1009. 
831 
IMPRESSIONS OF THE OHIO STATE FAIR. 
The lirst thing that impressed the visitor arriving at 
the fair in the middle of tne week was the immense crowd 
of people on the ground. After a little time spent going 
about to lind what one wanted to study closely -it* was 
very evident that the Ohio State Fair of 1009 fully merited 
the largest attendance yet attained; in every department 
and in every way it was larger and better than ever. 
While the horse exhibit was not so large as usual, yet it 
seemed that the animals shown made up in quality wnat 
they lacked in numbers. The cattle, sheep and hog de¬ 
partments were full and overflowing, large tents having 
been erected outside for the large numbers that could not 
And room inside the permanent buildings. The poultry 
show was quite large and fully up to the usual high 
standards. What impressed the writer most were the 
educational features, consisting of large and well-arranged 
exhibits from the Experiment Station, from the Agri¬ 
cultural College, ihe Dairy and Food Commissioner’s De¬ 
partment, the Nursery and Orchard Inspection Division, 
and others. The Experiment Station exhibit seemed better 
than ever. One thing that is of great interest just now 
is the effect of lime upon soils, and here was to 
be found exhibits showing to what extent lime de¬ 
creased the humus content of soils by oxidizing the or¬ 
ganic nitrogen into soluble nitrates. Large jars showed 
the humus content of unlimed and limed soils, while along¬ 
side the jars from the limed soils were small tubes show¬ 
ing the soluble nitrates recovered by the chemist. These 
e xperiments have not yet been published, but will be em¬ 
bodied in a bulletin to be issued during the coming year. 
At each exhibit were one or more men, specialists, and 
m every way qualified to explain things. 
There was the usual immense display of machinery and 
manufactured articles, a fine horticultural exhibit and 
many others well worth seeing. A new feature was the 
ledure programme given iu the lecture room of the cen¬ 
tral building, also a course of lectures on domestic science 
given in the women's building. The programme rendered 
in the East Central building included various subjects of 
interest to farmers, and toe lecturers were such men as 
c. 10. Thorne, A. U. McCall, C. G. Williams, A. D. Selby, 
II. C. Price, C. S. Plumb, and others. 
Tnen Chore were the popular features, the first in im¬ 
portance being the races and other grand stand amuse¬ 
ments, band concerts, songs, parades, fete. Of course 
me merry-go-round and Ferris wheel were there, and the 
ubiquitous candy and peanut man. There were a number 
of side shows on the ground, and those who attended them 
said they were of a high class, but it is to be hoped that 
these shows are not to be an entering wedge for worse 
things. This fair has long been on a high plane morally, 
and is a model in that respect, being ahead of most other 
State fairs. 
On the last day of the fair it was pretty generally 
known on the ground and freely talked of that some mem¬ 
bers of the Board of Agriculture and stock superintendent 
were the night before somewhat intoxicated and pulled off 
a six-round prize fight between two colored employees of 
the live stock department. The drinking and the fight 
took place in the swine building late at night and might, 
liave been kept from the public, but quite a number of 
people were given tips, most of whom attended, and thus 
the matter became public, hence the reason for mentioning 
it here. There was no excuse for the affair, and it should 
not happen again. A nuisance that annoyed many was 
the numerous "spielers” for the various newspapers on the 
ground. It would seem that many subscribed for papers 
in self-defense. The agricultural journals were not so of¬ 
fensive in this respect, but on the other hand afforded 
their patrons various comforts and kindnesses. On the 
whole, the fair was a great success; the weather was fine 
and pleasant till noon of the last day. There were neither 
mud nor dust to muse discomfort to the thousands of 
people on the grounds. w. e. duckwall- 
EVENTS OF THE WEEK. 
