1906. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
6o5 
Events of the Week. 
DOMESTIC.—At Socoito, N. M., 52 earthquake shocks 
were felt between July 15 and 18, and people are fleeing 
to other towns*. The hot water in the springs about 
Socorro has become 10 degrees hotter. There Is an extinct 
volcano crater 10 miles from Socorro, and there are evi¬ 
dences of past volcanic disturbances. It is believed to be 
a volcanic disturbance that is causing the shocks. A Santa 
be train came in to El Paso July 19 four hours late, 
having been caught in the earthquake and delayed by 
bowlders strewn along the tracks by the earth’s convul¬ 
sions. The passengers were terror-tricken and many of 
them are refugees from the desolated city of Socorro. 
1 hey fled with little more than they could carry without 
much trouble. The houses were tumbling everywhere when 
they fled, they said, and old lava beds outside the city 
had been tossed upward as if the convulsion was directly 
beneath them. Several telegraph wires are intact and the 
Mayor of Socorro issued a statement to the effect that the 
reports of the condition of his city had been exaggerated. 
• • • • Judge Putnam in the United States Circuit Court 
at Boston July 18 handed down a decision in the .$.3,000,000 
Pay State Gas vs. Henry If. Rogers case favorable to the 
Pay State Gas Company of Delaware. It rules that Rogers 
must pay back to Receiver George Wharton Pepper of the 
Pay State Gas Company half the profits of the deal in 
which he delivered the control of the Poston gas companies. 
Rogers is allowed to retain the original cost of his invest- 
ment and an equitable profit on the investment. Rogers 
will appeal the case to the higher courts. . . . The 
Sewer Pipe Trade Association, familiarly known as the 
Sewer Pipe Trust, practically entered a plea of guilty to 
the charges of a secret contract to limit the production and 
control the territory and prices of sewer pipe before the 
bederal Grand Jury at Jamestown. N. Y., July 19. United 
States District Attorney Brown had prepared a mass of 
evidence against the company which lie was about to present 
to the Grand Jury, when Harry A. Hall of Pittsburg, 
attorney for the association, said that rather than submit 
to the proposed investigation by the Grand Jury he would 
enter into an agreement whereby the association would be 
dissolved and go out of business. The proposition was 
accepted by United States District Attorney Burns, who 
said : “My department, having in view the wholesome and 
salutary effect of the dissolution of this trust to the people 
at large, reached the conclusion that the investigation might 
be postponed in order that an opportunity might lie afforded 
the representatives of the trust to confer with the Attorney 
General and submit proofs of absolute and final dissolution 
and the disposition of such other details as might lie 
necessary.” There were more than 25 companies in the 
trust, and as the proof was clear, the action of the District 
Attorney was a surprise. He could have dissolved the 
trust after conviction. . . . The members of the Na¬ 
tional Live Stock Exchange at a meeting in Chicago July 20 
decided to stand by the packers and make every effort to 
prove that the packers’ meat is ail that the manufacturers 
claim. It was also decided to ask Secretary of Agriculture 
Wilson to meet a committee to discuss the new inspec¬ 
tion law. . . . Mayor George P. Codd, of Detroit, Mich., 
announced July 19 that he has under way plans for the es¬ 
tablishment of a municipal ice plant in that city, which will 
furnish ice to citizens at the cost of cuffing, storage and 
delivery by employees of the park department, who have 
little work to do in Winter, and some employees of the 
water department. He plans to secure the ice from the 
channels around Belle Isle and to erect on city property, 
close to the river, municipal ice-houses. ... At Kansas 
City, Mo., July 19, a wholesale millinerv house was struck 
by lightning and set on fire; loss $200,000; insurance 
$100,000. . . . Attorney-General Moody, Solicitor-Gen¬ 
eral llo.vt and Secretary of the Interior Hitchcock, with 
the sanction of President Roosevelt, have given instructions 
for filing a series of civil suits in connection with aileged 
coal land grabs in Utah. One suit against the Pleasant 
Valley Coal Company has already been commenced. The 
next action will be a bill in equity demanding return to the 
Government of more than 30,000 acres coal land, which it 
is alleged was acquired through fraudulent means by the 
Pleasant Valley Coal Company and the Utah Fuel Company. 
