If, os. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
667 
THE SMITH AGRICULTURAL CHEMICAL CO. 
This fertilizer company has obtained much notoriety 
of late. Its business is done largely in Ohio. They 
sold last year over 45,000 tons of fertilizer, about 
38,000 tons being sold in Ohio. As is now well 
known, this company secured an injunction to restrain 
the State Board of Agriculture from publishing the 
analyses of fertilizers. In this way the Smith Com¬ 
pany not only prevented the publication of the anal¬ 
yses of their own goods, but also held up other anal¬ 
yses, so that Ohio farmers have no way of comparing 
the official records as they have been able to do in the 
past. There is a long story to this controversy, which 
we will not touch now. The Smith Company has 
claimed all through that their goods were of high 
quality. This year they have taken up the plan 
adopted by the Buffalo Company of offering to sell 
their goods on the basis of a private analysis. They 
sell their goods through several branch companies, 
which are known as Ohio Farmers’ Fertilizer Co., 
the Abbott & Martin Rendering Co., the Chicago 
Fertilizer Co., the Hardy Packing Co. and the West¬ 
ern Agricultural Co. We understand that all the 
goods handled by these concerns are manufactured by 
the Smith Company, bagged and put up under various 
brands. It being impossible to’obtain the figures frorr^ 
the Ohio authorities, we have gone elsewhere for 
them, in order to learn how their fertilizers stand up 
to their guarantee. Some of the goods are sold in 
Indiana. In Bulletin No. 125 from the Indiana Ex¬ 
periment Station a record is given of the different 
fertilizers sampled in that State. Four of these 
branch companies operated by the Smith Company 
operated in Indiana. They were all mentioned as 
being below grade. Here is a copy of what the In¬ 
diana State Chemist says about the Ohio Farmers’ 
Fertilizer Co.: 
Ohio Farmers’ Fertilizer Company.—Of the 22 brands 
inspected hearing the label of this company 15, or (18 per 
cent, fall into the “Not within 10 per cent” column, and 
only two, or nine per cent, equal in vaiue the guarantee. 
Three of the brands are deficient in nitrogen and potash, 
the nitrogen in one being 62 per cent and in another 58 
per cent below the guarantee. Two are deficient in potash 
and available phosphoric acid, the potash being respec¬ 
tively 55 per cent and 62 per cent, and the available 
phosphoric acid 38 per cent and 34 per cent below the 
guarantee. Nine samples are deficient in nitrogen, one 
68 per cent, one 66 per cent, one 62 per cent, one 58 per 
cent, one 50 per cent and three 37 >per cent. One sample 
is 70 per cent below guarantee in potash, and two samples 
42 and 30 per cent, respectively, below in available phos¬ 
phoric acid. Five of the brands show a deficiency of 
81 to $2, six $2 to $3, two .$3 to 84, two .$4 to .$5, two 
.$5 to $6 and two $7 to $8 below the value of the guar- 
anteee. 
The others were nearly as bad. We will give their 
record later. One had half, another 75 per cent and 
the other 54 per cent of their samples at least 10 per 
cent below guarantee. 
The manufacturers whose goods run uniformly 
above guarantee do not receive special mention, but 
where they run uniformly below the guarantee they 
are named in a special department. It will be seen 
from the following that the goods sent out by this 
Smith Company through its branch houses were very 
poor. For example, out of 22 brands sold under the 
name of the Ohio Farmers’ Fertilizer Company 15 of 
them fell at least 10 per cent below the guaranteed 
value, and two of them were over $7 short. One fer¬ 
tilizer was guaranteed to contain 1.2 per cent of nitro¬ 
gen. The chemist found only one-half of one per 
cent. The buyer was guaranteed 10 per cent of pot¬ 
ash; he received 7.8 per cent. He was guaranteed 
eight per cent of available phosphoric acid and re¬ 
ceived 7.1 per cent. In the Michigan report the Ohio 
Farmers’ Fertilizer Co. offered four brands of fer¬ 
tilizer. Of these four brands three ran considerably 
below the guarantee in nitrogen. For example, in one 
brand the manufacturer guaranteed 1.2 per cent, but 
only supplied .66. In the Pennsylvania report several 
brands ran below the valuation. In view of these 
facts it seems like a singular thing that the Smith 
Company should take the position they do. They 
claim that they have not been justly used by the Ohio 
State Board of Agriculture, and yet the reports we 
have quoted from the Indiana Station could hardly be 
much worse than the figures they have tried to hold 
up. With this clear evidence of poor official showing 
before them it seems to us the plain duty of agricul¬ 
tural paper to print the figures, tell the truth and show 
up the character of these samples. 
