1907. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
95 
EVENTS OF THE WEEK. 
DOMESTIC.—The range conditions in the vicinity of Glen¬ 
dive, Montana, are said to be the worst in its history. The 
range is covered with snow from a depth of 10 Inches to 
three feet. In the Big Dry and Missouri River country the 
snow is three feet deep, one foot of which fell in November. 
A rain in early December made a crust which holds up a 
team. Stock in that part of the country not supplied with 
food and shelter will be a total loss. Sheepmen will suffer 
the heaviest, as horses and cattle can be driven out to 
some extent. The sheepmen in that immediate section are 
all pretty well supplied with food, and those who are not 
are trailing to the railroad as fast as possible. The tem¬ 
perature January 16 was about 36 degrees below zero. . . . 
State Comptroller Glynn of New York received January 17 
$625,000, the inheritance tax on the estate of Russell Sage. 
The value of the estate has been placed at $60,000,000, but 
that amount is not the final estimate. This tax is the larg¬ 
est ever collected by the State under the law, with three 
exceptions. In 1900 the State collected from the estate of 
George Smith, a wealthy English merchant, who died in 
New "York, $1,934,753. In 1901 $665,000 was received from 
the C. P. Huntington estate, and in 1904 the inheritance 
tax from the estate of Warren Smith, the Yonkers carpet 
manufacturer, was $973,34S. ... A collision on the 
Monon road, near Fowler, Ind., Jan. 19, caused the death of 
16 persons and injuries to as many more. The cars took 
fire, burning those imprisoned in the wreckage. The engi¬ 
neer of the passenger train ran past a signal into a freight 
train. It was said that fog obscured the signal. . 
With the suddenness of a typhoon an 85-mile gale struck 
Buffalo, N. Y., January 20, doing great damage there and 
In the Tonawandas that is conservatively estimated at 
$3,000,000 There were 23 steel freighters, grain laden 
moored under the breakwater. The waves, unimpeded bv 
ice, for the lake has not yet frozen, battered gaps in the 
breakwater, and the whole fleet dragged their anchors Five 
were piled high and dry on the beach. A mile and a half 
of lumber docks at the Tonawandas were swept into the 
river, and five miles of docks were submerged. The dam¬ 
age there is fully $1,000,000. At the Falls two miles of the 
gorge road was washed out, and that track costs $100,000 
a mile. At Dunkirk, N. Y., one child was drowned and 
one woman killed by falling walls. Many acts of heroism 
were performed in saving lives, and some of the rescuers 
had narrow escapes from death. Damages to buildings near 
the lake will amount to manv thousands of dollars. 
Twenty-five persons dead, four of whom are unidentified’ 
thirty-five badly injured, and a score at least with minor 
hurts is the result of a peculiar accident which occurred at 
Sanford. Ind., January 20. When the Big Four accommoda¬ 
tion train pulled in at the station there was standing on 
the s:de track a freight train with one car loaded with 
powder and another just behind it loaded with oil. The 
accommodation train consisted of a combination mail and 
baggage car, smoking car and one day coach. Just as it 
came opposite the freight train there was a terrific explo¬ 
sion which shook the earth for miles around. Every house 
in the village was damaged by the concussion, dishes were 
broken, windows smashed, and a few cottages were moved 
from their foundations. Many doors were torn from their 
hinges. The passenger train was wrecked and set on fire. 
The flames were so hot that it was impossible to get within 
reach ot those ncm* whore the fire bogcin. Many were res- 
cued from other parts of the wrecked cars, but at least 10 
persons were burned to death while would-be rescuers looked 
on helpless. The explosion tore down all telephone and 
telegraph wires, and it was an hour before an appeal could 
be sent for relief trains. There was no water with which 
to tight the flames, and the temperature, which suddenly 
turned biting cold, caused great suffering to the passenger’s 
who had escaped death. The most plausible theory advanced 
s that gas was escaping from the car loaded with oil, that 
it was ignited by a spark from the engine of the passenger 
tram and communicated with the powder car. . . . More 
than 20 passengers were seriously injured in the wreck of 
a Nickel Plate train at Fairvlew, Ohio, Jan. 20. The acci¬ 
dent was the result of a storm which blew a telegraph pole 
across the track so as to tear off the locomotive stack and 
2i?PJ t J?J? der the w] ? pels - • • • Oriental silks valued at 
$2,000,000 were scattered over the prairie near Clontarf, 
Minn., January 20, during a blinding blizzard, when the 10 
express cars of a special train on the Great Northern were 
ditched. Every car was broken to splinters, and the pack¬ 
ages of silk became the playthings of the storm. . . . 
