1908 . 
THE RURAL NEW-YOR KER 
977 
NELL BEVERLY, FARMER. 
Extracts from the “Introduction.” 
***** I will not anticipate the reading, yet I 
want to say a few words about this story. The 
captious critic may say that it is crude in places, 
and not highly polished. 'He might also, with truth, 
say the same of the daily lives and conversation of 
thousands of plain people who work our farms and 
maintain our farm homes. 
What I like about this book is that it is a true 
flesh-and-blood picture of plain farm people. The 
characters are all taken from life, and not one of 
them can be said to be impossible. There is no 
straining after effect, nor any attempt -tit “fine' 
writing”; it is simply a book just like the people who 
live in the country; clean, plain and true. There is 
not a line in this book that could possibly harm any¬ 
one. No one can read it thoughtfully without being 
made better for it. The story appeals to me, perhaps 
more than to others, because it brings to mind my 
own mother’s lifelong sorrow because she could not 
bring up her children in a home of her own on a 
farm. If she could have had such a farm home, 
where each one of us could have done some little 
work with our hands to help out, our family could 
have been held together. As it was, with no real 
headquarters, we were separated, and life has never 
been what it would have been with any of us could 
we have had a childhood together on the farm. I 
know that many who read this will go back in mem¬ 
ory to the old farm home, and thank God for the 
mother or sister whose life was spent for them. I 
like to have people read these things; I like to have 
them think them and live them. 
Nell Beverly and her mother had the insight to see 
that the future of their family demanded a hard 
sacrifice for the home. The way the girl responded, 
laying her hopes and ambitions aside, will touch the 
heart and help to glorify the lives of thousands of 
men and women who in their younger days silently 
carried the burdens which others laid upon them. The 
true foundation of society and character is built upon 
just such homes as Nell Beverly toiled so hard to 
maintain. We are taught from our childhood to 
reverence and glorify the spirit which sends a man 
into battle to fight and die, if need be, that his coun¬ 
try may live. We need more of that education which 
shall teach our younger people that it is yet nobler 
and truer to live so that our country shall not die. 
I like the bqok, too, because it is so full of human 
nature, and the hard truths which every man of mid¬ 
dle years must acknowledge. How many strong 
lives have been ground out in the long struggle with 
debt! No doubt there are some who will say that 
Nell Beverly should have been willing to mortgage 
the farm or borrow in order to obtain canital. She 
sternly refused to do so, and she was right as her 
family was situated. I hope the experience, which is 
here so graphically portrayed, will nerve others to 
shun debt and easy borrowing as they would a pesti¬ 
lence. To my mind, the spirit of the untrained 
girl, realizing all that training and culture would do 
for her, yet resolutely giving it up because duty 
called her away, is full of the noblest pathos. I 
feel this because I know so many men and. women to 
whom life has denied the training and education for 
which they longed in their youth. Most of them, 
like Nell Beverly, have lived through the cruel dis¬ 
appointment of it with a sweetness and patience 
which has given them a spiritual power that they 
never dreamed of. If I could take the young men or 
women of 20 and make them feel and know just 
what it means to be 45, after living such a life as 
Nell Beverly lived, I could make the next 20 years 
of our history the most glorious years this Republic 
has known. 
Another scene true to human nature is that wherein 
Bob Beverly suddenly realizes what he has done in 
forging his sister’s name. That impulse to confess 
the sin, to rush back to the one who has been wronged 
cursing because his utmost speed seemed too slow, is 
imbedded in the heart of man. J5ob could not help 
doing just what he did and retain any self-respect 
or real character. He had needed all his life just 
such a shocking lesson of what sin would lead him 
to. People have called this “the New England con¬ 
science,” but it is really one of the primal forces in 
man’s nature. It was much the same with Searls 
Jackson, a much stronger character than Bob. Some 
great crisis was needed to break down the old habit 
and the pride which had been handed down to him 
through a long inheritance. A happier scene is that 
in which Searls and Nell walk up and down the 
field, he holding the handles of the plow and she 
walking at his side, “talking of the wondrous love 
that was theirs.” 
