1911. 
133 
EVENTS OF THE WEEK. 
DOMESTIC.—Oil the recommendation of 
the Attorney General, based on a report 
from the surgeon general of the army, the 
President January 18 commuted the sen¬ 
tence of Charles W. Morse to expire at 
once. The New York banker, who was 
sentenced to imprisonment fqr 15 years for 
misapplication of the funds of the National 
Hank of North America, is therefore a 
free man, but his physical condition is such 
that it is considered doubtful whether he 
will survive more than a few months. The 
commutation, unlike a pardon, does not 
restore Morse’s civil rights. 
The Supreme Court of Nebraska January 
17 issued an injunction against serving 
liquors of any kind in dining cars. The 
injunction applies to the Union Pacific and 
the Burlington systems, but other lines will 
obey. Tile State law also prohibits one 
from taking a bottle upon a train and 
drinking therefrom. 
A cable from Seward, Alaska, January 17, 
says that Pavlofif volcano on the Alaska 
peninsula, west of Shumagin Islands, is in 
violent eruption. Andrew Grosswaid. store¬ 
keeper at Saudpoint, 00 miles from Pavlofif, 
sends word that stones can be seen hurled 
from the crater and that lava and smoke 
are issuing. PavlofT is accounted most ac¬ 
tive of Alaska volcanoes. 
Fifteen miners are reported killed and 40 
injured in a dust explosion in mine No. 4, 
of the Kemmerer Coal Company January 
21. There were 112 men in the mine at 
the time of the explosion and those who 
were not killed or injured went to the 
aid of their companions. 
Four railroad officials, among them .T. T. 
Haralmu. former president of the Illinois 
Central llailroad, riding in a private car 
attached to the rear of Illinois Central local 
train No. 25, were killed and three train¬ 
men were injured seriously when the Illinois 
Central Panama Limited crashed into the 
car at Kinmuudy, Ill., January 22. The 
private car was the only wooden coach in 
the two trains. The others were of steel. 
None of the passengers were hurt. The 
wreck occurred as No. 25 was standing at 
at the water tank at Kinmuudy taking 
water. All trains had orders to stop there 
for that purpose. The engine of the lim¬ 
ited ploughed through the wooden private 
car and was stopped by the steel coach 
ahead. The impact shoved the standing 
train 50 feet down the tracks. 
William E. Weber, chief accountant for 
the National Packing Company, resumed the 
witness stand in the Federal court at 
Chicago January 22, wherein the 10 in¬ 
dicted packers are on trial. lie was taken 
over the books of the company by attorneys 
for the Government. Every detail of the 
extensive examination was allowed to go 
to the jury. Details of allowances, or 
rather the lack of allowances, for hides 
during 1907 to 1909 was a fact which the 
Government sought to show. Upon this 
failure to allow for by-product the appar¬ 
ent cost of meat was more and as a 
result the sale price was correspondingly 
excessive over actual cost. Similarly, the 
Government has shown, there were periods 
when credits for hides were dropped irom 
the books of other packing firms. These 
periods were simultaneous in all instances. 
The National Packing Company, the Gov¬ 
ernment claims, was the pool in which ar¬ 
bitrary prices on fresh beef were made. 
Many of the figures’ developed are those of 
1907. 1908 and 1909, and hence within 
the period of the indictment under which 
the packers are on trial. 
Assistant United States Attorney Ilenry 
A. Guiler filed a suit January 22 in the 
Federal District Court, New York, against 
the New York, New Haven and Hartford 
Railroad to recover $10,000 in penalties for 
alleg(*d violation of the new Federal 16 
hour law. This law provides that no rail¬ 
road shall require an employee to work 
■ore than 16 hours out of 24 or if the 
employee does work 16 hours shall require 
him to resume work before 10 hours of 
r< lief. The Government says it has 
evidence showing 20 offences by the de¬ 
fendant road. This is the first prosecu¬ 
tion under the new law in this district. 
