1912. 
747 
LARGE PUBLIC QUESTIONS. 
[Editor’s Note. —Under this heading -we intend to 
have discussed questions which particularly interest 
country people. We do not agree with all that our 
correspondents say, but we shall give men and women 
who possess the courage of conviction an opportunity to 
say what they think about certain things which interest 
country people]. 
THE AGRICULTURAL DEPARTMENT. 
[The following is written by a man of 
national reputation who has known or ob¬ 
served public life intimately for GO years. 
Eds.] 
Congress has been after poor old Secre¬ 
tary Wilson, good, honest, well-meaning old 
gentleman he is, but helpless as a child. 
His horses have got away from him many 
times. They know his weakness and im¬ 
pose on him'. The Agricultural Department 
is a big machine. It is a clumsy old patch- 
work anyway, but some bright young men 
have done great good with it. Other smart 
fellows have been able bo use it skillfully 
as a means of personal success in many 
ways. Its politicians have been able to 
fortify it against assault or criticism even. 
Thev' have made Congress believe that 
evervthing about it is sacred as the “Ark 
of the Covenant.” By spectacular methods 
they have impressed the people with the 
idea that such a gigantic abuse as the 
seed business is essential to their prosper¬ 
ity. The simple fact is that the Secretary 
is too old to administer this overgrown 
medley of good and bad. Deal gently with 
him! I know all the ins and outs of it. 
We labored for years to get it advanced 
from a Bureau to a Department. This was 
at last done, you remember, in Cleveland's 
first term in 1885; Col. Colman was the 
first Secretary. I recall telling Colman to 
go to Cleveland and enlist his support 
against the seed frauds. He did so, and 
was promised help by the President, and 
at once recommended to stop seed distribu¬ 
tion except for new and rare things. Soon 
after he wrote me that the whole rural 
Congressional delegation had come to him 
or written to say that "no more seeds 
meant no more appropriations !” There 
you have it in a nutshell. Morton tried it 
later and the elephant's foot flattened 
him ' out. The thing wants overhauling 
from base to turret. A lot of poky old 
fogies and presuming younger fellows 
would be more useful elsewhere. But Con¬ 
gress <k>es not like to disturb it, and looks 
on like' a boy who has hit his toe on a 
big bumblebees’ nest. There is a big 
honest capable man there, the Assistant 
Secretary, Willett M. Hays, who built up 
the great Agricultural High School of 
Minnesota. If the present Secretary would 
resign and get Taft to put Hays in his 
place it would be a fine thing for himself 
and the country. There are others, plenty 
among the great farmers of the nation. 
Nothing strikes me more forcibly than 
the foolish tenacity with which men 
hold on to place long after they are utterly 
incapable by age. The good reputation 
they had built up in tlieir prime has been 
so often lost; their reputation lost by the 
action of subordinates whose misdeed could 
not have been committed under competent 
administration. Our greatest men come at 
last to a point where they cannot manage 
large affairs. They may see what should 
be done or not done. Their advice may be 
invaluable, but the young and strong men 
execute. The whole business of govern¬ 
ment needs new blood here. The machin¬ 
ery is loaded with old material, dead men 
who don’t know they are dead. This is my 
point of view. I write it to you who have 
a voice to make the people hear. I think 
they should know the situation and insist 
on high-class, efficient men everywhere. 
A STATE FARM ORGANIZATION. 
The movement started by the Agricultural 
Department of the State of Maine last De¬ 
cember having in view the organizing of 
the farmers into business units has grown 
and spread beyond the expectations of its 
promoters. At the beginning it was not 
expected the movement would assume such 
proportions as to bring about the formatiorf 
of a central or State body the first year; 
but the proposition met with immediate 
favor, and organizations were formed in 
most of the important producing centers in 
the State. Including organizations formed 
previous to January 1, 1912. there are now 
a total of 12, all working independent one 
of the other. In order to bring these or¬ 
ganizations together for the purpose of 
buying and selling on a large basis the 
Commissioner has called a State-wide farm¬ 
ers' institute to be held at Bangor, Oc¬ 
tober 28. The meeting will be called to 
order at 10 a. m. by Commissioner Buckley 
and the Hon. Chas. E. Mullen, mayor of 
the city will deliver an address of wel¬ 
come ; addresses will be given by Mr. Ar¬ 
thur Chapin, president of the Chamber of 
Commerce, Mr. W. A. Henncssy, secretary 
of the Chamber of Commerce, Mr. C. E. 
