1004. 
6o9 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
Events of the Week. 
DOMESTIC.—Mosquitoes are so bad at Sabine, Tex., that 
the Southern Pacific Company has had two men constantly 
employed in driving the insects away so that the railroad 
section men can perform their work. These mosquito killers 
receive .$1.75 a day to do nothing but kill the insects. They 
struck for $2 a day recently and the section force was laid 
off pending a settlement of the strike. . . . Isaac W. 
Barnum, the inventor of the hemming attachment for sew r - 
ing machines, who was at one time worth over $500,000, 
died July 27 in poverty in a basement room in Brooklyn, 
N. Y., in his seventy-ninth year. His heavy investment in 
western lands and in other speculations turned out disas¬ 
trously. For several years he had been trying to support 
himself by selling disinfectants. . . . Edmund C. Con¬ 
verse, Chairman of the Executive Committee of the United 
States Steel Corporation, and William J. Smith, one of the 
wealthy residents of Greenwich, Conn., have been sued jointly 
by Albert W. Close, a farmer, residing at West Stanwich, in 
the town of Greenwich, and 150 acres of land owned by them 
has been attached for $20,000. Close claims that the de¬ 
fendants have damaged him greatly by damming up a stream 
on their property for the purpose of making a reservoir, 
which they have agreed to sell to the Greenwich Water Com¬ 
pany. He has 15 acres which he alleges have been made un- 
tillable. In one spot the water is said to stand nine feet 
deep. The Converse reservoir will increase the capacity of 
the Greenwich water supply 40 per cent. Mr. Converse is 
spending several millions of dollars in laying out a mammoth 
estate there, and Mr. Smith was his agent. . . . Seven 
men w r ere indicted July 29 by the Federal Grand Jury at New 
York for responsibility in connection with the loss of almost 
one thousand lives in the burning of the excursion steamboat 
General Slocum on June 15. Those indicted were: Captain 
William Van Schaik, who was in command of the vessel; 
John J. Fleming, United States Steamboat Inspector; Henry 
I.undberg, Probationary Steamboat Inspector; Frank A. Barn- 
aby, President of the Knickerbocker Steamboat Company; 
James K. Atkinson, Secretary of the company; F. B. Dexter, 
Treasurer of the company; Captain Pease, of the Grand Re¬ 
public and Commodore of the Knickerbocker Company's fleet. 
The indictments against the first three. Van Schaik, Fleming 
and I.undberg, are under Section 5,344 of the Revised Stat¬ 
utes, which defines the crime as manslaughter, the penalty 
being confinement at hard labor for a period of not more 
than 10 years. The other four men indicted, Barnaby, Atkin¬ 
son, Dexter and Pease, are said to be charged witli aiding 
and abetting the captain of the Slocum in the neglect of his 
duty. . . . Fire in a Boston grain elevator July 30 
caused a loss of over $100,000. . . . August 1 four rob¬ 
bers held up an express train on the Illinois Central near 
Matteson, Ill., terrorizing the passengers and robbing them 
of $2,500 and much jewelry. The robbers secured all the 
money and valuables carried by the 30 passengers in the two 
Pullman sleeping cars, stopped the train and escaped In the 
darkness. The forward sleeper was entered first. The occu¬ 
pants were aroused, and, attired in nothing but their night 
clothes, were marched back io the other Pullman car. When 
the passengers in the two cars had been lined up in the rear 
Pullman two of the robbers stood guard, one at each end of 
the car, with drawn revolvers. The third ordered the pas¬ 
sengers, who had been compelled to bring along their clothes 
from the first car, to throw the garments on the floor. The 
passengers in the rear car were then commanded to return 
to their berths and deposit their clothes in the same heap. 
Then the leader, with the utmost coolness, began to search 
the clothing for valuables. When the search had been com¬ 
pleted all the booty was placed in a flour sack, and the three 
robbers joined their companion, who had stood guard in the 
vestibule of the train. Pulling the bell rope, the signal to 
the engineer to stop was given, and when the speed of the 
train was slackened sufficiently the robbers, after having 
locked the doors of the car, jumped off and fled in the dauk- 
ness. . . . August 3, although the stock yards strike con¬ 
tinued, more men were working, and the packers asserted 
that the work was in better condition, and that the strike 
could not continue much longer. 
