1901 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
425 
Events of the I4^eek. 
domestic.—A t Philadelphia, Pa., May 30, seven per¬ 
sons were drowned in the Schuylkill Kiver, their boat 
being swept over the dam.Three persons were 
burned to death in a farmhouse fire at Watsema, Ill., 
May 30.At Wilmington, Del., May 31, three 
heavily loaded trolley cars ran away going down a 
steep grade, killing one man, fatally injuring another, 
and hurting many.In a gas explosion in a mine 
at Newcastle, Col., June 1, two men were killed and 
eight injured.In a great fire on the Isthmus 
of Tehuantepec, Mexico, over 70 persons were burned to 
death.Three persons were killed and 16 in¬ 
jured in a railway collision at Atlanta, Ga., June 3, 
where a switch engine dashed into a passenger train. 
. , . . Settlers in the Lander Valley, Wyo., are arm¬ 
ing, and many families moving into the towns, as the 
Arapahoe Indians are going on the warpath. 
At Iron Mountain, Mich., June 4, eight miners were 
killed in the Chapin mine by the deadly fumes following 
an explosion of dynamite.June 2, a fire at 
Quincy, Ill., caused a total loss of $75,000.The 
town of Willits, Cal., was destroyed by fire June B. 
.... Twenty tons of smokeless powder at the San 
Francisco Navy Yard was ignited by chemical action 
June B, and in burning destroyed a valuable magazine. 
There was no explosion. 
ADMINISTRATION.—The President and Cabinet de¬ 
cided, May 31, that the action of the Cuban Constitu¬ 
tional Convention was not a “substantial” compliance 
with the terms of the Platt amendment. The Secretary 
of War will convey this fact to the Convention. Courte¬ 
ously but positively the Cubans are informed in about 
2,U00 words that the President cannot accept the action 
they have taken, and the assumption is conveyed that 
they will rectify the mistake which they have made. 
It is pointed out that the President has no right to alter 
the purpose of Congress or to change the meaning of 
the directions given him by it, and that the action of the 
Convention cannot be approved without disobedience to 
the act of Congress.The President has deter¬ 
mined that existing conditions do not require or warrant 
calling Congress together during the present Summer or 
making any change in the policy hitherto pursued and 
announced in regard to the Philippine Islands. The 
Cabinet was unanimous in the opinion that the authoidty 
to govern the Philippines vested in the President by the 
Spooner amendment was ample.Andres L. 
Terry y Dortlgos filed, June 5, the largest claim that has 
yet been presented to the Spanish Claims Commission. 
It Is for $588,468.75, and is interesting in that.part of the 
damage for which compensation Is asked was not in¬ 
flicted by Spanish troops, but by Cuban insurgents. Mr. 
Terry claims that the Spanish government was respon¬ 
sible for this damage, not only because it failed to pro¬ 
tect his property from the insurgents, but because it 
gave them every opportunity to burn and loot. 
PHILIPPINES.—The native lumbermen of Manila will 
petition the Philippine Commission for legislation mak¬ 
ing compulsory the use of Philippine lumber in insular 
improvements in preference to that imported from Bor¬ 
neo and the United States. 
FARM AND GARDEN.-May 29, Gov. Stone, of Penn¬ 
sylvania, signed the Snyder anti-oleo bill. Grangers 
and farmers’ Interests generally have fought earnestly 
for the passage of this bill. 
At the recent meeting of the Florida State Horticul¬ 
tural Society it was stated that the white fly, hitherto 
regarded as the most formidable insect ever encountered 
in Florida, is giving way before the brown fungus (As- 
chersonia aleyrodis, Webber), Insomuch that the most 
advanced growers of Manatee County now hardly be¬ 
stow upon it a second tnought. The San Jos6 scale, the 
brown rot and the curcullo are spreading widdly among 
deciduous fruits, and will require vigorous fighting by 
the growers to stamp them out. 
Reports from Livingston County, N. Y., state that 
there is such a plague of biting flies in that locality that 
farmers are obliged to cover the horses’ ears with nets, 
and take other precautions with their stock. 
Several cases of anthrax on dairy farms are reported 
in Genesee and Niagara counties, N, Y. Farmers are 
having their stock vaccinated against It, and as soon as 
an animal dies of the disease it is cremated. 
