239 
1905. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
Events of the Week. 
DOMESTIC.—The Valvoliue Oil Company's plant in the 
Borough of Queens, N. Y., was destroyed by Are March 1; 
six firemen were hurt; loss $60,000. . . . Mrs. Jane 
Lathrop Stanford, of San Francisco, widow of Senator Le- 
land Stanford, died suddenly at Honolulu, February 28, 
under circumstances that indicated possible poisoning. Mrs. 
Stanford had arrived at Honolulu February 21, having left 
San Francisco suddenly because she was convinced an at¬ 
tempt had been made to poison her. Mrs. Stanford aud her 
husband, who died in 1893, were the joint founders of 
I.eland Standord, Jr., University, at Palo Alto, Cal., as a 
memorial to their only san. Senator Stanford gave 83,000 
acres of land to the institution, besides a large endowment, 
and in recent years Mrs. Stanford deeded an immense amount 
of property, so that the entire assets of the institution are 
valued at $30,000,000. . . . March 1 the steamers aud 
barges which were grounded by the sudden fall of the Ohio 
River at Cincinnati when the ice dam below was removed 
were in dangerous positions. The bank of the river on the 
Ohio side for more than a mile was strewn with stranded 
shipping. Damage estimated at $200,000 was suffered by the 
Marmet Company from crushed barges, lost cargoes and 
wrecking of other property. A loss of $73,000 was reported 
by the Campbell's Creek Company, and other losses aggre¬ 
gating $50,000 brought the total damage to shipping and 
cargoes well up to $400,000, with the end of the danger not 
in sight. . . . Fire at East Liverpool, O., February 28, 
caused a loss of $500,000. . . . Following a long array 
of new laws enacted aimed at the Standard Oil Comnany, 
Kansas has delivered a severe blow to the big corporation. 
Attorney General Coleman has filed suit in the Supreme 
Court asking that a receiver be appointed for the Prairie Oil 
and Gas Company, the Kansas branch of the corporation. 
Violation of the State laws is charged, and the litigation will 
be pushed. All the railroads in the State except the Santa 
Fe are made parties to the suit. In addition, action is 
brought against the Transcontinental Freight Bureau, the 
Western Trunk Line Committee and the Southwestern Traf¬ 
fic Committee. All these concerns are alleged to have en¬ 
tered into an agreement with the Standard Oil Company to 
make rates which are discriminative on oil and bv-products. 
The petition says no report has been made to the State as to 
the solvency of the Standard and that no charter fee has 
been paid the State. While the Santa Fe is not included in 
the Supreme Court case, it will receive attention in Chautau¬ 
qua County, whore suit was entered in the District Court 
charging the road with violating the anti-trust law. The 
suit is backed by the Oil Producers’ Association. . . . 
Commissioner Garfield's report on the meat trust is to the 
effect that the six packing companies frequently designated 
as the “Big Six,” viz., Armour & Co., Swift & Co.. Morris & 
Co., the National Packing Company, the Schwarzschild & 
Sulzberger Company, and the Cudahy Packing Company, 
slaughtered in the year 1903, 5,521,697 head of cattle out of 
a total indicated slaughter in the United States of 12,500,000 
head, or about 45 per cent; that the average net profit in 
1903 for three of the companies was 99 cents per head; that 
the year 1902, instead of being one of exorbitant profits, was 
less profitable than usual, and that during the months when 
prices of beef w'ere the highest, some, at least, of the lead¬ 
ing packers were actually losing money on every head 
slaughtered. The changes in the margin between prices of 
cattle and beef are in themselves no indication whatever of 
the change in profits, says the report. The margin between 
the price of cattle and the price of beef during the year 1903, 
instead of being unusually high, as popularly supposed, was 
for each half of that year lower than the margin for any 
corresponding half year since 1898. Conditions in 1902 
were abnormal, and cattle prices for 1903 and 1904 cannot 
fairly be compared with that year. The great prosperity of 
the country from 1899 to 1902 apparently led to a consid¬ 
erable Increase in the per capita consumption of beef. The 
failure of the corn crop of 1901 induced many cattle feeders 
to send their stock to market in poor condition, thus reduc¬ 
ing the average weight per head and the average percentage 
of dressed beef to live weight. The profit of private car 
lines in the packing industry on mileage Is a very liberal 
one, approximate computations indicating a net return of 
from 14 per cent to about 17 per cent. The profit on private 
refrigerator cars is that derived from the mileage paid by the 
railroads, which, roughly speaking, averages slightly more 
than three-fourths of a cent per mile for every mile traveled 
by refrigerator cars. The average distance to which beef is 
transported from the packing he before consumption does 
not exceed S00 miles. The gross mileage received by the 
owner of the refrigerator car would therefore be roughly $12 
per round trip. The report, in conclusion, says that the 
National Packing Company, mentioned as one of the "BP 
Six," is a merger of various packing plants, particularly the 
so-called Hammond and Fowler properties, and is controlled 
by Armour, Swift and M’orris interests, who constitute its 
Board of Directors. Except for the National Packing Com¬ 
pany, however, there appears to be practically no general 
interownership of stock among the six principal companies. 
