1902 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
837 
Events of the Week. 
DOMESTIC.—November 29 a boiler exploded in Swift & 
Co.'s packing: plant, Chicago, Ill. Thirteen lives were 
sacrificed, and scores of employees, visitors and others 
were injured. Huge boilers were sent through the roof of 
the structure and hurled hundreds of feet. Nobody with¬ 
in the boiler room survived to tell the story of the acci¬ 
dent, and it may never be known what caused the ex¬ 
plosion. The loss is estimated at $50,000.Harvey 
Logan, the Montana train robber, was given 10 sentences, 
aggregating 130 years, at Knoxville, Tenn., November 29. 
Eight sentences are for 15 years each, to be served con¬ 
secutively, and two sentences are for live years each, to 
be served concurrently. Judge Clark selected Columbus, 
O., as the prison in which Logan is to be confined. The 
defense may appeal to the United States Court of Ap¬ 
peals at Cincinnati.The New Castle County 
workhouse, at Wilmington, Del., was destroyed by lire 
November 30; loss $200,000.Fire in the extensive 
lumber yards at Normal, near Rat Portage, Ontario, No¬ 
vember 28, caused a loss of $500,000. The principal suf¬ 
ferers from the fire are the lumber companies and saw 
mills, which made up the only industry of the village. 
Twenty-five million feet of sawn lumber and logs were 
destroyed. A number of vessels lying at the lumber yard 
docks were also destroyed, but their loss will not exceed 
$15,000.Kissing will be made a misdemeanor in 
Virginia, punishable with a fine, if a bill offered in the 
House of Delegates December 1 becomes a law. The 
measure, of which Dr. R. B. Ware, of Amherst, a physi¬ 
cian of high repute, is the father, is designed to prevent 
promiscuous kissing, but it might easily be construed to 
stand as a barrier between husband and wife or lover and 
sweetheart. Dr. Ware offered the bill in good faith as a 
health measure, but it promises to be the subject of as 
much jest and ridicule as was the Anti-Flirting bill, in¬ 
troduced in the Senate a session or two ago by Senator 
Barksdale, who came to be known as “Cupid.” In order 
to enjoy the right to kiss, one must show through his 
family physician that he has no contagious or infectious 
disease. 
ADMINISTRATION.—Congress convened December 1. 
The most difficult problems which confront the Republi¬ 
can leaders are those connected with the revision of the 
tariff and the control of trusts. The work of the session 
will begin without delay. Several of the annual appro¬ 
priation bills are about ready to be reported to the House 
of Representatives, and some of them will become laws 
before the Christmas holidays. In the Senate the Cuban 
Reciprocity bill is still pending, but no immediate action 
on it is expected, as the administration is still trying 
to negotiate a satisfactory reciprocity treaty with the 
Cuban government. The first measure of importance to 
come up in that body will be the bill for the admission 
of Oklahoma, Arizona and New Mexico to Statehood. The 
Anti-Anarchy bill is in conference, and will probably be 
agreed to early in the session. The Ship Subsidy bill is 
pending in the House, and efforts will be made to get it 
through early in the session. The advocates of asset 
banking in both houses will make every effort to get 
through a law which will give elasticity to the currency 
system, and many other measures will be pushed at every 
opportunity, but unless the present short session is an 
exception to the general rule, few of them will become 
laws. The* President’s message was received Decem¬ 
ber 2. It was very conservative in tone, and does not 
suggest any change in policy. Apart from recommenda¬ 
tions regarding the trusts and the tariff, the most im¬ 
portant of the many others are those respecting the recon¬ 
ciliation of organized labor and organized capital; the 
creation of a Department of Commerce; a reciprocity 
treaty with Cuba; the building “at once” of the Isthmian 
Canal; a cable to the Philippines by way of Hawaii; the 
Philippine government; the strengthening and improve¬ 
ment of the army and navy; nationally aided irrigation; 
treatment of the Indians and the protection of railway 
employees. 
PHILIPPINES.—The efforts to restore agriculture in 
the Philippine Islands have been blocked by a dearth of 
field animals. Ninety per cent of the carabaos died in 
the original epidemic of rinderpest, and of the small 
number imported since many have died. The Government 
had planned an extensive importation of these animals 
to meet the crying need, and some arrangement to have 
them immunized. It was forced to abandon this plan on 
account of the lack of money to meet the purchases. 
