1908. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
03 0 
EVENTS OF THE WEEK. 
DOMESTIC.—In 1858 Nelson Morris was employed at 
the Chicago stock yards at .$12 a month. Nov. 18 an inven¬ 
tory of the estate of the late packer was filed for probate 
showing a property valuation of $18,000,000. 
The big deal between the American Tobacco Company 
and the Burley Tobacco Society for the 1906 and part 
of the 1907 crops of tobacco, which has been hanging fire 
for several weeks, was closed at Louisville, Ky., Nov. 
19. The price agreed on in the transaction, said tq be 
the largest of its kind ever put through, is an average 
of 20% cents for the 1906 crop and 17 cents per pound 
for the .1907 product. The deal involves nearly 80,000,000 
pounds of tobacco held in the pool by the Burley To¬ 
bacco Society, and an outlay of something like $14,000,000 
on the part of the American Tobacco Company. The to¬ 
bacco which was sold included the larger part of the 
holdings of the Burley Tobacco Growers’ Association, 
formed several years ago, which pooled its crops in 1906 
and 1907. There was no crop raised by the members of 
the association in 1908, though a number of independents 
raised crops in central Kentucky under guard. Sale of 
the pooled crop, it is believed, will mark the end of 
night riding in central and eastern Kentucky, as it is 
thought with these crops out of the way practically all 
the growers will raise tobacco next year. The sale has 
nothing to do with the crop in the “dark” district or 
western portion of Kentucky and northern Tennessee. 
. . . Representatives of every big independent tobacco 
concern in the United States, as well as buyers for the 
American Tobacco Company, were at Winchester, Ky., 
Nov. 24, to attend the sales of the remainder of the 
tobacco in the pool of the Burley Society, amounting to 
about 5,000,000 pounds. The sales, which began with 
probably 500 people present, were made at a ratio of one 
hogshead of the 1906 crop to every four of the 1907 crop 
sold. Prices ranged from eighteen to thirty cents. . . 
Four men were killed and forty more imprisoned for 
several hours Nov. 20 by a fire in the coal properties 
of the Northwestern Improvement Company, at Red 
Lodge, Montana. More than one hundred men were res¬ 
cued by means of ore cars. All of them were nearly 
suffocated but were revived after reaching the surface. 
The Southern Pacific Company was convicted 
Nov. 20 in the United States Circuit Court at San Fran¬ 
cisco on ten charges of violating the law providing for 
the care and feeding of cattle during shipment. Of the 
original ;twenty-two instances of neglect alleged two 
were withdrawn. The conviction on the remaining ten 
will subject the company to fines of from $100 tq $500 
for each offense. ... A gas explosion in an excava¬ 
tion for a trunk sewer in Brooklyn, N. Y., Nov. 20, 
buried 13 persons and perhaps more. The explosion was 
followed by the bursting of a big water main, and the 
persons caught by the cave-in were both drowned and 
suffocated. . . . The river packet II. M. Carter was 
blown up Nov. 21, eight miles below Plaquemine, La. Four 
passengers are known to be dead. Fifteen persons are 
reported missing. The steamer was on the way to Baton 
Rouge from New Orleans. A defective boiler caused the 
explosion. . . . Startling disclosures were made at 
Winnipeg, Nov. 21, in the investigation of several oil 
explosions which resulted in the deaths of fourteen peo¬ 
ple through Manitoba. In every case the oil was pur¬ 
chased from the Winnipeg Oil Company, composed of 
Americans and independent companies. Proof was offered 
that doctored shipments were made between October 15 
and 17, all taken from the same tank, yet part of the 
shipment contained gasoline. The company openly charges 
that crooked work was done by some enemy with the 
intent to ruin its business. A swarm of detectives are 
at work on the case. Heavy damage suits are threatened 
bv relatives of the victims. . . . Two tornadoes, one 
north and the other south bound, swept over west Arkan¬ 
sas Nov. 23, destroying many lives and much property. 
At least forty lives were lost, and the property loss 
will reach hundreds of thousands of dollars. One of 
the tornadoes started in Missouri, traveling south 
through Carroll, Newton, and Johnson counties, the heavy 
wind abating when the Arkansas River was reached. It 
swept a path through these counties a half mile wide, 
almost totally destroying Boxley, Murray, Lowgap, Ozora, 
Dale, Boston. Judea, Trask, Omega, Dry Fork, Dinsmore. 
