1902 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
869 
Events of the Week. 
DOMESTIC.—The village of Collinwood, a few miles 
east of Cleveland, O., voted December 11 against per¬ 
mitting the sale of liquor within its boundaries. Because 
of Lhe result of the election the Lake Shore Railroad 
Company will spend $1,000,000 in new shops, additional to 
extensive buildings already erected there. The railroad 
officials said that this extra sum of money would be with¬ 
held if the village voted for the sale of liquor.A 
fire in a large business building at Worcester, Mass., De¬ 
cember 11, caused a loss of $250,000.December 
9-11 furious snowstorms along the Newfoundland coast 
caused much loss to shipping. One schooner foundered 
with the loss of 10 men.Mrs. U. S. Grant, widow 
of Gen. Grant, died at Washington, D. C., December 14. 
.... Two men were killed ar-d several others injured 
by an explosion in the waterworks tunnel at Cleveland, 
O., December 14. The scene of the explosion was 100 feet 
below the bottom of Lake Erie.Fire at Centre- 
ville, Md., December 14, destroyed a large business block, 
causing a loss of $200,000.The explosion of an 
acetylene gas tank in a residence at Fort Lee, N. J., De¬ 
cember 16, destroyed the house and killed six members of 
one family.Three cases of bubonic plague 
reached New York on the steamer Saxon Prince, from 
Durban, South Africa, December 16. There are no fears 
of further infection. 
ADMINISTRATION.—The House Committee on Agri¬ 
culture December 10 authorized a favorable report on the 
bill providing for an emergency appropriation of $1,000,000 
to be used in stamping out the foot-and-mouth disease 
in New England cattle. Secretary Wilson believes that 
only $700,000 of this amount will be necessary. 
The President December 15 in transmitting to the Senate 
a report from the Secretary of State in regard to the kill¬ 
ing by a mob on July 11, 1901, of two Italians at Erwin, 
Miss., recommends that “as an act of grace and without 
reference to the question of the liability of the United 
States, Congress make suitable provision for the heirs of 
the two Italian subjects killed and for the survivor who 
was injured, the proceeds to be distributed by the Italian 
government in such manner as it may deem proper.” 
.... In the Senate December 16 Mr. Dillingham con¬ 
cluded his remarks in opposition to the Omnibus State¬ 
hood bill, and by unanimous consent it was agreed there 
should be no more discussion of the measure until the 
Senate reconvenes on January 5. Mr. Morgan, of Alabama, 
criticised salaries paid the Isthmian Canal Commission. 
For half an hour the Militia bill was considered. The 
House passed the bill transferring from the Treasury 
Department to the Department of Agriculture the power 
to issue rules for the detection and prevention of disease 
among livestock. When the Department of Agriculture 
was created this power, supposed to have been trans¬ 
ferred and since exercised by the Secretary of Agricul¬ 
ture, was left with the Treasury Department. The ad¬ 
ditional power conferred by the bill, to prevent the intro¬ 
duction from an infected foreign country or from one 
State to another of hay, straw, forage, etc., was made 
necessary by the suspicion that the foot-and-mouth dis¬ 
ease was communicated to live stock in New England 
through infected hay from Canada, and might be trans¬ 
mitted thence to other portions of the United States by 
the same means. 
GENERAL FOREIGN NEWS.—December 9 Great 
Britain and Germany, acting in concert, seized six Vene¬ 
zuelan vessels at La Guayra, and established a blockade 
of the coast. This demonstration is the result of Vene¬ 
zuela’s refusal to pay money due to British and German 
subjects for damages to property during a revolution. 
The allies bombarded forts at Puerto Cabello, Venezuela, 
December 13, as reprisal for seizing a British vessel and 
hauling down her flag. The situation Is complicated by 
demands from Italy and France, who also have claims 
against Venezuela. Belgium and Denmark are also con¬ 
cerned. England, though declaring that some of its 
causes of complaint against Venezuela cannot be arbi¬ 
trated, is willing to arbitrate all the financial questions 
in dispute, but says that the single word of a country 
hitherto found so unreliable as Venezuela cannot be ac¬ 
cepted, and asks that this country guarantee the fulfill¬ 
ment of the terms of the award if arbitration is agreed 
to.The great Nile dam at Assuan, Upper Egypt, 
was completed December 10. Its purpose is to hold back 
the waters of the Nile during the flood period, permitting 
their gradual use for irrigation during the rest of the 
year. In this way it is expected to add nearly 1,000,000 
acres to land under cultivation, enable large tracts to 
bear two crops a year instead of one, and add at least 
$12,000,000 a year to the wealth of the country in increased 
products of cotton and sugar. The dam is a mile and a 
quarter long and will hold the water 347.6 feet above the 
level of the Mediterranean. The dam is pierced by 180 
• openings, each 23 feet high and seven feet wide Some 
of the sluices go 75 feet below the ordinary rock surface. 
