THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
267 
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EVENTS OF THE WEEK. . 
DOMESTIC.--Twenty-five workmen at the Richards col¬ 
liery, Mt. Carmel, I’a., owned by the Susquehanna Coat Com¬ 
pany. were Injured March f» by a powder magazine, contain- 
ng 1,100 pounds of dynamite, exploding. Two engine houses 
were blown to pieces and the breaker was damaged. 
John Alexander Howie, founder of the Christian Catholic 
Church in Zion, died March !) at Shiloh House in Zion 
City, Ill. In his last hours he was attended by only four 
of those who had shared his prosperity and remained loyal 
in the time of his adversity. Howie was a Scotchman who 
went to Adelaide, Australia, in 18G0, when he was 13 years 
old. He was a clerk In an Adelaide business house for seven 
years and in that time saved enough money to go back to 
Edinburgh and take a live years' course in theology. Howie 
returned to Australia In 1X72 and ljecame pastor of the 
Congregational Church at Newtown, a suburb of Sydney, 
lie became known as a vigorous and effective speaker and 
drew large congregations. About a year later Howie an¬ 
nounced his belief in Divine healing, forsook his church, 
organized it divine healing assocaton and went to Melbourne. 
There ho built a tabernacle. In Melbourne he got into 
trouble frequently with the authorities on account of the 
Intemperate speeches he made. lie found il convenient 
about 18X7 to leave Australia and go to San Francisco. For 
several years he attempted to popularize his propaganda in 
California, but he didn’t meet with much success. Then 
he wont to Chicago. That was in 1890. His wonderful ma¬ 
terial prosperity, and the troubles that ensued, are matters 
of recent history. . . . The Herman steamer Vandalia, 
from Iliogo, Japan, arrived In New' York March <1, after a 
terrible battle with fire in midocean. It was necessary to 
flood the vessel during a heavy gale to extinguish the'fire, 
and a portion of the cargo consisting of tea to the value of 
$200(100 was thrown overboard. . . . Will J. Davis was 
acquitted at Danville, 111., March 9, of the charge of man¬ 
slaughter in connection with the Iroquois Theater disaster 
in Chicago in which 500 persons were killed, and was set 
free. The ncuuittal by the jury was on orders from Judge 
Kimbrough, who, after three days of argument by the oppos¬ 
ing counsel, decided that that portion of the Chicago fire 
ordinance on which the indictment was based was invalid. 
After the decision was rendered the judge called the jury 
Into court and Instructed it to bring in a verdict of ac¬ 
quittal. This disposes of the charges against Mr. Davis 
In so far as the present indictment is concerned. He has 
been placed in jeopardy on the charge of causing the death 
of Viva Jackson and has been acquitted by a Jury. As the 
State is not given the right to appeal no further action is 
possible. But there are 505 other victims of the Iroquois 
horror. Whether or not indictments charging responsihl it.v 
for their death can be drawn without using the discredited 
ordinance as a basis is a matter for the Chicago authorities 
to decide. , . . It is estimated four-fifths of the “transi¬ 
tory divorce” business of .South Dakota lias been killed by a 
law just passed b.v both houses of the Legislature. The new 
law requires one year’s residence, leaving Idaho the only 
Slate in the Union with a six months' law. All hearings 
must lie public and personal service must lie secured. The 
adverse report on the Hill of the Senate committee raised 
a storm of protests and charges of mercenary motives, and 
the lawmakers changed their attitude. Opponents of tho 
measure got an amendment that where both parties come to 
the State and agree on a separation six months' residence 
will suffice. . . . The Judiciary Committee of the Cali¬ 
fornia Senate has reported favorably the bill forbidding 
Japanese more than 10 years old to attend the primary 
grade of any public school. The Hill is framed in general 
terms, but is alined at the Japanese. The measure provides 
for separate schools for Orientals. . . . Hundreds of 
square miles of grazing lands in Texas are being swept by 
prairie (ires in Concho River Valley and the upper Colorado 
River districts. There has been great loss to farm property 
and hundreds of head of five stock have perished. 
