1902 
293 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
Events of the IVeek. 
DOMESTIC.—Frosts were general April 1-2 in Tennes¬ 
see, portions of Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and North 
and South Carolina. The frost was heavy at Nashville, 
Charlotte and Wilmington, and severe at Knoxville. The 
damage to the fruit crop in Georgia, if any, was slight, 
a strong wind prevailing throughout the night. On the 
same dates heavy snow made roads impassable in the 
Allegheny region of Maryland.March 30 a dis¬ 
astrous fire visited Guthrie, Okla., the worst ever experi¬ 
enced in the Territory, causing a loss of $350,000. It 
started in a printing and publishing establishment, in¬ 
cluding its destruction two hotels and other business- 
buildings.A fire at Atlantic City, N. J., April 
3, swept the ocean front for two long blocks, destroyir 
12 hotels and about a score of smaller buildings. The 
total loss will be about $1,250,000, with insurance of less 
than $200,000. Several people were injured, but no liv s 
lost. All the places burned were built of wood. The 
place was full of visitors, and had the fire occurred at 
night there would have been many fatalities.A 
severe blizzard prevailed in portions of Delaware and 
Pennsylvania April 8. In some sections it was the deepest 
snow of the season, varying from eight to 16 inches. 
There was much damage by wind, and it is feared that 
vegetation will be injured severely, as it was much more 
advanced than usual. There were several inches of snow 
in the vicinity of Roanoke, Va. 
CONGRESS.—The Senate Committee on Manufactures 
reported, April 2, a new bill for preventing the adultera¬ 
tion, misbranding and imitation of foods, beverages, con¬ 
fectioneries, drugs and condiments in the Territories and 
regulating interstate commerce in such articles. It pro¬ 
hibits under fine and imprisonment interstate or fore , 
commerce in adulterated, mixed, misbranded or imitated 
foods and drugs, and gives the Secretary of Agriculture 
power to inspect and analyze original packages of products 
and to certify to the proper United States District At¬ 
torney any violations of the act.April 7 the 
House passed the Chinese Exclusion bill after incorporat¬ 
ing in it several amendments which increased the drastic 
character of the measure. The principal one not only 
excludes Chinese by birth and descent, but all Chinese of 
mixed blood. The chief struggle was over an amend¬ 
ment to prohibit the employment of Chinese sailors on 
American ships, which was adopted, 100 to 74. In the 
Senate, April 8, Mr. Cullom, chairman of the Committee 
on Foreign Relations, made a protest against the passage 
of the Chinese Exclusion bill in its present form. He 
said that many of its provisions were in contravention 
of our treaty obligations with China.The House 
began the consideration of the Cuban Reciprocity bill 
April 8. The vote on the motion to go into the Committee 
of the Whole was the first test of strength, and showed 
that Democrats are quite as much divided upon the ques¬ 
tion as are the Republicans. The vote was 177 to 80, 63 
Democrats voting in the affirmative and 39 Republicans 
in the negative. Mr. Payne opened the debate, and the 
only other speakers were Messrs. Newlands, Nevada., 
and McClellan, New York. Senator Patterson, of Colo¬ 
rado, presented a memorial signed by over 300 American 
citizens residing in Hawaii, praying the enactment of 
legislation completely excluding Chinese and Japanese. 
.... The Senate Committee on Postoffices April 8 de¬ 
cided against the proposal to change the present rural 
free delivery system to a contract system. 
PHILIPPINES.—Malignant Asiatic cholera is increas¬ 
ing in and around Manila. It is very difficult to make 
the natives observe proper sanitary precautions. 
In the court-martial of Major Littleton W. T. Waller, of 
the Marine Corps, charged with executing natives of 
Samar without trial, Gen. Jacob H. Smith, who com¬ 
manded the American troops in Samar, testified April 7 
that Maj. Waller had exceeded his instructions. April 8 
Maj. Waller testified in rebuttal of Gen. Smith’s testi¬ 
mony. The major said Gen. Smith instructed him to kill 
and burn; said that the more he killed and burned the 
more pleased he would be; that it was not time to take 
prisoners, and that he was to make Samar a howling 
wilderness. Maj. Waller asked Gen. Smith to define the 
age limit for killing, and he replied: “Everything over 
10.” The Major repeated this order to Capt. Porter, say¬ 
ing: “We do not make war in that way on old men, 
women and children.” Capt. David D. Porter, Capt. Hiram 
I. Bearss and Lieut. Frank Halford, all of the Marine 
Corps, testified corroboratively. The defence requested 
that a subpoena be served on the Adjutant General, de¬ 
manding the production of the records of the massacre 
at Balangiga of the detachment of the Ninth Infantry. 
in order to refute the statement of Gen. Smith to the 
effect that the attack on the troops was made according 
to the laws of war. The request was granted. 