More than 600 claims have been staked 
out in the Militonas, Manitoba, gold field, 
where a regular Klondike rush began be¬ 
cause of the finding of gold in numerous 
fowls killed. Shops and stores in towns 
close to the field have been closed while 
their proprietors joined in the rush. 
Rutherford Page, 24 years old. a Yale 
g aduate, registered from New Y’ork and 
tying as one of the 'Curtis aviators, was 
instantly killed when he fell 150 feet on 
1 1 mingnez TYeld, Los Angeles, Cal., January 
22. a lew moments before the close of the 
third day's programme of the third inter- 
n: tional aviation meet. Page was endeav- 
oitng to ‘'turn on a pivot” when the swell 
of air over the hangars oaught his planes, 
lie made an effort to regain his balance, 
but evidently fearing the aeroplane was be¬ 
yond control, gave up, and when about 
60 feet in the air jumped clear of the ma¬ 
chine and fell flat into the plowed ground. 
According to the doctors he was crushed to 
d< nth. Page was flying for the first time 
as a licensed aviator. 
Raw paper stock and a storehouse of the 
Eastern Tablet Company and the American 
l’apeterie Company, valued at $60,000, were 
destroyed by fire at Albany, N. Y r ., January 
28. Tramps in an empty freight car on a 
sidetrack adjoining the storehouse were 
responsible for a fire which started in the 
car and communicated to the storehouse. 
The factory proper, a concrete building, 416 
h.v 250 feet, was saved, and the employees 
can continue at work. The stock and store 
were partly insured. 
The propriety of establishing a court of 
domestic relations h.v which attempts would 
he made to reconcile persons who contem¬ 
plated divorces, as well as grant divorces 
in uncontested eases, was discussed at Bos¬ 
ton, Mass., January 28, before the joint 
judiciary committee of the Legislature at 
the State House. The bill was fill'd by 
Henry C. Long, and is advocated by Bishop 
Lawrence, many clergymen and prominent 
professional men. The bill provides for 
tbe anoointment of a special justice, whose 
business it would be to investigate divorce 
cases before they were tried, with the hope 
of bringing the estranged couples together. 
The hearings would be private, the judge 
first hearing one side and then the other. 
THIS RURAL 
Afterward, if he thought it advisable, both 
sides would bo heard together. 
Special customs agents of the Treasury 
Department have uncovered a system of 
frauds by which hundreds of thousands of 
dollars' worth of furs have been smuggled 
into this country. Americans who pur¬ 
chased the furs in Canada also have been 
victimized. The special agents made arrests 
on the Canadian border not long ago and 
obtained confessions from persons engaged 
in the smuggling. Many American visitors 
to Montreal last Summer purchased furs, 
prepaying the duty, with the understanding 
that the furs would be sent by express 
to their residences in this country. In¬ 
stead of paying the duty the Canadian 
dealers, it is alleged, smuggled them into 
the United States, thereby not- only de¬ 
frauding the Government but making an 
additional profit at the expense of the 
Americans who paid the duty in advance. 
Because lie remembered the number on 
the machine of Simeon B. Eisendratli, which 
the police state killed Patrick Fay, Jr., on 
West End avenue, New York, January 19, 
Thomas Lorenz, one of the Fay boy’s 
playmates, will receive a gold medal from 
the National Highways Protective Associa¬ 
tion. Five other such medals have been 
given to persons who remembered automo¬ 
bile numbers needed in prosecutions. One 
boy, Arthur Lewis, saw an automobile strike 
several persons and dash away. He chalked 
its number on the sidewalk. 
HARVESTER TRUST INVESTIGATION. 