The general cultivation of the plantations is impossible 
without them, and the absence of any immediate prospect 
of getting the field animals leaves the agricultural situa¬ 
tion in a serious condition. 
FARM AND GARDEN.—The Connecticut Cattle Com¬ 
missioner gives notice that a highly contagious disease, 
foot-and-mouth disease, has recently made its appearance 
among cattle in several sections of Massachusetts and 
Rhode Island. The disease is readily transmissible from 
cattle to all other domestic animals, and whole herds of 
cows are frequently prostrated with it within a few days 
after its first appearance in the herd. The disease runs 
its course in from 10 to 15 days and is seldom fatal, as not 
more than four per cent of the affected animals die. If 
this disease is permitted to gain a foothold in the State, 
great loss to the dairy and farming interests will in¬ 
evitably result, as the milk from the affected cows is 
unfit for food, and as the shrinkage in the flow of milk 
is never fully restored even after the animal’s complete 
recovery. November 27 Secretary Wilson issued a sweep¬ 
ing order, directed to the managers and agents of rail¬ 
roads and transportation companies of the United States, 
stockmen and others, informing them of the establishment 
of a quarantine of cattle, sheep and other ruminants and 
swine in the New England States and prohibiting the ex¬ 
portation of such animals from the port of Boston until 
further orders. Recent investigations by the Department 
of Agriculture disclosed the fact that what is known as 
foot-and-mouth disease exists to an alarming extent in 
Connecticut, Rhode Island. Massachusetts and Vermont. 
The expert of the department, Dr. Mohler, Dr. Leonard 
Pearson, of the University of Pennsylvania, and Dr. 
James Law, of Cornell, visited the infected districts and 
united in a recommendation that in order to prevent the 
spread of the disease a quarantine should immediately 
be established. December 5 Great Britain closed her ports 
against shipments of cattle from the N^w J England States. 
The Ohio State Horticultural Society will hold its thirty- 
sixth annual meeting at Clyde, O., December 16-18. Frof. 
Taft, of Michigan, will be among the speakers. Secre¬ 
tary, W. W. Farnsworth, Waterville, 6. 
The sixth annual poultry class of the Rhode Island 
Agricultural College, Kingston, Rhode Island, will meet on 
January 7, 1903, and continue for six weeks. The course 
of instruction will, as usual, include lectures, practical 
work and excufsions to the Boston, show and successful 
poultry plants. Lectures wall be given by members of 
the faculty and by well known experts in the poultry 
world. Practice will be given in planning poultry houses, 
incubation, breeding, preparing for market and other 
matters Incidental to the industry. 
The International Live Stock Exposition at Chicago, Ill., 
opened November 30. A conservative estimate of th« 
cash prizes and trophies offered at the Exposition brings 
the value of awards to close upon $50,000, w'hich is said 
to be the largest aggregate of premiums and substantial 
inducements ever made by a live stock exhibition in the 
world. The attendance was very large, and a great dis¬ 
play was made. Secretary Wilson was among the 
speakers. 
The United States Supreme Court has sustained the 
constitutionality of the stock quarantine law of Colorado. 
The decision was announced by Justice Harlan, and was 
based on the case of S. H. Reed against the People of 
Colorado. The law prohibits the importation of cattle 
or other live stock into the State from points south of 
the thirty-sixth parallel of latitude between April and 
November unless they bear bills of health. The law 
was attacked as unconstitutional and antagonistic to the 
Interstate Commerce law and the Animal Industry law, 
but the court held the law to be in accord with the right 
of the State to protect its own citizens. The court said 
that a State may protect its people against infection and 
contagion, “taking care always that the means employed 
to that end do not go beyond the necessities of the case 
or unreasonably burden the exercise of privileges secured 
by the Constitution of the United States.” 
The New York State Breeders’ Association will meet 
at the New Osburn House, Rochester, N. Y., December 
16-18. There is an excellent list of speakers, and a suc¬ 
cessful meeting is assured. 
The twelfth annual session of the Vermont Dairy 
School will open at Burlington January 19. It will last 
four weeks. The school will teach the science and art 
of butter-making in all Us branches by lecture, text¬ 
book, laboratory, and by actual work with separators, 
churn and butter workers. The cost of the month’s 
schooling in modern dairying, including board, need not 
exceed $25. ______________ 
THE OBJECTION TO LOCAL TELEPHONES. 
Do They Injure Trade ? 
After some experience with a local telephone system, 
do you find any serious objections or disadvantages about 
it? Does it injure anybody’s business or trade? We 
would like to hear of any possible objections to the 
telephone—the advantages are clearly understood. 
