1904. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
689 
Events of the Week. 
DOMESTIC.—Niue persons were killed outright, several 
mortally injured and a large number more or less seriously 
injured as a result of a head-on collision August 111, about 
a mile from Richmond, Quebec, between a special Grand 
Trunk passenger train from Montreal and intermediate 
points, crowded with excursionists for the Sherbrooke fair, 
and a local passenger train from Island l’ond, bound for 
Montreal. The orders of the special were to await the ex¬ 
press at Richmond, but instead of doing so. the excursion 
train proceeded on its way. Scarcely had it passed the Rich¬ 
mond yards when it met the island Pond train running at 
full speed. The force of the collision was .such that the 
two first passenger cars of each train telescoped and both 
locomotives were completely wrecked. . . . Eight hun¬ 
dred kegs of powder in the press room of the Lallin Powder 
Company’s plant near Punxsutawney, Pa., exploded August 
; 11. Leonard Pair, a workman, was blown to pieces, and 
three others injured. The explosion was heard 15 miles 
away. All the buildings belonging to the plant were wrecked. 
Houses half a mile from the scene had every pane of glass 
shattered, and business blocks in Punxsutawney rocked. 
This was the third disastrous explosion to occur at the 
works in two years. . . . August 111 migrating Potato 
beetles covered car tracks two inches deep at Rahway, N. J., 
rendering the tracks so slippery when crushed that cars were 
stalled, and it was necessary to shovel the beetles off the 
tracks. . . . Because the crew of a sidetracked freight 
train forgot to close the switch, the west bound Imperial 
Limited Express of the Canadian Pacific Railroad was 
wrecked September 1, colliding with the freight at Sinta- 
luta. Northwest Territory. Five women in the tourist car 
were killed. Four other passengers, the porter, and the 
engineer were injured. . . . Six persons were burned to 
death and four were injured seriously by a lire and oil ex¬ 
plosion at Yellow Creek, ()., September 2. A house was 
fired by a street lamp, and the fire leaped to the rig of an 
oil well near the house. The flames destroyed the derrick 
and were communicated to the tank, which was full of oil. 
Before the occupants of the house realized their danger 
• here was a terrific explosion. The blazing oil was thrown 
all over the house, and their escape was cut off. . . , 
Eire at Gem, Idaho, September 2. destroyed a large portion of 
the town, and caused a loss of .$150,000. . Six per¬ 
sons were killed and 10 injured at St. Louis, Mo., September 
•>, by a passenger train crashing into a street car. 
September 4 fire in a tenement house in New York caused 
tlie death of 14 persons. The building was undergoing alter¬ 
ations, and a number of the fire escapes had been removed, 
thus cutting off escape. . . . In the Vermont State elec¬ 
tion, September 0, Chas. J. Hell, the Republican candidate, 
was elected, and there was a reported falling oft' in the 
Democratic vote. Gov. Davis, Democratic, was re-elected in 
Arkansas, but the Republicans show gains in the Legislature. 
A railway wreck at Pendleton, Mo., September G, 
killed four persons and injured 30 others. ... As an 
outcome of the attack by a body of regular soldiers and 
militiamen upon a militia provost guard at Athens. Ohio, 
recently, attended by the killing of one of the guard, Gov¬ 
ernor Herrick, of Ohio, sent a telegram to the War Depart 
ment requesting the delivery to the civil authorities at 
Athens of seven men of the Fourteenth Battery, Field Artil¬ 
lery. for trial. The Department will comply with the requesL 
ADMINISTRATION.—A parcels post convention has been 
concluded between the United States and Norway, to take 
effect on October 1 next. The convention is similar to that 
now existing between the United States and Germany, the 
maximum weight of packages allowed being four pounds six 
ounces and the maximum value $50. . . The deficit in 
the United States Treasury was increased by .$(1,382,008 in 
the month of August, and now stands at $23,700,330 for the 
fiscal year begun July 1. There was a decrease in current 
receipts and an increase in expenditures during the last 
month, as compared with August, 1003. The receipts for 
the month ended August 31 were $44,003,301, as against 
$40,825,677 in the same month of last year, and the expen¬ 
ditures were $51,826,000, as against $42,945,000 last August. 