The world is so full of stories which merely 
amuse or entertain ! We hear so much of wickedness, 
or some aimless or improbable life which gives no 
worthy incentive to plain, honest people who can 
only hope at best to glorify a humble station and a 
simple place in the world, that we are glad to give 
our readers this strong, simple, true story. It stands 
for the things which The Rural New-Yorker has 
represented for 20 years. Herbert w. collingwood. 
ONTARIO CO., N. Y„ FRUIT GROWERS.—I enclose 
programme of the third annual meeting of the Ontario 
Co.. N. Y.. Fruit Growers’ Association. The hall where 
it was held was filled to overflowing at both sessions and 
there was not a “dead” minute during the day. It must 
have been made evident to some of our Orleans County 
competitors who were present that Ontario County is de¬ 
termined to keep in the front rank, if concerted action 
and intelligent effort can accomplish that result. The 
various speakers gave us interesting and instructive 
information and the discussions which followed were very 
valuable and helpful. The Association instructed its ex¬ 
ecutive committee to erect a tablet to the “First Northern 
Spy Tree” on the Harry Chapin farm. East Bloomfield, 
Ontario County, N. Y., where it originated. This same 
farm is also the home of the “Early Joe.” The methods 
employed in the now famous “Baldwin” case received 
the strongest condemnation. j. r. w. 
EVENTS OF THE WEEK. 
DOMESTIC.—William H. I’lmir, the chauffeur who 
ran into Robert G. Merriman after the latter had alighted 
from a trolley car at midnight on October 31, pleaded 
guilty to the charge of manslaughter in the Supreme 
Court at Hartford, Conn., Dec. 2. Merriman died from 
his injuries two days after the accident. Phair appealed 
to the Court for clemency, saying that he had never been 
arrested before and that the high speed at which he was 
running his automobile when he hit Merriman was due 
to his intoxicated condition. He was sentenced to not 
less than three years and not more than four years in 
the State Prison. Judge William S. Case, in sentencing 
the chauffeur, said that there was no more room on the 
streets for a drunken chauffeur than there was for a 
drunken soldier armed with a gun. . . . Damage of 
.$100,000 was the result of Are at Meadville, Pa., Dec. 2, 
at Exposition Park, Conneaut Lake. Progress of the 
flames was stayed by dynamiting buildings. 
Richard Parr, a special agent of the Treasury Depart¬ 
ment, was examined at New York, Dec. 3, before United 
States Commissioner Shields in the Government’s suit 
against the American Sugar Refining Company to re¬ 
cover $3,624,121.15 in customs duties alleged to be due on 
shipments improperly weighed at the docks in South 
Brooklyn. The witness testified that he was at the Ilave- 
meyer & Elder docks on November 20, 1907, the day on 
which the alleged interference with the scales, on which 
the Government’s weigher weighed the sugar, took place. 
Of the seventeen scales on the various docks belonging 
to the company in South Brooklyn five were tampered 
with, the witness said, by the sugar company’s checker 
by means of a wire device which touched the levers of 
the scales and caused them to register less than the true 
weight by five to 24 pounds. . . . Sixty-five families 
were homeless in Centralia, Pa., Dec. 4, as the result of 
a fire which wiped out three squares of property in the 
heart of the town. The fire started in a building occu¬ 
pied by a moving picture show, and spread rapidly among 
the frame houses. Fire companies from Ashland and 
Mount Carmel responded, but a lack of water, the result 
of the prolonged drought, left the town at the mercy of 
the flames for a time. None of the homeless families 
saved any of their furniture. The total loss is estimated 
at $100,000. . . . Fire Dec. 4 completely destroyed 
the factory owned by the Well & Vale Manufacturing 
Company, at St. Catharine’s, Ont. An immense quantity 
of finished hoe, rake, spade and other handles were stored 
in the building. Loss, $50,000 ; well insured. . . , 
The cases of the United States against the Chesapeake 
and Ohio Railway Company and W. R. Johnson, a grain 
dealer, charged with having violated the interstate com¬ 
merce laws in allowing and receiving rebates, came to an 
end at Richmond, Va., Dec. 4, when in open court the 
defendants pleaded guilty to the indictments and were 
fined $9,000 and $4,500 respectively by Judge Edmund 
Waddill, Jr., sitting in the United States District Court 
for the Eastern District of Virginia. The Chesapeake and 
Ohio admitted nine separate counts of an indictment 
charging the corporation with having allowed rebates to 
Johnson & Co. The road was fined $1,000 on each count. 