. . . The Interborough Rapid Transit strike began March 
7. Nearly all of the 5,000 New York employees stopped 
work. The amount of wages involved is $12,500 a day. The 
striking organizations are the Brotherhood of Locomotive 
Engineers (motormen). the Amalgamated Association of 
Street and Electric Railway Employees (guards, conductors, 
ticket sellers, ticket choppers, porters, etc.) and the Brother¬ 
hood of Locomotive Firemen (former firemen now doing 
other work for the company). The officers of the Inter¬ 
borough Company with whom the employees have been in 
conference from time to time are President August Belmont, 
Vice-President E. P. Bryan and General Manager Frank 
Iledley. The striking employees want more wages, shorter 
hours, less rigid physical examinations and longer rests be¬ 
tween trips. Last September's threatened strike was averted 
by concessions to the men to enable the Subway to open witli 
out delay. Threats of strike were made a month ago At 
that time the company temporized with the men in the’hope 
of staving off the strike until it could tight back without 
hindrance from the weather. "Strike Breaker" James Far¬ 
ley, who has a record of having never failed, is in charge 
of the new men. More than 1,000,000 passengers were in¬ 
convenienced, there being 700,000 who use the elevated dailv 
and 400,000 the Subway. Much danger to passengers re¬ 
sulted from inexperienced men. The first day of the strike 
a rear-end collision in the Subway injured 29 persons- two 
probably will die. 
ADMINISTRATION.—President Roosevelt March 1 trans¬ 
mitted to Congress a message indorsing measures intended 
to prevent the spread of contagious diseases of animals from 
one State to another or to foreign countries. The message 
says that the right of the Secretary of Agriculture to regu¬ 
late the interstate movement of animals exposed, but not 
actually diseased, must be recognized if the spread of such 
diseases is to be prevented, lie urges that the proposed 
remedial legislation be enacted before the adjournment of 
Congress. . . . The conferees ou the Post Office Appro¬ 
priation bill reached an agreement March 2. As amended 
the bill carries a total of $181,000,000, in round numbers. 
The increase of $50,000 in the appropriation for rent which 
was requested By Postmaster Willcox for establishing branch 
post offices in New York was agreed to by the House. The 
Senate amendment, increasing by $300,000 the sum for pneu¬ 
matic tube service, and authorizing the extension of the ser¬ 
vice to other cities ,is stricken from the bill, as is also the 
provision for carrying packages on rural free delivery routes 
at the rate of three cents a pound. . . . The House of 
Representatives spent most of the first part of March 2 ses¬ 
sion in considering and disposing of conference reports. 
