1907. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
Events of the Week. 
DOMESTIC.—As a result of the wrecking of the Chicago 
Limited near Stewart, Pa., and the Keystone Express near 
Wilmerding, Pa., the Pennsylvania Railroad offered Marcti 
27 rewards aggregating $5,500 for the arrest and convic¬ 
tion of persons causing these wrecks. . . . March 27 the 
grand jury returned indictments against the New York 
Central Railroad, Ira A. McCormack, superintendent of the 
electric zone, and Alfred II. Smith, vice-president and gen¬ 
eral manager, charging responsibility for the wreck at 
Brewster, N. Y., February 16, in which 24 persons were 
killed and 67 injured. The specific chai'ge made in all 
three indictments is that the defendant was guilty of crim¬ 
inal carelessness, which resulted in the death of Clara L. 
Hudson, who was killed in the wreck. , The accompanying 
presentment recommended that the State Railroad Commis¬ 
sion take control of the operation of trains and regulate 
the speed and headway on which they were operated. The 
speed and operation of the trains, it said further, should 
not have been left entirely to the discretion of the company, 
since “the safety of human life should not be allowed to be 
intrusted to the judgment of untrained men.” . . . Fire 
March 28 devastated the entire tobacco district of South 
Boston, Va., doing damage estimated at $1,000,000. It was 
thought for a considerable time that the entire town would 
be lost, but assistance was secured in time from Danville 
and other neighboring towns. South Boston is one of the 
largest tobacco centers in the Piedmont district, ranking sec¬ 
ond only to Danville and Lynchburg. This important indus¬ 
try will be severely crippled for the remainder of the sea¬ 
son* • • • Twenty-six persons were killed March 28 
in the derailment of the westbound Southern Pacific pas¬ 
senger train from New Orleans, near Colton, Cal. The 
Injured number 100 and several may die. Ten of the four¬ 
teen coaches ran into an open switch and were ditched. 
Four were smashed to pieces. Most of the killed were 
Italian laborers bound from New Orleans to San Francisco. 
. . . Driven by a strong wind, fire swept both the business 
and residential sections of Newberry, S. C., March 20, and 
caused a loss that may reach $500,000. Fifty dwelling 
houses were destroyed and a score of business houses in the 
heart of the tow/n are in ruins. A gale was blowing, and 
the flames spread with great rapidity. . . . Night Rid¬ 
ers invaded Lamasco, Ky„ March 29, and tobacco and other 
property valued at several thousand dollars were destroyed. 
About 25 or 30 masked men went to the home of Tom Red¬ 
dick and forced him to go to his barn and point out tobacco 
belonging to Mr. Wal'ace, one of the independent tobacco 
men in the district. The raiders then put oil on the tobacco 
and burned it. From Reddick’s place they went to Wal¬ 
lace’s farm, where they destroyed his barn filled with to¬ 
bacco. Wallace had refused to join the Tobacco Growers’ 
Association. A vigilance committee is being talked of. 
. . . The writ of error taken by the New York Central 
Railroad for the conviction of the Federal Court at New 
York on the charge of giving rebates on sugar shipped by 
the so-called Sugar Trust, was filed in the Supreme Court 
March 30. The company was fined $18,000 each on six counts, 
or a total of $108,000, and Fred L. Pomeroy, one of its 
employees, a total of $6,000. The assignment of errors made 
by the company number 101, among them being several in 
which the validity of the Elkins anti-rebate law, under 
which the convictions were had, is attacked on novel 
grounds. It is declared that the act is void because it goes 
beyond the power given Congress to regulate interstate 
commerce, particularly that it imputes to the corporation 
power to commit - an act with criminal intent and subjects 
it to prosecution and punishment therefor; that it is an un¬ 
reasonable regulation of commerce in making the corporation 
criminally liable for the acts of its employees; that Inflict¬ 
ing punishment upon both the company and its employee 
for the same act is in effect double punishment; that it 
subjects the innocent holders of the company’s stock to pun¬ 
ishment and that the sentences are cumulative. The case 
will not be reached in regular turn for nearly a year, but 
can, on motion, be advanced and heard earlier. . . .Galu- 
sha A. Grow, father of the Homestead law and Speaker of 
the House at Washington during the Civil War, died at 
Glenwood, near Scranton, Pa., March 31. He was born at 
Ashford, now Eastford, Windham County, Conn., August 
31, 1823, the youngest son in a family of six children. 
When he was three years old his father died, and seven 
years later his mother moved to Glenwood, Susquehannah 
County, Pa., which continued to be Grow’s home up to the 
time of his death. As a boy Grow worked on the farm in 
the Summer and went to the common school in the Winter. 
