1907. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
EVENTS OF THE WEEK. 
DOMESTIC.—Attorney-General Jackson of New York has 
demanded that the New York Ontario and Western Railroad 
Company refund to the State Treasury $117,161. which he 
declares the last Republican State Canal Board paid the 
company without warrant of law for a bridge of the company 
displaced by the $101,000,000 barge canal ip Oneida county. 
According to the records of the canal board, Attorney- 
General Mayer approved on March 31 of last year the pay¬ 
ment of $171,161 to the railroad company, although the 
official opinion is dated April 18. The deed releasing the 
State from further liability was approved by the Attorney- 
General on December 22. The State Canal Board voted 
unanimously in favor of the payment. The money, with the 
exception of $1,000, was paid over on December 31 last, on 
the eve of the retirement of the members of the last 
Republican State Canal Board. . . . Severe floods oc¬ 
curred in California March 20. It is estimated that the 
loss occasioned by the flood in Oroville will be not less than 
$650,000. The village of Dreadful, near Oroville, has been 
entirely destroyed by the Feather River. More than two 
hundred men, women and children took refuge in trees and 
on tops of houses, where they were exposed to the rain and 
cold for forty-eight hours. At Stockton water was one to 
six feet deep in the streets. The Sacramento River reached 
a height of 27 feet. . . . An epidemic of glanders is 
reported in Philadelphia, Pa. To check the spread of the 
diosase the Women's Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention 
of Cruelty to Animals closed all its public watering troughs 
except those which are supplied with running water March 
25. The society advised drivers to carry buckets with 
which to water their horses, to be on the safe side, and 
not to use the street troughs unless absolutely necessary. 
It is reported, that the tobacco beds of a number 
of independent planters in the county south of Princeton. 
Ky., were practically ruined March 23-24. The canvas was 
torn from the beds, over which was then sprinkled grass 
and clover seeds and salt. Independent planters had been 
frequently warned that unless they joined the association of 
tobacco growers the non-association plantations would be 
visited by night raiders. . . . The Ruef and Schmitz 
trials in San Francisco are bringing out wholesale con¬ 
fessions of alleged municipal graft. They show that several 
big corporations bought Supervisors at so much a head to 
vote for franchises in which they were interested. In a 
nutshell the Supervisors have confessed to the following 
transactions: The United Railroads Company paid each 
Supervisor $40,000 and to Schmitz and Ruef $400,000. The 
Pacific States Telephone Company paid to ten Super¬ 
visors $5,000 each. The Home Telephone Company paid 
ten Supervisors $3,500 each. The Home Telephone Com¬ 
pany also paid to seven Supervisors $6,000 each. The 
Home Telephone Company paid to Ruef and Schmitz (esti¬ 
mated), $150,000. The San Francisco Gas and Electric 
Company paid the Supervisors $750 each. The fight trust 
paid the Supervisors $500 each. The light trust paid Ruef 
and Schmitz $10,000. Bv a vote of 65 to 7. resolutions 
were adopted by the San Francisco Labor Council March 23 
condemning the municipal government and those officials 
who have betrayed their trust and calling for the vigorous 
prosecution of every corruptionist, the bribe giver as well 
as the bribed officials. The council repudiated the Union 
Labor party which elected these faithless officials, reiterat¬ 
ing its position that the labor council is a body in no way 
affiliated with politics, hut is organized and conducted 
purely for economic purposes. . . . Convict labor is 
turned into new channels in a bill introduced into the 
Illinois Legislature March 22, that seeks the employment 
of the prisoners at Joliet penitentiary in the manufacture 
of farm implements, binding twine, rope and bags. The 
measure appropriates $100,000 for the purchase and installa¬ 
tion of the necessary machinery. It was introduced by 
Cicero J. Lindly by unanimous consent on request of the 
State Federation of Labor, and it is part of the plan laid 
for the amending of the convict labor law by union leaders. 
According to Mr. Lindly the prisoners in making twine will 
not enter into competition with any Illinois industry. From 
the fact, however, that the manufacture of implements 
would make, the hoard of prison industries a rival of the 
harvester companies in the agricultural supplies market, 
strong opposition is looked for. . . George S. McRe.vn- 
olds, formerly of the Chicago Board of Trade, was sentenced 
March. 25 to an indeterminate term in the penitentiary, 
which may run anywhere from one to 10 years. McReynolds 
failed January 18, 1906, and was convicted September 18 
of borrowing money from the Corn Exchange National Bank 
of Chicago and then removing and selling the grain pledged 
as security without obtaining the consent of the holders 
of the grain receipts. This caused banks in Chicago, New 
York and Boston an aggregate loss of $700,000. McReynolds 
will appeal. . . . Judge Jones, of the United States 
Court, at Montgomery, Ala., March 25, issued a temporary 
injunction against the members of the State Railroad Com¬ 
mission, on petition of the trunk line railroads, to prevent 
the enforcement of the commodity rate law (which fixes the 
freight rates on 110 commodities of common production and 
use), the maximum rate law and the 2>/ 2 -cent passenger 
rate law recently passed by the Legislature. 
