1907. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
545 
EVENTS OF THE WEEK. 
DOMESTIC.—Four persons were killed and five badly 
injured by the collapse of a scaffold at Fourth and Natoma 
streets, San Francisco. June 2G. ... A terrific storm, 
followed by a cloudburst, swept the oil fields of Northern 
Indian Territory June 20. Three persons are reported 
killed at Sapulpa, the heart of the great Glenn oil pool, 
where the storm was fiercest. Water rushed down the 
streets of Sapulpa over a foot deep. Plate glass was broken 
throughout the town, and the roof was torn from a hotel. 
More than one hundred and fifty oil derricks were reported 
down in the Glenn pool, and it is said all the oil derricks 
in the Osage Nation have been swept away. Fifty-four 
derricks are reported down at Turley. At Maize houses 
were overturned and brick buildings demolished. Many oil 
wells are running wild, flooding the land. . . . Judge 
Landis, in the United States District Court, ordered June 20 
the issuance of subpoenas, returnable July 0, for the presi¬ 
dent. secretary and treasurer of the Standard Oil Company 
of Indiana, the officers of the Union Tank Line, and the 
officers and directors of the companies holding the stock 
of the two concerns first mentioned. This action was taken 
by the court after it had examined with meagre results a 
number of witnesses in the effort to obtain certain informa¬ 
tion regarding the financial standing of the Standard Oil 
Company. Judge Landis also refused a new trial to the 
Standard Oil Company, recently convicted of making ship¬ 
ments at illegal rates between Whiting, Ind., and East 
St. Louis. After the denial of the motion asking for a 
new trial, John S. Miller, for the oil company, entered a 
motion in arrest of judgment. This was promptly overruled. 
Mr. Miller then asked the court to elect a particular count 
in the indictment on which to base the final judgment of 
the court. This was also denied by Judge Landis. Subpoenas 
were issued for John D. Rockefeller, William ivocKofeller, 
John I). Archbold, Henry II. Rogers, W. IT. Tilford, C. M. 
Pratt, William P. Ilowe and Charles T. White, all officers 
of the New Jersey corporation, and for the following officers 
of the Indiana Standard Oil Company : ,T. A. Moffett, W. P. 
Cowan, G. W. Stahl. Subpoenas were issued June 20 for 
II. E. Felton, president of the Union Tank Line Company, 
and F. A. Wann, former chief auditor of the Chicago and 
Alton, but now general freight, agent for the San Pedro, 
Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad. Mr. Felton is in 
New York and Mr. Wann is in Los Angeles. These 
subpoenas are issued in an effort to discover certain informa¬ 
tion about the profits of the oil trust, its capitalization, 
etc., which Judge Landis wants before he imposes fines in 
the rebating cases In which the Standard has been found 
guilty. The Standard’s attorneys refused to give this in¬ 
formation to the court. . . . Gov. Hughes announced at 
Albany, N. Y„ June 28, the members of the public service 
commissions, created bv the new law, as follows: First 
District (Greater New York) : William R. Wilcox, chairman; 
Wm. McCarroll, Edward M. Bassett, Milo Roy Maltbie. John 
E. Eustis. Second District (All other counties) ; Frank W. 
Stevens, Jamestown, chairman ; Thomas Mott Osbourne, Au¬ 
burn ; Chas. Ilallam Keep, Buffalo; Jas. E. Sague, New Ham¬ 
burg; Martin S. Decker, New Paltz. The new commissioners 
will replace all the old public utility boards of New York City 
and State, including the Rapid Transit Commission, and will 
have almost unprecedented power for the regulation and 
supervision of all public utilities of the State, with the excep¬ 
tion of the telephone and the telegraph. The commissioners 
for the First District will exercise authority in the whole 
of Greater N T( ‘w York, and those for the Second District 
will have jurisdiction in all the other counties of the State. 