EVENTS OF THE WEEK. 
DOMESTIC.—All publications having anarchist tenden¬ 
cies will hereafter find it practically impossible to make 
use of the United States mails for their distribution, 
i’ostmaster General Meyer has issued an order directing 
postmasters to put into effect the amended section of the 
postal rules and regulations which bars the use of the 
mails to these publications. The instructions contained 
in the Postmaster General’s order are “not to be used 
to irritate, annoy or intimidate publishers,” and post¬ 
masters are instructed to use discretion and conservatism 
in order that no innocent publisher may suffer injustice. 
Fire which started- at the sawmill plant of the 
Ivaul Lumber Company, at Hollins. x Da., June 17, did 
damage amounting to between $350,000 and $500,000. 
Practically the entire plant and over ti.000.000 feet of 
lumber were burned. The fire is supposed to have started 
irom a spark from the slab pit. . . . The plant and 
offices of the Richmond Stove Company. Richmond, Va., 
were practically destroyed by fire .Tune 17. The building 
covered nearly a block in the heart of the business center 
and adjoined the $2,000,000 plant of the American Tobacco 
Company, which was threatened for a time. The loss 
is estimated at $200,000. with $100,000 insurance. Two 
hundred, employees are temporarily out of work. 
The Mississippi River registered 24.7 feet above low 
water mark at St. Louis June 18. having risen half a foot 
in 24 hours. The Missouri was 11 miles wide near St. 
< harles. Mo. High water prevented railroads from accept¬ 
ing outgoing freight and delayed shipments of poultry, 
cattle, sheep and hogs. Damage to crops is enormous. 
National City, the packing town across from St. Louis, 
was entirely submerged and abandoned. The Mississippi 
broke across the Chicago. Peoria and St. Louis, Clover 
Leaf and Wabash tracks in East St. Louis June 18 but 
>vas held hack from the main section of the city by 
the Burlington Railroad embankment. The Murry Levee, 
tive miles above the mouth of Big Muddy River, between 
, Louis, and Cairo, broke, sweeping away considerable 
wiieat which farmers had hurriedly cut. The Mississippi 
broke through the Big Lake drainage district flood gate 
in the same section, submerging more than 10.000 acres 
ot crops. Trinity River again overflowed a wide scope 
oi territory in Texas. It has swept all movable property 
into the Gulf and ruined vast stretches of crops. . . 
City Clerk Scully, of New York, has asked District 
Attorney Jerome to take up the cases of several young 
men who have been using the marriage bureau as a means 
to fleece girls under promise of marriage. Mr. Scully 
said that several cases have been brought to his knowledge 
where men have accompanied young women to the bureau 
and after obtaining a license have induced the women to 
part with their savings. It was explained by Mr. Scully 
that these women were foreigners and that they looked 
upon the issuing of a license as a sort of civil ceremony 
of marriage. . . . The plant of the United States 
Steel Corporation at Shelby, Ohio, w'as burned June 18. 
The loss is about $1,500,000. . . . With stumps for 
legs and a stump for his right arm and his left arm 
minus several fingers, Joe Gilligan, 18 years old, swam 
to the rescue of two boys in the Gravel Pit Pond, near 
Morristown, N. J., June 10, and saved their lives. Gilii- 
gan was sitting with other boys on the bank showing them 
the artificial legs his parents had bought for him. He had 
unstrapped them, but when he heard the cries for help 
he did not stop to put them on. Plunging in, he swam 
to the spot where the boys had come to the surface 
for the second time and rescued both. Gilligan was run 
over by a trolley car in Brooklyn 10 years ago. He lost 
one leg above the knee and the other below the knee, 
his right arm was taken off at the elbow, and three 
fingers from his left hand. . . Three miners were 
dead, two others perhaps fatally burned, and 15 en¬ 
tombed. from an explosion at the Ellsworth No. 1 Mine of 
the Pittsburg Coal Company, near Monongahela, Pa., 
June 19. . The Attorney-General filed suits in 
court at Austin, Texas., .Tune 20. against the American 
Book Company for penalties aggregating $3,000,000 and 
demanded the company's ouster from the State for vio¬ 
lations of the anti-trust law covering a period of nearly 
two years. One suit is against the New York corporation 
and another against the New Jersey corporation, both hav¬ 
ing the same name and being composed of the same per¬ 
sons. . . . Two touring cars, one big and swift, the 
other a modest little one. banged head on into each 
other in a blinding cloud of dust near Hempstead, N. Y., 
June 21. Joseph X. Arosemena, of 85 Washington avenue. 
