1911. 
THE RURAI> NEW-YORKER 
lOll 
EVENTS OF THE WEEK. 
DOMESTIC.—In sentencing Marino Rossi, 
the first person to go to prison under the 
new Sullivan weapon law, Judge Foster, 
of the New York General Sessions, said 
September 27, that he would make an ex¬ 
ample that would show to the community 
that promiscuous gun carrying has to stop. 
Rossi got a year in the penitentiary. The 
court said that it thought a stiff sentence 
was advisable, because it was altogether 
too customary for Italians to go about 
armed. Rossi was arrested in Mulberry 
street with a revolver in his pocket. He 
said that he was on his way from his 
home in New Jersey to get work in New 
Haven and that it was customary among 
his friends to carry pistols. 
Jared Flagg, ,Tr., and the eight men 
who were arrested with him in connection 
with the scheme of the author of “Flagg’s 
Flats” to take large profits out of Wall 
Street, were indicted September 28 by the 
Federal Grand Jury. They are jointly ac¬ 
cused of having “unlawfully and know¬ 
ingly devised scheme and artifice to de¬ 
fraud” and used the mails to carry it out. 
The names of the complainants in the in¬ 
dictment are two women, Julia E. Wood 
of Reading, Pa., and Bertha L. Bentley of 
Corry, Pa. Mrs. Bentley is the wife of the 
postmaster of Corry and her name appeared 
in the complaint on which Flagg and his 
associates were arrested. The indictment 
says that Flagg and his associates repre¬ 
sented that they would deal in stocks and 
that they would take no account less than 
$1,000. The records of the concern pur¬ 
ported to show that the profits averaged 50 
per cent, for four years and that all profits 
in excess of this were to go to “the mutual 
protection of all investors.” These pre¬ 
tences were fraudulent, the indictment says. 
Three carloads of Lapland reindeer from 
northern Newfoundland arrived at Edmon¬ 
ton, Alberta, September 26. There were 
forty-three reindeer in three cars and a 
fourth was stocked with reindeer food, moss 
and grass. The reindeer are the represen¬ 
tatives of the species with which the De¬ 
partment of the Interior had planned to 
stock the Mackenzie district. The animals 
are to be used for carrying purposes for 
the long reaches of the north in place of 
dogs. The animals will be taken by rail as 
far as Stony Creek, sixty miles north of 
Edmonton, and from that point they will 
be taken overland to Athabasca Landing. 
Some that have been well broken will be 
led and others will be conveyed in wagons. 
At Athabasca Landing the animals will be 
placed in scows and floated down the Atha¬ 
basca River to Fort Smith. They will have 
traveled fully 5,000 miles by the time their 
journey is at an end. The animals have 
become quite tame during their long journey. 
The experiment of stocking the far North¬ 
west with reindeer is the result of the 
experience of Dr. Grenfell, the missionary 
in Labrador, who first brought them from 
Lapland a few years ago and has suc¬ 
cessfully raised them there,where his origi¬ 
nal herd has increased more than threefold. 
The mounted police will take charge of the 
present consignment. 
September 30 the town of Austin, Pa., 
was devastated by flood when the dam of 
the Bayless Pulp and Paper Company of 
Binghamton, N. Y., gave way under pressure 
of the great body of water impounded after 
recent rains. Austin is thirty-five miles 
southeast of Olean, N. Y., and about the 
same distance from Bradford, Pa. The 
loss of life is believed to be from 86 to 
100, but until the wreckage is removed this 
is uncertain. Many of Austin’s citizens, 
including a majority of the young people, 
were attending a ball game in an adjacent 
town when the flood occurred, and this 
saved many lives. About two years ago 
Austin was threatened with similar de¬ 
struction when the dam was weakened by 
Winter rains and for several days the 3.000 
inhabitants of the town were compelled to 
camp out in the snow on the hills for fear 
that a deluge would sweep down upon their 
homes in the valley from the crael{ed and 
straining dam. 