Two large retail business houses and a hotel were burned 
at Youngstown, Ohio, January 20, causing a loss of 
$ 1 , 000 , 000 . 
JAMAICA.—'January 14 earthquake, followed by fire, rav¬ 
aged Kingston. All the houses within a radius of 10 miles 
were injured, and almost every house in the city was de¬ 
stroyed. Fire broke out after the earthquake and completed 
the work of destruction. The business section of Kingston 
is a heap of smouldering ashes. The killed may reach 1,000. 
More than 500 bodies have been buried and 100 have been 
cremated since January 18. Medical aid is still badly needed. 
No attempt has yet been made to restart business. The tire 
burned more than sixty blocks, causing a loss of about $15,- 
000,000. The merchants fear that tlie insurance companies 
will pay no losses because of the earthquake clause in the 
policies. There is no lumber left in the city, and there are 
very few workmen to do the rebuilding. The churches, pub¬ 
lic offices and hotels are all gone, but there were no fatali¬ 
ties at the Constant Spring Hotel. Among the killed were 
Sir James Fergusson and prominent merchants and profes¬ 
sional men. Bruitevllle.'Colery and Boston, three small towns 
from 20 to 25 miles east of Kingston, are reported as hav¬ 
ing been devastated by the shock, with from fifty to one 
hundred lives lost. Morant Bay, 30 miles east of Kingston 
on the coast, suffered two shocks, witli much loss of prop¬ 
erty. Many persons were injured, but no lives were lost. 
For twenty miles from Kingston the fine roads are impassa¬ 
ble, and the sugar and coffee plantations are heavy losers. 
The six cables entering Kingston were broken by the quakes. 
Kingston harbor, as the result of the earthquake, is closed 
to shipping, but Bowden is open. Both rich and poor at 
Kingston are homeless. Bowden is a small port on the 
south coast of Jamaica, about 30 miles from Kingston. The 
recent earthquake was more serious than any which had oc¬ 
curred in Jamaica for two hundred and fifty years. The 
first shock was followed by 15 minor shocks. The wooden 
structures stood well, but the brick houses collapsed within 
a radius of six miles. The immunity of two hundred and 
fifty years led the Jamaicans to forget that (hev were within 
the earthquake zone, and they had been building brick 
houses. But for this, probably there would have been no 
loss of life. There has been no tidal wave. The defences 
at Port Royal were destroyed and the palisades broken 
through. Biack mud is coming to the surface. 
FARM AND GARDEN.—Through the efforts of Henry VV. 
Wood, President of the American Seed Trade Association, a 
conference has just been held in Washington with the Chief 
of the Bureau of Plant Industry and the officers directly 
under him for the purpose of discussing the administration 
of the seed adulteration law. Some of the more important 
questions brought up were in relation to the present methods 
of obtaining samples for analysis, the limit below which the 
presence of foreign seed in a sample should not be consid¬ 
ered as adulterants, and methods for preventing the impor¬ 
tation of yellow trefoil for adulterating purposes. The con¬ 
ference was very harmonious and satisfactory, and it is be¬ 
lieved will lead to a better understanding between the De¬ 
partment of Agriculture and the reputable seedsmen, who 
ar just as much interested in stopping wilful adulteration as 
the Department. 
