lgo?. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
657 
SHOULD COM. WIETING “GET BUSY"? 
We select the following note from hundreds of simi¬ 
lar expressions of opinion: 
If there is anything I admire it is bulldog tenacity and 
grit. Surely you have shown these qualities in this Rogers- 
Dawley matter. But Mr. Dawley is a public servant, at the 
head of a great public educational system. I have heard 
him deliver a “high moral” talk to farmers. lias it not 
occurred to you that there were departments other than that 
of insurance that need investigating? How would it do for 
Consumer Wieting to get busy? d. p. h. 
Here is an old-fashioned man who actually thinks 
the State should be held responsible for the work of 
its agents. There is no man of his class in New York 
who has received greater opportunity or greater help 
from the State than Frank E. Dawley. He may well 
stop to think of his position as a practical farmer before 
the State, put him in charge of the Farmers’ Institute 
Bureau. During his administration Mr. Dawley has 
disbursed more than a quarter of a million dollars 
of the State’s money in agricultural educational work. 
Quite a prominent part of this work has been instruc¬ 
tion on the selection of the dairy cow. We assume 
that this education has been designed particularly for 
such farmers as lacked the necessary experience and 
observation required to select the best animals. Certain¬ 
ly experienced breeders and dairymen know as much 
about it as the lecturers themselves. In fact, it would 
seem as if such education was designed for just such 
inexperienced men as Mr. Rogers, who confessed that 
he knew little about cows. Rogers knew that Dawley 
was directing the State’s educational work. For aught 
we know he too may have listened to Dawley’s “high 
moral talk.” He did not know Dawley personally, but 
like any of the re'st of us he might naturally assume 
that a man in high official position would be in every 
way worthy of trust. In his first letters Rogers ex¬ 
pressed this trust in his frank admission that he had 
no experience in selecting cattle. He was willing to 
leave the selection of the cattle to Dawley. In his 
own letters, while making the salej: Dawley pra-ises the 
stock in unqualified terms. Rogers is to have a fine 
start as a breeder. In a subsequent letter to Dr. Smead 
Dawley calls them a job lot, and Dr. Smead agrees 
with him in this. In explaining this Mr. Dawley says 
that Rogers did not take the lot which was offered him 
in the correspondence (which we are to assume justi¬ 
fied the praise Dawley gave them) but selected an 
equal number of animals which Dawley calls “a job 
lot.” Thus Rogers is a living illustration of the State’s 
claim that mbney ought to be spent to instruct farmers 
on “The Conformation of The Dairy Cow”—for he 
rejected a choice lot and accepted “a job lot.” Rogers, 
however, insists that he took the identical animals that 
were selected by Dawley—and Dawley wrote shortly 
after that Rogers got more value for his money than 
any other man who ever drove cattle from his farm— 
or words to that effect. Now assuming that Dawley’s 
version is correct—that Rogers did refuse the daughters 
of the best cows Dawley ever owned, as he described 
them, and selected “a job lot,” what was his duty as head 
of a great State educational department? Was he justi¬ 
fied in letting one of his own pupils cheat himself? True, 
it was not a farmer’s institute, and Dawley was not de¬ 
livering a “high moral talk,” but here was his chance to 
teach by example as well as by precept. It was a great 
opportunity for a little kindergarten or object lesson 
teaching. One would think that an enthusiastic teacher 
would jump at the chance to give Rogers an impressive 
lesson on “The Conformation of the Dairy Cow!” 
Should the State smile complacently while its head 
teacher neglects a plain duty to pupils, when that neg¬ 
lect means loss to pupil and gain to teacher? Why 
yes, we consider the suggestion a good one. By all 
means let Commissional Wieting get busy! 
EVENTS OF THE WEEK. 
DOMESTIC.—Fire August 14 partly destroyed the large 
warehouse of the International Flax Twine Co. at St. Faul, 
Minn. The loss is estimated at $80,000, fully insured. For 
a time tho entire works, which are valued at about $1,000,- 
000, were threatened with restruction. . . . John W. 
