954 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
August 23, 
EVENTS OF THE WEEK. 
DOMESTIC.—According to the New 
York District Attorney’s office, some of 
the money lenders who have been driven 
out of business by the legal authorities 
have now gone into the business of sell¬ 
ing diamonds. Their plan is said to be 
to inveigle persons into buying gems by 
advertising bargains and holding out 
prospects of advance in value for dia¬ 
monds. They ask a small initial deposit, 
but require the victim to sign mortgages 
and assignments of salary and then 
swoop down upon him the minute he 
fails in his payment*. A recent com¬ 
plaint in the District Attorney's office 
comes from a city fireman who bought 
$400 worth of diamonds and promised to 
pay at the rate of $20 a week. He missed 
a payment, whereupon the lender gar¬ 
nisheed his pay and foreclosed a chattel 
mortgage. A diamond sold to him for 
$190 was appraised by experts as 
worth $90. 
The Frawley Senatorial investigating 
committee, inquiring into actions of Gov- 
Sulzer of New York, has brought out a 
series of transactions in which seven 
campaign contribution checks, sent to 
William Sulzer, were traced practically 
From the hands of the gubernatorial can¬ 
didate to the stock brokerage firm of 
Boyer, Griswold & Co., as the -considera¬ 
tion for stock purchases which aggre¬ 
gated $12,025. The stock deals uncov¬ 
ered in the testimony approximated 
$145,000. The Frawley committee re¬ 
ports that the evidence shows: That 
Sulzer’s sworn statement of his campaign 
receipts and expenses is false. That Sul¬ 
zer knows that it is false by the conceal¬ 
ment of contributions in the Sarecky ac¬ 
count and in his personal bank account. 
That Sulzer diverted campaign contribu¬ 
tions for the purchase of stocks and spec¬ 
ulation in them. That Frederick L. Col¬ 
well- acted as a dummy for Sulzer in 
stock transactions. That Sulzer’s bank 
deposits of currency and stock purchases 
with currency between the time of his 
nomination and election as Governor are 
gravely suspicious. That he pressed leg¬ 
islation against the New York Stock Ex¬ 
change which would affect stock prices 
at the time he was speculating in stocks. 
That Sulzer has used the power of his 
office to punish legislators who opposed 
him by vetoing legislation enacted for the 
public welfare. The Governor was im¬ 
peached by the Assembly August 13, the 
vote being 79 to 45. 
Thirty tanks of benzine exploded at the 
plant of the Union Petroleum Works at 
Philadelphia, August 7. and within an 
hour a city block was flooded with burn¬ 
ing fluid, 11 factory plants were con¬ 
sumed, and the loss is estimated at $800.- 
000, half being on property and half on 
petroleum. The plants destroyed include 
those of the Union Petroleum Company, 
Indian Refining Company, E. F. Drew 
refinery, Crane & Co.. Niles, Bement & 
Pond, and several others. 
During a cyclonic storm in and around 
New York August 10 five persons were 
killed by lightning, fallen wires or trees, 
and 10 were drowned. There was much 
property damage. A slight earthquake 
was reported at Lake Placid, N. Y. 
Neglect to exercise simple and ordinary 
precautionary measures was the contrib¬ 
uting cause of the loss of life in the fire 
which destroyed the Binghamton Cloth¬ 
ing Company’s factory on July 22. ac¬ 
cording to a report submitted to Senator 
Wagner and the other members of the 
State Factory Investigating Commission 
by J ames P. Whiskeman, its advisory en¬ 
gineer. After summing up the details of 
the disaster Mr. Whiskeman urges for 
the prevention of similar disasters the en¬ 
closure of stairways in all factory build¬ 
ings two stories or more in height where 
more than 25 persons are employed. He 
suggests that the enclosure of stairways 
leading from the Binghamton factory 
would have saved many lives, and prob¬ 
ably all. Laws passed last Winter at 
the instance of the State Factory Inves¬ 
tigating Commission. Engineer Whiske¬ 
man says, fully cover the requirements 
and furnish adequate protection for the 
lives of employees of factories. Although 
the State Industrial Board, created un¬ 
der tiie law which reorganized the Labor 
Department, has the power to compel the 
enclosure of stairways. Engineer Whiske¬ 
man urges the establishment of a man¬ 
datory requirement which would compel 
the enclosure of stairways in factory 
buildings, two stories or more high, in 
fire resisting materials. 