Not onlv those corporations which operate entirely within 
the State or have New York charters will come under con¬ 
trol of the Commission, but all other corporations doing 
business in the State will be amenable to the Commission’s 
rulings.One of the most important cases yet 
filed with the Interstate Commerce Commission under the 
new railroad rate law was presented to the Commission 
June 28 by the American Bankers’ Association. In brief, the 
complainant alleges that the express companies of the 
United States, through their power and facilities as common 
carriers, are usurping the prerogatives of banking associa¬ 
tions, and at the same time are employing the capital of the 
banks in the country in the conduct of their business. It 
is alleged that the operations of the express companies, in 
the conduct of their exchange business, is seriously detri¬ 
mental to the Interests of the banks, and (hat the use of the 
interstate facilities and the relations which the express com¬ 
panies have with the railroads enable the companies seri¬ 
ously to discriminate against regular commercial operations 
of banking institutions. . . T. B. Gerow. director of the 
Free Employment Bureau of Kansas, sent a letter June 28 to 
E. T. Clark, a member of the Interstate Commerce Commis¬ 
sion, formally protesting against the manner in which he as¬ 
serts the Hepburn act has destroyed the former effective plans 
of sending out harvest hands into Kansas. Mr. Gerow 
wrote: “Heretofore we have been able to send five men 
in a party at the rate. Now we must have a party of 
fifteen. Further than that, pay agents are sending them 
from depots to places where they are not wanted. Farmers 
are telegraphing me about the trouble in getting men. We 
cannot afford to have our wheat crop destroyed in this man¬ 
ner, I wish to make mv protest now.” . . . Three damage 
suits, aggregating $140,000, have been filed in the United States 
Gircuit Court in Cambria County against the Pennsylvania 
Railroad Company by persons injured in the wreck of the 
Pennsylvania Special, the eighteen-hour train between Chi¬ 
cago and New York, at Mineral Point, on February 22. The 
nlaintiffs are John T. Clyde, postmaster at Joliet, TIL; 
Everett .1. Murphy, warden of the Joliet penitentiary, and 
Henry F. Pipenbrink, a business man of Joliet. Mr. Clyde 
and Mr. Murphy each ask $50,000, and Pipenbrink $40,000. 
. . . Fire broke out June 28 in the Chalifoux building 
at First Avenue and Nineteenth street, Birmingham. Ala., 
reducing it to ashes. The loss is estimated at $300,000. 
The origin o.f the fire is unknown. . . . The explosion 
of a twenty-ton steel cylinder at the plant of the Sand¬ 
stone Brick Company, Schenectady, N. Y., June 20. partly 
destroyed the plant and killed three men. The roar of the 
explosion could be heard for miles. Two men standing near 
the kettle were blown to pieces. Fragments of their bodies 
were picked up 200 feet away. The head of the kettle was 
blown through the building and down the railroad tracks, 
a distance o.f nearly 300 feet, killing another man in its 
course. . . . The town of Bisbee, Ariz., was visited by. 
a disastrous fire June 29. The greatest damage was in 
the residence district, there being more than 1,000 people 
homeless. The fire started early in the morning from a 
gasoline explosion in the Colorado Hotel. Fanned by a high 
wind the flames swept over the residence district with great 
rapidity. Everybody in the town turned fire fighter. Part 
of the business district of the town was burned. No fatalities 
have been reported. Bisbee has a population of 20,000 and 
is the headquarters of many mining companies. . . . The 
Newark. N. .T., plant of the Consolidated Color and Chemical 
Company was destroyed by fire June 29 ; loss $330,000. 
. . The United States Grand Jury July 1 returned a true 
bill against the so-called umbrella frame" trust. The names 
of the firms indicted are the National Umbrella Frame Com¬ 
pany of Philadelphia, the Newark Rivet Works of Newark, 
N. J., the Newark Tube and Metal Works, Newark N. J.. 
and S. W. Evans & Co., of Philadelphia, manufacturers of 
umbrellas and parasol rods, ribs and stretchers. There are 
three counts in the bill, charging conspiracy in restraint of 
trade, conspiracy to engage in a combination in restraint 
of commerce and conspiracy to monopolize trade. . . . 
