1902 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
5i7 
Events of the IVeek. 
DOMESTIC.—By an explosion of fire damp in the Roll¬ 
ing Mill mine of the Cambria Iron Company, near Johns¬ 
town, Pa., July 10, 240 miners were entombed, of whom 
114 were killed. . . . July 10 Topeka, Manhattan, Con¬ 
cordia and Lawrence, Kan., were all suffering from 
floods; the Kansas River was higher than it has been 
since 1892, and the Kaw and Blue rivers higher than they 
have been since 1881. Much damage has been done to 
crops and railroads. The floods resulted from prolonged 
rain. Similar conditions occurred in Nebraska and west¬ 
ern Iowa. Des Moines suffered severely from the rise of 
the Des Moines and Raccoon rivers, and the loss will 
be heavy. . . . Five firemen were killed by a falling 
wall at Toronto, Canada, July 10, while working at a 
fire that caused a loss of $550,000. ... It is proposed 
to build a wire fence 700 miles long on the boundary line 
between Montana and Canada. The necessity for this 
huge undertaking arises from the fact that several 
weeks ago a large number of cattle that had strayed in¬ 
to Canada from Montana were seized by the Dominion 
officials on the ground that they had been smuggled. 
The fence will probably be built jointly by the Canadian 
and American governments, and will cost several hun¬ 
dred thousand dollars. 
ADMINISTRATION.—According to reports now cur¬ 
rent in Washington the Cuban annexation movement, 
which has already begun to show its strength, will be 
taken up in the Fall with great activity. Moreover, it 
will not be confined merely to the annexation of Cuba 
alone, but, so it is said, will take in also Hayti and 
Santo Domingo. Including these, with Porto Rico as 
well, we should have an extensive set of island posses¬ 
sions in southern waters. Reference is made to the fact 
that the annexation of Santo Domingo was urged in 
former years on the ground of its great fertility and de¬ 
sirability as an adjunct to the United States. The fact 
that political conditions are unsettled in both of these 
islands makes it probable that the annexation matter 
might easily be arranged from their end of the line. It 
will be remembered that some years ago a strong syndi¬ 
cate which controlled the bonds of the island of Santo 
Domingo sent an expert to the island to see what could 
be done about putting its currency on a gold basis. The 
expert drafted the necessary legislation after examining 
into the conditions there and the bills were taken to 
Santo Domingo and readily passed by the legislative body 
at the request, which amounted to a mandate, of the 
bond syndicate. Economic conditions have been so seri¬ 
ously disturbed in the island of late years by the revolu¬ 
tionary contests and frequent changes of administration 
that it is understood these interests are more than ever 
anxious to see stable government enforced and that their 
property rights may be protected. In this way the situa¬ 
tion is closely analogous to that said to exist in Cuba. 
GENERAL FOREIGN NEWS.—Exceptional heat, ac¬ 
companied by severe storms, prevailed throughout the 
southern and southwestern departments of France the 
first half of July, Marseilles experienced a genuine Afri¬ 
can sirocco, with a temperature of 104 degrees, the high¬ 
est in 20 years. There have been many cases of sun¬ 
stroke at Montpelier; the heat has caused a number of 
deaths at Perpignan and St. Etienne, and violent storms 
of rain, lightning and hail, which have caused great 
damage to the crops. . . . Tremendous explosions have 
occurred at the Waimaugu Geyser at Rotorua, New Zea¬ 
land, a height of 800 to 900 feet being reached. ... A 
collision in the Straits of Malacca June 6, between the 
local steamer Teutonia and a Chinese junk; 38 lives lost. 
FARM AND GARDEN.—The National Convention of 
Food and Dairy Commissioners met at Portland, Ore., 
July 10. 
A Kansas creamery recently made a shipment of 11 
carloads of butter, to be used in eastern navy yards. The 
butter was packed in hermetically sealed jars, and the 
shipment was valued at $60,000. 
The Massachusetts State Board of Agriculture cele¬ 
brated its semi-centennial at Horticultural Hall, Bos¬ 
ton, July 22. .. 
The regents of the University of Wisconsin have chosen 
E. P. Sandsten, associate professor of horticulture, Mary¬ 
land Agricultural College, for the same position in the 
College of Agriculture, University of Wisconsin. Mr. 