The work has been done by the English firm of John 
Aird & Co., and 16,000 laborers, 90 per cent of them native 
Egyptians, have been employed. The original estimate 
was $10,000,000, but it has probably exceeded that. 
FARM AND GARDEN.—Judge Smythe of the district 
court at Burlington, Wis., made a decision which is of 
wide interest and Importance to farmers all over the 
country. He holds that private telephone lines, including 
poles, wires, etc., are fixtures and therefore a part of the 
farm. N. R. Letts, the owner of a stock farm, sold the 
telephone lines on it to the Wapello Telephone Company 
and also sold the farm to Brockaway & Sons. The 
Brockaways sold the telephone lines to the Louisa and 
Muscatine Telephone Company. The suit was brought by 
the Wapello company against the other company. The 
defendant insisted that the telephone line was a part of 
the realty and a fixture on the farm because of its perma¬ 
nent character. This contention was adopted by the 
judge and he decided accordingly. The decision will have 
wide interest, as the counties throughout Iowa and other 
States are dotted with the telephone lines, and according 
to Judge Smythe’s decision they belong as much to the 
farmer as do the fences on his farm which connect with 
the fences of other owners and form a continuous line 
of boundary. 
The annual meeting of the American Shetland Pony 
Club was held at Chicago December 22. 
The Idaho State Horticultural Society will meet at 
Boise, January 13-15; secretary, Robert Millikin. 
The Iowa State Agricultural Convention December 10 
elected W. W. Morrow, of Afton, president, and C. E. 
Cameron, of Alta, vice-president. M. J. Wragg, of Wau- 
kee, was reelected president of the State Horticultural 
Society. Neither of the organizations appropriated money 
for the St. Louis Exposition. A State municipal park as¬ 
sociation was organized of the park commissioners of the 
cities of Iowa, whose work will be an adjunct to that 
of the State Forestry Association. 
The Wisconsin State Grange Patrons of Husbandry in 
session at Eau Claire December 10 adopted resolutions, 
as follows: Favoring the referendum, rural delivery, a 
State railway commission with power to fix rates, favor¬ 
ing legislation by Congress to protect forests, for pure 
food, to revise fees and salaries of Federal officials and 
for the Grout bill, for the election of Federal Senators by 
popular vote and demanding equal taxation. Appleton 
was selected at the next place of meeting. George R. 
Schaeffer, of Neenah, was elected secretary and H. R. 
Morgan, of Hammond trustee. 
The Michigan State Grange December 10 reelected the 
present orfficers for the next two years. Master Horton 
being elected for the sixth time. The officers are: Mas¬ 
ter, George B. Horton, Fruitridge; overseer, N. P. Hull, 
Dimondale; lecturer, Mrs. Frank Saunders, Rockford; 
steward, T. E. Niles, Mancelona; assistant steward, Will¬ 
iam Robertson, Fremont; chaplain, Mary Mayo, Ceresco; 
treasurer, E. A. Strong, Vicksburg; secretary, Jennie 
Buell, Ann Arbor; gatekeeper, G. A. Witbeck, Montague. 
The next annual meeting of the American Cheviot 
Sheep Society will be held at Hartwlck, N. Y., December 
30; secretary, F. E. Dawley, Fayetteville, N. Y. 
The Iowa Improved Stock Breeders’ Association will 
meet at Newton, Iowa, January 21-22, 1903; secretary, E. 
H. White, Estherville, Iowa. 
Secretary Wilson December 16 issued an order directing 
that all freight cars which have carried animals within 
the limits of Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts 
or Vermont, which have been quarantined on account of 
the outbreak of the foot-and-mouth disease, shall be 
cleaned and disinfected before leaving the State where 
they were were unloaded. The order designates in detail 
the manner in which the disinfection is to be done. 