Reeves, a brakeman employed on the Colorado and North¬ 
western Railroad, who has been held as a suspect in connec¬ 
tion with the destruction of the Colorado and Southern sta¬ 
tion by fire and dynamite at Boulder, Col., August 10, con¬ 
fessed that he was responsible for the crime. Later Frank 
Kiser, another suspect, also confessed. Their act caused 
the death of five persons and the injury of 50 others, be¬ 
sides the destruction of property valued at half a million 
dollars. . . . The August dry spell was probably the 
most disastrous of any during the last half century in 
Connecticut. Many factories in the eastern part of the State 
were compelled to close down on account of the drying up 
of the streams, and the cotton-mill owners have suffered 
heavily. A large number of the owners have been com¬ 
pelled to put steam power in their mills and factories for 
the first time. Farmers suffered greatly, owing to the 
drought, and were compelled to draw water from rivers and 
lakes many miles away in order to save any of their crops. 
. . . Fire destroyed the Erie Railroad storehouse at 
Susquehanna, Penna!, August 14, entailing a loss estimated 
at $185,000. Sixty strike breakers, employed in the Erie 
machine shops, who were quartered in the upper stories of 
the storehouse, had to make a hasty exit. The shops were 
saved. . . . The Squirrel Inn, Haines Falls, N. Y.. wa3 
destroyed August 14 in one of the most sudden and danger¬ 
ous fires of the Catskill region. The fire was discovered 
on the top floor of the hotel, and, helped by a high west 
wind, was working rapid devastation before the alarm was 
turned in. The fire quickly spread to the dry brush and 
trees on Twilight Mountain. There had been no rain in the 
mountains for more than two weeks, and everything was 
like tinder. There was practically no water with which to 
fight the flames. By cutting a wide semi-circle in the forest 
and backfiring in the underbrush, control was at 'ast gained. 
The Inn was entirely destroyed with its contents; loss 
$50,000. . . . Fire swept more than half the buildings 
along the shore of Old Orchard Beach, Me., August 15. 
The loss is more than $500,000. The fire was started by the 
upsetting of a kerosene lamp in the annex of the Olympia 
Hotel. Aid was summoned from all the surrounding cities, 
but by the time these firemen were at work the flames had 
destroyed every building to the east. Two lives were lost 
and five persons were injured, three seriously, as a result of 
the fire, which caused a loss of about $800,000, insured for 
about one-third that sum. The people who were driven from 
the hotels were compelled to spend the night on the beach. 
A stiff breeze blew in from the sea. and manv suffered from 
cold, specially the children. Brush wood fires were kept 
going all night, around which the refugees sat in shivering 
groups waiting for the dawn and the warmth of the sun¬ 
light. A large number of persons took refuge on the iron 
pier, and when the flames threatened those on the pier 
ripped up seventy-five feet of the planking, and in this way 
saved the structure from serious damage. ... As a 
consequence of the new Texas anti-trust law all the sales¬ 
men of the American Tobacco Company, now under prosecu¬ 
tion by the Federal Government as a trust, have withdrawn 
from the State. The Texas headquarters were removed to 
New Orleans. Under the new law every employee of a 
trust is subject to criminal prosecution and the tobacco sales¬ 
men could not have worked safely in Texas. The alleged har¬ 
vester trust, which has its headquarters at Dallas, Texas, 
it is understood, is the next to be attacked. 
FARM AND GARDEN.—Tuberculosis has been discovered 
in the fine dairy herd owned by J. Pierrpont Morgan at 
Highland Falls, N. Y., and. one-third of the high-bred milch 
cows have been killed by orders cabled by Mr. Morgan. 
The herd was composed entirely of cows of notable pedigrees, 
and they were kept with the greatest care in modern stables, 
attention being paid to proper ventilation and all the sani¬ 
tary conditions. 
Anthrax, the mostr dreaded of cattle diseases, has broken 
out in several dairies in the vicinity of Johnson,* Orange 
County, N. Y. Dr. Devine has ordered all exposed cattle 
isolated and is making great effort to stamp out the dis¬ 
ease. A bacteriological analysis has been made at Cornell 
University which confirms Dr. Devine’s diagnosis of the dis¬ 
ease as the dreaded anthrax. 
