1*02 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
549 
Events of the Week. 
DOMESTIC.—A portion of Lacy Levee, at Havana, Ill., 
was washed away July 23 by flood waters of the Illinois 
River, and 12,000 acres of land, 5,000 of which were under 
cultivation, were inundated by water, varying in depth 
from five to 10 feet. Just previous to the breaking of the 
levee the water stood at 19 feet one inch above low water 
mark. Alarm whistles sounded a warning to the farmers 
in the flooded district. No fatalities have been reported. 
It is impossible to estimate the property loss with the 
water still rising. . . . The rear coach of a passenger 
train on the Ohio & Little Kanawha fell 40 feet from a 
trestle, near McConnellsville, O., July 24. One person was 
killed and 23 injured, several very seriously. . . . The 
Trappist Monastery at Oka, Quebec, was destroyed by 
fire July 23; loss $300,000. ... A cloudburst near Fort 
Plain, Montgomery Co., N. Y., extending to Little Falls, 
July 24, caused heavy loss. The section where the storm 
raged is an important hop-growing one and the damage 
to the crop is incalculable. A large creek flowing through 
Little Falls was raised fully six feet in 10 minutes, an 
occurrence unknown heretofore. With the deluge came 
dead pigs, fences, bridge timber, field crops and debris 
of every description. ... A fire in the business dis¬ 
trict of Albany, N. Y., July 25, caused a loss of $250,00d; 
one fireman was killed and several others injured. . . . 
During a storm in New York, July 28, the flood of water 
pouring into a large sewer forced the sewer gas out of 
the manholes. It was ignited by lightning, and the 
street for over a hundred feet was torn up by the ex¬ 
plosion that followed. . . . Friction continues between 
cattle and sheep men and other ranchers in various parts 
of the West. On Murderer’s Creek, Grant Co., Ore., 280 
sheep belonging to J. C. Moor, of Mount Vernon, were 
slaughtered, presumably by settlers and cattlemen. Mur¬ 
derer's Creek is a remote Summer range district, and 
according to the information several armed men came 
upon the band at night and commenced firing buckshot 
into them. The next day 280 dead sheep were found. In 
Colorado, July 26, 14 masked men appeared on the grazing 
ground of the Angora Range Association, in Pinan Mesa, 
where about 1,000 goats were ranging. The three herders 
in charge of the goats were bound, while the masked men 
slaughtered more than 600 of the flock by shooting and 
stabbing them. The loss is estimated at $8,000. 
Earthquakes were felt in the Far West July 28. the tre¬ 
mors being general throughout Nebraska, Iowa, South 
Dakota and California. The severest shock was in south¬ 
ern California. At Los Alamos property damage amounts 
to about $15,000, and shipping was injured along the coast. 
No casualties are reported. . . . Six firemen were in¬ 
jured and a property loss of $300,000 caused by a fire in 
Pittsburg, Pa., July 29. . . . The story of a bunco game 
in which the victim lost $2,500 was told in police court at 
Boston, Mass., July 29, and as a result Frank Bornstein 
was held for the Grand Jury on the charge of the larceny 
of 500 $5 gold coins on July 16 from Barnard Bennett, of 
that city. It was in evidence that Bennett was induced 
by Bornstein and a confederate to go into a plan to coun¬ 
terfeit English sovereigns. He furnished 500 gold coins, 
which the other men apparently placed in a tin can and 
into which a strong acid was poured. After considerable 
juggling of the can, Bennett received it to carry home. 
He grew suspicious, and concluded it was an infernal ma¬ 
chine. A policeman opened the can, and $9.97 in pennies 
came out. Bennett had Bornstein arrested, but the other 
man is free. 
ADMINISTRATION.—President Roosevelt has approved 
the findings of the court-martial in the case of Major E. 
S. Glenn, Fifth Infantry, and Lieutenant Julian P. Gau- 
jot, Tenth Cavalry, convicted of applying the “water 
cure” and sentenced to suspension and fine, and has dis¬ 
approved the acquittal of Lieutenant Norman G. Cook, 
Philippine Scouts, tried for ordering three natives to be 
shot by Maccabebes. . . . The Department of Agricul¬ 
ture has received, through the Department of State, a 
copy of a Presidential message to the Cuban Congress re¬ 
garding changes in the duties on live stock, either for 
breeding purposes or for slaughter, as well as on barbed 
wire; the latter reduction to be for a period of one year. 