The South Texas Fruit and Truck Growers’ Association at 
a recent meeting resolved that the association should thank 
the Texas representative in Congress for past favors in the 
way of free seeds, but assure them these favors were mis¬ 
taken kindnesses on their part: that they condemn the prac¬ 
tice of free distribution of garden seeds as an economic waste, 
wholly unjustifiable; that "in the future we will not accept 
from the government free garden seeds; and that we urge our 
representatives as a favor, which we will appreciate, to vote 
against the bill appropriating funds for the distributing of 
free garden seeds, and to use their influence to have the 
amount thus saved appropriated to the experiment stations 
of the country.” The South Texas Fruit and Truck Growers’ 
Association consists of affiliated local associations throughout 
South Texas and the gulf coast country, comprising a mem¬ 
bership of more than 1,300. 
CONCRETE WALL FOR HOT AIR. 
I was very much interested in the article discussing the 
use of concrete blocks for rural homes, and utilizing the 
air space as a possible means of heating the house, page 17. 
The early years of my life were spent at my trade, that of 
a contracting bricklayer, including the waliing in of brick 
set furnaces for the heating of all sorts of buildings. My 
experience in that line of work makes me think Mr. Chap¬ 
man’s idea would prove a failure. The air space in a wall 
is not a new idea. As far back as 1880 I helped to build 
brick houses with an air space of two inches extending 
around the house from foundation to roof, making, as he 
claims, a perfectly dry and warm house, using the air space 
for a different purpose, but obtaining the aimed at result. 
All men engaged in the business of heating houses by hot air 
know of the difficulties to be met with in heating by that 
system. I think a few remarks on the principles of liot air 
heating followed by a sketch of my own experience in a 
brick house built with hollow walls, and occupied by myself 
for 16 years, would be useful. In all that time I never' had 
the least trouble to heat it to a temperature of 70 degrees 
if desired, not only one particular part of the house, but 
all parts, for it was a rare thing for us to have an Inside 
door closed. We all know that heated air rises to the high¬ 
est possible point, and to secure a flow of hot air you must 
have a constant supply of air going in at the bottom of the 
heater, passing over the radiating surface to be heated. Now 
we are at the most difficult part of the whole thing, that of 
conducting the heated air successfully to the several rooms 
of the house. Heated air in its flight upwards will take the 
most direct course; namely, the pipe that is the most direct 
and having the most elevation to the highest part of the 
house, the other rooms suffering, and they cannot be heated 
with satisfaction. If we consider the plan advanced by Mr. 
Chapman we would find the result the direct opposite of the 
one desired, or, in other words, the heated air would keep 
rising in the air space, aided by the circulation through the 
registers to the highest point, and absorbed or consumed 
by the cold walls. The plan used by myself was to let the 
air space do the part or work it was intended to do; that is, 
not to let the dampness and cold pass from the outside to 
the inside walls. Between the joists in the cellar I left 
small holes through the inside wall, and in the top course 
of brick in the outside wall I placed a number of ventilating 
castings the size of a brick, thus insuring a free circula¬ 
tion of air through the air space. This svstem can be used 
with any hollow wall, whether concrete blocks or brick are 
used. If we place a thermometer near the ceiling and one 
near the floor we find a difference of several degrees in the 
temperature, and here is where I used the air space in the 
wall and made it do its part in heating my house. By 
simply putting a small register in the wall at the floor, thus 
connecting each room with the air space, I made it carry 
the cold air out of the room as fast as the heated could 
come in, causing -the circulation of pure air from the out¬ 
side through the heater to the rooms; then through the air 
space to the outside again, making it the most nearly per¬ 
fect system, as well as the least expensive that I ever saw, 
the only expense being for the ventilators at the floors and in 
the outside walls, not exceeding $3, and obtained the same 
results as though the very expensive plan of forcing the air 
from the rooms through; the furnace with fans were used 
driven by power B . A . B 
Pennsylvania. 
