19 Li 
lOl 
events of the week. 
DOMESTIC.—Cook. Minn., broke tbe cold 
weather record for the United States Janu¬ 
ary 10 with a temperature of 50 below 
7M . 0 \11 tbe thermometers there burst at 
th-it figure. It was 50 below at various 
Canadian points, 23 below at St. Paul, 
Minn and 20 below at La Crosse. Wis.. 
where the temperature had been below zero 
i q ^avs jn succession. January 12 was the 
coldest day in Missouri since 1885), 20 be¬ 
low zero being recorded at Sedalia. It was 
19 below zero at Norfolk, Neb., and 33 be- 
low r at Omaha, where railroad traffic was 
nt a standstill. In Texas it was the coldest 
weather for 20 years, the temperature 
ramring from 10 below in Panhandle towns 
to 18 above along the Gulf. Snow fell for 
the first time in 15 years at Galveston, 
Beaumont. San Antonio and Houston. In 
the preceding 30 hours the thermometers 
over the State showed a general fall of 50 
to 70 degrees. Six persons were frozen to 
death. January 13 was the coldest day of. 
the Winter in many sections of New York 
State. At Washingtonville, N. Y.. it was 
40 below zero; Adirondack points. 20 to 40 
below; Cortland 33 below. Reports from 
Bolivar, in Allegany County, and I-Iornell. 
in Steuben, say there was much suffering 
at both places on account of low natural 
gas pressure, caused by the cold. At Boli¬ 
var the temperature was 27 degrees below 
zero and at Hornell it was 24. 
January 14 five men were afloat on the 
ice field in the lake off Rogers Park, Chi¬ 
cago. with no hope of rescue. Five large* 
steamers were held in the ice, and the 
steamer Flora M. Hill, from Waukegan to 
Chicago, was overdue and believed to have 
foundered with 25 men. 
Thirty American fishing vessels, with 
cargoes of frozen herring valued at $500.- 
000 , were imprisoned in the ice floes off the 
coast of Newfoundland, and threatened with 
destruction. In response to an appeal from 
the Collector of Customs at Gloucester, 
Mass., the Assistant Secretary of the 
Treasury. Mr. Bailey. January 15 ordered 
the revenue cutters Androscoggin and Gres¬ 
ham to their assistance. 
January 10 fire destroyed the Revere 
House, one of the oldest and best-known 
hotels in Boston. Two lives were lost, and 
the property damage was $100,000. 
FARM AND GARDEN.—An Angora goat 
show was opened at Dallas, Oregon. Janu¬ 
ary 3. The Angoras prove of great value 
in the Pacific Northwest as cleaners of 
logged-off lands. The Oregon mohair is said 
to be of exceptional quality, the 1911 crop 
being valued at $150,000. 
The University of Idaho is sending a 
demonstration train over the Northern 
Pacific road. The speakers and demonstra- 
tors Include W. II. Olin, director of agri¬ 
cultural extension work for the university; 
W. L. Carlyle, dean of agriculture and di¬ 
rector of the experiment station; IV. II. 
Wicks, professor of horticulture; L. F. 
Childers, professor of agronomy; O. C. 
Gregg, practical dairyman and institute 
lecturer from Minnesota ; E. V. Ellington, 
associate professor of dairying, and B. T. 
Byrns, stockman and farmer, from Moscow. 
Several champion farm animals and ma¬ 
terials for dairy and farm demonstrations 
accompany the lecturers. 
Six thousand dollars was the price paid 
by W. II. Piehonor, of Oconomowoc, Wis.. 
for the bull calf of Dolly Dimple, the prize 
cow of the F. Lathrop Amos collection at 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
North Easton, Mass. Tbe calf was born 
four weeks ago and will be shipped West 
when it reaches the age of six months. 
This price is the highest on record, for a 
calf in this vicinity. 
It is reported that the townspeople have 
petitioned the trustees of the Massachusetts 
Agricultural College to again offer for sale 
the fruits, flowers, vegetables and other 
products of the college farm, a rule pro¬ 
hibiting the sale having been adopted be¬ 
cause the town dealers entered a protest. 
Governor Dix, of New York, has ap¬ 
pointed Calvin .T. Iluson, of Penn Yan, 
State Commissioner of Agriculture, in place 
of Dr. Raymond A. Pearson, resigned. 
A suspension for six months of the duty 
of 25 cents a bushel on potatoes was pro¬ 
posed in a bill introduced at Washington, 
January 10. by Representative Ayres, of 
New York. The bill says that “the scarcity 
of potatoes in the markets of the United 
States has raised the price to a point al¬ 
most prohibitive to the consumer.” 