It is reported that many dairymen of Orange County 
are refusing to comply with an order of New York City^s 
health department which says that the long hairs on cow s 
tails must be clipped or the milk cannot be sent to New 
York If the tails are clipped the cows cannot protect them¬ 
selves from flies and suffer greatly. This affects their supply 
of milk. If the order is lived up to the farmers believe 
they will have to buy fly nets for all their cattle, which 
could only be done at great expense. A mass meeting in 
protest has been called. 
Allan Ferguson has been appointed assistant in cheese mak¬ 
ing in the New York State College of Agriculture, at Cornell 
University. Mr. Ferguson is from Connecticut. He gradu¬ 
ated from Weslevan University in 1905, his college course 
being made up largely of scientific studies. In his senior 
year Mr. Ferguson specialized in dairy and water bacteriol¬ 
ogy. and was awarded the G. Brown Goode prize for research. 
Prof. E. E. Bogue. head of the department of forestry at 
the Michigan Agricultural College, diel at Lansing August 
19 after a lingering illness. He had a national reputation 
as’a forestry expert. Professor Bogue was forty-two years 
oid, and before going to Lansing was professor of botany in 
Oklahoma University._ 
GREAT THINGS IN DELAWARE. 
I send you in a mailing tube some Timothy heads and 
terns. You said the cuts of the heads shown on page 602 
rere the exact size. If so, these heads of mine are larger 
han the picture. I would not have sent these heads but 
ou asked for some to beat them. Also when you find some- 
hlng in any State of this Union, if it is anything that 
,-ill grow arid mature with us, I believe in Old St. George s 
lundred, we can send a sample that our farmers are 
ot ashamed of. No man has ever passed through or vis- 
ted parts of the State has seen Delaware unless he has 
isited this Hundred of Old St. George. The writer had 
rown on his land this year over 6,500 bushels of wheat; 
ave some peaches this year, apples and from 3,000 to o.OOO 
askets of Kieffer pears. J- t. s, 
Middletown, Del. 
R n-Y _The Timothy heads are certainly larger than 
hose from Pennsylvania pictured on page 602. This will 
urnrise manv who have a poor idea of the soil on the 
telaware peninsula. It is possible to do almost anything 
,-ith that soil bv using Crimson clover, cow peas and other 
ianuring crops. ‘ Our friend certainly believes that “There s 
n idace like home.” _ 
BLASTING STONES WITH FIRE . 
On page 559 I see the Hope Farm man classes the man 
io cracked a rock with fire with the fellow who filled 
barrel with eggs and set a hen on the bung to hatch 
it the whole lot, but here he is wrong, as we break 
, many rocks by making a hot fire and burning it until 
e rock is red hot; then fork off the fire and throw a pail 
cold water on to the rocks. It will work every time if 
u iret tho rock hot enough, and the harder the rock the 
tter We use old fence rails and piles of brush that want 
irning anyway. This is a trick I learned from my grand- 
ther fifty years ago. D - s - 
?ont- 
The principle underlying this mode of blasting is the ex¬ 
pansive power of heat, which should be applied as far as 
possible at a central point on the stone to be broken. With 
us bowlders generally have convex tops, making it difficult 
to concentrate a fire upon it, but a small fire placed upon 
the top will usually cause a portion to flake off, leaving the 
stone flat or concave on top; when your work is easy. 
If vour stone is sunk in the ground, dig a trench around it, 
relieving it from the pressure of the earth. Choose a day 
with a stiff wind blowing; this will keep the ashes from 
accumulating and allow the coals and hot cinders to be kept 
in constant contact with the stone. The natural stone of 
this section of Ontario is limestone, but everywhere upon 
the high lands are patches covered with bowlders that have 
come in the ice from the I.aurentian ridges to the north 
of the Georgian Bay and Lake Huron. Those patches will 
sometimes cover several acres, especially where the berg 
in which they have been carried has been intercepted by 
some considerable hill. We have lots of limestone, but find 
the only way to break those is with powder or dynamite, 
and I would not advise the use of fire upon any soft or 
porous stone. For fuel, any rubbish that will produce a 
strong heat will answer. Hemlock knots and limbs are 
capital, and I presume the refuse of pine timber, limbs, 
roots, etc., would be equally good. A- gifford. 