GENERAL FOREIGN NEWS.—A crush at a football 
game at Glasgow, Scotland, April 5, caused the collapse 
of a seating structure, which resulted in the death of 22 
persons and injuries to 250 others. 
FARM AND GARDEN.—The Long Island Cauliflower 
Growers’ Association has elected the following officers. 
President, Charles H. Aldrich, Mattituck; vice-president. 
Henry R. Talmage, Baiting Hollow; secretary, James 
Williamson, Laurel; treasurer, Henry Kaelin, Cutchogue. 
The order issued by United States Revenue Inspector 
Cobb at Vineta, Okla., which prevents the importation 
of Texas cattle into the Cherokee Nation, will be a severe 
blow to many cattlemen of that State, who had arranged 
to take thousands of cattle into that Territory for graz¬ 
ing. It is estimated that more than 500,000 head were to 
go to that country beginning in April. 
The famous “mustard seed case,” the suit of Henry 
Runkel vs. Robert Dixon, came to an ending in the 
circuit court at Kenosha, Wis.. March 26, when a jury 
returned a verdict for the plaintiff and fixed his dam¬ 
ages at $76.25 and the costs of the action. Four years ago 
the suit was started. Runkel had purchased from Dixon 
a large quantity of what he supposed to be rape 
seed, but which when sown proved to be wild mustard 
seed. The plants came up and the Runkel farm was over¬ 
run with the wild mustard. He demanded $5,000 dam¬ 
ages and the case has been in court ever since. 
The Florida State Horticultural Society will meet a*, 
Tampa May 20-23. This society has an active member¬ 
ship of about 400, 90 per cent being of northern birth; 
President, G. L. Tabor, Glen St. Mary; secretary, to. 
Powers, Jacksonville. 
A New York wholesale milk dealer was lined $600 for 
having impure milk in his possession April 7. This was 
one of the heaviest penalties ever inflicted for a violation 
of the pure milk ordinances. 
At a meeting of the Indiana Jersey Cattle Club, in the 
State House, Indianapolis, April 4, the following officers 
were elected: President, M. A. McDonald, West Lebanon; 
vice-president, Dr. G. V. Woollen, Indianapolis; treas¬ 
urer, Mortimer Levering, Indianapolis; secretary, C. C. 
Topp, Malottpark. Ten judges were appointed to judge 
the display of Jersey cattle at the State Fair this year, 
as follows: M. A. Scovell, Lexington, Ky.; Prof. C. S. 
Plumb, Lafayette, Ind.; Mortimer Levering, Indianapolis; 
T. S. Cooper, Coopersburg, Pa.; W. Gettys, Athens, Tenn.; 
W. L. Hunter, Lincoln, Neb.; George A. Peer, Rochester, 
N. Y.; George F. YVesten, Biltmore, N. C.; Fred P. Story, 
Joliet, Ill.; Columbus Dixon, Gillespieville, O.; C. W. 
Travis, Lafayette, lnd. 
Statement of the Department of Agriculture shows that 
American farm products to the value of $952,000,000 were 
exported in 1901, while agricultural imports amounted lo 
$392,000,UUO. _ 
The “New Onion Culture.” 
There is no denying the fact that by the so-called "new 
method” larger crops of tine onions are, and have been 
secured, but onion growers as a class are a very con¬ 
servative lot, and it may be taken for granted that for 
some years the great bulk of the crop will be grown as 
usual, from the open ground sowings. You ask whyV 
There are several reasons—one is that owing to the vari¬ 
able character of the seed sold as Prizetaker (the variety 
usually transplanted), much disappointment has resulted. 
I have been growing a little patch, from one-fourth to 
one-half acre, and have no trouble with their keeping 
qualities—no more than Danvers. As a rule I find it 
safer, if I fail to grow my own seed, to buy from the 
introducer direct, and this rule will apply to other seeds 
than the onion. Another reason, perhaps the one most 
frequently given, is, “it’s too much bother.” Again, no 
matter how much glass a man has, he never has as much 
room as he needs, and invariably the onion plants have 
been neglected. M - garrahan. 
Pennsylvania. 