The steady rising of the Mahoning River 
and its tributaries in a downpour of rain 
October 1, with the washing out of the par¬ 
tially completed dam at the Republic Iron 
and Steel Company’s reservoir in Coitsville 
township, caused a flood in Youngstown, O., 
and the vicinity, with a property loss of 
$500,000. Railroad and suburban traffic 
on most lines and city street car service 
were tied up for the greater part of Octo¬ 
ber 2. 
Rear Admiral Winfield Scott Schley died 
suddenly in New York October 2. Admiral 
Schley was born in Maryland 72 years ago. 
He had seen much naval service. His con¬ 
troversy with Admiral Sampson regarding 
achievement during the Spanish War made 
his name familiar to many otherwise un¬ 
acquainted with naval affairs. 
Abraham Lichtenstein of the Licfiten- 
stein Millinery Company of Fifth avenue, 
New Y'ork, one of the largest importing 
concerns of the kind in town, was sent from 
the United States Circuit Court in New 
York October 2 under a four months’ sen¬ 
tence to the penitentiary. Seven years of 
smuggling and the “sleeper trunk” scheme 
are laid at his door and his concern has 
paid $120,000 to settle civil suits brought 
by the Government. Judge Hough, who 
sentenced him, drew a distinction between 
commercial smugglers and “foolish persons” 
who smuggle jewelry for their own wear, 
lie also had before him Nathan Allen, the 
leather manufacturer of Kenosha, Wis., who 
was indicted for smuggling jewelry. Allen 
was fined $12,000. John R. Collins of 
Memphis, Tenn., president of the Southern 
f’oal Company, indicted for conspiracy to 
smuggle as a part of the same affair, was 
fined $4,000. A civil suit will be brought 
by the Government to recover the home 
value of the smuggled jewelry plus the duty, 
in all about $128,000. The District At¬ 
torney is going after crooked customs offi¬ 
cials who made it possible for Allen and 
Collins to slip jewelry iij without paying 
duty. Both men will be called upon to 
tell the Grand Jury whom they bribed. 
Five sellers of adulterated or impure 
food were convicted in New York Special 
Sessions October 2, and released on pay¬ 
ment of fines ranging from $10 to $100. 
They included the manager of a large pack* 
ing house and a milk dealer who has the 
contract to supply Bellevue and Allied Hos¬ 
pitals. Bert Dean, the milk dealer, was 
convicted of selling to the hospital milk 
below the standard fixed by the Department 
of Health and paid a fine of $100. George 
P. Horton, manager of the Cudahy Packing 
Company’s station at 153d street and Brook 
avenue, paid a fine of $25 for having in 
his place a quantity of spare ribs unfit for 
human consumption. 
FARM AND GARDEN.—Commissioner 
Cabell, of the Internal Revenue Bureau, will 
recommend the enactment of a law com¬ 
pelling manufacturers to label all adulter¬ 
ated butter, including that containing 16 
per cent moisture, as well as to pay the 
revenue tax now assessed against that arti¬ 
cle. This was made known September 28 
to representatives of butter merchants from 
New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, 
Baltimore, St. Louis and Pittsburgh, who 
protested against the rigorous course of 
the government in holding them liable for 
the tax on butter containing an excess of 
moisture. The responsibility, they insisted, 
rested entirely with the manufacturer. Com¬ 
missioner Cabell said the Treasury Depart¬ 
ment was not able to give any relief, as 
it was merely enforcing the law. 
At the recent convention of the Texas 
Nurserymen’s Association at Waco, the fol¬ 
lowing officers were re-elected for the cur¬ 
rent year President, J. It. Mayhew, Waxa- 
liachie; vice-president, J. R. Downing, 
Wichita Falls; secretary and treasurer, J. S. 
Kerr, Sherman. The meeting place for 1912 
will not be determined until next July. 
