IM>4. 
561 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
Events of the Week. 
DOMESTIC.—The School Board at Louisville has instruct¬ 
ed the high school committee to inform four Filipino stu¬ 
dents, who applied for admission to the Dupont Manual 
Training IUgh School, that their color debars them from the 
privileges of the public schools. When the request that free 
admittance to the school he allowed the Filipino hoys was 
presented to the Board Dr. it. E. Galvin inquired if Fili¬ 
pinos were not negroes. ITofessor Mark said he had inves¬ 
tigated the law as to the separation of races in the schools 
and found that the word “colored" applied to all except 
white children—negroes, Indians and those of the brown 
races. . . . Heavy rains caused the Kaw Iiiver, Kansas, 
to rise July 5-7, and much damage was reported at Topeka, 
Lawrence, Kansas City and other points. . . . July G 
the Chicago Tribune gave the following nst of casualties for 
Independence Day : “From a total of 25 persons killed and 
1,384 injured, reported July 5, the casualties resulting from 
the country’s celebration of the Fourth of July reached 52 
killed and 3,049 hurt early July G. The tigures for Chicago 
arc one dead and 101 injured, with G5 hurt by fireworks, 
nine by cannon, 14 by firearms, nine by gunpowder, and four 
by toy pistols. Lockjaw a few days later may he counted 
on to more than double the number of fatalities. Physicians 
throughout the country, however, are treating blank car¬ 
tridge wounds more carefully this year than ever before, and 
in a numbei of cities lockjaw antitoxin has been distributed 
for their use. The death roll this year is one less than that 
of 1903, but the number of injured is GIG smaller. The fire 
loss was $80,000 less than that of last year. . . . Liti¬ 
gation to the probable aggregate total of $ 8 , 000,000 has been 
discouraged by a ruling of Judge lloldom, in the Superior 
Court, to the effect that the city of Chicago was not liable 
in any degree for the Iroquois Theatre fire. A suit by Eva 
Catherine Gibson for $15,000 damages, because of a broken 
arm and an injured spine, was the case decided. Sixty sim¬ 
ilar suits are pending, and had the decision been against the 
city hundreds of other actions probably would have been 
filed. The opinion was on the city's demurrer to the aver¬ 
ment that the theatre was a public nuisance, and that the 
municipality was liable, because of the dereliction of its 
officers in issuing a license before the theatre had complied 
with the ordinances. But even had the playhouse been a 
nuisance, in the legal meaning of that word, the city, it was 
ruled, would not have been liable. The building where the 
Iroquois Theatre was is now labeled “Vaudeville Theatre.” 
Seven workmen were killed and two others seriously 
injured by being blown from the second arch of the new rail¬ 
road bridge across the Mississippi Itiver at Thebes, Ill., by 
a tornado, July 8. . . . Seven men were killed and two 
injured by a premature explosion of dynamite at Sudbury, 
Ontario, July 8 . ... In a rear-end collision at 
Wanaque-Midvale, N. .1., on the Greenwood Lake branch of 
Hie Erie Railroad, 1G persons, mostly residents of Hoboken, 
were killed July 10, and 58 were injure^., some of the latter 
so badly that they w..l die. Disregard of a block signal 
caused the wreck. The blame lies between an operator, an 
engineer and whoever is supposed to keep the signals in 
order. General Passenger Agent Cooke puts the blame on 
the operator. ... At tne Democratic National Conven¬ 
tion at St Louis Judge Alton B. Parker, of New York, was 
nominated for President, and ex-United States Senator Henry 
G. Davis, of West Virginia, for Vice-President. . . . The 
little town of Marblehead, on the peninsula across the bay 
from Sandusky, O., was wrecked by an explosion of dyna¬ 
mite and powder July 9, every building in the town being 
more or less damaged and possibly 100 persons injured. No 
one was killed. Lightning struck the magazine of the Kel¬ 
ley’s Island Lime and Transport Company, a Cleveland cor¬ 
poration, and about 25 tons of dynamite and 200 kegs of 
powder in the building exploded. All telegraph and tele¬ 
phone wires were burned out. . . . An order has been 
placed by a South African syndicate with Jim Mal’el, of 
El Paso, Texas, for the purchase of 1GO.OOO head of sheep, 
2,000 mules, 2,000 burros and 1,000 brood mares. These ani¬ 
mals will be bought in Texas and New Mexico and shipped 
to South Africa, where they will be used to stock ranches 
nml supply the market generally. 