FARM AND GARDEN.—The new officers of the Texas 
Truck Growers’ Association, which has just held a successful 
convention at Jacksonville, are: President, Sam II. Dixon. 
Houston; vice-president, II. B. McWilliams, Marshall; sec¬ 
retary, J. B. Power, Nacogdoches; executive committee, II. 
Lockwood, Rockdale; C. II. Felt, Manton : J. F. Ash, Athens; 
Wesley Ix>ve. Jacksonville: John F. Nash, Palestine; S. J. 
Veihalen, Marshall; J. W. Melton. Troupe. 
The executive committee of the American Pomological 
Society has decided to hold the thirtieth biennial meeting of 
the society on the grounds of the Jamestown Exposition 
September 25 and 26, 1907. It is a long time since the 
society met in that region, and this seems an auspicious 
time for returning to it. The horticultural associations of 
the immediate section promise to unite in making the con¬ 
vention one of the most memorable in its history. The 
Society for Horticultural Science, Dean I;. II. Bailey, of the 
Cornell College of Agricultural, Ithaca, N. Y.. president, and 
Professor V. A. Clark, of the Arizona Experiment Station, 
Tucson, secretary, will meet in joint session with the Amer¬ 
ican Pomological Society this year. This general announce¬ 
ment is made under the authority of the executive com¬ 
mittee, Captain C. L. Watrous. Das Moines, la., .chairman ; 
L. A. Goodman. 4000 Warwick boulevard. Kansas City. Mo., 
president of the society, and John Craig, Ithaca, N. Y., 
secretary. _ 
A COMMISSION MAN ON THE GRAPE LAW 
In reference to the bill before the Legislature in regard 
to grape packages, you ask us if in our opinion this is a 
desirable measure. We have been handling New York State 
grapes since 1873, and for about 10 years everything was 
sold by the pound. After that the baskets came in use, and 
they were sold by the package. At the beginning of the 
use of baskets a 10-pound basket weighed full 10 pounds, 
a five-pound basket weighed full five pounds, and there was 
only one grade of basket for the large and pony basket. 
The large basket was the 10-pound and the pony basket was 
the five-pound, but in the latter part of the '80’s the new 
element that came into the business put forth a “skin” 
package, which cut the weight down a half pound. Then 
that was succeeded by another cut of a half pound, until 
about two years ago the pony basket ruled about four to 
4 Vi pounds gross. But this same element, to lower the 
price per basket, induced the manufacturers to put out a 
basket that would only hold about 2 : V, to three pounds 
of grapes, and when slack-packed would only hold about 
2 Y> pounds of grapes, so that the package lias been cut 
down so that it is a fraud on the consumer, and an honest 
grower who wishes to give full weight simply furnishes 
without receiving proper recompense for the quantity. As 
the “grape king” of America for over 20 years, the 
writer handled the largest quantity of grapes for 20 years 
of any man in the United States, we should say that a law 
should be passed in the State giving the dimensions of a 
10 -pound basket, which should weigh gross, basket and all, 
10 pounds; and the dimensions of a pony basket, which 
should weigh gross, five pounds ; or a law that would state 
that they should weigh four and eight pounds would answer 
the same purpose. The law to give dimensions of baskets 
and the weight that they should hold would cover the pur¬ 
pose, but a law that would compel that each basket should 
have on it the weight of the grapes in the basket would be 
a hardship and unnecessary in our opinion. The law should 
be emphatic on this point: that the time they are delivered 
to the car the grapes should weigh so many pounds gross, 
basket and all. The law does not want to allow any quar¬ 
ter pound or half pound variance at the time the grower 
delivers them to the cars. There is a natural shrinkage 
from that time until they go into the hands of the con¬ 
sumers of from an eighth to a quarter of a pound per bas¬ 
ket on all grapes packed at the beginning of the crop, but 
after the middle of the crop arrives there is no special 
shrinkage, and the law should say that the inspection must 
be made at the time the grower - delivers them to the cars 
or the transportation company, and then you can arrive 
at a good result. the lyon bros. co. 
New York. 
WHAT APPLES FOR NOVA SCOTIA? 