New Rochelle, owner of the little car, died of a fractured 
skull in the Nassau Hospital an hour later. His wife, 
two children and the chauffeur, Arosemena's companions 
in the car, got off with bruises. All the tive persons in 
the big car were hurt; three of them are at the hos¬ 
pital. ... A fire at Port Chester. N. Y., .Tune 22, 
burned for four hours. The damage is estimated at $300,- 
000, only a part of which is covered by insurance. Ten 
fires were burning in different parts of the village at one 
time. Sparks were carried half a mile by the wind. One 
of the features of the fire was the escape of 700 factory 
girls in the Simmons Manufacturing Company building, 
who formed in line and marched down the broad stairways, 
while smoke from the burning buildings near-by poured 
through the windows and flames licked the wails. 
. . . Fire broke out in a stable at Three Rivers, 
Quebec, June 22. Almost every building of any conse¬ 
quence in the lower town was destroyed, including the 
postoffice, the city hall, every hotel worthy of the name 
with one exception, the fine building of the Hochelaga 
Bank, and almost all of the leading stores. Over 300 
buildings were burned. Loss, $1,000,000. . . . Fines 
aggregating $24,000 were imposed by Judge Hough in the 
United States District Court .Tune 22 on the 24 members 
of the Manila paper manufacturing companies, which 
formed the trust known as the Manila Paper and. Fibre 
Association. This pool or trust extracted from the public 
in two years a sum estimated by John Norris, secretary of 
the Newspaper Association, to be not less than $2,000,000. 
Judge Hough sentenced the members of the pool to pay a 
fine of $1,000 each. He stated that there was no doubt 
that the association was a violation of the Sherman Anti- 
Trust act, and was an illegal combination in restraint of 
trade. However, he said, there were extenuating cir¬ 
cumstances. and he would only impose a fine. It was paid, 
and the association, which was formed in 1906, is now 
dissolved. . . . Two persons were killed in a wind¬ 
storm which broke with great fury over Minneapolis and 
St. Paul June 22. The outburst was preceded by lesser 
storms of wind, rain and hail in southern Minnesota, 
which laid low growing grain. . . . After a cam¬ 
paign lasting several months, the close of which was 
marked by a bitter fight, the so-called Locke Anti-Race- 
Track Gambling bill was passed by the Louisiana State 
Senate June 23. The bill passed the House several weeks 
ago, and now only requires the signature of Governor 
Blanchard to become law. ... In the United States 
Court at Toledo. 0., June 23, the Toledo Ice and Com 
Company pleaded guilty to three counts charging it with 
receiving rebates from the Ann Arbor Railroad Companv. 
Judge Taylor assessed a fine of $1,250 on each count. 
The remaining 152 counts in the indictment were dis¬ 
missed. The indictments were brought under the Hep¬ 
burn law. 
ADMINISTRATION.—The Acting Secretary of War, 
Robert Shaw Oliver, made public June 22 President 
Roosevelt’s plan for a standing army of 250.000 men, di¬ 
vided into eight great army corps, which is to be ready 
in two years or less for any emergency. Secretary Oliver 
intimated that the scheme had been worked out so thor¬ 
oughly that the personnel of the War Department, no 
matter what changes may come about, will not affect the 
success of an undertaking which has engaged the Presi¬ 
dent's keen interest for several years. Recent legislation 
affecting the Stata militia has been directed toward the 
purpose which the President desires to accomplish. The 
standing army of 250,000 men will be made up. according 
to Secretary Oliver of the Regular establishment some¬ 
what increased and the United States volunteers from 
every State, the State troops to be trained so thoroughly 
that their efficiency will be hardly less than that of the 
Regulars. To bring his about it is proposed to school 
40.000 or 50.000 volunteer troops at a time annually in 
each of the big camps of instruction. 
OBITUARY.—Alexander Wallace, editor of the Florists’ 
Exchange, of New York, died June 17. aged 49. 5Pi- 
Wallace was a native of Scotland, coming to this country 
in 1888. In 1889 lie entered the employment of the 
A. T. De La Mare Printing and Publishing Companv, soon 
after assuming the editorship of the Florists' Exchange. 
He was a man of wide knowledge and strong character, 
which, united with a genial personality, gained for him 
many friends. He was an active worker in various 
florists’ organizations, and a strong and forceful writer. 
In addition to his editorial work, lie was the author of a 
book upon the Scotch heather, which contains a mass of 
information, legendary and poetical, concerning this plant. 
CROP PROSPECTS. 
Grass is looking well (except some pieces that were win¬ 
ter-killed). and will be ready to cut earlier than usuai. 