Ontario. 
To that “fake” story on page 559 about cracking bowld¬ 
ers with fire, I wish to say in reply there is another pas¬ 
sage of Scripture which says, “Prove all things and hold 
fast that which is good,” but he says that this Dane story 
is too good to be true, therefore the principles of common 
sense should be applied to it. That which a man may 
think is common sense, but without knowledge or experi¬ 
ence, may be misleading. I don’t know what size bowlders 
this Dane cracked, nor how large a one can be cracked with 
•Are, but I do know by experience that the hardest kinds 
of a medium size can be cracked by his method upon the 
principle of expansion by heat. Turn the broadest flat 
side up and lay pieces of wood across the center and set 
fire to it, and keep a good hot fire until you expand this 
side of the bowlder. The bottom, not being expanded, is 
bound to crack, for granite or flint will not bend. Now, 
will anv doubting Thomas try this method and report re¬ 
sults? There is not the least bit of danger like using dyna¬ 
mite or powder, as there will be no explosion by the use 
of this method. t. m. r. 
Pennsylvania. 
I have on this old farm nearly or quite 200 rods of stone 
wall. In these walls are big stones that took two large yoke 
of cattle to move from the lots to the wall. Some I had 
a man drill a hole in and put in a charge of powder ; others 
were split apart the way this “fake” story tells about. 
I remember seeing my father dig the ground away from a 
large rock all around the rock about 10 inches down to¬ 
ward the bottom of the rock. Then he would take pine 
roots or any old dry wood, put two or four stones on top 
of the rock, about one foot apart, and pile the wood be¬ 
tween the stones and other pieces of wood from the ground 
to connect with the wood on top, set the wood afire, and 
in a short time the heat would split this big rock in three 
or four large blocks. Other times it would cause it to 
scale off in large pieces. These were pried off with a bar 
and another fire put on. If you confine the heat on. the 
cente_r of the rock, with the soil dug away from the side, 
it will do as this story tells about.' Just try it on some 
ef the Hope Farm rocks and be convinced. o. s. 
FARMERS AND PUBLIC QUESTIONS. 
It gives me great pleasure to see the stand you have 
taken in regard to those Senators who have blocked the 
removal of Superintendent of Insurance Kelsey, and other 
much-needed reforms of the Legislature arid Governor 
Hughes. “The Grape Belt” not only misrepresents the 
position that the agricultural press should take on all 
political matters, but positively insults the intelligent farm¬ 
ers of the State of New York. According to the idea of 
“The Grape Belt.” as I take it, the farmer should not be 
informed of the doings of the political shyster that he sends 
to the Legislature to represent him, but should cast his 
vote as the machine directs, or people will look down upon 
him and his business. There is no greater medium for 
informing the farmer of the course taken by the man he 
has helped send to Congress or the State Legislature than 
through the non-partisan agricultural press. The agricul¬ 
tural press can do no greater good in this country to-day 
than to keep the farmers well informed as to their repre¬ 
sentatives in Congress and State Legislature, so that some 
of them will get the oblivion that they so justly merit. 
There are two other matters that I think The R. N. Y. 
should take up. First, a law should lie passed by Congress 
at its next session to inspect all garden and field seed 
placed on sale throughout the country, giving the percentage 
and name of foul seed found in each package, so that the 
purchaser would know what he was buying. Second, ask 
the Legislature of the State of New York to place all com¬ 
mission houses under the control of the Commissioner of 
Agriculture, compelling said firms to pay a license of not 
less than $50 per year, and give a surety bond for not less 
than $1,000. The name or names of said commission firms 
not to be changed without revoking license; license money 
to go to the College of Agriculture. I think that if a law 
of this kind was enacted it would add many thousands of 
dollars to the pockets of the farmers and fruit growers of 
the State of New York. c. a. j. 
Whitehall, N. Y. 
R. N.-Y.—The Agricultural Department already tests sam¬ 
ples of grass and clover seeds, and has printed names of 
dealers with the results of its tests. 
IOWA FARM NOTES . 
