1908. 
THE RUR-A-L NEW-YORKER 
G(5vJ 
THE SMITH AGRICULTURAL CHEMICAL CO. 
Ever since the middle of August we have been patiently 
waiting for the Smith Agricultural Chemical Co. to come 
to the front and “make good.’’ At that time a repre¬ 
sentative of the Smith Company came here and spent 
several hours going over the trouble with the Ohio State 
Board of Agriculture. His talk ran in a circle, always 
coming back to the charge that the Board, through Sec¬ 
retary . Calvert had violated the Ohio fertilizer law. lie 
made it appear that he was acting as the champion of 
Ohio farmers who had been deceived and wrongly treated. 
When asked why his company had tried to prevent the 
printing of analyses he came back to th,is point. When 
We spread before him the reports from Indiana, Pennsyl¬ 
vania, Michigan and Kentucky, and threw in Connecticut 
for good measure, he dodged across lots to the same 
old point. When asked why he did not try to hold up 
the publication of these other bulletins he came bitck to 
a statement which he made at least 25 times that Sec¬ 
retary Calvert was or had been persecuting his company 
“with one hand while violating the law with the other.” 
We told Mr. Smith that if he would prove that the 
State Board had been, as he and his agents claimed, per¬ 
secuting his company, taking bribes and violating laws, 
we would join him in an effort to drive them out of 
business. We called up a stenographer to take down any¬ 
thing be would sign his name to, but he declined to 
say a word or more than make general charges. When 
proof of bis charges was demanded he pulled out a printed 
circular in which his company states that it has been 
the habit of the Board to make several analyses. For 
example, if one. sample of fertilizer makes a poor show¬ 
ing, another will be made, and the higher analyses will 
be printed. Mr. Smith’s charge was that the law calls 
for the publication of all analyses, while the Board has 
printed only the best ones. 
We asked him if his company had ever profited by this 
rule adopted by the Board. He hesitated awhile, and 
then said yes. They had bad the same advantages as 
others, and quite frequently when their samples ran low 
new ones had been analyzed and the higher figures printed. 
He said they had always felt this was a violation of the 
law, but as it helped them no particular objection was 
made until this year. 
Wo then confronted him with another circular in which 
it is inferred that the Smith Company “planted” special 
samples with relatives and friends and then suggested 
that new samples be taken from this stock by the inspec¬ 
tors. On this Mr. Smith got back to bis old position and 
repeated for the fifteenth time bis charge that Mr. Calvert 
was persecuting his company “with one hand while vio¬ 
lating the law with the other.” 
While claiming that all his charges could be proved 
he offered nothing^ except his printed statement. Finally, 
after much prodding, he took a typewritten statement 
from his pocket in which charges were made that the 
State Board refused to permit the Smith Company an 
exhibit at the State fair. He offered that for publication. 
We agreed to print it on condition that Dr. II. N. Brown, 
president of the Board, print a reply in the same issue— 
both communications to be privileged. To this Mr. Smith 
agreed, took the statement back and promised to return 
it in “a few days.” We do not know how much rubber 
he cun put into the word “few,” but 10(1 days have come 
and gone since he took back that statement. We wrote Dr. 
Brown and he replied that it would give him “great 
pleasure to reply’’—and we think it would. Now, if Mr. 
Smith still has the proof needed to convict Mr. Calvert 
and other members of the State Board we invite him to 
send it in. We will print anything he will sign his 
name to. 
EVENTS OF THE WEEK. 
DOMESTIC.—The first New England Conference, called 
by the Governors of the six States to discuss uniform 
laws and to obtain suggestions toward conserving the 
resources of that section of the country, closed its ses¬ 
sions Nov. 25. One branch was devoted to the protection 
and promotion of the supplies of sea food and the other 
to highways and their use. Gov. Guild presided. The 
speakers were Francis II. Herrick, special investigator on 
lobsters for the United States Bureau of Fisheries; Dr. 