Parthenon, Mossville, Limestone, Red Fork and other 
hamlets. The tornado split at the head of Mulberry 
Creek, a portion going through Turn and Smedley into 
Ozark, where a number of houses were blown down. The 
second tornado came from the direction of Louisiana, 
and travelled north through Lafayette, Pike and Hemp¬ 
stead counties. Had this storm continued forty miles 
further, there would have been a junction of the two 
tornadoes. Louisville, Lodi, Ozan, Murfreesboro, and 
other towns are said to have suffered severely with a 
scattering loss of life. 
STANDARD OIL INVESTIGATION.—John D. Rocke¬ 
feller’s cross-examination at the government hearing on 
Standard Oil at New York was completed Nov. 24, and 
he was followed immediately upon the witness stand by 
John D. Arclibold. The most important testimony brought 
out in the course of the cross examination was about the 
relations of the Standard Oil with the firm of Schofield, 
Sherman & Teagle, back in the early days of the Trust. 
It was disclosed that the Standard Oil Company had 
made a contract with Schofield, Sherman & Teagle, re¬ 
stricting their capacity to 85,000 barrels of oil a yeat. 
Later Mr. Rockefeller gave a list of the railroads in 
which he has been interested in the past ten years. He 
also admitted that it had been the custom of the Stand¬ 
ard Oil Company to loan large sums of money in Wall 
Street. When he was pressed on this point, he declared 
that he, himself, was in favor of small loans of this 
nature, as good means of investment for superfluous funds. 
The witness admitted that some of the testimony which 
he had given at this hearing concerning subsidiary com¬ 
panies and relations with the Pennsylvania Rgilroad 
Company had been in contradiction of statements made 
bv him in an affidavit in 1880. But he explained that 
his depositions of nearly thirty years ago had been in 
accordance with his understanding of the situation at 
the time. Under redirect examination. Mr. Rockefeller 
got the opportunity to say that he had never attempted 
to influence any railroad company in favor of the Stand¬ 
ard Oil and that, so far as he knew, none of the Stand¬ 
ard directors had attempted to exert such influence. Mr. 
Archhold’s testimony had to do with early days in the 
oil fields. He told how from small beginnings there had 
grown a great industry. His description of the mea'gre 
plants and “goose-neck stills” of Oil Creek and the Alle¬ 
gheny valley was one of unceasing effort and uniform 
success. The barrels of oil in those days were hauled 
by teams to shipping points on the railroads. This was 
a" difficult task, Mr. Archbold said, and was carried on 
at great expense, as there were heavy losses by leakage. 
He said that small oil lines were constantly being organ¬ 
ized in the earlier period of the development. Most of 
these were poorly constructed and poorly managed. Be¬ 
sides, the market in the cities and small towns was not 
a large one, and the introduction of oil for domestic pur¬ 
poses was difficult, owing to the suspicions of the people, 
who were afraid of explosion. Notwithstanding the poor¬ 
ness of the market, the increase of refineries was rapid, 
and there soon came a surplus of them. Much oil was 
wasted, and most of the lines had no system of a reserve 
supply. Then, from 1863 to 1866, there was much specu¬ 
lation in the buying and selling of oil fields. Following 
this period, Mr. Arclibold said, the speculation was in 
stocks. All of this added to the hazard of those who 
were actively in the business of getting out the oil. 
. A rigid investigation was started by County 
Clerk Salen at Cleveland. O., Nov. 24, to learn if possi¬ 
ble what became of certain records now wanted by Frank 
B. Kellogg, who represents the government in the Stand¬ 
ard Oil hearing at New York. The desired records are 
said to bo missing from the files at the county clerk’s 
office. These records relate largely to court proceedings 
in connection with a suit filed by the Standard Oil Com¬ 
pany asking that the firm of Schofield, Sherman & Teagle 
be restrained from violating an agreement to limit pro¬ 
duction to 85.000 barrels a year. The business of the 
latter firm was later purchased by the Standard Com¬ 
pany. It is said that copies of a number of affidavits in 
this case are also missing. 