Embree, formerly sales manager of the 
Bong Island Potato Exchange, Iiiverhead. 
N. Y., and Mr. W. T. Guptill, State Dairy 
Instructor. Invitations have also been ex¬ 
tended to the Dean of the State College 
and the State Master of the Grange. At 
the close of the meeting the executive 
hoards of the 12 organizations will hold a 
joint meeting and organize a central or 
State body and adopt laws for its govern¬ 
ment. 
The importance of this meeting cannot' 
be overestimated, and if the farmers realize 
this they will make it the largest meet¬ 
ing ever held in the State in the interest 
of the farm. c. e. e. 
TALK ABOUT PENSIONS. 
In reference to the pensipn question as 
spoken of on page 432 I would like to 
say a few words. The life of a man in 
his prime has been variously estimated by 
courts from .$5,000 to $10,000 and higher. 
So a man enlisting in the Civil War in¬ 
vested we may say as much as the man 
who bought $7,500 worth of bonds. But a 
difference comes in the payment. The 
bond holder has received every year inter¬ 
est netting about six per cent on the origi¬ 
nal investment, payable in gold; the sol¬ 
dier received $13 a month in currency worth 
about 35 cents on the dollar at its lowest. 
At the end of the war the soldier’s pay 
ceased, but most of the present debt of 
the United States is a Civil War legacy. 
We have paid the bond holders back his 
money time and time again in interest, and 
still we owe the principal But honor be 
to the men who came forward with money 
in. the dreary days of our Republic to help. 
THE RURAh 
but don't we also owe a debt to the man 
who gave all he had—himself? 
My father and three brothers served in 
the Civil War. One brother was killed at 
Fort Seaman, one lost a leg at Stone River, 
and one was ruptured by being stepped on 
by a runaway horse in the Shenandoah 
Valley. In my father’s family the boys, 
all but one too young, went, none stayed at 
home to farm in that era when more money 
was made in farming than any other period, 
and not one of them thought of a pension 
in the future. The hope of getting $12 a 
month pension when you are 65 years old 
has little influence in inducing the youth 
of 19 or 20 to face the storm of battle. 
We, as a people, are prone to forget. We 
do not remember that if all had stayed at 
home on the farm or in the workshop, to¬ 
day there would be at least two nations on 
this continent where now we are one, and 
we would be groaning under a burden of 
militarism similar to European nations, at 
a cost that would make our present pen¬ 
sion budget a mere bagatelle. The letter 
you quote shows so much ignorant preju¬ 
dice and senile wanderings in its writing as 
to call for no particular answer as its 
reasoning is so obviously vague. 
Waterford, Ohio. m. o. n. 
Farmers’ Tarty.— The objection to an 
agrarian party by Mr. Johnson—boiled 
down a little—seems simply to be that it 
is so effective —for the farmer! It would 
Indeed seem strange, radical and revolu¬ 
tionary to have something that really 
amounted to something to the farmer, and 
that didn’t finally play right into the hands 
of the ‘‘poor working man,” the “poor 
widows,” the bankers, the steel trust. 
Standard Oil, the three express reasons(?) 
for not having parcels post, etc.! When 
prices of the products of the factories are 
gauged with reference chiefly to the pur¬ 
chasing power of the poor, it will be time 
enough to gauge prices of farm products on 
that basis. A man once connected with a 
gasoline engine manufacturing concern told 
me they had an engine that when finished 
cost them just three cents a pound. A 
1000-pound engine would thus cost $30 ; it 
probably cost the farmer $200 ! The poor 
in the cities ought not to be there. They 
are not needed there. The poor profits of 
farming are responsible for a good deal of 
the crowding of the cities. The most 
charitable, philosophic and patriotic thing 
for the farmer to do is to make farming 
prosperous as a business. The “solicitude” 
of the country, from the President down, 
works itself out in teaching farmers to 
raise more and better stuff, and make it 
cheaper for the city and town, and in mak¬ 
ing reciprocity treaties with agricultural 
countries to cheapen farm products still 
further, and furnish a foreign market for 
agricultural machinery, using up our coal 
and iron and making prices higher for us. 