The “new culture” of onions’has been tried, but not on 
a large scale. Farms that have been continuously in 
onions for years have become so infested with smut that 
it is almost impossible to grow a satisfactory crop of 
onions from seed, while a good crop of transplanted 
onions or sets can be taken on such ground with plants 
or sets started on clean ground. Of course, for many 
years the commercial crop will be produced direct from 
the black seed, but ground infested, and which has been 
brought up to a high state of cultivation, can yet be 
made to produce good crops by the above methods. In 
this section sets are used in preference to the trans¬ 
planted onions of the "new culture,” though why I do 
not know. For sets the seed is sown very thickly, pulled 
when about the size of peas, and kept over Winter on 
racks in a cool dry place. These are cut towards Spring 
and set as soon as the ground is fit to work. These pro¬ 
duce a crop ready for market much earlier than those 
sown in the usual way, and must be sold in the Fall, as 
they are poor keepers. The great objection to either oi 
these methods is the cost of setting. A grower of sets 
on a large scale told me some time ago that it cost him 
$75 per acre for boy help in setting alone, to say nothing 
of the cost of preparing the ground and weeding. 
Connecticut. _ Joseph adams. 
Greening Apples Scalding in Cold Storage. 
It has not been our experience that sprayed orchards 
are any more liable to scald than those unsprayed; in 
fact, they are as a general thing, healthier and in better 
condition when they go into storage than from orchard^ 
that have not been sprayed, and it has been our experi¬ 
ence that Greenings that we have kept in common storage 
have scalded very much quicker than those that we have 
kept in cold storage. It depends largely upon the time 
in which the fruit picked and put into storage, in that 
regard. But having some Greenings from the same or¬ 
chard, which we divided and kept part in common and 
part in cold storage, we found that the sprayed fruit has 
kept better and carried much longer without scalding. 
Buffalo, N. Y. J- h. gail. 
Our experience, as well as the experience of many of 
our patrons with whom we have talked regarding the 
matter, is that Greening apples, under the same conditions 
of growth and harvesting, will keep approximately two 
months longer, without scalding, in cold storage at a 
temperature of 30, than if stored in what is termed “or¬ 
dinary storage.” The best keeping Greenings, or at least 
the Greenings that we consider less liable to scald in our 
cold storage, are grown on the southern shores of Lake 
Ontario between Charlotte and Lewiston, and in that 
section spraying is, and has been, for the past few years 
universally adopted. If it is a fact that sprayed Green¬ 
ings scald before those that are not sprayed we believe 
it is because those that are not sprayed perish from the 
action of various pests and parasites before the “scald” 
has an opportunity to develop. genesee fruit co. 
Rochester, N. Y. 
No cold storage men that I have talked with have any 
decided views on this question, nor do I know of anyone, 
who has ever endeavored by test to determine the re¬ 
sistant qualities of unsprayed over sprayed fruit as re¬ 
gards scald. The worst cases of scald that I have evei 
seen on the Greening have been on fruit grown on trees 
never sprayed. Spraying has been more generally fol¬ 
lowed in central and western New York among the apple 
growers than here in the Hudson Valley, and if the 
opinion quoted last week was correct, we should be more 
exempt from this trouble than they, while I believe the 
reverse is the case. Any method of treatment that tends, 
like spraying, toward a healthful and vigorous condition 
of a fruit tree, certainly aids that tree to bring its fruit 
to greater perfection, and that means better keeping 
qualities. This question of scald on the Greening and 
some other varieties of apples is as yet mostly conjec¬ 
ture, but from what little light we have on the subject, 
it looks as though fruit somewhat immature is more 
susceptible to it, especially when kept for long periods in 
a low temperature. I have proved this to be the case to 
my own satisfaction in the matter of pears, but not in 
apples. I have known cases where apples have lain in 
piles under the trees for several weeks and were then put 
in a cold storage house, with bad results from scald. 1 
have handled a limited quantity of Greening apples in 
cold storage for several years, and as yet have had no 
trouble from this cause, and I believe we shall come to 
learn before long how to handle this grand old variety 
so as to obviate this difficulty. But in the question of 
spraying 1 should want indisputable evidence to cause 
me to believe that its effects are favorable to the develop¬ 
ment of this trouble. J. R- Cornell. 
Newburgh, N. Y'. 
This is a matter for careful investigation, for it is true 
that the Greening does appear to be more susceptible to 
scald, or, strictly speaking, its appearance is earlier in 
the season the last few years than formerly, and while 
in my opinion it is not due to spraying, still I am unable 
to suggest a cause that I can substantiate. If properly 
handled Greenings can be held free from scald until the 
following Spring, but it requires more attention than 
formerly. Scald is a distinct disease or affection of the 
skin of the apple, and unless the conditions are very 
bad it rarely shows itself until the fruit has been in 
storage for some time, and then its appearance is 
gradual, and some lots are affected more than others 
under the same storage conditions. Spraying certainly 
tends to produce perfect, healthy fruit, and I believe all 
who have had experience agree that such fruit can be 
carried in storage more satisfactorily and with much less 
loss from decay than unsprayed fruit. For late keeping 
I prefer apples grown in orchards that are in sod, and 
it is possible that the increased tendency of the Green¬ 
ing to scald can be traced to more general cultivation 
of recent years instead of to spraying. 