FARM AND GARDEN.—The American Pomological So¬ 
ciety has appointed committees to make a study of the 
various phases of fruit growing for which special advantages 
are afforded by the exhibits at the World’s Fair. The work 
of the committees will be published in pamphlet form. 
Prof. Arthur Gillet McCall, of the Bureau of Soils, U. S. 
Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. (’.. was recently 
elected Assistant Professor of Agronomy in the College of 
Agriculture and Domestic Science of the Ohio State Univer¬ 
sity. 
The- several colonies of ants which the United States Gov¬ 
ernment brought from Guatemala several weeks ago and 
placed on the cotton experimental farm near Taylor, Tex., 
have disappeared. The Government experts are mystified as 
to what has become of the ants. The colonies seemed to be 
thriving until an unusually dry period of weather set in. 
It was then observed that their numbers gradually decreased, 
until they have now disappeared entirely. The ants were 
brought to Texas to destroy the Cotton boll weevil. The ex¬ 
periment is looked upon as a failure. 
The first annual meeting of the American Milch Goat 
Record Association will be held in the Live Stock Congress 
Hail, World's Fair Grounds, St. Louis, October 12. All who 
are interested are urged to attend and take part in the dis¬ 
cussion of questions, which will very greatly affect the future 
usefulness of the association. Milch goats will lie on exhibi¬ 
tion at the World’s Fair October 3-15. and the date fixed for 
the public sale of milch goats is October 13. Daniel F. Tomp¬ 
kins, Newark. N. J.. is president of the society, and W. A. 
Shu for, Hamilton. O., secretary. 
The next annual meeting of the American Oxford Down 
Record Association will be held October 11 in the Live Stock 
Congress Hall, World’s Fair Grounds, St. Louis, and the 
date fixed for the public sale of Oxford Down sheep is Octo¬ 
ber 12. Oxford Down sheep will be on exhibition at the 
World’s Fair October 3-15. In addition to the regular prizes 
amounting to $3,915, which are open to the world, $395 will 
be offered by the State of Missouri, for which only Missouri 
exhibitors may compete, and $1,000 will be offered by the 
American Oxford Down Record Association, open to to sheep 
bred and owned by members of this Association, and regis¬ 
tered in American Oxford Down Record. Entries for these 
A. O. D. It. A. prizes can be made with the secretary of the 
Association, and the awards will be reported to the Chief of 
the Departmnent of Live Stock, who will make them official. 
If. .T. DeGarmo, president, Clyde, Mich.; W. A. Shafor, sec¬ 
retary, Hamilton, O._ 
THE SPREAD OF THE SAN JOSE SCALE. 
Bad Work in New Hampshire. 
The insect is undoubtedly threatening serious damage in 
New Hampshire. It is apparently spreading slowly from 
the various centers of infestation, and is especially destruc¬ 
tive to young trees. Ten years ago we hoped that we were 
too far north for the pest to do much damage, but in the 
face of the facts we are compelled to give up that hope. 
There are very few peach trees being planted in New Hamp¬ 
shire, so that the damage to peaches is not so great as in 
other places, but the injury to apples appears to be nearly as 
severe as it is farther south. 1 still have hope that the nat¬ 
ural enemies of the scale may keep it in subjection at some 
futurfc time, but for the present it seems to me it will be 
necessary for the fruit growers to make a vigorous -fight 
against U. clarence si. weed. 
N. II. Experiment Station. 
Iowa Thought to Be Free. 