The Government price for this land undeveloped is in the 
neighborhood of $000,000, but the actual value is said to be 
more than $6,000,000. The suits will attack the title of 
lands acquired by the companies through selection as 
agricultural or grazing land. It is charged that the State 
Land Board was party to a scheme by which the large 
tracts were fraudulently obtained. The names of a large 
number of Utah men are involved in the allegations. . . 
. . By a vote of 125 to 2, the lower branch of the 
Georgia Legislature passed the so-called child labor bill 
July 17. This bill is identical with the Senate measure, 
% which already has the approval of the majority of the 
upper House. The bill provides that no child under 10 
years of age shall be employed in any factory or manufac¬ 
turing establishment within the State. . . . Charging 
that Andrew C. Fields, former superintendent of supplies 
of the Mutual Life Insurance Company, New York, took 
from the treasury of the company during the last 10 years 
sums aggregating $1,746,000 by means of fraudulent bills 
and vouchers, complaints in two suits against Fields were 
served July 20 on his counsel, Henry P. Veit. One of the 
suits is an action for damages for the full amount, and is 
based on the allegation of negligence and misconduct on 
the part of Fields in approving vouchers for stationery, 
printing and advertising and miscellaneous supplies at prices 
“grossly and unconscionably in excess of their real value.” 
The complaint in the second action alleges the receipt by 
Fields of a large amount of money belonging to the com¬ 
pany and for which he has not accounted. Taking the 
period from April 4, 1900, to September 1. 1905, the com¬ 
plaint declares the company paid for stationery, printing 
and supplies $3,746,000 on bills recommended and approved 
by Fields. It is declared that the articles purchased by 
Fields under his system should not have cost the company 
more than $2,000,000. . . . Russell Sage, the famous 
New York financier, died July 22, lacking a fortnight of 
being 90 years old. He began work as a poor grocer's 
clerk, and gradually entered financial enterprises. He could 
take hold of almost any financial enterprise and put It 
upon a solid basis. lie was a financial economist. In a 
twinkling he could stop a leak and make each penny in the 
treasury assert itself. He had neither the courage nor the 
temperament to bring to a successful culmination the great 
enterprises of a Rothschild or a Vanderbilt of the old line, 
but with the shrewd and calm judgment he could bring 
order out of almost any entanglement which beset one of 
the treasuries with which financiers have to deal. Although 
a member of the Stock Exchange for years, he scarcely ever 
appeared on the floor. He joined the exchange in 1874. 
His fortune of $50,000,000 or $60,000,000 was constantly 
added to by dividends and interest rather than by specula¬ 
tions In stocks. lie was a great lender of money to bankers 
and brokers. . . . Following recent indictments of 
wholesale coal men and laundrymcn for “combining for the 
restraint of trade,” or the forming of trusts, the Grand 
Jury at Cincinnati, O., July 23, reported indictments against 
15 icemen, also charging conspiracy against trade. The 
penalty is from $3# to $5,000 fine and from six months 
to one year imprisonment, either or both, at the discretion 
of the court. All of those indicted are members of the 
Ice Dealers’ Association, though these men do not make 
up nearly the total membership. But all those indicted 
were present at a meeting of the association on May 30, 
when an advance in prices was discussed and subsequent 
to which the increase was made. The ice men aver that 
they are not extortionate in their prices. They say the 
recent increase was to meet the increased cost of manufac¬ 
ture. The cost of the ice machines is large and their 
maintenance expensive, they say. . . . Numerous heirs 
of I^ewis Lunsford, a wealthy land owner, who died in 
Kentucky about the year 1790, have learned that the 
supposed fortune of $160,000 which they expected to realize 
out of the estate left by their ancestor is purely a myth. 