A large delegation of farmers, under the auspices of 
the German Agricultural Society, is coming to the United 
States in April for a three months’ tour, studying Ameri¬ 
can agricultural methods. The German Embassy at 
Washington negotiated the affair with the Agricultural 
Department, which will furnish a guide during the en¬ 
ure trip. His expenses will be defrayed by the Germans. 
The trip includes stops at Baltimore, where special at¬ 
tention will be given to dairy farms, and Washington, 
where the Agricultural Department will be exhaustively 
studied. The German Agricultural Society, though a 
private organization, has taken the United States Agri¬ 
cultural Department as a model. After leaving Wash¬ 
ington the industries of West Virginia will be examined, 
and then the horse breeding and tobacco growing in¬ 
dustries of Kentucky will be inspected. The tourists 
afterwards will visit St. Louis, Kansas City and Omaha, 
where the stock yards will be investigated, and will also 
inquire into the Nebraska beet sugar industry. They 
will next see the irrigating systems of Colorado. From 
San Francisco the German farmers will go on an ex¬ 
cursion to Los Angeles and study the fruit farms. They 
will return eastward via Tacoma and see the wheat 
farms of the Dakotas and Minnesota. Later they will 
visit the Chicago slaughter houses and grain elevators. 
THE OUTLOOK FOR POULTRY. 
Supplies are short, but demand will be short at pre¬ 
vailing prices here. Beef and pork products are much 
lower. Christmas turkeys will cost consumer 17y 2 to 20 
cents dressed; rib roast 12y 2 cents with ribs out. Live 
turkeys, 13% to 14 ;geese, 10; ducks, 12; old hens, 9%; 
Spring, medium, 11 to-day. a. s. haines. 
Kansas City, Mo. 
Chickens are in good supply, while ducks and turkeys 
are scarce. As there are more turkeys raised in this sec¬ 
tion of the State than elsewhere surrounding, I am con¬ 
fident in saying that there are very few turkeys left, the 
greater portion of them having been sold on the Thanks¬ 
giving markets. This is the first time in 10 years that 
1 have had so much difficulty in getting enough turkeys 
to supply my trade. ' a. h. geis. 
Columbus, O. 
The poultry market, especially the market for turkeys, 
is considerably excited at the present time. We have 
heard of as high as 16 and 17 cents being paid for live 
turkeys in some sections in the West. The supply of 
turkeys is no doubt small; on the other hand chickens, 
fowls and geese seem to be in fair supply. We do not 
look for any decided shortage in those lines. We are not 
very well posted on ducks. We also note that the price 
of meat is declining and this may have some effect on 
the poultry market. paine & williams. 
Buffalo, N. Y. 
We are in touch with the shippers from the Far West 
as well as in nearby points, and the country at the pres¬ 
ent time is excited over the prospects of high prices for 
turkeys for the Christmas holidays. The crop of turkeys 
at nearby points (when I say at nearby points I refer to 
Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, West Virginia and Penn¬ 
sylvania) seems to be very near a full crop, but what has 
caused the high prices is the extreme short crop through¬ 
out Iowa, Illinois, Indiana and Missouri. Our market at 
the present is not very active. Fancy turkeys are bring¬ 
ing as high as 18 cents, but the general ideas are that 
we will have an 18 to 20-cent turkey market for Christ¬ 
mas. Live chickens are quite plentiful at the present 
time, and selling for about 11 cents. Our egg market is 
firm at 28 to 29 cents. Emory sudler. 
Philadelphia, Pa. 
I have had considerable correspondence in regard to 
poultry throughout the West, and 1 find that every one 
of our shippers, without an exception, claims a shortage 
in the crop, owing principally to the unfavorable weather 
conditions during the Spring. In some instances we 
learn that even though the weather conditions in the 
Spring had bfeen favorable for raising poultry there 
would have been a shortage in the crop just the same. 
The larger speculators took advantage of this about two 
months ago and have picked up all the desirable poultry 
throughout the larger producing sections and put the 
same in cold storage, where it is now being held, al¬ 
though the high prices Raid for this poultry in storage, 
including the expense attached to same, puts it at a 
figure whereby the prices this season of the year are 
held far in excess of what they have been in the past 
few years, and the chances for the future supply of 
fresh-killed stock are not at all encouraging. The out¬ 
look and prospects are that prices on poultry for the 
Christmas holidays in all markets will rule high. After 
Christmas there will be a heavy demand for the cold 
storage poultry. J. J. white. 