The San .Tose scale situation in this State can be ex¬ 
plained quite fully in a few words. Our law giving rather 
lull quarantine powers to the entomologist was passed in 
1*98, before the scale had become established in this State 
• o any great extent. The investigations carried on since 
that time have led to its discovery in only one orchard in 
the State, in Decatur County, on the Missouri border. In 
this orchard of 500 trees, about 10 per cent had been killed 
by the scale. Half of (he remainder were in a more or less 
weakened condition. A quarantine was established, the 
worst trees cut out and burned, and the remainder of the 
orchard sprayed, the first year with whale oil soap and the 
second and third years with sulphur-lime-salt mixture. The 
sprayings of the first two years probably exterminated the 
scale, as we could lind none alive. The third year’s spray¬ 
ing was therefore an additional precaution. 1 believe at the 
present time litis State is tnerefore free from the San Jose 
scale, unless it has escaped detection in some out-of-the-way 
place. As inspections have been carried on quite largely 
in every part of the State, the chances of this are relatively 
small. The condition of the one orchard in which it was 
seen in this State indicates that it would be a serious pest in 
the southern tier of counties at least, if it became once 
established. At present my own work in relation to this 
insect is in trying to keep alive the present fear of its in¬ 
troduction. with both nurserymen and planters. 
State Entomologist. ii. e. summers. 
Maryland Making a Good Fight. 
Although the San .Tose scale is pretty generally distributed 
over the State, without doubt it can be stated that this pest 
is under better control by the orchardists in I he State at tills 
time than ever before. Orchardists have realized that iu 
order to save the trees tnat are infested treatment is neces¬ 
sary. In this connection it may be said that there was an 
enormous amount of spraying with the lime, sulphur and salt 
and other remedies done in this State the past Winter and 
Spring. While the pest is still doing damage in those local¬ 
ities where the orchardists have not awakened to the import¬ 
ance of treating yet it can be safely stated that with the 
practical remedial measures at their command, progressive 
Maryland orchardists have no fear of the ravages of the San 
Jose scale. THOMAS H. SYMONS. 
State Entomologist. 
Ohio Growers on Guard. 
Where the scale has gained a foothold and nothing has 
been done to combat it the loss has been considerable. Some 
orchards have been almost completely destroyed. This is 
notably the case about Mentor, <)., and Catawba Island, 
Where the trees have been sprayed with crude oil or the 
lime-sulphur-salt mixture most of them have been saved. 
There is no difficulty at least in saving the trees witli either 
one of these remedies, but' the lime-sulphur-salt being the 
safer is the one now most commonly used. We have seen 
enough of the scale in this State to convince us that where 
it is allowed to have its way it will kill nearly all kinds of 
fruit trees within a short time after it gets established. We 
have seen nothing to lead us to think that there are any 
natural enemies of sufficient consequence to do any good in 
checking it. The spread of the insect does not seem to be 
very rapid, but we are constantly hearing of more centers of 
infection, and it is now pretty thoroughly scattered over the 
entire State. Those who are giving orcharding attention 
and are fixed for spraying are finding no trouble with the 
scale. It simply means one extra spraying and iu some cases 
not so much as that, because the spraying of peach trees 
with lime-sulphur-salt is useful iu checking the leaf-curl, 
hence the spraying with this mixture may count as against 
leaf-curl and scale. Orchardists who are making this their 
leading line of business see nothing to fear in the scale. It 
need not give them the least concern ; in fact, it is likely to 
help their business, because it will destroy many uncared for 
orchards. You ask if it has destroyed whole orchards or 
killed trees here and there. It does both. At first it kills 
trees here and there, but eventually takes all the trees in 
the orchard. Where the owner begins treatment as soon as 
it is discovered it seldom kills any trees. The inspectors in 
this State formerly ordered trees destroyed which were badly 
Infested, but this is wrong. No trees ought to be destroyed 
simply because they are infested with scale, because this 
does not Help the matter in the least. Unless the tree is so 
near dead that it can be no use it is useless to destroy it, 
unless it is positively known that no other trees near it are 
infested. w. j. green. 