It has been found that the 4.000 acres of valuable mining 
land in Kentucky formerly owned by him was sold before 
ids death and has been in the possession of other persons 
for more than one hundred years. The deed for the land, 
however, had never been recorded, thus leaving a defect 
In the title, and the only Interest the heirs now have in the 
property is to assist the present owners in clearing it up 
Notices have been sent to the heirs by Indiana attorneys 
stating that the Eastern Kentucky Coal Lands Corporation, 
a New York concern, is engaged iu adjusting its title to 
the land and is desirous of obtaining from all the heirs 
of Lewis Lunsford an option for a quit claim deed to the 
property, in the event the company shall subsequently 
desire it. . . . In a wreck between passenger train 44 
and an extra freight on the Seaboard Air Lino July 23 
between Hamlet and Rockingham stations, in North Caro¬ 
lina, 20 persons were killed and 24 injured. The railroad 
officers say that the wreck was caused by the failure of the 
operator at Rockingham to give orders to the passenger 
train relative to the approach of the freight. ... A 
meeting of citizens of Centralia, I’a., was held July 24 
in an effort to save the town from falling into the aban¬ 
doned mine of the Lehigh Valley Coal Company. Some time 
ago the company notified business property owners in the 
central part of the city that the pillars of coal which 
support the surface upon which their buildings stand were 
about to be removed and that, there was danger of the 
surface subsiding and the buildings being demolished. The 
coal company bases its right to mine the coal upon recent 
decisions of the courts which declare that as the occupants 
of the surface purchased only the surface rights, the coal 
company, owning the mineral rights, had the privilege of 
removing all the mineral. As the robbing of the supporting 
pillars of coal beneath the town will wreck it, the veins 
being near the surface, the citizens at the meeting resolved 
to join in raising money to make a fight in the courts 
against the company. . . . One of the most spectacular 
as well as disastrous passenger train wrecks in the history 
of the Northwest occurred near Sand Point, Idaho, July 23, 
when the Great Northern Overland No. 3, westbound, 
dashed into Diamond Lake because of spreading rails. The 
engine, express and combination baggage car and smoker 
were submerged. Eight persons were drowned and many 
more were injured. The remainder of the train caught 
fire, but the blaze was extinguished. 
STANDARD OIL.—Attorney Troup of Bowling Green, 
representing John D. Rockefeller and the Standard Oil 
Company, came to Findlay, July 23 and entered the ap¬ 
pearance of Mr. Rockefeller in the criminal case brought 
before Judge Banker by Prosecuting Attorney William L. 
David, charging violations of the anti-trust laws of Ohio. 
Mr. Rockefeller now stands in the same position and with 
the same legal status as though he had been arrested and 
taken to that city. Through his attorney his appearance 
has been entered and he is bound upon honor to appear 
for trial when wanted, which, according to Prosecuting 
Attorney David, will be in the early part of September. 
According to his attorney, Mr. Troup, Mr. Rockefeller is 
willing to go there for trial, but he does not want the 
notoriety of an arrest or the trouble of evading process. 
Prosecutor David says that all the defendants in the 
case are now in court and he will have the Probate Court 
summon a jury in September, when the cases will be 
brought up for trial. 
RURAL MAIL DELIVERY.—Postmaster-General Cortei- 
you’s order, which went into effect. August 1, permitting 
patrons of rural delivery to make their own boxes or to 
have them made to order, provided such boxes are so con¬ 
structed as to fall within the requirement of the Depart¬ 
ment, seems to have been misunderstood. A statement is¬ 
sued by Assistant Postmaster-General De Graw says : “Mis¬ 
leading comments have appeared stating that farmers can 
now whittle down their wooden boxes to make a rural 
mail post box in any way they choose. The order of the 
Postmaster-General provides exactly the contrary. All 
iKixes must be made of galvanized sheet iron or sheet steel 
of certain specified dimensions. Wooden boxes are regarded 
as being neither secure nor weatherproof within the require¬ 
ments of the Department, and all such boxes now in use 
will be gradually eliminated from the service.” . . Offi¬ 
cial tests have recently been made by direction of the Post¬ 
master-General of the adaptability of automobiles to the 
rural delivery'service. Rural routes within easy reach of the 
Washington office presented many of the adverse conditions 
of rocky and “corduroy” roadbeds, steep grades and mud 
holes to be found in more remote communities, and were 
selected for experiment. So far as the practical resul.t 
attained the tests met all the requirements of the Depart¬ 
ment. 'Hie particular motor cars used were buekboards of 
four horse-power, with a wheel gauge of 42 inches, propelled 
by a single cylinder, air cooled, gasoline engine, the cars 
weighing about 620 pounds. On repeated tests the motor 
backboard got over the bad roads without difficulty or 
delay. Three routes, which by ordinary horse conveyances 
took a little over 17 hours to serve, were satisfactorily 
covered by the motor cars in less than nine hours. 