The message sets forth that of the 900,000 caballerias (a 
caballeria containing 33 1-3 acres) composing the island, 
500,000 are at present uncultivated and produce nothing. 
They are adapted, however, to the raising of cattle, and 
on them 4,000,000 head could be well cared for. The annual 
consumption is about 300,000 head, aside from the $2,000,- 
000, approximate value of jerked beef consumed. The 
Executive is of opinion that the proper thing to do is to 
amend the present customs tariffs as a means of stimu¬ 
lating private initiative in this matter. He recommends 
that various classes be admitted free of duty, as fol¬ 
lows: Cows fit for breeding and heifers, cows with their 
young on foot, and bulls of the Jersey, Guernsey, Devon, 
Durham, Herefords, Porto Rico and Argentine Republic 
breeds, provided the importer duly accredits their origin, 
states at the time of importation the ranch or farm to 
which they are destined and guarantees that they will 
remain on the farm stated for one year, under the penalty 
of payment of duties. Barbed wire and staples used in 
the construction of fences, he said, should be exempted 
from the payment of duties for one year. 
PHILIPPINES.—Major James Parker, of the Adjutant- 
General’s office, has compiled some interesting statistics 
regarding the insurrection in the Philippines. There 
were 2,561 engagements with the enemy, more or less ser¬ 
ious, between February 4, 1899, the date of the battle of 
Manila, and April 30. 1902, fixed as the virtual downfall 
of the insurrection. The larger proportion of these fights 
were attacks from ambush on the American troops, or 
skirmishes in which only small detachments took part. 
“In almost no case in these engagements,” says Major 
Parker, “did American troops surrender or have to re¬ 
treat, or have to leave their dead and wounded in the 
possession of the enemy, notwithstanding that in many 
cases the percentage of loss was high.” The number of 
troops that have been transported to the Philippines and 
have arrived there up to July 16 last was 4,135 officers 
and 123,803 men. The average strength, taken from month¬ 
ly returns for the period of the insurrection, was ap¬ 
proximately 40,000. Total number of deaths, 282 officers 
and 4,188 enlisted men. 
FARM AND GARDEN.—The Georgia State Horticul¬ 
tural Society will hold its twenty-sixth annual session at 
Macon, Ga., August 6-7. 
The sixteenth annual convention of the Wisconsin Stale 
Cranberry Growers’ Association will be held August 19 at 
the Gaynor-Blackstone Marsh, near Grand Rapids, where 
the State experimental station of the Association is lo¬ 
cated. The cranberry vines are In excellent condition and 
everything else is favorable to a large harvest this year. 
For the first time the new canal from Hemlock Creek 
has been available for supplying water to the reservoirs 
on the marshes in that vicinity, making a crop nearly 
exempt from frost on account of the abundant water 
supply. Another acre of ground in the nursery has been 
“scalped” this Spring and planted with choice varieties 
of vines selected from the experimental station. 
At a recent meeting of the board of managers of the 
Wisconsin State Fair Association it was decided to better 
the condition of the roads at the fair grounds, putting in 
macadam from the gates to the car track and grand 
stand and to make an addition to the cattle sheds. 
Twenty counties in Mississippi are suffering from the 
effects of a disastrous drought, and in over one-half of 
this number the corn crop has been utterly ruined, while 
cotton has been damaged from 60 to 75 per cent. In Talla¬ 
hatchie County the destruction of crops is practically 
complete and forest fires are raging. 
Our correspondent, L. A. Clinton, has been appointed 
director of the Connecticut Experiment Station at Storrs. 
The annual meeting of the central organization of the # 
Five States Milk Producers’ Association will be held at 
Binghamton. N. Y., August 19. Local meetings were held 
August 5, and route meetings will be held August 12. 
“SAl/E A FARM.” 
Part I. 
“The Octopus” is a powerful story of a conflict between 
California wheat growers and the railroads. It was a 
fight to the death for the possession of land which meant 
home to the ranchmen, but merely a business investment 
to the corporation. A striking character in that book is 
a German who has much to say about “the Fatherland.” 
This man fought for Germany in the war with France. 
If you were to ask him why he did so he could only say 
that in some way which he could not explain the Father- 
land had a right to claim his life—either as a blood offer¬ 
ing on the battlefield or as a sweat offering through long 
years of patient service at home. This idea of the Fath¬ 
erland had been forming through centuries of history. It 
represented the truest, noblest conception of what the 
Nation should represent to the individual. This man came 
to America and learned what it means for the poor and 
humble to acquire and transfer the right to occupy the 
land. This man’s blood was German, but his heart was 
American. When asked “How about the Fatherland?” he 
said: 
“Where my wife and children are, where the home is, 
where I may work with my hands to earn bread for my 
family and a roof to shelter them—there is the Father- 
land!” 