June has been cool and dry most of the time. All planted 
crops are late and not growing much. Fruit trees blos¬ 
somed full, but the freeze, June 3. nearly ruined the crop. 
There has been quite a call for oxen and steers lately for 
the Brighton market at five to six cents per pound live 
weight. E . c< c 
Windham Co., Vt. 
A good crop of Alfalfa was cured and in the barn .Tune 
16. The meadows and pastures are away above the aver¬ 
age, owing to the successive rains in May. For the same 
reason much of the corn planting was delayed into June. 
Apples promise one-third of a crop. Plenty 'of small fruits 
in prospect. Americana plums, nothing; European 
varieties full: Japans all killed by the October. 1906, 
freeze. This is a dairy and grain-growing section. The 
fields of young growing grain are very promising on the 
higher lands; on the low lands it is suffering from too 
much rain. Here is the home of three celebrated herds 
of dairy cattle: Guernseys, Jerseys and IJolsteins. In 
the latter herd is the famous cow, champion of the 
world. “Colantha 4th’s Johanna,” that produced 998 
pounds of fat in one year. g. c. it. 
Rosendale, Wisconsin. 
Although our Spring was not very early crops look well 
and promise a very good return. We have not had much 
rain this while hack, and consequently the hay crop will 
not be too heavy, but wheat and oats, also barley, peas 
and corn, are looking well. Apples will be scarcer than 
last year. There is .not a large acreage of roots planted, 
but there are quite a few silos, and generally corn is a 
good crop, and is the only thing used in the silos. Bees 
sometimes do fairly well, but have to be kept in connec¬ 
tion with some other line of husbandry, as they cannot be 
depended on alone, for some years the honey crop is a 
failure. Stock raising is the principal industry here, but 
this is an excellent district for any kind of farming; land 
is going up in price: good farm help is very scarce, and 
on the whole times are very good. j. m. w. 
Middlesex Co., Ontario. 
Grain crops look well except corn, which is a little yel¬ 
low because of lack of sunshine and too much rain and 
cool weather. Cutworms numerous and doing great dam¬ 
age. Potatoes not all planted. Temperature 29 degrees, 
light frost. Fruit will be an average crop unless heavy 
frost occurs. Alfalfa knee high; clover half as high. 
Timothy heading out. good stand. k. w. l. 
Minong, Wis., June 15. 
We have had a pretty good Spring here, although rains 
have been heavy and not well distributed. Corn and 
potatoes look well ; grass and rye short; oats looking 
well. _ Pears not a heavy crop, except Kieffers. Apples 
promise well; plums light: peaches very light; rasp¬ 
berries heavy crop, also blackberries and dewberries. 
Strawberries light, not over 30 per cent. Sour cherries 
a heavy crop; sweet cherries and grapes no factor here. 
Business and factory work light; help plentiful. 
Kinderhook, N. Y. w. h. 
This county has passed an unusually favorable Spring 
so far as wet and dry were concerned. All crops arc 
fine excepting oats; early corn is laid by in good condi¬ 
tion. It might have been safely planted in January in¬ 
stead of February and March. No frost to injure it. 
Cotton is blooming and but for the boll weevil promises 
abundant yield. Cigar leaf tobacco is being grown here, 
both in the open and under shade: in a small way, is 
doing finely. Strawberries and dewberries (wild) did well. 
Peaches, less than one twentieth of a crop. The Winter 
of 1906-7 came near killing the trees ; last year they made 
but little growth and produced no fruit, this year few 
blooms.| Everybody has been lumber crazy for * the last 
few years, farmers abandoned their farms and took to the 
pine.v woods. At the close of 1907 nearly all mills shut 
down; consequently labor became more plentiful and 
probably we now have the largest crop that was ever 
planted here. There being practically nothing grown 
last year the demand for supplies has put prices up. 
Corn now $1; will be down to 50 cents by September 1, 
perhaps even less. m. b. p. 
San Augustine, Texas. 
Farmers in this section make their main production 
truck and small fruit, peas being about the first early 
crop, of which there has been about a two-thirds crop. 
Peas have sold very well, bringing from $1.50 to $2.50 per 
hamper so far this season. That is for such varieties 
as Gradus and Early Morn. The small varieties have 
not been very extensively planted for the last few seasons, 
on account of the introduction of other varieties that are 
a great deal larger and are nearly as early in maturity, 
thereby lessening the trouble of getting pickers and 
having the advantage of bringing a higher price in 
market. The principal markets are New York. Newark 
and Philadelphia, and as we are within carting distance 
of Philadelphia and have very good shipping facilities 
to New York and Newark it makes it a great deal 
better than where there is only one market. There is 
also an afternoon market at Burlington, which handles a 
great deal of stuff. Most of the peas are planted in 
wide rows, leaving room enough in the middle to plant 
another row of such things as tomatoes, egg plants, can¬ 
taloupes or in fact anything that has to be planted early. 