American resources for Americans. 
A. WETMORB. 
EVENTS OF THE WEEK. 
DOMESTIC.—Three men were killed by 
the electric current on top of a high pole 
at Elizabeth, N. J., June 14. Their bodies 
hung for an hour amid the tangle of wires 
GO feet in the air. When the firemen were 
called to take down the bodies they feared 
the same fate as the men had suffered and 
they had to wait until the current could 
be cut off from the whole section of the 
city before they could go up to lower the 
bodies. 
Strikes at Perth Amboy, N. J., June 14, 
resulted in the death of three men and 
injuries to many others. The violence of 
the day on the part of the strikers in¬ 
cluded two savage attacks on the plant of 
the American Smelting and Refining Com¬ 
pany, in which many shots were fired on 
both sides, the strikers and the deputy 
sheriffs being the warring parties. Quieter 
conditions prevailed June 1G. 
One man was fatally hurt. 15 firemen 
were overcome and property valued at 
$175,000 was destroyed in a double fire 
at Buffalo, N. Y., Juno 16. Taylor & Crate, 
lumber dealers, suffered a loss of $100,000. 
The Empire Beef and Provision Company’s 
warehouse, four blocks from where the fire 
broke out, was destroyed, with a loss of 
$75,000. 
June 15-16 tornadoes caused damage in 
many widely separated localities. June 
16. Zanesville, O., was visited by a destruc¬ 
tive storm; two persons were killed, two 
others were injured mortally, a dozen more 
received hurts of such character that the 
outcome is doubtful, scores are suffering 
from wounds that in some cases may re¬ 
sult in a crippled condition and property 
valued at $500,000 was destroyed. Spring- 
field and other cities in the southern part 
of the State were also victims of tornadoes. 
Crops were ruined in the country and tele¬ 
phone and telegraph wires were blown, down. 
Traction service was completely tied up in 
many sections. Several houses were blown 
down and a number of persons hurt. In¬ 
diana towns felt the force of the tornado 
with a violent wind, hailstorm and light¬ 
ning. A heavy loss was sustained in 
Muncie. The headlights of 50 locomotives 
in a railroad yard were smashed. A tor¬ 
nado swept through Missouri June 16, kill¬ 
ing 15 persons in Bates and Johnson coun¬ 
ties. One family was stripped of clothing 
and left standing naked in the road. Thou¬ 
sands of trees were destroyed. A 50-mile 
strip was swept clean by the wind at War- 
rensburg, in the southern part of Johnson 
county. Three persons were killed and 
many injured. Fifteen houses were de¬ 
stroyed. Near Drexel, Mo.. 19 persons were 
reported killed by the storms. There were 
two of the twisters, traveling along al¬ 
most parallel lines, about six miles apart, 
and both were plainly visible at about the 
same time. One started at a point near 
Merwin, in Gates County, and went east¬ 
ward, swerving along the south side of 
Adrian and Altona. where four persons 
were killed. The other originated about 
four miles northeast of Drexel, turned east¬ 
ward. and reached its maximum velocity 
near Creighton, where three persons, were 
killed. Western Pennsylvania and West 
Virginia report serious damage and some 
casualties. At Claremore, Okla.. June 15. 
two men were killed and buildings and 
trees destroyed by a severe rain, wind and 
electrical storm. Crops suffered heavily. 
Jacksonville. Pa., was practically destroyed 
by the tornado .Tune 16, and the inhabi¬ 
tants were camping in the fields. No loss 
of life is reported, but there was a prop¬ 
erty loss put at $100,000. 
MEW-YORKER 
Julia Clarke of Denver, 23 years old, 
and one of three licensed women aviators 
in this country, was killed at the Illinois 
State Fair ground June 17, when the tip 
of one of the wings of a Curtiss biplane 
in which she was making a flight struck the 
limb of a tree and the machine was dashed 
to the ground. Her skull was crushed. 