OUTBREAK OF CATTLE DISEASE.—For the first 
time in their history, which dates back to 1863, the East 
Buffalo, N. Y., stock yards are under the ban of quaran¬ 
tine. Because two carloads of yearling cattle which were 
delivered to points in western Pennsylvania early in No¬ 
vember and which were found to be infected with foot 
and mouth disease, were traced back to East Buffalo, 
the Federal and State authorities have raised the bars 
on that market pending a general clean-up of the yards 
and further investigation. As a direct result of the con- - 
ditions growing out of the investigation of the Penn¬ 
sylvania shipment the word came Nov. 19 from the Bu¬ 
reau of Animal Industry of the Federal Department of 
Agriculture ordering the entire States of New York and 
Pennsylvania to be quarantined. Pennsylvania State 
authorities declared a quarantine against New York State, 
and Commissioner R. A. Parsons, of the N. Y. Department 
of Agriculture, ordered that a strict quarantine be placed 
on five counties in western New York, namely, Erie, 
Niagara, Orleans, Wyoming and Genesee. Animals in¬ 
fected with the foot and mouth disease, one of the most 
contagious and serious diseases of live stock, have been 
discovered in each of these counties by Government in¬ 
spectors. The East Buffalo stock yards are blamed for 
the infection, because in each case, it is said, the in¬ 
fected cattle have been traced hack to these yards. Un¬ 
der the regulations hides and hoofs will have to be re¬ 
moved from carcasses to be shipped out of Pennsylvania 
and New York: hides, skins, hoofs, hay, straw and fod¬ 
der must be disinfected before interstate shipment. The 
Department has been advised that four children have 
been infected at Danville, Pa., as the result of the out¬ 
break of the foot and mouth disease there. Foot and 
mouth disease, while not necessarily fatal, is extremely 
contagious. Simon O’Donnell, manager of the stock 
yards, at Pittsburg, Pa., says that the disease was in¬ 
troduced into Pennsylvania through two carloads of /at¬ 
tic sent from Canada to Montour county by way of Buf¬ 
falo. So far as is known this is only the sepond time 
ihe disease has appeared in North America, the first 
having been in New England in 1892. 
The Canadian authorities say that there is no foot and 
mouth disease in Canada, and they have established a 
strict quarantine against cattle and hides, hay, fodder 
and manure from the infected States. Great Britain has 
forbidden the importation of cattle, hay and straw from 
Pennsylvania. A widespread outbreak of the foot and 
mouth disease was discovered in Michigan Nov. 22. Tn 
the herds of three farmers near Plymouth, a village 
20 miles west of Detroit, 44 head of cattle were declared 
to be infected with the disease. 
The seventeenth annual meeting of the National League 
of Commission Merchants of the United States will be held 
at the National IIolel. Peoria, Ill... January 13-16. 1909. 
for the election of officers and the transaction of any busi¬ 
ness that may properly come before the meeting. An 
invitation is extended to the publishers.of fruit and dairy 
product papers as well as to the officers and members of 
all associations to attend and become acquainted with the 
members. Wilmer Sieg, president; A. Warren Patch, sec¬ 
retary. _ 
THE FARMER’S SHARE. 
Strawberries from Delaware. 
I see that you wish to have some produce returns sent 
to you in order to see how much the middleman’s share 
is. I enclose sales for one week’s shipments of Straw¬ 
berries. Prices were low this year, season very unsuit¬ 
able and berries carried badly. We pay .1% cent per 
quart for picking, and the crates cost 30 cents each. We 
are allowed 15 cents for the crates by the commission 
merchants, so have to lose 15 cents on them. 
Date. 
Crates. 
Qts. 
Cents. 
May 23. 
416 
10 
$41 
60 
May 25. 
1 
32 
9 
o 
88 
Mav 25. 
3 
96 
8 
7 
68 
Mav 25. 
17 
544 
7 
38 
08 
May 26. 
31 
992 
6 y> 
64 
48 
May 27. 
38 
1,216 
5% 
66 
88 
May 27. 
1 
30 
5% 
i 
65 
Mav 28. 
20 
640 
7 
44 
so 
May 28. 
23 
736 
6 
44 
16 
Mav 29. 
5 
160 
7 
11 
20 
May 29. 
512 
6 
30 
72 
—$354 
168 Empty 
Crates... 
15 
25 
$379 
Freight and 
Express 
Charge. 
53 
Cartage Charge. 
. . 16 
80 
Commission 
Charge 
41 
92 
J3 
20 
33 
74 
Net Proceeds .$286.59 
When berries sell from 8 to 10 cents per quart there 
is good money in them; less than that, very little. At 
Bridgeville, Del., 15 miles away, the growers got as much 
or more at the station than I got in New York. Buyers 
from the cities come there and ship by the carload. In 
the rush of the season they ship 50 or more cars of ber¬ 
ries a day. There are not enough berries grown over 
here in Maryland to get buyers here, and it is too far 
to haul them to Delaware, so we do not get as much out 
of them as the Delawareans. All produce was low this 
year. One of my neighbors shipped a carload of water¬ 
melons, about 1,000, and they cleared, after freight ($57 
from here) and commission were paid, $1.50, not enough 
to pay for loading the car. The Superior is the variety 
of strawberry which pays best here. They yield heavily 
and carry well. Last year one acre yielded 6,000 quarts. 