Following a secret conference of western Senators and 
Congressmen in Denver, the Congressmen of Nebraska 
and Wyoming have Issued a call for a meeting to be 
held at Cheyenne, Wyo., June 20, at which Congressmen 
will be present from Nebraska, Kansas, North and 
South Dakota, Utah, Nevada, Colorado, Montana, Ore¬ 
gon, Washington and Idaho, to discuss the throwing 
open of the arid lands of the West to settlement, and 
plans for their irrigation. Senator Dietrich, of Ne¬ 
braska, set forth a scheme for the employment of State 
and Federal convicts in building canals and reservoirs 
in the arid lands of the West, and suggested that the 
prison labor be guarded by United States troops, who 
would thus be given employment in time of peace. The 
workmen also would not come into competition with 
organized labor. Elwood Mead, for the Government’s 
Irrigation Bureau, opposed the laying of the burden 
upon the Federal Government. Should the lands be 
thrown open, it is believed two-thirds of them will be 
secured by the large cattle Interests. 
The Secretary of State of Kansas granted a charter 
June 1 to the Farmers’ Cooperative Grain and Live 
Stock Association, which was organized by the farmers 
at Salina a short time ago. The Association begins with 
a paid-up capital of $20,000, divided into 2,000 shares, and 
its object is to buy and sell, on commission or otherwise, 
farm products of all kinds, including live stock, and to 
establish and maintain yards, grain elevators and em¬ 
poriums for the safe keeping, sale and distribution of 
farm products. The principal office shall be in Topeka, 
with subordinate offices, if necessary, elsewhere in the 
United States. The life of the corporation shall be 99 
years. 
Fruit growers visiting the Pan-American Exposition 
will find their headquarters at No. 8 Bldwell Parkway, 
Buffalo, which is within easy walking distance of the 
Exposition, and where they are likely to meet friends of 
similar interests. 
The American Fruit Company of Porto Rico has been 
organized at San Juan, for the purpose of doing a nur¬ 
sery business in Citi'us fruits, palms, bulbs and florists’ 
stock for the New York market; also to grow Winter 
vegetables, pineapples and oranges. The officers are; 
President, Wm. R. Corwine, of the Merchants’ Associa¬ 
tion of New York; secretary and treasurer, H. S. Ran- 
kine, assistant corporation counsel, city of New York; 
manager, F. M. Pennock, San Juan. 
The New York fruit exhibit at the Pan-American Ex¬ 
position is attracting much attention. There are 3,200 
plates, chiefly of apples, of which latter there are 345 
varieties on show. 
The annual meeting of the Oregon State Grange was 
held at Albany, Ore., May 28-30. There was a large and 
representative attendance. 
FRUIT PROSPECTS. 
The prospects for apples are about one-half a crop, 
mostly Greenings and Fall fruit. Peach trees were 
loaded with blossoms. r. a. 
Marengo, N. Y. 
Greening, King, Ben Davis, Spy and Fall apples had 
a fair amount of blossoms. Baldwins are scarcely blos¬ 
soming at all. Peaches have not blossomed as full as 
commonly. Cherries and plums have blossomed full; also 
prunes. o. a. m. 
Sodus Center, N. Y. 
The apple trees blossomed about 75 per cent; as for 
the varieties I could not say, but I think the Spy bloomed 
the least of any. Pears in most cases blossomed largely, 
and plums and peaches full. Not many peaches in this 
section. As for spraying there are not many who spray 
their fruit trees here. w. w. r. 
Preble, N. Y. 
Weather cool and rainy; most apples fell off. Stone 
fruits all sticking well; cherries and strawberries ripe 
and not abundant. Cutworms and grub worms doing 
great damage everywhere. Last week I saw where a 
skunk had dug out 45 grub worms in the space of a few 
rods of drill row. Protect the skunk and eject the skunk 
trapper from your premises. c. d. l. 
Higginsport, O. 
Prospects are good in this section for fruit of all kinds 
but apples. Grass is looking better than for several 
years. Early peas are coming out in blossom, and will 
be a good crop. I have not heard of Green pea-louse so 
far, but we many get it later on same as last year. We 
have had no frost this Spring to do any hurt. Tomatoes 
are being set out in the fields, and I noticed some a 
week ago in bloom. There are a good many cows kept 
in this section, and farmers are selling the milk to the 
Italian cheese factory for 90 cents per hundredweight. 
Brant, N. Y. i. b. 
The season here is very backward, as it has rained 
for nearly two weeks more or less and most of the time 
more. Some oats are not sown (June 1); very little corn 
is in the ground, and too wet to plow for corn and pota¬ 
toes. Very light crop of apples in prospect, as the Bald¬ 
win did not bloom any and Greening very sparingly. 
