1605. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
445 
Events of the Week. 
DOMESTIC.—May 17 George F. Meade, of Boston, presi- 
rent of the National League of Commission Merchants, con 
tinned his statement before the Senate Committee on Intel' 
state Commerce, giving details of alleged abuses of the 
private car system. lie presented some of the features of 
the testimony brought out in the hearing in Chicago. He 
asserted that Armour & Co. in some cases charged railroads 
$2.50 a ton of freight for the ice used, and paid the roads 
a rebate of $1 a ton. Refrigerating charges and freight 
charges, he said, were consolidated in one bill, the different 
items not being specified. Joseph S. Call of Los Angeles, 
Cal., representing 70 per cent of the Citrus fruit growers of 
southern California, appeared to urge giving the Interstate 
Commerce Commission power to supervise rates, establish 
maximum rates and put them in effect until passed on by a 
court, in accordance, he said, with the recommendation of 
the President. He has been employed by the Government 
in railway litigation. lie maintained that the private car 
lines were agents of the railroads, and the railroads should 
be held responsible for the acts of the car lines. Joseph 
Bartle, of St Paul, an oil shipper, testified that St. Paul 
and Minneapolis were not treated fairly in rates. He thought 
the Standard Oil Company got a concession from the rail¬ 
roads. The rate on oil, he declared, was advanced at the 
request of the Standard Oil Company from 12 to 20 cents a 
hundred. . . . The “whipping post law,” for the pun¬ 
ishment of wife-beaters, which was passed by the Oregon 
State Legislature in January last, went into effect May 18. 
The new law provides that a man convicted of wife beating 
may be punished by whipping, not exceeding 20 lashes, but 
this is only an additional punishment, and not the exclusive 
punishment for the crime. The old punishment by fine or 
imprisonment is still in effect under the new law. 
Governor LaFollette, of Wisconsin, has won his long fight 
for a railroad rate bill which will allow him to appoint a 
commission with power to fix all railroad rates in Wiscon¬ 
sin. The Senate May 18 passed the committee measure, 
which was approved by La Follette, after a long fight on the 
part of the opposition to have the commission made elective. 
The election bill was rejected by La Follette men two years 
ago, and he made his campaign on this phrase of the rate 
question, though the opposition favored a bill giving a 
measure of control of rates to an elective commission. The 
Senate was evenly divided, but (he Assembly is strongly for 
La Follette and will pass the bill with little question. . . . 
The I'ostoflice Department issued a fraud order May 17 
against the “Walter May Corresponding Club.” of South 
Bend, Ind. The “club” was operated by Joseph A. Logan, 
who inserted advertisements in newspapers throughout the 
country announcing that a wealthy woman desired to marry, 
and that a wealthy man was seeking a wife. Persons an¬ 
swering the advertisements were informed that for $5 each 
the “club” would put these seekers after a wife or husband 
in communication with the writer. When the inspector 
looked up the “club” Logan was getting in about 1,400 let¬ 
ters a day. many of them containing money. The Depart¬ 
ment says it was one of the worst matrimonial frauds it has 
struck for a good while. . . . Fire at Wilkesbarre, Pa., 
May 21, caused loss amounting to $300,000. ... At 
Columbus, O., May 22, a Hocking Valley locomotive which 
had just been overhauled blew up, killing six men. 