Those covering the Agricutural and Fortification Appropria¬ 
tion hills and the bill to provide for the opeping to settle¬ 
ment of about two and and a half million acres of land in 
the Wind River reservation. Wyoming, were agreed to. thus 
finally disposing of those measures. Efforts were made bv 
the Democrats to secure concurrence in the Senate amend¬ 
ment to. the Naval Appropriation bill, directing the Secre¬ 
tary of the Navy to investigate the armor plate question with 
a view to the establishment of a Government plant for the 
manufacture thereof, but they were unavailing, although the 
vote was close—144 to 136. The same fate attended a mo¬ 
tion to limit the price to be paid for armor plate to $398 a 
ton. the amount of the bid of the Midvale Company, Phila¬ 
delphia. _ 
A DISCUSSION OF THE NAIL QUESTION. 
Regalvanizing Cut Nails. 
The question of nails in shingled roofs, which has been 
the subject of considerable correspondence, has interested 
me, because I have been through the same thing very often 
in the last ten years. With the old cut iron nails the 
failure of a roof by corrosion of the nails was a rare hap¬ 
pening, but with the advent of the Bessemer steel nail 
trouble began, and I was finally compelled to use a gal¬ 
vanized wire nail, which answered for a time, until the 
makers discovered a way to wipe off most of the coating, 
when I found the galvanized wire nail but little better than 
the uncoated nail. I have therefore for some years used a 
cut nail and had it galvanized at the local galvanizing 
works, for which they charge three cents a pound, weigh¬ 
ing the nails after they are galvanized. This makes the 
cost of galvanizing about $3.50 a keg. but it is money well 
spent, as they get a very heavy coating on the nails, and 
a roof put on with them should last until the shingles wear 
out. The manufacturers of steel have succeeded in cheap¬ 
ening the cost of production, and at the same timer have 
made a steel which is speedily corroded by exposure to 
dampness unless it is protected by some covering, and the 
galvanizing of sheet metal and wire and the tinning of 
plates does not seem to be able to protect tlie black sheets 
or the wire, unless we give it further protection by paint¬ 
ing or other means. If your readers want a shingled roof 
to last they should use for the valleys and flashings “old 
stvle” or “old method" tin painted on both sides with 
two coats of red lead and linseed oil before being laid, and 
the cut nails galvanized by their home galvanizing works, 
and they will have a roof that will wear like the roofs 
Of long ago. FENWICK. 
Buffalo. , 
R. N.-Y\—But suppose there is no "home place where 
galvanizing will be done? 
The History of a Mill. 
Having had some experience, both in the manufacture 
ad use of nails, both cut and wire, I would like to tell 
aur readers a little historv of the steel nails, as I have 
cperienced it. About 1880 a nail mill was started to 
ake cut nails. The company built a complete mill, with 
addling furnaces to make their nail-plates, and were mak- 
a good cut nail of iron. In about a year after they 
>t started, some one (I think it was in Chicago) made a 
eel cut nail, and put it on the market. Any man seeing 
and not understanding the nature of steel, or homogeneous 
on, would naturally prefer it to the cut nail, as steel 
ninded well, and cut much smoother and cleaner than 
uddled iron. Nothing could persuade the public that the 
on nail would last, longer, or hold better, so that at last 
le mill had to count their puddling mill a dead loss, and 
id to go to the Bessemer men and buy their steel nail 
lates, in order to satisfy the public demand for steel 
ills After a while, seeing that the public would not be 
adeceived, in spite of all they could say to their customers 
ley put up a mill at a cost of about halt a million dollars 
) make their own steel plate. In a short time afterward 
Ire nails came up, and the trade demanded steel wire 
nails, in spite of all arguments that they tvould not last 
as long as the cut nails. But the contractor got more nails 
in a pound, and the carpenter could drive a wire nail with 
three blows of the hammer, when it took four blows to 
drive a cut nail. So the company had to buy machines for 
making wire nails, put in a wire drawing plant, and a rod 
mill to make the rods from which the wire is drawn, at a cost 
of something like $200,000 more. Last year 1 wanted to 
shingle a house, and I wrote to the president of this mill 
asking him if the company made any iron cut nails, as I 
would not have the steel nails; he replied that he agreed 
with me in my choice of iron nails, but did not know of 
any mill that was making iron nails, or could afford to 
do so. But at last I did find a mill that was buying old 
scrap iron and making it into nails of the old-fashioned 
cut kind, and I got them at a high price, but I was satis¬ 
fied to pay for them. I consider the life of a steel wire 
shingle nail, in this climate, to be about four or five years: 
a steel cut nail about 8 or 10 years, and an iron cut naii 
about 2;> or 40 years. It is the same with steel fence wire, 
galvanized iron (so-called), steel furnaces, and ranges and 
everything that we get now. It sounds well to own a 
steel furnace, or range, but the purer the metal, the sooner 
it will oxidize. The steel cut nail will last longer than the 
wire nail, for two reasons. It has more metal in it. and 
the wire nail presents a bright, raw surface lo the damp¬ 
ness, whereas the cut nail, being cut hot, has a slight 
scale on it, which protects it for a while. s 
Wire Nails no Good. 