With that story in mind I wish to put this question: 
How can a man best serve the Fatherland? This country 
is now old enough to classify its history and select from 
the story of its growth elements of strength or weakness 
with something like scientific accuracy. It has been an 
unfortunate thing that the American people have taken 
their idea of the Fatherland from surface indications— 
the great public acts of war or statesmanship—forgetting 
the thousands of little acts of quiet personal heroism 
which combined gave strength to the nation. The Ger¬ 
man’s idea of the Fatherland comes out of the home 
soil. Back of it stand centuries of persistent struggle in 
the homes of the people for the courage to proclaim hu¬ 
man liberty. The strength of the American Fatherland 
also comes from the soil—for upon the farm rather than 
in the town have the great, solid gifts which America 
has given the world been bred and fostered. 
John Fiske in “The Beginnings of New England,” says 
that had it not been for the Puritan movement early in 
the seventeenth century, political freedom, if not human 
liberty, would have disappeared from the earth. Those 
who will carefully study the social conditions of Europe 
at that time must agree with that statement. It may as 
truly be said that had it not been for the American farm 
home the Puritan would have lost his battle for human 
rights. Had there been no outlet away from the stagna¬ 
tion of European conditions the struggle for human lib¬ 
erty in the seventeenth century would have ended inglori- 
ously. Had the Mayflower and other earlier ships gone 
to the South, as was first intended, it is not unlikely that 
American independence would have been set back for a 
century. I wish to make it clear that the small farm, 
worked by its owner, gave the men and the strength of 
character that made our nation possible. The salvation 
of the hard hillsides of New England demanded the best 
powers of body and brain. Those who saved them from 
the wilderness unconsciously carved upon them with ax 
and rude farm implements the noblest records of Ameri¬ 
can history. The salvation of the farm meant salvation 
for man and country. As forest and rock gave place to 
fruit tree and grain these pioneers realized that the God 
who gave brain and hand dominion over the forces of 
Nature would not deny to the brave and worthy soul 
dominion over the powers of human oppression. The 
physical strength gained in the battle for a home was 
transmuted into a strong and enduring demand for hu¬ 
man rights. It was the sense of ownership in land—land 
that had been saved and conquered by personal effort— 
that finally gave us a Republic. It was the love of the 
soil that made the Sutherland. 
The early New England homes were chiefly one-man 
farms—small, hard to work, not easily salable—the only 
slave the hand, the master the brain! It was well for 
American history that these farms were not readily 
bought and sold. Nothing takes the heart and character 
out of true agriculture like this waiting as a land specu¬ 
lator for the land to rise for other purposes than farming. 
Only half-hearted shiftless agriculture can be found un¬ 
der such conditions, for true farm plans require a life¬ 
time for complete working out. In the early days the 
Yankee’s home was all he had. His treasure was in the 
land, and his heart was there also, and in consequence 
he put up a battle for it which enabled the New England 
States to secure and hold a measure of self-government 
not obtained by any of the southern colonies. This was 
won largely by the farmer through the powerful indi¬ 
vidual force which came to him as a small land owner. 
The common rights of humanity were dear to him be¬ 
cause he knew that all he had and all that he hoped for 
must be dug out of the soil. I maintain that the noblest 
forces which America has set in motion—the most up¬ 
lifting and glorifying work for freedom, the events which 
hallowed by memory give us the true spirit of the Ameri¬ 
can Fatherland—have come to us directly from the soil. 
The future will be as the past. As we weaken the affec¬ 
tion of the American people for the land we weaken the 
Nation in a way which no army or navy or commercial 
supremacy can offset. 
I have seen an old country homestead standing on a 
h.iitop with its weather-beaten face to the sun—with win¬ 
dows boarded and weeds choking the yard. There stood 
the spirit of the past vainly striving to give expression 
to the voice of history. One might almost hear it say: 
“I, sightless, aged and neglected, have done my share 
for my country. A giant arm carved this farm from the 
forest, and defended this home against savage men and 
beasts 1 nurtured generations of fearless men and wo¬ 
men who carried in brain and backbone the flint and iron 
of my soil to strike the fire of hope upon hopeless or 
faltering hearts! I bred the men who dared the English 
king, who stood behind the breastworks at Bunker Hill, 
who carried the spelling book, the plow and the Bible 
through the forest to the western prairies, who clinched 
the nails driven into the planks of our constitution! On 
my pasture rocks was sharpened the knife which cut the 
cancer of slavery from this Nation! Now, deserted and 
alone, with all this glorious record, I wait here with the 
old strength in my soil—the old power in my breast—for 
a newer generation which I may charge with the old- 
time independence and fire, for the country has greater 
need of this than of the gold which my former sons have 
piled up in your cities.” h. w. c. 