Judge Albion Winegar Tourgee, of Mayville, N. Y., American 
Consul at Bordeaux, France, died May 21 from acute 
uraemia, which resulted from an old wound. He had been 
ill for several months. Albion W. Tourgee was born in 
Williamsfield, Ohio, in May, 1838. He spent his youth in 
western Massachusetts, and in 1858 he went to the Roches¬ 
ter University. In April, 1801. he enlisted in the Twenty- 
seventh New York Regiment, being wounded at the first bat¬ 
tle of Bull Run. He re-entered the army in July, 1802, as 
a first lieutenant in the One Hundred and Fifth Ohio Regi¬ 
ment. His service in the field was soon terminated by the 
fortunes of war, which made him a prisoner. He was con¬ 
fined at Atlanta and Salisbury and in Libby Prison. At the 
close of the war be settled in Greensboro, N. C. He prac¬ 
tised his profession there, and In 1807 was elected a dele¬ 
gate to the State Constitutional Convention. A year later 
he became a judge of the Superior Court, holding his office 
until 1874. During liis term of service as judge the Ku-Klux 
Klan was exposed and broken up, largely through his indi¬ 
vidual efforts. In 1809 he was one of the commissioners 
appointed to prepare the code of North Carolina, and in 
1875 he was again a delegate to the State Constitutional 
Convention. Among Judge Tourgee’s published works are 
three law books. His first contribution to fiction was made 
In 1874. when, under the nom de plume of Henry Churton, 
he wrote “Toinette,” a tale of the South, a work which at¬ 
tracted much attention below Mason and Dixon’s line by the 
views expressed in it concerning the social relations of the 
whites and blacks. In September, 1879, Judge Tourgee pub¬ 
lished a second novel, “Figs and Thistles: a Story of the 
Western Reserve and the Civil War.” The publication of 
“A Fool’s Errand,” two months later, caused a genuine sen¬ 
sation throughout, the country. “Bricks Without Straw” 
appeared in October. 1880. From 1881 to 1884 .Ttirge Tour¬ 
gee was editor of the Continent, a literary weekly. Among 
his other works were “Hot Ploughshares.” “Black Ice,” 
“With Gauge and Swallow,” ‘Out of the Sunset Sea" and 
“The Story of a Thousand.” He was appointed Consul at 
Bordeaux in 1897 and in 1903 was promoted to the post of 
Consul-General at Halifax, returning later to his former 
office at Bordeaux. . . . After he had served four months 
in the penitentiary at Columbus, O., for robbing a corncrlb, 
Stanton Randles, a young farmer from Coshocton County, 
was released from prison May 20 upon order of the Circuit 
Court. The grounds upon which the man was released were 
that he had made no entrance to the crib In order to get 
corn, but had pried off a board and let the corn roll out, and 
therefore was not guilty of any penitentiary offense. He 
had been sentenced to live years. . . . Mrs. Mary Ash¬ 
ton Livermore, widely known as a teacher, lecturer, writer 
and agitator on woman’s suffrage and temperance legislation, 
died at Melrose, Mass., May 23, aged 85. When the Civil 
War began Mrs. Livermore turned all her energies to the 
work of the United States Sanitary Commission. So suc¬ 
cessful was her work that Dr. Henry W. Bellows, president 
of the commission, after seeing the results which she had 
achieved, telegraphed to Washington to have Mrs. Liver¬ 
more made an associate member of the commission, in 
charge of the work in Chicago. It was at this time that 
Mrs. Livermore began her career as a lecturer, raising large 
sums by this means for the needs of the commission. After 
the war Mrs. Livermore turned her attention to the cause 
of women. At first she did not favor equal suffrage, but 
was soon won over to the cause and the remainder of her 
life was given up to this work and that of the Woman’s 
Christian Temperance Union. In 18(19 she established the 
Agitator, a woman’s suffrage paper which was later merged 
with the Woman’s Journal In Boston, which Mrs. Livermore 
edited for two years. Associated with her on the Agitator 
were William Lloyd Garrison. Colonel Thomas W. Higginson, 
Lucy Stone and Julia Ward Howe. For 10 years Mrs. Liver¬ 
more was president of the Massachusetts Woman's Christian 
Temperance Union, and during this time she delivered lec¬ 
tures all over the United States and In England and Scot¬ 
land. In 1895 she retired from her more onerous duties, but 
retained her membership in 37 clubs and the presidency of 
two of them. Mrs. Livermore was the author of “The Chil¬ 
dren’s Army.” “What Shall We Do With Our Daughters.” 
“My Story of the War,” “American Women” and numerous 
other books. 
