iaoa. 
645 
EVENTS OF THE WEEK. 
DOMESTIC. —The direct plurality primary law received 
a blow from the Supreme Conrt at Chicago .lime 16. The 
tourt's opinion suggested in a veiled way that grave doubts 
existed: as to whether a direct primary law could be 
inerted without amending the constitution of the State. 
. . . . The physicians at the I>ong Island College 
Hospital, in Brooklyn, are hopeful that their efforts to 
save the life of Antonio Lannonia, 32 years old, a long¬ 
shoreman, who was taken to the hospital on March 30 
suffering from glanders, will prove successful. Lannonia 
caught the disease from horses on the wharves. lie had 
been treated with an antitoxin serum.Fritz 
Augustus Heinzo, his brother Arthur I\ Heinze and Carlos 
Warfield, who were jointly indicted June 15 by the Fed¬ 
eral Grand Jury at New York with Calvin O. Geer and 
Sanford Robinson on the charge of conspiring to obstruct 
ihe administration of justice, were arraigned before Judge 
Kay in the T'nited States Circuit Court June 16. pleaded 
i.ot guilty and gave §2.500 hail. Arthur r. Heinze is 
accused individually of directing Tracy S. Buckingham, 
a Heinze clerk, to se< rete himself and giving him §100 
to do it with. Buckingham fled precipitately to Canada 
simultaneously with (lie discovery by accountants of United 
States Attorney Wise that the United Copper Company's 
books had been shorn of thirty-five pages of matter espe¬ 
cially interesting to the Government. The books were 
subsequently removed altogether. The conspiracy indict¬ 
ment has two counts, charging, first, the advising and 
directing of witnesses snbpmnaed by the Government to 
secrete themselves, and. second, mutilating, secreting and 
removing books, letters, etc., belonging to the United 
Copper Company. Geer and Warfield are specifically 
charged with removing ten books of accounts, fiflv letters, 
five tetter press copy Ixioks and fifty other documents. 
F. Augustus and Arthur P. Heinze and Geer are specifically 
charged with removing forty-four pages from Ledger A, 
sixteen pa.ges from Journal A and eighteen pages from 
Cash Book A.At Cincinnati, 0., June 17. more 
than a dozen post office inspectors and deputy United 
States marshals swooped down on a saloon at 227 West 
Sixth street and arrested proprietor Frank Spadera, aged 
44, and nearly a score of other Italians who were in the 
place, which is also a cheap hoarding house. The arrests 
are made under the charge of using the mails for con¬ 
veying threats for extorting money.The Union 
Dime Savings Bank property at Broadway and Thirty- 
second street. New York, facing Greeiev Square, was 
bought June 17 by Edward Hedley Culhbortson and 
Charles Knnfman for §1,500,000. The site comprises 4.000 
square feet and the price was at the rate of §275 a square 
foot, the second highest figure known to have been paid 
for land in this town, and the highest outside the financial 
district. The southeast corner of Wall street and Broad¬ 
way brought §582 a square foot in 1005. Since 1901 the 
record price in the midtown section has been $324.95 a 
square foot, which was paid for the northwest corner of 
Broadway and Thirty-fourth street. The buyers of the 
Union Dime Savings Bank property are English investors 
with large interests in the De Beers mines. Their inten¬ 
tion is to hold the purchase for a rise.Judge 
John W. Mason overruled the motion for a new trial in 
lhe Black Hand ease at Fairmont. W. Ya., June 17. and 
imposed sentences on all the gang, nineteen in number. 
Nine men got ten years in the penitentiary,, one one 
year in the penitentiary and a fine of §500. and Giuseppe 
riseonira. an old man. thirty days in jail and a fine of 
§'00. The other eight, convicted of misdemeanor, got 
f ive months in jail and tines of §300 each. . . . While 
sixteen children who were attending a Sunday school 
pi* nic at Martin Springs. Ga.. were standing under a 
tree June IS to escape a sudden shower a bolt of light¬ 
ning struck the tree and every child was rendered uncon¬ 
scious. When aid came the children were lying in a 
leap at the foot of the tree and all were apparently dead. 
