4i7 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
EVENTS OF THE WEEK. 
DOMESTIC.—Without opposition, the New York Senate 
May 1 passed Mr. Hooper's bill, which seeks to regulate the 
hours of employment of women employed in mercantile es¬ 
tablishments. The hill provides that women or minors shall 
not be employed before 7 a. m., or after 10 p. m. nor more 
than ten hours in any one day, except on Saturday, or ex¬ 
cept for the purpose of making a shorter workday of some 
one day in the week. . . . Armed with a shotgun Wil¬ 
liam Ewing, a farmer living near Ilammond, Ind., April 28, 
lay in ambush five hours for a party of five Chicago motor¬ 
ists, two of them women, and when they approached his 
ambuscade compelled them to stop their machine and pay 
him $75 for damage resulting from a runaway they had 
caused. Ewing was on his way to church in Ilammond with 
his wife and daughter when the heavy touring car scorched 
past. Ills horse took fright and Mrs. Ewing and the girl 
were thrown in a ditch and the buggy wrecked. The scorch¬ 
ers sped on without tendering assistance, which so enraged 
Ewing that he determined to await their return and force 
repara don. The automobile bore a Chicago license tag. 
• ,• A • The temperature dropped to below the freezing 
point at interlaken, N. Y., May 1, May 2 Cayuga Lake was 
coated with ice as far as the eye could see from Kidders and 
Sheldrake. It is feared that fruit trees suffered. . . . 
Snow, which in some places fell to a depth of four inches-, 
covered the greater part of Nebraska May 3, breaking all 
known records for the month of May, not only in the 
amount of snow,- but in the temperature, which registered 
27 degrees early in the day. The snow was driven by a 
heavy wind in the eastern part of the State, and had all’the 
features of a blizzard, including train-delaying drifts. The 
same day snow fell in Kansas, Missouri and Iowa. . . . 
The latest accident bulletin of the Interstate Commerce Com¬ 
mission. covering the three months ending December 31 
last shows that the total number of railroad casualties 
during that period was 20,044, an increase of 1.094 over 
those ported during the preceding three months. The 
number of passengers and employees killed was 494, an 
increase of 207 over the previous three months’ figures; the 
passengers killed being 80. . . . May 6 fire in a manu¬ 
facturing building on Canal Street, New York, caused a loss 
of $100,000, a big printing plant, the Blanchard Press, los¬ 
ing much of Its material. 
GOVERNOR HUGHES AND THE INSURANCE 
GRAFTERS. 
[From the speech of Gov. Charles E. Hughes at Elmira, 
N. Y., May 2, 19071 
Eighteen months ago the country was shocked by the reve¬ 
lations made in connection with the insurance investigation. 
I hose in whom the greatest confidence had been reposed, 
men of the highest standing in the community, were found 
to have betrayed their trust, and hundreds of thousands of 
policyholders throughout the State found that their interests 
had been disregarded.Vast funds contributed by them, impos- 
nig the most sacred obligation upon directors and executive 
officers, had been used for improper and corrupt purpose. 
Accounts had been manipulated and improper methods of 
vouchering resorted to in order to conceal extravagance 
and corruption. Yet all this was done in a business under 
State control. All these transactions took place when a de¬ 
partment of the State professed to have subjected the com¬ 
panies engaged therein to the most rigid examination. The 
State held them forth accredited to the world as models of 
honest enterprises. 
What a farce it was! IIow every citizen of New York 
felt the stigma that had been placed upon his citizenship by 
such abuses of-public confidence! The public indignation 
knew no bound:?; and there was the most earnest demand 
for the reformation of the Insurance Department, under 
whose administration these abuses had been possible Yet 
seven or eight months after the enactment of the laws which 
resulted from this investigation, when I assumed office, I 
found the Insurance Department in substantially the same 
condition in which it was at the time of the investigation. 
Pilose who had been grossly derelict, in their duty, and 
through whose neglect or connivance alone the abuses to 
which I have referred had been made possible, were still 
retained in relations of trust and confidence and were re¬ 
garded as suitable channels for the information in accord- 
jjJ'ee with which the .State authority was to be exercised. 
I hat.was a condition which no business manager would have 
tolerated in any private undertaking. It was a condition 
which I could not tolerate. And after an ineffectual at- 
tempt to have the matter disposed of without a formal and 
official proceeding I recommended to the Senate the removal 
of the present superintendent. After a long delay it has 
finally been decided that the recommendation shall not be 
complied with. 
The people of the State know and approved the grounds 
of the recommendation. They still know and approve of them. 
They expected, and had a right to expect, that I would en¬ 
deavor to have the Insurance Department put upon a basis 
which would command the confidence of the policyholders of 
the State and of the United States. There was no personal 
question involved. The transaction of the business of a 
great department of a State should transcend all personal 
considerations. And it is inimical to honest and proper ad¬ 
ministration that when such a condition exists there should 
be a lack of executive power to bring administration meth¬ 
ods up to the standards demanded by the people. 
