1002 
3o9 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
Events of the IVeek. 
DOMESTIC.—A landslide at Ste. Genevieve. Quebec. 
April 7, completely wiped out a farm, and the entire as¬ 
pect of the bank of the River Eveillet, where the farm 
stood, has been changed. The farmhouse, barns and gran¬ 
aries were buried, and everything was demolished, with 
the exception of the sitting room in the house, where the 
farmer’s wife and six children were. The walls of this 
kept together and they were dug out uninjured. . . . 
A large apartment house in Chicago, Ill., which was one 
of the largest buildings of its kind in the city, was de¬ 
stroyed by fire April 11, with a loss of $300,000. . . . Rev. 
T. DeWitt Talmage, the noted Presbyterian preacher, 
died at Washington, D. C., April 12, aged 70. 
United States Attorney S. H. Bethea, following instruc¬ 
tions given by President Roosevelt and Attorney-General 
Knox, will make a searching inquiry into the workings 
of the so-called Beef Trust in Chicago, in relation to the 
Sherman Anti-trust law. The investigation will be se¬ 
cret, and when finished a full report will be furnished to 
Washington for the use of the Attorney-General in de¬ 
ciding what course his Department will take against the 
packers charged with being in the combination. Par¬ 
ticular attention will be paid to the charge that territory 
in the various States has been parceled out among the 
members of the so-called trust, with the result of a sharp 
advance in all prices to the retailer. An effort also will 
be made to secure proof of the existence of an agree¬ 
ment between the local packers to maintain a schedule of 
prices. . . . An Interesting case involving the Iowa 
State game laws is before the supreme court of the State. 
A student in the State Normal School at Cedar Falls 
killed six quails out of season. He pleaded guilty, but 
claimed exemption from penalty, as he killed the birds to 
make taxidermical specimens for the school. The justice 
fined him $130. He appealed to the district court and the 
judgment was reversed. The case has now gone to the 
supreme court. 
CONGRESS.—By a strict party vote April 9 the Insular 
Committee of the House voted down the Jones substi¬ 
tute proposed by the Democratic members, "to establish 
a stable and autonomous government in the Philippines" 
and then ordered a favorable report on the measure pre¬ 
pared by the Republican members, establishing a com¬ 
plete form of civil government for the islands. The chief 
interest was in the Jones substitute. It proposed even¬ 
tual independence to the Philippines, the islands to re¬ 
main under the Philippine Commission until July 4, 1903, 
then eight years of qualified independence, then complete 
independence; the insurrection meanwhile to cease. The 
United States to have three coaling stations and two 
naval stations. . . . The House Committee on Agricul¬ 
ture decided April 11 to recommend the acceptance of the 
Senate amendments to the Oleomargarine bill. The op¬ 
ponents of the bill claim that as the Senate amendments 
iniike changes in the revenues they cannot be concurred 
in until the House has considered them in Committee 
of the Whole. . . . The feature of the Chinese exclu¬ 
sion debate in the Senate on April 12 was a sharp criti¬ 
cism of the Chinese Minister, by Mr. Mitchell, of Oregon, 
and Mr. Teller, of Colorado, because of his protest to the 
Secretary of State against the enactment of the pending 
bill. Mr. Foraker, of Ohio, and Mr. Hoar, of Massachu¬ 
setts, insisted that the Chinese Minister had done no 
more than his duty, and that he would have been dere¬ 
lict of his duty had he done less. Mr. Lodge, of Massa¬ 
chusetts, delivered a speech in support of the bill. . . . 
The House on April 12 passed the Senate bill placing the 
pension to Mrs. McKinley at $5,000 per year. Although fa¬ 
vorable action on the measure was unanimous, Mr. Bell, 
of Colorado, raised objections to the pension, which pro¬ 
voked sharp discussion. Mr. Richardson, of Tennessee, 
and several other Democratic members spoke for the bill, 
Mr. Kleberg, of Texas, an ex-Confederate soldier, sup¬ 
porting it on the ground that President McKinley had 
wiped out the last vestige of sectionalism. The day was 
devoted to private pension bills, 177 being passed. 
PHILIPPINES.—Major Waller, of the Marine Corps, 
tried by court martial at Manila on a charge of execut¬ 
ing natives of Samar without trial, has been acquitted. 
