©08 
TH IS RURAL NEW-YORKER 
September o, 
EVENTS OF THE WEEK. 
DOMESTIC.—Millions of feet of val¬ 
uable timber and hundreds of acres of 
pasture land were burned in the vicinity 
of Portland, Me., during the week ending 
August 23. At Biddeford the situation 
became so serious that a riot call was 
sounded to summon the militia. Soldiers 
and firemen were throwing up earth 
breastworks to check the rush of the 
oncoming flames. Since January 1 the 
deficiency in rainfall has amounted to 
8.35 inches, while records show that the 
year has been 200 degrees warmer than 
usual. 
Fire August 21 destroyed the business 
center of Rensselaer Falls, N. Y. The 
loss is $50,000. 
Steam from 55 boilers, enough mud to 
dam a good-sized river and the expendi¬ 
ture of $50,000 have extinguished the big 
oil well fire at Mooringsport, La., in the 
Caddo oil field. The well belongs to the 
Star Oil Company. The total loss is 
estimated at $250,000. The firemen’s 
success in extinguishing the flames is con¬ 
sidered as remarkable as the volcanic 
geyser itself. The use of steam was sub¬ 
stituted for what looked the more feasible 
but at the same time exceedingly hazard¬ 
ous experiment of tunnelling. According 
to the authorities the fire was started by 
a spectator who carelessly struck a match 
to light a cigarette. The man fled in the 
darkness as the flames began to shoot 
up. lie was standing within 10 feet 
of the well, and it is believed the match 
must have ignited escaping gas around 
the edges of the vicious stream. It is 
believed he must have been injured badly. 
Lemuel Caughlin, formerly of Fortune 
Cove, P. E. I., was arrested at Portland, 
Me., August 24, charged with being con¬ 
cerned in the theft of valuable breeding 
foxes from a farm at Summerside, in 
that island. The arrest was made at the 
request of Charles Black, of Prince Ed¬ 
ward Island, who came with a warrant. 
According to Black, the prisoner is be¬ 
lieved to have been connected with a gang 
of men who have been stealing foxes 
from the island farms for some time. The 
specific charge against him is that of 
stealing two black foxes, said to be worth 
$18,000 each. Most of the foxes stolen 
have been recovered, but the black pair 
is still missing. Caughlin was committed 
to the police station. 
The first large vessel to navigate the 
Gatun Lake section of the Panama Ca¬ 
nal, 24 miles in length, a suction dredge, 
known as No. 82, left its moorings near 
the Gatun locks, August 26, and sailed 
under its own steam to a point north of 
Gamboa dike. The dredge will begin the 
removal of 150,000 cubic yards of silt de¬ 
posited in this locality by the currents 
of the Chagres River. The dredge has 
been tied up in Gatun for several months, 
waiting for the lake to rise to a sufficient 
height to enable it to make the trip. 
FARM AND GARDEN.—Over 10,000 
persons, mostly farmers and their fami¬ 
lies, attended the thirty-third annual 
grangers’ picnic at Verona Lake Park, 
Verona, N. J., August 21. The festivi¬ 
ties were under the auspices of the Pa¬ 
trons of Husbandry of Essex, Morris and 
Union counties. For the first time the 
suffragists invaded the picnic and set up 
a tent, where literature was distributed 
and in front of which speeches were 
made. 
The Georgia State Horticultural So¬ 
ciety held its Summer session in the 
mountains of North Georgia August 19th 
and 20th. The meeting was well attend¬ 
ed and great interest was manifested in 
the apple industry of the mountains of 
North Georgia. A great portion of the 
program was devoted to a discussion of 
the problems affecting this industry. 
Among the prominent speaks on hand at 
the meeting were Hon. E. J. Watson, 
Commissioner of Agriculture, Columbia, 
S. C., and the Hon. J. D. Price, Com¬ 
missioner of Agriculture of Georgia, At¬ 
lanta, Ga.; Mr. H. R. Howard, presi¬ 
dent of the Tennessee Horticultural So¬ 
ciety, made an interesting address on the 
subject of “Marketing the Apple.” Prof. 
C. C. Newman, of Clemson College, S. C., 
also appeared upon the program. 
The twenty-ninth annual convention of 
the Society of American Florists was 
held at the Armory, Minneapolis, Minn., 
August 19-23, 1913. under the presidency 
of J. K. M. L. Farquhar, of Boston, 
Mass. The new officers elected were: 
President, Theodore Wirth, Minneapolis, 
Minn.; vice-president. P. Welch, Bos¬ 
ton; secretary. John Young, New York; 
treasurer, W. F. Kasting, