1906. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
557 
Events of the Week. 
DOMESTIC.—Governor Iloch, of Kansas, favors the es¬ 
tablishment of a State denatured alcohol distillery, to 
compete with the Standard Oil Company. The Attorney 
General says the plan is feasible. . . . June 20 a cy¬ 
clone struck the town of Titzewah, Okla.; nearly every 
building in town was demolished. Nobody was seriously 
hurt, the people taking refuge in cyclone cellars, but there 
was a heavy loss of live stock and crops. ... A reso¬ 
lution was passed by the Los Angeles, Cal., Chamber of 
Commerce to the effect that Congress be urged to include in 
the Railroad Rate bill now pending a clause which will 
give fruit shippers the privilege of accompanying shipments, 
as stockmen are now allowed to do. It is said that such 
personal care is of the utmost importance to citrus-growers, 
for the prevention of decay of the fruit. . . . Prof. L. 
C. Hill, chief of the Government Reclamation Service in 
Arizona, says the Southern Pacific Railway will soon begin 
the task of draining the sea that is now forming in the 
Yuma Basin in Arizona. The Colorado River has broken 
through its banks, and the whole volume of water is pour¬ 
ing into the Yuma Basin. An area 3.10 miles in extent is 
covered. Brush mattresses will be floated to the gap, fas¬ 
tened with piles and weighted with rock. The water will 
be turned back into its natural channel and the great 
Salton Sea drained. . . . Thirteen Philadelphia ice men 
were held in $1,500 bail each July 2 on the charge of con¬ 
spiracy to raise thei price of ice. . . . The New York 
Life Insurance Company’s special investigating committee, 
composed of Thomas I’. Fowler, Norman B. Ream, Hiram 
R. Steele, Col. A. G. Paine and Clarence II. Mackay, sub¬ 
mitted its final report to the company's board of trustees 
July 2. Accompanying the regular report was a special one 
in answer to a demand by a policyholder that suits be 
brought against the trustees responsible for losses sustained 
in certain of the transactions disclosed before the Arm¬ 
strong committee. The investigators absolve George W. 
Perkins and the other members of the company’s finance 
committee from any liability iu the transactions criticized. 
The finance committee's management of the affairs of the 
company is generally sustained, the findings iu some cases 
being directly opposed to those of the Armstrong investi¬ 
gators. . . . July 2 United States troops ended their 
connection with the administration of relief in San Fran¬ 
cisco and withdrew from all duty iu the refugee camps. 
The order was promulgated by Gen. Greely on receipt of 
advices from the Secretary of War. Some officers will be 
on duty for a week or so at the various camps to wind up 
their affairs and turn over the property. 
CONGRESS.—The first session of the Fifty-ninth Con¬ 
gress came to an end June 30. The session was notable be¬ 
cause of the wide extension of Federal authority and the 
tendency of Congress to regulate corporations. The appro¬ 
priations will aggregate $000,000,000, as compared with 
$820,000,000 for the present fiscal year and $791,000,000 
for the fiscal year 1905. Billiou-dollar Congresses have 
ceased to surprise the country. With the expenditures that 
will be authorized at the short session next Winter more 
than $1,500,000,000 will be chalked up against the Fifty- 
ninth Congress. The major accomplishments of the first 
session of the present Congress may be briefly summarized 
as follows: It enacted a law regulating railroad rates; 
an act was passed providing for a rigid inspection of meat 
and meat products; new laws were passed relating to natur¬ 
alization ; the consulur service was reorganized; a pure food 
law was passed; a bill authorizing the establishment of 
national quarantine was put upon the statutes; Indian 
Territory and Oklahoma were admitted to the Union, and 
Arizona and New Mexico are to have an opportunity at the 
polls to elect whether they shall join the sisterhood of 
States; the internal revenue tax on denatured alcohol was 
removed; the President was authorized to construct a lock 
canal across the Isthmus of Panama. Congress at this ses¬ 
sion dealt almost exclusively with questions of domestic 
concern. The extension of Federal authority has been de¬ 
bated principally upon the specific questions of regulating 
railroad rates and the inspection of meats, although other 
important departures have beeen made by the enactment of 
laws enlarging the powers of the national quarantine 
service, amending the naturalization laws and imposing lia¬ 
bilities upon railroads for injuries to employees. Nearly 
21,000 bills were introduced iu the House, while 6,500 
were offered iu the Senate. The Congress enacted 4,000 
laws. Of this number 300 were of a public nature. The 
remainder were “private,” mostly pension grants. The 
Fifty-ninth Congress was satisfied with the enactment of 
3,400 laws, a record which is surpassed by the “private” 
acts of the single session of the Fifty-ninth Congress. The 
functions of the National Government were enlarged by 
the enactment of the pure food and meat inspection bills. 
Of the legislation enacted the railroad rate law is, of course, 
foremost in importance. This act increases the membership 
of the Interstate Commerce Commission to seven, and in¬ 
creases the salary of each commissioner to $10,000 a year. 
The orders pf the Federal, body fixing railroad rates are 
made subject to the broadest review by the courts, which 
may suspend, alter or annul them. The new law broadens 
the term “common carrier” to include express and sleeping 
ear companies, as well as railroads and boat lines under 
a common management which may be engaged in inter¬ 
state or foreign commerce, either passenger or freight. It 
broadens the term “transportation” to include private car 
lines, elevators and all other instrumentalities for the ship¬ 
ment of property. It provides that all rates shall be reason¬ 
able. Probably more excitement was stirred up by the meat 
inspection amendment to the Agricultural Appropriation 
bill than by any proposition considered during the session. 
But after the warring factions settled their differences what 
is regarded as an effective regulation of the meat packing 
business emerged from the legislative hopper. Under this 
law the Government is to pay the cost of the inspection of 
meats and meat products. The packers are not required, as 
some members insisted they should be. to put the date of 
canning on the labels affixed to cans containing by-products. 
The inspection is to apply to meats for domestic consump¬ 
tion as well as that for export. There was a hitter fight in 
conference over meat inspection, but the Senate finally 
yielded and accepted the House measure. After what looked 
like certain defeat for it in the Senate President Roosevelt 
won on his proposition to have a lock canal built at Pan¬ 
ama. The House first declared in favor of the lock canal 
by voting that no portion of the money appropriated in the 
Sundry Civil bill should be expended on a sea level project. 
The Senate then specifically agreed to this type of waterway 
and the House followed suit. A joint resolution was passed 
requiring the purchase of supplies and materials iu the canal 
in the American market, unless the President should de¬ 
termine that bids of domestic products were extortionate 
or unreasonable. The sum of $42,500,000 was appropriated 
for continuing work on the canal. Of this amount $16,- 
500,000 represented deficiencies and $26,000,000 for work 
during the fiscal year 1907. In addition to these appro¬ 
priations steps are being taken to Issue the canal bonds 
authorized by the Spooner act, which may be issued from 
time to time to the extent, of $130,000,000. Among the im¬ 
portant matters left unfinished were the Smoot case, the 
Philippines tariff bill, the Santo Domingo treaty, the eight- 
hour and anti-injunction bills, the revision and consolida¬ 
tion of the copyright laws, the ship subsidy bill and the bills 
prohibiting campaign contributions from corporations. 
Measures of international concern were neglected. The 
Algeciras, as well as the Santo Domingo treaty, failed of 
action, but the Senate is to vote on the first named on De¬ 
cember 12. It refused to set a date for voting on the 
Dominican agreement. 
NEW YORK'S GREAT DAIRY COUNTY . 