DOMESTIC.—Fire destroyed the repair shops and barns 
of the Union Railway Company at 175th slreet and Bos¬ 
ton Road, New York City September 1, and disabled the 
feed wires in such a way that few trolley cars could run 
in The Bronx above 149th street for a day or more. The 
damage is estimated at more than .$109,000. The tire started 
in a paint shop. . . . Four young men, all members 
of well-known families at Detroit, Mich., were sentenced 
September 1 to pay $100 fines and serve 90 days in the 
House of Correction for “borrowing” an automobile to take 
two women "joy riding.” The party ended in a smashup 
in the village of Algonac, 40 miles above Detroit. The auto¬ 
mobile, which was taken from iu front of a hotel, crashed 
into a telegraph pole and was wrecked. The young people 
were all arrested and Justice Stein gave the four men the 
limit under the law. . . . Dr. Frederick A. Cook of 
Brooklyn. N. Y., arrived at Lerwick in the Shetland 
Islands September 1 from the Arctic regions, where he 
lias been for nearly three years. He reports that he has 
ucceeded in reaching the North Pole. Dr. Cook declares 
that he attained the latitude of 90 degrees north on April 
21, 1908. Dr. Cook came out: of the unknown wilds at 
the close of May, this year, at the Greenland colony of 
ilpernavik. He was taken on board the Danish steam¬ 
ship Hans Egede, which makes a regular stop at Lerwick. 
The vessel remained there only a short time and then 
continued her voyage to Copenhagen. September 0 word 
was received from Labrador that Lieut. It. E. Peary had 
reached the Pole April 0, 1909. Peary has made eight 
trips to the Arctic regions during 23 years. A great con¬ 
troversy has already developed as to the reality of Cook’s 
story. . . . An automobile occupied by William L. G raul 
and wife and Dr. Samuel E. Siegel and wife was struck 
September 2 while crossing the tracks of the Pennsylvania 
Railroad at Douglassville, Pa. Mr. and Mrs. Graul and 
Mrs. Siegel were instantly killed and Dr. Siegel’s legs 
were so badly mangled that slight hopes are entertained 
for his recovery. The locomotive struck the car squarely 
in the centre and the occupants were hurled out. The 
gasoline tank exploded and the wreckage was burned. 
. . . While madly racing with another automobile at 
Atlanta, (la., September 2, Charles Tidwell, a prominent 
young business man of Atlanta, drove his machine into a 
standing trolley car. The force of the collision caused 
the Tidwell car to leap high into the. air and turn turtle. 
Tidwell was almost instantly killed and the other occu¬ 
pants of the automobile, who were Tidwell’s bride of a 
week, his mother, his sister and the little daughter of a 
friend, were hurled in all directions and all are probably 
fatally injured. The automobile took fire and was (le¬ 
st roved. Tidwell was married a week before to Miss 
Martha Pope. He gave the automobile to his bride for a 
wedding present. . . . Reports from various parts of 
Michigan indicate that frost September 1 did thousands 
of dollars damage to crops, potatoes and corn being hard¬ 
est hit. Hopes for anything but a small potato crop have 
been abandoned by the farmers, and in many places the 
crop will not be worth digging. Muskegon and Oceana 
counties experienced the worst early frost in 40 years. 
In Muskegon the mercury dropped to 31 degrees' and the 
loss in that county alone to corn, buckwheat, potatoes 
and tomatoes will reach $75,000. In many counties the 
cucumber crop is ruined, and the Detroit packers with¬ 
drew prices for pickles quoted to their Eastern agents. 
Extensive damage was done to the tobacco crop of west¬ 
ern Wisconsin by frost September 1. On some farms in 
La Crosse, Vernon and Monroe counties the loss is total, 
while in others a part of the crop will be saved. 
Fire has destroyed main building of Arkadelphia Milling 
Company’s plant and Iron Mountain station, Arkadelphia, 
Ark., and damaged several residences and public buildings. 
Loss $200,000. . . . Mineral land swindles in northern 
Wyoming in two vears have taken $ 400,000 out of the 
pockets of residents of Eastern States, according to State 
Geologist Edwin Hall., who says he will ask Gov. Brooks 
to take immediate action in cases which he investigated 
after having received more than fifty letters of inquiry. 