ADMINISTRATION.—The Government’s ledger for the 
fiscal year, which ended June 30, shows that the expendi¬ 
tures exceeded the revenues by $41,352,320, the receipts 
aggregating $541,180,745, and the disbursements $582,- 
539,071. The expenditures, however, include $50,000,000 
paid for the Panama Canal right of way and the $4,000,000 
loan to the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, which are not 
properly to be counted in the regular expenses of the Gov¬ 
ernment. Excluding these two Items there would be a sur¬ 
plus of $13,247,074, against an estimate of $14,000,000 
made at the beginning of the fiscal year by the Secretary 
of the Treasury. Compared with the revenues of the pre¬ 
vious fiscal year the revenues show a falling off of $17,700,- 
780, while the disbursements increased $21,762,481. All 
and more of this decrease was in the revenues from customs, 
which amounted to $202,008,483, or $21,323,235 less than in 
the fiscal year of 1903. The receipts from internal revenue 
aggregated $232,435,095, exceeding those of the previous 
year by $2,320,440. The increase in expenditures was 
mainly in the navy, which expended a total of $102,757,073, 
or $20,001,271 more than last year. The item for pensions 
also shows an increase of nearly $4,000,000, on account of 
the service pension. The receipts for customs were reduced 
between $ 0 , 000,000 and $ 8 , 000,000 by the operations of the 
Cuban reciprocity treaty. 
PANAMA.—News that steamers sailing from La Boca must 
get their clearance papers from the United States author¬ 
ities has caused an unfavorable impression here. Until 
this order was issued all steamers, though unloading at 
La Boca, were received and dispatcued by the Panama 
authorities. The newspapers, in commenting on the order, 
consider it as a misinterpretation of the canal treaty, as un¬ 
necessary and as tending to create dissatisfaction. Another 
matter that is being widely discussed is how Panama can 
replace the revenue which the Republic will lose if goods 
from the United States are allowed to enter the canal zone 
free of duty, which amounts to their entrance into Panama, 
because smuggling cannot be prevented. The people hope 
that' a satisfactory arrangement will be made between Pan¬ 
ama and the United States authorities. 
FARM AND GARDEN.—Col. Joseph II. Brigham, Assist¬ 
ant Secretary of Agriculture, died at his old home in Delta, 
()., June 29. Col. Brigham, who was chairman of the 
government board of the St. Louis Exposition, left Wash¬ 
ington June 28 to attend a meeting of the board at St. 
Louis, stopping off at his home at Delta. lie had been 
suffering from an affection of the heart, and it is supposed 
that an acute recurrence of the trouble caused his death. 
Col. Brigham was prominent in Ohio politics for many 
years, and occupied many positions of trust and responsi¬ 
bility. In President McKinley's first administration he was 
appointed Assistant Secretary of Agriculture, a place which 
he held until his death. 
At the twenty-ninth annual meeting of the American 
Association of Nurserymen, at Augusta, Ga., papers were 
read by G. L. Taber, Glen St. Mary, Fla.; II. T. Jones, 
Elizabeth, N. J.; 11. P. Kelsey, Boston; Prof. Newell, state 
entomologist of Georgia; J. il. llale, of Georgia and Con¬ 
necticut ; J. II. McFarland, of Harrisburg, 1’a. ; J. C. Chase, 
New Hampshire; C. T. Smith, Concord, Ga.; G. II. Powell, 
Washington; Prof. John Craig, of Cornell, and others. The 
election of officers resulted as follows: President, E. W. 
Kirkpatrick, McKinney, Tex.; vice-president, C. L. Wat- 
rous, Des Moines, la.; secretary, Geo. C. Seager, Rochester; 
treasurer, C. I.. Yates, Rochester. One vice-president for 
each State was appointed as usual. It was voted to meet 
next year at West Baden, Ind. 
The American Institute will hold its seventy-third annual 
show of fruits, flowers vegetables, etc., at the Herald 
Square Exhibition Hall, New iork, November 10-17. _ 
Robert Clark, a prominent planter of Calhoun County, 
Texas, states that he will apply for an injunction to pre¬ 
vent the Government experts bringing the Guatemalan ant 
into Texas as an insect enemy of the boll weevil. Mr. 