Another indictment, against the railway company charged 
it with having refunded to Johnson & Co. a sum known 
as a switching tariff, on four separate counts, was nolle 
prossed upon consent of the Government’s representatives. 
W. R. Johnson & Co., wholesale grain dealers, were 
charged in an indictment, carrying nine counts, with hav¬ 
ing accepted rebates from the defendant railroad corpora¬ 
tion in violation of the interstate commerce law. The 
concern pleaded guilty as to the first four counts of the 
indictment and was fined $1,500 on the first count and 
$1,000 on each of the remaining three, making an aggre¬ 
gate fine of $4,500. The other five counts were nolle 
prossed. The case of the United States against Warner, 
Moore & Co., grain dealers and millers, charged with 
similar offences, was continued until the next regular 
term of the court. . . . Rear-Admiral J. B. Coghlan, 
retired, died at New Rochelle, N. Y., Dec. 5. Born on 
December 9, 1844, in Frankfort, Ky., he was the son of 
Cornelius Coghlan and Lavinie Foulke Coghlan. He was 
appointed to the Naval Academy in 1860, and in 1863 
was made ensign on board the Sacramento. In 1865 he 
was master of the steam sloop Brooklyn, flagship of the 
Brazilian squadron, and in the same year he served on 
the Pawnee, the Guerriere and the Portsmouth. He mar¬ 
ried, in 1868, Miss Julia Barbour of Terre Haute. Ind. 
He was made lieutenant commander in 1869, while at¬ 
tached to the Richmond, which joined the European 
squadron and remained with it until 1871. After two 
years of shore duty in the hydrographic office and a year 
on sick leave, he joined the North Atlantic squadron, 
and later he served on board the Colorado, the Mononga- 
hela and the Independence. He was commissioned com¬ 
mander in 1882 and captain in 1896. After a period at 
the Mare Island Navy Yard and on board the Mohican, 
he was assigned to command the Raleigh, aboard which 
he took part in the battle of Manila Bay. After his re¬ 
turn from the Philippines he had command of the 
Caribbean squadron until he took charge of the Brooklyn 
Navy Yard, 1904 to 1907. . . . Fire of supposed in¬ 
cendiary origin destroyed the building and stock of the 
IT. J. Sarles Company, department store, at Liberty, N. 
Y., Dec. 4. The loss is between $30,000 and $40,000. 
After the firemen had brought under complete con¬ 
trol the fire which destroyed two of the eight piers of 
the Grand Trunk Railway at Portland, Me., Dec. 4, the 
flames, which had communicated to the Dominion Line 
steamer Comishman alongside, started with renewed 
vigor, and before they were subdued they caused a dam¬ 
age estimated at about $ 200,000 to the vessel and her 
cargo. Officials of the Grand Trunk Company stated 
that the loss on the piers, together with the contents of 
the burned sheds, would reach at least $250,000, and 
perhaps $300,000, making the total loss caused by the fire 
approximately half a million dollars. The fire on board 
the Cornishman was almost entirely confined to the No. 2 
and No. 3 holds, in which practically all the cargo was 
ruined. . . . Fire in the storehouse of the Western 
Union Telegraph Company, 152-154 Franklin St., New 
York, Dec. 8 , caused a loss of $125,000. 
