1899 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
5i7 
Events of the Week. 
DOMESTIC.—The wholesale grocers of Iowa are 
uniting to form a trust or combine, with the intention 
of keeping Iowa trade for Iowa jobbers. The organizers 
say that the combine will reduce prices to consumers. 
. . At Detroit, Mich., a diamond smuggler who had 
come over from Canada was arrested June 29 with over 
$15,000 worth of precious stones concealed around his 
ankles. . . Six Chinese highbinders went from San 
Francisco, Cal., to San Jos€ June 29, to assassinate the 
president of a local Chinese society. The local police 
arranged a surprise for them, but the Chinese were all 
protected by coats of mail, and escaped without injury, 
after a pistol fight, in which one officer was wounded. 
. . The steam barge Margaret Olwill was sunk in Lake 
Erie by a heavy squall June 28; eight lives lost. . . The 
Brazos Valley, Texas, is suffering from serious floods; 
June 29, the Brazos River was two feet higher than ever 
known at Waco and, with its tributaries, was flooding 
thousands of acres of cultivated land; July 4, the river 
was six feet higher than ever before. At Brookshire, 
nearly 400 persons were caught on an island formed by 
the flood, and it is feared that they are all drowned. 
The survivors in that district have neither food nor 
shelter. At Sealy, there have been 42 Inches of rainfall. 
The damage to the cotton crop is put at $8,000,000, and 
the loss of live stock and other property is estimated to 
be $7,000,000. The region flooded is between the Little 
and Big Brazos Rivers in the fertile bottom lands. At 
Hearne, 35 persons are reported drowned; 60 in other 
localities. . . The street-car strike at Wheeling, W. 
Va., was settled June 29, after continuing for three 
months. The men failed to get their demands. Heavy 
damage suits have been filed against the company for 
personal injuries caused by the employment of new 
men. . . An asphalt trust, with a capital of $30,000,000, 
has been incorporated in New Jersey. Its promoters ex¬ 
pect to control all the asphalt in the world. . . A train¬ 
load of negro miners going from Pana, Ill., to Brush’s 
mines near Carterville, was fired upon by union strikers 
June 30, one man and one woman being killed, and 20 
persons wounded. It is said that a majority of the mur¬ 
derous strikers are negroes brought from the South a 
year ago who have since joined the union. July 1, 
State militia were ordered to Carterville to restore or¬ 
der. . . A riot among negroes at the Black Diamond 
Steel Works, Pittsburg, Pa., June 30, resulted in the 
death of one man, and the mortal wounding of an¬ 
other. . . A number of small post offices on Long 
Island have been discontinued, to give place for free 
rural delivery. In place of the post offices, stations will 
be maintained for the sale of stamps, etc. . . The 
young woman who was accused at Providence, R. I., 
of forging Miss Gould’s name to a note for $20,000, has 
been declared insane, and committed to an asylum. . . 
At Bowling Green, Ohio, July 1, a four-year-old boy died 
as the result of a grain of corn lodging in his throat. 
He had been removed from the care of a regular physi¬ 
cian, and handed over to a female faith curist. The 
woman explained that there was a lack of faith on the 
part of the child’s father, which interfered with her 
ministrations. . . A blaze in a cotton warehouse in 
Brooklyn, N. Y., July 1, resulted in a loss of $350,000. . . 
The town of Summit, N. J., was swept by fire July 2; 
loss $150,000. . . A collision of trolley cars near Pitts¬ 
burg, Pa., July 2, caused the death of two persons and 
serious injuries to five others. . . It is announced that 
a surplus of nearly $2,000,000 was left from the pension 
appropriation of the current fiscal year, after paying 
all claims. . . North Dakota has amended its divorce 
law, and now requires, in all cases instituted, a year’s 
residence in the State. This puts an end to the divorce 
mills which gave unpleasant notoriety to the State. . . 
At Staplehurst, Neb., five young men who were on a 
fishing trip, were struck by lightning July 3, while 
halted under a tree, and the entire party killed. . . 
