1900 
853 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
Events of the Week. 
DOMESTIC.—Louisiana has established a quarantine at 
El Paso to guard against the introduction of bubonic 
plague from the Orient by way of the Pacific coast. 
. . . . December 6, three men were killed and two 
seriously injured by a fall of rock in a mine at Aurora, 
Mo.December 6, there were two feet of snow 
over northern New York and New England.At 
Peru, Vt., December 6, three men were killed by a boiler 
explosion. .... An Iowa cattleman visiting the Chi¬ 
cago Live Stock Show was attacked by two robbers De¬ 
cember 5, and robbed of over $11,000. The robbers were 
captured after a desperate fight, and the money re¬ 
covered.Frank Di Ienno was convicted of in¬ 
voluntary manslaughter in Philadelphia, Pa., December 
7 , in exposing for sale in front of a baker’s shop last 
Fourth of July torpedoes, the explosion of which caused 
the death of three children and dangerous injuries to six 
others. Antonio Mammarello, the baker, and Isaac Har¬ 
ris, the 12-year-old colored boy, who discharged a re¬ 
volver causing the torpedoes to explode, were acquitted 
of a like charge.Georgia legislators who are 
visiting convict camps in that State report disgraceful 
sanitary conditions and extremely brutal treatment of 
the convicts.During a gale on Lake Erie, De¬ 
cember 8, an iron barge foundered off Erie, Pa.; eight 
lives lost. The barge was valued at $200,000.A 
terrific explosion of dynamite occurred at Trimble, O., 
December 10, where three men were endeavoring to thaw 
the explosive over a fire. Two men had their eyes totally 
destroyed, and the third was badly injured.The 
transport Hancock arrived at San Francisco from Manila 
December 10, with the bodies of 1,500 soldiers and sailors 
who had died in the Philippines. This is the largest 
number of bodies brought home since the Spanish War. 
. . . . An explosion of gas occurred in the tunnel of 
the Union Pacific Railroad at Aspen, Col., December 10. 
Five men were killed and a number injured. The tunnel 
is 6,700 feet long.The case for the extradition 
of C. W. F. Neely, accused of postal frauds in Cuba, was 
ax-gued December 10 before the National Supreme Court. 
The question under argument is the territorial status of 
Cuba; whether it belongs to the United States, or is a 
separate country.The centennial of the found¬ 
ing of the seat of government at Washington was cele¬ 
brated December 12 in that city with imposing ceremonies, 
in which the President and all the other high officials 
participated.Six armed burglars robbed the 
bank at Seville, Ohio, December 11, of $2,130. They bound 
and imprisoned the town marshal and two neighbors, a 
man and woman, thus preventing them from giving an 
alarm. The robbers escaped on a hand car.One 
man was killed and three injured by a cave-in on the 
1,500 foot level of the Pennsylvania mine at Marysville, 
Cal., December 11. 
CONGRESS.—December 6, the Senate discussed the 
Hay-Pauncefote treaty in executive session. The House 
of Representatives, at the end of a long sitting, passed 
the Army Reorganization bill by a vote of 166 to 135 
Three Democrats, Messrs. Hall, of Pennsylvania, and 
Underhill and Clayton, of New York, voted with the Re¬ 
publicans for the bill, and M?. McCall, Republican, of 
Massachusetts, with the Democrats against it. A num¬ 
ber of amendments were adopted, including one for the 
absolute prohibition of the sale of intoxicants at military 
posts.The House passed the Grout oleomar¬ 
garine bill by a vote of 196 to 92, after rejecting (113 to 
178) the substitute proposed by the minority of the Com¬ 
mittee on Agriculture.The House passed the 
first of the great supply bills, the Legislative, Executive 
and Judicial Appropriation bill, December 10. It carries 
$24,496,308 and has 131 pages, but there was less than 10 
minutes’ debate upon it.The Oleomargarine bill 
was received in the Senate December 10, but no reference 
to a committee was made, owing to the absence of Sen¬ 
ator Aldrich, of the Finance Committee, and to the fact 
that both the Finance and Agricultural Committees claim 
jurisdiction of the bill.December 11, the House 
adopted a resolution for an investigation into hazing at 
West Point, with special reference to the death of Cadet 
Booz. Secretary Root has also issued an order creating 
a board of officers to probe the matter thoroughly. 