ADMINISTRATION.—The seizure by the Venezuelan Gov¬ 
ernment of the asphalt properties of the New York and 
Bermudez Asphalt Company is very likely to lead to com¬ 
plications between the United States and Venezuela. Her¬ 
bert W. Bowen, the United States Minister at Caracas, Vene¬ 
zuela, has been instructed to make representations to the 
Castro Government on the subject of the seizure. . . . 
Senor Obaldia, the Minister of Panama, and Senor Arose- 
mena, the Secretary of the Panama Legation in Washing¬ 
ton, called on Assistant Secretary of State Francis B. Loomis 
August 1 to protest against the action of the executive offi¬ 
cers of the Canal Commission, now on the Isthmus, in locat¬ 
ing a new customs port near the city of Panama and in 
locating a number of post offices in the canal zone at points 
not considered desirable by the residents. The business men 
in Panama appear to believe that if a customs port is located 
near Panama, trade will be naturally diverted and the city 
suffer a considerable loss of revenue. They have been look¬ 
ing forward to the most prosperous times in their history, 
when they should have the business of supplying the army 
of workingmen who will be employed in the construction of 
the canal, and the proposed new arrangement is not at all to 
their liking. ... By the President’s direction, the new 
system of paying the salaries of rural free mail carriers has 
been abanuoned. Congress last session appropriated $20,- 
180,000 for the pay of rural carriers, and provided that after 
July 1 “Letter carriers of the rural free delivery service shall 
receive a salary not exceeding $720 per annum.’’ Fourth As¬ 
sistant Postmaster General Bristow, who has charge of the 
rural service, asked for the increased pay, and it was on his 
recommendation that Congress, through the I’ostoffice Com¬ 
mittees, acted. In phrasing the law the House Committee 
did not provide for the scheme of pay which Mr. Bristow 
had in mind. When it became his business to put the law 
in force on the 1st of July Mr. Bristow decided that Con¬ 
gress, in all probability, intended to carry out his plan of 
graduated compensation, and he acted accordingly. Carriers 
found that they were not to have the sum a year which they 
had expected after the passage of the law, but a certain 
sum, computed according to the length of route. 
GENEuAL FOREIGN NEWS.—M. de Plehve, the Russian 
Minister of the Interior, was assassinated at St. Petersburg 
July 28, just as he arrived at the Warsaw railway station 
on his way to Peterhof, where the Czar and his family are 
now residing. A bomb was thrown at the Minister’s car¬ 
riage. Tne Minister was almost blown to pieces. The 
driver of his carriage and several persons who were standing 
near were killed, and a number of others were injured. The 
man who threw the bomb was wounded and arrested imme¬ 
diately. So great was the force of the explosion 
that the windows of the railway station were smashed, 
the bridge at the approach to the station was dam¬ 
aged and the pavement was torn up. Of all those 
high in power in Russia and strong in influence with the 
Emperor Nicholas there probably was none who was more 
cordially detested than was Wjatscheslav Ivonstantinovitch 
de Plehve. The Jews in particular hated him. They iden¬ 
tified him with the ultra form of anti-semitism. They flatly 
accused him of being the unseen power behind the horrible 
Ivishineff massacres of 1903‘. If he did not actually bring 
about that savage outbreak, many Jews fully believe that he 
secretly instigated it. The accusation that M. de Plehve 
used his great authority to shield the perpetrators of this 
atrocity and condone their offence was not confined to the 
Jews alone. It was generally charged by the press of Eu¬ 
rope that the entire attitude of the Minister of the Interior 
suggested covert sympathy with the deed at Kishineff and 
with the motive behind the deed. The Poles hated him be¬ 
cause, being largely of Polish extraction himself, he had for 
years identified himself with a zealous execution of Russian 
repressive measures in Poland. If he was loathed by the 
Poles he was no less execrated by the Finns. The same re¬ 
lentless harsh measures which he had applied in keeping the 
Polanders in mortal dread of Russian authority he had ap¬ 
plied with equal, if not even greater, severity to the recently 
absorbed territory of Finland. Still another group that held 
M. de Plehve in strong dislike was the student element, the 
element from which he himself had emerged from obscurity 
to such vast power that in the latter days of his life he was 
frequently referred to as the man behind the throne of all 
the Russias. He had persecuted the student agitators for 
reform with a persistence and ingenuity more suggestive of 
mediaeval days than of the twentieth century. Outside of his 
official life the career of de Plehve presents little of interest. 
He was born in Poland in 1838, the son of a poor nobleman. 
