1908. 
THE RURAL MEW-YORKER 
71 
“YELLOW JOURNALISM” IN THE CATTLE 
CASE. 
We have been somewhat reluctant to touch the 
side of the famous Jersey cattle case now to be made 
clear. Mr. Dawley and his friends have endeavored 
to switch off from the real issue by blackening the 
character and motives of Mr. Rogers. There seems 
to have been a deliberate effort to destroy Rogers’s 
credit and drive his trade away, so that he might be 
starved or crushed into submission. Few who have 
not felt the hateful touch of it can realize the tre¬ 
mendous power of the farmers’ institute and agricul¬ 
tural department political machines to destroy a 
man's business and character. Rogers has had to face 
the entire force of it. The object of this was a double 
one. Rogers was to be blackened and crushed so 
that he could have no standing and no one to present 
his case. The politicians who have thus far protected 
Dawley evidently figured that a discredited man 
would have no rights which the public will respect. 
They also expected to blacken and discredit The 
R. N.-Y. by having it tied to a friendless man. 
Judging others by themselves they had no idea that 
either The R. N.-Y. or the public would stand up 
and fight for a principle in the shower of mud they 
threw at Rogers. We knew they were wrong. The 
R. N.-Y. will fight for a man’s common rights 
whether he be rich or poor, bend or free, and honest 
people everywhere will sustain such a fight when 
they know the facts. We can never make these 
politicians and their defenders believe that we have 
fought this case on principle, and we shall not try to 
do so. We make no effort to defend Mr. Rogers, but 
we do intend that plain farmers who might have 
been victimized in the same way shall realize the 
cursed shame and the hideous outrage which the rich 
and influential can, if unchecked, perpetrate upon the 
poor. We therefore make extracts from letter re¬ 
cently written by Mr. Rogers, that this pitiable side 
of the case may be understood. These letters were 
received before the recent hearing at Rogers’ place 
at which Dawley refused to give open testimony: 
I told you and Somers while here, when he asked why 
we did not kill those diseased cows, that we would have 
to keep them if it took the whole herd. I regret to say 
now that those conditions already too nearly exist. There 
is but little doubt that every animal of the herd we 
bought from Dawley was well seeded down to tuberculosis 
when we got them, in addition to the contagious abortion. 
There is no doubt where the disease was brought in, for 
our old family cow we had before we bought of Dawley is 
left, but both her daughters went with it. We bad four 
of the old skates shut off from the rest, and it is sickening 
to see them and to hear them hacking and coughing. The 
test now throws out the last of what little remained of an 
income from the Dawley herd, even though it did not, and 
in fact never has paid for the feed, much less the labor, 
but on top of that every last heifer of the Dawley lot that 
we have kept here, waiting for the investigation, is also 
gone. 
Now Dawley informed Rogers that he would deliver 
a fine lot of cattle that would give a great start in 
breeding. After the sale Dawley told Rogers in 
effect that no man ever took greater value in cattle, 
for the money paid, away from his farm. We intend 
to brand the responsibility for this condition of 
affairs right where it belongs. Mr. Rogers says: 
At the start we kept the first diseased cow here for 
months waiting for an investigation which was finally re¬ 
fused. That cow was buried and the one that stood next to 
her was the next one that got bad, and she in turn was 
kept for several months waiting for the investigation, 
which showed her up as being in poor condition, and that 
fact used against us in bolstering up Dawley’s claim that 
they were forced, and the other full sister as claimed at 
one time and denied at another was fat and sleek. This 
one was buried soon after the investigation. Then there 
was old Harmony, denied and thrown out, the loss saddled 
on us, and refused to even answer our Inquiries about her, 
We see; from this why he did not kill the sick 
animals at once. These cows carried the evidence to 
prove his claim of fraud. Mr. Scjuiers swears that 
several of those cows are grades which he sold Daw¬ 
ley and in this he is corroborated by Benedict, who 
handled the cattle on Dawley’s farm. They were the 
living evidence of guilt, and Mr. Rogers kept them 
alive at this fearful cost in the face of every dis¬ 
couragement. Those who have followed this case 
know that Dotshome Harmony is the cow rejected 
by the committee. Dawley claims she is not the cow 
he sold, but as we now know Mr. Benedict has identi¬ 
fied her and Rogers can prove that she is the very 
cow he brought from Dawley’s place. For months 
that cow has been slowly dying while the facts about 
her identity were known. 