The cities of Denver, Colorado Springs, Cripple Creek, 
Victor and Pueblo, Colo., united in a grand celebration 
July 3, illuminating Pike’s Peak, 14,147 feet above sea 
level, by burning 1,700 pounds of red, white and blue fire. 
Previous to the illumination, a violent snowstorm raged 
on the Peak, two inches of snow falling. The reflection 
of the fireworks was plainly seen at Denver, 75 miles 
away. . . Three negroes were attacked by a gang of 
New York toughs at Rye, N. Y., July 4; two were driven 
into a swamp and the third nearly killed. . . A fire in 
Memphis, Tenn., July 4, caused the loss of one life and 
damage of about $450,000 . . A trolley collision in Phila¬ 
delphia July 2 killed one person and fatally wounded two 
others. . . Three boys, aged seven and nine years, 
were arrested at Shamokin, Pa., July 3, charged with 
manslaughter. They placed a nut or bolt on the rail¬ 
road track, causing a train wreck, which resulted in the 
death of one man. . . A fire in a paper-pulp factory 
at Chicago, Ill., July 3, resulted in four deaths and a 
loss of $90,000. . . A head-on collision of two trolley 
cars occurred at Wilmington, Del., July 4; 14 persons 
were injured. . . In Philadelphia, over 200 persons were 
injured in various ways while celebrating July 4; many 
of them were very badly mangled. . . At Bowling 
Green, Ky., July 5, 11 whitecaps were indicted out of 
14 men against whom charges were brought for whip¬ 
ping A. E. Woolbright. The victim has brought damage 
suits amounting to $65,000 against the men who assaulted 
him. 
FARM AND GARDEN.—The Michigan Sugar Co., of 
Bay City, Mich., has begun proceedings to test the le¬ 
gality of the sugar bounty law. The Attorney-General 
holds that the law is unconstitutional, and that there 
is no fund from which the bounty may be paid. The 
Company has presented a certificate showing that it 
has earned $24,692 in bounty this year. . . During the 
Texan floods, over 1,000 car-loads of watermelons, read* 
for shipment, were washed away. . . Complaint comes 
from the pea-raising section of New Jersey that many 
of the vines have been ruined by a green louse, only the 
earliest crops escaping. . . Pear blight is reported as 
unusually prevalent in Salem, Gloucester and Cumber¬ 
land Counties, N. J. Cherries were so plentiful in that 
locality that hundreds of quarts rotted on the trees, 
for lack of paying prices. 
• 
CUBA.—Officers and men of the rural guard at Guan- 
ajay have been arrested for robbery, 29 being impli¬ 
cated. Col. Carrillo, recently appointed as chief of the 
guard, and 18 others, have taken to the woods and, it is 
feared, intend to practice open brigandage. . . Senor 
Santa Maria, father of the sugar planter who was killed 
during the recent trouble at Cienfuegos will present a 
claim for indemnity against the American Government. 
He says that his son, who was driving by, was shot by 
American soldiers. . . Ten more of Acosta's outlaws 
were captured near Guanajay and one killed. The 
Cubans protest against the killing of the bandits, though 
they are glad to have the bands broken up. . . Owing 
to the spread of yellow fever at Santiago, there was 
no elaborate celebration on July 4. The troops are care¬ 
fully quarantined, and there is no yellow fever among 
civilians. . . At Manzanillo, 1,200 Cuban soldiers ap¬ 
plied for pay July 3. Payment at Santiago has been 
postponed, owing to the yellow fever epidemic, which 
was gaining in virulence July 5. The new camp at 
Boniato seems to be thoroughly infected, and a new 
fever hospital will be established. All the victims, with 
the exception of one American civilian, are soldiers. 
PHILIPPINES.—Insurgents continue fighting in the 
neighborhood of San Fernando. The First Nebraska 
Regiment has started home, after taking part in 29 en¬ 
gagements, also two companies of Utah artillery. . . 