He says that in the vicinity of Sundance alone, a coterie 
of swindlers secured $30,000 by getting from Eastern 
people $101.30 each for 300 iron claims, promising that 
the 20-acre claims would later be purchased for $40 an 
acre. The $101.30, he states, was renresented to cover 
the cost of doing location work and filing paners. Such 
location work, he reports, was rfever done. In fact, he 
declares, there is no evidence that a pick was ever stuck 
into the surface of the claims. . . . One man was 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
killed, another fatally injured and two were less seriously 
hurt by an explosion September 3 at the Du Pont powder 
works at Wayne, N. J. Three persons were in¬ 
stantly killed, one perhaps fatally injured and another 
slightly hurt at Bay City, Mich., September 5, when the. 
Michigan Central Wolverine express struck an automobile' 
at i he Euclid avenue crossing. ... A reward of 
$25,000 has been offered by the Baltimore & Ohio Rail¬ 
road Company for the arrest of the men who pulled the 
spikes on the rails at Chewton, Lawrence county, Pa., 
which caused the wreck of the Royal Blue Express Sep¬ 
tember 4. Bloodhounds were put on the trail of the train 
wreckers, who evidently intended to rob the train, but 
were frightened away. Three men are dead and 17 per¬ 
sons were injured. . . . The breaking of the Trout 
Lake Dam near Tolluride, Col., September 5, resulted in 
damage along the San Miguel River valley estimated at 
between $500,000 and $750,000. Saw Pit, a little mining 
hamlet, is said to have been washed away by Hie 18-foot 
wall of water. No loss of life is reported, as, at first 
signs of the dam weakening, horsemen were sent through 
the valley to warn Hie residents. . . . Thomas Mau¬ 
ley, a chauffeur employed by Hie Now York Transportation 
Company, was sen I to the workhouse September 7 for six 
months by Magistrate Cornell in the Yorkvilh* police 
court for reckless driving while intoxicated. In addition 
Manley was held under $500 bail for trial on the charge 
of having no chauffeur’s license. . . . Fire in a drug 
house ar 7 Jones Lane. Now York City, September 7. 
caused damage amounting to $45,000. . . . United 
States Marshal Henkel arrested In New York September 
7 Wilbcrforce Sully, vice-president and director of the 
American Malt Corporation, a $30,000,000 concern, and 
also chairman of the hoard of directors of the American 
Malting Company, which has a capital of $15.000,000: 
Frank T. Wells, a lawyer of Amityville, L. L; Rufus Ire¬ 
land, a prominent citizen cf Amityville, and George W. 
Dally, a stenographer in Sully’s office. The arrests were 
made on warrants issued in Wyoming following two in¬ 
dictments found by till' Federal Grand Jury, at Cheyenne 
on May 21, 1909, charging conspiring to defraud the 
Government by obtaining excess tide to 1.760 acres of 
vacant coal lands at Lander, Wyo.. for the Owl Creek 
Coal Company and to 4.312 acres for (lie Northwestern 
Coal Company at the same place. The law forbids any 
single person acquiring or holding more than 160 acres of 
these lands, and also forbids two persons or any com¬ 
bination acquiring or holding more than 320 acres. The 
P* an alleged (o have been resorted to by Sully and the 
others was to employ dummy entrymon and entry women 
to apply for the allotment of 160 acres. The land thus 
acquired was eventually deeded to the two coal aompanies. 
Most of the dummies are residents of Amityville. 
FARM AND GARDEN.—The Federation of Jewish Far¬ 
mers of America will hold its first annual convention and 
agricultural fair at the Educational Alliance in East Broad¬ 
way from October 2 to 7. There will be delegates repre¬ 
senting 25 associations. A farmers’ institute will be at¬ 
tended by 500 Jewish farmers from neighboring States. 
An exhibit of agricultural products raised by Jewish far¬ 
mers, for which more than 100 prizes are offered, will 
be on view, us well as' exhibits from the Baron de Ilirsch 
Agricultural School al Woodbine, N. J.. the National Farm 
School at Farm School. Pa., and the Cornell Agricultural 
College and State agricultural colleges, and the experiment 
stations in New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts and 
other States. 
The Southern Nurserymen’s Association has elected the 
following officers for the coming year: President, R. B. 
Bcrekmans, Augusta. Ga. ; vice-president W. A. Easterly, 
Cleveland. Tenn. ; secretary-treasurer. A. I. Smith. Knox¬ 
ville, Tenn. The next convention will lie at Knoxville. 
