1906. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
359 
EVENTS OF THE WEEK. 
DOMESTIC.—New coal fields, comprising 800,000 acres 
in Colfax County, New Mexico, bave been bought by the 
St Louis, Rocky Mountain and Pacific Railroad Company 
from the Dutch syndicate which owns the old Maxwell land 
grant of 1,570,000 acres in Colfax County. The price is 
said to be $15,000,000. . . . Charges of fraud in the 
returns upon the municipal ownership proposition voted 
on in Chicago April 3 have been received by Corporation 
Counsel Lewis, and the County Court and the Election Com¬ 
missioners will be asked to investigate the matter. It is 
asserted that in 41 precincts the returns upon all of the 
three propositions relative to municipal ownership show ex¬ 
actly the same vote, and this is said to be an impossibility. 
It is claimed by the advocates of municipal ownership that 
a recount will show a gain of 8,000 votes for the proposition, 
and these, together with the same loss for the negative 
votes and an error of 1,000 votes already found in the foot¬ 
ing of the vote in the Tenth Ward, will give the immedi¬ 
ate-operation proposition sufficient votes to become effective. 
. . . Explosions of gas in sewers caused much alarm, 
some Injuries and considerable damage In New York City 
April 6. The explosions are said to bo caused by the waste 
gasoline and other volatile oils from the garages between 
Fifty-first street and Central Park. Gasoline vaporizes into 
explosive gases at a temperature much lower than that of 
the warm sewers, and the experts of the Consolidated Gas 
Company who have been hard at work trying to determine 
the cause of the previous explosions have reported that 
there was little doubt that the garages in the district named 
were to blame. When it is considered that more than 
50 Iron manhole covers, weighing 100 pounds or so apiece, 
were blown into the air: that windows were blown out on 
every side, and that the panic which followed covered a 
dozen blocks, it is remarkable that no fatalities were re¬ 
ported. Ten-year-old Jimmy Lane was playing marbles with 
several companions on the manhole cover at Tenth Avenue 
and Fifty-first Street at the time of the first explosion. He 
shot up in the air and struck on his head, receiving a cut on 
the cheek. When he landed manholes were popping on every 
side, and the apartment houses were sending streams of ten¬ 
ants into the street. It was estimated that broken glass 
alone amounts to $3,000. ... A sequel to the recent ar¬ 
rest and indictment of former Game Protectors Charles A. 
Klock of Fairfield, Herkimer county, and Harvey A. Gay¬ 
lord of Lewis county on a charge of mulcting the’ State out 
of many thousands of dollars by the illegal sale of timber 
on State land in the Adirondacks came April 7 in the arrest 
of Henry G. Rallou, a wealthy lumber and real estate opera¬ 
tor of Ctica. and his agent, Timothy Dunn. 'They have been 
Indicted for alleged grand larceny in connection with the 
timber thefts of Ivlock and Gaylord and will be arraigned in 
Herkimer county, where the indictments were returned. 
CHINESE EXCLUSION LAW.—Commissioner of Immigra¬ 
tion Sargent was before the House Committee on Foreign 
Affairs April 9 and made a statement relative to the pro¬ 
posed changes in the Chinese Exclusion law. He recom¬ 
mended that, the United States station agents in China, 
inspect the certificates of Chinamen coming to this country, 
and that the certificates which thev issue should act as 
passports. At present these certificates are issued by the 
Chinese Government and indorsed by American Consuls 
without proper investigation. There was abundant evi¬ 
dence, he said, to show that they were issued in blank and 
filled in by the persons who used them, with the result that 
coolies came in with the certificates which were intended for 
the classes not excluded. The only wav to remedv this 
growing practice, he thought, was to have United 'States 
agents stationed in China, who should issue the certificates 
in duplicate, sending one to the port in the United States 
at which the Chinaman bearing the original should land. 
In other words, he favored having the investigation made in 
China rather than in the United States. He did not. think 
the Foster bill would accomplish what it sought to do. 
Mr. Sargent said that when he came into office there were 
many Chinamen coming in across the Canadian border 
and he told of having visited a school in Pell street, New 
lork, where Chinamen were drilled as witnesses to assist 
their countrymen in getting across the line. The influx had 
been stopped by an agreement which bad been reached 
with the Canadian Pacific Railroad, but now Chinamen are 
coming in across the Mexican border, and the Department 
has been unable to arrive at any agreement, with tne Mexi¬ 
can railroads which will assist in keeping out the coolies 
Under the present conditions the entire" army could not 
prevent coolies from coming in across the Mexican border. 