Clark, as the basis of his application, says it is a serious 
and dangerous matter to transplant a South American in¬ 
sect or pest to south Texas, because it will multiply rapidly 
here, and it will be impossible to get the cotton picked, 
because the half-clad negroes and barefooted children en¬ 
gaged in that work will suffer from the sting of the insect. 
The Department of Agriculture has referred to the Depart¬ 
ment of Justice the matter or the right of the Government 
to conduct experiments in Texas with the Guatemalan ant, 
which is said to be destructive of the cotton boll weevil, a 
Texas planter having tiled suit to prevent the Government 
carrying on such experiments. Should the Texas courts 
rule in favor of the planter, tests of the ants will 
be made in Louisiana, whose State authorities have 
co-operated cordially in all such matters with the 
reueral officials, The Government, it is said, studied care¬ 
fully the nature and habits ox me Guatemalan ant, and con¬ 
cluded that they might be imported safely, as they feed only 
on insects and leave vegetation alone, but, of course, the 
Government will abide by any rulings of the courts. 
Governor Bachelder, of ixew Hampshire, lecturer of Na¬ 
tional Grange, is to visit New Yonc state as follows: lie 
will address a mammoth Grange picnic of Genesee County 
patrons at Agricultural i’ark, Batavia, August 8 ; Monroe 
County I’omoua picnic, Newport, August 9; Onondaga County 
Pomona and Onondaga and Madison County farmers’ picnic, 
Euvvards Falls, August It); llerkimer County I’omoua ex¬ 
cursion and picnic, Trenton rails, August It. He will be 
accompanied at these meetings by eorge A. Fuller, Overseer 
New York State Grange, aim W. N. Giles, Secretary New 
York State Grange. 
CROP NOTES. 
I think nine acres of corn for each farmer would be about 
the average in this locality. Corn looks very poor, on ac¬ 
count of poor seed and wet, cold season. w. l. e. 
Wilmore, Pa. 
From present outlook we would judge that we would not 
only have sufficient, probably a hay crop above the aver¬ 
age this season, but also a crop of very good Timothy hay, 
provided it is harvested without rain. 
Newark N. J. j. c. smith & Wallace company. 
The outlook for hay throughout the territory that this 
market draws its supplies from is very promising, and will 
no doubt yield a greater crop than last year. This is par¬ 
ticularly true in local and nearby points. 
Pittsburg, Pa. daniel m’caferey’s sons co. 
Corn is good and promises the best for some years past; 
wheat 75 per cent crop; oats 25 per cent; has been less 
rainfall than for five years past. Rainfall is great here 
in Spring; often as great as any other place in the U. S. 
Waynesville, N. C. a. j. a. 
Oakland and Wayne Counties, Michigan, will have only 50 
per cent of last year's hay crop. Farmers will want about 
all their hay at home, as coarse fodder will be scarce. Many 
farmers have replanted their cornfields to beans. The coun¬ 
ty at large will fall away short from last year on hay. 
Walled Lake, Mich. J. a. d. 
From information gathered by us by a vast amount of 
correspondence, our opinion is that Ohio, Indiana and Michi¬ 
gan will have as large, if not a larger hay crop than last 
season; and our opinion is prices will be lower in the com¬ 
ing season than on the present crop ; and this will be espe¬ 
cially so in our market, since we have a very large crop in 
our surrounding country. J. a. .mangek & co. 
Baltimore, Md. 
The prospect for fruit is for apples, peaches and grapes 
about 20 per cent of crop. All blossomed well, looking for 
a full crop or even more. Blossoms failed to mature per¬ 
fectly, followed by an abundance of little fruit, which failed 
to hang on the trees. Many trees are bare; Ben Davis is 
among best croppers. The peaches blossomed abundantly, but 
soon proved defective; the young peaches fell aud are still 
falling. Grapes failed to blossom as they should. Delaware 
is my best crop: Concord about the worst. Reaches seem 
to be damaged by cold and curl-leaf. All fruits have been 
much damaged by lice. Spraying is done by few; may ex¬ 
pect fruit of poor quality. a. J. A. 
Waynesville, N. C . 
POTATO PROSPECTS. 
I’otato prospect good; corn two weeks late; oats below 
average ; hay fine, and all kinds of fruit shy. l. s. S. 
Tolouo, Ill. 
The potatoes are a little late, Init are looking tine, with 
about 12 per cent increase over last year, in acreage. Hay 
and grain more than an average. Apples extra good. 
Caribou, Me. G. w. p. j. 