It is claimed if the pea crop only pays expenses that 
the gain in the earliness of the following crops very well 
pays for the trouble, as being sheltered from the' wind 
is no doubt a very great advantage. There is also quite 
a lot of wax beans planted. They have just commenced 
to pick and are selling at $2 per hamper in the New York 
market. Prospects point to a fairly good crop of them. 
There is a fairly good crop of the sour red cherries, also 
several of the white oxheart variety, but'it would be best 
to let the robins give account of them, as they are about the 
only ones that get any chance at them, and'they are truly 
"early birds” as they commence to pick them just as soon 
as they turn a little bit white. The sugar and white 
imitation corn promise to be rather a short crop, as the 
dry weather has done considerable damage to it, causing 
it to have a yellow look, which is very undesirable at this 
time, just when it is coming in top and silk. This corn 
is cut at the “roasting ear” stage and shipped green to 
the New York market, generally bringing a very good 
price. Peaches are in pretty good shape so far. and 
promise about two-thirds of a crop. This section in a few 
years promises to be quite a peach center, as almost 
ever.y farm now has an orchard coming in bearing, and 
more' are being planted every year. The San Jose scale 
seems to be held in check where pains are taken to 
spray thoroughly in the Spring and Fall; trees that have 
been well sprayed and cared for have a very vigorous 
look. j. s. s. 
Stevens, N. J. 
Sales of poultry and eggs have been as good as former 
years, and possibly better. I cannot say that the 
sale of baby chicks is on the increase. My young stock 
is doing nicely. I have 400 April chicks' that have 
reached the broiler stage, and will be mature and ready to 
lay in November, when prices advance. I keep skim-milk 
before them all the time, and find it an excellent feed 
in place of meat or scraps. I have found it very im¬ 
portant to get chicks out on the ground when two or 
three weeks old if the weather is mild enough. I find 
a temperature of 100 degrees in the brooders to be just 
right for chicks, but they must have a chance to get 
where it is cooler if they wish to. This is the way the 
hen does it. by giving the chicks the temperature of her 
body and an opportunity to get away from that tempera¬ 
ture to a cooler one whenever they wish. 
New York. c. H. zimmek. 
PROPOSED LAW AFFECTING INSECTICIDES.—A 
meeting was held in the American Institute Building, New 
York. June 18, between manufacturers, representatives of 
the entomologists, and some of the leading chemists who 
have charge of the State control of the Insecticide laws, 
for the discussion of Senate Bill 6515 and House of Repre¬ 
sentatives Bill 21316 entitled “A bill for preventing the 
manufacture, sale or importation of adulterated or mis¬ 
branded fungicides, Paris-greens. lead arsenates and other 
insecticides, and for regulating traffic therein and for other 
purposes.” The first section provides that any violation 
is a misdemeanor, punishable by a fine not to exceed $509 
or one years’ imprisonment, or both, and if brought up on 
a second count, the tine is doubled with the imprisonment 
clause in the discretion of the court. 
Under section 4 a motion was made to insert the word 
wilfully (wilfully violated), but the entomologists and 
representatives of the department voted against that, and 
in section 5 a discussion arose as to who should have 
the authority to start prosecutions, and a clause “Under 
authority of the Secretary of Agriculture” was inserted, 
so as to make it plain that in the National Bill there 
was some head to its enforcement and not leave the 
initiative to any director of experiment stations or agent 
of any State, or the District of Columbia. Sections 6 and 
7 caused the most discussion. The intent of the promo¬ 
ters of the bill seemed to be to concentrate unquestioned 
authority of oversight in the hands of the Department of 
Agriculture, and the manufacturers brought up various 
questions, all of which were fairly and frankly considered. 
In section 6, the words “Man or other animals” were 
stricken out so as to confine the section to its legitimate 
purpose, that of affecting insecticides used upon vegeta¬ 
tion. There was also a definition added, that the term 
“Miscible Oils” shall include all preparations of petroleum 
to be used in water. 
A resolution was offered on part of the manufacturers 
thanking the gentlemen in charge of this meeting. F. 
Dwight Sanderson, of Durham, N. H.. and Prof. Smith, 
of New Brunswick, N. J., for inviting them to be present. 
BENJAMIN HAMMOND. 