There were two doctors in the picnic party and on exam¬ 
ination they found that not one of the children had been 
killed outright, though six of (hem were in such con¬ 
dition that their recovery is almost impossible. The ten 
others are in a dangerous condition.The 
largest single shipment of gold from Alaska was received 
June 18 when the steamer Jefferson arrived at Seattle, 
Was !| .. from Juneau with six and a half tons of gold, valued 
at §3.209.000. Except §400,000. which came by express, all 
this treasure came by registered mail. A dozen mail 
wagons transferred it to the post office, whence it will lie 
delivered to the mint. This large first shipment shows 
that Alaska camps will make a larger clean-up than was 
expected.A snow flurry in mid-June was the 
novel experience of the residents of Duane and other sec¬ 
tions of Franklin County. N. Y., June 18. The air was 
sharp and cool as some of the days in early April. The 
snow continued to fall for only a short time, and it dis¬ 
appeared ns fast as it fell.Clairvoyants, palm¬ 
ists and fortune fellers are no longer legally conducting 
their vocations in Texas, as the vagrancy law which went 
into effect June 12 put them on the undesirable list. Such 
persons were licensed to operate under the old tax law. 
but the grant of that privilege is abrogated by the enact¬ 
ment of the vagrancy law. No provision is made for 
the refund of the unearned portion of the occupation taxes 
which were exacted of them.Ten persons were 
killed and forty injured in the collision June 19 between 
electric ears of the Chicago, Lake Shore and South Bend 
Railroad at Chesterton. Ind. The wreck was caused by 
disregard of orders fixing a passing point for the two 
cars. Motorman Rood, of the eastbonnd car, was ordered 
at Gary to wait at Wilson for the westbound car to pass. 
These orders were disregarded and two miles east of 
Wilson the cars came together. Both were reduced to 
splinters and nearly all the passengers were either killed 
or wounded. The list of forty injured does not include 
many who received slight bruises or were cut by broken 
glass, but only such as were hurt seriously. .... 
Cleveland, O.. has decided that firecrackers, torpedoes and 
toy pistols are barred on Independence Day. By action 
far more sweeping flan has ever before been taken in a 
city of the size of Cleveland, the council lias absolutely 
forbidden the use of fireworks, except for a few public 
displays to be given under the direct charge of the city 
authorities. The law is to be strictly enforced and the 
coming Fourth of July in Cleveland promises to be noise¬ 
less. bloodless and deathless. The municipal authorities 
vere inspired to this action by a constantly increasing 
public sentiment. A medical journal called attention to 
the fact that in the five celebrations of the Fourth of 
July from 1903 to 1907 inclusive, 21,520 persons were in¬ 
jured and 1,153 killed. The cannon cracker in 1907 was 
responsible for 16 deaths and the injury of 1.489 persons. 
A few days before the Fourth of July in Cleveland last 
year a girl was demonstrating a new piece of fireworks 
in a crowded store. A spark fell among the fireworks 
stock, there was an explosion and a wild rush for safety. 
Half a dozen bodies. Irampled and blackened with smoke, 
were taken from the building. The holiday itself brought 
more than the usual number of accidents. .... The 
first prison sentences ever imposed in Manhattan upon 
wholesale food dealers for selling adulterated foodstuffs 
were handed out June 21 hv Justice Tloyt in the Court of 
Special Sessions, when Etanl Jeremiah, general manager 
of the Manhattan Beef Company, of 619 Tenth avenue, 
and Ixmis Waldman, a candy joblier at 2015 Third avenue, 
were sent to jail for ten days each. Sentence bad been 
(ipfern 1 to give the accused time to make affidavits. Jere¬ 
miah against the owners of the beef company and Wald- 
man against, the candy manufacturers who sold 1dm t'»e 
impure candies. Iu both cases the men refused to impli¬ 
cate any one higher up. Waldman said that it would 
means so much trouble to him that lie preferred to take 
the responsibility upon himself and pay a fine. When the 
court sentenced both defendants to jail tho.v appeared 
to be surprised. Heretofore it has been customary to 
impose small fines. It was alleged that flip beef' sold 
v.as preserved with sulphurous acid, while the candy was 
adulterated. Assistant Supervising Insneetor Philip Holz. 
cf the Board of Health, who prosecuted the cases, asked 
THE RURAL NRW-YOHKER 
for the prison sentences. lie said that small fines had 
no deterrent effect whatever. The eourt warned all vio¬ 
lators that in future they woutd suffer severely if con¬ 
victed.Fire in the business district of Pitts¬ 
burg, I’a., June 21, eansed caused a loss of §250.000. 
The Oriental Dragee Company, of Jersey City, 
was found guilty in the United States District (A>urt at 
Trenton, N. J.. June 22 of violating the Federal pure 
food laws by coating candy with silver leaf. The case 
is said to have been the first of its kind in the United 
States, and the action was directed, according to the 
evidence, against an industry in which millions of dollars 
are invested throughout the country. The testimony, which 
was not contradicted, showed that one ounce of pure 
silver was used in coating 16 pounds of candy. No alloys 
were employed. The case will be appealed. 
THE OIJIO TAN PLAN.—Secretary of the Treasury 
MacYeagh has been temporarily called away by President 
Taft from his intention to ask Congress to pass a new 
oleomargarine law, which, by reducing the tax on this 
article, would raise a revenue for the government. West¬ 
ern Congressmen, who- protested at the White House, 
found that the President was not fully informed as to 
the tight which accompanied the passage of the oleomar¬ 
garine law, the President at that time being in the Phil¬ 
ippines. Although Secretary MaeVeagb's plan bad been 
endorsed at the Cabinet meeting, President Taft has "asked 
him to. withhold it until there iias been another conference 
on the subject. Senator Aldrich promised Representative 
Tawney, of Minnesota, who threatened to open a long, 
bard fight in the House if the Senate’ passsed Secretary 
MacVeagh’s proposed amendment on oleomargarine, that 
nothing would be done with it this session. 
A LETTER TO SECRETARY WILSON. 
Secretary of Agriculture, 
Washington, I>. C. 
Dear Sir: 
Yesterday's Chicago Record-Herald contained an inter¬ 
view with you on the generaL crop and farm conditions. 
You therein are quoted as speaking of the high price of 
the farm products. “The Outlook"’ of several weeks ago 
had an article by Prof. I. I*. Roberts that to my mind 
gives the correct cause of the unsatisfactory condition in 
farm life. He ascribes i< (o the unprofitableness of farm¬ 
ing. He shows how small the profits were on an acre of 
wheat and carried out illustrations in other lines of farm¬ 
ing. This. I believe, is the sole cause of the drift of peo¬ 
ple to the city. The tendency of the prices of the farm 
products is somewhat toward where they ought to be. hut 
what would the brewers think if their c-hief man should 
come out in a newspaper interview speaking of the high 
price of their product? The prices of farm products are 
not high enough now to warrant the same profits that 
are expected in other business, and their chief—the' Secre¬ 
tary of Agriculture—will come out publicly and speak of 
the high prices of farm products. 
N'ot one farmer out of a hundred is systematic enough 
to know what his products cosf him. When you speak of 
high prices of farm products and others in similar sta¬ 
tions do the same, the average man makes up his mind 
that prices are high and immediately starts to cut prices. 
I know of an instance here when a farmer came to town 
with 18 bushels of potatoes. The price of potatoes was 
everywhere §1. In a haphazard way he tried to make 
some sales. The potatoes went slowly. lie offered them 
for 70 cents, then 60 cents and finally sold them for 50 
cents. The next day people went to the stores and they 
wero fold the price of potatoes was §1. They said. “Why. 
the fanner offered us potatoes for 50 cents a bushel.” 
Not because that was the cost price, but because the farm¬ 
er slaughtered I he price, potatoes were 50 cents a bushel. 
The price of milk lias uniformly been eight cents. This 
Spring a man started a milk route. Instead of getting 
business by having a neat wagon, uniform cans, bottles, 
etc., he started to get business by cutting the price to six 
cents, chiefly because he heard everyone talking of the 
high price of milk. ITe- never figured the cost of it. nor 
what it would cost him to deliver it. Think of beer 
five cents a glass, whisky 10 cents a glass and milk six 
cents a quart! Did you ever bear of Arthur. Gompers or 
Mitchell talking of the high price of the labor they repre¬ 
sent? Surely you know. Mr. Secretary, that at present prices 
the farmer is not more than making a reasonable profit on 
his skill, labor and investment. Why then talk of the high 
price? if everyone from the I‘resident down would stop 
this talk of high prices for farming products, and every 
time anyone talked of the high prices show him what 
he gets for his money compared with vhal lie gets for his 
money when he pays 10 cents for a drink of whisky or 
§10 for a hat for his wife, or $560 for a grand piano 
for his daughter, the President two or three decades from 
now would appoint a commission to ascertain what is the 
matter with city life. 1 was born and bred on a farm 
in the Cumberland Valley iu Pennsylvania, and know 
somewhat of the trials and troubles of the average farmer. 
I think that Prof. Roberts was right, and I believe, Mr. 
Secretary, if you will give this matter any consideration 
you will not again speak of the high price of farm prod¬ 
ucts. I. ~ W. B. 
Michigan. 
NORTHERN N. Y. DEVELOPMENT LEAGUE. 
A novel undertaking has just been launched in north¬ 
ern New York to boom the various interests of the north 
country. At Watertown. N. Y.. .Tnne 17, was organ¬ 
ized the Northern New York Development League, with 
Dean H. E. Cook, of the Canton Stale Agricultural School, 
as president. The organization includes the chambers of 
commerce, boards of trade. Pomona Granges and the various 
manufacturing and industrial concerns of the counties of 
New York State north of the main line of the'New York 
Central. 
The organization meeting was attended by about 150 
representative men from northern New York, and included 
Jefferson. Oswego. Herkimer. Oneida, Lewis. St. ■ Law¬ 
rence, Franklin and Clinton counties. The management 
of the league is in the bands of a board of directors, one 
of which is chosen by each affiliating organization. It 
is proposed to issue an illustrated magazine under League 
auspices to promote (he interests of northern New York. 
The magazine will probably be issued quarterly. The 
league will devote its energies to the conserving of the 
vast water power of the Adirondack country, through 
needed legislation, and will carry on a vigorous campaign 
to advertise the attractions and advantages of the great 
north country. In the West movements of ibis character 
are not so rare as in the more conservative East, and 
the formation of the Northern New York Development 
league has attracted much interest throughout the State. 
The league is the outgrowth of Dean Cook’s work among 
the agricultural districts of the State as a farmers’ insti¬ 
tute conductor, in the course of which labor he became 
convinced of the great possibilities of the northern section 
of the State, so rich in its natural resources and agricul¬ 
tural and manufacturing interests. l. l. allen. 
HELP WANTED FROM SHIPPERS. 
We appreciate what Tue R. N.-Y. is doing to help us in 
on efforts to obtain an order from our State Railroad Com¬ 
mission compelling the railroads to carry a man free with 
a carload of prodnee. _ A plain expression from your 
reader on this tonic, giving hits of their experience along 
this line, will certainly lie helpful to us. It will enable us 
to prove that this trouble, which we are seeking to rem¬ 
edy. is quite general, iu fact, national, instead of opiv 
local, as some of those well-nourished and prosperous rail¬ 
road attorneys would make believe. That kind of men 
have no sympathy for the farmer, or laborer of any kind 
for that matter, and if they could ridicule us out of court, 
it would suit and please t<>ein all the better. What we 
are asking for is only justice. The banana man has a free 
pass with a ear on same train, so has the man with his 
car of live stock. The different railroad companies have 
willingly given these concessions in oi’der to prevent dam¬ 
ages to that certain class of freight on route. Now. is a 
car of peaches, or any other fruit or vegetables not en¬ 
titled to the same consideration the car of bananas gets? 