Although the California anti-alien 
land ownership law. which when under 
consideration threatened to become a se¬ 
rious question between this Government 
and Japan, went into effect August 11, 
no official notice was taken of it at 
Washington. It is still a matter for dip¬ 
lomatic corrsepondence between Japan 
and the United States. An official note, 
being the fourth exchanged, is now being 
prepared at the Japanese embassy for 
transmission to Secretary of State 
Bryan. It upholds again the Japanese 
contention that the measure is a viola¬ 
tion of the treaty rights of the Nipponese. 
No court action to declare the law un¬ 
constitutional is as yet planned. This 
Government has agreed to aid Japan in 
expediting such action when brought, but 
until a concrete case can be found the 
matter will remain in status quo. 
Governor Fielder’s two bills for in¬ 
trenching the position of the commission 
form of government in Jersey City were 
passed by the New Jersey Assembly Au¬ 
gust 12, after which tin* second special 
session was adjourned. Governor Fielder 
signed the bills at once and they now are 
laws. One bill validates the election of 
the commissioners, approved by a ma¬ 
jority of the voters in a special election. 
The other, known as the quo warranto 
act, shifts the burden of proof in cases 
in which the right ot hold office is at¬ 
tacked, from the officials concerned to 
the persons bringing the suit. 
FARM AND GARDEN.—American 
shippers are being urged to send their 
largest and finest cantaloupes to Canada 
because of the excessive duty, a flat rate 
of three cents being imposed, instead of 
a duty based on value, weight or size. 
Watermelons, which on an average weigh 
five and six times as much as canta¬ 
loupes, are assessed at the same rate. 
Felix S. S. Johnson, American' Consul 
at Kingston, writing to the Department 
of Commerce, says that the United States 
has absolutely no competition in canta¬ 
loupes and watermelons. Importers 
maintain that the freight and refrigera¬ 
tion rates alone are sufficient to cut out 
all foreign competition with the Cana¬ 
dian product during the season of domes¬ 
tic production. As so few cantaloupes 
are grown in Canada, and these are 
marketed only the regular Fall season, 
Canadian dealers maintain that no duty 
should be imposed on them. 
The mule-footed hog Detroit’s Model, 
weighing 900 pounds, was an attraction 
at the recent Greater New York Exposi¬ 
tion at Yonkers. 
The sixteenth annual convention of the 
Canadian Horticultural Association was 
held at Petersboro, Ont., August 5-7. 
WASHINGTON.—John Lind, the per¬ 
sonal representative of President Wilson 
and adviser of the American Embassy 
at Mexico City, was received August 12 
in an unofficial capacity by Frederico 
Gamboa, the Mexican Minister for For¬ 
eign Relations. The visit lasted only a 
few minutes. Few visitors were at the 
Foreign Office, which showed a disposi¬ 
tion to keep the visit secret. Mr. Lind 
is in communication with Washington, 
and his movements will be governed by 
instructions from there, based on the 
progress he is able to make. In view of 
President Huerta’s note of last week, is¬ 
sued through the acting Foreign Minis¬ 
ter, stating that Mr. Lind would not be 
received officially unless he brought cre¬ 
dentials and also official recognition of 
the Iluerta government, great significance 
attaches to his reception by Huerta’s 
Cabinet chief, even unofficially. 
A vigorous protest has been submitted 
to the Secretary of State by the govern¬ 
ments of Columbia. Costa Rica, Guate¬ 
mala, Honduras, Panama and England, 
the latter on behalf of Jamaica, against 
the passage by Congress of that portion 
of the Underwood tariff bill imposing a 
duty of one-tenth of one cent a pound on 
bananas. Bananas form the principal 
export of those countries, and the govern¬ 
ments object to a tax, the burden of 
which, they claim, would be shifted on 
the native producers, who even under 
present conditions with the low prices 
bananas bring in this country have diffi¬ 
culty in making any profit. It is also 
pointed out that the imposition of this 
tax would divert the banana trade to 
Europe, where the producer would not be 
burdened by the tax. This would mean, 
they say. that the banana boats on their 
return trips from Europe would carry 
back to Latin-America European goods 
and merchandise. It also would mean, it 
is declared, the diversion of much trade, 
and commerce from the United States to 
Europe, and the loss to American mer¬ 
chants and manufacturers of the large 
and rapidly increasing export trade to 
the countries named. 
It has been an ideal growing season 
here for the last month, but pretty wet 
for haying and cultivating our crops. 