—F. J. Lowe, representing independent har¬ 
vester manufacturers January 17, told the 
Committee on Rules of the House that the 
luternatioal Harvester Company, with head¬ 
quarters in Chicago, is controlled by the 
United States Steel Corporation and other 
allied moneyed interests, including banks, 
sugar concerns and others. Mr. Lowe 
favored an investigation by a Congressional 
committee of the harvester concern. He 
connected the company with the Steel Cor¬ 
poration and the National City Bank of 
New York by showing an interlocking sys¬ 
tem of directors and other officers. lie 
declared that the Department of Justice 
had ‘'chloroformed every movement made to 
prosecute the Harvester Trust, as was shown 
by the fact that the Townsend report to 
the Department in 1906 had slumbered there 
ever since.” The political activities and 
general affairs of the International Harves¬ 
ter Company were discussed before the 
House Committe on Rules, which is con¬ 
sidering a proposed inquiry into several 
“Trusts.” The Secretary of Commerce and 
Labor, Mr. Nagle, participated in the dis¬ 
cussion, 
W. H. Green of Creighton, Neb. a dealer 
in farm machinery, declared that the so- 
called Harvester and Steel Trusts, the Na¬ 
tional City Bank of New York, and the 
great transportation systems of the country 
were dominated by the same directorates, 
lie urged the committee not to give the 
“Harvester Trust an immunity bath.” Ho 
asserted that the company had raised prices 
from 15 to 20 per cent. 
FARM AND GARDEN.—W. E. 1). Stolo4 
has presented to Booker T. Washington’s 
Tuskegee Institute Crystopoice, a $2,000 
trotting stallion from his I’atchen Wilkes 
farm at Lexington, K.v., and several East¬ 
ern horsemen have promised to give a num¬ 
ber of standard bred mares to form the 
nucleus of a large breeding establishment 
planned lor Tuskegee Institute. The offi¬ 
cers of Tuskegee Institute believe that the 
establishment of a large practical breeding 
plant will do much to interest their race*"’ 
in line stock breeding and agriculture. 
Thirty thousand pheasant eggs and 5.000 
pheasants will be distributed free to farm¬ 
ers, sportsmen and lovers of game birds 
this year from the New York State game 
farm in Sherburne. Official announcement was 
made January 20 that all persons inter¬ 
ested in tbe stocking of covers in this State 
should make application for one or two sit¬ 
tings of the eggs and have them hatched 
by a friend or farmer in places where they 
are desirous of having pheasants placed. 
Applications for the eggs and the birds 
must be made to the Conservation Com¬ 
mission at Albany. Blank applications will 
be sent to those who request them. It is 
planned tbe egg distributions shall begin 
about the middle of April and continue 
until early in July. The pheasants will be 
ready for distribution next August, Sep¬ 
tember and October. It is recommended 
that the eggs be hatched under any barn¬ 
yard hen. Not more than 15 to 18 pheas¬ 
ant eggs should he put under one hen. The 
youug birds when first hatched are hardy 
and grow rapidly. They oat readily any 
small crushed grain and are treated'much 
as one treats young chickens. 
A wagonload of Timothy seed from the 
C. II. Cooper place was the most valuable 
load ever brought to the Minneapolis, Minn., 
market. The net weight of the load was 
4870 pounds, and at the market price of 
Timothy seed was worth $1,092.50. It was 
thrashed from the hay of about 10 acres. 
VIRGINIA FRUIT GROWING. 
At tin' recent Virginia Horticultural So¬ 
ciety meeting Dr. S. W. Fletcher said : 
•“There is need of greater conservatism 
in Virginia fruit growing. We have been 
growing altogether too fast the past two 
years. If the depressed apple market of 
this season brings a little more caution, 
perhaps it will have been worth while, even 
though our pocket-books are suffering now. 
There lias been a wild scramble to plant 
apple trees. I am optimistic about the 
future of apple growing in Virginia. I be¬ 
lieve that an apple orchard in Virginia 
that is favorably located and properly 
cared for will always pay a reasonable 
profit, and hotter than most lines of farm¬ 
ing. But I do think there has been a 
great deal of hasty and ill-considered plant¬ 
ing in the State recently, chiefly by people 
who have not been interested in orcharding 
before. Many of these new-comers in the 
horticultural field seem to think that apple 
growing is a get-rich-quick proposition. 