Railroad companies operating in Illinois will not combat, 
the two-cent fare law, in effect July 1. Tickets were placed 
on sale at all local offices under the new rate. The road 
hardest hit by the legislation is the Chicago and Alton. 
Tts lines lie together in Illinois and in Missouri where the 
reduced rate has been in effect for some time. Officers oi 
the company said that under the tb.ree-cent tariff the 
road was only paying a fair profit. This will be wiped out 
altogether unless the farmers along the line travel more 
extensively in the future, they said. 
FARM AND GARDEN.—The twenty-fifth annual meeting 
of the American Seed Trade Association opened in the small 
ballroom of the Hotel Astor, Times Square, New York. 
June 25. with a very large attendance. President Henry 
W. Wood, of Richmond, Va., occupied the chair, and intro¬ 
duced the lion. Patrick McGowan, president of the Board 
of Aldermen of the City of New York, who welcomed the 
. seedsmen to the metropolis. In his annual address, Mr. 
Wood said: “I think it would be very desirable for the 
Committee on Experiment Stations to take up the question 
of having a Seed Control Station established at each of the 
State Experiment Stations throughout this country, where 
seeds could be tested both for the seedsmen and for the 
farmer. I am sure that any efforts on this line would meet 
with the hearty approval and support of the United States 
Department of Agriculture, and it would unquestionably be 
of great benefit to the seed trade throughout this country. 
I would also recommend that steps be taken by the Com¬ 
mittee on Weights and Measures, to secure a uniform system 
of selling grass and clover seeds by the- pound and hundred 
pounds, instead of by the bushel, as prevails in some of the 
leading markets of this country.” The following officers 
were elected : George S. Green, of the Illinois Seed Com¬ 
pany of Chicago, president; M. II. Duryea, of Henry Nun- 
gesser & Co., New York, first vice-president: F. W. Bolgiano, 
of Washington, D. C., second vice-president; C. E. Kendel, 
of Cleveland., Ohio, was re-elected secretary-treasurer. In¬ 
vitations for the 1908 meeting were received from Bismarck, 
N. I)., Niagara Falls and Detroit. This question will be 
decided by the executive committee at their meeting in 
January next. 
CANADIAN INSPECTION LAWS. 
Three years ago the Ontario House passed a statute, em¬ 
powering" municipalities to pass a by-law compelling rate¬ 
payers to cut all thistles and other noxious weeds. An 
inspector to be appointed to inspect the municipality at 
all times, and in the event of the ratepayer neglecting to 
do so, such weeds to be cut by the municipality, and same 
added to the property owner’s taxes. This by-law is in 
force in this township, and works out well. We are noti¬ 
fied, every year, that the weeds must be cut on the road 
bordering the farm, and a limit date is set after which the 
township sends men to do the work. I do not think the 
cutting of weeds on the farm is as universal as it should 
be, and am not quite sure that we are compelled to cut 
them in this township ; though I think I remember an occa¬ 
sion, when the inspector was petitioned to examine a certain 
farm, and upon doing so compelled the owner, a very sloppy 
farmer, to clean up. I am not certain of this. Regarding 
spraying an act was passed compelling ratepayers to spray 
for scale, and in the town of St. Catharines, last year, 
several, or rather many, were brought up and fined for 
neglecting to do so. In this case the fine would offset cost 
of spraying." Either spray infested trees or cut them out. 
For years we have had black knot and yellows inspectors, 
who compel the removal of yellows trees and the treatment 
or removal of black rot. We also have a statute, permitting 
municipalities to pass a by-law appointing a scale inspector 
for the township who will demand the treatment of scale- 
infested trees, and upon the neglect of the owner to do so 
he shall be fined ; and I presume the fine would be sufficient 
to cover the cost of the treatment. The above Is certainly 
carried out, and anyone causing trouble with the official 
Is severely dealt with. In this township we have not yet 
appointed, or had the Government appoint, a scale inspector, 
because we all spray. The inspection of nurseries is. how¬ 
ever, rigorously carried out, and many young trees destroyed. 