. . . The cholera situation in the Luzon provinces is 
said to be becoming alarming. There have been 418 cases 
and 318 deaths. In Manila there have been 245 cases and 
192 deaths. . . . Secretary Root has cabled General 
Chaffee, at Manila, to investigate the newspaper reports 
of the Waller trial, and if they are correct, to court- 
martial General Smith; also, if the facts are established 
as testified to before the Senate Philippine Committee, to 
court-martial the officers who administered the “water 
cure" to the Presidente of lgbarras. These officers are 
Major Glenn, Lieutenant Conger and Assistant Surgeon 
Lyon. 
GENERAL FOJtElGN NEWS.—Serious riots occurred 
in Belgium April 8-15, King Leopold being mobbed on his 
birthday. The trouble appears to be incited in the effort 
to secure universal suffrage, the franchise being con¬ 
fined in Belgium to the upper and middle classes. The 
working people have no votes. . . . The Russian Min¬ 
ister of the Interior, M. Sipiaguine, was assassinated at 
St. Petersburg April 15. . . . The bursting of a gun on 
the British battleship Mars, off the Irish coast, April 15, 
killed 11 men. 
FARM AND GARDEN.—Fifty thousand acres of graz¬ 
ing land were purchased April 14 by a party of sheep men 
of western Wyoming. The land lies along the Union 
Pacific Railroad and is grant land. These sales are said 
to be the first of a large number to be consummated In 
the near future. The buying of the land, said one of the 
purchasers, is part of a plan of the sheep raisers to force 
the cattle men out of the district over which there has 
been so much strife. 
Professor Milton Whitney, Chief of the Bureau of Soils 
of the Department of Agriculture, has made a trip to 
Hartford, Conn.; New York and Philadelphia, to learn 
the feeling in regard to the Sumatra tobacco grown un¬ 
der cheesecloth covering, by the direction of the Depart¬ 
ment's tobacco experts. He states that interest in the 
growth of this tobacco is growing among experts. 
The United States Supreme Court has overruled the 
demurrer of the State of Colorado in the case of the 
State of Kansas vs. the State of Colorado. The case in¬ 
volves the right of Colorado to appropriate for purposes 
of irrigation the waters of the Arkansas River, which 
Kansas sought by an original action to restrain on the 
ground that the stream flows through Kansas and the 
people of the latter State arc Injured by such an appro¬ 
priation of the water. The Chief Justice said that the 
case is one in which the court can properly assume juris¬ 
diction. He said also that the action of the court in 
overruling the demurrer was intended to be without pre¬ 
judice, but was taken because the importance of the case 
was such that it should not be decided without full proof 
on the questions set up in the allegations of damage made 
by the State of Kansas. 
New England farmers and capitalists are combining to 
take the business out of the hands of the present milk 
contractors in Boston and turn it over to a new $5,000,000 
corporation promising the transmission of milk direct 
from the producer to the consumer. As the contractors 
have an agreement with the New England Milk Pro¬ 
ducers’ Union covering a period of six months, from 
April 1, the new company will not begin business before 
next Fall. It will take several months to work out its 
plans for a distribution station in Boston. 
In his report to the April meeting of the board of di¬ 
rectors of the St. Louis World’s Fair, President Francis 
said the United States Government wanted 10 acres on 
which to show the World’s Fair visitors a plat of every 
kind of growing grass and forage plant suitable to our 
country. He reported also that the Mexican government 
asked for a tract large enough to show the varieties of 
Mexican flora in cultivation. 
THE MILK SITUATION. 
The milk supply In this vicinity will not be as large as 
last year. Several of the larger producers have gone out 
of the business, and no new ones are coming in. About 
15 cans are shipped daily at present. F. H. Kingsley, 
former manager of the milk station, has set up an inde¬ 
pendent cheese factory, and expects to take about half of 
the milk produced at the same price as is received at sta¬ 
tion, which is 84 cents at present. Hay is from $8 to $10 
per ton; feed about $26. L v. r. 
Van Etten. N. Y. 
The milk station here is receiving about the same quan¬ 
tity of milk as a year ago. The prospect is that less milk 
will be shipped from here this Summer than last, but 
more the coming Winter. The cooperative creamery, 
seven miles north, at Farmer, was killed by the milk 
shipping station. The stockholders lost most of the 
money put in it. There has been much talk at times of 
building a cooperative creamery at Trumansburg, but at 
present writing we are farther away from anything of 
the kind than we have been of late years. h. p. 
Trumansburg, N. Y. 