Public schools were opened in Manila July 3. The pupils 
will receive instruction in English for one hour each 
day. . . The Filipinos decline to release all their 
Spanish prisoners. They will give up sick soldiers and 
civil officials, but intend to keep the friars, expecting 
that the Roman Catholic Church will pay a ransom for 
them. The insurgents employ the military prisoners in 
engineering, hospital and clerical work. 
FOREIGN.—Capt Dreyfus arrived in France June 30. 
His landing was secret, and there was no demonstration 
by the public. . . German and American residents in 
the Transvaal have asked their Consuls to be prepared 
to protect them in case of Boer troubles. The U. S. 
cruiser Chicago has arrived at Delagoa Bay. . . At 
the opening of the municipal council at Barcelona, 
Spain, July 1, a crowd fired upon the councillors, killing 
three and wounding nine others. . . At Odessa, Russia, 
44 miners were killed by a dynamite explosion July 4. 
HAWAIIAN ISLANDS.—The Hawaiian law providing 
for the penal enforcement of labor contracts is held 
binding, by a recent decision of the Supreme Court at 
Honolulu. The court maintains that the Thirteenth 
Amendment of the United States Constitution is not 
now binding in the Islands. The test was made when 
two plantation laborers deserted their service, and were 
sentenced to short terms of imprisonment. They ap¬ 
pealed on the ground that the penal clause was con¬ 
trary to the Constitution of the United States. . . The 
steamer Nippon Maru, from Hongkong, arrived at 
Honolulu recently with bubonic plague on board, which 
has caused some alarm. 
PORTO RICO.—The Commissioners from Porto Rico 
to the United States last month issued a formal pro¬ 
test against the treatment of their country and the 
people by this Government. They say they are bui’- 
dened by a tariff heavier and more obnoxious than under 
Spanish rule; that they are treated as inferiors and de¬ 
pendent people, and that the liberty that was guai-an- 
teed to them is a delusion. They say they do not ask 
favors, but demand justice. 
THE FUTURE FARMERS’ INSTITUTE. 
WHAT WESTERN MEN SAY. 
Shall It Be “a Traveling High School ”? 
The R. N.-Y. is securing opinions from the various 
managers of the farmers’ institutes, as to the best 
methods of conducting these meetings. The agricultu¬ 
ral-college and experiment-station men agree that the 
character of the work should be changed so as to repre¬ 
sent a sort of extension course in agricultural science. 
We hope to print opinions from those who have chai-ge 
of these meetings, before the time for planning the Fall 
campaign. This week, three western managers discuss 
the matter. 
My experience along the line of farmers’ institutes 
leads me to believe that it is absolutely necessary that 
all of the instruction and lecture work in the insti¬ 
tutes be kept down to such a level as to permit a 
thoroughly practical, if at the same time slightly- 
educated, farmer to gain information, and participate 
in the discussions. It is not the educated few that need 
to be reached. The great number of first-class rural 
papers reach this class of people, and they have ac¬ 
cess to books without end, while the great majority, 
those who read little and think, perhaps, less, is the 
class which must be reached, if the institutes do the 
woi-k for which I deem they have been created. So 
far as possible, I deem the introduction of social fea¬ 
tures very desirable, providing always that this fea¬ 
ture is not permitted to throw into a second place the 
true educational side of the work. My feeling is that, 
at the present, and probably for many years, the in¬ 
stitutes should be thought of as supplying the very 
first elements of information, and that later, the ques¬ 
tion of higher education, if it may be so called, will 
take care of itself, through the means which I have 
already mentioned. f. w. taylor. 
Nebraska. 
Give “ Every-Day Farmers” a Chance. 
I differ very materially with those who think that 
this institution should take the form of a traveling 
high school. I have had 12 years of experience in this 
work, and have presided at many hundreds of these 
institute sessions. My observation with a careful 
study is that, first of all, the institute instructor 
should be a practical man, but with his practice, he 
should have a clear understanding of the science 
which enters into this practice. We have had some 
very superior institute instructors, who had obtained 
their scientific knowledge by a thorough course in our 
colleges. Others have obtained it by a very careful 
and studious reading of our agricultural literature. 
