THE RURAL NEW-YORKER: 
239 
lifUI 
Evetits of the IVeek. 
domestic.—E x-President Benjamin Harrison died at 
Indianapolis March 13, after a short illness, of pneumonia. 
He was born at North Bend, O., August 20, 1833, and be¬ 
gan the practice of law at Indianapolis In 1854. He be¬ 
came a soldier in 1862, making a fine record, and took 
his seat in the United States Senate in 1881. During six 
years he rendered valuable service in the Senate, and 
became known as the advocate of protective duties, civil 
service reform and the restoration of the navy. He was 
a delegate to the Republican National Convention of 1884, 
where his name was mentioned for the Presidency, but 
it was not until 1888 that he was nominated and elected, 
after an exciting campaign, in which the tariff question 
was the controlling issue. Among the notable events of 
Harrison's Administration were the passage of the Mc¬ 
Kinley Tariff bill, the suppression of the Louisiana lot¬ 
tery. the inauguration of the reciprocity policy, the ex¬ 
tension of the new navy, the promotion of civil service 
reform, the arrangement of the International Monetary 
Conference, the organization of the Bering Sea arbitra¬ 
tion, the difficulty with Chile and the settlement of the 
Samoan question. Benjamin Harrison was twice married. 
His first wife was Caroline Lavinia Scott, to w'hom he 
was joined in wedlock October 20, 1853. Their two chil¬ 
dren arc Russell Harrison, lately of the United States 
Volunteer army, and Mary, wife of James R. McKee, of 
New York. Mrs. Harrison died in Washington, October 
25, 1802. In April, 1896, the ex-President married Mrs. 
Mary Scott Lord Dimmock, a niece of his former wife, 
by whom he had one daughter, Elizabeth.Nel¬ 
son Morris, the Chicago packer, intends erecting a $2,- 
000,000 packinghouse in Honolulu.Fire in a ten¬ 
ement in Brooklyn, N. Y., March 14, killed three per- 
.sons and Injured several others.Fire at Clover- 
port, Ky., March 14, practically destroyed the town; loss 
amounts to $5,000,000, and 2,000 people were rendered home¬ 
less.A bill was introduced in the lower branch 
of the Arkansas Legislature, March 14, to regulate the 
liquor traffic. It is an exact copy of the South Carolina 
Dispensary law.A turpentine camp in Bald¬ 
win County, Ala., w'as burned March 15, and 60 persons 
perished. There was one survivor, who, after lying 
nearly all day in a swamp, naked and suffering, managed 
to get across Mobile Bay. It is believed that the fire 
was started by three negroes, who were turne.l out of 
camp, after being badly handled. . . . The Governor 
of Utah has vetoed the polygamy bill .... A dis¬ 
astrous fire started in the Anheuser-Busch brewery at 
St. I.ouis, Mo., March 18, spreading to other buildings, 
and entailing a loss of $100,000.The Exposition 
building at Pittsburg, Pa., and half a dozen business 
buildings, were burned March 17; loss aggregated $250,000. 
One fireman was killed by an electric wire.A 
colony of 100 negroes left Knoxville, Tenn., March 18, for 
Hawaii, under a three-years’ contract to work on a large 
sugar plantation.Andrew Carnegie has offered 
to give $5,200,000 to establish 65 libraries in New York City. 
He has offered $1,000,000 for a public library in St. Louis. 
. . . . March 19, a strike and mutiny occurred in the 
coal mine at the Kansas State Penitentiary at Lansing. 
The 284 convicts overpowered the 15 guards and held 
them as hostages for the enforcement of their demands 
for lighter work and better food. Some of the convicts 
in the mine are desperate men, already under death 
sentence for murder, but owing to the Kansas statute 
are really serving life sentences. The mine in which the 
convicts are intrenched is 750 feet deep, its mouth being 
inside the prison walls.An extraordinary snow¬ 
storm occurred in Nebraska March 19, causing stoppage 
of traffic in many parts of the State. The snow is of 
immense value to the Winter wheat, but is causing heavy 
loss among Spring lambs. 
PHILIPPINES.—General Chaffee will succeed General 
MacArthur in command of the army in the Philippines, 
the latter retaining the position of Military Governor 
until a civil government shall be established, which is 
expected within a few months’ time. Captain-General 
Mariano Trias, Commander-in-Chief of the Filipino in¬ 
surgent forces, with 20 officers, 200 men and 119 rifles, has 
surrendered to the American forces. The officers took 
the oath of allegiance and have been given their liberty. 