[The following paper was read bv Mr T. E. Smith before 
the Nova Scotia Fruit Growers’ Association.1 
The question of varieties is one of the most important with 
which the orchardlst has to deal. Many of the varieties 
that are now in cultivation in this valley may succeed 
well in some soils and not in others, as we find a diversity 
of soils. Others may possess manv good qualities, yef if 
lacking in one would better be grafted out, yet if grafting 
out an old standard sort many, no doubt, would take uf» 
the cudgel in its defense, as we find where one man grafts 
out an old sort, another grafts in the same. 
We all qrow too many sorts. 'Hie price we obtain for cer¬ 
tain sorts often points as an index whether we should grow 
them. About 20 years ago Astrachan and Sweet Bough 
3i i 
brought ruinously low prices; consequently nearly all were 
grafted out, until the last few years they have sold for $3 
per barrel, yet this should not be an incentive for many to 
go largely into growing early sorts. Many of our standard 
kinds with some do not prove satisfactory, such as Itibston, 
Pippin, Blenheim, Golden Russet of western New York, etc., 
for want of more fertilizing power. From my observation 
and practice, I would graft out Mammoth Russet, Golden 
Ball, It. I. Greening, Spitzenburg, Cabashea, Colvert and a 
host of others. 
Having a mania for trying new sorts (for the purpose of 
getting something better than we already have), I have 
spent considerable time and money. Many of these have 
proved worthless; others old sorts under new names in 
The It. N.-Y. of May 22, 1897, I noticed a letter written by 
a commission merchant of Kansas City, Mo., saying: “We 
had about 55,000 barrels of apples sent us this season on 
consignment. We commenced selling for $1.35 to $2 per bar¬ 
rel. The Ben Davis has the reputation of being a good 
keeper, but we have found a new apple this year that beats 
everything in that line, not only as a good keeping apple, but 
as a fine appearing apple, having the added advantage 
(which is not possessed by the Ben Davis) of being juicy 
and palatable. It is the Ingram apple. The apple is not 
quite as large as the largest Ben Davis. It is beautifully 
marked in red and yellow, and has a fine flavor. To give you 
an idea of the excellent keeping quality of these apples, I 
will say that we had in stock 304 barrels, put in about 
November 1. and did not commence to move them until the 
1st of May. At that time we took out the first apples at 
$2.25 per barrel and found them in perfect condition, with 
no deterioration either in juiciness or flavor. Since that time 
the price has been advanced to $3.50. and we expect before 
closing them all out to realize $4 to $4.50 per barrel, which 
is at the least $2.25 per barrel more than any apple has 
yet brought in this market this year. Out of 150 barrels 
sold thus far, we have found but one barrel that contained 
imperfect apples, and this barrel had so few that the shrink¬ 
age practically amounted to nothing It looks as though 
the Ingram apple is the coming apple for the West.” 
I concluded if half were true I would like to try It. so 
sent to the grower in the Spring of 1900 for scions, and 
grafted them into seedlings planted in 1898. They have 
now been bearing four years. The present year 35 trees 
gave me 15 barrels under ordinary care. I find them a 
model tree, bloom 10 days later than other sorts, annual, 
precocious and abundant bearers. Apnles grow single, though 
easy to pick, hold well to the tree during a storm, uniform 
size and free from spots ; in fact, I have yet to see the first 
spot on an Ingram apple. They are the best long-keeping 
apple I have ever seen, having kept them 20 months at 
two different times, as sound as a nut. I regret I had not 
saved some for the present occasion, but will have to he 
satisfied with samples of present season. (Fine pyramid 
shown.) Last Spring No. 3 Ingram sold in London for 20 
shillings per barrel, as a new sort. 
Black Ben Davis, another new sort, promises well. Gano 
thought by many to be hardly worth trial, as color is not 
bright enough and turns dark under the skin. Belle de 
Boskoop, though not a new sort, is a fine apple. . . A near 
neighbor has 2% acres orchard 15 years planted: seven 
trees of above the last three years bore more apples than 
all the rest together. Fruit medium to large, no small 
apples, good flavor, attractive red cheek russet, annual 
and abundant bearer. To sum up the matter in few words, 
in planting a new orchard of 1,000 trees, in addition to 
those already planted, would plant 200 Northern Spv to 
top-graft, 100 Ben Davis, 100 Black Ben Davis. 200 Belle 
de Boskoop and 400 Ingram, and then I would want an¬ 
other row to grow a few Wellington and Cox's Orange Pippin. 