CROP PROSPECTS. 
Apples in this section are undersized, and will he a 
light yield all around. Orchards sprayed with Bordeaux 
are showing quite rusty, especially the Greenings. At. 
our local fair exhibitors found it hard work to find good 
apples for exhibition, although a very creditable display 
was made. The Cornell Station made a demonstration 
of apples sprayed with lime-sulphur (commercial) at rate 
1 to 30, three applications. The fruit showed bright and 
free from fungus or rust, while fruit treated with Bor¬ 
deaux at rate of 4-4-50 was quite rusty. The variety 
shown was Greenings. Favorable experiments were also 
made on peaches with lime-sulphur at rate of one to 200. 
Interlaken, N. Y. w. a. b. 
'l'he drought has simply been fearful down hero; it is 
gradually being broken now with slow scattering show¬ 
ers, but too late for cotton. Our cotton crop in Texas is 
badly spotted; that is, one community reporting a good 
prospect and the adjoining community reporting bad 
prospects or no prospects at all. The rains all came too 
late for cotton iu these parts. Since it takes 142 days to 
make a boll of cotton, whatever blooms appear as a re¬ 
sult of these rains will hardly make a thrashing boll by 
frost; in other words, we can only count on what is 
now on the plant in the shape of boll. The plant is 
late and undersized, and lias not fruited well for the 
most part, and that Texas will hardly make more than 
two and one-half millions is the conservative estimate of 
many experts. v. l. 
Dallas, Tex. 
Traveling over this section and adjoining counties, 
there is nothing encouraging for farmers now, owing to 
the protracted drought, having had no rain of conse¬ 
quence since June. Summer crops are practically de¬ 
stroyed. and the cornfields drawn upon for forage, or 
cattle fed hay and mill feeds. Only occasionally corn on 
rich low ground will make a fair crop, while on the hills 
it is rustling dry. Potatoes half to none. Cabbage in¬ 
fested with aphis, and of no value. Fruit trees also 
were seriously damaged by aphides, adding to the injury 
of San Jose scale. Fruit crop small in this section, is 
of little account, and apples are dropping prematurely. 
At this' time, September 1, a strong north wind blows 
almost cold enough for frost. The weather Is more like 
October than first of September. w. n. s. 
Pine Grove, Fa._ 
A LETTER FROM BRAZIL. 
Suggestions for Agricultural Education. 
First let me say that I am exceedingly glad, week after 
week, to read the successive numbers of your most excel¬ 
lent paper, which comes to me with great regularity con¬ 
sidering the distance and the various routes taken, some¬ 
times direct and sometimes by way of Europe. Next let 
me dispel part of the illusion which may trouble the 
minds of some of your readers about tilings here in the 
Far South. The agricultural school of which I am the 
director is situated on an elevated plateau, up some 1,800 
feet above the sea level, and is some 250 miles from Hie 
ocean. We are just north of the Tropic of Capricorn and 
consequently within ttie tropics. I hear some one say, 
“My ! how hot it must be there !” Not at all. It never 
gets hot here like it does in New York in July; tho 
climate is too equable. If is true that we never have 
frost here, and it is also true that the thermometer prac¬ 
tically never runs up to 90 degrees Fahrenheit. 1 have 
suffered more in July in one week in the State of New 
York, as far as heat is concerned, than here in a whole 
year. The seasons are different, here a dry season of 
six months, then a wet one of the same length. Tt is 
chilly in June and July and wet and hot In December 
and January, continuously warm day after day in endless 
and tiresome repetition, but it is never real blistering 
hot. Then, too, the nights ore always cool, always requir¬ 
ing a blanket to sleep comfortably, and that makes all 
the difference possible, the curse of the Summer climate 
In New York being the hot nights in which it is impos¬ 
sible to sleep. 
