1907. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
48 1 
POLITICS AND “POLITICS." 
Wc h?ve been surprised at the response which coun¬ 
try people have made to the issue over those New York 
Senators. There ought not to be any surprise, because, 
it men will be honest with themselves, there is only one 
side to this matter. One criticism has come from a 
reader in New York City. We cheerfully print it, 
though it indicates the kind of ‘‘politics” which we 
have no right to enter: 
I read your issue of May 18, and have no further use 
for your paD_er. Hughes is nothing but a wrecker, he was 
not elected .Governor, Hearst was defeated. The idea of 
giving the Governor power to remove from office, is entirely 
wrong, for it would mean that when a Democratic Governor 
was elected, the first thing he would do would be to remove 
men of respectability from office, which would be a dis¬ 
grace, consequently no one that had any respect for himself 
would accept, which would mean placing the position with 
incompetent people—who would care. Any fool can tear 
down ; if Hughes has any good in him let him try to build 
up. Yon had bettex stick to your country life, which has 
been good, and leave things you don’t understand alone. 
H. C. FISHER. 
The figures show that Mr. Hughes received 749,002 
against 691,105 for M'r. Hearst. This majority was 
given, not to the man, but for what he stood for and 
what he promised. Is the man who tries to keep his 
promise a “wrecker”? If what Mr. Fisher says is true 
about the Democrats, he should explain why the Demo¬ 
crats in the Legislature voted against the principle of 
removal by the Governor! All but two of them voted 
against removal, while, from Mr. Fisher’s own argument, 
their interests lay in giving the Governor power. We 
believe in making a man Governor after he has been 
elected to the office. Make him responsible and do not 
tie his hands. When a man finds a structure full of 
“graft,” cowardice and incompetency he must tear it 
down before he can build what the public needs. This 
is not the first time that we have been advised to “stick 
to country life”! We always accept the advice, and 
stick closer than ever to the things that make country 
life really worth living—strong manhood and brave 
citizenship. Now, having given Mr. Fisher’s letter as 
a sample of one sort of “politics,” we give the following 
from the opposite corner of the State as a sample of 
the other kind! 
Glad I am to see you going for those Republican Senators 
who so badly misrepresented their constituents by voting 
to retain Kelsey. You ask wiM Governor Hughes win in 
the fight with the friends of corruption and graft. Of two 
men equally wicked, the one a church member and the other 
not, the church member is by far the worst man. People 
have a right to expect better things of him. Of the Sena¬ 
tors who opposed the Governor, the Republicans are by a 
long way the most to be condemned. I am a charter mem¬ 
ber of the Republican party. I was the youngest delegate 
to the Convention at which it was formed, and I have 
always stood hy it when possible. But when I have a hired 
man whom I see deliberately working against my interests 
and doing those things which I condemn, I will not hesitate 
to discharge him. For that reason I did all I could last 
Fall to convince Mr. Wadsworth that I did not wish him 
longer to misrepresent me in Congress, nor shall I hesitate 
when the time comes around for me to vote for a State 
Senator from this district to vote and work against S. P. 
Franchot, if the Republicans are so short-sighted and 
foolhardy as to nominate him. I am pretty largely over 
this and adjoining counties, and I find a universal approval 
of the course of Governor Hughes and an equally unani¬ 
mous condemnation of Franchot. Of course, those Senators 
have heard the thunder and are trying to get back into 
public favor by resolving to stand by the Governor, but it 
is too late: it won’t save them. People have seen that it is 
not a desire for an honest, pure administration that governs 
their actions, but fear for their future that actuates them. 
The fact is Governor Hughes was nominated last Fall as a 
forlorn hope of the Republican party, and the result of the 
election showed that he was the only man that was or 
could have been elected on the ticket. But when the voters 
looked at liiip and listened to his pledges they believed him 
honest, and believing that they elected him. The bosses 
and politicians in the party thought they could control 
him : thought they could put pressure on him that he could 
not withstand. But. thank God, he was not made of that 
material. He had a backbone; dared to stand for the ful¬ 
fillment of the pledges he made in the canvass. Wise man. He 
has won the hearts of the people irrespective of party. I 
hear Democrats as enthusiastic in his praise as Republicans. 
Had Governor Hughes failed to fulfill the promises made in 
his canvass it would have been the death of his party, and 
he could nqt have done anything which would have so 
fully gained the confidence of the whole people as the digni¬ 
fied course which he took in refusing to make any bargains 
or influence legislation, hut just let the corruptionists combine 
and thwart his effort to purify the insurance department. 