Dr. James H. Kelley, a veterinary sur¬ 
geon, died at his home in New Haven, 
Conn., October 1, of glanders. About a 
month ago he was treating a horse suffering 
with the disease. The horse sneezed or 
coughed into Dr. Kelley’s face and he in¬ 
haled some of the germs, in the opinion of 
the doctors who have beeu attending him. 
After Dr. Kelley became ill it was believed 
that he had typhoid fever, but an analysis 
of his blood showed that he had been pois¬ 
oned with the glanders germs. 
Cleveland railway clerks have formed a 
company, with a capitalization of $10,000, 
to raise chickens, and are seeking a suitable 
tract of about 150 acres. It probably will 
be between Cleveland and Lorain. 
NEWS FROM ALBANY, N. Y. 
Interstate Highways. —L. H. Page, di¬ 
rector of the United States Office of Public 
Roads, recently conferred at Albany with 
State officials representing the highway de¬ 
partments of New York, Massachusetts, 
Connecticut and New Hampshire, concern¬ 
ing a system of interstate highways to be, 
built according to a standard uniform 
width and to be maintained in the best 
possible condition at all seasons of the year. 
Among the most important recommendations 
considered were the elimination of danger¬ 
ous curves and the death-inviting grade 
crossings. It is hoped that as a result of 
this first conference of State officials a 
nation-wide cooperation has been started 
which will lead to a system of improving 
main thoroughfares from State to State. 
Trained Stilt.men. —An official in the 
Agricultural Department here, reading that 
thousands of men in England earn their 
livings during a considerable portion of the 
year by their ability to walk on stilts, work¬ 
ing in the hop fields of Kent, where they 
have displaced the high stepladders for¬ 
merly in use, has suggested that stilts 
might be used in many orchards to great 
advantage. This official believes that stilt 
walkei's. 12 feet from the ground, might do 
most efficient work in grafting and prun¬ 
ing, as well as at apple-picking time—at 
least among dwarf tree orchards. However, 
it is hardly thought the suggestion will at¬ 
tain the dignity of a bulletin. 
Wild Rabbit Sale Not Prohibited.— 
The State Conservation Commission has 
notified its game protectors that the sale 
of wild rabbits during the open season is 
not prohibited, as the printed bulletins re¬ 
cently issued stated. 
State Civil Service. —Though it is often 
asserted that holders of State positions 
never die and that few x'esign, yet, either 
vacancies occur after some fashion or else 
a host of new positions is created, for the 
State Civil Service Commission seems to 
be constantly announcing the holding of 
new examinations. Less than a month ago 
2,500 eager seekers after easy money filed 
applications for the various examinations 
held in all the State’s pi'incipal cities, and 
the positions to be filled were about 200. 
The commission has recently announced 
that another open competitive examination 
for the State, county and village service 
will be held in the Various cities October 
14, for bookkeepers, two grades, in State 
departments and institutionsi for chemist 
in the Department of Agricultxire; for phar¬ 
macists, head literary teacher, trained 
nurses and women officers in State institu¬ 
tions. 
State Factory Investigation. — The 
Commission appointed by the Legislature as 
a direct result of the Aseh building fire in 
New York City, in which 140 or moi'e em¬ 
ployees lost their lives, to investigate con¬ 
ditions under which manufacturing is car¬ 
ried on in the principal cities of the State, 
will begin its public hearings in New York 
October 10. The scope of the investigation 
will embrace hazard to life because of fire; 
accident prevention; danger to life and 
health because or unsanitary conditions; 
occupational diseases such as consumption, 
lead poisoning and bone disease, and a 
study as to what extent the present laws 
are enforced. 