George Wilton Field, chairman of the Massachusetts Fish 
and Game Commission; Chairman Harold Parker, of the 
Massachusetts Highway Commission ; James II. MacDon¬ 
ald, Commissioner of Highways of Connecticut, and ex- 
Gov. Nahum J. Bachelder. of New Hampshire. Dr. Field 
pointed out that the 67,000 acres of shell fish ground in 
Massachusetts alone could be made to produce $6,000,000 
annually instead of $697,000. Speaking on highways, Com¬ 
missioner MacDonald advocated joint action by the State 
in providing for a broad through road from New York 
City to the White and Green Mountains, as well as to 
Maine. All the papers read and suggestions made at the 
conference will be referred to the State Chiefs of Fores¬ 
try, Shell Fish, and Highways, with instructions to con¬ 
sider them and to report to the incoming Governors before 
Jan. 1 their findings in regard to uniform laws for all 
New England. . . . The Panama Railroad steamship 
Finance, owned by the United States and bound for Cristo¬ 
bal, in the Canal Zone, was sunk Nov. 26 while groping 
through the fog off Sandy Hook, about a mile from the 
beach. She was rammed by the big White Star freighter 
Georgic, coming in on her first trip to this port from 
Liverpool since the business depression. The Finance 
went down in 10 minutes but was not wholly submerged. 
She had aboard 85 passengers and a crew of 66 persons, 
including the gallant stewardess, Mrs. Geddes, the last 
woman to leave the ship. Three of the passengers and 
one of the crew were drowned. There was less panic 
among the American women aboard than was manifested 
by the grimy men who poured from the stokehold, and 
their obedience to the orders of the officers when it was 
seen that all hands would have to leap into the sea, fortu¬ 
nately placid as a millpond, was marvellous to behold, 
according to every man who told about it when the pas¬ 
sengers were brought back to the city. Women went 
overboard at the word of command with babies in their 
arms, and every woman and every baby was saved. 
. . . Six men were suffocated.' Nov. 28 while at work 
500 feet down in a salt mine shaft, at the village of 
Oakwood, Mich. Their supply of air came from a two- 
foot canvas tube from the surface. This either became 
tangled or clogged. The shaft rapidly filled with gas. 
Explosion in a model coal mine at Marianna, 
Pa., Nov. 28, caused the death of 148 men. While the 
officials at the mine assert that they do not know what 
caused the explosion, many of the rescuers who had been 
at work on another shift in the mine claim to have a 
satisfactory explanation. They say that the hydraulic 
drill opened a pocket of gas. and, while the gas was 
escaping into the mine, the drill struck a piece of rock, 
caused a spark, and the explosion followed. Fred Elinger, 
thirtv-nine years old. the only man who escaped alive, is 
rapidly recovering from his injuries. . . . The Su¬ 
preme Court of the United States Nov. 30 reversed the 
decision of the United States Circuit Court for the East¬ 
ern District of Virginia, which held unconstitutional the 
order of the State Railroad Commission fixing a two-cent 
passenger rate on State business. The effect of the de¬ 
cision is the upholding of the order. The opinion of 
the court was announced by Justice Holmes. The case 
came before the court on an appeal of the State from the 
decision of Judge Pritchard of the United States Circuit 
Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, holding the 
proceeding by which the rate was fixed to be unconstitu¬ 
tional and prohibiting the carrying of the order into effect. 
Fireman Frederick W. Diessroth. driver for Dep¬ 
uty Chief Binns. of New York, was dragged nearly a block 
through West Eighty-eighth street Nov. 30 trying to stop 
an automobile that he saw run over and kill a woman. 
He did not let go of the car until most of his clothing 
had been torn off and then thought he might be able to 
see the number when he dropped. He fell in a dark 
place and could make out only part of the number. The 
car went on at top speed. The woman killed was Mrs. 
Caroline Layer. . . . Winter mail for the Arctic Cir¬ 
cle left Edmonton, Canada. Dec. 1. by dog train escorted 
by Mounted Police and the Hudson’s Bay Company officers. 
The most northern destination is Fort McPherson, on Red 
River, 2,000 miles north of Edmonton. The trip will re¬ 
quire three months. The consignment weighs nearly 1*000 
pounds, including 866 pounds of newspapers and maga¬ 
zines. Some of these are for the San Francisco whalers 
who are wintering in the North. 
FOREIGN.—More than 100 persons lost their lives at 
the entrance to the harbor of Valetta, Malta, Nov. 25, 
within sight of the entire population of the city, who 
were powerless to give aid. The British steamship Sar¬ 
dinia, of the Ellerman Line, from Liverpool for Alexan¬ 
dria, with a crew of 44 Englishmen, 11 first and six 
second cabin English passengers and nearly 200 Arab 
pilgrims aboard, caught fire. Within a few minutes it was 
a roaring furnace, surrounded by clouds of black smoke, 
through which flames shot to a height of 200 feet from 
frequent explosions of naphtha in the hold. So rapidly 
did the fire spread that the efforts of the crew to operate 
the fire apparatus proved useless. It seemed but a mo¬ 
ment before the upper works and masts crashed upon 
the deck. The ship’s boats were crushed by the falling 
debris or quickly burned. Possible rescue lay only in 
jumping overboard and taking chances of being picked up. 