Yet, we will not insist on being quite as well treated as 
are these people, and shall tell our Railroad Commission 
that while we deem it absolutely essential that we have the 
right to accompany our car-lot shipments on same trains, 
whenever the trip is deemed necessary, we are however 
willing to pay the railroad people a reasonable fare for 
the privilege, the exact amounts to be paid to be left for 
themselves, the Commissioners, to so order. Where a 
shipper feels satisfied that his goods will get into safe 
hands at the other end of the line, it would be often folly 
on his part to lose the time and spend money besides in 
order to go along and see his goods sold. But whenever a 
man is in doubt, especially about the reliability of parties 
he consigns or sells to. it is very important that he have 
the right to go along with his stuff when he wants to. par¬ 
ticularly when he is willing to pay for the privilege. It 
should he borne in mind, that selling with privilege of ex¬ 
amination on arrival by purchaser, is but little better than 
consigning outright. All well and good if the buyer is 
honest and means to do right, but if otherwise, there are 
dozens of pretexts under which goods are refused, their 
being in first-class condition making no difference: the 
shipper usually hundreds of miles away, does not know 
it, nor can he help himself about it. Indeed. U is is a 
matter of decided importance, and every truck and fruit 
grower in the United States is interested in the outcome 
of it. Let your readers assist us in our case, by giving 
us in letters their actual experiences in shipping and the 
way they have been served by commission men No ex¬ 
aggeration is needed. We can make out a very strong 
case with actual facts only. The more evidence we can pre¬ 
sent the stronger will be our chance to win. 
Mexia. Texas. j. w. stubenbaith. 
CROP PROSPECTS. 
After a week of dry weather it is raining again. June 
17, stopping outdoor work. I.ots of corn has been plowed 
and farmers are catching up with their work. Some 
clover hay is being made and wheat will do to cut in 
about 10 days. w E D 
Highland Co., O. 
The Spring has been late, cool and backward, and very 
dry till the first of June; since that, there have been 
good rains, and wheat and Alfalfa are in good shape, 
though short; corn and potatoes never more promising at 
this time. j. ],•. L _ 
Beloit, Kans. 
The facts are that in this region (northwest Dutchess 
Co.) Hie lice crop is about as prominent as any. Most 
of the apple trees and especially the cherries are alive 
with them. It seems to me that this condition must ma¬ 
terially affect the fruit crop. Apples are plentiful enough 
so are plums, though they are rotting quite some. Reaches 
scattering as usual, though I think more than last year. 
Cherries will be materially affected by the lice. Rye is 
unusually tall lmt tie heads avera-re short. It did not 
winter well and look'd bad in the Sprint* Oats took ex¬ 
ceptionally well -as also potatoes and garden stuff. Corn, 
of course, is yet an infant, hut the "little feller" is doing 
well. Grass, short crop, decidedly so. b c 
Red Hook. N. Y. 
This has been a very favorable season for this section 
of country. The. dry weather last Fall hurt meadows ami 
pasture and delayed seeding until very late. The Winter 
was very mild, no severe freezing or bad storms. Spring 
started in early, but lingered along cool and wet. which 
helped grass, pastures, grains and fruit of all kinds, and 
odd jobs on farms. After May 12 weather turn; d good ; 
good acreage of oats put in in fine condition ; large acreage 
of potatoes, good supply corn and now many are putting 
in a supply of fodder corn. i’h-nty of buckwl ear going 
in later. Stock of all kinds is doing well; a si or'ago of 
fat . cattle for local butchers and some are offeri-’g nine 
cents a pound for good beef. Eggs very scarce, 21 cents 
a dozen; butter 2 il to 25 cents. Old potatoes bei; ■- nicked 
up close at 60 and 65 cents. There is a good setting of 
all kinds of fruit ; strawberries just ripening. \v. b. y. 