Two trips recently into St. Lawrence County, N. Y„ north 
of my home, have given opportunity for some interesting 
observations. This great county, with 1,665,776 acres valued 
at $32,920,571, which was second in agricultural output in 
the census of 1890, had during the next decade dropped 
10 points and stood twelfth in the list, not because it was 
producing less, but others had produced more. It still 
remains the great dairy county, and I am sure when one 
visits this section in the grass-growing season he will have 
to admit the wealth-making power of the grass family of 
plants for this section. It is idle, in my judgment, for these 
northern dairy farmers to spend time and money experi¬ 
menting with many of the popular plants of a more south¬ 
erly region, and it even remains a question of doubt whether 
or not over a period of years they can profitably grow large 
areas of corn. In a dry season, which will come about 
twice in a decade, a short) hay crop follow's, the man with 
a large corn area wins. Some corn must be raised to pro¬ 
vide succulent food during the Winter; plenty of evidence 
is at hand where dairies have shrunken from 10 to 15 
per cent following the feeding of the last silage in the 
late Winter months, but there is also plenty of evidence 
where cows are fed one good ration a day, ranging from 25 
to 40 pounds, that the remainder of the coarse feed can 
without sacrificing the milk flow be made from the grasses 
dried into hay. In fact, from my own experience I would 
rather feed this combination for health and profit than a 
larger proportion of succulence. I have a dairy kept under 
the soiling system through the year, and they absolutely 
demand a feeding daily of dry hay. If they cannot have it 
they will pick up the straw bedding. So these St. Lawrence 
people, who are chiefly milk producers, are keeping their 
cows mainly on a large run of pasture grass in the Summer, 
the quality of which cannot be excelled. Cows will come 
nearly to a full flow upon it without grain, feeding a sup¬ 
plemental feed in the late Summer season with a light grain 
ration, and in the Winter not making an effort for large 
production. As F. Spooner, of Richville, a very successful 
farmer and business man, said to me: “I make my money 
from the cheap pasture grasses, and then do business enough 
during the remainder of the season to pay expenses.” This 
will not be orthodox to many readers, but a surprise awaits 
the stranger who visits this north dairy country and notes 
the new buildings constantly going up. Not even the ex¬ 
travagant price of building material has in any way checked 
the building of large, up-to-date dairy barns. One will not 
find here the occasional wealthy farmer who 1ms sold sev¬ 
eral thousand dollars’ worth of fruit while perhaps a dozen 
neighbors are speculating on the time when they may do the 
same, but he will find if a given area is viewed, a combined 
net income comparing favorable with many so-called more 
favored lands. There are here few extremes but a high 
average mean. 
M.v last trip here was to attend a meeting called primarily 
to celebrate the passage of the bill by the State legislature 
giving $80,000 to establish a college of agriculture in con¬ 
nection with St. Lawrence University at Canton. I found 
Dr. Gunnison, president of the institution, hard at work 
upon a general plan of action and upon the details of the 
building. This is largely creative work. It is not to be 
expected that this college can rank in magnitude with Cor¬ 
nell or any' State Institution, but rather that it should 
stand as a secondary school, a feeder for Cornell. This is 
entirely a new departure for our State. There was no pre¬ 
cedent.' Will it be the policy of the State to build more of 
these schools? It is the opinion of Assemblyman Merritt, 
who secured the passage of this bill, and at present one of 
the most influential men iu the State Legislature, that 
the State will adopt this policy if this school can be made 
a success. Mr. Merritt said at this meeting: “There is 
within the proper jurisdiction of this school over $100,000,- 
000 of farm property. Is there any reason why the State 
should not build and maintain a school where such tre¬ 
mendous interests are at stake? And I am sure the State 
will support more of these schools if this one succeeds in 
attaching them to already established successful institutions 
where a governing board and the necessary executive ma¬ 
chinery are already installed which will save this expensive 
and usually unsatisfactory experience on the part of the 
State.” 
I was much pleased to hear Mr. Merritt say “that the 
campaign of education waged for the Cornell Agricultural 
College two and three years ago had converted the Legis¬ 
lature." No one can safely predict how far reaching that 
campaign may be. Dean Davenport, of the Illinois Col¬ 
lege, told me it was the most important educational vic¬ 
tory of recent times, and Mr. Merritt and Dr. Gunnison 
said without hesitation that that campaign made this present 
legislation possible. In the judgment of the writer, the 
whole question of securing State aid for agricultural educa¬ 
tion depends on the farmers themselves. If they will sup¬ 
port the movement through, first a moral backing for their 
representatives, and again by numerical support for the 
Institutions, New York can within a decade have the most 
complete network of education for country life of any State 
in the Union. City people are for it; anything that will 
contribute to better food gains their support at once. It was 
also a pleasure to know that Dr. Gunnison and those inter¬ 
ested with him were anxious to make haste slowly, and 
thereby avoid unnecessary errors in this creative work. 
II. E. COOK. 
AN AUTO TRIP THROUGH WESTERN N. Y. 