FARM AND GARDEN.—F! W. Martin, of Beloit, Wis., 
paid .1. Querrolo, breeder of Berkshire hogs, near Inde¬ 
pendence, Kan., $3,000 for Lord Bacon, a Berkshire boar. 
It is said to be the highest price ever paid for an American 
bred hog. Lord Bacon is a grandson of Masterpiece, which 
was sold by Querrolo for $1,000 to an Illinois man, who 
afterward sold him to M. T. Gentry, of Sedalia, for $2,500. 
Querrolo 1 raised both hogs. 
The Orange County (N. Y.) Agricultural Society will 
bold its 60th annual exhibition at Middletown. N. Y., 
August 28-31; secretary, David A. Morrison, Newburgh, 
REPOPULATING ABANDONED TOWNS. 
A business quite unknown to most parts of the West 
has been going on for some years in New England. Many 
once productive farms were given up. Instead of trying to 
find other farmers who would grow on this soil the crops 
which former generations grew efforts were made to induce 
city people to buy the farms for Summer residences. This 
has succeeded in many sections beyond expectations. A 
lawyer complained to the editor of the Mirror and Farmer 
that his old town in New Hampshire had changed. Where 
once there were prosperous farmers, full barns and well- 
ordered schoolhouses now there are city people with littie 
stock and few children. The Mirror and Farmer ih reply 
prints the following very fair statement of conditions : 
“The town which this gentleman visited is 12 miles from 
the nearest railroad, and when the first canvass for aban¬ 
doned farms in New Hampshire was made 15 years* ago. 
this town led all the others in the number and area of 
farms that had been abandoned and buildings become vacant. 
'This was before the Summer business had begun to develop 
in that town, and the large old houses vacant and going to 
decay, and the broad fields growing up to bushes or filled 
with daisies were evidences of decadence. About this lime 
file movement for utilizing vacant farms for Summer homes 
was begun, and through extensive advertising the oppor¬ 
tunities for rest, recreation and pleasure upon these farms 
were heralded to the world. In the lists of farms that were 
made and annually published under State patronage from 
then till now no occupied farm has been included, and no 
effort has been made to supplant resident farmers with 
Summer people. 'The effort has been confined to securing the 
occupancy of farms that had already become vacant. Under 
this policy it happens that about a hundred farms in this 
town to which we are referring have been taken up as 
Summer homes of people of wealth and culture. They are 
annually spending in that town money made outside the 
town, and mostly outside the State, in larger amount than 
the products of all these farms brought in the market in 
their palmiest days. This expenditure helps to build and 
repair roads, build schoolhouses and support schools for 
such children as there are to be educated, repair meeting¬ 
houses and support the preaching of the gospel, and finds 
its way into the pockets of such carpenters, masons, black¬ 
smiths, physicians, clergymen and speculators as are found 
in the town and vicinity, and even into the pockets of 
farmers themselves. It has brightened the entire town and 
enlivened all the industrial and professional affairs in 
which its citizens are engaged. 