Let any man of moderate means put himself in 
the place of Mr. Rogers for a moment: 
There is no getting away from the fact that we would 
have been better off financially, by several thousand dol¬ 
lars, to have just swallowed it all. said nothing and quit 
the cattle business by burying or beefing the whole lot at 
the start, but we knew there was fraud and we knew that 
thousands of others would be benefited if the registry of 
cattle could be brought under regulations that would pro¬ 
tect the buyer and make the Cattle Club responsible for the 
papers it issues. While there was all through a possibility 
that we would eventually get something out of it for our¬ 
selves, had this been all that we were fighting for we 
might long ago have put an end to the troubles, but we 
have been encouraged to hang on a little longer with the 
thought that we would help others anyhow, whether we 
got anything out of it or not, but even in this we seem 
to have made a failure, and unless some mighty strong 
influence is brought to bear or those who are responsible 
are forced to stoop or bend their iron wills to a higher 
power, all our suffering and loss seems to be for nothing. 
Every word of that is true, and you would be no 
better off if you had tried to obtain justice from 
those who are protected by political influence and 
“graft.” Read on: 
We do not feel able to keep up much longer. They have 
been trying to drown us out. starve us out. or in any way 
get rid of us, and their purpose is too nearly accomplished 
now. What show has any farmer against such odds, unless 
he is wealthy, and even then he is powerless, single handed. 
A man has simply to take what he gets, and if he finds 
he is cheated he might as well just swallow it, for if he 
makes a fight >e is liable to be run out of business. The 
handicap is too much for a poor man. 
It is not o ir business to champion the personal 
cause of any individual. We state the facts, sad 
! I '■ 1 )! • • •. I •• • < f 
and discouraging as they are, yet we would rather 
be in Isaac C. Rogers’s unhappy position to-day than 
to take the place of those whose meanness and power 
and sneering indifference have driven him to the 
brink of ruin. Before this case is done with the 
common people of this country will feel more like 
thanking Mr. Rogers for the hard right he has put up 
and the brave stand he has made for a principle 
which affects us all. 
We have all worked like dogs; wife, children and all, 
canng for this trash, buoyed by the hope that something 
would be done, but two years now have gone since we got 
the cattle, and never a dollar of profit from them yet, and 
nearly two years since complaint was made to the Cattle 
( lub. We have not only lost the year's time, and heavy 
expense in keeping this Dawley herd waiting for the inves¬ 
tigation, but it has almost wiped out the little hopes we 
had^ of having something for the future. 
Now this is to you —you man of moderate means, 
with hopes for your children, with hopes for your 
country and only your hands and a farm with which 
to serve them. Do you not see how the powerful 
and rich may crush you as they have crushed Rogers, 
unless there be some higher power to compel justice? 
It is also to you, you well-to-do or wealthy man. 
You may be strong enough to protect yourself or 
you may have money enough to fight vour claims 
through the courts. Yet the principle underlying this 
case is still vital to you and your interests. You 
cannot afford to stand aside and say it is not your 
business, because you know it is. Very likely The 
Country Gentleman will say this is “yellow journal¬ 
ism or “playing to the galleries,” but it will not be 
likely to deny the facts. 
EVENTS OF THE WEEK. 
DOMESTIC.—Reports made January 8 before the Safe 
n^' ls Automobile Association ai its annual meeting at 
Boston showed that since June there had been abouUlOO 
^ 1,1 Massachusetts, in which 4!) people 
were killed and 464 people injured. More than a thousand 
persons have been convicted in the lower courts for viola¬ 
tions of the automobile laws in the past year, in all tiftv- 
six licenses have been suspended or revoked bv the IIRh- 
Of y the 0m , m, M 10n / Mor e than $11,000 has been paid in fines. 