Niagara Co*. N. Y. j. s. woodwarp. 
EVENTS OF THE WEEK. 
DOMESTIC.—At the weekly meeting of the New York 
Board of Health May 28 the question of mad dogs came up. 
If was discussed at great length, and Commissioner Darling¬ 
ton wrote to the Board of Aldermen asking it to appoint a 
committee to confer with the Health Department to frame 
an ordinance giving the police power to shoot all dogs with¬ 
out muzzles or collars, if found at large. There was an 
ordinance, said the commissioner, in effect up to January 
1 of 1906, requiring all dogs to be leashed, but it was re¬ 
pealed. Dr. Darlington is trying to get legislation compelling 
the police not only to shoot all unmuzzled, collarless and 
unleashed dogs, but also to compel them to prosecute all 
persons allowing dogs to be at large. . . . The tempera¬ 
ture dropped to 40 deerees above zero at Cleveland, O., 
May 27. This record has been equalled only twice before 
since the Weather Bureau was established In that city in 
1871. Throughout the fruit belt along the south shore of 
Lake Erie huge bonfires were kept burning with a view to 
prevent damage by frost to young fruits. Owing to the fact 
that there was a light wind blowing nearly all night, it is 
not believed that the damage by frost will be heavy in 
that section. There was a heavy frost over eastern and 
central Kentucky May 27, which, it is feared, has killed all 
fruit and early vegetables. It was the coldest weather ever 
known in that section at this time of the year. . . Rent 
and torn by the jagged ice which surrounded Cape Breton, 
the little schooner Guardian finally sank in four fathoms 
of water two miles north of Cranberry Head May 31. Capt. 
William Davies and his small crew barely had time to 
jump to the ice as the schooner went down. The men 
managed to reach shore in safety. . . . The wholesale 
and retail drug store of Elting & Schoonmaker, Kingston, 
N. Y’., and the adjoining stores of Herman Marblestone, 
clothier, and W. Scott Gillespie, wholesale grocer and liquor 
dealer, were burned May 31. The loss is estimated at 
8130,000, partly covered by insurance. . . . Four persons 
were killed and 15 were injured in a rear-end collision on 
the Cleveland and Southwestern Traction Road at Elyria, 
O. , May 30.. The front car was filled with holiday excur¬ 
sionists, nearly all of whom received more or less serious 
injuries. The wounded were taken to the Elyria Hospital, 
where two died later, eight of the remaining fifteen had both 
legs amputated, one lost one leg. and still another had both 
legs broken. Three more died May 31. . . . Decisions 
by the Circuit Court at Findlay, O., May 31 open the 
Standard Oil Company’s pipe line privileges to the inde¬ 
pendent operators and enables the State, through any County 
Prosecutor, to prosecute the Standard or any other com¬ 
pany charged with violation of the Valentine Anti-Trust 
law without procuring indictments. Both decisions are re¬ 
garded as great victories for the State of Ohio in its flights 
against the Standard Oil Company. In the case of the 
State against the Buckeye Pipe Line Company the Circuit 
Court held that the pipe line company must accept all oil 
offered it by the independent producers at a fairly remunera¬ 
tive price. The State asserted that the price for the trans¬ 
portation of independent oil by the Buckeye Pipe Line Com¬ 
pany. a subsidiary concern of the Standard Oil Company, 
has been 20 cents a barrel, which precludes the Independents 
from using the line. The court, in a unanimous decision, 
held that since the Buckeye Pipe Line Company admitted 
that it was a corporation organized under the laws of Ohio, 
it must obey.the laws governing common carriers and trans¬ 
portation companies. . . . Much interest is taken in the 
suit opened before Judge Adams in the Circuit Court at 
Newark, N. J.. June 3, between Frank W. Meeker, a Livings¬ 
ton farmer, complainant, and the city of East Orange, de¬ 
fendant. Meeker asks $10,000 damages for the loss of his 
water supply, due to the sinking of twenty artesian wells 
hy the city pear his farms in Livingston. Many prominent 
engineers of Essex County will be called to testify, including 
City Engineer Morris Sherrerd of Newark, Cornelius Ver- 
mueie, George C. Whipple and ex-County Engineer James 
Owen. Meeker has retained Ralph E. Lum as counsel, while 
Jerome Gedne.v will appear for the city of East Orange. 