Ohio Exp. Station._ 
WORK ON A JERSEY TRUCK FARM. 
Our season opened late. At the usual time for sowing 
tomato seeds the ground in my hotbed frames was frozen so 
deeply that a day’s work with bars and pickaxes was needed 
tt> get out the icy chunks. 1 got a good stand of plants, 
however, in ample time for setting in the field shortly after 
the middle of May. The weather has been favorable for 
most growing crops. I raise Cory sweet corn, and last year 
saved some very choice seed grown from selected ears in a 
field by itself. This was left to ripen thoroughly on the 
stalk, but most of it was stolen, and the store seed bought 
proved inferior, so that the stand was uneven. My' potatoes, 
Hebron, made a good growth, and bugs did not appear in 
any great number until the tubers were nearly full grown. 
Then I paid little attention to the bugs, which was a mis¬ 
take, for there were 10 times as many as at first appeared, 
and as soon as the last of the potato stalks were stripped 
they went for the tomatoes, and have ruined probably one- 
fourth of the crop. A heavy dosing of Paris-green before 
lhe bugs left the potatoes would have saved some of this 
loss. My main-crop tomatoes are Stone and Trucker’s Fav¬ 
orite. This year 1 tried several highly advertised varieties. 
Shipper’s Delight is. so far as 1 can see, identical with 
Trucker’s Favorite. Logan's Giant, as grown on my soil, is 
worthless as a commercial sort. It has an immense core, 
is hollow and very rough and wrinkled. The 200 plants 
raised produced lots of tomatoes, but as they were not sal¬ 
able, they rotted on the vines, and I charged up the exper¬ 
iment to the dead loss account. I am much pleased with 
Matchless, and squill probably add it to my permanent list. 
The hired help question has been more troublesome than last 
year. The only good man I have had refused to stay more 
than a month, although offered increased wages. The only 
excuse he had was that he was tired of the farm and wanted 
to get back to the city. g. m. 
New Jersey. 
HAND POTATO DIGGING. 
Our farmers here either dig with hook or a digger; de¬ 
pends on number of acres they have. Four men if land is 
clean, no weeds or grass to bother, will dig an acre iu a day. 
A digger will dig in a day of 10 hours four to five acres, and 
would take 10 men to take care of them. As to day's work 
at picking up, 75 bushels behind a digger would be as much 
of a day's work as 150 bushels that were dug by hand and 
left in good shape to pick up. All potatoes are handled 
in crates geo. a. bonnei.l. 
Seneca Co., N. Y. 
We have used successfully at times several different kinds 
of potato diggers. Difficulties with uneven soils, differences 
in lay of land, and changes in conditions of soil and weather 
have caused us to rely largely upon hooks and forks to keep 
out men at work and save potato crops. Big green vines 
will clog even a two-horse plow going down grade, and most 
diggers clog worse titan plows. Some diggers with consid¬ 
erable machinery leave most of the potatoes on top of the 
ground, and with plenty of power they do pretty well when 
all conditions favor. A good point with prongs behind 
mounted on four wheels goes through easier and more surely, 
leaving most of the large tubers in sight. Good men with 
hooks digging two rows together can leave potatoes in such 
shape that a boy can fill 200 bushel crates in a day as 
easily as a man or boy could fill 100 after a machine. We 
once paid a man for digging with hook from hills in check 
rows and filling 94 bushel crates in one day, and we once 
paid two men for digging and putting 208 measured bushels 
into 104 sacks in one day. Good men working by the day 
did much less than tlrnse men by the bushel, logging by 
hand seems to have been most satisfactory here, especially 
when potatoes sold well, but scarcity of laborers now favors 
the use of diggers. chas. w. ford. 
Ontario Co., N. Y. 
Crops are fair here this year, though we had a late Spring. 
Potatoes are good, with but little blight; corn is good, but 
about two weeks late. Plums have been very plentiful; 
peaches none at all; blackberries none of any account: blue¬ 
berries very plentiful. One man and wife sold 250 bushels. 