For over 20 years I have been planning a trip with a team 
to Portage Falls and down the Genesee River to Rochester, 
but have never seen the time when I wanted to spend so 
much horse strength on a long hilly trip, but as we have 
an automobile now to use for business and pleasure, and 
that does not object to any hills a team can go up and 
down, we thought the time had come for the Portage Falls 
trip, so started out one nice morning in June. We left 
Medina after nine o’clock, and after a fine run through the 
great bean section of Genesee County, finding the beans a 
perfect stand and large acreage, and a short stop at Batavia, 
reached the,asseinbly grounds on Silver Lake at a few min¬ 
utes after twelve, with nothing more serious than run¬ 
ning across a few “hogs" that do not own autos. One was 
mowing grass on the road side, and when he saw us com¬ 
ing he deliberately drove into the center of the road and 
would not let us pass on either side for some time. The 
next “hog” had on the uniform of a mail carrier, and just 
when we were going up the steepest part of a long steep 
hill, he drove into the center of the road at the top of the 
hill and wanted us to stop. Many of the roads in that sec¬ 
tion have guide boards (according to New York State laws) 
at the corners, and are very convenient and valuable to 
strangers, and it is a custom that I hope will become much 
more common. Nearly all the oat fields were wearing the 
most beautiful yellow mustard plaster ever seen, and some 
of the plasters covered many acres, and if the oat field or 
the owner got as much smart to the square inch as I have 
enjoyed (?l from a few mustard plasters that I have met 
with or have been applied to me by some one who would not 
heed my protests. I pity the owners, and should think they 
would try spraying or some other way to remove the plaster 
that is as bad' as a mortgage. 
There are no hills of any Importance until we dropped 
into Pavillion, and that has a stony hill; everyone who 
has been there asks “Did you go up or down the Pavillion 
hill?” We found many miles of roads that, were being put 
in good shape to raise a crop of beans or some farm crop 
by plowing In the sods from the roadside, not being worked 
down. After watering our motor and feeding ourselves we 
left for more hills to conquer. The falls at Portage are three 
in number, and fall respectively 60, 90 and 100 feet, and are 
certainly worth a trip to see. The banks there are quite 
high, and the river is spanned by a high frail iron bridge 
that trembled and vibrated with the passing trains. The 
wintergreens tasted as good as the ones I found when a boy; 
I ate a lot then and had thick hair on the top of my head, 
but now—well, I ate a lot of Portage wintergreens in hopes 
my hair would come back, but it has not yet. I am not one 
of those persons who wish they were young again, for I can 
get more fun now from a week’s motor trip than I had all 
my boyhood days. The road to Mt. Morris is waiting for us, 
so off we go, and the views that come to us every few 
minutes are charming and from there on are calliug us to 
come back some time, and we will go back, for while we 
live on a level farm and think it cannot be beaten we like 
to see the hills at times. We saw a woman chasing some 
cows down the road ahead of us, and when we caught up 
with her she was about tired out and as the cattle would 
have kept ahead of us for some time I sent the other man 
around the cattle and drove them back for the woman, and 
I had to stay and hold the auto—and keep the cows from 
climbing into the auto with the ladies. We reached Mt. 
Morris at just 6 p. m. and put out for night. In the morn¬ 
ing our road was across the Mt. Morris flats, and the crops 
were trying to show what such ground could do. One would 
think from seeing the help required to harvest peas for the 
canning factory that growing peas must be a very easy way 
to spend more money than could be made at the job. From 
three to one dozen men and boys follow the mower and fork 
the peas over, and then they have to be pitched onto a 
wagon. With a side delivery rake and hay loader there 
might be some fun and money in growing peas, but in the 
way it is done I can see nothing but hard work. 
We soon came to Geneseo, with its far-famed Wadsworth 
farms and stock, and we wondered why it was that “Old 
Uncle Wadsworth" has almost always been found on the 
side of some trust or corporation that is directly against 
the farmers of the United States and does not seem to care 
a cent for western New York farmers at any time except 
when election comes around, but from a talk with a business 
man there in Geneseo and some remarks made by men from 
Orleans County something will happen this Fall. Avon, a 
small town north of Geneseo, is one of the nicest small 
towns I have ever seen, and the farming country east and 
north towards Rochester is fine. 
We met a mail carrier who told us we could not get up the 
Henrietta hill, as the road had just been plowed and a hard 
rain had made it impassable for autos, a big one being»stuck 
there the night before which had to have a team pull it up 
the hill, but we had gone too far to get scared by a lion 
we had never seen. We had to put on mud chains but we 
went up, and did not have to hire the farmer, who was all 
ready to help us and himself at the same time. After such 
a long tedious hill we came to some fine State road, and 
we wished all the roads in the State were as good. High¬ 
land Park in Rochester is a beauty, but the drives have 
always been too long to walk, but with the motor distance 
does not count. After a few hours spent by the ladies in 
shopping we left for the west, and soon came to the biggest 
piece of folly ever recorded, the New York State Barge Canal, 
by the side of which the pyramids of Egypt are nothing, 
for they do not need millions every few years to repair. 