I believe that the time has come when the people will hold 
their officers more strictly to account for the manner in 
which they perform their duties and represent their con- 
stituencies, and that along with this increased sense of re- 
sponsibility there will be a willingness to repose in their 
chosen representatives such power as will enable them to dis¬ 
charge their pubic trust._ 
CROP NOTES. 
We have been touched by the frost generally prevalent, 
over the country, although we will probably have a half to 
two-thirds crop of fruit. e. m. c. 
I^ewiston, Idaho. 
Weather conditions are bad here; many farmers who sowed 
oats early are compelled to harrow them up and reseed. 
Snow on .the hills in Boylston, and Lake Ontario with leaden 
November look; ice one-half inch thick May 1. May 9 still 
raining and cold; some stock out at pasture, but the feed 
is short and watery; no heart to it. c e s 
Sandy Creek, N. Y. 
The grapevine received in good condition and planted at 
once. We had a few days of fine weather last week, and 
seeding started, but it was cut short April 26. when it rained 
and froze at night. Apple buds appeared, and so did cher¬ 
ries, gooseberries and currants. This morning. April 29, 
it commenced raining, turning to hail and snow, with the 
temperature at 28 degrees, leaving us this evening with an 
inch of snow on the level and a blizzard raging. I exam- 
ined apple buds this evening and found them black. 
Milwaukee,' Wis. N . m. n. 
This is a very cold and late Spring with us. There was 
ice one-eighth inch this morning. We have done no plant¬ 
ing, and there has been very little done by the farmers here¬ 
abouts. Driving into town yesterday a townsman made the 
remaik that “we are having a very mild Winter.” The day 
was wet and cold, and it actually tried to snow. I have 
seen no signs of peaches, blossom or buds, and feel bad, for 
we had such an abundance last year. We shall have apples, 
Russets, Baldwins and Lloyds, if the frosts are not too 
severe. We have about lot) trees, eight varieties, mostly 
Baldwins and Russets, and for two or three years we have 
had a hundred barrels each year. w. t. w. 
Rowley, Mass. 
In centra' Kansas the first of the Winter was very mild, 
not going down to zero in January, but in February went 
five below zero. March was very warm, March 25 95 in 
shade, reaches blossomed March 26. April came cooler; 
the night of the 13th mercury fell to 22 above, killed all the 
fruit. Alfalfa 10 Inches high wilted down badly; tender 
varieties of wheat, injured badl.v. We had two inches of 
snow April 21 ; did not freeze after the snow. To-day, May 
3, snowed two inches. I have been taking a great deal of 
Interest in your experiments in setting out fruit trees with 
the side roots trimmed off. One of the best orchards in this 
part of the country was set with root grafts: that is, small 
seedling roots grafted in the Winter, buried in sand and 
kept in a cellar until they had callused and set in the 
Spring. There -was not -much side root to cut off. They 
were set in the soil so there was only one bud on the scion 
at the surface of the ground, a small stick to show where 
planted: the side roots get started and established before 
there is much top* to swing around with the wind. If the 
grafting has been well done they will grow faster than 
transplanted trees. T> j. 
Junction City, Kan. 
This morning, April 30, we, in this part of Iowa on the 
Mississippi River looked out upon a white shroud and thus 
ends April, a cold and freezing month. March was so 
warm it started the grass, and an early Spring was looked 
for. Oats were sown and early potatoes planted as early 
as Good Friday, March 29. To-day I went to look at an 
Alfalfa field of two acres, and if anything can withstand 
the alternate freezing and thawing of April and live, surely 
we can expect it to stand almost any treatment. This 
Alfalfa was sown last August, 25 pounds to the acre, on 
oat stubble, thoroughly disked; a splendid stand, and Win- 
ter found the field in. good condition. Had there been snow 
no one would have doubted the results. But. our whole 
\\ inter was unusual ; it seems alternating freezing and rain 
Zero was touched but. a couple of times and March, warm 
a ''d balmy, started that Alfalfa, and the field was a thing 
of beauty. i’hen came April, and everything came to a 
standstill: grass began to look yellow, lawns the same, and 
thus we found this field about April 15. To-day, after last 
night s snow, the field looked very promising, and the owner 
is encouraged to sow another field in August, on oat stubble. 
In passing over this field he called my attention to a line 
of demarkation so plain and asked the reason. I had been 
urgent in getting this man to try Alfalfa, and two years 
ago he sowed a small strip with oats as a cover, and with 
the result of a complete failure. On that as soon as the 
cover was off the Alfalfa withered under the hot July and 
August sun. But the sequel; where that first sowing was, 
is now the best stand, the thriftiest Alfalfa. Was the soil 
inoculated bv the first sowing? This is the owner’s theory 
and he said. “If the remainder of this field should die, 
I shall resow in August; this strip shows to me the cor- 
recrness of the bacteria theory.” Yet we will not claim 
too much; we must see the results in stack and after the 
cuttings and next Winter. m p w 
Iowa. 