N. Y. STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
The seventy-second annual meeting of the 
New York State Agricultural Society in co¬ 
operation with the State Agricultural De¬ 
partment and several germane societies, in¬ 
cluding a Mothers’ Club, held in Albany the 
10th, 17th and 18th insts., was successful 
from many points of view. An attractive, 
not to say ambitious, programme had been 
prepared; reduced railroad rates secured; 
the Governor of the State and the Lieu¬ 
tenant-Governor were glad to preside at 
evening sessions: the redoubtable Lew 
Shank, that mayor of Indianapolis, who low¬ 
ered the pride of all commission men, was 
proud to tell his remedies for high prices; 
Mayor Gaynor of New York came to talk 
about the cost-of-living problems, and a 
dozen lesser lights shone forth in a most 
illuminating way; so the meeting was un¬ 
doubtedly a success. The only fly in the 
ointment, possibly, was that there were but 
few of the genuine old-style farmers from 
the surrounding counties who might, with 
but little effort, have attended, ready to 
take to heart the words of wisdom of the 
trained agriculturists; the explanations of 
freight rates by representatives of two 
great railroads; and the reasons advanced 
by Senator Travis for opposing the Collin 
hill last year. Then, too, the Legislature 
was in session, but it is lamentable to re¬ 
late that the members did not flock to the 
meetings in any great numbers. 
Raymond A. Pearson. Commissioner of 
Agriculture, as president of the Agricul- 1 
tural Society, presided throughout in a 
masterful way which proved his ability to 
manage a deliberative body of independent 
free-born American citizens. The success 
of the meeting was primarily due to Mr. 
Pearson. When, at noon of the first day 
of the gathering, it was whispered through 
the Assembly parlor in the Capitol, where 
the sessions were held, that Commissioner 
Pearson had been but a few moments be¬ 
fore replaced in the commissionership by 
Governor Dix's sending to the Senate the 
name of Calvin .T. Iluson. of Penn Yan, 
many expressions of sincere regret were 
heard from Mr. Pearson’s friends that his 
long term of service in the department was 
to end. 
Tuesday morning, the Kith inst.. the 
Assembly parlor was comfortably filled 
with members of the societies, who lis¬ 
tened to an admirable short report of the 
committee on publicity, read by Chairman 
F. W. Sessions, of Utica, As a result of 
this paper, the Agricultural Society, there 
and then, decided to put away the modesty 
that has so long cloaked most things agri¬ 
cultural in this State, and henceforth to 
adopt the tactics of those Western States 
which, when shipping a box of apples to 
Now York, immediately causes notices of 
that box to he sent far and wide and the 
proclamation to be made that the West is 
the only apple-growing section of the 
United States. So hereafter, when the 
editorial associations of New York State 
meet there also will be Mr. Sessions as a 
committee from the Agricultural Society to 
tell the assembled makers of news of the 
products, possibilities and resources of the 
Empire State, and to see that the same is 
duly set forth. 
Former Assemblyman Fred Boshart. of 
Lowville. repoi'ted on the legislation affect¬ 
ing farmers enacted last year. The dis¬ 
cussion of this report brought the Collin 
bill of 1911 to the surface, and some hard 
things were said about the men who de¬ 
feated this measure for which so many 
farmers were petitioning the Legislature. 
Next came 10 minute papers on the cost 
of producing cauliflower and asparagus, on 
marketing problems, etc., and these brought 
up to the lunch hour. At two o’clock Gov¬ 
ernor Dix greeted the members of the 
Guernsey and Jersey breeders’ clubs in a 
committee room on the second floor of the 
Capitol. After the Governor had eon- 
eluded. the clubs were addressed by Prof. 
James E. Russell, of Columbia University, 
on advanced registry tests. 
At the afternoon session, before tackling 
the programme. Gilbert MeClnrg. the pro¬ 
moter of the recent land show held in New 
York, told of the land show that is to be 
held next November in the Seventy-first 
Armory, New York City, and of the ad¬ 
vantages likelv to accrue from if. Prof. 
G. F. Warren', of the State College, next 
talked of farm costs and accounting. He 
held the attention of his hearers, who 
seemed to be particularly alive to every 
phase of each economic subject discussed. 