Ontario, Canada. w. o. b. 
CROP NOTES. 
Apples and pears will be a light crop in this section. 
Sour cherries will also be a light crop, and peaches are 
practically a complete failure. Plums set very well, but 
seem to l>e dropping badly. Prunes will be a light crop. 
Quinces are a good crop, but the fruit generally in western 
New York will, in my opinion, be the lightest we have had in 
a great many years. a. e. b. 
Rochester,. N. Y. 
The present indications are for a good crop of apples this 
season. The peach crop is very uneven; some are full and 
others have none, even in the same orchard, and the same 
variety; some trees are full and others none at all. The 
plums" are full, but dropping considerably. Pears a light 
crop; quinces full; berries and currants full crops; grapes 
promise well. Early cherries are light but late fair crop. 
Season 10 days later than average. D. is. p. 
Trumansburg, N. Y. 
Our hay harvest will be late in this section, and short. 
Wheat average, and corn backward, but warm weather will 
hurry it up to average in due time, no doubt. I notice so 
many sycamore or buttonwood trees with all their leaves 
killed by the late frosts in the Spring; never saw that 
before. Our peach trees are loaded, ditto plums. 
Malvern, Pa. A. tc. 
R. N.-Y.—The sycamore trees in our own section (Northern 
New Jersey) were nearly all injured by late frost. 
The prospect for apples in this section, is, I believe, very 
fair, although there are so few grown it is rather hard to 
estimate. Peaches are looking fine, especially those that 
have had severe cultivation (lots of it), and well sprayed; 
unsprayed orchards and those uncultivated are dead or 
dying. Spraying with lime-sulphur in the late Spring and 
constant cultivation with harrow or cultivator (anything 
to keep a good mulch) is the way it seems to do best for a 
peach orchard. Corn is late; potatoes are looking fine; 
hay good, just began to cut; gardens are looking fine. Horses 
are selling for $450 to $250 each; cows $40 to $75; milk for 
June $1.10; July $1.25; Buffalo gluten feed $25; bran $25. 
New Milford, N. Y. H. v. 
I find that that there will not be a tenth of an apple crop; 
in fact I have 80 acres and you cannot find a dozen apples 
on the whole orchard. I am a firm believer in spraying; I 
used the Bordeaux Mixture, adding lead and soda. I thought 
after using i had made it too strong, as a great many of 
the leaves turned brown on the end. I find it on trees that 
had not been sprayed. A friend of mine had corner of his 
orchard infested with San Jose scale. He used lime and 
sulphur early in the season. They are the only trees in the 
orchard with any apples on, and they are fine, and the 
foliage nice and green The rest, of the orchard looks brown. 
How do you explain this? I have been buying and selling 
apples for 14 years. I never saw so bad a failure before. 
Last year there were 200,000 barrels shipped out of this 
county. I d» not think there will be over 10,000 barrels 
shipped this year. Wheat is looking fine, most will be cut 
this week; oats good; clover the best in years; pasture fine; 
cattle doing well ; Timothy poor ; pig crop fair; sorrel taking 
the county. Give it to the Jersey men; every pedigree 
should be perfect. A. s. a. 
Pittsfield, Ill. 
I saw in The R. N.-Y., page 441. an article by E. O. 
Beebe in regard to the deer nuisance in Massachusetts, lie 
hits the case exactly, as I have seen the same thing where 
I was visiting not far from Miller’s Falls. It seems to me 
that the lawmakers of Massachusetts are making a great, 
mistake: that is, if they want people to buy those neglected 
farms, for who would buy a farm and raise a crop for the 
deer to destroy and not even have the right to dog them out 
of mischief, as you would, your own or neighbors’ breachy 
stock. It is a nice farming section around where I was, 
splendid markets at Orange and Athol ; does not require a 
whole lot of trimming up to make nice farms. I did intend 
to buy there, and five others, but when I reported about the 
game nuisance we weren’t in it. as we would prefer to have 
the benefit of crops raised ourselves. g. s. w. 