Sandsten succeeds Prof. E. S. Goff, who died June 6. 
On July 1 the following changes were made in the work 
of foreign seed and plant Introduction, the Congressional 
Seed Distribution and the Seed Laboratory of the Bureau 
of Plant Industry, United States Department of Agri¬ 
culture. The work of Foreign Seed and Plant Introduc¬ 
tion and of the Congressional Seed Distribution has been 
combined under the head of Seed Introduction and Dis¬ 
tribution, with A. J. Pieters, botanist in charge. Mr. 
Pieters has for several years been in charge of the Seed 
Laboratory. All communications in regard to the intro¬ 
duction of foreign seeds, plants and distribution should 
be addressed to A. J. Pieters, botanist in charge of Seed 
Introduction and Distribution, United State Department 
of Agriculture. All communications in regard to Pure 
Seed Investigations as well as samples sent for test, 
either for purity or vitality, should be addressed to Ed¬ 
gar Brown, botanist in charge of Seed Laboratory, Uni¬ 
ted States Department of Agriculture. 
The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to 
Animals distributed 1,000 straw hats for horses July 11, 
and will continue this work. The hats weigh less than 
three ounces each. The crown is six inches high and 
seven in diameter, and the rim measures five inches. 
Made up in large quantities the hats cost the Society 
between 10 and 12 cents apiece. 
The committee of the Southern Nut Growers’ Asso¬ 
ciation met at Macon, Ga., July 15, to fix the time and 
place for holding a convention. New Orleans, Ocala, 
Fla.; Valdosta, Ga., and Macon were competitors. Macon 
was finally chosen, and October 6 named as the date. The 
convention •will be held a day in advance of the Farmers’ 
National Congress, which convenes at Macon October 7 
for a four days’ session. It is expected that the nut 
growers of the South will be generally represented at the 
convention. 
The special bulletin issued by the Cranberry Growers' 
Association, Cranmoor, Wis., states that on account of 
the abundance of water the winterkilling was very slight 
in the East, while in the West it exceeded that of last 
year. No large increase in acreage is reported anywhere. 
Late Spring crops in New Jersey suffered severely from 
frost May 28-29, the damage being estimated at 60 per 
cent. New England and the West have escaped damag¬ 
ing Spring frosts. 
SOUTHERN HELP IN NEW JERSEY. 
Colored Help Compared With Foreigners. 
It has been stated that in some parts of New Jersey 
farmers are able to hire colored men from the South to 
work on the farms. These men, it is said, work through 
the Summer and go back to the South in the Winter. 
Are these workmen reliable, and are they equal to Ital¬ 
ians or other foreigners? 
I do not employ colored help, but almost every one in 
this locality does. The southern colored help is very fair 
on the farms. They seem like good honest people, and 
know how to do things, but not over swift. I don’t know 
what the farmers would do without them, for there is 
no other help to be had. They are far superior to for¬ 
eigners to handle work teams. Many of them go back 
South in the Winter for a few years, but after a few 
years they remain here. d. d. denise. 
Freehold. 
There has not been much help from the South around 
these parts. What has come have not been very good 
as a rule, and some of them utterly worthless. I do not 
think they are equal to Italians or other foreigners, but 
if you have a man working with them you can make 
them understand what they are required to do. The farm 
help problem is indeed getting to be a serious question. 
I have had some experience with Danish men working 
and taking care of my cattle, but about the time they 
would know a little they would leave. I find I can de¬ 
pend upon the people who have been raised around these 
parts to work for me and take care of my stock. The 
wages run from $20 to $25 per month with board and 
lodging for single men, and $30 to $35 for married men, 
and we can get some very good ones, although they 
are not so plentiful as they used to be, owing to the 
demand for laborers at Lakewood and the nearby sea¬ 
shore resorts, where they get more wages and do not 
have to work so many hours. h. e. hulshart. 
Lakewood. 
Almost every farmer in this section is employing south¬ 
ern colored help, and has been doing so for several years. 
We are well pleased with them, preferring them to any 
other help obtainable, German and Irish excepted, which 
is now very scarce and hard to get. For the most part 
they are found to be faithful, willing, godd natured, 
sober and honest, and strive to do the best they can for 
their employer. They are not quarrelsome, and while 
they congregate on Sunday at some place to enjoy them¬ 
selves with their acquaintances they are not noisy, nor 
do they create any disturbance. I do not know how we 
•could get along without them. Occasionally a poor one 
comes, lazy or dishonest, but he is soon discharged. 
