readily. 
Ours are nearly all of the Early Rose type after two 
years. Rural New Yorker does well here, too, and quality 
is not so good as some other varieties. The day after 
the potato digging was completed we broadcast rye 
over the field and covered with a spring-tooth harrow 
where it could get to the ground for stones. We still 
have many stones on our new land, as well as the older 
portion of the farm. Potato digging is a difficult job in 
the stony soil. We dug them with a fork. The yield 
was 150 bushels per acre, as they came from the field. 
This is not a large yield, but good for this section. It 
is twice what it was when the farm came into my 
possession five years ago. w. h. m. 
Black Ash, Pa. 
THE CLUVtfi-SEtU CROP. 
The clover seed is not more than one-half crop. 
Principal cause, I think, is the very severe Winter which 
killed out and caused a very thin stand of clover. 
Sugar Valley, O. o. h. 
The clover crop is a failure; there is not enough to 
compare with any previous year, and the same with 
wheat. The cause of the clover failure was the freezing 
out, and the loss of the wheat was due to the fly. The 
early-sown wheat is full of fly this Fall, the same as 
last. w. f. 
Indiana. 
The clover seed crop will be 80 per cent short this year 
in this immediate part of the country. While it has 
been quite dry in other places, we have had much heavy 
rain this season and that seems to be the cause of the 
failure. Sixty per cent of my potato crop rotted from 
extreme heat and rain in August. e. s. s. 
Tolono, Ill. 
Clover seed is very short, not nearly enough for home 
demands. The reason is that the farmers failed to get a 
good stand for a few seasons past, and the Fall of 1899 
was one of the driest that we have had for years; con¬ 
sequently the crop was in bad condition to go into Winter 
and the Winter froze most of it. Few fields were fit to 
cut. Another reason was that the Summer was unusu¬ 
ally wet, and the weeds took possession. d. s. 
Dimond, Ind. 
NEWS AND NOTES. 
Maine Potatoes.— The yield of potatoes in AroostooK 
is about 60 per cent of last year's crop. Some fields 
rotted badly. Farmers are storing all they can, prob¬ 
ably about the same per cent of the crop as in former 
years. I think that prices will rule about a third 
higher than last season. Varieties most popular are 
Green Mountain and White Elephant. The late crop 
is rather better than the early. The farmers who 
sprayed their potatoes are having fine yields. The Bor¬ 
deaux does not prevent the rot, however. a. v. g. 
The Market Reports.— 1 wish to subscribe most 
heartily to the statement by W. W. H. in The R. N.-Y., 
October 27, regarding how quotations are made. 1 have 
covered the fruit and vegetable market for one of the 
commercial dailies ever since it was established, more 
than three years ago. I thought 1 knew something about 
markets before I began, but I am fast finding out that 
in perishable products it is absolutely impossible to be 
certain. I have seen produce drop to almost nothing in 
15 minutes. On the other hand I have seen it rise quite 
as rapidly. I do say this, however, that the men on 
both commercial dailies try faithfully to record the mar¬ 
ket just as It is, not as they think it ought to be. Fur¬ 
ther, regarding butter, cheese, eggs and poultry, one of 
the dailies has as reporter the superintendent of the 
Mercantile Exchange, who has been in his present po¬ 
sition 13 years and whose reports are as reliable as they 
would be if official. B - H * A - 
Cheap Barn Paints.— I paint my barns and outbuild¬ 
ings with a home-mixed paint made of raw linseed oil 
and Venetian red. A little Japan drier may be put in if 
thought best, and 1 sometimes put in some red lead, as it 
seems to give the paint more body, but simply the plain 
oil and the Venetian make a good paint, it is cheap, It 
protects the material on which it is spread, and it is 
also durable. I have been comparing it the last few days, 
with the best lead and oil paint that is on our house, and 
where two or three coats are put on It seems to be as 
durable as the paint that has white lead for a body which 
had three coats. The usual application is one coat, and, 
of course, that will not last indefinitely. I have forgotten 
the rule of how many pounds of Venetian to put into a 
gallon of oil, but I never mixed it by rule anyway; just 
try to get it a certain thickness. Thin enough so it can 
be handled but thick enough so it will not run too much, 
but will cover the wood. e. b. watson. 
Iowa. 
We are located in southwestern Missouri, near Ozark 
Mountains. Our country is mostly rolling. Soil a light 
clay with tendency to run together and sadly deficient 
of humus. Only a small percentage of our county Is 
prairie, mostly timber, consisting of White and Black 
oak and hickory. Water is good, springs being abundant. 
Our seasons are generally favorable. The past Summer 
was quite wet excepting a drought during August and 
first part of September, which cut corn and late potatoes 
short. Wheat was good, apples and peaches a failure; 
hay a good crop. Clover and Timothy hay, however, is 
very much in its infancy although doing well in our lo¬ 
cality. Commercial fertilizers are seldom used, and barn¬ 
yard manure sadly gone to waste. These facts are very 
conspicuous, the many poor crops being an object lesson. 
Some few commercial orchards are being planted, mostly 
Ben Davis apples being set out. I have been advocating 
planting better quality of fruit, but more is cared for 
gain than the consumer; although they admit it is a 
poor-quality apple they say it pays well. Very little land 
changing h«nds at present; prices ranging from $7 to $25 
per acre. Kansas City is our main market. g. w. 
Southwest City, Mo. 