Lockport, N. Y. _chas. a. hoag. 
VIRGINIA NOTES.—We have had one of the worst 
Winters for wheat that has been experienced in 20 years. 
Nearly all late-sown wheat is ruined; will not make a 
half crop, and a good many pieces will make nothing at 
all; in fact, there will be a lot of it put in oats. Early 
sown looks tolerably well, but there is very little of it. 
L. R. 
ORCHARD PROSPECTS.—I never saw the trees in my 
apple, pear, plum and peach orchard looking better or 
carrying more fruit buds than now. The buds are plump 
and uninjured. The weather is fine, very little frost ip 
the ground; roads smooth and dusty in some places. 
Rural free delivery is making good time and giving great 
satisfaction. A parcels post would complete the good 
work. Express companies have too much money and we 
must wait. s. e. hall. 
Illinois. 
MICE AND TREES.—In regard to damage done by 
mice during the past Winter under the deep snow, the 
per cent is very small, and only found in orchards in 
grass, or near outer edge, where grass and weeds are 
allowed to grow. I have found a few trees between 3u 
and 40 years old partly gnawed around in orchard where 
the grass has accumulated and thickened so as to make 
a good harbor for the pests. The damage cannot be 
remedied in any practical way. When not girdled en¬ 
tirely around they will continue growing, and the wound 
will grow over after a few years. b. w. clakk. 
Lockport, N. Y. 
CONNECTICUT FRUIT NOTES.—The outlook for fruit 
so far is excellent. Barring late frosts we see no reason 
why there will not be good crops of all kinds. At ny 
time did the mercury fall more than two or three de¬ 
grees below zero, and both large and small fruit trees 
and vines came through the Winter in line condition. 
Blackberries especially, 50 per cent of which at least were 
killed a year ago, never looked better than now. Out of 
some 16 or 18 different varieties tested we like the Taylor 
best. It came through the severe Winter of lyol in good 
condition. Snyder, Agawam and Mersereau were also 
but little affected. The heavy foliage of the Taylor con¬ 
tributed much to the excellence of the berry during the 
intense heat of last Summer. The berries of the Mer¬ 
sereau are very imperfect, especially the first pickings. 
The later pickings were quite good. The Minnewaska 
with us is worthless, it is the shyest bearer in the whole 
list. I shall root it out. The Eldorado and the Lovett, 
which bore splendid crops two years ago, were almost 
an entire failure last Summer—about 30 per cent winter- 
killed. Much to our surprise, the Kittatinny, which ap¬ 
peared to be entirely dead when Spring opened, later on 
threw out shoots near the roots and gave us line berries 
two or three weeks later than any other kind—last pick¬ 
ing September 19. h. h. b. 
Jewett City, Conn. 
PLOWING ALFALFA SOD.—I am sure your Michigan 
man (page 253) is right when he says no common plow 
share can cut the roots of Alfalfa, especially if bolted 
on to a poor plow or one that has been in use long 
enough to be all out of whack. But let him get any good 
steel-beam plow, preferably 12-inch, for the work, and 
unless the soil is different from what we have in Kansas, 
good work can be done. Within the last two weeks 1 
have had seven acres in Alfalfa plowed, and used a new 
14-inch iron beam plow, the best steel share obtainable 
on it, that was kept sharp. True, it is no easy job either 
on man or team; but excellent work was done. As the 
hired man (45 years old) expressed it, no kid of 15 or 16 
would do the work. The jar on the man and team is 
telling after plowing all day, for many roots as large 
around as my wrist had to be cut. Yes, I’ll bet you 
know how many horses were used! Three, whose aver¬ 
age weight 1 don’t think is over 1,000 pounds just now. 
When fat and in full rtesh they would not average over 
1100 pounds apiece; “Uncle,” as true a little broncho as 
ever was placed in traces, Peter and Bird, half-sister and 
brother (mother a small broncho mare) was the team. 
I don’t call them ordinary bronchos, for they have much 
intelligence and strength with it. Horses such as they 
have in Michigan, weighing from 1,300 to 1,800 pounds, 
should easily do the plowing. The land plowed has been 
in Alfalfa about 15 years; soil sandy, and ideal Allah a 
around Neither Alfalfa nor any kind of grain is thrown 
out of the ground by the action of the frost in this pan 
of Kansas. The land plowed will be put in sugar beets 
under contract for sugar factory. G. g. b. 
Lakin, Kan. 