“Similar changes have taken place in scores of towns. It 
Is not a comparison between farms occupied by strong men 
and women, both physically and mentally, and farms occu¬ 
pied by Summer people two or three months in the year, 
but it is a comparison between vacant farms and farms 
utilized in the Summer business. The character of the 
rural population half a century ago, when every town could 
furnish men mentally equipped for anv official position in 
the State, is far different In many instances from the char¬ 
acter and mental and moral stamina of the people who have 
taken the places of the old Puritanical families that cleared 
the forests, developed the farms, erected the buildings and 
reared large families of rugged, intelligent children. If 
the farms could be occupied by such people as those there 
would be no argument for their occupancy by Summer peo¬ 
ple, but when we get down to the facts, much as we may 
dislike to acknowledge them, we find that a large share of 
these farms, were it not for the Summer occupants, would 
be either vacant or occupied by a class of foreigners as 
unlike the early settlers in mental ability and moral stam¬ 
ina as it is possible to imagine people to differ. When it 
comes to a comparison between such occupants, honorable 
as they may be, or no occupants, and people of wealth and 
culture from cities who take a deep and liberal interest in 
educational and social affairs, in good roads and good gov¬ 
ernment, in the establishment of libraries and parks, and 
in providing sidewalks and public buildings, in addition to 
their liberal individual expenditures in many ways, there is 
but one side to the question.” 
NEW YORK ENT0M0L0GIC SERVICE. 
.Tointworrn injuir is reported as rather prevalent in 
Wayne and Ontario Counties. The work of this pest is 
easily recognized by the twisted bent condition of the straw. 
The insect winters in the stem, and the most effective 
methods of checking its depredations consist in destroying 
the infested stubble either by burning in the field or cutting 
low and destroying later. Rotation of crops and liberal 
fertilization are also of considerable service. 
, Leaf Feeders.—The midsummer caterpillars are begin¬ 
ning to appear. Fail webworm nests may be seen here 
and there and occasionally clusters of the Red-humped 
Apple caterpillar or the Yellow-necked caterpillar may oc¬ 
cur at. the tips of limbs. All three of these insects may 
be checked by removing the infested branch and destroying 
the caterpillars. They are also easily killed by timely appli¬ 
cations of arsenical poisons. Stalk borer work in tomatoes, 
corn or other thick-stemmed plants is liable to appear at 
any time. There is nothing better than destroying the 
caterpillars in the infested stems and supplementing this 
by clean culture. 
Shade-tree leaf-feeders, such as the Tussock moth and 
Elm leaf-beetle, have been unusually destructive in a num¬ 
ber of cities and villages, particularly in the eastern part 
of the State. The Tussock moth prefers horse chestnuts 
and lindens, while the Elm leaf-beetle has a marked fond¬ 
ness for European elms. Both of these insects are readily 
controlled by early applications of arsenical poisons, and 
the Tussock moth is easily checked by collecting and de¬ 
stroying the conspicuous egg masses now being deposited 
upon infested trees. e. p. pelt. 
State Entomologist_ 
CROP PROSPECTS. 
Our State will probably have a full crop of peaches, an 
average crop of apples and pears, and a short crop of plums. 
My own plum orchard is very full, so full in fact that we 
thinned nearly every tree by hand, so» that no two plums 
touch, but the crop in general is lght. 
Ohio. W. W. FARNSWORTH. 
The fruit crop will be an idea! one, the trees being just 
enough laden to produce large fruit. Oats were very back¬ 
ward in early Spring, but when the rains came grew very 
rank, and will produce an average crop. Corn is uneven 
and looks far from a full crop, but is growing rapidly. 
Blight has attacked potatoes, caused by the sudden change 
of temperature. e. r. d, 
Barto, Pa. 
From careful estimates gathered from reliable sources, 
the amount of marketable apples will not exceed last year’s 
crop, on about 50 per cent of a full crop. Many sections 
have been badly Injured by tent-caterpillar and spraying 
the latter,. due no doubt to carelessness in mixing the spray¬ 
ing material. Kings, Ribstons and Blenheims are the vari¬ 
eties which promise best now. Fungus quite prevalent. 
Strawberries are a full crop, while plums and pears are 
light. Trees in a healthy, vigorous condition. Hay full 
crop. Grain and potatoes very late planted, but coming on 
rapidly, and promise good returns. Weather dry and very 
warm. B . u u 
Kingsport, Nova Scotia. 