This year four acres turned out only 9,000. No doubt 
the consumer paid as much as he should for the berries 
and melons. When they sell for remunerative prices, I 
suppose the consumer has to pay an exorbitant price. 
f. h. u. 
R. N.-Y.—It would be impossible to say what the con¬ 
sumer actually paid for these berries. Probably 11 cents 
a quart would be a conservative statement. This would 
mean $613.36. The grower received $286.59, or 46 cents 
on the dollar—which is far above the average. 
Apples and Milk. 
Noting your invitation to send in samples of commis¬ 
sion house returns, I am sending you a few I have just 
received for apples. I have no quarrel with the com¬ 
mission, and I think they are a good reliable firm, but I 
think the freight charges were too high. I have another 
kick on the same principle. I put my milk into a cream¬ 
ery the year of 1906 and had a return of $34.32 per cow; 
the next year, with the same cows (one new cow for 
about six months only) made butter and cheese and re¬ 
tailed it myself and got a return of $60.42 per cow. This 
difference was what I was paying the creamery for mak¬ 
ing and selling my butter. Most farmers sell everything 
at wholesale and buy at retail: it is just this difference 
that keeps them pinched for ready money. I put milk 
into a creamery for three years steadily, Summer and 
Winter, and received an average of .0097 + per pound, less 
than one cent per pound; cows were grade Jerseys, too; 
tested one year 4.5. This is the way we Granite State 
farmers make our money. c. P. o. 
R. N.-Y.—Tlie commission returns show that 12 barrels 
of apples sold for $28.25, while the freight and commis¬ 
sion came to $8.19, the freight being $5.79. The con¬ 
sumer paid at least $45 for these apples in smaller pack¬ 
ages, so the producer got 44 cents of the dollar. He is 
on the right track for a larger share the way he handles 
the butter. 
Bartlett Pears Without Competition. 
Our main money crop in this township is Bartlett 
pears. Hitherto we have received fair prices, due to 
competition between canning factories and buyers. This 
year there was no competition, as buyers supplied can¬ 
ning factories which did not buy from farmers except at 
buyers’ prices, viz.: Per pound, three-quarters to five- 
sixths of a cent for fancy stock; per pound, one-quarter 
of a cent for seconds the first week. Then fancy pears 
were depressed to 35 cents per 60 pounds, and seconds 
refused at any price. The last week a wealthy farmer 
bought at 45 cents per 60 pounds for fancy, and the 
buyers were forced to meet those figures for the remainder 
of the season. On nearly every farm from 50 to 100 bush¬ 
els of seconds rotted in piles, where they were dropped 
from the sorting tables. Fifteen to 20 miles away the 
seconds sold for two cents per pound. My sister-in-law 
in Harlem paid at the rate of $5 per 60 pounds for the 
poorer grade. Apples have bought ; Greenings. 80 cents 
per 100 pounds; red apples, $1 to $1.10 per 100 for per¬ 
fect stock. Few Greenings brought over 7Q cents. 
Farmers who shipped to New York on commission did not 
realize as much as those who sold to the buyers. Further¬ 
more, we often get short weight, and if the least fault 
can be found with the fruit it means a cut in price of five 
to 10 cents per 100. Second quality apples go to dryers 
at 30 cents per 100. geo. m. coe. 
Oswego Co., N. Y._ 
A TENNESSEEAN IN NEW YORK. 
Buying produce here in Western New York, I come 
in contact with many farmers, and the contrast is start¬ 
ling. In the first place, I think our farmers on an aver¬ 
age have better morals than the western New York far¬ 
mer. I hear more profanity here In a day than would 
be heard in our locality in a month, to say the least. Sun¬ 
day I drove with a friend through a fine farming section. 
At farm after farm apples and pears were being picked 
and packed. In Tennessee and Georgia I have seen straw¬ 
berries and peaches go over Sunday without picking when 
to pick them meant money in the grower's pocket. Your 
New York farmer is far ahead of our farmer financially, 
and in manner of living. The land here is fertile ; ours 
is not near so good. The positions should be reversed. 
Put the New York farmer on some of the southern farms 
I know of and he would have good excuse—both for Sun¬ 
day work and profanity, while our southern farmer would 
not need to work over 20 acres and labor half as hard 
as is necessary to accomplish the same result on a much 
larger farm in tlie South. He would think this the Garden 
of Eden until the snow began to fall, then the chances are 
he would long for the sunny hills of eastern Tennessee. 
Our farmers as a rule are contented. They get little 
of this world’s goods because they demand little. Thex-e- 
fore they are content. The New York farmer demands 
much. He has come to the point where living demands 
tilings which the southern man would consider luxuries. 