I would advise trying the Ingram. I find in the nursery 
and orchard (for a cold climate) a tree that has close, hard 
wood resists the attacks of frost better than a loose, open 
growth I have had Stark grafted in, grow five feet in one 
season. We formerly thought the Ben Davis (being a 
southern variety) would not do well here, but it Is now one 
of our leading sorts._ 
KENTUCKY PROSPECTS.—We of the middle South have 
had a strenuous Winter this time. First, early in October, 
a blizzard stole in upon us, spoiled our apples, still hidden 
among the green leaves, and much of our feed stuffs. Then 
we had Summer for six weeks, when war between a northern 
and southern zone commenced in earnest. A week of ice and 
snow with thermometer between zero and 20 degrees above, 
then an immoderate downpour of rain and storm from a 
southern zone that swept away the ice and snow, but gashed 
our fields, stole away much of their fertility and left the 
grinning sands on top. and so it has been until March has 
come in with unusual bluster. Our vigorous young and 
middle-aged men have all gone to the lumber camps or on 
the railroad, where they work short hours in company, where 
work and fun go furiously, and where they get from $1.50 
to $3.00 and sometimes $5 per day; and we farmers are 
expected to pay such expenses for lumber or for transporta¬ 
tion. Personally we are planting our broad acres in apples 
sowing to crons that will grow without work, and that will 
feed and fatten chickens and shotes: mixing intensive with 
extensive farming, living bounteously and looking on. We 
have a wonderful apple country, Ben Davis and Baldwin do 
equally well with us. j. a. m. 
Kingsville. Ky. 
The Two World’s Record Corn Crops 
DESCRIBED IN “THE BOOK ON COKN.” ORANGE JUDD & CO., 1903. UNDER DIRECTION OF HERBERT MYRICK. 
First Crop, Z. J. Drake, Marlboro Co., S. C. 
Bushels (Green Weight). Bushels (Crib Cured). Total Expense. Net Expense, Per Bushel. 
Yield, one acre, 255 239 $264 44 cents. 
Fertilizer and manure used on one acre: 1.000 bushels stable manure, 4.SCO lbs. Manipulated Guano, 1.800 lbs. Cotton Seed Meal, 400 lbs. Bone and Acid 
Phosphate. Top dressing in May: 400 lbs. Nitrate of Soda. Total, 7,400 lbs. fertilizer in addition to the stable manure. Variety corn, Southern White Dent. 
Second Crop, Alfred Rose, Yates Co., Yew York 
- Bushels (Green Weight). Bushels (Crib Cured). Total Expense. Net Expense, Per Bushel 
Yield, one acre, 213 191 $62 16 cents. 
Fertilize'-used on one acre: 800 lbs. Mapes Corn Manure alone. No stable manure. Soil, sandy loam. Variety corn, Early 
Mastodon.—From The American Agriculturist. 
The Great Corn Contest of the American Agriculturist. (45 Crops in all). 
Crops, 213, 119, and 95 Bushels Each; Grown on One Measured Acre Exclusively with the Mapes Corn Manure. 
Of this great crop, 213 bushels, shelled corn, grown in Yates Countv, Y. Y , with the Mapes Corn Manure (800 pounds per 
acre) exclusively, the American Agriculturist says: “ If we allow only $15 as the value of the tops for fodder, and make no 
account of bottom stalks, the cost comes within 20 cents a bushel (shelled corn).” 
The largest crop grown with fertilizers other than the Mapes (45 crops in all) was 84 bushels (chemically dried, 60 bushels). 
SOME LARGE CROPS GROWN WITH THE MAPES CORN MANURE, AND REPORTED IN THE AGRICULTURAL PRESS. 
1,040 bushels of corn (ears) on less than acres, equal to 233J54 bushels, 
or 116% bushels shelled corn, per acre, grown on farm of Rural New-Yorker, 
with the Mapes Corn Manure. 
Ninety bushels (shelled) with 500 pounds per acre. 150 bushels (shelled) 
with 600 pounds per acre. Value of the grain alone over five times as much 
as the cost of the fertilizer. —American Agriculturist. 
Eight hundred and fifty-six bushels (ears) on four acres. 159.37 bushels 
on one acre. 125.37 bushels on one acre. Nothing used but the Mapes.— 
Rural New-Yorker. 
On two aci*es, 600 pounds of Mapes alone, broadcast, 198 bushels shelled 
corn. On three acres, same fertilizer, same quantity, 489 bushels (ears). 
Grown by Dr. Henry Stewart .—New England Homestead. 
One hundred and eighty bushels of ears per acre; shelled, 98.45 bushels. 
2,058 bushels (ears) on 16 acres. Only Mapes (800 pounds per acre) used.— 
Con necticut Farmer. 
THE MAPES FORMULA AND PERUVIAN GUANO GO., 143 Liberty Street, New York 