ADMINISTRATION.—No action will be taken by the 
Administration in the Venezuelan asphalt controversy until 
it has an opportunity of securing the advice of Congress as 
to the character of the steps it would be justified in taking 
to bring the matter to an end. This much was made known 
May 22 after the news that the president of the highest 
court in Venezuela had rendered a decision against the 
New York and Bermudez Asphalt Company, ordering it to 
pay damages to the Venezuelan Government, and that its 
concession and property be forfeited, had been received. The 
President has ample power to take up the asphalt negotia¬ 
tions again in a diplomatic way, but it is understood that 
he realizes that to do this would be futile and would serve 
only to encourage President Castro in what Administration 
officers declare to be a defiant and insolent attitude toward 
the United States. The fact that the President has decided 
to wait until he can secure the advice of Congress indicates 
that he believes the end has been reached in the attempt, to 
adjust the controversy peacefully, and that the only recourse 
now is to forcible action. The Administration authorities 
are of the opinion that any attempt to prevent the Venezue¬ 
lan Government from depriving the asphalt company of its 
property and its legal right should necessarily have to be 
undertaken by the use of force or at least a show of force, 
and they are unwilling to go to that extreme, because they 
realize that forcible action might be construed as an infringe¬ 
ment upon the war-making power, which is vested solely in 
the legislative branch of the Government. . . . Here¬ 
after convict labor cannot be used on Government works, 
according to an order just issued by the President at the 
instance of the War Department. The Judge Advocate Gen¬ 
eral of the War Department decided that the use of convict 
labor on Government works, even in States which permit 
it, is contrary to the spirit of the law. The case arose over 
certain river and harbor improvements in Arkansas, where 
the contractor had expressed the desire to hire convicts from 
the State authorities. 
FARM AND GARDEN.—Co-operation in agitation for re¬ 
form of many kinds is asked by the National Live Stock 
Association in a bulletin addressed to “all live stock organ¬ 
izations.” The movement includes amendments to the inter¬ 
state commerce law to provide for “just and reasonable” 
railway rates, the feeding of the American army in the 
Philippines with meat supplied by this country instead of 
mrchased abroad, and the extension of the market for Amer- 
can meats in foreign countries. 
Southern California is to have a laboratory and exper¬ 
iment station for the study of diseases of plants. The finan¬ 
cial support is to be furnished by the State that the work 
may be undertaken by the University of California as a 
part of the activities of its Department of Agriculture. The 
State Commission for the selection of a location for the 
pathological laboratory and experiment station, a board con¬ 
sisting of the Governor. President Beniamin Ide Wheeler, of 
the university, and Professor E. .T. Wickson, of the chair of 
agricultural practice in the university, is ready to receive 
proposals in regard to a site. It is expressly set forth in 
the bill providing for this work that lands already belonging 
to the State at Whittier or at Patton may l>e used if the 
commission so decides. Should other communities in south¬ 
ern California, however, make offers particularly advan¬ 
tageous in character the commission will be glad to enter¬ 
tain such proposals. 
Vol. 10. American Oxford Down Record, will be closed 
July 1, 1905, and pedigrees received after that date will be 
held over for Vol. 11, which will not be printed until 1907. 
Information concerning registry of this breed may be ob¬ 
tained from W. A. Shafor, Hamilton. O. 
CROP PROSPECTS. 
The prospect for most all fruit is fair here, but it has 
rained so much the past week that I am afraid the scab will 
do a great deal of damage. It has rained nine days in suc¬ 
cession, and is approaching five inches in that time, and is 
still raining some. u. t. cox. 
Lawrence Co., Ohio. 
Wheat and grass are looking fine, especially new seeding, 
but weather keeps cold and dry. and everything is very back¬ 
ward. May 21 we had a heavy frost, mercury in place’s down 
to 32, and a good many tomato and bean plants and manv 
strawberries were killed. But I don’t think it was hard 
enough to hurt peaches or other fruit. Orchards are show¬ 
ing a medium bloom, except where the Baldwins bore heavily 
last year. It has been a very good Spring for work, cool 
and dry, and most farmers have Spring grain all In and corn 
and potato ground is well along towards being fitted, but 
many are waiting for warm weather to plant. We have 
sold one of our farms, so we will cut down our farming 
operations. We sold the best farm in the State of New York. 