Fully 75 per cent of those coming to us from Virginia 
are good help, both male and female. We have some 
Poles and Hungarians, but they are not satisfactory; 
hard to understand, drunken, quarrelsome, riotous, and 
frequently get in jail. There are very few Italians here. 
The agencies in Virginia are having more trouble each 
year in supplying the demand with first-class help than 
formerly, as the demand is increasing each year. 
Coltsneck. J* statesxr. 
They have increased in a few miles around from five 
or six 10 years ago to I should think 75. I am sure they 
are worth, all things being equal, one colored man to five 
Italians. They nearly all return South in the Winter. 
Many bring their wives for house service. They under¬ 
stand horses and machinery (those from Virginia); can 
use our language. Being more or less familiar with the 
criminal affairs of our comity, I have never known but 
two who were employed on farms to be in on misde¬ 
meanor before our courts, while three-fifths of the Ital¬ 
ians and city colored people are in trouble. Probably 
one-eighth of them drift into our towns; after they do, 
and marry, they are no good to the farmer. My imme¬ 
diate neighborhood is fortunate to have good reliable 
American help. After all, it depends a great deal upon 
the man who employs help, I think. I take my help in 
consideration and get them interested as a partner in 
growing everything the very best we can, tx-ying, if pos¬ 
sible, to excel our neighbor. An employee who will take 
that interest need not be watched, and knows what to 
do next when one job of work is finished. 
Ardena, N. J. geo. w. Patterson, jr. 
GRASSHOPPERS AS COIN. 
Last week reference was made to a western scheme for 
creating interest in grasshopper killing. A dance was 
held at Ephi-aim, Utah, the price of admission being one 
bushel of hoppers. The county is paying $1 per bushel 
for the insects. The Ephraim Enterprise prints a lively 
account of the hopper warfare. 
“Evex-y morning all the bells in the city are rung; the 
cannon is fired and a general alarm sounded to get the 
people out. Nearly everyone in the city is out to fight 
hoppers, with the results that the city officers have re¬ 
ceived about 100 bushels of grasshoppers, and fully that 
many more have been destroyed by fire, flooding and 
various other methods. The remarkable success of last 
week’s fight has put new energy into the people and they 
are determined to rid this neighborhood of grasshoppers. 
A new device for the destruction of grasshoppers was 
tried here. It is by far the best plan yet adopted in this 
section, and in order that its work may be realized by 
the farmers in all the infected districts in the State, a 
description of the apparatus is given herewith. The ap¬ 
paratus consists of a frame 3x12 feet, made of inch lum¬ 
ber and braced to give it strength. To this frame is at¬ 
tached a cone-shaped bag made of canvas or sheeting 
stretching back from the frame for a distance of eight 
or 10 feet. The small end of the cone is left open so 
that the captured hoppers can be shaken into a sack. 
While it is in use, however, this opening is tied up with 
a rope until a sufficient number of hoppers are obtained 
to dump; then it is untied and they are shaken into a 
sack. Ropes are attached to the frame to pull it by, and 
these are handled by a man or boy on a saddle pony. 
The apparatus is dragged over the field by the pony go¬ 
ing on the jog trot. The breeze created fills the conical 
sack, which keeps the fx-ame upright. The hoppers jump 
into the sack as it is dragged along and the shaking of 
the canvas carries them to the small end of the cone. 
One of these machines was tried on both Lucern and 
grass land west of town, and it caught three bushels of 
grasshoppers in less than half an hour.” 
APPLE TROUBLES IN WESTERN NEW YORK 
Unusual difficulties appear to have arisen in the apple¬ 
growing sections of western New York this season. These 
troubles probably may be correctly ascribed to climatic 
vagaries. The comparatively low temperature and exces¬ 
sively high humidity have undoubtedly had much to do 
with these unusual occurrences. In the Lake Erie dis¬ 
trict Apple scab (Fusicladium) is abundant. In this re¬ 
gion the grape is the staple crop, and apples do not re¬ 
ceive first-class attention. Both the leaves and fruit are 
seriously attacked and the crop will be greatly damaged. 