On account of two weeks’ rain right in haying time farm¬ 
ers got badly behind with their work ; last week found them 
still making hay and grain ripe to be cut. Fortunately 
every day of last week was fair and cool, letting men and 
teams work easily and with comfort. With our wide-cut 
mower, hay loader and horse forks hay went into the barns 
lively. July 31 I could see one or two farmers who had 
started to cut their grain. Saturday night there was 
scarcely a field left standing, all cut and very much in 
shock. This year I hired my grain cut, paying 75 cents 
per acre to have it cut with binder and sheaves laid in 
rows for the shocking. To have grain cut, bound and 
sheaves laid in rows I do not consider a very high price, 
considering the amount of work done. Hay is very good. 
One field of last year’s seeding looked in trie Spring quite 
poor, but we got the manure spreader out after corn plant¬ 
ing. gave it a coat of manure which greatly increased the 
yield. Now that the rush of farm work is over I have been 
thinking would it pay to set John hauling manure from the 
pile the railroad has dumped out in the old gravel pit four 
miles from here. No one hauls a load of it. and there are 
thousands of loads unloaded from their stock ears If it 
was only nearer I certainly would have one or two fields 
soon covered with manure. I like to have land productive, 
producing great ears of corn, and stalks eight to 10 feet 
high, or when land is in hay yielding two or three tons per 
acre. There is a pleasure to see such crops. They can be 
produced, too, if one only gets at It in right way arid keeps 
at it. Last week a cattle buyer came along, and asked me 
what I would take for those calves. They -were just six 
months old. I told him I would take $16 per head for them. 
He took me up. I believe I did as well as if I had held 
them. It would be rather hard to double on them everv 
six months. As apples will be a very scarce article with 
us this Winter the women folks are canning all the black¬ 
berries they can and with fair prospects of grapes we will 
be able to get through with a little buying as needed. Our 
work horses are out in the pasture now enjoying themselves. 
They will rest as many days as they will work the rest of 
season. Contrast their life with the city horse, who labors 
every day on hot stone paved streets, confined to hot, ill- 
ventilated stables at night with never a green meal to eat. 
What a paradise the country horse lives in comparison to 
the city horse. I wonder if there is not near as much dif¬ 
ference in men that are living out in the open sunshine and 
fresh air. and the other living cooped up in the city with 
that everlasting every-day grind. b. d. 
Salula, Iowa. _ 
L. L. W., Columbia County. N. Y.. says he understands 
that apple riarrels can be bought in Western New York for 
32 cents at the present time. If he knows where barrels 
can be obtained for that figure he would confer a great 
favor on apple growers in Western New York by telling 
us through The R. N. Y. where they can he obtained. Bar¬ 
rels began to be sold and delivered a month ago at 38 cents. 
I don’t know now where one could buy at less than 40 cents. 
The owner of one factory that usually makes 40,000 to 
50,000 barrels each season told me six or seven weeks ago 
that the material and pay for putting up a barrel would 
be 34 cents, the temporary storage while awaiting the farm¬ 
er’s barn to be cleared at thrashing time and delivery from 
one to ten miles and maker’s profit soon taking up the dif¬ 
ference between the cost of 34 and selling at 38 cents. A 
very easy matter for the seller to go to 40 .cents, especially 
as all cooper stock is costing more now than at the middle 
of June. s. w. 
Orleans Co., N. Y._ 
As to the crops here, hay proved considerably below the 
average, but was mostly weil saved. Barley is a good crop, 
and with a few more days of fine weather will be harvested 
in good condition. Peas are better than they have been 
for a long time. Farmers hereabouts are getting back again 
into the business of growing garden peas for seed. Corn 
is doing well, but rather late to be quite safe against the 
danger of an early frost. Roots are also doing well. Oat 
crop is likely to be poor, though better than it has been 
for two or three years past. Apple crop is likely to be 
an abundant one. The opening up of the Northwest has 
cut down the value of Ontario farms seriously. There is 
not a sufficient supply of farm labor in Ontario to do the 
work, as it was formerly done. All sorts of shifts must 
be resorted to to accommodate the woik to the changed 
conditions. w, o. e. 
Ontario. 