Standing Stone, Ha. 
The rain having let up. the cornfields are being culti¬ 
vated and the young corn is making a fine growth. Com 
plowing, clover haymaking and wheat cutting are all 
coming together here this year, and the n -i two 
weeks will be busy times on the farms. Some clover hay 
is now (June 21) being made, and wheat cutting will 
be on in full blast in less than a week. The wheat has 
promised a bumper crop here, but the joint-worm has 
done some damage and a green louse, infesting the heads 
of the wheat, seems to lie responsible for a 20 per cent 
damage to the crop of grain. In some cases a dozen or 
more lice are at work on one head. A red loose is also 
reported at work in some places, hut this color is prob¬ 
ably only assumed when mature, and the red and green 
lice perhaps are of the same species. The wet Spring 
weather lias kept down their natural enemies while lx-ing 
favorable to the lice, which seems to account for their 
unusual increase in numbers. Wheat prices promise to 
he high, §1 or better, at thrashing lime, with a show for 
higher prices later. w. n. d. 
Hillsboro, Ohio. 
The Van Camp Packing Co. began operating a milk eon- 
densery at Bryan April l. which has stirred up quite a bit 
of enthusiasm in dairying. The farmers received §1 per 
100 pounds for milk F. O. B. the factory, costing them 
15 cents per 100 for hauling, a very safe price for the 
eondensery. This locality is especially well adapted to 
dairying, as nearly every farm is supplied with several 
flowing wells. Several silos are being used, and more will 
be erected this season. Alfalfa has been tried by several 
farmers: it grows very well, withstanding the Winters. 
Inoculation of the soil is not necessary—it would seem 
in this territory growing soiling crops would be much more 
economical than pasturing, as nearly all of the land can 
be cultivated. Land is selling from §100 to §’25 per 
acre, renting from §4 to §6 per acre. Prospects for a 
good corn and oat crop on land that was properly tiled 
and surface drained, are looking very good. On lowland 
the continued wet weather has hurt it to a great extent. 
Wheat is looking very good, with a small acreage. The 
hay crop promises -to he one- of the best in many years, 
old hay selling for §11 per ton. the buyer baling it. 
Dairy cows are very scarce aud high in price, mostly grade 
cows being used. Some purebred sires are noticed in 
some of the herds. v. a. 
Williams Co., Ohio. 
CLOVER SEED IN SOUTH.—I am very much inter¬ 
ested in saving the seed of Lespedeza striata. I find that 
this plant will grow on the rich bottom lands of the 
Mississippi Valley, where Alfalfa has proved a failure ow¬ 
ing to the lack of lime in the soil. In every attempt 
we have made here to grow Alfalfa if has always resulted 
in a total failure, yet in the Red River bottoms of Louis¬ 
iana it has proved a great success. However. I/ospedoza 
is a grand substitute, and the hay made from it is su¬ 
perb. I* cures very much more rapidly than AlfaHa. bay. 
and my stock will leave any kind of feed even corn and 
oats, to eat it. Now I am anxious for some one to tell 
me how lo save the seed. There is a great amount of 
chaff left from the hay which consists of seed and leaves. 
Two old negro women discovered that if (hey get over 
this pile with sacks and fan the piles it would scat¬ 
ter the leaves and leave the seed, but this was a primi¬ 
tive way. and while it got the seed clean enough for my 
own planting, it never got it clean enough to sell. Now 
I am growing this Lespedeza extensively. The seed is in 
big demand at paying prices, and I wish to rig up some 
way to save it. How do people save clover seed and the 
like? Is there a machine for winnowing if? Some of 
your renders ought to be able to put me in the way of 
saving these seeds. Of course. I do not care to buy any 
very expensive machine at first. itain ! Rain ! Rain ?— 
and the whole lower Mississippi Valley one great mass of 
grass and weeds—worst condition of things ever known. 
Louisiana. sasi h. xmkes 