The milk business here is sadly at fault somewhere, 
and there are poor prospects of any improvement. Milk 
goes to Philadelphia, about 20 or 28 cans per day. I 
think most stock came through Winter very well. The 
Summer flow may go up to 38 or 40 cans of 40 quarts. As 
for cooperation, several years ago farmers around Ulster 
built a cheese factory. The milk station price went up 
until there was dissatisfaction and factory closed. A 
year or so ago there was a cooperative milk station put 
up there, and I learn It has never been opened. There 
are so many to farm the farmers that the tillers of the 
soil have no time to study the changing needs of farm¬ 
ing, special crops, or new conditions. There is a great 
scarcity of butter through here, farmers selling 30 to 50 
quarts of milk per day and have to hitch up a team and 
go to station, rain or shine, and then hunt for butter, 
and sometimes go without. Wages are $2 to $5 per month 
higher than last year, and good help scarce. w. jb. 
Standing Stone, Pa. 
Cows have come through the Winter in fair condition, 
and about the same number will be kept as last season. 
The milk supply will not be larger than last season, un¬ 
less It is hauled quite a distance. The cooperative cream¬ 
ery at this place receives the milk from 65 dairies. They 
ship cream mostly. A few dairies go to the station of 
the Empire State Dairy Co. They also have a conden- 
sery here, but it has been idle for a long time, as they 
do not get milk enough to run it. The Empire State 
Dairy Co. offers for six months Borden prices, which are 
as follows: April, $1.20 per 100 pounds; May, 95 cents; June, 
85 cents; July, 90 cents; August, $1.05; September, $1.25. The 
Empire State Dairy Co. paid for six months of the year 
1899, before the farmers built a cobperative creamery and 
while the F. S. M. P. A. was in Its infancy the following 
prices: April, 64 cents per 40-quart can; May, 64 and 54 
cents; June, 54 cents; July, 54 and 64 cents; August, 64 
cents; September, 74 and 84 cents. Milk producers, com¬ 
pare the above prices and judge for yourselves whether 
the cooperative creamery and the F. S. M. P. A. are a 
benefit. E • c. J. 
Greene, N. Y. 
About 150 cans per day are shipped to Boston from this 
station against 100 cans a year ago. It is only within two 
or three years that the railroad has run a milk car in 
connection with the early passenger train. The higher 
price for milk and more favorable rates for carriage 
seem to have helped the business, and about a year ago 
many In this vicinity were increasing their herds. But 
the high price of feed Las checked the Increase, and the 
farmers now seem to be barely holding their own. I 
know of but three creameries in Connecticut east of Con¬ 
necticut River; at Lebanon, Scotland and Jewett City, 
the latter a borough in the town of Griswold. They each 
manufacture 200 to 300 pounds of butter daily, part of 
which is consumed locally, but the greater portion I am 
told finds a market elsewhere, for which they obtain good 
prices. The butter maker at this place was awarded the 
second prize (a gold watch) for excellence of product at 
the exhibition at Hartford last year. The milk from 
towns on line of railroad between Norwich and Putnam 
mostly goes to Boston; that from Willimantic and way 
stations mostly to Providence. Last year the Providence 
contractors refused the farmers’ demand of an advance, 
but gave in within 24 hours. The increase in amount of 
milk sent away has compelled the creameries to enlarge 
their cream-collecting circuits. Farmers who are located 
at a considerable distance from railway stations find an 
advantage in disposing of their cream at their doors even 
at a smaller profit, rather than drive several miles in 
the small hours of the morning. While the shipment of 
milk has increased about 50 per cent, I should judge that 
the increase in the number of cows had not gained in 
like proportion—perhaps not more than 10 per cent—the 
milk supply being drawn from a wider territory. 
Jewett City, Conn. H. H. b. 
The outlook seems to be better than for the past few 
year's. We have at this place two creameries or shipping 
stations, one run by F. W. Fulloam <& Son, wholesale 
dealers only, who ship all their milk to New York and 
vicinity, a large quantity in bottles. The other is run 
by Frank Demarest &. Sons, who have a store and sev¬ 
eral retail routes in New York. They offer for the com¬ 
ing year Exchange price for two months and one-fourth 
cent less for the remainder of the year, cans furnished 
and washed at station. At Lafayette, three miles away, 
and at Augusta, five miles away, they offer Exchange 
price for April and every fourth month after that the 
rest of the year one-fourth off Exchange price. At New¬ 
ton, eight miles away, they pay Exchange prices the year 
around. The creamery at Lafayette was built four years 
ago by the farmers, to be operated by the F. S. M. P. A., 
but that soon played out here, and they sold out to a 
Newark company. There will not be any more (if as 
much) milk made in this county as in the past, as hay 
was a short crop for the past two years, consequently 
high in price, feed also high, and cows very high until 
this Spring, selling now $10 to $15 a head less than for 
the past three or four years. The cows in this section 
have not done as well as in the past few years, and have 
not wintered up to the average. m. n. c. 