In his complaint Meeker says that springs upon which he 
depended for water for his cattle and for refrigerating pui- 
poses in connection with a dairy were rendered useless after 
the wells of the East Orange supply were sunk three- 
quarters of a mile away, and that fields that produced 
twenty acres of hay now produces only six. He maintains 
that the artesian wells tapped the same subterranean- river 
from which his springs -were supplied, thus diminishing 
their flow. The contention of the city of East Orange will 
be that Mr. Meeker’s springs were supplied from a river 
on a level much higher than the river tapped by the East 
Orange wells. . . . The British steamer Boniface, from 
Galveston, May 22, for Liverpool, loaded with cotton and 
carrying nine passengers, eight of whom were women, 
arrived in Bermuda May 30 with her cargo on fire. The 
flames were discovered May 26, when the vessel was 700 
miles from Bermuda. The hatches were battened down 
and the Boniface was headed for those islands. When she 
arrived her cargo was burning furiously and her decks 
were crumbling in. . . . Judge Waddill, of the United 
States District Court of Virginia, will grant a hearing on 
.Tune 10 on the effort of the Government to force officers of 
the fertilizer trust, nine of whom reside in Virginia, to 
answer indictments returned against them in Tennessee. If 
the test case in Virginia succeeds there will be no difficulty, 
it is believed, in bringing the other officers of the trust to 
justice. The bill against the powder trust, so-called, is 
about ready and will be filed at Cincinnati within the next 
week or ten days. . . . Harry Hamlin, a wealthy resi¬ 
dent of Buffalo. N. Y., June 4. was killed, a boy was 
fatally injured and three others were hurt when Hamlin’s 
automobile ran into a wagon near Buffalo. The accident 
happened at a bend in the road. Thet chauffeur, who was 
driving, says he was running under control and at about 
20 miles an hour. Two cars out on a testing trip had just 
passed at high speed, leaving a great cloud of dust. The 
buggy was in the midst of this cloud when the Hamlin car 
smashed into it, head on. Hamlin was very well known in 
Buffalo, in Newport and New York. Lately his greatest 
delight was driving a high power car at breakneck speed 
and at all hours, day and night. He has been the defendant 
in many damage accidents because of his reckless driving. 
On the day the accident occurred the constable of the 
township was? lying in wait for him and expected to arrest 
him for speeding. After the accident he did arrest the 
chauffeur. . . . Avoiding a’l the subterfuges employed 
by the Reading when it announced a 50 per cent increase 
in Philadelphia suburban fares, in revenge for the passage 
of the two gent fare bill, the Pennsylvania Railroad in a 
statement June 4, in which far more radical retaliation is 
threatened, boldly declares that the increase is due to the 
passage of the bill. The Pennsylvania Railroad further¬ 
more boasts that it has no doubt that it can have the law 
declared unconstitutional, but it wishes to announce that 
if there is anv delay or if it does not have the law knocked 
out there will be no appeal. The order went into effect June 
5. A flat two-cent-a-mile rate to all suburban points will 
be charged and the railroad will sell no commutation tickets 
at all. Even ten ride, package and workmen’s tickets, the 
statement announces. wiU be done away with. Excursion 
tickets will not be sold after September 30 either, if the 
road does not succeed in having the new law declared un¬ 
constitutional. Thousands of people will be affected by 
the move. The Reading road was boycotted in consequence 
of Its increase, and after 10 days went back to the old 
rates. 
FARM ANp GARDEN.-—The world’s record price, $11,500, 
was paid May 30 by A. B. Lewis, of Fredericksburg, Va., 
for Stockwell, the king of the herd, at the sale of Jersey 
cattle at the Linden Grove Farm May 30 by T. S. Copper. 
It was announced the bull would head the herd on Thomas 
F. Ryan’s Virginia estate. Other bidders for the bull were 
buyers for William Rockefeller and Alfred G. Vanderbilt. 
Stockwell was born in 1903. He was bred by Philip J. Ahier, 
of St. Martin, Island of Jersey. He was sired by Oxford 
Lad, out of Flying Fox, and besides being of solid color, 
with perfect black tongue and switch, has a most aristocratic 
carriage. He commanded the highest price ever bid for a 
horned animal at any auction in the world. At the same 
sale five young cows sired by Stockwell brought prices rang 
ing from $2,200 to $3,000. The bull calf Sensational Fern, 
seven months old, bred by Mr. Cooper, brought $10,200. 
Ninety-seven head, including calves, brought $93,950. The 
average was the highest ever derived at any cattle sale in 
America. 
The dairy division of the Department of Agriculture is 
going to get after those who manufacture inferior brands 
of oleomargarine and sell them as butter. A chemical 
laboratory has been established In the New York office of 
the Department, where samples of butter bought in the open 
market will be tested with a view to ascertaining whether 
or not they come up to the required standard of richness 
and quality. Special attention will be paid to butter in¬ 
tended for interstate and foreign shipment. Levi Wells, of 
Washington, will be placed in charge of the laboratory. 