He explained how lax farm accounting was 
and. as a result, how difficult it is to ob¬ 
tain anvthing like an exact record of the 
cost of farm operations, such as what it 
cost to raise a bushel of corn, etc. Senator 
Ferris was drafted to take the place of the 
president of the Utica Citizens’ Trust Co., 
who was to have spoken on banking in its 
relation to the farmer. The Senator is vice- 
president of the trust company, and ac¬ 
quitted himself most creditably. Tie told 
of his trust company’s seeking for patron¬ 
age and how they had found a profitable 
lot of accounts among the farmers of his 
section. He spoke of the possibility of 
New York’s increasing the average values 
of land and how. if equal opportunities pre¬ 
sented for increasing manufacturing values, 
the banks would he tumbling over each 
other to obtain the business. 
Then followed two young men. represent¬ 
ing the New York Central and Lehigh \ al¬ 
ley roads, both endeavoring satisfactorily 
to explain the relations between railroad 
rates and the cost of products to the con¬ 
sumer. Their explanations were not all 
that might have been desired, evidently, for 
a number of pointed questions were fired 
at them which were a little too hard, or 
else the statistics were askew upon which 
they had based their calculations. 
It was at this point that an interruption 
occurred and a speech was delivered that was 
not down on the programme. Senator 
Travis, who had been seated in the rear 
of the parlor, arose and said he under¬ 
stood that earlier in the day comment had 
been made on his opposition to the Uollin 
bill at the last session. He proclaimed 
himself a Jobber, not a commission man. 
lie noticed that on the programme no 
dealer in farm products was down for a 
speech; there were two sides to every 
question, and he took issue with the rail¬ 
road representatives about the selling of 
products by retail grocers. lie said the re¬ 
tail grocer was a much maligned man ; that 
try his best he could not get more than 
22 quarts of potatoes out of a bushel, for 
he had to cull out all the little and im¬ 
perfect ones; and the prices he received 
had to cover the entire bushel, the hand¬ 
ling. the delivery, the rents, the lights and 
tin- rotten ones. Coming back to the Collin 
bill the Senator said that not a man in 
the room would agree with him : not one 
had the same point of view. Himself a 
dealer who bought where he liked, receiv¬ 
ing no goods on commission, the question 
whether the farmer sold direct to the con¬ 
sumer was of no interest to him. for Just 
as long as time existed there would be room 
for distributors of products. In large cen¬ 
tres they existed and always would. Tie 
told the same story he related last year 
of finding a length of stove pipe in a barrel 
of apples he had purchased, thus arguing 
dishonesty of the farmers occasionally. He 
was associated with the commission men in 
New York and they were a splendid body 
of men. Just as opposed to dishonest deal¬ 
ers as the farmers, and just as anxious to 
weed them out. The association was seek¬ 
ing all ways to drive them out of business, 
and the Senator hoped that the farmers 
would try equally as hard to drive out the 
dishonest members of their profession. TTe 
said: “You first demanded in the Collin 
bill that commission men be bonded at 
$10,000 and that the State should collect a 
license tax also. Have you stopped to think 
that this would be bonding a man ns to 
his solvency? It would be a boon to the 
bonding companies, hut it would drive a 
third of the commission men out of busi¬ 
ness—honest, capable men of small means.” 
He told of instances of products from the 
same farm selling on the same day. but a 
few hours apart, for markedly different 
prices, which to the unthinking would in¬ 
dicate thieving and collusion, yet where 
everything had been strictly honest. Tt was 
merely the breaking of the market which 
operated to make the difference. lie also 
declared that the Collin bill demanded 
physical impossibilities in the way of ob¬ 
taining names and addresses of purchasers, 
and though he had offered to prove this by 
taking men to the markets no one had 
accepted the offer for a demonstration, ne 
had tried to have Master Godfrey arrange 
for conferences with the commission men, 
hut had been unable to bring this about. 
The Senator spoke at great length, but by 
unanimous consent he was given all the 
time he desired. He told the farmers theirs 
was many times the fault for the losses 
they suffered, for they often elected to 
ship goods to unknown firms merely on the 
say-so of some smooth talker who happened 
along. Commission men are human, he 
said, and only desired to be treated like 
human beings. At the conclusion of his 
remarks several questions were asked to 
which he replied more or less satisfactorily. 
IoqsieI 
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They do what they were made 
to do. Hoosier Corn Planters 
are just Corn Planters—not for 
planting anything but corn. They 
are specialists in the Science of 
of Corn Planting—98 per cent, 
perfect on ungraded corn. No 
other planter can beat it; yet 
there isn’t a frill or fad in its 
make-up. Do you want to buy 
a simple, easy-to-understand, 98 
per cent, perfect, strong, depend¬ 
able Corn Planter, or do you 
want a bunch of trouble-making 
fads? Send for the Hoosier Corn 
Planter Catalogue. Read it, and 
then go to your local dealer and 
insist on seeing the Hoosier. 
Don’t buy a bunch of trouble, 
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