In 1837, however, he entered Franklin Academy in his 
home county and began a regular course of study. Seven 
years later he was graduated from Amherst College with 
high honors. He studied law in an office at Montrose, Pa., 
and was admitted to the bar in 1847. He was elected to 
Congress and took his seat March 4, 1851, the youngest 
member of the Thirty-second Congress. lie served six suc¬ 
cessive terms. After an absence of thirty-one years he re¬ 
entered the House as Congressman-at-Large from Pennsyl¬ 
vania and continued to serve until 1902, when he retired 
at the age of 79 years with his intellect still keen and 
active. His plurality of 297,446 at the election in 1896 
was said at the time to be the largest ever given in any 
State to any candidate for office. Tie represented bis party 
at several national conventions, and at one time he was 
chairman of the Republican State central committee of 
Pennsylvania. Rutherford B. Hayes tendered him a diplo¬ 
matic appointment lo Russia, but he declined. From 1871 
to 1876 Mr. Grow was president of the International and 
Great Northern Railyoad Company of Texas. lie never 
married. . . . Fred A. Busse, the Republican candidate, 
was elected April 2, Mayor of Chicago for the next four 
years by a plurality of 13,121 over Mayor E. F. Dunne, 
his Democratic opponent. John R. McCabe, Re¬ 
publican, was elected City Clerk by approximately the same 
plurality. John E. Traeger, the Democratic candidate for 
City Treasurer, was elected by about 8,000 plurality. The 
Prohibition candidate for Mayor, W. A. Brubaker, received 
a larger vote than the party candidates have generally re¬ 
ceived in the past, he having polled nearly 6,000 votes. 
The Socialists fell off almost 50 per cent from their vote of 
two years ago, their candidate for Mayor receiving only 
13,469 votes, against 23,034 in 1905. ... A million 
dollar fire April 2 left practically all San Francisco in dark¬ 
ness. The main power house of the San Francisco Gas and 
Electric Company, in South San Francisco, was destroyed, 
and the only electric current in the city is that of the 
electric roads, which is taken from one of the outside lines. 
The cause of the fire is not known, but it is thought it 
started in the engine room. 
FARM AND GARDEN.—The total exportations of meats, 
dairy products and food animals from the United States 
last year aggregated over $250,000,000 in value, according 
to a statement issued March 24 by the bureau of statistics 
of the Department of Commerce and Labor. This represents 
an increase of $76,000,000 or 45 per cent during the decade 
1896 to 1906. More than 60 per cent of last year's exports 
went to the United Kingdom. This percentage, however, 
is less than that of a decade ago, when Great Britain took 
over 70 per cent of American exports. Of the $250,000,000 
worth of meats, dairy products and food animals passing 
out of the United States last year $40,000,000 was in 
animals, $58,000,000 worth in lard, $36,000,000 in bacon, 
$25,000,000 in fresh beef, $21,000,000 in hams, $18,- 
000,000 in oleomargarine, $14,000,000 in pork other than 
bacon and. hams, $4,500,000 in butter and $2,500,000 in 
cheese. 
The matter of obtaining a pure milk supply for New 
York City, about which so much has been said recently and 
to the lack of which has been attributed a large amount of 
disease, is fo be investigated by this special commission of 
doctors and experts appointed April 2 by Mayor McClellan ; 
Dr. Joseph Bryant, former president of the Board of Ilealth ; 
Dr. T. Mitchell Prudden, bacteriologist; Dr. Rowland G. 
Freeman, milk expert and an authority on children’s dis¬ 
eases ; D L. Emmett Holt and Dr. Abraham* Jacobi. 
At the annual sale of Ilerefords at the farm of Frank H. 
Nave, Attica, Ind., the four-year-old cow Nutbrown 9th was 
sold to YV. S. Van Natta, of Missouri, for $1,975. Seventy 
head of cattle sold for $16,065, an average of $229.50, 
which was more than $20 a head higher than last year. 
MINNESOTA NURSERY LAW.—A new bill regulating 
the production and sale of nursery stock in Minnesota has 
been introduced into the State Legislature by F. T. White, 
of Elk River, Minn. It provides among other things for two 
inspections by the State Entomologist during the year. “All 
companies or corporations engaged in the nursery business 
in the State shall annually apply to the Secretary of State, 
the fee to be fifty dollars for each annual license, together 
with an additional fee of one dollar for recording the appli¬ 
cation, and the said license must be secured before said 
nursery or nurseries dispose of trees, shrubbery, vines, etc., 
of said nursery, and before the Secretary of State shall issue 
such license the State Entomologist must first issue his 
certificate that said nursery or nurseries is free from the 
said San Josd scale or other plant infectious diseases.” 