Hay, especially old Timothy meadows, 
are cutting better than expected. Corn 
and potatoes are growing fine, but pretty 
weedy ; oats are looking well. There will 
be a fair crop of all kinds of fruit. Con¬ 
siderable blight on our pear trees this 
season. Quite a lot of young peach trees 
planted. Wheat, $1; corn, 65 cents; 
oats, 42 cents; baled hay, $10 to $12 
per ton; potatoes, 90 cents. All kinds 
of live stock, especially good milch cows, 
scarce and high. F. E. K. 
Lake Co., O. 
August 13. Farmers and truckers 
here haul their produce to the Rochester 
market, six miles away; prices received 
this morning as follows: Wax beans, 
per basket, half bushel, 30; tomatoes, 
half bushel, 60; tomatoes, seconds, 30. 
Potatoes, $1; onions, dozen bunches, 12 
cents; lettuce, per head, one cent; pep¬ 
pers. half bushel, 50; beets, per dozen 
bunches, 15; green corn, dozen ears, 15; 
apples, per basket, half bushel, 40; good, 
windfalls. 15 to 26; plums, two cents a 
pound. No home-grown peaches on the 
market yet. Crop promises to be me¬ 
dium large here and of extra good qual¬ 
ity. Blackberries, 10 cents per quart; 
fresh eggs, 28; live fowls, 19; broilers, 
20-22. Blossoms on early setting of to¬ 
matoes killed off' by cold weather, makes 
the crop late and prices good. Very fa¬ 
vorable weather and good rains since 
Spring have made all crops very good. 
Fruits especially are fine, such as 
peaches, pears, plums and apples. This 
year’s apple crop about 60 per cent and 
fruit is fine. c. D. B. 
Barnard, N. Y. 
CROPS 
Our fruit crop is excellent here, more 
than our local buyers can handle. Re¬ 
liable Eastern buyers are wanted. 
Watervliet, Mich. E. moore. 
Cherries were about three-fourths crop, 
selling from $1.25 to $1.50 per 16-quart 
crate. The peach crop is very small. 
Apples about 75-per cent of last year. 
Leelanau Co., Mich. f. o. 
Butter is bringing 2S cents per pound; 
eggs. 26 cents; tomatoes, $2 per bushel; 
cabbage, four to five cents per head; 
pears. Clapp. $3 per barrel; early ap¬ 
ples, $1 per bushel. E. c. R. 
Athens, N. Y. 
Corn is looking well but not equal to 
last year. Prices here now are about 
the same as 1912; for corn, from 62 to 
64 cents; wheat, 80 cents at the eleva¬ 
tor. A. E. A. 
Ross Co.. O. 
Green corn at market. 15 and 20 cents 
dozen; string beans, 75 and $1 bushel; 
tomatoes, 35 to 65 cents per 12-quart 
crate; apples. 30 to 50. 12-quart crate; 
pears. 40 to 50, 12-quart crate; cabbage, 
50 to 75 bushel; butter to private eusj 
tomers, 35 to 40; poultry, dressed. 25 
to 30; poultry, live, 15 to 20; eggs, 35. 
Blelevue, Pa. it. G. c. 
We are very hard hit by drought; 
clover, oats and Alfalfa one-tliird crop. 
Timothy almost a failure; wheat good, 
corn almost ruined; one inch of rain in 
July. In our town wheat is 80; hay, 
$20; corn. 65; potatoes, $1; apples, half 
crop; peaches, $1; grapes, three-fourth 
crop. w. r. 
Potosi, Mo. 
I find that the farmers are getting the 
following prices for their produce: New 
hay from $14 to $16 per ton; oat straw, 
$10 per ton; corn from 75 to 80 cents 
per bushel; wheat, $1 to $1.20; rye from 
55 to 60 cents per bushel; eggs from 28 
to 32 per dozen. Spring chickens. 20 
cents per pound live. F. A. 
Ballston Spa, N. Y. 
Fresh cows are worth from $60 to 
$80; yearly contracts for butter are 
made at 40 cents. Fowls. 20 cents per 
pound; broilers, 50 to 60 cents each; 
eggs, 28. Cherries, 10 cents per quart; 
black and red raspberries, 25 cents from 
the stores. Milk retails for seven cents; 
wholesale price at the Glens Falls Dairy 
for June was $1.45 per 100. l. f. a. 
Glens Falls. N. Y. 