They have perhaps taken the prices of 
1910 and the figures of phenomenal yields 
that are given in tin; reports of this society 
as average returns, and have built expecta¬ 
tions accordingly. The average returns of 
10 years would lie a safer guide. I do not 
wish to dishearten anybody, hut I do wish 
to impress very strongly the fact that the 
road to success will not be thornless, and 
IM W - V O xN. vw. K, FJ 
to urge these men to fortify themselves 
against the long wait before the orchards 
come into hearing, which causes so many 
to lose heart, and neglect the trees. 
“The rush of enthusiasm in apple grow¬ 
ing has led many to plant on unfavorable 
sites and on unsuitable soils. Large or¬ 
chards have been planted on soils that 
have not been proved adapted to apples. 
Orchards have been planted on low-lying 
lands where the blossoms will be cut off 
by frost. In the valley of Virginia hun¬ 
dreds of acres of apples have been planted 
on soils that should never he used for 
auything hut farm crops, like corn, wheat 
and grass. I have heard some enthusiastic 
fruit growers predict that the whole Shen¬ 
andoah Valley will soou be one vast or¬ 
chard. I hope not. It is for the best in¬ 
terest of any section that its agriculture 
be diversified. The heavy clay soils of the 
valley, especially those '.yiug low, are na¬ 
turally better adapted for wheat, corn and 
grass than for fruit. The ridges, with 
shale and gravel limestone soils, and good 
air drainage, are excellent for fruit, hut 
poorer for general farm crops. It is wise- 
economy, therefore, to plant fruit only on 
the ridges and uplands, and to keep the 
valley lands in farm crops. I hope the 
time will never come when more than five 
per cent of the arable laud of this valley 
is in orchard. Yet. in the rush to set out 
apple trees, many acres of first-class farm¬ 
ing land has been turned into poor orchard 
land. Furthermore, there has been a ten- 
deucy to plant too large an acreage. It is 
probable that small orchards under inten¬ 
sive culture will pay best in the future. 
“Before closing I must say a word about 
the orchard investment schemes that have 
sprung up in the State mostly during the 
past three years. In some of these propo¬ 
sitions the investor is asked to buy a live 
or 10-acre tract, which the promoters will, 
if desired, plant and care for until the 
trees have reached an age of five years. 
The investor then has a five-year-old or¬ 
chard on his hand, which has cost him 
from $800 to $.>00 an acre. Sometimes he 
is given to understand in the prospectus 
that this five or 10-acre orchard will sup¬ 
port him aud his family with ease. To 
all those who consult the Experiment Sta¬ 
tion about such an investment I invariably 
advise great caution. My reasons are: 
That these colony orchards are usually lo¬ 
cated on cheap land, which often has not 
been proved adapted for commercial fruit 
growing; the cost of the orchard at the 
time it is live years old is too great; 10 
acres of orchard without any supporting 
farm land is not a practicable farm unit 
in this section; it might be in some parts 
of the West, but it certainly is not here. 
I have failed to find a single colony or¬ 
chard that has been an unqualified success 
to anybody hut the promoters. Such 
schemes are so plausible, aud the golden 
profits so alluringly pictured iu the inspired 
prospectus seem so real, that many poor 
widows, city clerks and stenographers, who 
could not tell Y'ork apple tree from a 
Ivieffcr pear, pour in their pitiful savings, 
thinging that they are building a haven for 
their old age. The fool and his money are 
soon parted. I do not charge that the pro¬ 
moters of ‘colony’ orchards—or ‘unit sys¬ 
tem’ orchards, which are a little more 
plausible, and hence more dangerous—are 
intentionally and knowingly trying to de¬ 
fraud; hut I do say that both experience 
and common sense teach that these schemes 
are impracticable, and I shall continue to 
warn prospective investors against them, 
and hope you will do the same. You and 
I have a right to interest ourselves in 
theso matters, becaues the collanse of these 
orchard schemes will react upon the legiti¬ 
mate fruit interests of the State. 