T may tell you about the school later, hut T started 
out to say that this country Is not so far behind flic 
United States in methods as some travelers would liave 
you think. This school shows' that, for one thing, demon¬ 
strating ihe desire of the people for a good practical 
school of agriculture where the boys shall he trained to 
work in the field and garden as well as in the laboratory 
and drill room. Now we are to have a new National 
Minister of Agriculture at Rio. Dr. A. Candido Rodrigues, 
the incumbent of the office, has been the efficient Secretary 
of Agriculture of the Slate of Sao Paulo before going to 
Rio de Janeiro It is one of his last acts as such Secre¬ 
tary which started this letter to you. Senhor Rodrigues 
is a man who gets information from everybody who has 
any to give, then carefully weighs and arranges, develop¬ 
ing his own ideas from his experience combined with this 
information. Believing that it is quite impossible to sepa¬ 
rate the farmer and bis sou from the farm in large num¬ 
bers to go to a school in one place in the State, he has 
attempted to send the school out to the farmers in tiiis 
way: A set of carefully chosen and well-prepared men 
are sent out from the Secretary’s office itself. Each man 
has his chosen district where he must spend the bulk of 
his time, coming in to (he capital at the close of cacti 
month to report and to counsel with his fellows, to report 
and to receive instruction from his chief. In the district 
this representative of the government is allowed wide lib¬ 
erty in choosing the plan which will be most efficient in 
building up the agriculture of the section. Among his 
duties I may mention the following: Visit the separate 
farms, especially those of the more recent immigrants and 
those where intensive methods are carried on; examine 
the conditions and methods, the markets, and indicate to 
tlie farmer better methods of doing his work or of hand¬ 
ling his crop after harvest. Again, when there is an op¬ 
portunity, he is to get Hie farmers together and discuss 
with them the methods and machines in use and what 
changes can lie made for the better. It Is thought that 
one bright man in a given locality and staying there is 
belter than a group of itinerant men traveling about from 
county to county and doing nothing but talk. These men 
being on the ground all the year round and having an 
opportunity to hold the plow and drive, to illustrate as 
well as to preach, to practice as well as to suggest, to 
do the tilings they recommend as well as recommend the 
tilings they cannot do must exorcise a cogent influence on 
the locality. I offer the thought as a germ, as a little 
ferment in remodeling the whole question of farmers’ in¬ 
stitutes as now conducted in New York. Having had 
charge of the farmers’ institutes in Michigan for a few 
years and having l>eon at one time president of the Asso¬ 
ciation of Fanners’ Institute Workers, 1 may be supposed 
to know something of this question from that side. Hav¬ 
ing been a practical farmer in New York for many years 
and now a taxpayer there, I can also see the question 
from that side. My contention is that it is a wiser ex¬ 
penditure of the money to locate a safe and enthusiastic 
man, a man of resources, a man of wide experience, a 
man of affairs, a man of breadth of vision and consequent 
humility, a man who can get along with his fellows, a 
comfortable man, in eacti of the diverse sections of a 
State, than it is to send a collection of brilliant speakers 
there once in a year to talk about topics which they under¬ 
stand. but which may not fit the people. I will not argue 
the question here. 
A third duty of these men is to take charge of a piece 
of land when the farmer offers it and to demonstrate there, 
in full view of the neighbors, the methods and machines 
hi' recommends. The government furnishes its representa¬ 
tives tiie tools' and machinery for this purpose. What 
is tho matter with that idea as a demonstration station 
for your experiment station? But r will not argue. A 
fourth duty is to organize co-operative, not societies ex¬ 
actly, but co-operative ventures in the purchase of fools 
and such things and the sale of crops'. This will develop 
into something like tho Grange later, but we must not 
spread Ihe net in sight of file bird. Could your Slate do 
better than to adopt something like this idea? I will not 
argue. A fifth duty is to go to the capital each month, 
as I have said, to report, confer and receive instruction. 
Is not this better than an arrangement like some I liave 
known where a man has gone off by himself without sup¬ 
port, without counsel and often without results? 
Later, if it meets your approval I want to develop 
the application of the same idea to our conditions' in Now 
York. It docs seem to me that our methods of instructing 
the youth in agriculture are wasteful, to say the least. 