Assistance was hurried from all the warships in the 
harbor and from shore, but the work of rescue was greatly 
impeded by the strong tide that was running. Even the 
naval launches were unable to get alongside. Among 
the Arabs there was a panic that could not be controlled. 
Many were too frightened to jump. They burned to death. 
Others, casting themselves into the waves, drowned. The 
crew behaved with admirable courage, serving out life- 
preservers to the last and working the pumps. When 
the pumps became useless, Captain Charles Littler. com¬ 
mander, took the helm and directed his ship toward the 
shore so long as it could be navigated. He perished at 
his post. 
THE CATTLE QUARANTINE.— As a result of the 
ravages of (he foot and mouth disease in Maryland a 
quarantine against all live stock in that State was an¬ 
nounced by the Secretary of Agriculture after the Cabi¬ 
net meeting Nov. 21. Under the order of the Secretary 
all infected cattle in Maryland will he killed and their 
bodies buried without delay. While the quarantine is in 
effect also an" inhibition will be placed upon the ship¬ 
ment of cattle in the State. An infected herd at Lines- 
boro, Carroll County, of about 100 head has been slaugh¬ 
tered. All railroads leading into Maryland and their 
connections were informed by wire of the quarantine de¬ 
clared. The quarantine against live stock suffering with 
foot and mouth disease is now in force in four States, 
Pennsylvania, New York, Michigan and Maryland. It is 
expected soon to extend it to Delaware. New Jersey, Ohio 
and Indiana. It became known Nov. 27 that Consul Gil- 
Eraser, who represents the British Government in 
Baltimore, has received instructions from his government 
to look carefully into conditions so as to guard against 
the shipment of any infected meat to that country. Un¬ 
less the disease spreads in Maryland no quarantine steps 
will be taken, but if it should become prevalent in that 
Stale, the English health authorities will place an em¬ 
bargo upon all live stock and provender from Maryland, 
*J S ** ie - v "ave already done in the case of Pennsylvania, 
New York and New Jersey. The Canadian authorities 
have quarantined Maryland and more States will soon 
follow. It is expected that the whole international boun¬ 
dary east of Lake Superior will be closed against cattle 
from the United States. . . . Under the closest re¬ 
strictions the East Buffalo stock yards resumed business 
Nov. 30, but at noon very few cattle had been received, 
and it is expected that the receipts will continue light. 
Stockmen explain the lack of business by the scarcity of 
disinfected cars. Nov. 29 126 condemned cattle on the 
Wheatfield Farm, near I.a Salle. Niagara County, N. Y., 
were appraised and slaughtered the next day. 
STANDARD OIL INVESTIGATION.—John D. Archbold 
spent another day on the stand Nov. 30 at the Standard 
Oil hearing in the Custom House. Mr. Arehbold said that 
the State Department had often favored the company with 
its assistance—“that applies only to foreign business, 
however,” he added with some haste, “not to home mat¬ 
ters.” A feeling as of a general smile pervaded the room 
and the routine was resumed. The company had 400 
foreign competitors with a known capitalization of $274,- 
015,185. Mi*. Archbold said that in 1891 57.10 per cent 
of the Standard’s business was foreign; in 1900 61.84 
per cent was foreign, and in ,1906 63 per cent was foreign. 
Mr. Archbold went on to tell about the development of 
the company’s export trade. “We have made every pos¬ 
sible effort,” he said, “and have been almost universally 
well treated in foreign countries, especially in the Orient.” 
In India the company met witli strong iocal competition 
and also in the Dutch Indies, and the competition was 
growing in Japan. Mr. Archbold smiled and seemed puz¬ 
zled when Mr. Rosenthal asked in what countries the 
Standard now operates, finally replying that there was 
scarcely a spot of any importance on the globe which the 
company does not reach. “From its very inception,” Mr. 
Archbold said, “the efforts of the Standard Oil Company 
have been to develop the natural resources of this coun¬ 
try and to extend the American oil trade into other coun¬ 
tries.” The methods of reaching the consumer were 
about the same abroad as at home. Mr. Archbold was 
confronted with his own testimony, given in 1879. in 
which he swore then that the Acme Oil Company of New 
York was not owned or controlled by the Standard, though 
he had sworn Dec. 1 that he had sold his Acme holdings 
in 1876 and had taken in payment stock of the Standard 
Oil Company of Ohio. John D. Rockefeller had sworp 
last week when the same testimony was called to his 
attention that he did not know what was in the minds 
of his associates when they gave testimony on that occa¬ 
sion, but presumed they thought that the shareholders in 
the Acme controlled that company. John D. Archbold 
said that if he so testified in 1879 it was because he so 
believed in 1879. He had been advised by counsel at 
the time, he said, that the legal ownership vested in 
the shareholders of the Acme, and had so sworn. 