“Nothing can bo said against orchard 
stock companies provided they are conser¬ 
vatively managed. It is just as reasonable 
for a man to buy stock in an orchard as 
in a manufacturing concern or railroad; 
he puts in his money because he has con¬ 
fidence that the enterprise is sound and 
will bring him a good rate of interest on 
the investment. I am inclined to think, 
however, that orchard stock companies 
which solicit subscriptions on the allure- 
incnt that a 50 per cent auuual dividend 
may be expected when the orchard is in 
bearing, will he called upon for explana¬ 
tions later. There are, of course, some ex¬ 
ceptional Instances where large profits have 
been made, hut the investor would do well 
not to expect more than the average. The 
average return in fruit growing, according 
to the census of 1900, is 9.6 per cent on 
the investment, which is a very fair return, 
and several per cent higher than the return 
m general farming. On the whole, the best 
way, and about the only way, to make 
money in fruit growing is to buy your 
own land and grow your own orchard. 
I'l-uit growing by proxy is likely to he dis¬ 
appointing.” 
Senator Gardner on the Grange. 
At the last annual session of the National 
Grange held in Columbus, Ohio, the follow¬ 
ing amendment to Section 2, of Article 18, 
of the By-Laws was adopted : 
“A member of the Order, having charges 
preferred against him in the National 
Grange, for offenses against the National 
Grange or any of the members, may be 
tried in the National Grange, and if found 
guilty may be reprimanded or suspended 
by majority vote, or may be expelled from 
the order by two-thirds vote, and the de¬ 
cision of the National Grange shall be 
final.” 
If any member of the Order had any 
doubts as to the revolutionary and bulldoz¬ 
ing tactics pursued by the officials in the 
“Hampton Trial,” this action on the part 
of the National Grange officials at the last 
session ought to remove all such doubts, it 
being a full confession that they had no 
such authority before. The action of 
the Executive Committee of the New Y'ork 
State Grange in their attempt to override 
and reverse the action of Clarksville Grange 
in acquitting Brother Hampton is not only 
without warrant of law, but is revolution¬ 
ary in the extreme and would, if the law 
was properly administered, render them lia¬ 
ble to he dealt with, and justifies the opin¬ 
ion of many that the idea has been to 
crush nampton and thereby crush all in¬ 
surgency. 
Relative to the above amendment to the 
By-Laws, the resolution voted by the Indi¬ 
ana State Grange, unanimously passed by 
that body iu session December 12-14, 1911, 
will he interesting to l'atrous. The resolu¬ 
tion is as follows: 
“Deeming it very unreasonable and unjust 
to clothe the National Grange with, author¬ 
ity to suspend or expel any member from 
the Order without a trial before the local 
Grange of which such person may he a 
member, and knowing of no Order which 
confers such power, be it 
“RESOLVED, that we are sternly opposed 
to and ask for a repeal of this un-American 
measure, at the next annual meeting of tue 
National Grange.” 
I am glad to see members of our Order 
rising in protest against the iniquitous and 
outrageous attempt of the National Grange 
to gag the members everywhere and intimi¬ 
date them for the purpose of preventing auv 
criticism of the conduct of the National 
Grange officers. I think it would he wiser 
to elect to office iu the Order, members 
who do not need to appropriate large sums 
from the National Grange treasury to de¬ 
fend their characters as officials ami to keep 
iu constant employ an attorney at the ex¬ 
pense of the Grange to prosecute auy who 
dare to tell the truth. I thiuk it is about 
time to adopt the recall in the Grange 
applying to those who voted in favor of that 
iniquitous piece of Russianism, forcing upon 
our Order an autocratic rule, against which 
every patron must protest if we would 
preserve that individual liberty among the 
members thereof upon which its perpetuity 
depends. A list of those whom I would 
make subject to recall may he found on 
page 168 of the Journal of Proceedings of 
the National Grange Session iu Columbus, 
GhiO. o. GARDNER. 
NEWS FROM ALBANY, N. Y. 
l.\ the Legislature. —Bills affecting the 
farmer or his interests have been intro¬ 
duced at the rate of about one for each 
working day of the session since the 3d ol 
January, hut of course this pace will not 
continue, though many more will come ou 
later. Up to the 22d of January these 
measures had been proposed: 
New school of agriculture in Greene 
County to cost $50,090. By Assemblyman 
Pa trie. 