CROP PROSPECTS. 
Apples as a rule are developing finely. Trees appear 
very vigorous; yield likely to over-run early estimates. 
Hilton, N. Y. J. B. C. 
P. M. Archdeacon, of Archdeacon & Co., who is look¬ 
ing up crop and fruit prospects in northern and central 
New York, writes from northern Fulton County: “The 
farms here are small, but crops are very good excepting 
corn, which shows the effects of the cold, rainy weather. 
Farmers here have not learned what good roads are. A 
mile or two of macadam would awaken them to the 
hardships they are going through, the material is easily 
at hand, and is simply waiting to be used.” 
Apples have been dropping badly, owing largely to the 
usual drop which always comes In June, and also, in my 
opinion, to fungus caused by constant rains. King has 
dropped more with us than any other variety. Yellow 
leaves are quite numerous, showing the effect of fungus. 
Enough apples are left in my orchards for a good crop, 
but the yield will not be as great as two years ago. 
Apples are fair and growing nicely, and showing consid¬ 
erable color for this time of year. Should rains continue 
this month so incessantly fungus will increase and apples 
will drop badly. Small orchards in this section I do not 
think will produce well. -*■. e. b. 
Brighton, N. Y. 
JULY 29.—It has rained in Schuyler County on an aver¬ 
age five days out of seven. Crops are in bad condition; 
an immense growth and no weather to harvest it. s. 
Logan, N. Y. __ 
THE CONNECTICUT PEACH CROP.—The Connecticut 
Pomological Society, in conjunction with the officials of 
the State Experiment Station, have just completed a cen¬ 
sus of the coming peach crop of the State, and from 
figures obtained from all the orchards of any size in the 
State, it appears that Connecticut’s peach crop this sea¬ 
son will aggregate 341,576 bushels or 683,152 baskets. It is 
estimated that at least 275,000 baskets will be shipped out 
of the State, which would indicate that Connecticut 
peaches will figure quite largely in the general markets 
this year. The Society has prepared a list of the growers 
and the principal shipping stations, and will cooperate 
with the transportation companies and commission houses 
in the successful distribution of the crop. At this date 
here is every promise of a superb crop, and there is no 
eason why Connecticut should not sustain her reputation 
or peaches that are not excelled by those of any other 
ection. c - c - M t L,E ' s - 
Milford, Conn. 
MILK AND FEEDING NOTES.—I have been about the 
ountry very much this Summer buying stock. I noticed 
hat there is very little grain fed, because the farmer 
oes not have it to feed. I never saw farmers’ horses 
ook so poor as this Spring after seeding, all on account 
f shortage and high prices of grain. Nevertheless, the 
ows are looking fairly well because we have had good 
iasture all during the season; even now the pastures are 
nore than supplying the want of grain. There has been 
ilenty of corn planted; owing to the cold and rainy sea- 
on it is backward and in some places a total failure. 
have 20 acres which are very fine because I have it on 
iigh dry soil and planted very early. Wholesalers have 
eceived more for their milk in the suburbs of Rochester 
his year than they ever did before. Some have received 
hree cents a quart for the year. Formerly they received 
>ut 2cents. I furnish the orphan home of Rochester 
.nd get four cents the year around. This price stopped 
ne from making butter, as I did. Last month I bought 
1 steers at the stock yards at Buffalo. I can keep them 
n grass the rest of the season, and with grain and coarse 
for market in the Spring, when beef is high. This I 
could never do before, because I never had the pasture. 
All this means a saving of fodder. The main crop is 
corn In our section; each farmer plants an acre of oats 
and peas or sowed corn to feed during the Summer in 
case of shortage of pasture. Outside of this there has 
been much cabbage planted, which the milkmen feed 
when they can’t market. The supply of milk has been 
greater this season than for years before. I feed very 
little grain, or not any at all; the pasture being very 
plentiful, the cows would not eat hay in early Spring, 
which they usually would. J - w. 
Lincoln Park, N. Y. 