Trees, etc., imported into Minnesota from another State 
shall, before offered for sale, bear a tag or tags announcing 
where the stock was first grown; and the advertising of 
nursery stock grown in a foreign State as “home grown” 
is declared a misdemeanor. Transplanted stock must bo so 
marked. The inspection of railroad cars is provided for, 
and it is stipulated that “Whoever wilfully misrepresents 
nursery stock, such as plants, trees, shrubbery, etc., when 
disposing of the same, shall be deermd guilty of a misde¬ 
meanor, and each nursery shall keep on hand file in their 
office an exact copy of all orders delivered, and furnish to 
each buyer a duplicate of the same at the time the nursery 
stock is delivered to said buyer, and the Statute of Limita¬ 
tion is hereby extended to the period of five years in its 
application of this act. All owners of nurseries for the 
growing and sale of plants, trees, shrubbery, etc., shall be 
held responsible for the representation of their agents, and 
for all debts contracted by them as such agents. All for¬ 
eign corporations, persons or companies doing nursery busi¬ 
ness in this State t.re hereby required to comply with the 
provisions of Section 2888, 2889 and 2990 of the Revised 
Laws of Minnesota for 1905, and in addition to file a list 
of all agents, solicitors, etc., with the Secretary of State 
and to secure a license for each, for which the Secretary 
of State may charge a fee of One Dollar.” 
CONNECTICUT AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION 
I think the Governor’s message uncalled for. The College 
appears to be doing well. Let well enough alone. 
Mansfield, Conn. h. r. w. 
It is a rather radical idea, but is simply voicing the opin¬ 
ion that has been in the mind of a good many of our lead¬ 
ing agriculturists in the State for some time. It will cer¬ 
tainly do no harm to appoint the Commission to thor¬ 
oughly consider it, for Gov. Woodruff is heart and soul 
for the advancement of the interests of Connecticut agri¬ 
culture and would be sure to appoint a high-grade com¬ 
mittee, without any politics in it. I am inclined to think 
the thing will go, and if rightly handled all through will 
be a great uplift of our agricultural interests as fostered 
by the State. j. h. hale. 
If there ever was a time when it would have been ad¬ 
visable to change the location of the Connecticut Agricul¬ 
tural College, in my opinion, that time has gone by. and it 
is a waste of time and effort to bring the matter up at this 
late date. There are some drawbacks in the location, but 
they are offset by advantages that have had weight with 
previous Legislatures. In my opinion, tills talk of change 
should be settled now. once for all, and the college strength¬ 
ened by suitable appropriations. The work of the horti¬ 
cultural department is especially praiseworthy and deserv¬ 
ing of better support. .T. c. edoy. 
Simsbury. 
I was on the original committee of the Storrs School 
when it was created. The committee preferred to use some 
other spot than the Storrs Farm, but later adopted the 
Storrs plant. It soon developed that New Haven wanted 
much of the scientific end, so they adopted that part down 
at New Haven. It would have been far better if the whole 
could have been brought together in the same central sec¬ 
tion, for instance the Quinnipiac Valley. The present con¬ 
dition lias cost quite an outlay of money, and in all human 
probability the conditions of things will remain substantially 
as they are now. That would be my best judgment. 
GEORGE M. CLARK. 
In days long past it was the saying that Connecticut was 
“priest ridden." Now it is “commission ridden,” there be¬ 
ing nearly or quite 59 different commissions in the State. 
The most useless of all are the Agricultural Commissions, 
Dairy Commission, Cattle Commission, etc., and if the 
number can be in any way reduced the people will be bene¬ 
fited—but, and again but, “politics" governs the State, and 
if the politicians say it is good “politics” to do or not 
33i 
to do, what they say will be what will be done. Personally 
I am in favor of consolidation at some central point like 
Middletown or Meriden. Buy land enough to conduct and 
prove experiments on those things that the farmer for a 
living wants to know and will be benefited by. it. j. s. 
Pomfret. 
I think that an agricultural college or any school for 
boys is much better situated as Storrs is now, away from 
cities or large towns. If it was more centralized geograph¬ 
ically it would be near several large cities. Mr. Moody, in 
his schools at Mt. Ilerinon and Northfield, has illustrated 
that the scholars are much better off, and the school is 
filled regardless of its being in an out of the way place. 
As to the agricultural commissions and societies and experi¬ 
ment station, if they were combined I rather think they 
would do more efficient work for the same money, and could 
if properly handled all work together for good. The great 
trouble in Connecticut was to find enough commissions to 
give all our friends a job. david strong. 
Litchfield Co. 