The New York man is satisfied because he gets about all 
the things he imagines it is impossible for him to do 
without. I suppose the same rule applies the world over. 
So far as I can see, the greatest need in the way of 
legislation of both the northern farmer and the southern 
farmer is lower freight rates. In July Georgia had thou¬ 
sands upon thousands of bushels of fine Elberta poaches 
seeking a market. The grower would have accepted 10 
cents a bushel on the tree, or say 25 cents loaded on 
cars, but how could consumers in the North get the bene¬ 
fit of fine fruit at a low price so long as the railroad held 
out its talons demanding over 75 cents a bushel trans¬ 
portation? New York State to-day is seeking markets 
for apples, cabbage and other produce. The South is in 
need of the produce Prices at this end are comparatively 
low, in some instances lower than the railroad demands 
for transporting the article. Last season we bought cab¬ 
bage in this State for $4 per ton. We paid the railroad 
$8 for hauling it. The farmer worked all season for his 
$4; the railroad transported the goods for 72 hours for 
their $8. To the man who can invent a means of trans¬ 
portation at a cost equitable to all our citizens belongs 
the glory and blessings this great republic is capable of 
conferring. 
Chattanooga, Tenn. f. b. 
FOOT AND MOUTH DISEASE. 
This is also known as aphthous fever, or infections 
aphtha. It is a highly contagious fever, characterized by 
eruptions of blisters in the mouth, around the crown of 
the feet and between the toes. It is spread by contact 
with the diseased animals, or with manure, hay or any¬ 
thing else they have touched, or the buildings or cars 
that have harbored them. Though ordinarily considered 
a disease of cattle, it affects hogs, sheep, goats, horses, 
dogs, cats, and sometimes humans. The disease is seldom 
fatal to humans, and is confined chiefly to children who 
have used unboiled milk from infected cattle. In animals 
the disease makes its appearance in from three to six 
days after exposure to infection. The first symptom is 
a chill, followed by a high fever. In a day or two small 
blisters about the size of a pea appear in the month. The 
mouth is swollen and very sore, so that the animal may 
refuse to eat. Similar eruptions appear on the feet and 
on the udders and teats of milch cows. The blisters 
increase in size, and after a day or two burst. The dis¬ 
ease sometimes attacks the internal organs,, such cases 
usually proving fatal. The duration vax'ies greatly. 
Sometimes a full recovery takes place in from 10 to 20 
days, and in other cases from thi-ee months to a year are 
required. The mortality is usually one to three per cent, 
sometimes reaching five per cent. It is moi’e fatal in 
calves that have been fed on infected milk. Foul foot 
or ground itch is quite common with cattle that stand in 
filth, but this is readily distinguished from foot and 
mouth disease, as in the latter the inflammation is in 
certain spots instead of being uniformly spread over the 
foot. 
There have been several outbreaks of foot and month 
disease in this country, but they have never attained the 
serious proportions noted in foreign countries. In every 
case the National Government by vigorous measures has 
got the disease quickly under conti’ol. and the present out¬ 
break in western New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland and 
Michigan is receiving prompt treatment. Public interest de¬ 
mands the closest co-operation with National and State 
authorities in order to stamp out the disease quickly. 
Suspected cases should be reported at once to the State 
Department of Agriculture or Bureau of Animal Industry, 
Washington, D. G., and special care taken to keep cats 
and dogs away from diseased animals. Thorough disin¬ 
fection of stables, railroad cars or other places where 
sick cattle have been harbored is advised. Whitewash con¬ 
taining four ounces of formalin to the gallon and crude 
cai'bolic acid, six ounces to a gallon of water, are effective. 
No other cattle should be put in the affected quarters for 
at least 30 days. Medical treatment is usually not ad¬ 
vised. The authorities consider it best to kill the animals 
at once and burn or bury the bodies deeply, owing to 
the difficulty of maintaining an effective quarantine 
against a disease so highly contagious: but in mild cases 
beneficial results have been obtained from local applica¬ 
tion of disinfecting and astringent lotions. A teaspoonful 
of alum, chlorate of potash, boracic acid, or one-half tea¬ 
spoonful of tincture of aloes and myrrh placed in the 
mouth has proved efficacious. The infected animals may 
be made to stand from five to 10 minutes in a shallow 
trough containing medicinal agents such as a l-to-1.000 
solution of bichlorid of mercury or a three per cent car¬ 
bolic acid or creolin solution. Where the teats and udder 
are affected the application of carbolized vaseline, cam¬ 
phor ointment, or borated glycerin has given excellent 
results. 
