1890 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
757 
Events of the Week. 
DOMESTIC.—The Minneapolis Produce Exchange was 
destroyed by fire October 12; loss $75,000. . . A boiler ex¬ 
plosion at Brownsburg, Ind., October 12, killed three men 
and injured five others. . . A nitro-glycerin explosion 
at the ./Etna Powder Works, near Chicago, killed four 
men October 12. . . Truckee, Cal., was visited by a 
three-days’ snowstorm October 10-13. No such storm has 
occurred there in October since 1846. All the cattle and 
sheep are still in the mountains, and anxiety prevails lest 
they perish from cold and exposure. The snow is one 
foot deep in Truckee, and three or four feet deep in the 
surrounding country. . . A head-on collision of trolley 
cars near Syracuse, N. Y., October 13, injured 20 persons. 
. . The boiler of a thrashing engine blew up near Brit¬ 
ton, S. D., October 13, killing four men. . . Unusually 
warm weather prevailed over the Middle West October 
10-13, the temperature going above 90 degrees in Wiscon¬ 
sin, Iowa, and Illinois. Snow fell in western Nebraska 
October 13. . . The largest free rural mail delivery route 
in the country is to be centered at Oconomowoc, Wis. . . 
Five persons were injured in a trolley collision at Pater¬ 
son, N. J., October 15. . . The steamer Nutmeg State 
caught fire off Port Washington, L. I., October 14, while 
proceeding up the Sound from Bridgeport, Conn. She 
was burned to the water’s edge, and 10 persons lost their 
lives. . . A young woman died in New York October 
15 from acute blood poisoning, the result of ink from a 
typewriting ribbon entering a fever sore. . . The 
steamer Typo was run down and sunk in Lake Huron, 
October 14, with the loss of four lives. . . St. Mary’s 
Training School, at Feehanville, near Chicago, Ill., was 
destroyed by fire October 15; loss $200,000. . . The Loomis 
Sanitarium, for the treatment of consumptives, at Lib¬ 
erty, N. Y., was burnt October 15; loss $100,000. . . Two 
Russian immigrants who came to Philadelphia from Ant¬ 
werp on the Red Star steamer Aragonia October 13, have 
died from malignant typhus fever, which is highly con¬ 
tagious. The steamer, its crew and 90 passengers, have 
been quarantined. . . Fire destroyed the wholesale 
grocery of the Fowler Company, at Waterloo, Iowa, Octo¬ 
ber 15; loss $102,000. . . A gas explosion in the Shenan¬ 
doah City mine, near Pottsville, Pa., October 17, horribly 
burned 10 miners, three of whom will die. . . October 
16, a heavy snowstorm had been raging in the mountains 
around Lcadville, Col., for a week. One flock of 1,500 
sheep with their herder, are 1 ‘eported to be lost, and other 
losses are expected. In the canons flood and landslides 
have caused much damage, and through trains have been 
delayed. . . Smallpox is spreading so rapidly in Texas 
that the health officials are alarmed. Every part of the 
State has the disease in a virulent form, and a severe 
epidemic is feared. . . A panic was caused in a Brook¬ 
lyn, N. Y., tenement October 18, by the explosion of gases 
in a whisky barrel; one man was badly burned, and a 
woman and child stunned. 
FARM AND GARDEN.—Oregon and Washington are 
shipping quantities of cattle east. Two train-loads re¬ 
cently sent from Baker County put $45,000 in the pockets 
of the cattlemen. . . The Eastern Oregon Woolgrowers’ 
Association met at The Dalles October 5. The question 
of grazing sheep in the forestry reserves was the main 
subject of discussion. . . A meeting of the Texas Ship¬ 
pers’ Union is to be held at the fair grounds at San An¬ 
tonio October 31, with the purpose of forming a perma¬ 
nent organization. A temporary organization was made 
during the Farmers’ Congress held by producers and ship¬ 
pers at College Station last July. . . Competition forced 
the price of cotton seed up to $11 a ton at Nacogdoches, 
Texas, recently. . . A single order for 350,000 pounds of 
dressed poultry, making 14 carloads, was recently re¬ 
ceived from London by a packinghouse at St. Joseph, 
Mo. Further large orders are expected. . . Gov. Steph¬ 
ens, of Missouri, has appointed a board, consisting of Dr. 