Butter. 28; cheese, 15; eggs, 22; pork, 
dressed. 100 pounds, $12; beef cattle, 
dressed. 100 pounds, as to grade, $8 to 
$10; milk, cwt., $1.35 to $1.50. Pota¬ 
toes, local trade, per bushel, $1; hay, 
per ton. $14; veal, live cwt., $10; new 
milch or springs, $60 to $90. No fruit, 
only apples, and they look like a short 
crop. Gardening crops' none to speak 
of. too far from market. c. A. J. 
Belleville, N. Y. 
Peaches are very uneven and are less 
than 50 per cent of a crop. Grapes are 
poor; the bunches are very small. Some 
vineyards will not produce 10 per cent, 
while others run up to 50 per cent. Pears 
are a fair crop, probably 75 per cent of 
an average. They are russeting badly. 
Apples kept dropping all June and part 
of July and will hardly make 50 per cent 
of a crop. G. F. 
Berrien Co., Mich. 
Iowa. —The following is a summary of 
reports showing conditions of fruit on 
August 1. 1913: Apples. 8.'! per cent, of 
the 1909 crop, or 5,600,000 bushels for 
this year. Estimates show a decline in 
condition of plums from 65 per cent, on 
July 1st to 56 per cent, on August 1st. 
Grapes seem to have suffered no injury 
from weather conditions. The estimates 
indicate 91.5 per cent, or only one-half 
of 1 per cent, since July 1st. The crop 
will be exceptionally clean on account 
of freedom from disaese due to the dry 
weather. 
Wheat. SS and 85; corn, 70 (old! ; rye. 
56; oats, 40; potatoes, $1. retail; 80 
cents wholesale at present (50 cents last 
Fall by carload) ; eggs, 20 by huck¬ 
sters. 22 to 24 retail; butter, 28 to 30; 
cream. 13 to 18 at ice cream factory; 
milk at creamery, $1 to $1.20; retail, 
six cents per quart; fat hogs, 11. dressed; 
cows, $40 to $100 and over; beef cattle, 
nine, live weight; apples, $1 retail 
per bushel; pears the same; strawber¬ 
ries. 10 to 15 cents per box retail; seven 
cents wholesale; blackberries, 10: 
peaches. $1.25 per basket. All garden 
truck high at present; was cheap last 
year this time. Cabbage about one cent 
per pound; tomatoes, 30 cents "basket; 
ham, I received 22 cents per pound in 
store. C. R. u. 
Bethel, Pa. 
I am a back-to-the-lander, started in 
the truck and small fruit business, and 
had all kinds of bumps in six years, but 
I am still sticking to it. I run a town 
trade and these are the prices I got: 
Strawberries, 12 to 18; raspberries, 10 
to 15; blackberries, 10 to 12: string 
beans, 20 cents half peck ; peas, 30 cents 
half peck ; sweet corn, 30 cents a dozen ; 
radishes, three cents bunch; squashes, 
three to five cents apiece: onions, $1 a 
bushel or 20 cents half peck: tomatoes, 
20 cents half peck or 50 cents basket: 
Lima beans, 30 cents half peck or 80 
cents basket; cucumbers, not many 
raised for market; boots, five cents 
bunch ; currants. 10 cents a box; goose¬ 
berries. N cents box. This is a dairy coun¬ 
try, and milk goes to the creamery. The 
producers get paid for their butter, or 
about $1.25 a hundred. Milk sells in 
town for seven cents quart; butter, 
40. Cows are high; at an auction 
sale 22 head averaged $71.50 a head U 
calves, 10 and 11 cents, live; horses, 
$150 to $200; pigs, $11.50 per 100; suck¬ 
ing pigs, $3 to $4 apiece. Sheep not 
raised much. Hay, $15 to $19 as to 
quality; oats, 50; corn, 75; wheat, 85; 
potatoes, $1; wheat or oat straw, $7 and 
$8 ton loose. Young chickens, weight 
1 pound apiece. 25 to 28 cents a pound; 
Chester Co., Pa. h. it. d. 
The wheat crop is good, both yield and 
quality. The oat crop is going to be 
very short, probably about 60 to 75 per 
cent of an average crop. Hay is also 
short, and will run about 75 per cent of 
an average crop in tonnage, with a small 
percentage of Timothy. Probably 25 per 
cent balance clover mixed, and clover, 
put in fairly good condition owing to the 
dry weather. Never was corn looking 
so fine in the Ohio Valley as it did a 
month ago, but the lack of moisture has 
injured our corn prospects quite mate¬ 
rially. Nature has been very generous. 