An action to recover $39,(100.000 was entered March 9 in the 
United Statics Circuit Court in Uhiladelphiu by Battle & 
Maishall, as attorneys for the Pennsylvania Sugar lielining 
Company, against tne American Sugar Itefln.ng Company, 
Henry O. Ilavemeyer, John E. Parsons, (iustav E. Kissel, 
and others. The complaint alleges that, as the result of a 
conspiracy on the part of the defendants, the big plant of 
the Pennsylvania Sugar Refining Company in Philadelphia, 
with a capacity of 4,000 barrels a day, although completed 
and ready for business over three years, has not yet turned 
out a single barrel of sugar. To the alleged conspiracy of 
the American Sugar Refining Company is charged the sensa¬ 
tional failure of tho Real Estate Trust Company of Phila¬ 
delphia, Hie consequent loss to its numerous depositors, the 
suicide of its president, Frank K. Hippie, and tho financial 
rum of one of Philadelphia’s most daring realty speculators, 
Adolph Segal. _ 
CONDITIONS EAST AND WEST. 
It Is interesting for us to see ourselves as others see us. 
There is no use denying that here in central Illinois we 
have very bad roads on an average of say about three months 
in the year. Hard roads are much talked of. Hut the mat¬ 
ter ends there. Perhaps one of these days Hying machines 
will come and this seems about the only mode of relief in 
siglit. But in spite of all our drawbacks, such as bad 
roads, frequent droughts and a windy, changeable climate, 
the price of farm lands is' soaring as never known before. 
Six years ago a farm of 120 acres adjoining me sold for 
$00 per acre. The new owner took off over $1,990 worth 
of timber, and three years later sold it for $X7 an acre. 
A few days ago the same place sold for $12.3 an acre. It 
is seen that this place has more than doubled In price the 
last six years. No Improvements were made on tiie place, 
and tills is a timber and not a prairie soil. This place is 
about three miles' from a town of 3.000. Prairie farms have 
advanced even more than the instance given, and there are 
many in this county that $209 an acre would not buy. 
Unless the bubble bursts we shall soon see $390 an acre 
farm lands here. Speculators have made small fortunes 
buying and selling again. But I cannot see how this re¬ 
markable advance In land is of any benefit unless one wants 
to sell out. The land itself Is' just the same, and does not 
produce any more than formerly, and it is Impossible for a 
poor man to get a place now. The raise in nrice lias also 
gteafly increased taxes; mine are three times what they 
were eight vears ago. There never was such a craze for 
fund. Even old Missouri has taken a boom. One agent 
there to encourage me to buy writes : “Our lands here have 
more than doubled in price the last two years, so hurry if 
you want to gel il on the ground floor.” It. rather looked 
to me that il was two years loo late to get In on the 
“ground floor.” How long the present conditions will con¬ 
tinue no one can tell, but judging by the past it does seem 
that there 1 must be a reaction sooner or later, o. j. b. 
Illinois. 
Fruit prospects were never better for tiie coming season. 
We had a bumper crop last season, and it looks as though 
we were going to have another at this time. As a gen¬ 
eral tiling, if the fruit buds are safe at this season of 
the year we can count on a crop. f. w. p. 
Holton, Ivans. 
TESTS FOR BUTTER. Tho completion of our new dairy 
building and increase of facilities for work will make it 
possible for us to undertake more than we could do with 
the old equipment. One of the new lines will be the occa¬ 
sional receipt and critical examination of butter made by our 
students who are candidates for certificates of proficiency. 
This work will be carried bn in somewhat tiie same way 
ns tiie educational butter cows’ tests. The maker of the 
butter will be informed as to faults in his making so far as 
these are indicated by His reports and quality of the goods. 
Opportunity will be given to other butter makers who are 
not candidates for certificates to send in their butter at the 
same time if they desire to do so and will agree to comply 
with the simple and necessary requirements. We are con¬ 
sidering also the feasibility of receiving samples of cheese, 
market milk and cream under similar conditions. 
Cornell University. it. a. pearson. 
ILLINOIS OLEO LAW.- I desire to call your attention 
to the present status of the Illinois State Law of 1897, 
which _ prohibits the sale of colored oleomargarine in this 
State. ' This law was practically made Ineffective by a court 
decision several years ago. il being declared unconstitutional 
b.v Judges llanecey, Brentano and Chetlain sitting en banc. 