Buffalo, N. Y. 
ANNOUNCEMENT l 
The Rural New=Yorker for 1903 
We shall not attempt to tell beforehand just what 
the paper will contain next year. To tell the truth 
we do not yet know. The R. N.-Y. grows from week 
to week like a well-cultivated farm crop. We try to 
deal with timely and pertinent subjects which are 
suggested by questions from readers or from our own 
farm experience. 
We shall try to keep up until the procession! 
It is for our interest to do this. We guarantee the 
same sqrt of a paper as last year—a little better in 
some departments, for all workmen who love their 
trade acquire new skill the longer they handle their 
tools. We will have no other class of workmen about 
us. This man has the right idea: 
Why I Take The Rural New-Yorker 
The conservative man or woman, in making a pur¬ 
chase of any article, no matter whether for food, in¬ 
formation, convenience or personal adornment, buys 
only two classes of goods. 
First, that which they have tried and from satis¬ 
factory results proved to be the best on the market, 
the following three points considered; price, quality 
and style. 
Second, that which is new and promising—and 
bought in quantity only sufficiently large enough to 
be thoroughly tested in the three points of the 
standard. 
Having been brought up to follow the above rules 
and apply them to everythng, I evidently have a reason 
for taking The R. N.-Y. Yes. I take it because I can¬ 
not get the information from any other source, and it is 
the standard in three points. The price is reason¬ 
able, the quality the best, the style convenient. 
Wisconsin. J. warren lone. 
That states the case well, and we shall do our best 
to make Tiie R. N.-Y. conform to this high standard, 
but each year the “best” costs more in time, money 
and research. We do not care for that—our business 
is to secure it. We will obtain a fair answer to any 
honest farm question if any human being is com¬ 
petent to answer it. We are able to avail ourselves 
of the services of the most complete corps of trained 
scientists and practical farmers ever brought to¬ 
gether in the service of any farm paper. The old 
writers already familiar to our readers will be heard 
from during the year, and dozens of new ones with 
fresh and original ideas will be introduced. We wel¬ 
come farm questions from people of all colors, creeds 
and conditions. We intend to open our sources of 
information so freely that if any reader neglect to 
utilize them it will be his own fault if lie remain unin¬ 
formed. 
We hope to make The R. N.-Y. better and more 
useful than ever. We know what that promise means. 
Our ambition is to make the paper absolutely reliable 
in its statements, fearless in its opinions, progressive 
in its investigations, and so clean that every word 
of it can be read aloud in the family circle. 
BUSINESS BITS. 
We wish to call special attention to the advertisement 
of the C. A. S. Forge Works of Saranac, Mich. This con¬ 
cern is unique in that it has sprung entirely from the 
brain and hand of one man who has never turned out 
anything but high-class tools. 
The harvesting of the ice crop is usually a rush job 
and necessitates the use of such ice implements and tools 
as will insure rapid and correct work. To this end we 
car, recommend the ice plow and the full line of ice tools 
made by the Ames Plow Co., Boston, Mass. Write them 
for catalogue, prices, etc., in time to be ready when the 
ice harvest comes. 
If your hens are not laying it is worth your while to 
look into the cause. Many poultrymen recommend green 
cut bone for Winter feeding and it is the cheapest feed 
that you can give your fowls. Humphrey & Sons, Joliet, 
Ill., issue a catalogue giving much valuable information 
on this subject and showing their full line of bone cutters. 
It will be sent free to any reader of The R. N.-Y. 
The Stratton Mfg. Co., Erie, Pa., has just issued a very 
attractive book entitled “More Money From Your Hens.’' 
It goes into the question of Winter feeding very thor¬ 
oughly and describes in detail the Dandy bone cutter, a 
well-built, substantial machine for reducing green bone 
to poultry food. It is sold at a very reasonable price 
and is manufactured in a varie' y of sizes and styles. 
Catalogue is sent free. 
In the recent advertisement of the Smith Novelty Co., 
1107 Broadway, Toledo, O., an error was made in the 
number of skirt supporters that were to be sold for a 
free clothes wringer. While the advertisement stated 
24, the company propose to send a wringer free for sell¬ 
ing only 12 supporters at 25 cents each. They send you 
the goods. When sold, you remit the money and the 
wringer is then sent you for the work. 