IOWA FARM NOTES. 
Here it is April 29, and only four days that there were 
not frost or ice in morning. Grain sown a month ago is not 
up yet. Garden making, which claimed our attention weeks 
ago, sowing lettuce, radishes, and such, got such a setback 
that we have not been near the garden since until last week, 
when we put in some early potatoes and sowed some peas. 
March was warm and Summer-like, while April was un- 
usually cold and windy. I fear the fruit buds are injured. 
I hey have not put forth any for several weeks. Last week 
I reseeded a field where I failed to get a good catch last 
year, the clover a very poor stand. The Timothy is better, 
but not enough to make a good crop of hay. What I 
shall sow in it or what to do is quite a conundrum to me. 
I shall need the hay next Winter. This going into Winter 
with mows only partly filled is not pleasant or profitable. 
Looking the situation over I am going to sow more varieties 
of grasses, hoping to get a better stand. I have ordered a 
lot of Red-top; which I shall sow in addition to the Timothy, 
common Red clover and Alsike. I believe as a rule farmers 
do not attach enough importance to getting their meadows 
we.ll seeded the first year. Hay is one of our most valuable 
crops. It would be much more valuable if we got as full 
a crop as we ought, but how often is there only a half 
or three-fourths stands. If opr stand of corn 'or small 
grains were as poor there would be something said and done 
very soon. My manure spreader has not come vet: my 
neighbors are getting out their manure fast, while I am 
neglecting mine. I was intending to haul out a lot of 
manure on a field that I am going to plant to corn, but to 
draw what consolation I can from its not coming, I shall 
now top-dress my pastures and meadows. I believe more in 
top-dressing than in plowing manure under. n. u 
Sabula, Iowa. 
A summary of the reports on the condition of the fruit 
crop in Jowa on May 1 is as follows : Apples 65 per cent, 
pears 45 per cent, American plums 54 per cent, Japanese 
plums 13 per cent, Domestica plums 15 per cent, cherries 
25 per cent, peaches 28 per cent, grapes 80 per cent, red 
raspberries 60 per cent, black raspberries 63 per cent, black¬ 
berries 72 per cent, currants 73 per cent, gooseberries 68 per 
cent, strawberries 71 per cent. The outlook for a fruit crop 
on April 1 was all that could be desired, but the low tem¬ 
perature during the latter part of the month injured cherries, 
plums, peaches and pears, as these were in bloom over the 
south third of the State. The conditions this morning, 
May 4, though a little colder (26 degrees), are not unlike 
those on April 30. 1903, when the mercury went down to 29 
at Des Moines and 17 at Larch wood. The line of bloom 
at that time was a little in advance of where it is now, yet 
the fruit was not all killed that year, for the records show 
the following crop was gathered : Apples 42 per cent, pears 
8 per cent, American plums 14 per cent, Japanese plums 
10 per cent, Domestica plums 11 per cent, cherries 28 per 
cent, peaches 20 per cent, grapes 68 per cent, red raspberries 
81 per cent, black raspberries 76 per cent, strawberries 92 
per cent. It will be two weeks yet before the line of bloom 
on fruit trees will have passed northward out of the State, 
and frosts may occur again within that time. The proba¬ 
bilities are that the fruit crop this year will be similar to 
that of 1903, should the same conditions prevail during the 
remainder of the season. wbsley greene. 
Sec. Iowa Horticultural Society. 
Every Farmer Knows 
THAT THE 
DE LAVAL 
CREAM SEPARATORS 
are in a class by themselves as the Dest separators. But 
many have the mistaken idea, which competitors help to 
magnify, that they are “expensive” and that something 
“cheaper” will do in their stead 
The.Facts Are That The 
DE LAVAL CREAM SEPARATORS 
are not only the best but at the same time by far the 
cheapest — in proportion to the actual capacity and the 
actual life of the machine. 
These are simple facts easily capable of proof to any 
buyer who will take the trouble to get at them and who 
need only apply to the nearest DE LAVAL agent or send 
for a catalogue to do so. 
The De Laval Separator Co. 
Randolph & Canal Streets 
CHICAGO 
1213 & 1215 Filbert Street 
PHILADELPHIA 
Drumm & Sacramento Sts. 
SAN FRANCISCO 
General Offices: 
74 Cortlandt St. 
NEW YORK. 
173-177 William Street 
MONTREAL 
14 & 16 Princess Street 
WINNIPEG 
107 First Street 
PORTLAND.OREG. 
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