FARM AND GARDEN.—Three thousand head of stock 
were received for the International Live Stock Exposition 
at Chicago.. Exhibits were received from the Iowa Agri¬ 
cultural College, the University of Nebraska, the Minne¬ 
sota Agricultural College, and Purdue University. In the 
judging contests, students of the Iowa. Kansas, North 
Dakota. Texas, and Missouri Agricultural Colleges, the 
University of Nebraska, the Ohio State University, and 
the Ontario Agricultural College of Guelph, Ont.. will 
compete for the J. Ogden Armour agricultural scholarship 
of $5,000. which will be distributed for the most efficient 
work. Only one farmer’s son, J. G. Croutman, of Man¬ 
hattan. Kan., has entered the contest, and he will pit 
his practical knowledge against the theoretical experience 
of the college students. 
The General Assembly of the International Institute 
of Agriculture met at Rome, Italy, under the presidency 
of Camille Barrere. the French ambassador to Italy. The 
originator of the idea of the institute was David Lubin, 
of San Francisco, and the plan was sanctioned by King 
Victor Emmanuel. Signor Tittoni. the Italian minister 
for foreign affairs, was appointed president, and M. Mur- 
avieff. the Russian ambassador, and Sidney A. Fisher, 
the Canadian minister of agriculture, were chosen vice- 
presidents. 
This is in the artesian belt. Our country is all right, 
if one has the amount of money needed to get water for 
irrigating. I did not have it; ’expected to get “shallow 
flow” artesian water, but. had to give that up. I expect 
arrangements now being made will give me a share 
in a “deep flow” well, and then I can start things. It 
is as easy to get a stand of Alfalfa here ns of turnips or 
radishes; cut five crops a season, and as it grows nearly 
all Winter it is then used for pasture. An old neighbor 
coming here had' money to buy an imnroved place. The 
Spring of 1907 he cut his first crop of Alfalfa April 27. 
'Pen acres measured, cut and haled by itself made two 
tons per acre (weighed), and sold at $14 per ton. Any 
man coming here to buy should live here three months 
before buying. Most men buy too soon. Tt is not quite 
as risky as the mining stock so many write you about, 
hut ever so many “drop their wad” just the same. 
New Mexico. e. s. g. 
THE FARMER S SHARE. 
A Case of Windfall Apples. 
We sold a quantity of crab apples to a dealer in our 
nearest town at one cent per pound, or $1 per hundred, 
the price of No. 1 fruit. We had some windfalls which 
we took in at the same time, he paid us for the No. 1 
fruit at the time we took it in, but he said he did not 
know what the windfalls were worth, and lie would ship 
them for us and get all he could out of them. He did, 
and this account sales will explain to- you how it came 
out. There were 50 boxes or about 1,000 pounds of 
them, for which the man he shipped to paid one-half cent 
per pound. We got $5.25 out of the $15. It does seem 
as thought the producer might have a little more of the 
profit of his goods instead of the middleman getting about 
two-thirds and he getting one-third. The account follows: 
50 —Vi Crates windfalls. $.30 $15.00 
Charges: 
Freight. $3.00 
Ice .50 
Cartage . 1.00 
Commission . $1.50 6.00 
Net proceeds . $9.00 
50 Baskets at 6 cents. $3.00 3.75 
M. & M. T. Co., commission.75 - 
$5.25 
Penn Yan, N. Y. r. s. g. 
R. N.-Y.—We have often tried shipping windfalls, hut 
seldom do better than this man did. As a rule it does not 
pay to send anything but first-class stuff. We can make 
more out of culls by feeding to the hogs. 
A Car of Squash. 
This is a statement of a carload of squash sent 40 
miles and grown on a little over an acre of land, very 
heavily manured and well taken care of. It may inter¬ 
est you. It is followed by cucumber returns. 