Miss Clarke made a good start and circled 
around the fair grounds for several min¬ 
utes. As she made a very low sweep 
the few who were witnessing the trial 
thought she was about to make a landing 
but instead she flew close to the race 
track grand stand and attempted to skip 
by a row of tall trees. She did not cloar 
the trees properly. The machine struck a 
bough and turned over when going at 40 
miles an hour. 
The most thorough investigation of the 
anthracite monopoly ever undertaken 
in the United States, involving freight 
rates, and, indirectly, coal prices, and 
striking at the heart of the so-called 
coal trust, was launched June 18 by the 
Interstate Commerce Commission, which 
served notice of the proceedings on 214 
railroads as respondents. Relative to the 
scope and purpose of the investigation the 
commission ordered: That the inquiry lie 
made into the rates, practices, rules and 
regulations of common carriers governing 
the transportation of anthracite coal from 
producing fields to all points in the United 
States east of the Missisippi River and 
north of the Ohio and Potomac rivers, 
known as official classification territory, in¬ 
cluding domestic and export rates and ship- 
side or bunker coal rates to the tidewater 
and lake ports. It is further ordered that 
the inquiry shall ascertain whether the 
coal is mined or produced by or under the 
authority of the common carriers engaged 
in the transportation thereof, or whether 
common carriers own in whole or in part 
any mine or mines producing anthracite 
coal which they transport. 
FARM AND GARDEN.—Gold medals of 
honor from the Franklin Institute of Amer¬ 
ica have been awaided to Dr. Oswald 
Schreiner and Elbert C. Lathrop of the 
United States Bureau of Soils, in recog¬ 
nition of their original research work in 
studying the organic contents of soils and 
its varying effect on plant life. Their 
experiments developed data which, accord¬ 
ing to Prof. Milton Whitney, chief of the 
Bureau, will revolutionize methods employed 
in enriching soils. Tons of earth from all 
parts of the United States and of every 
securable variety have been tested chemi¬ 
cally to discover their elements. Then the 
effect of these various separated substances 
has been tried on different kinds of plant 
life. 
In the new seed pea growing district 
around St. Anthony, Idaho, 15,000 acres 
have been planted to peas. Favorable 
weather gives godd prospects for the crop. 
The thirty-seventh annual meeting of 
the American Association of Nurserymen 
opened at Boston, Mass., June 12. The 
next meeting will be held at Portland. Ore. 
The following officers were elected : Presi¬ 
dent, Thomas B. Meehan, Dresher, Pa.; 
vice-president, J. P. Pilkington of Portland. 
Oregon; secretary, John Hall, Rochester, 
N. Y.; ’ treasurer, C. L. Yates, Rochester, 
N. Y.; executive committee H. B. Chase, 
J. W. Hill and P. A. Dix. 
The American Yorkshire Club has just 
issued an Annual which will be mailed free 
on request to the secretary at White Bear 
Bake, Minnesota. 
Fifth annual meeting of the International 
Association of instructors and investigators 
in poultry husbandry, Michigan Agricultural 
College, East Bansing, Mich., June 2G-28. 
OBITUARY.—J. J. Harrison, president 
of the Storrs & Harrison Nursery Co., of 
Painesville, O., died at Eustis, Fla., June 
11. He was born in England in 1829, 
pased his early years on a farm, and en¬ 
tered the nursery business in 1858. Mr. 
Harrison was a prominent member of the 
American Association of Nurserymen and 
was a member of the executive committee of 
the Association in 1876. the year of its 
organization, and the following year he 
was first vice-president. 1-Ie is survived 
by a son and daughter. 
CANADIAN CROPS.—The Canadian Gov- 
ernfhent crop report estimates the total 
wheat area at 9,926,000 acres ; oats, 9,486,- 
000 acres, and barley, 1.429.000 acres ; hay 
and clover, 7.904,000 acres. Condition at 
the end of May, as measured against a 
standard of 100, representing the promise 
of a full crop, is high for all the products 
reported on. excepting Fall wheat, the per 
cent condition of which, 71.46, is lower 
than that of any of the three previous 
years at the same date. The condition of 
Spring wheat is 94.21, against 96.69 last 
year; oats, 91.67, against 94.76; barley. 