The decision was read by Judge Hanecy and concurred in 
by Judge Brentano. Judge Chetlain returning a dissenting 
opinion upholding the law. The State Food Department, 
desiring to test this law further, instituted suit against .39 
dealers in Chicago, basing its action on the said law of 
1X97. The cases came up for a hearing before Municipal 
Judge Scovllle of this city on February 18. The defend¬ 
ants’ attorneys moved to quash the informations on the 
ground that the law was unconstitutional. Judge Scovllle 
promptly overruled the motion, holding that the law was 
constitutional and held the defendants to trial. The defend¬ 
ants asked for a jury trial and the trial of the first case re¬ 
sulted in a conviction of the defendant. This is the first 
clean cut, successful prosecution before a recognized court 
of record under tills law and opens the way for dealing 
effectively with oleomargarine colored In violation of the 
law of this State. h. e. sciiuknecht, 
III. State Food Commission. 
. Myth* >',.4; 
’jin- y - 
f li}iflj\\)y\ Choose Your Yields by Choosing Your Fertilizer 
You’ll get a Timothy crop like that in the right- 
hand picture, if you choose a poor fertilizer. You’ll 
get a crop like that at the left, even if the soil is poor, 
provided you choose a fertilizer containing 8% of 
POTASH 
To find how to get the best results from growing grasses 
and other crops, write for the ‘‘Farmer’s fluids.” Sent free, 
though worth much—write to 
OERMAN KALI WORKS 
93 Nassau Street New York 
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Time: 
Among the up-to-date, progressive people who use SWIFT’S ANIMAL 
FERTILIZERS are the Johnson Seed Potato Co. of Richmond, Me., 
who make the following interesting statement: “The yield of our Snow 
variety potato on SWIFT’S SPECIAL POTATO FERTILIZER, as 
shown by the harvest, cut of which appears on page 23 in our 1906 cata¬ 
logue, was between 450 and 500 bushels per acre. We are perfectly safe 
when we say that the yield was above 450 bushels, and we are willing 
that you should use these figures, if you so desire.- 
For spraying this remarkable yield, we used Bug Death and Bordeaux 
Mixture. There was no rot whatever when the field in question was 
harvested. This is important to mention from the fact that there was 
so much trouble in general from blight and the rot the past few years, 
and we are satisfied that the way a fertilizer is made up has something 
to do with potatoes decaying, under certain conditions.” 
See local agents or send for prices Our terms are easy and our prices right 
SWIFT’S LOWELL FERTILIZER CO. 
Agricultural Chemicals and Poultry Supplies 
40 NORTH MARKET STREET, BOSTON 
Send for Memorandum Book with Egg Record. It’s Free 
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The Rogers & Hubbard Co., Aitonaug, R.I., Aug. 27, 1906. 
Middletown, Conn. 
Gentlemen:—The crop has been so poor for the past two or three years that I 
was almost discouraged trying to raise good Potatoes, but your General Agent, Mr. 
Allen N. Hoxsie, induced me to take a Local Agency for the sale of the Hubbard 
Fertilizers, and I thought 1 would try once more. 
1 selected a piece of sod land that had been down ever since I owned the farm 
and how long before I do not know (I have been here since October, 1894). This 
was plowed the 7th of May and Hubbard’s Potato Phosphate at the rate of about 
one-half ton per acre sowed broadcast all over it and harrowed in with an old 
fashioned blunt tooth cultivator, so as not to turn any sod up again. The seed was 
drilled in, cultivated and hoed as soon as up well and a little of Hubbard’s Potato 
Phosphate sprinkled around each hill at the second hoeing. 
The result is that they grew like weeds and not only have I got a big crop of 
vines, hut there are some of the largest and finest eating Potatoes under them that I 
ever raised. When we want good Potatoes, we want Hubbard’s Potato Phosphate 
at planting time. Yours truly D. J. LAMBERT, 
_ Lumbert'H Death to Lice. 
Special Fertilizers for Every Crop 
Hubbard’s Fertilizer Almanac for 1007 tells 
all about them, SENT FREE to any address. 
THE ROGERS & HUBBARD CO., 
MIDDLETOWN, CONN. 
Makers of HUBBARD’S Fertilizers. 
nchor Fence 
, Combines strength and 
beauty with long life. Large, 
itiard steel wires. Heavily 
galvanized. 
FARM AND 
ORNAMENTAL 
vlsome, easy to build, always 
uls erect. Ask for Fence Book i >. 
NCHOR FENCE A MFC. CO. 
Clavaland, Ohio. 
aide 
MACHINERY 
IB 
Best ainl cheapest, 
Send for catalogue. 
BOOMER & BOSCHERT 
PRESS CO., 
1X8 West Water St., 
MUUCUSK. N. X. 