tmthUW reported it is recorded that more than 
two-thirds ot them occurred in broad daylight There were 
settled a dis r tricts aCCldentS °a Coun "'- v . roads as in thickly 
setuea disti lets. ... A grand jury at Hopkinsville 
K.v., January 8, returned an indictment against G b’ 
Powell, one of the “day riders" who called on tobacco 
in November. He was one of the panel from which 
t 1< LP r . Psen K'and jury was made up . . The Texts 
& Pacific freight station at Port Worth, Tex., was destroyed 
by fire January 7. The station cost $11)0,000. and it' is 
estimated contained $100,000 worth of freight, which was 
also destroyed. . - . Gen. Joseph M. Congdon and Ed- 
mund YVlIson, majority members of the New Jersey State 
Railroad Commission, have reported to Gov Stokes rela¬ 
tive to the number of persons killed and injured on the rail¬ 
roads of that State during the lime the new Commission 
!*“ s n , bo f en , jPi existence. They declare that there are too 
ni ‘ l pV a " d l>bice the blame for much of the loss 
of life on railroad corporations, it is recommended that 
, ,,, , ... , • - -—.. wi ,number 
Killed 4_ were employees. 7 were passengers, and the others 
wayfarers or trespassers. Of the injured, 15 were em¬ 
ployees, 45 passengers, and the rest wayfarers or tres- 
1 )assets. Many of the fatalities were due to grade crossings 
many of which are unguarded. The commission declares 
that tracks and crossings are not sufficiently patrolled or 
inspected, and recommends that men of greater intelligence 
rv* employori. . . . Fire in the Parker Building, at Nine- 
teenth Street and Fourth Avenue, New York. January 11, 
caused the death of three firemen and one other man and 
a loss of $5,500,000. The building was occupied bv many 
well-known n - 1 - 
the 
l)ti t 
floors r aircnnn iv i o., manuracturers of gold pens occupied 
the eighth floor, and on the fourth floor were the rooms of 
A. & M. Karagheusian, dealers in Oriental and domestic 
mgs, and said to be the wealthiest firm of its kind in the 
city, fhe stock of this firm alone, all of which was lost 
was estimated at over $100,000. Below these firms were 
various other manufacturers, and on the ground floor was 
the office of the Brunswick-Balke-Collendor Company, mak¬ 
ers of billiard and pool tables. The Subway was seriously 
delayed by the fire, as it was feared that the insecure wall's 
would fall on it. The firemen were hampered by rotten 
hose and poor water pressure. . The State meeting 
of the American Society of Equity at Henderson. Kv.. Jan¬ 
uary 10, adopted resolutions declaring that the Night Rid¬ 
ers are common criminals and that the statement of Gov. 
Wilson that the society is responsible for recent raids is 
utterly without foundation. The meeting appealed to the 
State Legislature to pass a law forbidding the use of Paris- 
green or any other poison on tobacco. . . . Three buy¬ 
ing houses of Hopkinsville, Kv., January 10, signed an 
agreement not to buy any tobacco pledged to the Dark 
Tobacco Association or the American Society of Equity, 
and not to receive the same if it shoulld be unknowingly 
purchased. This is to contradict the reports that buyers 
are trying to induce farmers in the pools to violate their 
pledges. . . . The report of Messrs. Murray. Neill and 
Smith, the commissioners appointed by President Roose¬ 
velt last month to investigate strike conditions in Nevada 
and to advise him as to the need of Federal troops to pre¬ 
serve order in Goldfield, was made public January 12. The 
commissioners make little or no criticism of the Western 
Federation of Labor, hut are rather severe on the mine 
owners and the Governor of Nevada. The commissioners 
in their report profess to he satisfied that the troops were 
called for by the operators in order that they might carry 
out their plan of reducing wages and refusing to recognize 
the miners’ union. To refuse to recognize the union by 
an agreement among themselves, the commission says, vio¬ 
lated a law of the State of Nevada. . . . January 13 
a fire in the Rhodes Opera House. Boyertown, Pa., caused 
a panic that resulted in the death of nearly 200 persons. It 
was a church entertainment, and a large proportion of the 
audience were women and children. The conditions of tbe 
panic closely resembled those of the Iroquois Theatre 
tragedy. . . . William Mitchell. Dr. Charles S. Harle 
and Leslie E. Hurlbert, the three Americans whose death 
sentences for the murder of two other Americans for their 
life insurance were recently commuted to twenty years im¬ 
prisonment by the Governor of the State of Chihuahua, 
Mexico, have been (aken to Vera Cruz, where tbev will he 
confined in the fortress of San Juan de TTloa. The three 
eonvicts are prohibited from uttering a word to anyone 
during their first six years of imprisonment. This pro¬ 
vision of the law applies to all long term convicts. They 
will be kept In solitary confinement during this time. 