Apples will be very good and most all have plenty, especially 
back on the hills. Tobacco has been a line crop; finest in 
a number of years. Hay was good and the second crop is 
very fine too; all are well advanced in securing the same. 
Onions look well, with a promise of a good crop and prices 
high. j. u. h. 
Easthampton, Mass 
LONG ISLAND PICKLE FACTORIES. 
The Brooklyn Eagle recently printed the following: 
"The local pickle house here has opened to receive, cucum¬ 
bers and beans for sailing, and both crops are coming in at 
a rapid rate. Up to Thursday night upward of 150,000 cu¬ 
cumbers had been received and over 100 barrels of beans. 
If is estimated that another 100 barrels of beans will be 
salted. Those farmers wno are growing beans and cucum¬ 
bers for Hie pickle house this year are making money, but 
only a few farmers dared plant these crops, as during the 
past three years they have resulted poorly. The factory 
pays $1.75 per thousand for the cucumbers, and 40 cents per 
bushel for the beans. The pickle house attempted to con¬ 
tract. for 150 acres of cucumbers.. but was able to get but 
fourteen. This crop is growing linely this year, each acre 
averaging about 60,000 cucumbers.” 
One of our readers makes the following comment: 
"From what little observation I have taken of the crop I 
do not think there is much money in it for the farmer. 
Eight or ten years ago a Mattituck pickle house got contracts 
for $1.25 per 1,000. Farmers bit quite heavily for first 
year, and second year wound t he. business up. They cannot 
produce them at that price and make a living profit. Not a 
contract was made since. Around Riverbead there is a lot 
of Polish farmers who by hard work have saved a little 
money and bought some of the waste land there, and are 
clearing it up. These are the people who are growing the 
pickles on this new land, and l have no doubt but what they 
can get more money from them titan any other crop grown 
on this laud.” 
CROP NOTES. 
The berry crop has been a partial failure here in Lucas 
County, Ohio, especially blackberries, owing partly to the 
cold severe Winter anil partly to dry weather. The ground 
froze up solid about the middle of November and continued 
so until Spring. We had some snow, but not enough to pro¬ 
tect the crops. Every time it thawed a little it would freeze 
up solid, which in time made a bed of ice pretty much all 
over the ground. The roots in the lower spots were so 
badly damaged they did not produce berries fit for market. 
Fields that were mulched end no better. Whole fields were 
plowed under, and other crops put in their place; conse¬ 
quently there was not very much made out of strawberries 
this year as compared with last. The price was high this 
season for all berries. As to varieties. Crescent and Lovett 
have been largely grown here, but Excelsior and some other 
earlier varieties are fast taking their place. For second 
early Warfield and Senator Dunlap; Haverland, Clyde, Mar¬ 
shall. Bismarck and Bubach for medium ; Parker Earle, 
Sample and Gandy for late. Gandy has a great reputation 
in the Toledo market; although a light cropper it is exten¬ 
sively grown. c. H. k. 
Holland Ohio. 
CALIFORNIA CROPS.—Shipments of California fruit to 
eastern points which have passed through Sacramento this 
season to August 29 aggregate 3,330 % carloads. These 
figures cover almost the entire fruit shipments from the State. 
The total is considerably less than that of shipments to the 
same date last year. Apricots and peaches are light through¬ 
out the State. Cherry shipments are approximately the 
same as last year. Pear and grape shipments to date exceed 
those of last. year. Grape shipments have barely begun; the 
crop is heavy and of good quality: pear crop is unusually 
large. The prune crop is large and of good quality. Sacramento 
Valley oranges promise a good crop of excellent quality. 
Olives promise a fair crop. Almonds will be short, and 
almond prices rule correspondingly high. Figs are yielding 
well; winners are using more tigs than ever before, and fresh 
fig shipments are increasing. The grain crop is light, hay 
heavy. In the irrigated Alfalfa districts of the Sacramento 
Valley the fourth crop of hay is now being cut with good 
prospects of two more cuttings. Hops are yielding heavily 
and prices rule high. Twenty-five cents and upward is 
offered for choice lots. 