We have just harvested the Primates, which were not 
equal in quality to sotne years, but a fair crop. All 
second earlies are very scarce with us, and nearly all trees 
that bore last year are without fruit. Maiden Blush is a 
fair show; Baldwin, only those that failed last year have 
fruit; Smith Ciders are mostly without fruit where there 
was crop last year. I should think that a half crop is a 
very liberal estimate for apples. Bartlett pears about a 
half crop. Peaches are said to be promising a liberal clop ; 
very few trees In this section at this time. Japan plums 
are fruiting abundantly where they have any culture. 
Blackberries are very full and fine size; currants were good 
crop, also strawberries and cherries. Gooseberries were 
full. Columbus and Chautauqua are very much alike, and 
a great improvement over Downing, Pear! and Houghton. 
Mercer Co., N. J. i. j. Blackwell. 
sour varieties, Richmond, Mountmorency and English Mor- 
ello, and prices are quite low, about 2% cents per pound, 
though some have got higher than that. I know one man 
S’."® sold i0 tons at 3% cents a pound from less than 
30” trees* and as he had them picked for one cent a pound 
It left him a good net from trees not over 12 years planted 
Plums are almost an entire failure especially Japans of 
all varieties. Pears are a very light crop, not more than 
one-fourth as many as last year. Apples both trees and 
fruit never looked better or were freer from insects or dis¬ 
ease, though there is some complaint of the injury from 
Rose bugs, on light sandy orchards, and the joke is there 
does not seem to be the least difference between spraved 
and unsprayed orchards. But while the quality will be 
of the best the quantity will be very deficient. Trees bloomed 
well, but the set is very light and the drop has been very 
severe; most varieties have a better showing than Bald- 
wins, but as full three-fourths of the trees are of this 
variety, when Baldwins fail the crop is short. At the last 
meeting of the Niagara County Farmers’ Club, with a full 
attendance, no one reported over 50 per cent of last year’s 
crop, and many went much below that percentage. I think 
50 per cent the very extreme that is safe to figure on. 
Niagara Co., N. Y. j. g. woodward. 
BUSINESS BITS. 
The dairyman who expects to put up a silo this season 
and has not yet purchased will want it now. In a hurry 
Abram Walrath & Co., Weedsport, N. Y., are In position to 
make prompt shipment on their reliable Weedsport silo 
Iheso are made In three styles, and are models in every 
way. Anyone interested in silos will do well to write this 
firm. 
This is the time of year when gasoline engines are in 
demand for farm work—there are no doubt many real 
good and satisfactory machines on the market, but one 
which seems to appeal particularly to farmers Is the 4d- 
yance, made by Geo. D. Pohl Mfg. Co., Vernon, N. Y. Look 
into the claims for this engine before deciding on vour farm 
power. 
Now is the time to plant pot-grown strawberries to have 
berries next season. T. J. Dwyer & Co., Cornwall N Y 
make rather a specialty of these pot-grown plants—this 
firm undoubtedly has a greater variety and grow more of 
them than any other. The Fall catalogue, which is just is¬ 
sued, gives full information about plants, trees and orna¬ 
mental stock. It is free for the asking. 
The bug and blight harvest is on, and In order to pre¬ 
vent serious loss from them it is necessary to have a first- 
class sprayer. The II. L. Ilurst Manufacturing Co., Can¬ 
ton, O., are just finishing the busiest season they have ever 
had, during which time they have worked their factory to 
its utmost capacity, and are now in a position to make 
Immediate shipment of all orders upon the same day their 
order is received. Write them for their circulars and Infor¬ 
mation on spraying, which are free to everybody. 
The Philip Carey Co., Cincinnati, O., are the sole manu- 
facturers of Carey’s Flexible Cement Roofing. When estali- 
lished in 1873, the plant was no larger than a small barn 
lhe plant now covers 32% acres of ground. There are 
twenty acres of factory space under roof. In addition to 
the Cincinnati estabiislunent, there are branch factories* 
at I lymouth Meeting, Pa., and Baldwinsville, Mass., and 
40 branch distributing points throughout the United States. 
«ur name on a postal card will bring you free a sainnie 
of Carey Roofing and interesting booklet. Address The 
Philip Carey Mfg. Co., 42 Wayne Ave., Cincinnati. O. 