R. N.-Y.—As we have stated the Massachusetts • law has 
now been changed, so as to permit farmers to shoot or drive 
away the game. 
In my opinion we have the prospects now of about 00 
per cent of the crop of apples we had last year. I think 
that it would have been 75 per cent except that the Rosy 
apple-aphis has done serious damage from commencing 1(1 
or 15 miles west of the Genesee River through Monroe," 
Wayne and Oswego counties. We were fearful that it was 
going to cut the crop in two, but we find that they are 
leaving ujs and have not: done as much damage as we antici¬ 
pated. The Kieffer pears are verv light west of the Genesee 
River; most of them have dropped off. but east of the river 
I think enough are going to stick to make a fair crop. 
Bartlett pears are a very light crop throughout the whole 
section from Oswego to Niagara Falls, probably not over 
one-fourth what we had last: year. We had a good bloom, 
but. for somq reason they' have dropped off. If you draw, 
an imaginary line a little east of Williamson, N. Y., you will 
find practically no peaches cast of it. West of It to the 
Genesee River they have the prospects for probably 50 per 
cent of last year’s crop. From the Genesee River to the 
Niagara River the crop is generally good. All of these 
estimates ai;e peach orchards near the lake. Cherries 
bloomed finely, but are dropping badly, and it now looks as 
though the crop would be light. Duchess, Seckel and 
Clairgeau pears now promise well. b. j. case. 
Wayne Co. N. Y. 
The weather is improving some of late but in my judg¬ 
ment the crop reports are all greatly exaggerated. The 
stand of corn is probably from one-lnilf to three-fourths. 
With all our preparation a perfect stand is a very rare 
thing. We went through our seed cor-n with the greatest of 
care, testing every ear and throwing out everything that 
showed the least sign of weakness; and yet we have five or 
six acres on which there is no stand at all, and some more 
on which there is only a half stand. We have abandoned 
this, and intend to put it in garden condition in the next.few 
days and seed down to clover and Timothy. The surprising 
thing, however, is that notwithstanding the repeated frosts 
in April and May, frost the last of May that actually nipped 
the top blades of oats we yet have in some places a half 
setting of peaches, from a quarter to half setting of 
cherries and" quite a fair prospect for apples. 
Iowa. henry waeiace. 
This is our “off” year for a full crop of apples. This 
applies to varieties like Baldwin, Greening and Spy. Bald¬ 
win is bearing little or none Ibis year, and Greening about 
half a crop. On the other "hand, varieties like Fall Pippin 
and Hendrick Sweet are full this year; last year not 
enough to go around. King will bear almost a full crop, 
in fact, we are always sure of Kings. One tree which bore 
for the writer seven barrels last: years promises as many 
more this Y ear - Apples promise to be very smooth and 
fair. There will be no Bordeaux injury, as no rains occurred 
for nearly two weeks after spraying. A weaker solut’on 
was generally used also. Insect pests have been conspicuous 
by their absence. This is owing, no doubt, to the cold, back¬ 
ward Spring. It is faintly hoped that scale may have got 
so chilly that it may not show up again. Peaches will be a 
rarity, while plums promise well. We have used arsenate 
of lead now for the third season on plums for cureul'o. 
and find it to be a valuable remedy. Bartlett pears will be 
short, but Seckel and Kieffer about an average crop. The 
season has thus far been unfavorable for blight none hav¬ 
ing appeared yet. There were but few insects flying when 
trees were in bloom. This, doubtless, checked the spread of 
blight germs, but on the other hand did not seem to prevent 
pollination. , w. a. b. 
Interlaken, N. Y. 