But the pyramids do not make votes, and the Erie Canal 
does. We bumped through the bottom of the barge canal 
and out again, and then the machine would not stir and I 
thought it wanted “graft,” so grafted on a new set of bat¬ 
teries, and still it would not move. I soon found it had 
shaken the gasoline feed open too wide in going through 
the canal. Now if I had been using an alcohol motor the 
machine would have used all it could get to drink after seeing 
the Erie Canal. It seemed good to get back to orchard 
country again. When we reached home at supper time we 
thought Orleans County the best of all, and we would not 
go away again until next time. clark allis. 
Orleans Co., N. Y._ 
CROP PROSPECTS . 
Apples will be under one-half a crop, but will be extra 
fine from the outlook now. Many fields of beans are being 
badly hurt with some insect something like weevil. We have 
in 100 acres, and the l>est stand and cleanest crop of beans 
I ever had. Over the fence from mine is a field of 25 acres 
that is very sick, but I used acid phosphate and I think that 
is distasteful to the weevil. c. a. 
Orleans Co., N. Y. 
Spraying in this section has been sadly neglected this 
season. Apples are a short crop. Currants and gooseber¬ 
ries about two-thirds crop. My Moore’s Arctic plums are 
full; Niagara and others are off this year. The Spring has 
been very cold and backward ; we had several heavy frosts 
about June 10. The weather is very changeable, very cold 
and then very hot. a. r. b. 
Dexter, Me. _ 
PRICE OF APPLE BARRELS.—I have been looking up 
the matter rind have just been able to ascertain from our 
coopers in this vicinity that most of them are asking 32 
cents for barrels to be delivered soon, and they are laying 
in stock at some advance from last year’s prices. They are 
already making contracts with the farmers, from 30 to 
35 cents, and have their men at work making barrels. I 
can hardly give the proportion of farmers who order their 
barrels ahead, but the number is increasing quite rapidly. 
Some of the local coopers do not anticipate a further ad¬ 
vance in stock. The fruit prospect is not as encouraging 
as it was a month ago. s. w. wadhams. 
Monroe Co., N. Y._ 
BUSINESS BITS. 
The best wagon wheels for work are the low down metal 
wheels with broad grooved tires. Experience proves that 
they are better for heavy loads, lightening the labor of the 
workers and reducing the weight of the load for the team. 
For a new low wagon with such wheels, or the wheels alone 
if needed for a wagon now on hand, write the Havana 
Metal Wheel Co.. Box 17. Havana, Ill., for directions about 
how to measure the wagon skein, and they will furnish the 
wheels that will fit exactly. 
Ix nearly every locality there is enough balable, salable 
material to make the ownership of a first-class baling press a 
decidedly profitable investment. A card of inquiry to D. B. 
Hendricks & Co., Kingston. N. Y.. makers of the famous 
Hendricks baling presses for baling hay, straw, cotton, 
husks, moss, shavings, etc., will bring full information re¬ 
garding the best baling presses made, and how to handle 
them to secure the greatest profit. These presses have lieen 
in successful use for nearly 30 years, and thousands of testi¬ 
monials prove their superiority. Send for free catalogue 
and full information. 
Two hundred and sixty-eight of the best shots in the 
country took part in the Grand American Handicap Tour¬ 
nament held in Indianapolis, Ind., June 19-22. The great 
event of the week was the Grand American Handicap, which 
was won by Mr. F. E. Rogers, of St. Louis, who broke 94 
out of 100 targets from the 17-yard mark in a gale of 
wind, shooting Winchester Factory Loaded Shells, in each 
of the other three events on Hie programme, Winchester 
Factory Loaded Shells or Winchester Repeating Shotguns 
landed in first place, making a clean sweep for these justly 
popular and reliable goods. 
C. F. Switzer. Eddyville. Iowa, writes as follows to the 
Troy Chemical Co., Binghamton. N. Y. : “On or about 
May 1 I sent for a bottle of Save-the-Horse for a bad 
thoroughpin^ which I was told by the veterinarian could not 
be cured. I used “Save-the-ITorse” as directed and worked 
the mare every day on a gang plow and grain binder and in 
four-horse team—in fact, on every implement on the farm. 
We are breaking sod with three horses to-day, and she is one 
of the three, and you can not tell which' leg the blemish 
was on. She is just as sound as a dollar and no reasonable 
price would buy her.” 