I have never heard but one objection to the local tele¬ 
phone; that is, a man’s wife always knows before he 
gets home what he has been doing in town. I could add 
one-third more lines to the map I sent you a year ago. 
That does not look as though there were many objections. 
Harpursville, N. Y. f. e. b. 
The worst objection to the cooperative telephone, from 
the standpoint of an officer, is^ the indifference of some 
of the members and their failure to pay their dues 
promptly. As to its injuring home merchants it does not. 
It is an undoubted advantage giving them free service 
to all nearby towns, enabling them to order goods as 
wanted by customers, and tracing the order. They 
don’t have to carry so large a stock of expensive or 
bulky articles. Merchants usually are anxious for its 
extension and donate toward filling a gap between two 
towns. C. W. RICHARDS. 
Indiana. 
We have never heard any valid objection to a tele¬ 
phone in a farmer’s home or in a town. In fact, every¬ 
thing is in its favor. A few objections, however have 
been made. Some people fear that trees will be injured 
by trimming to make way for the line, but our experience 
is that this damage is slight, and more in the imagina¬ 
tion than in reality, especially in case of the local lines 
which have low poles and carry few wires. Often the 
trees look better for trimming up, and to my mind the 
local telephone line adds strength and attractiveness to 
the landscape, giving the impression that the community 
is progressive and in touch with the world. A local 
liveryman says that the introduction of the telephone 
injured his business; that now men use the telephone 
at a cost of a few cents and save a livery expense of 
several dollars. This is true. What was the liveryman’s 
loss, however, w r as the other man’s gain, and ultimately 
redounded to the general prosperity of the town, just as 
a good road or a lower freight or passenger rate would 
lessen the cost of transacting business. Some objection 
is often made that telephones would draw lightning, but 
the fact is that a house is safer from injury, with a 
telephone connection than it is without it. There is one 
objection that for some people has a real validity—and 
for that same reason is a blessing to the farmer and the 
community. A man who liked to go to town and found 
that the telephone made these trips less necessary, said 
that he would not care so much if he could only get a 
drink of whisky over the wire. james e. rice. 
Westchester Co., N. Y. 
Our line has now been in use over five years, and has 
grown so in the time that the little company with less 
than 10 ’phones is now an association with something 
over 1,600 ’phones, and is allied with several that are 
known as the big independent companies, covering the 
entire country from Erie to Toledo and south to 
Wheeling and Cincinnati. The association now covers 
considerably more than an entire county, and all ser¬ 
vice in the association is free to every subscriber. With 
the People’s, United States, Cuyahoga, Citizen’s and 
Lake Shore, direct connections are made at the centrals, 
so no repeating is necessary, all of which makes the 
service up to date, and satisfactory. No serious objection 
exists to my knowledge beyond this. The increase of 
rural business is so great, that “lines busy” is too fre¬ 
quently heard, and waits are often experienced. No 
one’s business is injured, but rather promoted. It is 
having this effect upon the country store keeper re¬ 
quiring delivery wagons, and the amount of orders now 
telephoned over rural lines would have been a sur¬ 
prise five years ago. My inquiries lead to this conclu¬ 
sion, that trade is increased by it, and not a merchant 
in the county would consent for a moment to have his 
telephone taken away. The amount of buying, selling, 
inquiry, and actual trades made by the farmers over the 
’phones is so steadily increasing that there can be no 
objections that are valid. The only objection that comes 
to my ears is that of lessened exchange of visits and 
social calls, the telephone to some extent supplements 
calling, for little chats over the telephone with neighbors 
and friends near and far on the association lines, fore¬ 
stall much of the activity of the old-time visit. The 
crudeness of some of the first building is being rapidly 
if not wholly remedied, and the rural line in effective 
service is a close approach to the Bell metal lines, often 
giving a much better and distinct service, with far less 
of the buzzing and throbbing that makes “hell—o—o” 
the most appropriate and effective word in the code. 
Portage Co., O. John gould. 
CALIFORNIA FRUITS IN NEW YORK. 