As to experience with iron cut, steel cut and wire nails, 
would say that my dwelling was built in 1863, when we had 
only iron cut nails, the roof was made of split and shaved 
pine shingles, which was renewed about six or seven years 
ago. Ihe nails were still in good condition. The new" roof 
put on with wire nails be^an to blow off last Summer, the 
nails having become so wasted by rusting that they failed 
to hold, and the roof had to be renailed. The steel cut 
nails will hold longer than wire nails, because they’ have 
more metal but the steel rusts just as rapidly, and any 
outside work put up with them will fall to pieces before un- 
painted pine will, give out. e. a. riehl. 
AN EXPERIMENT IN PICKING FARM HELP. 
n,I t > may , h , eIp tho . s , e of y° ur waders who are discussing 
the faun labor problem to know tlie experience of some of 
those who employed help through the medium of A. C. 
(Hidden, of Michigan, an interview with whom was printed 
in Ihe R. N.-Y. last Spring. At our request Mr. Glidden 
sent a man and his wife to live in our tenant house and 
work for us for a year. lie selected a German who had 
been in this country eight months, and who came on with 
>f 1S . u i°i a , n A, Ch !?- a , nd has done °ur farm work since 
March 11. 1904 \\e have now arranged with them to stav 
another year, offering an advance in pay of course. The 
man is intelligent, faithful, industrious and agreeable to 
have about. He has had experience in farming, in market 
gardening, in cement works, and a seven-years’ service on 
a ,/V e . rim in man-of-war has made him quick and prompt in 
all his duties. A few others who secured men in this wav 
were not so well satisfied as we have been, but is it not 
a common experience that men hired on sight do not al¬ 
ways stay, and when chosen after good investigation often 
prove disappointing? There is an uncertainty to be taken 
into consideration in employing help of any kind We may 
w-eil bear in mind that the uncertainty exists on the part 
of both employer and employed. I met Mr. Glidden re¬ 
cently just before he was about to begin trips east for help 
again this Spring. lie told me that last year he brought 
111 men to Michigan, 31 of them going to his own county. 
Most of these men had stayed by their employers and given 
good satisfaction. 
“One German," said Mr. Glidden, “returned to the old 
country to marry and came back to the same farm. An¬ 
other young man has now gone to school at the Ferris In¬ 
stitute. One of the men I brought on the first trips spoke 
five languages. I met him not long ago, and he said to me. 
Mr. Glidden, I am in different circumstances from what I 
was when I first saw you. Then I onlv had nine cents and 
was to be deported next day. Now I have $50 and a fair 
suit of clothes, as you see. I have sent some money to 
Belgium besides. I am now receiving $2.50 a day in the 
Deering Machine Works." It is interesting to know that 
the demand from the farmers for help through such a per¬ 
sonal agency as Mr. Glidden conducts is met on the other 
hand by workers in New York writing him for places and 
statements that will assist him in making better selec¬ 
tions than at first: moreover, there is a moral element in 
this movement that may well enlist our thoughtful consid¬ 
eration and, if our needs are such, our co-operation 
Michigan. j. B . 