GENERAL FOREIGN NEWS.—The State Department, 
through Minister Loomis, recently lodged a most vigor¬ 
ous protest with the Venezuelan government against any 
further Interference with Mr. Baiz, the United States 
Consular agent at Barcelona, Venezuela. It appears that 
he is engaged in business and became Involved In trouble 
with the Venezuelan military by resisting an attempt to 
collect a forced loan from him. More than a month ago 
the State Department forwarded its instruction to Min¬ 
ister Loomis to represent to the Venezuelan government 
that those annoying interferences with our official must 
cease, but so far no results have appeared.The rev¬ 
olutionary party is causing much disorder in Russia. In a 
riot at St. Petersburg, March 18, five students were 
killed and 80 wounded.In the Transvaal, Gen. 
Botha has rejected the peace terms offered by Lord 
Kitchener, and fighting has been resumed. 
FARM AND GARDEN.—A new experiment station hi 
been established at Union, Ore. The climate east of tl 
Cascades is very different from that in western Orego 
and experiments at Corvallis do not form a safe basis f 
the eastern part of the State. 
Ihe fourth annual convention of the Pacific Northwe 
Wool-growers’ Association opened at Pendleton, Ore 
March 5, with a large attendance from Oregon, Was! 
Ington, Idaho, Montana, Utah and Wyoming. 
Reports received from all parts of the West show f 
amazing Increase of interest in Alfalfa. Even the loc 
papers are taking up questions concerning its cultur 
and there is a widespread tendency to test it. 
The road bill presented to the Pennsylvania I^eglsl 
ture by Secretary of Agriculture Hamilton has be( 
amended by Representative Creasy, champion of tl 
range interests, who has secured the unanimous co 
sent of the House committee on public roads to f 
amendment by which something like $2,000,000 annual 
s all be collected by a tax on corporate stocks, bone 
and gross earnings, to be employed exclusively for road 
improvement. It is believed that this law will materially 
lighten the burden of the farmers, in securing permanent 
good roads. 
At the hearing before the committee of the amended 
Olco bill in the Pennsylvania Legislature, a most re¬ 
markable statement was made by a wholesale dealer in oleo, 
of Pittsburg, Pa., who said that he had himself sold dur¬ 
ing the past year over 4,000,000 pounds of the fraudulent 
article. 
Reports concerning the peach buds in New England 
orchards state that in the lowlands practically all the 
buds are killed, while upon high ground they are safe. 
It is believed that 75 per cent of the buds are killed 
throughout New England, but from the remainder a 
fair crop is expected, if no further damage is sustained. 
The Georgia peach buds are said to be all safe. 
The Orleans County (N. Y.) Fruit Growers’ Association 
will meet at Medina, N. Y., March 29; secretary, Wm. A. 
Lafler, Albion, N. Y. A great and growing Interest is 
shown in the objects of this society. 
The Niagara County (N. Y.) Farmers’ Club will meet 
at Newfane, March 30; secretary, W. F. Schultz, Niagara 
Falls, N. Y. The interest shown at the February meet¬ 
ing was so great that many were turned away, and the 
March meeting will be held in two buildings, to accom¬ 
modate the many persons interested. 
The interests of the State Fruit Growers’ Association 
are being pushed all along the line. The outlook Is very 
flattering. Ontario County will soon organize a county 
association, and Oswego County held a meeting March 27. 
The Wayne County Fruit Growers will meet in the 
Grange Hall in Newark, N. Y., April 6, for the purpose 
of organizing a county association, auxiliary to the State 
Association. A large attendance is expected. L. T. Yeo¬ 
mans, of Walworth, N. Y., is president of this county 
association. _ 
‘‘THE FIEND WITH THE FALSE LABEL” 
The Rights of the Originator. 
In my own behalf and that of other fruit originators, I 
wish to call their attention and that of the public to 
the fiend with the false label. The late Eugene Glen, as 
member of the Western New York Horticultural So¬ 
ciety, succeeded in obtaining the publication of his plan 
of protection for new fruits in a former report of its 
proceedings. This plan, briefly stated, was to give the 
originator a trade-mark label of the name of his variety 
to be affixed to the plants In their sale and dissemina¬ 
tion. The Society, however, has not yet taken action 
regarding the plan, owing to the hostility of the mana¬ 
gers, principally nurserymen. I have been Informed that 
the late Patrick Barry, the former president, discouraged 
so doing. His son, William Barry, who has since been 
chairman, has not pursued a contrary policy. In one 
of his addresses to the Society, delivered several years 
ago, the latter stated in substance that the originator 
of a valuable variety could profit by its Introduction, 
but I have never known him to offer the latter a share 
of the sales to be made by him sufficient for the purpose. 