A careful census would show that few of the young men 
attend the institutes, and that relatively few of them 
go to Cornell or any other school ‘of agriculture. It seems 
to me also that the time lias fully come when the worship 
of God as manifested in nature on the farm must not tie 
confined to the schools, but must be carried to the farms 
and tiie farmers at homo. I know of no hotter way to do 
the work than to adopt the plan of tho great Teacher of 
Judea. First inspire a worthy man with enthusiasm, then 
send him forth to inspire others. We need in Now York 
inspiration rather than Instruction, or perhaps rather in¬ 
spired instruction than the dead letter of knowledge. With 
the improved roads we now have, T can see how a wise 
man located in each county could do a world of good after 
secorimr the confidence of the people. 
Piracieaba, Brazil. Clinton d. smith. 
PENNSYLVANIA IS DRY.—This year lias been phe¬ 
nomenal in its moisture supply, entailing unusual dif¬ 
ficulties on the farmer. First, tho Winter was dry anil 
mild, allowing considerable Winter plowing to be done 
Then came a very wet Spring, making oat sowing and 
corn planting tedious, late, difficult and poorly done. 
Finally, came the drought, beginning about July 1, ami 
unbroken ever since, with the exception of two or three 
showers that barely laid the dust. The outlook to-day is 
for clear weather, to continue indefinitely. AH this has 
caused great loss to the farmer; and still more, it is 
causing profound uneasiness, not to say alarm for the 
future. Oats were short, thin, and badly rusted; pas¬ 
tures were burnt out long ago, and stock has to he fed 
from the stores of Winter feed in the barn; corn is 
short and not earing well. The berry crop was burnt 
up and dried on tiie vines, and the apple crop very scant 
because of the great drought of 1908, is dwarfed and 
dropping by reason of the still greater drought of 1909 
The seeding of wheat is barely possible, as tiie ground is 
baked to the very bottom ol’ the furrow, and the earth 
turns up in clods a foot or more in diameter. Men find 
it impossible to hold the plow in the ground. Where 
plowing is attempted, three horses are used insteod of 
two, the usual number here, and men take turns al the 
plow handles. A plow point is worn out after half a 
day’s work, and the supply of plow points has rim so 
low that most hardware stores are out of them, and the 
factories also are exhausted of their stock. On account 
of the situation, some farmers have had to suspend plow¬ 
ing, while waiting for plow points or for rain. One 
lesson has been learned from the drought—those who 
are plowing are invariably following the plow with a 
drag or with a land roller, and usually on the same day. 
Some have begun disking and harrowing the land pre¬ 
paratory to sowing. No doubt the area in Winter wheat 
will bo smaller than usual, as some will be unable to get 
their fields plowed. Late potatoes will be a failure, 
through blight and drought. In fact, our soil being a 
Volusia silt loam oakes so badly in drought that potatoes 
cannot grow iu it to full size; but where planted on rye 
to furnish humus and moisture they do better. Buck¬ 
wheat is very short and thin on the ground, and some 
fields will not be worth cutting. Some farmers are heav¬ 
ily overstocked with cattle, and their cows are looking 
thin and gaunt; though stock in general is looking fairly 
well. Methods of farming are improving in Western Penn¬ 
sylvania, draining is more carried on; better farm build¬ 
ings are going up, and liming is rapidly coming into favor. 
Yet we are unable to secure ground limestone, which I 
would much rather use than burnt lime, since the first 
corrects acidity without destroying the humus, as is done 
by tho burnt lime. Until we use calcium we cannot grow 
clover, and without clover we cannot farm profitably here. 
With calcium more stock and better stock, cement floors 
to save liquids, and clover to catch nitrogen from the 
air, we hope to see (lie dawn of a new era of prosperity 
for the farmers of this region, for we have good markets 
here for all we can raise. The great manufacturing 
cities of Western Pennsylvania and Eastern Ohio are al¬ 
ways crying for more and more to eat, and as they have 
money in abundance to pay for both luxuries and necessi¬ 
ties, it is the joy of the farmer to supply their wants. 
The educational institutions here are of the very highest 
order, the climate is superb, and the privileges and pleas¬ 
ures of country life are abundantly offered to all who 
will strive for them. j. c. m. 
Lawrence Co., Pa. 