C. W. Baskett of Moberly, J. A. Knott of Hannibal, and 
J. A. Resk of Weston, to decide upon the location of a 
fruit experiment station. . . The two-months’ drought 
in southern Illinois was broken October 10. The ground 
was too dry for plowing, and wheat sown early has suf¬ 
fered. . . The Interstate Association of Live Stock San¬ 
itary Boards met at Chicago October 11-12. The election 
of officers resulted as follows; President, Charles P. John¬ 
son, Illinois; vice-president, Dr. E. P. Niles, Virginia; 
treasurer, W. B. Tullis, Texas, and secretary, Mortimer 
Levering, Indiana. Next convention will be held at 
Louisville, Ky., the first Tuesday after the first Monday 
in October, 1900. . . Illinois crop reports indicate that 
corn in that State gives 80 per cent, of an average crop. 
. . Great Britain continues to buy mules through the 
southern markets. The same purchaser has ordered 5,- 
000,000 pounds of canned beef from Chicago packers. . . 
This year the California fruit crop will, it is estimated, 
reach a value of $15,000,000. 
PHILIPPINES.—Gen. Young captured Arayat October 
12. The insurgents set the town on fire before retreat¬ 
ing. At Malabon the Americans captured 300 natives, 
who are suspected of shooting at the troops from houses. 
. . Two strong earthquake shocks were felt at Manila 
October 13. . . A native uprising was expected in Ma¬ 
nila October 15, but owing to measures taken by the 
authorities it was suppressed. The guards of the city 
were doubled, and artillery stationed at a point command¬ 
ing the native quarter. . . Reports from Europe state 
that the Filipinos are buying torpedoes and machine guns 
in Belgium and Germany. . . October 17, the insurgents 
were driven out of Porac, one American being killed. . . 
Senor Utor, editor of the Manila paper, Patria, has been 
arrested for printing seditious documents. . . A vigor¬ 
ous campaign under Gen. Lawton began October 18. 
There was a short but decisive skirmish at Cabiao, the 
insurgents being repulsed. 
CUBA.—A fight between rural guards and bandits oc¬ 
curred recently at Yagua Ramos, one guard and one 
bandit being killed. The remaining outlaws escaped. 
Another attempted lynching is reported from Pinar del 
Rio, the victim being a Spanish ex-guerilla. He was 
rescued by the police. 
GENERAL FOREIGN NEWS.—A violent earthquake 
has visited the south side of the Island of Ceram, one of 
the Amboina Islands, west of New Guinea. It is esti¬ 
mated that 4,000 people were killed, and 500 injured. Ceram 
belongs to Holland. . . The Sultan of Turkey has issued 
an trade abolishing all the restrictions imposed upon Ar¬ 
menians, pardoning prisoners and ordering the rebuild¬ 
ing of churches and schools destroyed. This was brought 
about by the attitude of the Armenian Patriarchs. . . 
October 12 war was declared by the Transvaal Republic 
against Great Britain, and the Boers began to advance 
into Natal. October 14, they blew up an armored train, 
which had escorted refugees to the border, killing 15 sol¬ 
diers. The Boers have seized large sums of gold, be¬ 
longing to mining and banking companies. The Orange 
Free State has united with the Boers, and pro¬ 
claimed martial law. Refugees are suffering great desti¬ 
tution. Authentic news of the situation comes very slow¬ 
ly, the Boers having destroyed telegraph communication. 
Three days’ vigorous fighting Is reported at Mafeking, 
where the British force is small, and that town’s water 
supply is cut off. _____ 
THE PRICE OF FARM IMPLEMENTS. 
An Increase Sure to Come. 