THE PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE.—President Roosevelt 
transmitted to Congress Dec. 8 his concluding annual 
message. It gives special prominence to the subjects of 
currency reform, supervision of corporations, labor legis¬ 
lation, the courts, conservation of natural resources and 
reforms in the army and navy. The message discusses 
the imperfections of our currency system at length, in the 
light especially of last year’s money panic, and in con¬ 
nection therewith reviews the Treasury operations of the 
seven years of his administration. Recommendations for 
the amendment of the anti-trust law; the exemption of 
railways from its provisions and for publicity and super¬ 
vision of the affairs of interstate corporations are re¬ 
newed. It is i-ecommended that telephone and telegraph 
companies be brought under the control of the Interstate 
Commerce Commission. The message devotes much space 
to a discussion of labor questions, and urges the enaction 
of an employer’s liability law. In the some connection 
the powers of the courts are reviewed. Better salaries 
are asked for judges of Federal courts; the law’s delays 
are criticised, also decisions which have proved detri¬ 
mental to the interests of labor. Attention is also called 
to the difficulty, under the present law, of dealing with 
wealth in the huge masses in which it has been accumu¬ 
lated. The President makes a strong appeal for conserva¬ 
tion of natural resources, especially the forests, and in 
this connection goes into a long description of the ap¬ 
palling desolation and barrenness of China, following de¬ 
forestation. The President renews his recommendations 
for the establishment of postal savings banks, and a 
parcels post in rural districts. Congress is again urged 
to confer citizenship upon the Porto Ricans. The admis¬ 
sion of New Mexico and Arizona as States is advocated. 
In the part of the message devoted to the navy the 
President urges the creation of a general staff and the 
abolition of the present bureau system. He also urges 
the building of four more large battleships of the all-big- 
gun type, and two hospital ships. He enlarges upon the 
value of the cruise of the battleship fleet to the Pacific 
and the Orient. 
NO OiTTTTJj prsir»s!E I v vates CO.. N. Y.—The 
suspected foot and mouth disease in this county has 
turned out to he something entirely different and not of 
a contagious nature, and the quarantine against this 
county has been raised. This has hurt live stock breeders 
a lot already and notice should he given at once that 
there is no such disease in this vicinity. 
Dundee, N. Y. h. c. & h. b. harpending. 
FARM AND GARDEN.—The executive committee of 
the National Wool Growers’ Association was present 
Dec. 1 at a meeting at Sheridan, Wyo., when $25,000 
and 2,500,000 pounds of wool were subscribed towards 
the national wool warehouse plan. 
The largest seizure of oleomargarine ever made in 
Philadelphia took place Dec. 3 in the Reading Railway 
freight yards when a car containing six and a half tons 
of bogus butter was taken in transit by internal revenue 
officers. The car was shipped to Philadelphia by the 
Narragansett Dairy Company, of Providence. R. I., and 
was consigned to the Eastern Provision Company of Phil¬ 
adelphia. . Later the authorities made a similar seizure 
in Washington. The seizure raised the question whether 
or not the oleomargarine contained artificial color. The 
owners will contend it does not. The Collector of In¬ 
ternal Revenue said that the authorities would take pos¬ 
session of the plant at Providence. The case has been a 
matter of secret investigation for a month. 
The forty-second annual meeting of the Ohio State 
Horticultural Society will be held at Townsend Hall, 
Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, January 14-15, 
1909. 
FLORIDA POSSIBILITIES. 
A settlement of northern people, who got tired of six 
to seven months of snow and ice, have sought out a milder 
climate, where they do not have to live up to the harvest 
of their Summers’ labors to pull through the long hard 
Winters in that zone. We came to Cottage Hill. Fla., 
from Indiana a little over four years ago. and have not: 
only regained our health to a great extent but have lived 
better in nearly every way than we ever did in the North 
and have brighter financial prospects from the develop¬ 
ing of 80 acres of this cheap wild land into a now bear¬ 
ing peach orchard than we ever had from 20 years of our 
lives before. If the average northern farmer knew how 
much grain, hay and other farm products could be pro¬ 
duced on these lands now selling from $10 to $15 per 
acre, and that in the bargain he could have the healthiest 
climate in the United States to live in, this country would 
soon be a thickly populated garden of Eden. n. c. r. 
Cottage Hill, Flo 
THE FARMER’S SHARE. 
Figures of a Grape Grower. 
I submit the following report on my grape crop for 
1908. I have been in the grape business for a period 
of 20 years and “know whereof I speak.” If any error 
exists, it is because I have been too conservative in 
estimate of expenses, and placed them too low. In esti¬ 
mating labor, board of help and board of team should 
be considered. The vineyard comprises something under 
eight acres, and this year’s crop was a fair, though not 
a large yield, and of splendid quality. In an analysis of 
the expense account it should be considered that cost of 
labor is very high. So also is cost of living, while pro¬ 
duce has sharply declined, with the exceptions of such 
crops as exhibit a serious shortage: 
Vineyard, Dr. 