91.08, against 93.49; rye, 87.24, against 
90.26; peas. 83.85, against 92.15; mixed 
grains. 87.72. against 93.84. The condition 
of hay and clover is 96.10. compared with 
74.63 at the end of April and 91.45 at 
the end of May, 1911. For the three North¬ 
west Provinces the areas are. as estimated 
on May 31: Wheat. 9.122,000 acres; oats, 
5,097,000 acres, and barley, 837,000 acres. 
The condition of these cereals in the 
Northwest Provinces is over 95 per cent of 
the standard, except for Fall wheat in Al¬ 
berta, where it is 76.62 per cent. In Sas¬ 
katchewan the acreage under Fall wheat 
is estimated at 53.000; its per cent con¬ 
dition on May 31 was 93.28. 
A SENSIBLE TEXAS STORY. 
We came here three years ago from west¬ 
ern New York, myself, wife and three chil¬ 
dren. We arrived here in March, and founcB 
it warm, with trees in leaf, Irish potatoes 
six inches high, grass green, and it surely 
looked good to us after leaving snow banktf 
three days before. We found a town of 
between 4,000 and 5,000 inhabitants, the 
best of schools and a rich farming country 
surrounding it. with land worth from $30 
to $150 per acre within a radius of 10 
miles, which in my judgment is rather 
high, because the cheaper land is covered 
with brush which costs a lot of money to 
clear and improve, and the higher-priced 
land has to be handled just right to pro¬ 
duce a profit and pay expenses. 
I was born and brought up on a farm, 
and have always studied and been inter¬ 
ested in farming, besides having about an 
acre of garden of my own since coming 
here, but have been working at my trade 
as carpenter for a number of years. I am, 
personally acquainted w r ith several farm¬ 
ers who are making plenty of money, also 
know of several failures. The failures were 
caused mostly by people coming here with 
the idea of getting rich in a hurry, such 
ideas encouraged by some of the literature 
sent out by laud companies tolling of the 
enormous profits to be made farming and 
trucking, which I don’t deny has been done. 
For instance, a real estate man telling of 
the great money to be made in growing 
cantaloupes, told of Mr. X getting $1500 
from five acres for one crop, but he did not 
go on to say the same man planted a larger 
acreage for three successive years that 
proved complete failures; so it goes. Some 
Northern farmers come here, and I think 
it the rule rather than the exception, with 
the idea of showing the native how to do 
it. but with the exception of thorough cul¬ 
tivation, which the native has been rather 
slack about, the Northern man has it all to 
learn. In the three years I have been here 
I have not seen a failure in any of the 
general crops. Corn produces from 25 to 
40 bushels per acre, has sold out of the 
field from 50 to 75 cents per bushel; sor¬ 
ghum hay averages about three tons per 
acre, and sells from $10 to $14 per ton; 
milk retails at 10 cents per quart; eggs 
range in price from 12% cents to 35 cents 
per dozen, and hens from 50 cents up, with 
broilers at some times of the year as high 
as 75 cents for 1 % to two pounds. Chick¬ 
ens are very easily raised in early Spring 
and Fall, about the only enemies being 
ticks and' mites, which can be controlled 
by building all pens of corrugated iron in¬ 
stead of lumber. A Mr. Davis farming 
here sowed 10 acres of oats last Fall and 
baited his horses and cattle on it the fore 
part of Winter, when he took them off, 
and when the oats were headed out cut 17 
tons of fine hay, for which he found a 
ready sale in the local market at $20 per 
ton, plowed the ground and has an excel¬ 
lent stand of cotton six inches high at the 
present time, but some years here he would 
not have harvested one ton on the same 
field. The rains this year have been plen¬ 
tiful and timely, which is not always so, 
but the first year I came here I saw a 
large field of corn that averaged 30 bushels 
to the acre that never had one drop of 
rain from December until the 18th of May, 
when the corn was in roasting ear size. It' 
was all done by plowing deep in the Fall 
and keeping it well cultivated, forming a 
dust mulch about four inches deep. 