. . . . December 11, the Grout bill scored its first vic- 
tory in the Senate, being referred to the Committee on 
Agriculture, instead of the Committee on Finance. Sen¬ 
ator Aldrich, chairman of the Finance Committee, is op¬ 
posed to the bill, while Senator Proctor, chairman of the 
Committee on Agriculture, favors it. 
GENERAL FOREIGN NEWS.—The British Parliament 
assembled December 6 to consider questions relating to 
Africa and China. The Queen’s speech was the shortest 
ever given. Joseph Chamberlain, Colonial Secretary, was 
the subject of exceedingly bitter attacks in both the 
House of Lords and Commons.The German 
newspapers are not pleased with McKinley’s message, 
and consider that it contains a veiled threat of tariff! 
reprisals.Gen. Chaffee has made a strong pro¬ 
test, at Peking, against the continued looting of the 
Germans, and some friction has resulted.Hol¬ 
land has finally and definitely refused to take the in¬ 
itiative in behalf of arbitration between Great Britain 
and the Transvaal.A serious landslide has oc¬ 
curred in Heligoland, 30 houses being submerged, and a 
considerable part of the Island being under water. 
.... December 13, it was announced that Great 
Britain and Germany have reopened the Chinese ques¬ 
tion by obstructive tactics, that may delay or prevent 
the negotiations for a peaceful settlement The Anglo- 
German objection is hinged on the punishment question, 
and will cause embarrassment to the United States, Rus¬ 
sia, France and Japan, which had acceded to Secretary 
Hay’s modification policy. The negotiations at Peking In 
regard to the joint China note have been concluded, all 
agreeing to the conditions of Germany, except the clause 
saying the demands are irrevocable. The army trans¬ 
port service has landed all of the supplies in China neces¬ 
sary to carry General Chaffee’s troops comfortably 
through the Winter. 
FARM AND GARDEN.—Heavy snowstorms in north¬ 
ern Montana have caused serious loss in sheep. 
The tenth annual session of the Vermont Dairy School 
will open at Burlington on January 2, 1901. It will last 
for one month. The school will be conducted on the 
same lines as hitherto, teaching the science and art of 
buttermaking in all its branches by lecture, text book, 
laboratory, and by actual work with separators, churn 
and butter workers. The three days’ annual meeting of 
the Vermont Dairymen’s Association will be held at 
Burlington during the school session, and all students will 
attend. Young men or young women who desire to learn 
modern methods of dairying are invited to correspond 
with the officers of the school. For particulars address 
Dairy School, Burlington, Vt. 
The Oregon State Dairymen’s Association will meet at 
Hillsboro, Ore., January 3-4, 1901. 
The four inspectors of the New York State Department 
of Agriculture who have charge of diseases among bees 
report that the sections of the State where “foul brood” 
has appeared are now known, and its control and ex¬ 
termination may be expected. Number of apiaries visit¬ 
ed, 1,128; colonies, 30,372; found diseased, 7,253; condemned 
for treatment or destruction, 5,972; destroyed, 1,281. The 
following is a summary of the work done in the San Jos§ 
scale division in the same State Department of Agricul¬ 
ture for the year 1900, up to December 1: 395 certificates 
issued on 6,013 acres nurseries and 657 acres vineyards; 
414 duplicate certificates for other States; 3,065% acres 
orchards inspected; 1,522 acres vineyards; 143 acres straw¬ 
berries; 66 V 3 acres raspberries; 4% gooseberries. Or¬ 
chards contained 399,271 trees, about three-fourths in 
bearing. 
The Vermont State Poultry Association will hold its 
show at Woodstock, Vt., January 1-4; John S. Eaton, 
secretary. 
The Minnesota State Poultry Association will hold its 
show at St. Paul, January 14-19. 
The annual meeting of the New York State Association 
of Bee Keepers’ Societies will be held at the Kirkwood 
Hotel, Geneva, N. Y., January 9, 1901; secretary, C. B. 
Howard, Romulus, N. Y. 
The main building of the Iowa Agricultural College was 
destroyed by fire December 8 , with most of its contents. 
The loss was $100,000, with no insurance. 