Samuel Gompers. president of the American Federation of 
Labor, and Andrew Furesuth of the Seamen’s Union were 
also heard in opposition to the Foster bill. 
THE COAL STRIKE—The miners' strike in the Pitts¬ 
burg district ended completely April 9. when every mine in 
the district but one resumed in full. This mine, belonging 
to the Pittsburg Coal Company, is not in condition for 
working. All the 30.000 men in the Pittsburg district are 
back at work at the highest scale they have ever en¬ 
joyed. There has been some violence in’ the Wilkesbarre 
district. April 5 there was a serious explosion that shook 
the city. A large quantity of dynamite had been placed 
under a four-inch steam pipe supplying power to the fans 
at the Franklin colliery of the Lehigh Valley Coal Com¬ 
pany and fifty feet of this was blown to pieces. Thomas 
Green, a workman at the Drifton colliery of the same prop¬ 
erty, was severely beaten on his way home from work in 
the night. An old building owned hv the company and 
close to the Babylon breaker at Dur.vea was burned to the 
ground. The State police arrested seven of the rioters who 
April 5 drove off the workmen at the West. End Coal Com¬ 
pany washery at Mocanaqua. In the face of a strongly 
worded protest from the independent interests in the anthra¬ 
cite coal industry against any arbitration, the coal operators 
replied April 10 to the proposal of John Mitchell and his 
committee with a counter proposition in which they agree 
to arbitrate just two of the miners’ seven demands. These 
are the question of wages and the reconstruction of the 
present conciliation hoard. The operators are unwilling that 
the conciliation board, which is one of the subjects in dis¬ 
pute. shall be the arbitrator, but propose the members of the 
Anthracite Strike Commission or such of them as will 
serve. '1 hey would have the members of this commission 
first decide whether new conditions have arisen justifying 
any change in their award of three years ago. If they 
decide that there has, the operators would restrict the 
inquiry to the “check off” system and recognition of the 
union. Furthermore, the operators propose that in the 
arbitration of the wage question the question of a reduc¬ 
tion shall be considered as well as that of an increase, giving 
them the chance to show that the payment of the present 
wages is not justified by recent trade conditions. The propo¬ 
sition thus to limit the scope of the inquiry by an arbitra¬ 
tion ooaid is not at all pleasing to the miners! particularly 
as it disregards the eight-hour day. 
POSSIBILITIES OF MIDDLE SOUTH. 
A. B. R„ Nassau, N. Y., asks is there not great danger 
of malaria. I will answer for Nansemond Co., Va. Malaria 
is about as prevalent as in all tide-water countries between 
Hampton Roads and Long Island Sound. I was told by Gen¬ 
eral Henry he considered Fortress Monroe the healthiest 
station on the Atlantic coast. He was then stationed at 
I’ort Wadsworth, N. Y.. and that season 60 per cent of the 
garrison had been affected with malaria and chills and fever. 
I SO north about every Summer, visit the Oranges, and up 
the Hudson I hear more talk of malaria while there than 
here. In fact. I_ consider this a very healthy, country. Thirty- 
seven years this February there were five families moved 
K> this county, four from New Jersey and one from New 
York. Of the 10 heads of families only two have passed 
away, one lady 78. one man 74. The youngest of eight living 
is 72 years old. all farmers and hard-working men. and have 
been successful. Not one family that has returned North 
is living to-day that came that year to Virginia. So much 
for the health. I can’t say as much for the roads. In Win¬ 
ter they are bad. but as most farms are on or near the river 
there is comparatively little heavy hauling on the country 
roads. About labor, we have just about to contend with 
what our northern farmers do. Sometimes we could ask no 
better labor: then we get triflers. Usually we get all crops 
marketed without loss in that direction, and at reasonable 
rates, as follows: Ten cents a barrel picking potatoes up 
after plow : 20 cents one-half barrel basket for Maryland peas ; 
15 cents for marrows; 15 cents for string beans; 10 cents 
a bushel for running peanuts; eight cents for bunch. Good 
hands $5 a week; they board themselves; our farm help is 
mostly colored. 
The great trouble with most northern farmers coming, 
here is they have notions of their own about farming and 1 
will persist in doing their way. The result, before they 
discover their mistakes and get into new ways, they become 
discouraged and leave. We can raise hay of all kinds, but 
for money crop it does not pay like peanuts, cotton, pota¬ 
toes and sweet potatoes. Possibly our country schools are 
not up to date. Still they are getting better every year. 