For pruning 8 acres at $2.50. $20.00 
Stripping, hauling and burning brush. 12.00 
Posting, tightening wire and bracing. 6.00 
Plowing out and back, $3.00 per acre. 24.00 
Horse and hand hoeing, $1.00 per acre. 8.00 
Cultivating eight times; man and team, $3 per day 24.00 
Spraying three times, labor and material. 24.00 
Haulage empty baskets five miles. 4.00 
12,164 baskets at $16.50 per 1,000. 200.00 
Nailing handles at $1.25 per 1,000. 15.00 
Picking and packing, at 2 cents per basket.... 243.28 
Haulage on grapes to cars, five miles at %c. 
per basket . 45.62 
60 lbs. paper under covers.. 3 60 
Interest on land at $100 per acre. 48.00 
Taxes and insurance. 13.00 
Depreciation on posts and wire, 10%. 40.00 
Fertilizing. 15 loads yard manure per acre every 
second year at $1 per load. 60.00 
Hauling and spreading same, 15c. load. 9.00 
Wire and straw tying. 45.00 
Total expense . $845.20 
Vineyard, Cr. 
By 12,164 baskets of grapes at average price of 
7.9 cents per basket. 8963 67 
Other grapes sold. 10 00 
Total sales . $973.67 
Total expense ... 845!20 
j-Ncc invut L»ii cxgiiL ttUICB ... __ 
Or a fraction over one cent per basket ! Surely, some¬ 
thing is fundamentally wrong. We trust President Roose¬ 
velt’s Commission will find what it is and suggest the 
remedy. f. a. seeley. 
Ontario Co., N. Y. 
Some Figures from Maine. 
In response to your call for figures of sales of produce 
I enclose two bills of sales from a Boston commission 
house. In The R. N.-Y. I see the report of a New York 
grape groAver. I will give you some idea of what grapes 
cost us at wholesale in Maine. I bought on Sept. 10 
four baskets Concords at 12 cents; Sept. 22 four baskets 
Delaware at 14 cents and six baskets Concords at 11 
cents each; Sept. 26, six baskets Concords at 12 cents; 
six baskets Delaware at 14 cents; 6 baskets Niagara at 
12 cents. In shipping eggs to Boston the express is 
35 cents for 30-dozen cases; commission, one cent per 
dozen. 
1 bx. Chicks, 74 lbs. $0.16 
1 bx. Chicks, 30 lbs. 15 
Express .$0.48 
Commission .82 $1.30 
$11.84 
4.50 
$16.34 
$15.04 
pounds, at 11 cents, $20.46; 1 skin, $1.90; 2 skins, 16 
pounds, at 16 cents. $2.56; offal, $1.20; 2 pigs urt 
pounds at 8 % cents: $23.89; total. $63.64; express, S3 53 ; 
commission, $2.15—$5.68 ; balance, $57.96. 
Cumberland Co., Me. E . s . dooglas. 
R. N.-Y.—Not knowing local prices, we cannot figure 
now much Mr. Douglas got of the consumer’s dollar. The 
cost of handling was fair. What he says about whole¬ 
sale prices of grapes makes a showing beside Mr. Seeley’s 
record. 
THE INSTITUTE TRAIN.—We welcomed the Cornell 
Special at Wayland and consider it helpful. No institute 
has been accessible to farmers of this vicinity for several 
years, so the field was ripe. The speakers also estab¬ 
lished new and closer relations between the farmers and 
the agricultural college. w a l 
Wayland, N. Y. 
THE DAIRYMAN’S LEAGUE.—At the November meet¬ 
ing of the directors of the Dairyman’s League encourag¬ 
ing reports were received from organizations in new 
territory. The condition of the milk market and the 
comparative prices with the cost of production is con¬ 
vincing the farmer of the necessity of an organization of 
the milk producers for New York Cit.- market. A man 
is now regularly employed in organizing new branches 
of the League. Persons desiring information on how to 
organize new branches should apply to the secretary Al¬ 
bert Manning, Otisville, Orange Co., N. Y. 