Interesting Statistics.— John D. Moore, 
one of the State Conservation Commission¬ 
ers. recently told the Conservation Congx-ess 
at Kansas City that one-third of this State 
is wild forest land, the Adirondack and 
Catskill parks containing more than 1,600,- 
000 acres owned by the whole people; that 
our State nurseries are now the finest in 
the world and last year supplied to lum¬ 
ber companies and other growers nearly 
2,000,000 ti'ees, while the growing stock 
therein now numbers more than 15,000.000; 
that New York State has a greater amount 
of developed water power than any other 
State, while practically one million horse¬ 
power remains to be harnessed. Our game 
laws prohibit the sale of game (except 
rabbits) shot either in this State or any 
other State of the Union, yet within the 
past month nearly $10,000 was realized 
from the sale of tags to be attached to im¬ 
ported birds, such is the demand for game 
in the greatest American market, New 
York City. Hunters’ licenses to the num¬ 
ber of 140.000 were issued last year, and 
though 12.000 deer were shot last season 
these animals are more abundant than ever. 
Conference of State Sanitary Officers. 
—The eleventh annual conference of the 
State sanitary oflicials is announced to be 
held in New York City October 25, 26 and 
27. All of the subjects to be discussed are 
important, but the most interesting to 
those of rural districts are quarantine in 
cities, disinfection, stream pollution, pure 
food, including cold storage, and public 
health legislation. 
Vandalism. —The following dispatch from 
Hudson, Columbia County, appeared in an 
Albany paper September 27: “What was 
considered the largest and oldest Green¬ 
ing apple tree in New York State has 
been cut down. It stood near a line 
fence on Dr. F. D. Clum’s propei'ty, at 
Cheviot, and owing to complaints being 
made by one of Dr. Clum’s neighbors 
about its mammoth limbs extending on his 
property, the physician * was compelled to 
have the tree cut down. It was planted in 
1791 and was 13 feet in circumference. 
The tree was as healthy as ever, and for 
the past 25 years it bore an average of 14 
barrels of fruit. 
Albany’s Shade Trees. —The public press 
of the city teems with letters from indig¬ 
nant residents concerning the destruction 
of the city’s shade trees. It is asserted 
that unless prompt and vigoi’ous measures 
are resorted to that the magnificent elms in 
the Capitol Park, the Academy Park and 
Washington Park will be entirely destroyed. 
The pines in the last-named park are dying 
and the scale is attacking the ash and 
other trees. One newspaper sarcastically 
says : “Why should the city administration 
care for the trees? The trees cannot vote 
nor contribute to the political league. The 
city administration has to keep the party 
together; the cai'e of the ti'ees may wait 
for a more convenient season.” 
Athletic Commission Law. —The Legis¬ 
lature of 1911 has many sins to answer for, 
and not the least of these was the enact¬ 
ing of the athletic commission law. It was 
contended, and the governor permitted 
himself to be deluded into the belief that 
this law would prevent the disorderly and 
unregulated exhibitions of “boxing” which 
had been given in every section of the State 
for the past few years. But a try-out of 
the new law soon disclosed that the lowest 
elements of society bad seized upon the legal 
protection affoi'ded to give their fellow- 
bestial spirits the most revolting and 
bloodiest fistic exhibitions seen for many 
years. Only the manhood of one of the 
commissioners and the concerted action of 
the public press has served to stop for the 
time being a repetition of this brutality. 
Governor Dix on September 29 sent to the 
Legislature a special message asking for 
the repeal of this law. The Legislature 
paid absolutely no attention to the request. 
The Governor, however, promises that he 
will take such steps as he cau to prevent 
such occurrences and will evercise what¬ 
ever power he has to that end. 
The Gittins Bill. —The bill of Senator 
Gittins, which sought to relieve directors 
from responsibility for betting on race¬ 
tracks, is finally dead, though merchants 
and farmers by the hundreds and many 
newspapers of the Eastern part of the State 
petitioned the Legislature for its enact¬ 
ment during the l'ecent session. The bill’s 
sponsors, after careful canvassing, did not 
dare bring the bill up for a vote, although 
at one time they expressed entire confidence 
in their ability to pass it. Another year 
will witness a renewal of their efforts. J. 
DIARY OF FARM WORK. 
Four Days on a Canadian Dairy Farm. 