R. N.-Y.—Mr. Glidden picked the men up from a variety 
of sources. Many were obtained from the Salvation Army 
Labor Bureau, some from agencies handling immigrants, 
and others from the streets—men who had spent the night 
outdoors, had had no breakfast and without a cent of money. 
Mr. Glidden’s keen observation, and the strict examination, 
both physical and mental, that each man was put through 
saved him from being imposed upon very seriously 
We are having one of the severest Winters for over 50 
years; there is over five feet of snow and in some drifts It 
is 30 feet. The railroads are nearly all blocked up; hun¬ 
dreds of men are shoveling snow in order to get the mails 
through. In some places there is a scarcity of hay, coal 
etc.. All the county roads are in bad condition. Unless 
we have mild weather there will be suffering in some 
places. l. D . 
Belmont, Canada. 
Look at 
Sprocket 
Drive 
the Big 
and Chain 
below. 
Ours is the only Manure 
Spreader made pos¬ 
sessing this advantage. 
m 
The Success Manure Spreader 
is the one to buy. These are among the reasons why: It is the result of 26 years of continuous Manure 
Spreader making. It covers every requirement and every condition for the spreading of all kinds of ma¬ 
nure, lime, plaster, ashes, salt, fertilizer, etc., broadcast or in drills. Spreads thick or thin as wanted. 
Apron returns automatically. Spreads largest load in 3 to & minutes. Strongest, easiest to load, spreads 
most evenly and has lightest draft. Made in 1 sizes to suit requirements of all sections. All about it and 
much more of value in our free book, “Farm Fertility." Write for it. 
KEMP * BURPEE MANUFACTURING CO., Box 38, SYRACUSE, N.Y. 
THE 
JUNIOR, No. 2 
Meets the demands of parties who. for a small investment, 
wish to engage in the Cement Stone Business for the mar¬ 
ket, or purchase machine for their individual use 
It is so simple and easy of operating and change for 
different sizes that it can be successfully used by in¬ 
experienced operators, 
It is thoroughly adapted to any and all kinds of con 
Struction. business blocks, factories, dwellings, barns, 
foundations, porches, yard fences, chimneys, etc. 
It not only makes hollow blocks, but by using a parting 
board will make veneer or partition walls, four-inch bed 
or thickness and two stones at one operation, one of 
which can be rock or bevel edge, smooth. Manufactured by 
Brady Cement Stone Machine Co., Ltd., 
Jackson, Michigan, U. S. A. 
EXAMINE THE FRAME 
It controls the life of a Spreader. It must carry a heavy load on 
rough and uneven ground and sustain the strain of all working ma¬ 
chinery. Perfect construction is necessary. The Standard frame has 
heavy sills into which the cross sills are held by large tenons, and 
joint bolts. Centre truss rods run fromend to end, andTelp support 
strong centre sills. The* g._ u 
STANDARD MANURE SPREADER 
Is the only spreader having three shafts under frame at rear and 
one in front extending entire width. These tie the frame, but their 
most important duty is to give a wide bearing for all gears, prevent¬ 
ing the cramping and breakage that trouble other spreaders. Large 
broad face apron rollers securely pinned and screwed to sill, and two apron chains insure a free running a- 
pron or bottom. Every part of machine is designed for unusual strength and simplicity. Strongest wheels, 
strongest braced box; strongest beater connections. Non-breakable change of feed mechanism. Simplest 
Spreader to operate. Ono lever starts entire machine. Endgate lifts easily because moves back from 
load, then forms a Hood over beater. Insures even spreading. Spreads light and also the heaviest—5 to 35 
k loads per acre. Rake prevents spreading in bunches. Apron returns automatically. Write for catalog. 
THE STANDARD HARROW CO., Dept. K UTICA, N. Y. 
Makers of Harrows, Cultivators, Potato Harvesters, etc. 