Schools and good roads are receiving more attention than 
ever before. Farmers have made money very fast the last 
few years. Farm land close to river and railroads has ad¬ 
vanced 25 per cent in the last three years; still there are 
farms yet to sell at reasonable prices, but I would not advise 
any man to leave his native heath after he is 45 years old 
and set in his ways. r>ut if he has never farmed and is 
willing to learn Virginia is as good a country as he will find 
anvwbere. E, b. d. 
Suffolk Co., Va. _ 
CANADIAN DAIRYING.—A late official report shows that 
Canadian cheese exports in 1901 amounted to 233,980.710 
pounds, valued at $24,184,560. According to the last census 
(here are 2.398 cheese factories in Canada, having increased 
in 10 years from 1,556. In the same time butter fac¬ 
tories increased from 170 to 629. and combined butter and 
cheese factories from none to 554. The Government con¬ 
tinues to operate creameries in the Northwest Territories, 
where the dairy industry could hardly succeed without such 
aid. In the Summer of 1904, 562,686 pounds of butter were 
manufactured in 13 Government creameries. The average 
cost of manufacturing was 3.61 cents per pound, but the 
figures varied from 2.27 cents to 20.91 cents. 
MILK OFFENDERS.—Under Section 32 of the Agricul¬ 
tural Law as amended by Chapter 603 of the Laws of 1905, 
49 actions have been brought and work is now being done 
to make others. In the work done thus far two persons to 
whom licenses have been issued to act as agents in cream¬ 
eries where milk is bought and again sold or shipped for 
consumption, have surrendered their licenses and can no 
longer act as such agents in milk gathering stations. It is 
hoped that the continuation of the work will prove suffi¬ 
ciently successful so that those who are tempted to violate 
this statute will see that it is not profitable to manipulate 
the milk, but rather to see that it is more profitable to sell 
the milk as the statute requires it should be sold. 
EASTERN ADVANTAGES.—As I note the apparent dis¬ 
content of many eastern farmers T am inclined to say to 
them that they do not fully appreciate a good thing when 
they see it. Think of living upon dried fruits (if one gets 
green fruits or vegetables they are apt to be “second-hand") 
and “store goods.” Here at present flowers are in bloom, 
the mulberry and other trees are in leaf, and the writer 
sits near the open window as be writes, and is uncom¬ 
fortably warm. To a man plodding around in the snow, 
with his “ear-tabs” down and mittens on. this may seem 
alluring. Stick to the East. There you can. by a little 
effort, have fresh fruits and vegetables such as the westerner 
cannot buy. During (be cold days when you are bustling 
about you are gathering up energy for the rest of the year. 
Think of a man harvesting his crops out in the desert sun 
with the mercury at 126 degrees in the shade! Try this 
once and you will be willing to go back and put on the 
overcoat and mittens. However, there is a fascination about 
the West that the East does not possess. But the eastern 
farmer has schools, churches, rural delivery, telephones, 
nearby markets and many other things that the average west¬ 
erner has little conception of. Some imagine there is a 
better opportunity here to make money. This may be true 
to a certain extent. But the man who will succeed in the 
West is apt to succeed in the East. The average easiern 
farmer would not be satisfied with the new order of things 
should he settle in the West. What suits one will not suit 
another, so do not take anyone’s word for it, but investi¬ 
gate before you leave a good home in the East. 
Arizona. .T. d. prickett. 
-Li*'- *■“ 
p£$mm He Stands on a Certainty 
who bases his farming on a scientific knowledge of proper plant foods. 
He doesn’t have to “ guess ” whether or not his crops will be big. He 
knows what’s going to happen because he makes it happen. 
If your crop was good last year you can depend upon it that there 
was Potash in the soil that grew it. No uncertainty about that. 
The soil that grew that grain has less Potash this year than it had 
last year. No uncertainty about that, either. 
If you continue to grow grain on that soil, without in some way re¬ 
placing the 
POTASH 
that went into the making of the grain, the day will come when there is no 
more food left for grain. You can’t raise good crops in such ground any more 
than you can fatten steers by turning them out in a sage-brush desert. 
In other words, if you expect to keep raising good crops you must keep 
replenishing the food supply for those crops. 
That, in a nutshell, is what we mean by scientific farming. 
We have published a series of books on this important subject. They are not mere advertising 
circulars, but books prepared by experts, and full of information to the man who invests good money in 
mother earth with the hope of getting it back with interest. We send any or all of these books FREE. The 
postage stamp you spend to ask for this interesting series may prove the biggest investment you ever made. 
German Kali Works, 93 Nassau St., New York 