The Directors of the Pennsylvania Dairy Union have 
designated January 14, 15 and 16, 1908, at Wilkes-Barre, 
as the time and place for holding the next annual conven¬ 
tion and dairy show. A good programme will be provided, 
and a banquet will be a feature of the convention. The 
fine new Armory has been secured for both convention and 
exhibit hall. While the immediate vicinity of Wilkes-Barre 
may not be noted for great dairy development, the ease 
with which it can be reached from the dairy sections and 
the good hotels make it a desirable convention city. Several 
prominent breeders are located there. H. E. Van Norman, 
President. State College, Pa.; W. E. Perham, Secretary, 
Muncy, Pa. _ 
CROP NOTES . 
Spring is very backward here, much corn planted over. 
First crop of Alfalfa was lost by continued April freezes. 
Ross Co., O. JOHN M. JAMISON. 
Chicks are doing finely. I have In use this season a new 
gasoline brooder system of our own devising. It has helped 
mightily in the work. j. t. c. 
Ilartstown, Pa. 
We have .2.700 bushels old com on hand yet, besides 250 
bushels old wheat: 100 acres of corn planted, 40 acres of 
wheat without green bugs, and six acres of Alfalfa nearly 
ready to cut. E. s. e. 
Nebraska. 
Our early strawberries were all killed by the frost. There 
will be but few cherries, and no pli»ms to mention. Cum¬ 
berland raspberry and Ratlibun and Mersereau blackberries 
are just blooming. Apples have set a good crop with the 
exception of Northern Spy. A Rochester, N. Y., nursery 
firm has beeti advertising a seedless apple and a blight-proof 
and drought-proof potato in our local papers. J. w. l. 
Decatur, Ill. 
Farmers are just replanting corn. It will have to be very 
favorable weather hereafter if there is over half a crop. 
Potatoes have been frozen down three times, one-third got 
disgusted and quit. All fruit is gone but blackberries and 
strawberries. I shall not have apples enough to make an 
apple pie on 300 trees. Kansas farmers need an abiding 
faith in the promise there shall be a seed time and harvest. 
Pittsburg, Kan. e. m. c. 
We are having the worst Spring here in years, so all say. 
It was very warm and dry in February and March and the 
middle of Ap_ril it began to rain, and we have had one tor¬ 
rent after another interspersed with cool dark spells and 
a little sunshine now and then. The parable of the girl 
and your short seasons of uninterrupted conversation fits 
our case this Spring as well as your own. Our cotton 
prospect is bad, and some of the ground has been planted 
three .times. If it stops raining now maybe we will make 
a fair crop yet. There is sure to be a light cotton crop 
this year, and our corn will be poor. H. e. v. d. 
Louisiana. _ 
NO MAIL SERVICE.—We are not getting any papers in 
this section of the country. I have not seen one of your 
papers for nine weeks, or any other paper in fact, and letters 
are the only mail we get. These are carried voluntarily by 
anv of the people who are passing the office where we get 
mail to this post office. The trouble is the Department will 
not pay living wages for carrying the mail from Taholah. 
Several times bids have been called for and every time the 
bids have been rejected. The distance from Taholah to 
Clearwater is about 20 miles and it takes a man two days 
to make the round trip over a very hard road, a trail, in 
fact. Can you not ventilate this matter in The R. N.-Y. 
There are now lying at Tahaloh 600 pounds of newspapers 
waiting to be carried to this office. c. J. w. 
Clearwater, Wash . 
Here is a dairy sermon in a few words from Missouri: 
“I do know, however, that if I had nothing but corn and 
Timothy hay for feed, I should sell my dairy cows and 
buy yearling muleg to eat it.” 
Every year comes the question of killing ants on lawns. 
Find the hole or hill. Punch holes in it with a crowbar or 
cane—from a foot to 18 inches deqp. Pour Into each hole 
a small quantity of bi-sulphide of carbon and cover with 
a blanket or sack. Do not breathe the fumes or bring them 
near a flame. 
Last year the Vacant Lot Gardening Association of this 
city received the loan of 30 acres of land in the Bronx, 
only 15 acres of this being tillable. More than 300 appli¬ 
cants responded to the announcement of free gardens, the 
plots assigned varying in size from an ordinary city lot to 
one-half acre, and the results were so good that the work 
is to be continued. 