Why should he do so, when he knows that by purchasing 
a few plants when the variety is introduced he can soon 
propagate a stock sufficient to supply his demand for it? 
My new varieties, not yet introduced, have cost me a 
lifetime of experiment and thousands of dollars to pro¬ 
duce them, therefore, I cannot afford to make them a 
present to the trade. The idea of the introducer of a 
new fruit profiting by it has become the scoff of the 
Rochester nurserymen. They see a large outlay of money 
in it for advertising to make the merits of the variety 
known, with the subsequent demand supplied generally 
by the trade after the variety has been proved valuable 
by public trial and dissemination, with a resort to the 
false label by the unscrupulous. The idea that the first 
sales of a new variety, however valuable, afford the 
originator a fair opportunity to obtain a recompense, is 
a mere fiction. Undoubtedly the large firms having 
thousands of agents can give him such a percentage of 
the sales for a term of years as will recompense him. 
but I know of two or three instances only that any of 
them have done so. The fact that he has no exclusive 
right to his production, consequently cannot stop them 
from offering it when Introduced, prevents him from se¬ 
curing such terms. Philanthropy is supposed by many 
persons to be the latter’s motive in its production, which 
is an entire mistake. It is the inventive and artistic 
spirit which actuates him, and like other toilers he always 
wants pay for doing valuable work. Philanthropy as a 
motive for the origination and free dissemination of new 
varieties cannot be urged, because it simply results in 
a license to label plants falsely, as aforesaid. The pres¬ 
ent law may Inflict damages, but it does not pay to pros¬ 
ecute in such cases, except when the damage is excessive 
and fraud can be proven. Especially in the ease of fruit 
trees is the length of time before fruition relied upon to 
remove all evidence of the varieties purchased. Making 
Ihe labeling of plants falsely with intent to defraud a 
misdemeanor might not prove an effecttial bar to the 
practice, as the usual excuse could be offered that it 
was only a mistake, and not done with criminal intent. 
Hence, the necessity of giving to the originator the ex¬ 
clusive use of the name of his variety as a label to the 
plants in their sale and dissemination. It is inseparably 
connected with the protection of the people in their pur¬ 
chase. Justice to the one means protection to the other 
from imposition. This argument appears to me unanswer¬ 
able. The only hope that the Society will ever take 
action to influence legislation in this direction is that the 
number of fruit growers will finally increase to a ma¬ 
jority, although a minority of the nurserymen belong¬ 
ing to it are among the staunchest friends of the caxi.se 
here advocated. The Barry medal for a new fruit is a 
mere bauble, sure to disappoint the winner. It would 
lie only fair for the nurserymen constituting the bulk 
of the Society to give the winner a purse of $3,000 or $5,000 
as an offset against their competition when the variety 
was introduced. A contribution of $5 or $10 from each 
would be sufficient for the purpose. Vice-President Wil¬ 
lard assured me that the Society would not provide a 
fund of any amount to ho given the winner. I was once 
a competitor for the medal, but finding that the highest 
award for new fruits won by me at the World’s Fair 
brought me no recompense, I withdrew from the contest. 
I once heard S. D. Willard deprecate, before the So¬ 
ciety, the practice of renaming well-known fruits and 
sending them out as now ones. Mere deprecation will do 
no good; so doing should be made a misdemeanor. Also, 
with the exclusive right to sell and disseminate under 
the name, the law should require that new varieties be 
submitted to the experiment stations for trial prior to 
their Introduction to prove them to be new. The people 
have rights in this matter which should be respected. 
Can the value of successful work in the origination of 
new varieties be estimated in dollars and cents? Has 
not the National value of the Concord grape been at 
least $100,000,0007 Surely the creator of wealth is entitled 
to a share of it. Has not the individual who at great 
cost to himself has produced a plant which contributes 
largely to the subsistence of others a just claim upon 
them for a recompense? None of us liveth to himself; 
no man dieth to himself. Great as are the issues for the 
welfare of the people depending on the encouragement 
of this industry, our legislators do not appear to have 
given It consideration. Those horticulturists who have 
gained the requisite knowledge by experience to succeed 
in the work have been obliged to abandon it, because they 
have been deprived of the pecuniary results of their 
labor. JACOB moork. 
POSTAL CARDS. 
An analysis of the corncob shows that it contains a 
large amount of potash. Hence corn fertilizers should 
have a liberal percentage of this Ingredient. 