June 15.—The hour of 5.15 in the morn¬ 
ing found me building the kitchen fire. This 
was half an hour later than during seed 
time, for our strenuous days were past for 
a time, allowing us a breathing space be¬ 
fore haying. Sydney, my 14-year-old 
brother-in-law, saddled his chestnut pony 
and soon disappeared behind a maple grove, 
the little mare’s flowing tail stretched 
straight behind her as she sped on her way 
to the cow pasture. By the time Sydney 
had the cows in the stable ready for milk¬ 
ing, I had tied up and fed the bull, fed and 
hitched the horses in their stalls, and pro¬ 
vided a morning meal for the pigs and 
chickens. Our three-year-old Holstein bull, 
a grandson of the famous King Segis, runs 
loose in a covered yard at night, and is 
coaxed to his stanchion by a little proven¬ 
der in the morning. The horses also have 
their freedom after supper, coming up with 
the cows in the morning for their bi'eakfast. 
which they find awaiting them in their 
stalls. When we had finished milking we 
turned out the cows and placed the milk 
cans on an elevated stand near the road, 
ready for the milk team to carry them to 
the creamery. It was now 7.30. and break¬ 
fast was the next order of the day. Sydney 
had to go to school, and Bert, olir day man, 
was away for a week, so I was alone until the 
night milking, when Sydney again helped 
me. We took our time at breakfast, and 
did up some odds and ends of chores after- 
wards. so it was 9.30 o’clock by the time I 
l'eached the cornfield with hoe and planting 
bag, ready to put in a hill here and there 
where the planter had missed. At 11.30 I 
left the cornfield and went up to the barn 
to empty the cans of skim-milk which were 
waiting for me on the milk stand. Part of 
this milk was saved for the calves, and the 
remainder dumped into the pigs’ barrel. I 
forgot to say that a good half pail of milk 
was poured into a long wooden trough for 
the hens. After providing for the wants of 
the horses and pigs, we sat down to our 
plain but wholesome dinner, lingering for a 
time in conversation to enjoy the coolness 
of the room and the pleasant outlook xipon 
lawix and flower beds. 
At 1.15 I was again planting com, which 
I finished at 3 p. m. The good lady of the 
house came out with a few baskets to pick 
our first ripe strawberries, so I dropped my 
hoe at the end of the last row of corn and 
went over to the berry patch to help her. 
We soon had four baskets full of lxiseious 
beauties, which we carried over to the 
house, longing, as we went, for the supper 
hour to arrive. I then hitched old Tom 
to the milk wagon and drove over to the 
mill, fortunsftely only a step, for the grist 
which T left there the day before. The 
steel grinder in this old mill is run by’ a 
40 horse-power water wheel, under a good 
head of water, so the power developed is 
sufficient to pulverize a ton or two of grain 
in short order. At 4 o’clock my provender 
was emptied into the feed boxes and I 
started on foot for the cows. I was in no 
hurry, so, after starting the cows on their 
homewai'd march, T seated myself on the 
top rail of the fence in my favorite corner 
at the foot of the lane, feasting my eyes, as 
the novelists say, upon the rolling stretch 
of meadowland reaching towai'd the east, 
and backed by green and partially wooded 
hills, with blue mountains in the distance. 
All this was good to look at. and in a large 
way a compensation for many of the hard¬ 
ships of farm life, but the thought of those 
first strawberries drew me from my perch 
After tying the cows in the stable.’ feeding 
the horses and pigs, earing for the fowls 
and gathering the eggs, I went over to sup¬ 
per. It was then 5 o’clock, and I think we 
all hurried just a little more than usual to 
get down to our places at the table, for in 
the center stood a large glass bowl heaped 
with those first strawberries. By the way, 
we feasted on this fruit for over a month, 
haviYig our last feast of Brandy wines and 
Sample on July 22. At 0.45 the evening 
milking was finished and the day’s work 
over. Those strawberries made the 15th of 
June a red letter day in our household. 