That is putting it strong, ain't it. but I challenge the whole 
State to show 327 acrdS in a nearly square block, with not a 
poor knoll, nor a rod of waste land on it, every foot rich 
and strong: good for 40 bushels of wheat or 50 bushels of 
barley per acre. The first year we got the Mansliurv barley 
we sowed six acres, from which we harvested and sold 427 
bushels of barley. It was simply immense; men when they 
saw it in shock would not believe it was barley till they 
went to the field. We gave It away for $100 per acre. 
Niagara Co., N. Y. ,t. s. woodward. 
GOOD ROADS CONFERENCE AT CORNELL 
While there was some disagreement among those present 
at the Good Roads Conference held at Cornell University, 
May 10-19, upon methods, there was but one unanimous sen¬ 
timent: that the object of the meeting was fruitful of very 
far-reaching results to the internal welfare of the State of 
New York. It is slowly dawning upon all concerned that we 
lack trained men to execute the laws already upon the 
statute books, and none in sight. Much trouble has fol¬ 
lowed in many towns simply because no one was at hand 
who knew what to do. It goes without saying that of all 
men, farmers are most surely able to meet emergencies, but 
in this case they have no literature, no experience upon 
which to rely, and so mistakes are frequent. Everyone 
who spoke emphasized this point, and particularly the engi¬ 
neers. It is not proposed to send graduated engineers into 
every town as road officers, but if the Governor signs the 
bill making a small appropriation it is expected that a 
reasonable number, at first of the road officers or the super¬ 
visors, or both, would attend a short course in the same 
capacity that the students now take the short course in 
butter and cheese making, and so be better eouipped to deal 
with the questions that confront them in their respective 
towns. They would of course find that application of teach¬ 
ing was non-applicable in many cases where quick judgment 
only would qualify. Contact, with men doing like work in 
other towns, and their ideas and experiences, and the prob¬ 
lems renovated by experts of broad and trained experience 
would give new interest and conception of road building and 
maintenance. 
W. Pierpont White, who must really be called the father 
of the present good roads movement in New York: State 
Engineer Van Alstyne and three prominent sub-engineers, in¬ 
cluding Editors Tucker and Johnson, and State Grange 
Secretary Giles addressed the convention. The State Engi¬ 
neer’s paper was elaborate and carefully prepared. A few 
statements briefly follow : Our best energies in the past 
have been employed upon railroad construction, until the 
cost of hauling per ton mile has been reduced from .0325 
cents per ton mile in 1865 to .0073 cents per ton mile in 
1904. This means that if the people paid ns much for rail¬ 
road haul now as then they would pay $142,000,000 more 
for local freight and $326,000,000 more for through freight. 
The average cost for hauling agricultural products in New 
York State over wagon roads is .26 cents per ton mile, 
while over the good roads of Europe it is .10 cents. He 
also called attention to the effect upon farm values by hav¬ 
ing roads over which city people could ride, thereby making 
real estate attractive to them. The fact that the present 
State law provides for the building of any kind of road of 
moderate cost up to the laying of brick if advisable was em¬ 
phasized. The State has now petitions for 5,500 miles, has 
surveyed 2,900, has planned for 2,100 miles: 1.750 miles 
have been approved by all parties concerned and moneys 
appropriated, and 700 miles have been built or now under 
construction : $6,300,000 of State money has been expended 
in surveys and construction since 1898. In 1905 under the 
Fuller-Planck State aid law 54 counties, 416 towns. 36,100 
miles of road had received State aid; the State had paid 
$483,355.27 and the towns expended $1,062,803. The in¬ 
crease is shown by eight counties, 43 town?: 3.696 miles of 
road being under the law in 1899. Slowly the State is being 
systematized. In the future the agreement between town 
boards and Commissioner must be on file in the State Engi¬ 
neer’s office: also an annual report of moneys expended. 
Eleven counties have now appointed either an engineer or 
superintendent. 
The following States have enacted road laws: New York, 
New Jersey, Massachusetts. Connecticut. California, Ver¬ 
mont, Maine. Rhode Island. Pennsylvania. Delaware, New 
Hampshire, Maryland and Ohio. Iowa, Michigan and North 
Carolina have established bureaus for collecting information. 