Apples have set fairly well in this locality, and trees are 
now covered with an unusually rank, heavy foliage, and 
look very promising but “What will the harvest be?" Last 
year the outlook was very flattering for apples till about 
midsummer when the dreaded San .lose scale made its ap¬ 
pearance and by gathering time the bulk of the crop was so 
affected that they were only fit for the evaporator. Also, 
large numbers of apple trees in this section have died in the 
last year or two from the effects of the scale. The question 
now asked is. will the scale be as bad as last year? Time 
alone will tell. Spraying was done this Spring with lime 
and sulphur, and the oils, as never before and fruit growers 
are hopeful of partial victory at least. There is no question 
of controlling the scale on medium-sized trees, but with our 
old apple orchards it is different, and seems exceedingly 
doubtful. I am trying the experiment of heading my large 
apple trees back gradually, always cutting the limbs off 
smoothly, leaving no stub to die, just above a branch so that 
it will heal over; then leaving the suckers in the center 
near body of tree to grow. Later these can be thinned out 
and cut back, causing them to branch out, eventually form¬ 
ing a lower, more bushy head that can be readily sprayed, 
and apples more easily gathered. Some of the trees pruned 
in this way for three or four years already begin to show 
very satisfactory results. Pears will be a light: crop, peaches 
good, plums good; not as many prunes as last year. Cher¬ 
ries very light. Cultivation, spraying and pruning make the 
difference between success or failure, and profit or loss, in 
fruit growing here. f. s. h. 
Lewiston, N. Y. _ 
BITS OF LAW. 
Railway Waiting Rooms. 
Do the State laws make any provision for compelling a 
railroad company to furnish a waiting room or any accom¬ 
modations for its passenger traffic at stations. a. l. t. 
West Virginia. 
The railway must provide adequate accommodations for 
passengers, la be open at least an hour before train time, 
and with proper sanitary provisions. 
Right of Way Across Farm. 
Twelve years avo I purchased my farm from a man who 
owned a farm joining mine, divided by a railway. For con¬ 
venience sane the railroad left an opening through their 
right of way so a drive could be maintained across mv 
farm to the public- highway. Other parties bought the farm 
joining mine, and keep up this drive across my farm. 
Must, t allow this when my neighbor’s farm joins "a public 
highway at the west and east side of their farm? Of course, 
they will be obliged to oppn a drive and drive farther to get 
to the public highway on their own land. h. b. n. 
Pennsylvania. 
If the right to use the drive was made in writing, and of 
record, or if it has been used for such purpose for more than 
15 years, it becomes a permanent easement. If it is not a 
permanent easement and your neighbor can reach the high¬ 
way in any other manner you can shut him out from vour 
land. _ 
NEW ENGLAND GRASS.—Geo. M. Clark, of Connecticut, 
the “grass man,” sends us the following account of his 
crops ; 
“On the third day of .Tune, 1905, after thorough cultiva¬ 
tion of the soil, I sowed 3*4 acres of high and dry abandoned 
New England field to Alfalfa. In 53 days from the time 
it was sown I cut 1 '4 ton of dry hay to the acre and in 
53 days more the same amount was cut again. In the 
season of 1900 I cut four crops of 114 ton of dry hay to 
each acre, making in all 30 tons in six crops. In 1905-0 I 
used onlv commercial fertilizer. This Spring I put about 
four or five eords of decomposed yard manure on each acre, 
using a manure spreader to drop it evenly. The Spring has 
been so backward that the first crop did not mature until 
the IStli of June. I was fortunate enough to have seven 
clear days, and put in the first crop. 10i/ tons from the 3V> 
acres, in fine condition the seventh day after cutting, sub¬ 
stantially three tons to the acre, some more and some less, 
seven crops substantially two years, total nearly 41 tons. 
I have set a double action Cutaway harrow at a light angle 
and gone over the field with it each way after cutting each 
crop, sowing a little more seed each time. Each crop has 
grown stronger, this last being double any other. It is 
growing an inch ppr day. ’Pile grass crop of every kind In 
this section is light, because of continued cold weather. 
Last year the two crops from the 11-acre field of Timothy 
and Red-top together with the four crops from the 314 acres 
of Alfalfa, amounted to 102 tons.” 
A poor crop year does more than pinch the farmer. When 
the man on the farm has less to buy and sell every man who 
handles or makes over goods has less to do. Toil us what 
anv man off the farm does besides handling or making over 
raw material ? 