September 11.—Not much to tell to-day. 
This was a busy day, but one of the 
uneventful sort. After the morning milk¬ 
ing. or about seven o’clock, Bert took the 
team and went for the manure spreader 
We hire this from a neighbor at 10 cents 
per hour, finding this plan cheaper for a 
100-acre farm than owning and housing 
one ourselves. The actual cost to us each 
year would not pay the interest on the cost 
of a spreader, to say nothing of storage 
and repairs. The manure we had on hand 
was what had accumulated in various 
places since last Spring, or, more correctly, 
since last Winter, for as soon as the snow 
left us the ground was too soft for hauling. 
We started in with a two-horse team, but 
after drawing out a couple of loads we de¬ 
cided that it would pay to load a little 
heavier and use a third horse, which we 
did. Bert stayed at the barn, while I went 
to the field with a load, busying himself in 
the meantime by cleaning out box stalls, 
mending the driveway or scraping xip the 
manure into more convenient shape for 
loading. I seemed to bo riding most of the 
time, for T had quite a distance to go to 
reach the field, and the two of us loaded 
up pretty quickly, using six-tined dung 
forks and working rapidly. We applied 
this manure thinly to our new-seeded 
meadow, pushing back the adjusting lever to 
allow a more liberal dressing whenever an 
exposed knoll was crossed. We find that 
this Fall top-dressing nearly always pre¬ 
vents winter-killing and insures at least 
two good hay crops from our meadows. We 
worked at the manure until five o’clock, 
then did the chores, finishing our day’s 
woi-k at six o’clock. c. s. m. 
COMING FARMERS’ MEETINGS. 
Virginia State Fail', Richmond, October 
9-14. 
Massachusetts Poultry Association, Am¬ 
herst, October 11-12. 
New England Fruit Show. Boston, Mass., 
October 23-28. 
National Dairy Show, Chicago, Ill., Oc¬ 
tober 26-November 4. 
National Gai-deners’ Association, Madi¬ 
son. N. ,T., October 26-27. 
National Creamery Butter Makers’ Asso¬ 
ciation, Chicago, November 1-3. 
Indiana Apple Show, Indianapolis, No. 
vember 6-11. 
Maine Corn and Fruit Show, Portland, 
November 6-11. 
Massachusetts Corn Show, Springfield, 
Mass.,. November 7-9. 
Farm Institute Workers’ Convention, 
Columbus, O., November 13-15. 
Boston Chamber of Commerce Agricul¬ 
tural Exhibit. October 2-31. 
American Road Congress, Richmond, Va., 
November 20-23. 
National Grange, Columbus, O., Novem¬ 
ber 15-24. 
Maine Seed Impi'ovement Association, 
Waterville, November 21-23. 
National Apple Show, Spokane, Wash., 
November 27-30. 
Federation of Agi-icultural Association, 
Keyser, W. V., November 27-December 1. 
N. Y. State Dairymen’s Ass’n, Olean, 
December 12-13. 
Maine Live Stock Breeders’ Association, 
Orono, December 14-15. 
Illinois State Horticultural Society, De¬ 
cember 11-16. 
Conventions, Pennsylvania Live Stock and 
Horticultural Associations, Duquesne Gar¬ 
den, Pittsburgh, Januai-y 15-20. 
Livingston County. N. Y., Poultry Show, 
Janxxary 16-19, 1912. 
N. J. State Board of Agriculture, January 
17-19. 
N. .Y. State Grange, Auburn, N, Y., Feb¬ 
ruary 6-9. 
Consular Reports give the following as 
America’s 10 best customers: England, 
$536,591,730, $287,495,814, $269;806,013; 
France, $135,271,648; Netherlands, $96,- 
103,376; Mexico. $61,281,715; Cuba, $60,- 
709.062; Italy. $60,580,766; Belgium, $45,- 
016,622; Argentina, $43,918,511. 