If the attainment of scientific knowledge make an in¬ 
stitute instructor to be more of a professor than a 
farmer, then he is very seriously handicapped in 
doing aggressive, successful institute work. There is 
a freemasonry in all trades and vocations. The insti¬ 
tute instructor should be so thoroughly a practical 
man, and so intimately acquainted with all the details 
of the work that he teaches, that the every-day 
farmer, who has also had his experience in the same 
line, will recognize very quickly that the one who ad¬ 
dresses him has performed the things he talks about, 
and has performed them well, and in addition to that, 
he understands the things which he deals with and 
the laws which enter into the work. The institute 
instructor should always give a reason for the 
methods he pursues. This reason, of course, will in¬ 
volve the science of agriculture, but it must be stated 
in plain, every-day, commonplace language, so that 
the average one in the audience can readily under¬ 
stand it. The language of the. college professor upon 
the platform is out of place. The farmers’ institute is 
for the farmers. Its platfoi’m is to insti’uct them, but 
in order to do it successfully, it must have the confi¬ 
dence of the audience, and its teachings must have an 
enthusiasm which is born of successful work in the 
pi’actical field of agriculture. 
We have not found it necessary to make the social 
feature a part of our institute programme. With the 
light kind of instructors upon the platform, you can 
always have an interest and enthusiasm that will 
make the work popular because of itself. After 12 
years of work, the institute in Minnesota has larger 
audiences and greater interest, and mox-e good will 
than at any other time in its history. We have tried 
to govei-n by these principles that I have x-eferred to, 
with others that are like unto them, in the conducting 
of our work. 0 . c. qregg. 
Supt’ Farmers’ Institutes in Minnesota. 
Need of the Practical Man. 
There is no one best way to conduct farmers’ insti¬ 
tutes for all sections of the country. The degree of 
progress that has been made by the farming classes 
in diffei-ent parts of the country varies greatly. In 
the older portions of the country, the fertilization, 
care and management of the soil are questions of very 
gi eat importance. The eastei’n fai'iner has, in many 
cases, come to recognize the importance and absolute 
necessity of the best methods of husbanding soil re¬ 
sources and home fertility. The western farmer, on 
the other hand, with the soil yet new and highly pro¬ 
ductive, does not see the necessity or recognize the 
importance of carefully husbanding the soil resources. 
This serves to illustrate what is true in regard to 
many other questions. The topics themselves, there¬ 
fore, vary with the development and peculiar adapta¬ 
tions of the several sections of the country. As to the 
method of treating these questions, the general intel¬ 
ligence and degree of scientific information which the 
farmers of a section possess, must be kept steadily in 
mind. In many sections of the country the farmers 
are not quite prepared to accept and apply the teach¬ 
ings of the scientist until they have been successfully 
applied to the practical affairs of the farm. 
The experiment station worker may discover prin¬ 
ciples of general application to agriculture, and set 
forth the same in a clear and forceful manner at the 
farmers’ institute, but to 3. great many farmers, he 
cannot carry conviction as well as a practical man 
who has demonstrated the value of scientific methods 
when practically applied to farming. There is, there¬ 
fore, and will continue to be, need for highly success¬ 
ful, pi-actical men, who are working out on their own 
farms the applications of science to agriculture, and 
who can set forth in a clear, entertaining and con¬ 
vincing manner at farmers’ institutes, the results of 
their labors. 
At the present time, it seems to me that the man 
who can be most helpful at a farmers’ institute, is 
the one who has a clear perception of the relations of 
theory and practice, who clearly recognizes how 
science may help the art of agriculture, who is demon¬ 
strating the pi-actical value of science applied to 
farming, and who can convincingly instruct his fel¬ 
low men, and show them how they can advantage¬ 
ously use the better methods. The institute manager 
finds it difficult to secure men possessing all these 
qualifications, and he is, therefoi’e, compelled to do 
the next best thing, viz., employ a scientific expert 
and a practical man. The two are but halves of one 
whole, and the most effective work can be accom¬ 
plished when their combined knowledge is found in 
one and the same person. w. c. latta. 
Indiana. 