The Pennsylvania State Grange, which began its annual 
sessioix at Lock Haven, December 11, is discussing 
emphatically the oleo question in that State. The State 
Department of Agriculture was severely criticised. The 
Grange received the report of the committee recommend¬ 
ing that the Legislature appropriate $10,000 a year for 
two years for the Pennsylvania State College, to defray 
the expense of distributing leaflets on nature study to 
public school teachers. 
The Pennsylvania Live Stock Breeders’ Association, in 
session in Harrisburg, will make an effort to arrange a 
State exhibition of live stock for next Fall in the nature 
of a State fair. 
New York State’s suits against Armour & Co. for 
$1,730,000 penalties for alleged violation of law regarding 
sale of oleomargarine are about to be abandoned because, 
it is said, proof has been destroyed. 
At the Chicago Live Stock Show the Aberdeen-Angus 
steer Advance was sold to a New York firm for $2,145, 
which was at the rate of $1.50 a pound, the steer weighing 
1,430 pounds. _ 
NEW YORK DAIRYMEN MEET 
And Discuss Weighty Natters, 
DAIRY EXHIBITS.—The annual convention of the 
New York State Dairymen’s Association was held at 
Watertown, December 11-13. There was a large gathering, 
a well-prepared programme carried through successfully, 
and a fine exhibit of dairy products and machinery. This 
exhibit of dairy goods was perhaps one of the most 
valuable things connected with the meeting. Separators 
were shown by P. M. Sharpies, the De Laval Company, 
A. H. Read, and the Vermont Farm Machine Company, 
D. H. Burrill & Co., of Little Falls, N. Y., and the 
Cream Package Company, of Chicago, exhibited a great 
variety of dairy machinery. The Champion Cooler Com¬ 
pany and L. P. Lewis, both of Cortland, N. Y., exhibited 
milk coolers, and butter colors were shown by Wells, 
Richardson & Co., the Thatcher Mfg. Co., and the Alder¬ 
ney people. There were also choice exhibits of dairy salt, 
including such brands as Genesee, Worcester and 
Diamond Crystal and Cadillac. These exhibits, as well as 
the dairy products, proved so interesting and attractive 
that they fairly divided the attendance with the lectures, 
which were held in another hall. 
A GREAT COUNTY.—R. P. Grant, president of the 
Watertown Produce Exchange, welcomed the visitors, and 
took occasion to paint the attractions of Jefferson County 
in glowing colors. Ten years ago Jefferson was the tenth 
county in the United States in total amount of agricul¬ 
tural products. Mr. Grant thought that the present 
census would show that Jefferson now stands eighth or 
ninth. With six big seed houses and the immense crops 
of fine hay and dairy products, Jefferson easily stands 
at the head of New York agricultural counties. It is 
said that in addition to feeding the 60,000 cows and several 
thousand horses kept in Jefferson County, the farmers 
will sell about $1,000,000 worth of hay this year. Mr. 
Grant might have made an additional point there had he 
shown that this sale of hay would not have been pos- » 
sible had not Jefferson County farmers learned to feed 
their cows from the silo. Mr. Grant gave a list of be¬ 
wildering figures showing the vast amount of business 
done in Jefferson County, and one of his strongest state¬ 
ments was the fact that a Canadian buyer for the Eng¬ 
lish market came to the Watertown Cheese Board last 
Summer to buy some Jefferson County cheese, which was 
sent to England for some critical cheese customers. This 
speaks well for the cheesemakers of Jefferson, since we 
are told so frequently that Canada has largely driven 
our cheese out of the English market. Mr. Grant covered 
the subject so well that there was little left for Hon. C. 
S. Plank to say in reply. Even he had to admit that 
he was proud of the fact that he was born in Jefferson 
County. He said with much truth that the farm com¬ 
munities and dairy interests are the backbone of in¬ 
dustrial life, and that our greatest men come from the 
farms and humble homes of the country. Mr. Plank put 
in a good word for the Grout bill, and spoke of the value 
of organization. He was hopeful for the future, said that 
the demand for farm products is increasing, and that 
organization will supply this demand by improving the 
standard of these products. 
CHEESE CURING.—President Geo. A. Smith made the 
usual annual address, which was a plea for organization, 
and a review of the possibilities in the dairy business. 
Now and then, he said, we hear people ask, “What is the 
use of all ths work? What benefit will come from all 
these discussions about butter and cheesemaking?” 