The shipments of Citrus fruit, that is, oranges, lemons 
and grape fruit, for season of 1902 amounted to 20,387 cars 
from southern California and over 2,000 cars from north¬ 
ern California. A standard car contains 362 boxes or¬ 
anges, or 312 boxes lemons. A box of oranges is esti¬ 
mated at 72 pounds, lemons 84 pounds. The freight rate 
from California to New York is $1.25 per 100 pounds, with 
an additional charge for refrigeration, at certain seasons, 
amounting to about 25 cents per box on oranges. Or¬ 
anges are packed according to size, and are designated 
as S6s, 126s, 150s, etc., according to the number required 
to fill the box; lemons in the same manner, the prevailing 
sizes being 300s and 360s. New York City received during 
this season 2,418 cars oranges and 148 cars lemons, or 
about 11% per cent of the total shipments. During the 
Winter months it is unnecessary to use refrigerated cars 
In the transportation of fruits, but from April until No¬ 
vember the use of ice is necessary, cars being re-iced at 
stations established at various points along the line. 
Oranges are washed and brushed by a machine operated 
by electricity, after which they are dried and run through, 
a sizer. They are then wrapped and packed by skilled 
labor at packing houses located at the various districts. 
The cars are loaded at sidings and go to make up a train, 
which is started East. About 14 to 17 days are required 
between the coast and New York for the transportation 
of a car of Citrus fruit. The bulk of the California 
green fruit arriving in New York is disposed of by auc¬ 
tion at Erie Pier 20, with a small percentage at the B. & 
O. By this method the large buyers are brought together, 
and thousands of dollars worth of fruit are disposed of 
in a few hours. After arriving at Jersey City cairs are 
floated to New York and unloaded and arranged for sale, 
samples being exhibited for the purchasers’ inspection. 
Sales of deciduous fruit, by which is meant Summer 
fruits such as cherries, apricots, peaches, etc., amounted 
to 1,458 cars in New York this season, the entire ship¬ 
ments from the coast being 7,028 cars, this being simply 
from California and not including fruit from Idaho, Wash¬ 
ington and Oregon. The principal variety was pears, of 
which 2,003 cars were shipped, followed by plums, peaches, 
grapes, apples and cherries, also apricots. A minimum 
carload of California deciduous fruit is 24,000 pounds. 
Cost of transporting cherries to New York, refrigeration 
and freight, per 11-pound box approximately 23 cents, 
peaches per box of 21% pounds 45 cents, plums and prunes 
per 26-pound crate 54 cents, pears and apples per 50-pound 
box $1.10, grapes, single crates of 25 pounds, 47 cents. A 
carload of grapes approximates 960 single crates, also 
packed in double crates and quarter crates; apples and 
pears 480 boxes, plums and prunes 1,000 crates. Very 
high prices are realized in New Fork on fancy California 
fruit; for instance, six cars of the famous Minnewawa Red 
Emperor grapes sold here this month at an average of 
$2,100 per car of 960 crates, back in California. Clusters 
of grapes from this vineyard weighed as much as seven 
pounds. The deciduous season, i. e., the shipping season, 
begins in April and practically ends in November, whereas 
the Citrus seasons now overlap, although new seasons are 
said to begin November 1. earl, fruit company. 
New York. 
BUSINESS BITS. 
Almost every business firm has a safe in which to keep 
money and other valuables. It is just as much a necessity 
in every farmhouse. In case of fire your valuables and 
documents are preserved. The Cook Co., 413 Pine St., 
Michigan City, Ind., offers a substantial safe suitable for 
the average farmer for the small sum of $8. Write them. 
We are in receipt of the annual catalogue issued by 
the Home Correspondence School of Springfield, Mass. 
The courses offered by its several departments compre¬ 
hend nearly every branch which goes to make up a lib¬ 
eral education. Of great interest to our readers should 
be found the special courses in agriculture under Prof. 
Brooks, of horticulture under Prof. Bailey, and agricul¬ 
tural bacteriology conducted by Prof. Conn, an oppor¬ 
tunity being thus offered of receiving instructions from 
the very foremost men in their respective lines. Cata¬ 
logue will be sent free upon request of any of our readers. 
There are now in the United States at least 10 different 
kinds of agencies for the benefit of the American farmer, 
and the Departmefit of Agriculture alone has over 2,000 
persons engaged in scientific investigations looking toward 
improvement in the quality and quantity of farm produce. 
This great educational work is reviewed for The Youth’s 
Companion by the Hon. James Wilson, Secretary of Agri¬ 
culture—one of the many important anounoements for 
the 1903 volume of that paper. You can get The Youth’s 
Companion till January, 1904, for $1.75, including the 
beautiful holiday numbers and the Companion Calendar 
for 1903, lithographed in 12 colors. 