We must not forget that. It has been in 
the habit this year of giving us a rain 
when it was needed the worst. August 
7-S we got a good soaking rain through¬ 
out the Ohio Valley, so that we are go¬ 
ing to have a very good corn crop. The 
last rain has been invaluable to the Ohio 
Valley and means much; however, ours 
is what we would term a spotty crop. 
Some counties will have very large crops, 
but there is not so much as usual, but 
we anticipate there will be enough to 
go around, yet we look for very full 
prices to rule. We carried over about 
25 to 30 per cent of old hay, which will 
help out a great deal. 
Cincinnati, O. wiiitcomb & root. 
THE BUFFALO MARKETS. 
The peach crop begins to come in, but 
prices are high yet, 50 cents being asked 
of the consumer for a small hand basket 
of them. The crop will be large here 
and the quality so far is fine. A Niagara 
County farmer who will pick several 
thousand baskets has sold his entire 
crop for 30 cents a third-bushel basket, 
the buyer furnishing packages and trans 
portation. A few have obtained as high 
as 45 cents. Apples are coming in a lit¬ 
tle, but are of mostly cooking quality. 
At a Genesee County fruit growers’ 
meeting in Batavia it was estimated that 
the apple crop would be about 50 per 
cent of the average and 40 per cent of 
last year’s crop. The capricious rainfall, 
for the most part insufficient for the crop 
needs, has reduced the vegetable' produc¬ 
tion in some degree, but prices are still 
moderate. Berries retail at from 12 to 
14 cents a quart, which is low, and espe¬ 
cially as compared with strawberries, 
which were high, often 15 cents a quart. 
The quality of raspberries is good. The 
great increase of the cream varieties is a 
help, as they sell at two cents or more 
less than red ones. Some people seem to 
get the idea that they are an inferior 
berry. Huckleberries are here, and there 
is an unusual supply of black currants. 
All such fruits sell at quite uniform 
prices, with red currants retailing at 12 
cents. The sunny Summer has had one 
good effect. All fruits are fairer than 
they usually are. Plums retail at eight 
cents a quart up. All are very fine. 
Cherries are better than ever before and 
the crop is large, but prices are 10 cents 
a quart or more to the consumer, with 
many stems to fill up the basket. Some 
of the crop is still on the trees for want 
of pickers, even the birds having had 
more than they cared for. There is a 
pretty poor showing of corn as yet. A 
sort that has a dingy, almost hlack look 
at the cob when boiled is commonest. It 
looks anything but inspiring on the ta¬ 
ble. When market people are asked why 
the black corn or Golden Bantam is not 
raised they reply that the ears are too 
small. They are far better than what is 
sold, though. Good-sized ears of corn 
sell at 30 cents a dozen, very short ones 
as low as 10 cents. The pea crop is 
disappointing, as peas suffer in a dry 
season more than beans or most other 
trucks crops. Beans sell at eight cents 
a quart to 35 cents a peck for peas. Cel 
ery is plentiest I even saw it in Summer, 
but. it is watery and somewhat stringy, 
as it will be till cool weather sets in. 
j. w. c. 
COMING FARMERS’ MEETINGS 
Indiana State Fair, Indianapolis, Sep¬ 
tember 8-12. 
New York State Fair and Grand Cir¬ 
cuit Meeting, Syracuse, N. Y., September 
8-13. 
Lancaster Fair, Lancaster, Pa., Sep¬ 
tember 30-October 3. 
Vermont Corn Show, Windsor, 11., 
November 5-7. 
Third Indiana Apple Show, Indianap¬ 
olis. November 5-11. 
National Grange, Annual Meeting. 
Manchester, N. II., November 12. 
New England Fruit Show, Horticul¬ 
tural Hall, Boston, November 12-16. 
Maryland State Horticultural Society, 
Maryland Crop Improvement Association 
Maryland Dairymen’s Association, Mary¬ 
land Beekeepers’ Association and Farm¬ 
ers’ League, Baltimore, November 17-22. 
The Capital Poultry and Pigeon Asso¬ 
ciation will hold its annual show at 
Washington, I). C., December 2-6. 
St. Mary’s Poultry Club; first annual 
show, St. Mary’s, I’a., December 18-19. 
Peninsula Horticultural Society, an¬ 
nual Winter meeting, Easton, Md., Jan¬ 
uary 13-15, 1914. 