Administration and demonstration build¬ 
ing at Geneva Experiment Station to cost 
$60,000. The introducer, Assemblyman 
Wilson, explains the pressing need of such 
a building; says that Governor Hughes two 
years ago approved of an appropriation of 
$40,000 for such a building, hut that the 
State Architect said the amount was not 
sufficient, so the appropriation lapsed; last 
year the hill passed again, hut Governor 
Dix felt constrained to veto it on account 
of the shortness of money in the treasury. 
Purchase of sites for six game farms to 
be selected by the Conservation Commis¬ 
sion ; appropriation, $75,000. By Senator 
Walters. 
Providing for the registration of farm 
names by payment of $1 fee; no duplication 
of names permitted in a county, nor can 
names he transferred with a part of the 
farm sold to another. 
Clause in the conservation law permitting 
the taking of rabbits at any time by own¬ 
ers of farm lands. By Senator Roosevelt. 
Licensing of persons engaged in the sale 
of farm products by the Commissioner of 
Agriculture, aud exacting a bond for $10,- 
000 to secure payment of persons consign¬ 
ing farm products to be sold ou commis¬ 
sion. By Assemblyman Sullivan; same as 
his bill of last year. 
Building and equipping a range of glass 
houses for experimental and teaching work 
in tloriculture at Cornell. Appropriation 
of $50,000 asked for. By Senator Rains- 
pergef. 
Two bills by Senator Argetsinger: one 
deffniug and setting aside auxiliary forest 
preserves, which shall bo surface lands of 
private owners, as approved by the Con¬ 
servation Commission, set aside for the 
purposes of reforestation. The second hill 
fixes a tax of $1 per acre on such land, 
hut when timber grown on such is marketed 
the State to receive 10 per cent of the mar¬ 
keted stum page. 
New weights and measures bill. Pro¬ 
vides that all ice, meat products and butter 
shall be sold by weight; all commodities 
not in containers shall be sold by standard 
measure or numerical count, provided, how¬ 
ever, that vegetables may be sold by head 
or count. No containers shall be manu¬ 
factured or sold that are not of the capac¬ 
ity of one barrel, half barrel, one bushel, 
or multiples of a bushel divisablo by two, 
except where the net capacity in terms of 
standard dry measure are conspicuously 
marked on the outside. The barrel shall 
contain a quantity equal to 756 cubic 
inches. By Assemblyman Brooks. 
Providing that a person who shall sell 
or exchange milk actually produced by a 
cow or a dairy, which is a fair sample of 
the daily product and to which nothing has 
been added or taken away, shall not be 
guilty of any crime irrespective of the pro¬ 
portion of milk solids contained in the 
milk sold or exchanged. By Assemblyman 
Wheelef. 
Authorizing Commissioner of Agriculture 
when petitioned to quarantine all cattle not 
previously examined by a veterinarian and 
found free from tuberculosis, and to hold 
same coming into a town or county until 
examined and released by order of Com¬ 
missioner ; also increases from $75 to $100 
the maximum value which may be fixed 
upon bovine animals ordered to he slaugh¬ 
tered, except registered thoroughbreds, in¬ 
creasing the amount for those from $125 to 
$800 when ordered to be slaughtered. By, 
Assemblyman Wheeler. c. 
The National Boot and Shoe Manufac¬ 
turers’ Association, at their recent conven¬ 
tion in New York, passed resolutions calling 
for the passage of an ocean mail hill, rais¬ 
ing of the tariff on imported footwear and 
applying one cent letter postage, the es¬ 
tablishment of a general parcels post and 
the re-establishment of an efficient merchant 
marine. It is generally believed that one- 
eent letter postage wouid defer parcels post. 
As we have long been taught to believe that 
American shoes are the best and handsomest 
in the world, made by the most specialized 
machinery, it seems a pity that 10 or 15 
per cent duty and a longer freight haul 
cannot prevent foreigners from underselling 
us. 