In the Lake Ontario region, where the apple crop is a 
staple and where spraying is an established practice, 
leaves are dropping badly. We have had many samples 
of these fallen leaves during the past two or three weeks. 
The older leaves are attacked. They turn yellow in spots 
and finally drop. These leaves have been examined by 
officrs of the botanical department and on some of them 
fungous diseases have been discovered; but, as a rule, the 
disease is not strongly in evidence. Curiously, too, many 
of the leaves sent in have been thoroughly sprayed. The 
parasite found is not a common one, nor is it usually 
seriously injurious. Other samples of leaves received are 
plainly injured by the spray itself. In one or two cases 
we have been able to trace this injury to a wrong method 
of compounding of the materials. Wherever the lime 
and copper sulphate have been mixed in concentrated 
form, injury has resulted. This injury is not peculiar 
only to Bordeaux Mixture made in this way, but also to 
a wet season. The continuous rains seem to have a dis¬ 
solving effect on the materials, and in this way the 
leaves are burned. Now that the rainy season seems to 
be over, it will be good policy for the fruit-growers to 
give their orchards the best possible tillage. I do not 
believe that orchards which have been sprayed early 
will be much improved by continuous and later spray¬ 
ings. I do believe most thoroughly that they will be 
greatly benefited by tilling the soil later than usual 
Cornell University. john craig. 
CROP PROSPECTS. 
JUNE 29.—Some of the large apple growers estimate 
the crop at 50 to 60 per cent of crop of 1900, which was a 
large one here, some of the heavy laden orchards hold¬ 
ing their fruit finely. Apples are dropping a good deal 
in some of the fairly well-filled orchards. A great many 
growers report almost no apples on north side of trees. A 
good many orchards that were full two years ago have 
little or nothing this year. Fungus hit about every or¬ 
chard, some of them suffering badly, great quantities 
falling in consequence. On some trees I have 25 to 50 
per cent, one sided. I have seen some with cracks 
three-fourths inch to an inch long. Apples are gen¬ 
erally large and nice coloi\ If an apple that is now one¬ 
sided or flat because of the fungus matures, I think it 
will continue malformed. How large a portion will be 
that way at harvest time is causing the growers a good 
deal of concern. I. w. s. 
Orleans Co., N. Y. 
JUNE 30.—Gi’apes promise to be better than they have 
been for the last two seasons, unless they should be at¬ 
tacked by the rot later on, of which there is but slight 
indication at present. Plums are of but little account 
with us. Pears and apples are looking uncommonly well, 
but the crop will not be a large one; compared with last 
year there is not much difference in crop. Pears prob¬ 
ably a little lighter, while apples may be a trifle heavier. 
The Forest worm, a newcomer, together with the Tent- 
worm last year, took the growers by surprise and found 
them unprepared, hence the apple trees were stripped of 
their foliage as well as their fruit, and although looking 
for them this Spring there will be little or no fruit where 
the worms were not destroyed or killed last year We 
weie prepared for them this season, and shall expect 
more fruit another season unless some unexpected trou¬ 
ble comes with it. J■ H. h. 
Germantown, N. Y._ 
PENNSYLVANIA PROSPECTS.—Things are getting 
very serious here. Wheat is ripe and the ground is so 
wet it will be impossible to get a binder in the fields. 
All hoed crops are now suffering for work, as there 
have been but a few days in the last month the ground 
could be worked. With harvest now on and corn full 
of weeds and no indication of rain letting up some¬ 
thing must suffer. Wheat is good, oats very promising, 
and hay light. w. a. p. 
Homewood. Pa. 
FROM WHEAT TO CABBAGE.—In central New York, 
and particularly in the counties of Onondaga and Cayuga 
the profitless growing of wheat has given place to cab¬ 
bages to an extent of several thousand acres in these two 
counties alone, and while the potato has its beetle or 
“bug,” the wheat its Hessian fly, and the cabbage the 
“worm that dieth not,” the average piofit is in favor of 
the cabbage. In fields of several acres, the extermination 
of the worm is not usually attempted, but in gardens and 
small fields, their depredations are exceedingly detri¬ 
mental to the growth of the plants. The only sure and 
abiding remedy that I have ever found, among a large 
number thoroughly tried, is a small handful of fine saw¬ 
dust. It is cheap, sure, harmless and effectual, c. f. b. 
Auburn, N. Y. . 