Cherries light crop. Fly is doing serious damage in a 
great deal of wheat, although some red varieties are 
looking well, the best being the American Bronze. 
Canker worms have made their appearance, and all we 
can do is to let them eat, it being too wet to spray. 
Penfield, N. Y. q. w. b. 
The early varieties of apples have blossomed freely, 
and have set for an abundance of fruit. Winter varieties 
blossom very scantily, especially trees that bore last 
year (and the majority did). I know an orchard of 150 
trees, all Greenings. 1,000 bushels last year, and not 
enough blossoms to fill two trees this season. My own 
orchard has not enough blossoms on Spy, Baldwin or 
Greening to fill one tree each. Roxbury Russet a trifle 
better. Sour cherries blossomed very full; plums and 
pears moderately; strawberries very full also. These 
conditions are general in the four or five towns through 
which I have passed more or less. h. d. m’k. 
Euclid, N. Y. 
In this section of Maine there have been many more 
rainy days and much more rain during this Spring than 
have been previously known. At intervals there have 
been a few days of sunshine, but when farmers had just 
begun to prepare the land for sowing another long storm 
has set it. Consequently only a small portion of the 
Spring work has been done. All fruit trees have blos¬ 
somed fully, and there are no indications but that there 
will be a good crop of cherries, pears and apples. Not 
many plums and less peaches grow in Maine. Apple 
trees, though they bore last year, never looked more 
beautiful. They are now, June 4, just in full bloom. 
Portland, Me. j. h. r. 
Farmers are not very jubilant here; wet, ’way behind. 
Good grass crop promised on land that was well fertil¬ 
ized, but grass is no longer king. Poorest ice cream 
season to date we ever had; no hot sunny days. Seven 
acres potatoes in if they don’t rot; shall harrow well 
just as soon as possible. All fruit but apples promise 
well. Small seeds not coming well. Some farmers have 
not been able to plant anything up to June 5, and are 
quite discouraged. Our dairy is doing finely and good 
demand for butter, which we turn out when cream is 
dead. We are making considerable cottage cheese, which 
brings a fair price, 10 cents per pound. This morning’s 
milk was skimmed, buttermilk added to ripen, and at 
3 P. M. was made and ready for sale. This beats our 
record. h. q. m. 
Connecticut. 
We are having a good deal too much of a good thing 
just now. It rains regularly every night and quite often 
all the time between two nights. Result is no corn 
or potatoes planted, much wheat turning yellow. 
Timothy meadows in many places much injured. 
Plums and peaches are rotting before they get 
jackets off. Curl-leaf in peaches is very bad on all heavy 
land. Duchess pears almost an entire failure. All late 
blooming apples like Hubbardston and Northern Spy have 
aborted, and a mighty slim show for any kind of an 
apple crop. As an offset, where land is not too wet, oats 
and barley are making splendid growth. Where it took 
last seeding, clover was never better; It is now more 
than knee high, as thick as a mat and with no show of 
blossoming yet. Thermometer runs along about 50 de¬ 
grees mornings, and gets up to 65 to 70 through the day. 
Very little sunshine and with only one warm day so far 
this season, yet I never saw trees freer from fungus 
with the exception of Peach curl-leaf. j. s. w. 
Niagara Co,, N. Y. 
The Hudson River Valley Cherry Crop. 
It Is rather difficult at the present time to form an 
intelligent opinion on the cherry prospect. There has 
been a good setting of fruit with me and not very much 
dropping so far. The white varieties are showing some 
little rot in the past few days, and should rains con¬ 
tinue will undoubtedly be a failure from this cause. We 
are very much in need of sunshine and dry weather. 
Newburgh. j. r. c. 
Sweet cherries set a very heavy crop, probably more 
than could be ripened, unless with exceptionally favor¬ 
able conditions. The sour cherry trees were not so heavily 
loaded. The continued wet weather has caused many 
of the sweet cherries to fall from the trees. Should all 
that look healthy now on the trees hang on there will 
be a fair crop. On some trees rot has made its appear¬ 
ance. Unless we have continued dry weather soon this 
may spread and destroy the crop. So far there is a fair 
crop of both sweet and sour cherries on the trees. 
Orange County. w. d. b. 