Your advice to everyone to go to see the 
land and country before buying is O. K„ 
and if they would rent a year or so before 
buying would be better yet. A great many 
have come here with little money and made 
a payment on a piece of land, expecting to 
pay the balance out of the crops and live, 
but before they have learned the ways of 
farming here, how and when to plant, they 
are down and out. Texas is a big State, 
and you cannot judge one section by an¬ 
other. For instance, we have good water 
here and plenty of it at from 60 to 100 
feet deep, and with a fair amount of rain, 
but within 50 miles of here water is scarce 
and salty at a depth of 250 to 350 feet, 
and rain so scarce that they average a 
good crop only about once in four or five 
years. Another thing, it is very healthy 
here, and though it gets very hot some¬ 
times in the middle of the day, at dusk 
the gulf breeze springs up and blows nice 
and cool at night. w. l. b. 
Beeville, Texas. 
CHAMPION BERRY PICKERS. 
No one has yet come forward to claim 
that he can beat Baptiste Diabo at pick¬ 
ing chickens. These 15,000 plant settei-s 
in south Jersey have the stage to them¬ 
selves, and these 100 bushel per day dig¬ 
gers in Michigan are not disturbed. Now 
it is berry picking. The News, of Egg 
Harbor. N. J., starts the procession : 
Can You Beat It? 
“Miss Annie Kienzle and Miss Minnie 
Hubei’, of Galloway Township, claim the 
berry picking championship of this county, 
if not of the entire State. Bast week these 
two young ladies, together, picked 608 
quarts of strawberries in a single day, of 
which Miss Kienzle picked 364 and Miss 
Huber 244 quarts. This is the highest 
number, so far as we know, ever reported 
in this section in a single day's picking 
and the two young ladies, we believe, may 
rightfully lay claim to the bei’ry picking 
championship of the State. To pick 364 
or 244 quarts of berries in a day is cer¬ 
tainly going some, or can you perhaps 
beat it?” 
Mr. Frank Wieland vouches for the 
record and says Miss Kienzle lives only a 
block away from his farm. He says: “It 
is a poor day when she doesn't reach 200 
quarts, and 250 to 300 is common with 
her.” Well, sir, we put Miss Kienzle down 
as champion until further notice. 
Ohio Crops. 
The Ohio Department of Agriculture gives 
the following crop reports: Wheat, pros¬ 
pect compai-ed with normal yield 45 per 
cent; original area seeded. 1,918,760 acres; 
area abandoned this Spring, 44 per cent; 
area remaining for harvest. 1.079,894 acres. 
Oats, prospect compared with normal yield. 
95 per cent; rye, 76; Winter barley' 55; 
Spring barley, 91; clover. 64; Timothy, 80. 
Fruit, prospect compared with normal'yield. 
63 per cent. Corn planting is late. Manv 
early planted fields are being replanted 
owing to poor seed and some rotting of 
seed. The hay crop will be short, last 
season’s drought killing many new mea¬ 
dows, and some of the old meadows are 
now overrun with white top and sorrel. 
Prices here are about as follows : Horses 
from $150 to .$200; cows, with calf. $50 to 
$75; pork, 9% cents; wheat, $1.20; corn. 
90 cents ; oats, 60. Our creamery paid for 
May milk 43 cents per pound butter fat. 
Eggs at present 19 cents; that is what 
farmers get for them. Fruit and gardening 
crops not for sale at present. Hay. $20 to 
$24 at press. i. l. k. 
Bedininster, Pa. 
Weather fine, has been very dry till last 
10 days, but plenty of rain now. Crops all 
looking well. Wheat fine since the rain 
burnt some on hard land, but not on the 
sand ground, wet enough now to make it 
fill ; nothing to fear now but rust or hail 
Help very scarce and a big crop to har¬ 
vest. I think harvest will begin sometime 
between .Tune 25 and 30. Peaches and 
cherries good crop. Pasture good since the 
rain ; stock doing well. h. h. m. 
Mullinville, Kan. 