The following estimates were given where no unusual 
conditions are met: Expense of grading and drainage, $800 
to $2,000 per mile ; cost of concrete culverts, retaining walls, 
etc., from $500 to $1,000 per mile ; cost of guard rails, ditch 
crossings, underdrains, etc., $200 to $500 per mile. The fol¬ 
lowing table gives careful estimates of varying road con¬ 
struction : 
Earth road .Nothing 
A gravel surface 6 inches by 14 feet.$1,000 to $ 15,000 
A shale surface 0 inches by 14 feet. 1,300 to 15,000 
Macadam surface 6 inches by 14 feet. 4,500 to 6,000 
Pacing brick 8 feet wide laid on macadam. 10,000 to 12,000 
Average cost of all engineering work on roads is 10 per 
cent of contract price. 
Since writing the foregoing I have attended our local 
Grange meeeting and found much sharp criticism upon the 
methods adopted by our highway commissioner, who is doing 
his first work under the money system, and I am of the 
opinion some of it is deserved, simply because there has been 
no education for the man. and the job is therefore too big 
for him. Of course people are bound to criticise anyway; 
nothing but a miracle in road building would satisfy the tax¬ 
payers, and if the least chance is afforded for criticising they 
make the most of It_ it. e. cook. 
THE SMALL SILO.—I think that there is no doubt but 
that silage can be made to keep in a tank such as is de¬ 
scribed on page 439. While I have never seen a silo as 
small as the one you mention in practical use, yet I remem¬ 
ber very well, when I was at college, an experiment which 
was conducted where a silo was used made of a water tank, 
which was four feet, in diameter and 10 feet high. The corn 
was packed very tight in this tank and heavily weighted, and 
It made a good quality of silage, keeping very well with 
practically no loss. A tank 6 x 12 feet would hold from 
six to eight tons of silage, depending on how tightly it was 
packed and how much weight, was applied. 
Md. Exp. Station. h. j. patterson, 
OHIO CROP NOTES.—We have had very wet weather the 
past ten days. About one-half of our people have their corn 
planted ; the remainder have corn ground ready, but it rains 
every day or nearly so, and we are delayed. It is not late 
yet, as people usually plant from May 12 to 16, when they 
can, but ground is again badly soaked, and most ground 
will not be in good cond! ’on again for three or four days, 
even if the rain ceases. We had a beautiful March, but a 
cold April and May so far. Wheat, prospects are excellent; 
few people expected a good wheat crop this year, as we had 
a dry Fall and Winter, and it got a poor start in Fall, but 
it had protection, covered by snow the greater part of 
Winter, and March, usually the hardest month on wheat, 
was favorable, with plenty of rain in April and May, which 
caused a rank growth. Oats look poor, as it is too cold, 
and they look small and yellow, but may come out all right. 
Ground for corn was in excellent condition until those rains 
the past 10 days. Grass looks well for the same reasons 
that helped wheat in March, April and forepart of May. 
Excellent prospects for all kinds of fruit so far, such as 
apples, pears, nlums, peaches and cherries. I don’t know 
much about strawberries, raspberries and blackberries, but 
suppose they are all right yet. I have potatoes six or more 
inches high that I planted the latter part of March, but only 
a few, about 15 feet square, which I can cover up if danger 
of frost. Wheat is only 90 cents here now. It had been 
up as high as $1.21. Oats are about 40. corn 60; butter 
about 22 to 24; eggs 15: potatoes scarcely any sale at any 
. price, hard to get 25 cents now. We are in one of the best 
counties in the United States, but like everywhere else, it Is 
nothing but combines and trusts in almost everything. This 
is a great county for clay products, tile, building blocks, etc., 
but they are all combined and no competition any more. 