He then became the prot^gd of a wealthy Polish noble. He 
went to Moscow, where he was educated for the law, and 
was appointed assistant to the procurator of the Moscow 
courts. He became Imperial Counsel of the courts of War¬ 
saw and there began the unrelenting warfare against his own 
Polish fellow countrymen wmch won him much applause in 
(he world of Russian bureaucracy and much hatred in Po¬ 
land. He won the attention and the regard of the Emperor 
Alexander II., and after the assassination of that monarch 
distinguished himself in the prosecution of the assassins. 
In this prosecution he ran amuck, terrorizing right and left, 
until it seemed as though the days of mediaeval Russia had 
returned. He filled prisons and started a pitiable procession 
of highly educated men and women on the road to Siberia. 
In 1901 he was Secretary of State for Finance, and on the 
death of Sipiaguinne was made Secretary of the Interior, 
where, in spite of the bitter hatreds he had inspired, he con¬ 
tinued to enjoy the confidence of the Czar, over whom he 
was reputed to have much influence. 
FARM AND GARDEN.—Several officers of the National 
Grange called on President Roosevelt July 30 to talk with 
him about the aopointment of an Assistant Secretary of 
Agriculture. Secretary of Agriculture Wilson also conferred 
with the President on the subject. Mr. Roosevelt asked the 
Grangers to agree upon a name and promised to consider 
their recommendation. 
Owing to various discouragements, the difficulty of obtain¬ 
ing fruits and flowers from Pennsylvania in good condition, 
the delay in delivery and excessive express charges, the 
Pennsylvania horticultural display at the St. Louis Exposi¬ 
tion has been discontinued. 
THE SAN JOSE SCALE DISCUSSION. 
The Situation in New Jersey. 
The San Jos6 or Pernicious scale has spread over prac¬ 
tically all parts of New Jersey. 'There are a few localities 
that are as yet exempt, but it is a mere matter of time and 
a question of how soon only. The scale has in many places 
destroyed entire orchards. In more places It has killed off a 
large percentage of trees, and especially peach trees. It has 
done in New Jersey many thousands of dollars' worth of 
damage. There are a few instances where orchards have 
been scaly, have not been treated and have apparently thrown 
off the scale through their own efforts. These orchards have 
been peach, apple and pear. Quince trees are rarely badly 
infested, and only a few varieties of cherries suffer at all. 
As against this statement, those sections of the State where 
the scale has been longest known are now in the best shape 
so far as this insect is concerned. There is more fruit than 
ever, and growers whose orchards are infested by the insect 
are putting out new trees in the full expectation that the 
new orchards will become infested in time. These growers 
have learned how to deal with the Insect, and no longer fear 
it. In other words, that period has arrived which was fore¬ 
seen several years ago, when the fruit grower has realized 
that he has a new pest to deal with, which must be counted 
upon in the estimate of the cost of raising fruit. 
The effective agent is the lime, salt and sulphur wash in 
almost every instance, and this has been found to be useful 
as a very material check to plant diseases as well as the 
scale. Reviewing the course of the insect during the past 
10 years, it is easy to predict the outcome. It will spread 
to all parts of the State; it will destroy single trees and 
entire orchards in every new place that It reaches before 
the fruit grow r ers will become convinced that it is really 
necessary for them to take active measures to preserve their 
trees. The grower who expects his trees to bear fruit with¬ 
out labor on his part will drop out. The progressive man 
who realizes that to grow fruit properly means proper atten¬ 
tion, will keep an eye on it and will treat his trees when 
necessary to prevent injury. It will be simply one more 
factor in fruit growing to be reckoned with, and in spite of 
the scale more fruit than ever will be grown in the State of 
New Jersey. John b. smith. 
New Jersey Exp. Station. 
How It Looks in Rhode Island. 
In Rhode Island the San Jose scale has obtained a very 
thorough foothold. It has long since passed the stage when 
there is any hope of eradicating it, or when it is possible for 
quarantlne'laws to do much to prevent its spread. Inquiries 
and specimens are constantly coming to the Experiment Sta¬ 
tion from nearly all parts of the State. Its progress, so far 
as I have watched it, seems to he slow, but very sure. 