These questions, he said, answer themselves, and as long 
as there are people who ask them there is a necessity of 
coming together to discuss such questions in public meet¬ 
ings. Mr. Smith reviewed the dairy business from the first 
dairy association in New York, which was organized in 
18C4. He made it clear how Canada had beaten New York 
State in the foreign cheese trade. The Canadians made 
their cheese from whole milk, while American dairymen 
began to skim more and more of the cream. The English¬ 
men could not be deceived, and the result of this 
skimming policy was that Canadian cheesemakers found 
an opportunity which they made the most of. Mr. Smith 
has made a thorough study of the temperature at which 
cheese should be cured. In this address, and also in an 
address which he delivered later at the exhibition hall, 
he reviewed some of the experiments made at Geneva. He 
exhibited cheese cured at a temperature of 55 degrees, 
another cured at 60, and others at 65, 70, 75 and 80 de¬ 
grees. The cheese was sampled and tested before the 
meeting and the objections to curing at a high tempera¬ 
ture were fairly demonstrated. The lower temperatures in¬ 
variably gave the best cheese, and Mr. Smith says that 
factorymen should find a better way to control the tem¬ 
perature in the curing room. In the Summer the tem¬ 
perature of most of these rooms ranges from 70 to 95 de¬ 
grees, closely following that of the outdoor air. This is 
too high for the production of first-class cheese. The 
practical exhibits made by Mr. Smith appeared to con¬ 
vince many dairymen that they have been curing at too 
high a temperature. Mr. Smith’s experiments have been 
conducted on a comparatively small scale, but efforts will 
now be made to obtain an appropriation large enough to 
enable him to carry them out on a commercial scale. If 
these larger experiments follow the smaller ones in re¬ 
sult, the benefit to New York cheesemakers will be al¬ 
most beyond calculation. 
EVOLUTION OF THE COW.—Jared Van Wagenen, Jr., 
gave a fine address on the evolution of dairying. He 
showed how the original wild cow had been developed 
slowly into the modern Jersey as a butter producer, or 
the great Holstein as a leader of milk production. The 
modern cream separator is but one end of a chain reach¬ 
ing back to the time when our ancestors raised cream 
in a hollow gourd. Mr. Van Wagenen says that there are 
vital differences between the dairy cow and the beef cow, 
and he said there is no possibility of a division of the 
type. He thought the silo the greatest and most im¬ 
portant addition to dairy improvement, and he thinks 
that the time is near when the up-to-date dairymen will 
not have to depend upon pasturage for more than six 
weeks in a year, for silage, soiling crops and hay wilt 
take care of the other 46 weeks. Mr. Van Wagenen said 
that the beautiful fresh-cheeked dairymaid with the fair, 
rounded arms and the smiling eyes has stepped back into 
memory’s frame, and in her place has come the man with 
the bushy whiskers, the dirty face and the rubber apron, 
the guardian angel of the roadside creamery. We hop? 
that evolution will go on, and while perhaps it may not 
bring back the rosy-cheeked dairymaid, we trust that it 
will compel the creamery man to shave off his bushy 
whiskers and wash his face. 
THE UNIVERSAL FOOD.—Miss Barrows, of Boston,/'' 
gave an address on the first food of the world, which of 
course is milk. She rightly said that milk is the perfect 
and natural food for the young, and that when combined 
with some starchy food, such as bread, it is the almost 
ideal food for adults. As usual Miss Barrows was pro¬ 
vided with a gas burner and various cooking dishes, by 
means of which she Illustrated her lecture in a most in¬ 
teresting way. One of the great things of the present 
day is the teaching that milk Is a food to be eaten, rather 
than a drink to be used as a luxury. Milk is the universal 
food. We start with It in youth, and many of us are 
obliged to come back to it in old age, after nearly com¬ 
mitting suicide by attempting to eat other food. There 
is an old story of the rich man who gave a dinner to 
his friends. Every dainty and luxury in the way of food 
and drink that the earth could supply was served to his 
guests. Yet at the head of the table sat the giver of the 
feast, a man who amid all that magnificence, was unable 
to eat anything beside a bowl of bread and milk. Milk 
is certainly a universal food, and every effort should be 
made to educate the consuming public up to a knowledge 
of the fact. j. j, d. 