The outlook for cherries in the Hudson River Valley 
and vicinity is most excellent. The blossoming of the 
trees occurred a little in advance of the excessive rain¬ 
fall, and the fruit is set exceedingly well. There is at 
present a very good prospect for a very large crop. The 
Cherry aphis has made its appearance, and unless the 
trees are thoroughly sprayed with whale-oil soap or 
kerosene emulsion the drop will be seriously damaged. 
1 have just made an inspection of my farm at Ghent, and 
find 500 apricot trees set with the finest crop I have ever 
known. The peaches are exceedingly heavy set, and if 
not considerably thinned will have very little value in 
them. On a four-inch branch of Japan plums I counted 
37 well-set fruit, and we are thinning down to just four 
specimens. The prolonged wet period has already de¬ 
veloped mildew on the apricots and they are rotting 
badly. If this is continued many days longer the peach 
and cherry crops will be damaged, even at this early 
period, from the same cause. We are spraying vigor¬ 
ously, even during this rainy period, with Bordeaux 
Mixture. geo. t. powell. 
Westchester County._ 
CROP AND WEATHER REPORT. 
There is serious drought in the Central West, particu¬ 
larly in the Missouri and Upper Mississippi Valleys, 
while the Eastern States have suffered from the cold 
and continued rains. The temperature in all the district 
east of the Mississippi has been abnormally cool and 
very unfavorable for corn. Cutworms are doing con¬ 
siderable damage. During the latter part of the week 
the rains in the East stopped and a warm wave fol¬ 
lowed, causing a rapid growth in plants of all kinds. 
Winter wheat in the lower Missouri Valley is In bad 
condition owing to drought and fly damage. Harvesting 
has begun in Arkansas and will be in full blast in Kan¬ 
sas shortly after the middle of the month. Cotton has 
made but slow growth, and in the eastern part of the 
belt it needs cultivation, which has been prevented by 
the wet weather. The oat outlook in the Ohio Valley and 
Tennessee has Improved. Apples are dropping largely, 
and the prospect in many important apple States is not 
pi-omlsing. On the Pacific coast all crops are doing well. 
The California yield of wheat and sugar beets will be 
unusually large. Oregon hops are making good growth. 
Hungary, Austria, is a great grain district. Reports 
from thei’e state that rust is rapidly spreading in wheat; 
that rye and barley are poor and that the sugar beet has 
suffered from vermin. 
PAPER BOXES FOR STRAWBERRIES. 
In The R. N.-Y. a few weeks ago there arose a question 
concerning paper boxes, instead of the wooden ones. For 
six years we have used the paper boxes for strawberries 
with satisfactory results. The boxes we use are made 
by the Diamond Package Co. of Rochester, N. Y.; they 
make a box that is very neat and clean, being white 
paper, costing $2 per 1,000 in 5,000 lots, sold flat. They are 
also waterproof. They fasten together by locking the 
ends. We always put them up when our time is not 
worth much, and as we get fancy prices for our berries 
we can afford to give the box away and have clean ones 
every time we go to market. Wooden boxes get dirty 
and stained, but not worn out, and the fruit does not 
look well in soiled packages. By using a clean paper 
box, white and new, the appearance of the package will 
sell first every time, as I haxe often noticed. There is 
where the white paper box man gets to the front with 
his reputation in fine fancy fruit. Some one said that 
they get crushed, melt down and go to pieces. Our crates 
are made so that when a layer of boxes is put in the 
crate the tray does not rest on the top edges of the boxes 
as in the old way. There is a cleat on each end of the 
crate allowing one inch space from top of boxes for fill¬ 
ing them full, so when we get to market we have an 
honest quart. When the cover of the crate shuts down 
it does not lie on the top layer of boxes, but there is an 
inch space between each layer, so you see the fruit goes 
to market m the finest of shape. As the boxes fit snugly 
together, the moisture from the berries does not wilt 
the boxes even if picked after a rain. From experience 
there is nothing like the white paper box for our use for 
strawberries. c. v. 
Lyons, N. Y. 
THE HAY CROP.—Many dealers in haying machinery 
say that sales thus far have been heavier than usual, 
and their reports Indicate that the crop in the East will 
be exceptionally large. The wet weather has given the 
meadows such a start that if there is a reasonable 
amount of sunshine for the next two weeks, it would 
seem that hay producers may look forward to the big¬ 
gest job of harvesting that they have had for a number 
of years. The indications are that in the Cenffal West 
the crop will be rather light, owing to 1-ack of rain. This 
will tend to even things up and prevent the usual low 
prices when the entire country has a heavy yield. 