Parties who cut down trees and treat others in the hope of 
eradicating it are almost certain to find it spreading year 
by year, fiom the original source of infestation. I know of 
no orchards which have been completely destroyed by it as 
yet. Ctye reason for this is the fact that its progress is 
slow, and the orchardist is pretty sure to find out what is 
the matter before his orchard is entirely gone. It is only 
a question of time, however, when an orchard will be de¬ 
stroyed if no means are taken to prevent it. Many trees 
have been killed, or so nearly killed that they have been 
cut down as useless. I know of no case where the scale has 
been found, and where the trees have outgrown it without 
treatment. Unless enemies of the scale develop to a greater 
extent than at present, it seems to me a forlorn hope to 
think of successful fruit growing in an infested orchard 
without treatment. History is always safer than prophecy, 
but my feeling at the present time is that we need not hesi¬ 
tate to plant fruit because of this insect, but that we must 
expect to fight it as we do other pests. I doubt if we have 
yet learned the best method of treating it, but several of the 
methods in use are sufficient to hold it in check and give 
good results. I believe that one spraying each year will 
now do this, and we are easily frightened if we allow the 
trouble of a single spraying to thwart our purposes. 
Rhode Island Exp. Station. feed w. card. 
Great Damage in Massachusetts. 
During the past six years we have found that instead of 
recording where this pest (San Jose scale) is, we can more 
easily record where it is not yet known. It is now well dis¬ 
tributed over the State, and is in many old orchards, coming 
in on small trees set in where old ones had died, or from 
nearby young orchards. Our large fruit growers are on the 
lookout for it, however, and I know of no orchard which has 
been destroyed by it, the owners treating their trees in time. 
Hundreds of trees have been killed by it, however, their 
death warning the owners to get to work to save I he rest. 
In no case that I know of has the orchard recovered without 
treatment, i. e., I do not thing any orchard has outgrown it, 
though some poor speckled fruit may be produced. I have 
been told that at a fair held in Worcester County two or 
three years ago most of the fruit on exhibition was bau»y 
speckled with scales, but I did not attend that fair, so cannot 
speak from personal knowledge. From six years’ work with 
this insect in I’ennsylvania and five years’ work here 1 have 
come to the conclusion that we must expect to light this 
pest as much as any other fruit pest, and keep it up till 
nature establishes in some way (which she has not as yet 
done) a balance of forces. I do not think that when prop¬ 
erly treated the scale should have any terror for our fruit 
growers, as the lime and sulphur mixture in this State has 
proved a successful remedy, needing (when properly applied) 
only one application in about three years to do all that is 
needed. In some ways the presence of the scale here has 
been a benefit, as the fruit grower now pays more attention 
to his trees and manages ms orchard better than formerly. 
I believe that the scale will spread for years, or till nature 
controls it, and will do much destruction in any orchards 
which are neglected—and those are just the orchards which 
we can afford to have wiped out in the interests of a better 
standard of fruit raising in Massachusetts. We now pro¬ 
duce too much poor-grade fruit, coming from just such 
neglected orchards, and the sooueivthey are gone, and fruit 
raising is in the hands of those wuo propose to produce only 
first-class fruit the better. h. t. fernai.d. 
Massachusetts Exp. Station. 
What Is Expected in Delaware. 
According to my observation, this insect is just as destruc¬ 
tive to fruit trees as it ever has been. It multiplies as rap¬ 
idly, and no enemy of any kind is perceptibly checking its 
ravages. I have known a number of large orchards to be 
entirely ruined by it, many of the trees being killed out¬ 
right, and the tops of others killed to the stump. Peach 
trees usually behave in this way, the tops die and new 
sprouts put out from the stump and larger limbs. I have 
known a few cases where the trees became so dry and appar¬ 
ently dead that the scale insect appeared to die off absolutely, 
so that when the new sprouts grew they were entirely free 
from scale. They did not remain free long, however, for the 
reason that surrounding trees were infested and the new 
tops were fully covered with the insect and were again de¬ 
stroyed. In other words, if left alone an infested orchard 
will soon perish. I do not know a single exception to this 
rule. This applies to peaches, apples, Japanese plums and 
to nearly all varieties of pears. The Kieffer pear and many 
varieties of native plums are, as a rule, not seriously Injured. 
However, I have seen Kieffer pears killed by this scale as 
quickly as other varieties. On the other hand, thorough 
spraying at the proper time and with proper material will 
control the trouble. If taken in time no trees need be lost, 
nor their fruitfulness seriously lessened. The lime-sulphur 
wash is probably the best remedy. It is cheap, absolutely 
safe when applied to trees that are dormant, and not only 
destroys the scale as effectually as any other remedy, but 
also acts as a fungicide. Crude oil and kerosene emulsion 
appear to be absolutely safe on apples and pears, and upon 
the latter have a very beneficial effect independent of the 
destruction of the scale. The result will be that the wide¬ 
awake fruit grower who sprays thoroughly will find his busi¬ 
ness profitable, while the careless and indifferent will be 
compelled to give it up. wesley webb. 