A TEXAS TALK.—We have here the very country for the 
right sort of people; people who are willing to work, study 
their business and keep their eyes open. But that kind of 
people as a rule get along anywhere, though it is certainly 
easier here to make a living on a farm than it is farther 
north. Yet I would never advise people who are well fixed 
and past their middle age to start for any new country in 
order to better their conditions. Friends are not so readily 
made as one gets older, and there are various other things 
that are well to consider. In a new country of a different 
climate from the one accustomed to many things remain to 
be learned, and learning new things for old heads is not 
always agreeable. On the other hand, young people of the 
right stamp, especially if possessed of a little means for a 
start, can hardly help but be decidedly benefited by a move 
to a country like ours. The use of commercial fertilizers is 
almost unknown to most people here. Most of our lands 
are as yet fairly good, and produce nice crops without them, 
though with them we could do much better, especially when 
it comes to garden operations. At the present time we are 
selling Irish potatoes at home at $1 per bushel. They keep 
all right in a shed surrounded by shade trees. Sweet pota¬ 
toes are worth 75 cents per bushel. In spite of all the boll 
weevils the cotton crop is satisfactory (a fair average) and 
prices are good; thus Texas, at least our section of it, is 
coming out all right. We are blessed with a big crop of 
corn and feed stuffs of all kinds; thus we have no cause for 
complaint. j. w. s. 
Mexia, Texas. 
BUSINESS BITS. 
“How to Make Dollars Out of Wind” is a book published 
by the Mason Campbell Co.. Ltd., 258 Wesson avenue, De¬ 
troit. Mich. The book truthfully and accurately describes 
the Chatham fanning mill made by this company, and tells 
of all the different functions it will perform. No argument 
is necessary to show the wisdom -of sowing absolutely pure 
seed, and it is equally desirable to send perfectly clean seed 
to. market, as no other can hope to bring the top market 
price. Seventeen screens and riddles go with this mill; 
they will separate and clean any and all kinds of seeds 
known. This mill can be bought on time from the manu¬ 
facturers, and we believe the claim is not exaggerated that 
if will pay for itself before you are asked to pay for it. 
Write for booklet and selling plan to above address. 
Those having butter, cheese, eggs, poultry or apples for 
sale should write E. B. Woodward, 302 Greenwich street. 
New York. This is an old established house with a first- 
class trade in these staples. 
Wire fence, either the woven fabric or single strand, has 
replaced almost all kinds of farm fencing, and the factory 
made article has had enormous sales in late years. The 
experience of every farmer, however, is that his fence will 
soon rust, and he must do something to protect it, or. in a 
few years, buy a new fence. To meet this and do the work 
quickly, the Pittsburg Woven Wire Fence Go.. Pittsburg. Pa., 
have experimented with and are now placing on sale their 
“Standard Painter.” Send for circular giving full particulars. 
In Sackett plaster board the manufacturers have placed on 
the market a material which should find instantaneous favor 
with people living in districts where masons are scarce and 
plastered walls not always satisfactory. It is a board 32x30 
inches, composed of alternate layers ot ctyong wool felt and 
plaster.. If is nailed securely to the studding and then fin¬ 
ished with plaster. Or, if it should be desired to paper the 
walls at once, the plaster finish may be dispensed with and 
the boards covered with cheesecloth, over which the wall 
paper can be applied. Sackett plaster board will not warp, 
buckle or shrink, and the perfect adhesion between the 
plaster finish and the board makes a solid body that is se¬ 
curely held in place by nails. Sackett plaster board is non- 
inflammable and it makes walls and ceilings that are more 
sound-proof and better insulators against heat or cold than 
where lath is used. Address Sackett Wall Board Co., 19 
Battery Place, New York. 