. . . The special committee appointed bv the State Fair 
Commission under an act of tbe last Legislature to make 
an examination of the State fair grounds and buildings in 
Syracuse and prepare an adequate scheme of development 
will urge upon the legislature new buildings and improve¬ 
ments at an estimated cost of $1,877,400. This plan was 
submitted at a conference January 13 at tbe Executive 
Chamber, Gov. HughPs, Senator Raines. Speaker Wadsworth 
and Senators Armstrong. White and Cassidy, State Archi¬ 
tect Ware and others were present. The special committee 
urged an immediate appropriation of $220,000 for the erec¬ 
tion of the first building under the new plan, the Manu¬ 
factures and Liberal Arts Building. TTndPr the improve¬ 
ment scheme 32 new buildings and improvements are pro¬ 
vided. . . . The Richmond Conntv. N. Y., Agricultural 
Association adopted resolutions opposing the law which 
ii i i <• i ii; ( i . i -1 > • 
provides that county fairs shall receive 5 per cent of the 
racetrack receipts. It favors a direct appropriation by the 
State in place of the aid now given through gambling at 
racetracks. 
FARM NOTES. 
We are having splendid Winter weather here in the 
South, with occasionally frosty nights, hut no snow. The 
principal crop here is Irish potatoes. We plant the first 
crop in February*or March, and harvest last of June; plant 
second crop about middle of July and harvest in October. 
To prevent scab in potatoes we use sulphur. When we 
cut the seed we sprinkle about a handful on a bushel of 
cut seed, turn it into a bag and shake it up ; use about, a 
pound of sulphur to a barrel of seed. M. o. e. 
Toano, Va. 
We had fine weather the last two weeks and the fanners 
are busy hauling manure and plowing. Tobacco stripping 
is starting slowly; much of the crop is not cured very 
well on account of the late season. There is no tobacco 
sold through hero, whi’e last year at this time it was all 
sold and much of it stripped. Most of the shops are start¬ 
ing work whieh had closed down on account of the money 
stringency. Apples sell at SO cents to $1 per bushel, pota¬ 
toes 00 cents per bushel; butter 35 cents per pound ; eggs 
30 cents per dozen. e. d. k. 
York Co., Fa. 
At the Ohio Experiment Station steers were fed on an 
earth floor and also on a cement floor. The manure when 
analyzed showed that about 75 per cent of the nitrogen 
and 88 per cent of the potash in tbe feed were saved in 
the manure on tbe cement floor. On tbe earth floor only 
62 per cent of the nitrogen and 78 per cent of the potash 
were saved. More than half the cost of the cement floor 
was saved in six months. The next best thing to a 
cement floor and covered barnyard is to haul the manure 
out on the level ground as fast as made. If there is to 
be any leaching lot it be where the crops are to be 
grown. 
We arc plowing bean land (Limas), planting sugar beefs, 
and barley (some for hay), December 31. I want that 
flint corn to see if I cannot fool Mother Nature and get a 
crop of fodder corn after a crop of barley hay. I have moist 
ground and did it last year with store seed. I want to try 
this year with real seed. My hay barley is now about two 
inches high, and in ordinary course of *events should be 
ready to bay in May, so I think I have a chance to get 
some corn. We have very little frost in this locality. We 
are still eating green peppers, tomatoes, etc. though this 
does not always happen. Rut we have cabbage, letlnce, 
radish, etc., all year, though I wish you could send a 
dish of those Hope Farm baked apples for a New Year's 
gift—we always want what we haven’t got. you know. 
Oxnard, Cal. g. e. e. 
On November 19 we bad nasturtiums, Dahlias, roses, 
pansies and even tomatoes still in bloom and growing, un¬ 
touched by the frost. No wonder the farmers and busi¬ 
ness men of the prairies, who have made a little stake, 
flock to the “Sunset City” of the Dominion, attracted 
by its genial climate, to say nothing of (lie wide and 
opening possibilities of this great and growing city. Thou¬ 
sands are taking up small ranches of two acres up to 50 
acres, and with the high price for all produce, they will 
do well after the first season. Fresh eggs are now 60 
to 65 rents per dozen, higher than ever before at this time 
of the year. High prices are obtained for milk, meat of all 
kinds, poultry, fruit and vegetables; and though we grow 
vast quantities of everything edible, and import largely, 
the demand seems greater than the supply, and the pr'ces 
go up correspondingly. h. T. t. 