The R. N.-Y. has been in correspondence with the lead¬ 
ing manufacturers of farm implements, with a view to 
learning how the high prices for iron and steel will affect 
the implement trade. A few typical letters from manu¬ 
facturers follow, and others will be printed later; 
An Increase in Price. 
It seems but natural that farmers who read should 
suspect that implements into whose construction iron 
and steel enter quite largely, should necessarily ad¬ 
vance in price, when the price of both metals has 
been advanced more than 150 per cent. A little over 
a year ago I bought bar iron at 98 cents per 100 
pounds delivered at my works, while to-day I must 
pay $2.46 at the mills, and 'the price of steel has ad¬ 
vanced quite as much. Of course the advance in im¬ 
plements will not be as great as this, as the wage 
scale has not been as great, and many other expenses 
entering into the construction of these goods are not 
increased at all; so that the increase in price to the 
farmer will not be beyond 10 or 15 per cent (I think) 
for this season. Many of us have quite large stocks 
of material on hand, bought at old prices, and are 
disposed to be as liberal as possible towaid those 
whose product has not advanced in proportion, and 
upon whom we must depend for the purchase of our 
goods. I only speak of the price of our goods for the 
current year; for should the price of material be 
maintained until the present supply is exhausted, an¬ 
other advance must inevitably follow. I would ad¬ 
vise farmers who can get their wants supplied at any¬ 
thing like last year’s prices, not to wait a day, but to 
buy at once, as both iron and steel mills are running 
night and day, and are far behind their orders. The 
increase in the price of metals is a purely legitimate 
one; supply and demand; I hear of no hoarding of 
stocks of either steel or iron, but I know that many 
of our street railways have been kept back in their 
construction, because the mills are so full of orders 
that they must take their turn, which unfortunately 
has, to many of them, been most disastrous. 
Evansville, Ind. henry f. blount. 
An Enthusiastic View. 
Prices of implements, owing to the cost of materials 
having advanced from 50 to 100 per cent, will have to 
be advanced also. We wish to state that prices were 
extremely low on implements, never so low before, as 
well as the price of pig iron, which had gone to less 
than $10 per ton, bar material $20 per ton. During 
the panic, transportation building of all kinds was 
stopped. Furnaces desiring to maintain organization 
continued producing pig and rolling material at a loss. 
A large number of manufacturers failed; and without 
an advance all others would have failed. We have re¬ 
sumed business on an advanced basis, in which there 
is some profit, and every consumer, including the 
farmer, should join willingly to pay the legitimate ad¬ 
vance in price. Labor has been employed at increased 
wages. During 1896 and 1897 the consumption of the 
farmer’s product, in many instances, had fallen off 
from 33 to 50 per cent among the same number of in¬ 
habitants, showing conclusively that they were wholly 
unable to buy even the necessaries of life. Now that 
prosperity has ensued, everybody who wishes to work 
is employed, and farmers will derive a benefit from 
this prosperity. They were last to realize the results 
of the terrible panic, and they will be last to realize 
the coming prosperity; they are generally disposed to 
be conservative and economical. They do not appre¬ 
ciate that it is important that they should pay full 
measure for value received, so as to enable the other 
party to reciprocate for their profit. 
It is stated by authority that the increased price in 
iron products will have swelled the wealth of the 
country equal to a gross aggregate of $278,320,000. 
This amount in real tangible wealth, distributed 
among the producing and consuming masses of the 
country, will extend in influencing the farmer. He 
will receive his share of this increased wealth. We 
attribute the advance in the price of material to its 
greatly increased use. Railroads are re-equipping old 
lines, building new cars of pressed steel; cities are 
building houses of rolled steel, the Government is 
supplying ships and war vessels, furnishing munitions 
of war; China and Africa are building railroads, 
hence the consumption has been increased to such 
an extent that production is not equal to it. This 
day there is not three days’ supply of pig iron on 
the market but what has been bought for immediate 
delivery and consumption, to be worked into articles 
that are now in contract. Prices are not fabulously 
high yet. They were equally as high in 1890, and 
twice the price in 1878; business prospers only on ad¬ 
vancing prices, and not on declining prices. 