The potato crop was planted late, but looks well; would 
say the condition is above the average. Our own crop looks 
tine, while my neighbor only planted his last week. Grass 
a heavy crop: corn fair; oats a good crop. h. j. b. 
Cortland Co., N. \\ 
The potato crop is not very promising at this writing: 
early planted sorts are all right, but on account of the wet 
backward weather the majority were not planted till June, 
and the weather has been so wet that it has been almost 
impossible to work them properly. We had a heavy hail¬ 
storm July 1, which did considerable damage to corn and 
garden truck. J. w. h. 
Sligo, Ra. 
The outlook for a good potato crop in this section is not 
at all promising. The extremely wet weather throughout 
the month of May and the fore part of June has delayed 
farm work to a greater extent than was ever known in (his 
part of the country. The middle of .Tune is considered late 
planting here, but this year it has been continued up till 
the last of .Tune, several having planted June 29. This 
leaves the situation in such a condition that one is not 
able to form a very definite conclusion on the results. I low- 
fever, with frost this year at its usual season, and the likeli¬ 
hood of.blight, the chances are against even a fair crop of 
potatoes, potatoes are coming up very uneven, as a rule, 
due perhaps to the temperature reaching so low a point 
where seed was stored last Winter. Here is another prob¬ 
able drawback to this season’s crop, as under such conditions 
the vines lack that vigor necessary for a good crop. Spring 
grain is looking well, though the bulk of it was late sown. 
Wheat never looked worse. Corn is very backward, owing to 
late planting and cold nights. Grass is good, aud hay will 
be far above an average crop. These conditions prevail in 11 
towns in northeastern Steuben County, and no doubt the 
entire county. ii. b. 
l’rattsburg, N. Y._ 
DAMAGE BY POTATO STALK-BORER. 
The cause of the blight which swept over the potato crop 
in Ibis section a week ago has been successfully solved by 
J. W. Truax, of Corning. Mr. Truax for days past witnessed 
the destruction of his thriving potato crop. The stalks and 
leaves began to wilt and Mr. Truax was at a loss to account 
for such an affliction. After a careful examination of the 
stalks he discovered that small worms had concealed them¬ 
selves on the inside of the stalk and were sapping away the 
life of the vine. The pests made very rapid inroads and eat 
away the heart of the stalk, causing it to wilt and topple 
over.—-Randolph, N. Y., Register. 
The I’otato stalk-borer is a small insect about one-sixth 
of an inch long. It lays its eggs into the potato vines or 
weeds. The insect when hatched feeds in the vines and 
ruins them. The damage is sometimes mistaken for the 
true blight, which is not an insect trouble, but a disease. 
There is no way of poisoning the insects, as they work on 
the inside. As they winter in the vines these should all be 
burned whenever the insect has been at work. 
POTATOES LEFT IN THE FIELD. 
On account of a scarcity of help on farms in western 
New York the past season there were occasionally fields 
where potatoes were not all dug before the ground froze, and 
the potatoes were left in the ground all Winter. I have 
read of instances where the potatoes were found to be in 
good condition this Spring, but upon investigation the own¬ 
ers deny their being of any value whatever, and characterize 
the whole story as a reporter’s yarn. It is, however, true 
that while potatoes which have remained in the ground 
through the Winter in a frozen condition will be worthless 
for cooking purposes, their vitality is not always destroyed, 
but they will grow thriftily as soon as the weather mod¬ 
erates and couunions aie favorable. I leased a small piece 
of land to a neighbor two years ago, which he planted to 
potatoes, which were a failure on account of early blight, 
so they were not dug. In tiie following Spring they grew 
vigorously as soon as the ground was in a proper condition. 
Some years ago, when sorting potatoes in the held, where 
they had been dug and placed in heaps, as we drew the mar¬ 
ketable potatoes to market, the small ones were left scat¬ 
tered on the ground. I sprinkled a light covering of straw 
over them to protect them from the sun and from danger 
of frost at night, planning to put them in the cellar as soon 
as we had finished marketing the crop. An unexpected 
freeze ruined them all, as I supposed, and they were left in 
the field all Winter with no other protection than the light 
Covering of straw, which was burned off in the Spring, and 
the field plowed and seeded to oats, in every spot where 
those small potatoes were left the potato vines grew as 
thick as wool on a sheep's back, and the growth of roots and 
potatoes was all that could be expected where the growth 
was so dense. ” prank d. ward. 