Vancouver, B. C. 
Hardly any corn raised in this county this year would 
keep without tbe soft ears being thoroughly sorted out, 
and many complaints are made of corn hearing in the 
cribs. Good seed corn will probably bo scarce again next 
Spring. The warm weather so far this Winter has not 
helped to preserve the corn crop. November 14 and 1ft 
we had our coldest weather, nine degrees above zero at 
sunrise. We haven’t bad over two to four inches of 
Snow on the ground at a time; no sleighing. How do 
you protect young apple trees when grass, straw and 
weeds are piled around them? The mice and moles are 
so bad herp that they make dens down among the roots 
of the trees, and gnaw off all the bark from roots and 
body as far as they can reach. I protect the bodies 
pretty well by wrapping with sheets of window screen 
wire. w. S. s. 
Jo Daviess Co., Ill. 
It. N.-Y'.—About all that is necessary with us is to 
move the mulch back and make a mound of coal ashes or 
earth around the base of the tree. This answers unless 
the snow is deep, but will not keen rabbits away. Paper 
wrapped around the tree or wire screen will keep them off. 
POSTAL REPLY' C’OT’PONS.—Among other acts passed 
by the Universal Postal Convention, whieh met at Rome, 
Italy, on May 26, was one for the issuance of “reply cou¬ 
pons” in most of the countries in the postal union. This 
went info effect on October 1. and the coupons are now 
making their appearance in business mail. The coupons 
are slips of paper, about two by three inches, bearing unon 
them (tie statement printed in half a dozen languages, that 
they “can be exchanged for a postage stamp of the value 
of twenty-five centimes”—or any other denomination, de¬ 
pending upon file country where they happen to be issued— 
“or the equivalent of that sum in countries which have 
adopted the arrangement." This means that when one 
desires to send stamps abroad to pav for'a return message, 
instead of sending United States stamps, which would be 
useless, except as curiosities, one or more of these coupons 
can be inserted and much trouble saved. 
FEEDING BUCKWHEAT.—Regarding the question of 
our Louisiana friend concerning buckwheat I should hesi¬ 
tate about turning hogs into a field of ripe buckwheat. 
I have never seen it fed to lings without being ground, 
but it is a very excellent grain for any animal on the 
farm, including those in the house. I have seen fowls 
fed on it exclusively for months at a time and corn is the 
only grain I should prefer to it for them. Horses will eat 
it whole as a regular feed and it seems to agree with 
them. It weighs 50 pounds to the bushel and is ground 
into a flour almost as white and light as wheat. The 
middlings is superior to any feed I have ever tried for 
making milk, taking into account of course the price, 
which is at present $1.15 per hundred. The grain is 
selling for about 85 cents per bushel and the flour $3 
per hundred. A few days of hot sunshine or a strong 
wind when tbe grain is in blossom will blast it and a 
smalll crop will result. If plowed under it should be done 
when in full bloom. YYlien all the conditions are right 
75 bushels from one acre have been raised, but most people 
are satisfied with -25. h. a. g. 
Thompson’s Lake, N. Y. 
BOOMING MAINE APPLES.—Turf, Farm and Home, 
of Waterville. Maine, makes the following good sugges¬ 
tion to the Maine Pomological Society: “Here is anot ier 
way to boom the Maine apple, right in line with the apple 
consumers league racket, and that is to get them on sale 
on the trains. How rarely it is you can find a really 
eatable apple on a railroad train, or even in a grocery 
store, or much of anywhere else except in a Maine 
farmer’s cellar? What a market it would open up If 
some one wiuld make a deal with Chisholm Brothers, the 
well known, newsdealers, who control the traffic on 
Maine railroad trains, to airways have in stock at the 
starting out. of each and every train, especially if it Is 
a through train, where passengers get hungry and fa'nt 
a goodly supply of fresh, crisp Maine apples ! It might 
not take a great many barrels to supply tbe demand on. 
the start, but if the quality was maintained and they 
came on to the train bright, clean and crisp at each run, 
the demand for them would take care of itself in short 
order, and when once obtained would stay just as long 
as the supply was regularly kept fresh and toothsome. 
The Maine Pomological Society could certainly establish 
its right to live by taking a hand in promoting' this bnne- 
fui industry, and what a reputation it would give Maine 
fruit 1" 
-o ;,i: It i. !(•;.• > h u sin; t t i 