AN OHIO PLOW MANUFACTURER. 
What Can They Do? 
The prices of iron and steel, as well as all other 
items that enter into the construction of a plow, have , 
increased to such an extent that there must be an ad¬ 
vance in the price of the finished goods. As a sample 
of the advanced cost of raw materials we may men¬ 
tion the following: 
Pig iron, fully 100 per cent. 
Bar iron, 125 per cent. 
Steel billets, more than 100 per cent. 
Plow steel, 40 per cent to 50 per cent. 
Woodwork, 25 per cent to 50 per cent. 
How, then, to save themselves from loss, can manu- 
ufacturers refrain from advancing the prices of their 
products? They must either do this or go out of busi¬ 
ness. Of course they cannot attempt to follow the 
great advance in raw materials, but must simply be 
content with raising their prices 'to the point that 
will prevent actual loss, relegating the matter of 
profits to some more favorable time. In our opinion 
the law of supply and demand is principally respon¬ 
sible for the increased cost pf raw materials, and in 
due time prices will decline to the normal. 
AN INDIANA MANUFACTURER. 
Tremendous Rise in Iron. 
The cost of all kinds of agricultural tools has been 
so much increased that prices must be increased 25 
per cent or more. Steel and bar iron, as well as pig 
iron, have been advanced from 50 per cent to 125 per 
cent. We attribute the advance in metals mainly to 
the demand. A year ago pig iron that we were using 
in our foundry was bought for $12; to-day that same 
iron costs us $25. The demand at present keeps it 
there, but we believe that the furnace men have made 
a great mistake in crowding it up, for they are mak¬ 
ing $10 and upwards per ton. They ought to be satis¬ 
fied with, at most, $5 per ton, and our opinion is that 
within two years there will be a large reduction in 
price. The same is true in regard to steel and bar 
iron. A MASSACHUSETTS MANUFACTURER. 
Comparatively Small Increase. 
It is useless for us to give facts as to present high 
prices of iron and steel, as the files of The Iron Age 
for the past six months will tell the story exactly. 
Nearly all kinds of material that enter into farm 
machinery and tools, have advanced anywhere from 
10 per cent to 150 per cent in the last 14 or 15 months. 
As a result of the fierce competition existing in our 
line, the selling prices of our product had been re¬ 
duced during the years of depression, not only in pro¬ 
portion to the then low prices of material, but even 
to the extent of reducing margins of profit that may 
have existed before. The prices of farm machinery 
and tools not only positively must advance, but in a 
great many instances have already done so. 
So far as our own product is concerned, the ad¬ 
vances will not be sufficient to cover the actual cost in 
the increased price of materials. Harvesting ma¬ 
chinery is one of the things whose manufacturers 
have not gone into a trust. The result is that they 
are being squeezed by the sellers of material, and on 
account of competition, the prices of farm products, 
etc., we will be, if we may be allowed to use the term, 
squeezed by our customers. The unpleasant thing 
about it is that our customers, in paying the advance 
that we shall ask 'them, will hardly understand the 
situation, and will not give us credit for the sacrifice 
we are really making, an eastern manufacturer. 
Our news notes mention the loss of more than 300 Gov¬ 
ernment mules on a transport bound for Manila. This 
recalls Lincoln’s lament over a similar loss, on the ground 
that mules cost money, while major-generals were made 
by pen and ink. 
Iron Eggs.— Thousands of people swallow gallons of 
patent medicine chiefly for the liquor and dissolved iron 
which they contain—a cheap and nasty way of obtaining 
a so-called tonic. A French physician now comes to the 
front with a new way of making iron available. He pro¬ 
poses to feed the iron to the hens. It is given in daily 
doses of considerable strength. After three or four days 
of such feeding, the hens are said to lay eggs very rich 
in iron. Those who eat the eggs will, of course, have no 
use for patent medicines. Here is an opportunity for 
some enterprising mortal to come forward with a breed 
of hens specially adapted to producing iron eggs. From 
our experience, we would nominate the Light Brahma aa 
an excellent bird for this business. 