Seneca Co., N. Y._ 
CABBAGE NOTES. About duue 10 the Cabbage maggots 
appeared in the young plants, and it looked for a time as if 
they were going to clean us out of house and home. In fact, 
they did ruin a good many of the young domestic plants and 
some of the Danish, but about June 20 they quit working in 
the plants, and at the present writing we are pleased to note 
that there is about 60 per cent increase in the crop of Dan¬ 
ish. We shall have a very small crop of domestic cab¬ 
bage, and if the present favorable weather continues a very 
heavy crop of Danish, and for that reason we are looking for 
very low prices on Danish, and think we shall see very 
good prices for domestic. J. E. B. 
Orleans, N. Y. _ 
ILLINOIS FARMING.—In northern Illinois dairying and 
grain farming, or mixed farming, is the rule. Corn, oats 
or barley, and hay are the principal crops. After grass 
ground, corn is often planted two seasons in succession. 
Corn is very often not cut, say two-thirds of the corn is 
husked and tlie stalks left standing. The cattle run through 
standing stalks during the Winter, eating what suits their 
taste. Some morning in Spring, while the ground is yet 
frozen, a harrow is run over the stalks to break them down. 
When time to sow oats or barley, the grain is scattered on 
top of the ground and broken stalks, then four horses are 
put on the disk harrow or pulverizer, aud the ground is 
gone over twice; then the ground is harrowed twice, gener¬ 
ally using a three-section harrow aud three horses. Then 
another season to corn, then to oats another season, and 
clover or Timothy with the oats. There is one drawback, 
it seems to me, in putting in small grain with the disk 
harrow; it often fails to get weeds down under ground far 
enough, and the weeds come up as soon as or sooner than 
the oats; the oats have hard work to crowd down the weeds, 
and do not always do it. In plowing land a great many 
gang-plows (two plows) are used, and four horses; two-row 
cultivators are being used more and more, in which one man 
and three horses cultivate two rows of corn at a time. We 
have no weeders. I never saw one at work. Manure spread¬ 
ers are gaining favor steaoily. With a two-row cultivator 
one man can handle 45 or 50 acres of corn. We aim to 
harrow the ground once or twice after corn is planted and 
cultivate four times. No hoeing is done as a general thing. 
Help is also scarce in this seeftion, and enough goes to waste 
when the rush season comes on to feed many a poor starving 
city soul. M. M. M. 
Caledonia, 111. _ 
BUSINESS BITS. 
We wish to call attention to the fact that an omission 
has unintentionally been made in the advertisement of II. 
E. Ilessler Co., Syracuse, N. Y. The price of the mail 
box offered by this firm is $1.00, as stated, but when sup¬ 
plied with Government approved locks and chain 35 cents 
extra Is charged. This is a popular box, and we fear some 
of our people might think the price included lock and chain, 
hence this explanation. 
Relative to the article in last week's issue “Build Good 
Silos.” a concern which make a specialty of stave silos is 
the Harder Manufacturing Company, of Cobleskill, New 
York. They sell a silo for much less than as good a silo 
will cost if built at home, and the purchaser has the ad¬ 
vantage of getting what has been settled upon by the entire 
country as a satisfactory silo for all sections and all kinds 
of silage. Anyone wanting a silo will find it advantageous 
to get in correspondence with this concern. 
Another large order has just been placed by the U. S. 
Government with the Standard Paint Company, sole manu¬ 
facturers of Rtiberoid Roofing, 100 William St., New York. 
Ituberold Roofing was selected because of its peculiar 
suitability to hot and variable climates, as well as because 
of its convenience of application. It will not melt from 
sun heat, will not rot from constant exposure to dampness 
or rains, and is highly fire-resist.ug. For these reasons it 
is widely used on agricultural buildings, dwellings, barns, 
etc. It can be applied by any handy man. 
Among the long list of manufacturers of ensilage and fod¬ 
der cutters, will be found the E. W. Ross Co., Springfield, 
Ohio, manufacturers of the Ross Little Giant implements. 
Ross ensilage and fodder cutters have been on the market 
54 years, during which time they have given the best of 
satisfaction and won for themselves a reputation and prom¬ 
inence surpassed by none. All parties interested in silage 
and silos can learn details By sending 10 cents for Prof. 
Woll’s book on silage. They have also issued for this 
season a special instructive circular on the Ross silo filling 
machinery." 