Delaware. _ _. 
HAY CAPS FOR WET WEATHER. 
If in making hay of oats and peas or heavy clover, you 
had, say 75 hay caps to put on in case the weather threat¬ 
ened, I know of nothing which would give you more satisfac¬ 
tion. Some years 1 use mine little, some often. I find them 
more useful when I happen to get down a good deal more 
than the crew can handle, and the hay is well made apd 
has to be left out. Such hay, ready for the barn, is greatly 
damaged by rain ; if clover,' often about ruined, or becomes 
so dusty as to be very poor feed for horses. My caps are 
5 Yz feet square, and have been in use more than 20 years. 
In" making them provide eyelets or loops at the corners. 
Saw off oak barrel staves, 18 or 20 inches long, split or saw 
them into strips li/^ inch wide, and they can be held in a 
vise and end sharpened, say six at a time, and likewise a 
% hole bored in top ends for string. Strings should not be 
over 10 inches long, uouble. Such short strings do not be¬ 
come tangled. I take the bundles of caps into the field on 
horse rake, and if children are available let them put them 
on the tumble, which should be made large and solid. If 
wind threatens a- man should press in stakes after the chil¬ 
dren to fix them firmly in the ground. Such, caps will keep 
the hay In good condition through long storms, but if uot 
fairly well made when capped, much hay will be better off 
uncapped, as it is liable to heat and mold if left too long 
after putting up damp. 
When the caps are to be removed, and they should be 
thoroughly dry, if possible, I impress the children again, and 
let them only pull out the stakes, not disturbing the caps. 
Then a man goes along, and taking each cap by the center, 
the stakes fall together, and the caps are put under his 
arm till 10 or 12 are collected, when they are laid down 
for tying, this being the easiest way to handle them ; and 
the bundles can be tossed upon the rake again and taken to 
the shed. After one day's running coarse material, like oats 
and peas, will cure almost perfectly under caps, retaining 
the nice color and smell. The first caps used on this place 
were bought just before the Civil War, and cotton was soon 
so high that they never saw the hayfield but once or twice, 
but were used in the house for other purposes. They proved 
a paying investment, but did uot last so long as the next 
lot, which were purchased some years later. 
Maine. geo. s. paine. 
CROP NOTES. 
There is a fine crop of. Tetofsky, Blush, Sweet Bough, 
Stark, Seek-no-further and some Greenings and Baldwins 
in Summit County. A heavy crop of plums also. No black¬ 
berries of any account. l. b. p. 
Ohio. 
Hay crop is large and good quality. About two-thirds of 
the hay is cut. The fine weather last week and the week 
before was favorable, but this week the “dog days” have made 
trouble, but the showers have been favorable for other crops, 
which are booming. d. h. k. 
Farmington, Me. 
The potato crop is looking fine in this section. There is 
rather more than an average plant. Although planted late 
in a good many cases they have made a good growth and 
with favorable weather from now on will give a good crop. 
Haying is about half done, and is fully an average crop. 
Oats are heavy and corn is doing well. b. a. c. 
Colebrook, N. TI. 
We have been picking and crating from 100 to 275 crates 
of tomatoes a day for the New York market, and at the 
same time sending a wagon load of 140 to 150 baskets to 
the Philadelphia market, so you see we have no time to 
trade jackknives or play baseball. I grow and store all the 
hay that eight cows and nine horses will eat; also 800 to 
1,000 bushels of corn. c. s. 
l’aulsboro, N. J. _ 
BUSINESS BITS. 
Those in need of fruit packages of any kind should write 
the South Side Mfg. Co., Petersburg, Va.* 
This is fly time, and these pests are robbing the milk pail 
and tormenting the cattle and horses. Try a few applica¬ 
tions of Shoo-Fly. It will increase the milk flow and add 
to the comfort of the animals. Write Shoo-Fly Mfg. Co., 
1005 Fairmount Ave., Philadelphia, I’a., for particulars. 
The firm of J. Crouch & Son, Lafayette, Ind., is one of the 
largest importers in the world of Oldenburg German Coach, 
Percheron and Belgian stallions. This firm has built up an 
immense business by square treatment, careful buying and 
selling at reasonable prices. If you need a fine animal write 
them. 