1 Car squash.$100.36 
Expenses . 46.23 
Net .$54.13 
5 Boxes cukes. $.22 $1.10 
5 Boxes .50 1.60 
Charges . 1.35 
Com.09 1.44 
Net proceeds . .16 
R. N.-Y.—That car of squash, at a low calculation, 
cost the consumer at least $150. Our friend therefore 
received 39 cents on tlie dollar. As for the cucumbers, 
his share goes to the vanishing point. 
What the Local Dealer Got. 
Referring to your inquiry of “what part of the dollar, 
which the consumer pays, is the producer getting?” I will 
tell you what part of it I got on my fine early cabbage 
crop the past Summer. 
I ship no cabbage and sell but a few at retail. The 
local grocers take most of the crop, but want only a few 
dozen at a time. The retail price was four cents a 
pound when I began delivering to the grocers, and after 
about a week dropped to three cents a pound. I let the 
grocers have these large early flat-head cabbages at eight 
cents each at first and soon after at seven and six cents. 
While I knew 1 was letting them have some fine cabbage 
for so .early in the season (July), I had never weighed any 
of the heads. One day while in the store delivering some 
of these cabbages, a woman came in and asked the price 
of cabbage. The dealer replied, “Three cents a pound.” 
Picking out a fine large head,, the woman said, “I will 
take this one.” The grocer put the cabbage on the 
scales and it tipped the beam at seven and one-half 
pounds. ‘Twenty-two cents, Madame,” said the grocer, 
and the woman paid it, for just what I had five min¬ 
utes before delivered for eight cents. The dealer got 
14 cents for selling the head of cabbage, while I got 
eight cents, or a probable profit of five cents, for grow¬ 
ing it. I might say, also, that prices on other garden 
produce are much the same. The dealer lias no regard 
for the welfare of the local grower, and will not hesi¬ 
tate to turn him down any time when he can secure 
shipped-in stuff at a trifle less price. g. h. m. 
New York. 
R. N.-Y.—You will see that this man sold for eight 
cents what the grocer sold for 22 cents. We figure, 
therefore, that he got 36 cents out of the consumer’s 
dollar. Now, when this farmer turned around and bought 
sugar and flour, or a suit of clothes be paid for things 
which some other farmer grew originally. Yet when this 
man paid his dollar the man at the other end was very 
lucky to get 36 cents of it. We shall come at this later. 
The Dollar Means 30 Cents. 
In compliance with your request for the actual returns 
from truck shipments, I enclose a couple of sheets that 
are fairly representative of what may be expected in this 
locality from small fruit. Every day during the season 
I am in the city where this fruit is consumed, and at no 
time did I see any offered to the consumer for less than 
10 cents a quart box, and it was often more, while my 
returns show no price for currants higher than 5% cents’: 
out of which has to come the box, crate, picking, - freight 
or express and commission before the grower can begin 
to pack his yawning coffers. It actually works out with 
us to the following net result: We have about two acres 
of red currants and gooseberries, to which we give rea¬ 
sonably good care. Owing to the proximity of the ocean, 
the blight interferes with the growth of the bushes, and 
we never get large crops, although what fruit there is ap¬ 
pears to be fully up to the average in size and color. 
During the past season we sold 131 crates of currants 
and gooseberries, for which the commission men remitted 
$144.84, after deducting the freight and commission. We 
have to pay from two to three cents a box for picking, 
and this item amounted to $98.35; the crates and boxes 
cost $38, so we were left with the sum of $8.29 to pay 
for the care of the plantation and the use of the land, etc. 
Per Box. 
8-32 Crates Currants . 4c $10 24- 
$10 24 
Freight charge. $1 60 
Commission charge . 1 02 
Net proceeds . 7 62- 
Total . $10 24 
. Per Box. 
11-32 Crates Currants . 5c $17 60 
6-32 Crates Currants . 2c 3 84 
2-32 Crates Gooseberries. 7c 4 48- 
$25 92 
Freight charge . $ 3 SO 
Commission charge. 2 59 
Net proceeds . 19 53-- 
Total . $25 92 
Rhode Island. n. w. iieaton. 
R. N.-Y.—Here we have returns from 864 quarts of 
fruit. If Mr. Heaton’s observation in the market is cor¬ 
rect, the consumer paid at least $86.40 for this fruit. 
The net returns were $27.15, or, as we figure it, less than 
32 cents out of the dollar. 
Be sure to have faith in your hope and charity for 
those who have neither. 
How straight is a “string,” anyway? Depends unon the 
person at one end and the power to hold at the other. 
The “chronic kicker” may be said to be afflicted with 
“foot and mouth” disease. Some are self-cured, for “everv 
time they open their mouth they put their foot in it.” 