We got the Ruby Queen rose last Spring; it grew 
finely; four canes, four or five feet In length. In July 
I laid two of the canes down and covered them with 
earth (leaving the tops oxit, of course) they rooted nicely. 
Now we have three good plants. s. n. t. 
Covington, Ind. 
A GARDEN which has been fertilized with barnyard 
manure alone is likely to he deficient in phosphoric acid, 
an element especially needed by fruits in which the seeds 
are numerous and very fully developed, like raspberries, 
blackberries, strawberries, etc. Try a dressing of good 
fertilizer containing a high percentage of phosphoric acid. 
If your potatoes were scabby last year, use that piece 
of land for some other crop this season, and give the 
scab germs a chance to die out. These germs grow and 
develop most rapidly in an alkaline soil, hence do not 
put lime on the potato field. If the land la a little sour, 
so much the worse for the germs. Some have tried with 
success the plan of plowing under a crop on purpose to 
sour the soil before planting the potatoes. 
Some farmers with a scanty supply of stable manure 
have pieced it out to good advantage by spreading it 
more thinly than usual, and then adding a dressing of 
mxirlate of potash and phosphate rock, the Ingredients 
most lacking in stable manure. Handled in this way 
the stable manure and chemicals give a good square, well- 
balanced meal to a larger area than could be properly 
fertilized if they were used separately. 
We think Alfalfa la king for grazing and hay. We cut 
three crops without Irrigation, and pasture the same 
ground at least three months each year; it yields about 
two tons per acre each cutting. I am pasturing 110 hogs 
on 20 acres already; we think this pretty good consider¬ 
ing that this is one of the hardest Winters in the history 
of California; more than 35 Inches rain here since Sep¬ 
tember 1, and freezing between showers. w. n. a. 
Redding, Cal. 
We have heard some complaint from those who 
changed from deep setting of milk to the separator that 
the butter was not good, and the cream seemed to be 
bitter. We think this can almost always be traced to 
putting the cream after separation in the water, and 
allowing it to remain without stirring or aeration. 
Cream from the separator will always be bitter unless 
it is thoroughly stirred while cooling, or run over an 
aerator. 
To one In Oregon it seems ridiculous to talk of splicing 
scantlings for a silo 32 feet high. On the sidewalk of our 
main street is a board 1x6 Inches 80 feet long. This 
is a slab off some bridge timbers shipped to the East. 
These timbers were 14 inches square. 80 feet long. It 
was amusing to see them hauled. The coupling-pole pro- 
iected 14 or 16 feet behind, and in turning street cor¬ 
ners a man held it and cramped the hind wheels to one 
side or the other as was necessary. s. t. w. 
It Is not wise to try to mix wood ashes with any other 
fertilizer. The best plan is to apply them alone. They 
are so fine and dusty that it is difficult to mix them well 
with ground bone or any of the coarser manures; and 
they should especially be kept away from dissolved 
phosphate rock or hen manure. When mixed with the 
acid rock, they are likely to cake into hard chunks, 
which are more or less Insoluble; and If added to hen 
manure they free the ammonia, letting it escape into 
the air. 
LIVE POULTRY SPECIAL.—The Hebrew Passover, 
occurring the first week In April, is an important event 
in the live poultry business. Jelliffe, Wright & Co., of 
this city, state that there will be a large demand for 
turkeys, heavy fowls, fat ducks and geese, and but little 
call for poor stock. This special trade will continue from 
April 1 to 8. The next Hebrew holiday after this will be 
the Feast of Weeks, May 24-26, when fat fowls will be 
in demand, and the market days will be May 20-22. 
THE SOUTH CAROIJNA CROP.-I have a nice little 
crop of truck under cultivation this Spring; 220 acres of 
Spring cabbage; 2.50 acres of early Spring potatoes; 50 
acres Giant Argenteuli asparagus; 30 acres cucumbers- 
five acre Paul Rose cantaloupes; total, 555 acres. I 
shipped my first cabbage to New York March 1; second 
lot, March 9; third shipment, March 16. Cabbage season 
will be in full blast by April 1 to 10. March 18, some po¬ 
tatoes coming through the ground; a few small ship¬ 
ments of asparagus have gone forward. Farmers are 
busy planting beans, cucumbers and cantaloupes; rail¬ 
road busy bringing In cabbage crates and material for 
c rating up the cabbage crop, and new barrels to ship the 
potato crop in. Everything in the shape of man, woman, 
girl and boy is busy at something connected with the 
crop. The cabbage crop looks fine; stock is going to be 
first class. w. c. Q. 
South Carolina. 