Monroe, N. Y. 
The production of milk is far below what it usually is 
at this season. The milk station controlled by the Mutual 
Milk & Cream Company is receiving at present 12 cans of 
milk daily, while the cheese factory, which receives 
practically the remainder of the milk produced in this 
immediate vicinity, is getting a very small quantity com¬ 
pared with previous years. This shortage may be ac¬ 
counted for to a degree by the fact that the farmers are 
not feeding for the production of milk, owing to the high 
price of all kinds of grain feed. The condition of the cows 
may be said to be generally very good, and no doubt, 
when the pasturage season opens up the supply of milk 
will increase to somewhere near its normal capacity. 
There are cooperative creameries located at Boonville, 
Port Leyden and Lowvllle on this line of road, and this 
■season they have contracted their milk to companies or 
corporations. This, in my opinion, does not help the solu¬ 
tion of the milk problem, and I believe that after a co¬ 
operative creamery has been built and equipped it should 
not be placed in the hands of the middlemen, for a nomi¬ 
nal increase In a schedule of prices for the season. This 
leaves the situation as it was prior to the building of the 
creamery, and the dealers can keep the price down on 
the Milk Exchange by a manipulation of a surplus to 
which this so-called cooperative creamery is a contributive 
agency. a. h. m. 
Trenton, N. Y. _ 
Government Crop Report. 
The season is backward in the Central and Atlantic 
States. Rain is needed In Ohio and the Southwest. Corn 
is being planted as far north as Tennessee, Virginia, Kan¬ 
sas and Missouri. In Texas and Louisiana it is up, and 
cultivation has begun. Cotton planting is in progress in 
the Gulf States, although backward in Mississippi. In 
the chief Winter wheat States the outlook is promising. 
Spring wheat seeding is well advanced in Minnesota and 
the Dakotas. Oats are looking fine in the southern Mis¬ 
souri Valley, but in the Ohio Valley germination has been 
slow, with some injury by frost. In general the outlook 
for tree fruits is promising, although frosts have dam¬ 
aged peach trees somewhat in Kentucky, Tennessee and 
the Carolinas. 
NOTES FROM MAINE.—The Spring is remarkable in 
its earliness. The snow is all gone in the fields and pas¬ 
tures, with the exception of some around the fences and 
in the woods. The Winter has been rather mild, the tem¬ 
perature not having gone as low as usual. Stock is win¬ 
tering well and as a rule will go to pasture in good con¬ 
dition. The apple crop was all bought up in the early 
Winter at good prices to producers. The indications are 
that apple trees that are well cared for will bloom well, 
while old trees and orchards that are not well cared for 
will have a light bloom. The high prices of feed this 
Winter will have a strong tendency to prompt farmers to 
plant a larger acreage of corn than usual. The silo is 
gradually coming more and more into use, and is the be¬ 
ginning of a new era in farming to those who adopt it. 
Madison, Me. L. d. s. 
TENNESSEE.—The past Winter has been extremely 
cold for this section, but little snow, though many very 
windy days. It is said to have been the coldest Winter 
for a quarter century or more. Wheat, which is the 
principal crop, was exposed a large part of the Winter. 
The early sown is looking very well, but the late sown 
looks now as though it would make no crop at all. Farm¬ 
ers are very much behind with plowing for corn. There 
will be a large crop put in if weather is favorable. Few 
early potatoes are planted, but nothing else done in the 
way of garden making. Weather now begins to look fa¬ 
vorable for Spring work. Cold weather the past week 
has probably destroyed the peach crop. Winter oats are 
said to be all frozen out, and many farmers are talking 
of putting in Spring oats, which seem rarely to do well. 
No barley is raised here, nor rye. There will be more 
cow peas put in than ever before, the plantings increas¬ 
ing each year. They are the farmers’ ray of hope in this 
section. Continued cropping and recropping has almost 
ruined the land, and a fever of land renewing with cow 
peas and cheap fertilizers must follow, or the outlook 
for agriculture is not good. Naturally, It seems to me, 
that this is a section where the farmers should enjoy the 
utmost prosperity, if proper methods are used. There 
seems to be an opening here for a few good market gar¬ 
deners. The Government Is building a large and magnifi¬ 
cent soldiers’ home, that will accommodate 3,000 or more 
veterans, and will buy all their supplies. B. E. E. 
Washington Co., Tenn. 