Probably no more lucid statement of the reasons in favor 
of a consolidation of Connecticut agricultural organization 
could be given than those of the Governor’s message. They 
will seem sound to the unbiased mind. The Connecticut 
Agricultural College has many strong partisans, and 
some of them perhaps confuse their well-founded 
enthusiasm for agricultural training with a predi¬ 
lection for the Mansfield location. The timely argu¬ 
ment of the Governor that a change does not necessitate a 
loss of the money already invested there should have 
weight with such partisans. There will probably be little 
opposition to a change of the New Haven foundation for 
the reasons in the message, and because it is the sort of an 
institution that is bound to be useful anywhere. Connecti¬ 
cut is a State of many agricultural organs. Some are re¬ 
spectable for age and previous service, others the outgrowth 
of modern needs more closely in touch with the agricultural 
population. Some overlap and conflict with others. As a 
business proposition some consolidation should be made. 
The real objection to such consolidation by the rank and 
file of the farmers of the State lies in this fact: At present 
the effective societies are governed by the farmers directly, 
and are in close touch with the interests they represent. 
If consolidation under a commission means that the farmers 
themselves will not directly control, but the politicians 
appoint, the officers, giving more weight to their political 
influence perhaps than to their agricultural usefulness, then 
the farmers will drift away from the official organization 
and new voluntary societies will spring up. However, the 
consolidation is bound to come sooner or later, and will 
be generally welcomed if some form of referendum or direct 
election can be employed in the selection of the manage¬ 
ment. E. C. BIRGE. 
March 26 trees were all out in bloom, and Alfalfa looked 
like May. Oat sowing was almost done, and the farmers 
talked of planting corn the following week. Do not put 
Alfalfa in orchards; it will kill the trees. c. s. 
Marion, Kans. 
The National Arbitration and Peace Congress will be 
held in New York April 14 to 17. This Congress advocates 
the peaceful settlement of difference between nations. The 
meeting promises to be a great one, and delegates from 
foreign countries will be present. Ex-Governor Bachelder 
of New Hampshire, Master of the National Grange, will 
speak on the agricultural aspects of the movement for 
universal peace. Some of the most prominent people in the 
country, including Secretary Root, Governor Hughes, Arch¬ 
bishop Farley and others, will speak. 
The last two letters of the Hope Farm man have con¬ 
tained a description of very different weather from what 
we are having out in southern Wisconsin. While he has 
been looking out on snow and drifts we have had remark¬ 
ably warm dry weather for the; time of year. March 21, 
22 and 23 the thermometer went from 70 to 77, and this 
week (Sunday excepted) has been about the same. I put 
the thermometer out in the sun and the mercury started 
for the top in a hurry ; it hit 92 and then started for 93 
when I grabbed it and put it back in the shade again for 
fear it would rupture the tube and boil over the top. Mil¬ 
waukee papers give a temperature of 66 at midnight on 
one night. Farmers have been working in the fields for 
nearly two weeks; pastures green, a few flocks of sheep 
sheared. Gardens are being prepared in town ; we plowed 
a part of ours to-day. The “mud-birds” have been singing 
their song every night, but I expect there will be a change 
before the Fourth o* .Tulv. c. n. 
Green Co., Wis. 
A BOARD FENCE WIND-BREAK.—I purposely avoided 
reference to my former article on board fence wind-break 
because of your suggestion as to planting Norway spruces, 
and of my skepticism as to their efficacy. I participated 
in the campaigns of the Army of the Potomac from the 
Summer of 1862 to the surrender at Appomattox, eating, 
drinking and sleeping with pines, and after discharge in 
1869 bought a farm in Virginia half covered with pines and 
cedars, on which I still live, so I think I know something 
about the pines and spruces. Their protecting power de¬ 
pends wholly on their height and masses. On two sides of 
my lawn is an arbor vital hedge, solid, well trimmed, seven 
feet high and 25 years old, yet It is virtually no wind-break; 
cattle do not seek it and spruces could not do better. Both 
would suffice the soldier, because he would creep under 
their branches. Under no circumstances whatever would I 
have a living hedge close to my house on the north side; 
even my clump of deciduous trees is 25 feet distant from 
it. The Summer heat here is a far more disagreeable factor 
to contend with than the blizzard of Winter. A board fence 
10 feet high with compartments effectually bars the northers; 
while its removal in the Spring gives the breeze a clean 
sweep in the Summer. R- s. lacy. 
It is said that the Apple tree-borer is becoming a serious 
pest in the Northwest, and the authorities at the Washing¬ 
ton Experiment Station advise prompt and thorough work 
against the pest. Orehardists are advised to dig out the 
grubs and wash the trunks with a solution of lye. 
The Galveston News reports that the first carload of 
Texas onions s-hipped this year from Corpus Christi to Chi¬ 
cago about the middle of March, contained 500 crates, which 
sold at $2.65 a crate, a total of $1,325, the highest price 
ever received for a car of Texas onions. The ear will r> P t 
the grower $2.20 a crate. 