Mr. C. E. Chapman, in his article on “Concrete Blocks 
for Building,” asks whether it will not be well to use the 
dead air spaces in the cement walls of houses put up with 
these blocks, for hot air flues for heating. J think that such 
a system of heating would be very wasteful of the heat, 
and hence too much fuel would be required for keeping up 
the required temperature of the house. The outer walls must 
absorb and radiate outward as much heat as the inner 
walls would in that direction. So for that reason I think 
it would be much better to put the pipes and flues into the 
partitions between the rooms, thus utilizing all the heat. 
I believe that the saving in fuel would in a short time pay 
for the extra cost of piping, etc., and in the long run would 
be much cheaper. j. B 
Connecticut. 
BUSINESS BITS. 
The fourteenth annual meeting of the Vermont Maple 
Sugar Makers’ Association was held at Burlington, Vt„ Jan¬ 
uary 7 and 8. The exhibit of utensils and maple sweets was 
a record breaker. The first prize on sugar utensils of all 
kinds was awarded to G. H. Grimm, Rutland, Vt., and it may 
be interesting to know that all of the prize winners had 
their sugar camps equipped with the Grimm Champion 
evaporators. A booklet containing information of much 
value has recently been published by Mr. Grimm. Every 
sugar maker should obtain a copy, free for the asking. 
Gordon Van Tine & Co., Davenport, Iowa, operate the 
largest woodwork mill in America, and they have used their 
strong position to revolutionize the woodwork and roofing 
business of the whole country by withdrawing all their sales¬ 
men and agents and giving this saving of expense to the man 
who buys their products direct from the mill. They guar¬ 
antee to deliver safely and promptly, to any man in the 
United States and Canada just exactly'what he wants in high 
quality millwork, or roofing, and save him half what it would 
cost him if he bought the same thing from liis home dealer_ 
freight included. This company has been in business since 
1S65 and its responsibilities runs into the hundred thousands, 
as any banker can tell you or any one else wishing to order 
ihillwork. We feel certain that every one of our readers who 
has any building or repair work to do now, or in the future 
will do well to write for this company’s Millwork Catalogue. 
If you address the company. Station C36. Davenport, Iowa, it 
will be.known that you are one of our readers, and all the 
company’s literature will be sent to you promptly—-includ¬ 
ing the free Book of Plans. Roofing Book and the Grand 
Millwork Catalogue. Only a postal is necessary. 
Not All Manure Spreaders Pay 
The Idea of spreading manure properly is such 
a good one and the benefits derived are so great 
you are apt to think any spreader willgiveyou 
these benefits—that a spreader is a spreader. 
There is where you may make a mistake, for 
some spreaders are only trouble makers and 
the second season they are not taken out of the 
shed. To make them work takes too much 
time and costs too much money. 
If you get that kind of spreader you’re apt to 
conclude that spreaders are made to sell and 
not to spread manure. 
SUCCESS SPREADERS 
have 28 years’ experience back of them— 
thousands of them are spreading manure on 
the best farms in the country and are giving 
no trouble. 
Twenty-eight years has eliminated the trouble 
making features out of a hundred new de¬ 
vices and schemes that we have tried perhaps 
ninety have proved more harmful than helpful. 
They make good talking points but they don’t 
help spread manure. SUCCESS Spreaders 
are made to spread manure. 
When you get ready to buy a manure spreader, 
(and every farmer should have one) first write 
for our spreader book, it will help you; next go 
to your local dealer and see a Success Spreader 
but don’t buy one until you have asked a man 
who has used one. He knows. 
KEMP Sl BURPEE MFG. CO., SYRACUSE, N. Y. 
Also Distributors of thefamous John Deere line of Plows, Cultivators, Harrows. 
rant to Send You One FREE!| 
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|OHI^OARRIAG^JflFG^COj|^Statloj^90j^CH^|njA^^Oj 
XpOR EVERY good composition roof- 
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dozen inferior imitations. Therefore, 
don’t be fooled by “cheap talk, ” Inves¬ 
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Write to-day for FKEE sample, beautiful 
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THE PHILIP CAREY MFG. CO. (EsL 1873) 
Sole Manufacturer 
42 Wayae Avenue, - - Cincinnati, O. 
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