We used to have two grist mills and warehouse here owned 
by different persons ; now all three are owned by same peo¬ 
ple, and the millers all over this county have been holding 
meetings and organizing to fix prices they will pay for wheat 
and prices they will sell their products for. They want to 
beat, farmers and town people, the farmers In buying their 
grain, the latter In selling their products. They pay 90 
cents for wheat and sell it at $1.15 to $1.20 to town people 
who buy it for chicken feed, etc. As they hold this wheat 
a week before they sell it they make nearly 25 per cent 
jer week or over 1,200 per cent per year. We have laws 
n Ohio making it-usury to charge over eight per cent for 
money, and banks now seldom pay farmers over three and 
four per cent per annum. Cannot a stop be put to these 
extortions by combines? Louisville used to be the best 
wheat market in the county, but our two mills were paying 
more in order to run out the warehouse by paying more 
than It could afford to pay and ship, and finally the latter 
got to quarreling together, and a receiver was appointed, 
and now the owner of the mills has a controlling interest 
and there will be no further opposition. We have a strong 
Grange here; would It be practicable for them to find good 
customers and ship their products by carload? We have 
saved much in buying our fertilizers, salt and binding twine 
this season. peter balmat. 
Ohio. 
BUSINESS BITS . 
Jackson’s Round Agricultural Tile fills the long-felt want 
of everyone who desires the perfect drainage of the land. 
If you are Interested in this subject write to John H. Jack- 
son. 60 Third Avenue, Albany, N. Y., for his catalogue. It 
will tell you all you want to know about drainage tile, sewer 
pipe, fire brick, chimney tops, encaustic sidewalk tile, etc. 
Send for it to-day. 
Popularity at home is a pretty sure indication of merit, 
whether it be a man. a piece of machinery or some patented 
device. Applying this test to the automatic water buckets 
manufactured by B. II. Fry, Arnenia, N. Y., we should say 
they come as near being perfect as is possible to make 
them—there are over 2.000 of them in use in the Immediate 
neighborhood where they are made. To know more about 
them send for circular, prices, etc. 
Farmers everywhere are confronted by the problem of 
protecting the stock and poultry from dampness without 
great expense or labor. Shingles have always been a favorite 
solution, but now a new ready roofing, Ainatite, has been 
put on the market and proved itself to be a great advauce 
over the old methods. Any man can lay It without experi¬ 
ence. Sample can be obtained free from the Barrett Manu¬ 
facturing Company, New York. Chicago, Philadelphia. Cleve¬ 
land, Cincinnati. St. Louis, Allegheny, Kansas City, New 
Orleans, Minneapolis. 
Progress is the watchword of the Frost Wire Fence Co., 
Cleveland, O., manufacturers of the Frost fence, coiled 
spring wire and steel gates. The Frost Co. invented the 
first machinery for producing genuine coiled spring wire—• 
not a pound of it having been made In the United States 
up to that time. It now requires thousands of tons annually 
to supply the demand. Their latest achievement is the 
“Frost New Look,” which supersedes the “Frost Wedge 
Look.” invented by H. L. Frost in 1896. The “Frost New 
Lock” has proven to be the most practical and economical 
device In the world for uniting two hard wires at crossings, 
thus furnishing a key to the construction of a fence that 
will endure for 25 to 30 years instead of three to five years 
—<the life of an ordinary fence. Ask the Frost Wire Co. 
to mail a copy of their new catalogue and a small model 
demonstrating the merit of the “Frost New Lock.” 
Horace L. Bronson, of Star Farm. Cortland. N. Y.. re¬ 
ports the following Important sales of registered Ilolsteins 
from Star Farm herd: To A. L. Phillips, a daughter of 
Baron DeKol, Baroness Tdola. No. 71474: to Jorge C. Mi- 
lenes, of Santiago de Cuba, the heifer calf Nazli Johanna, 
No. 70620, also the bull calf. Wietski Butter Boy, No. 
35720. These calves were carefully crated and an ample 
supply of feed furnished, so that they stood their long 
shipment without losing flesh and arrived in grand condition. 
To W. R. Selleck, Huntington Harbor, L. L. two carloads of 
registered Ilolsteins, including some of the choicest males 
and females of the breed. This consignment made a sub¬ 
stantial addition to Mr. Selleck’s large herd of registered 
ITolsteins at Huntington, L. I., their Summer home. In 
Winter the stock is shipped to his stock farm in Virginia, 
and there allowed to graze during the Winter months. After 
a practical trial Mr. Selleck reports a great saving over 
keeping the stock north during the Winter. 
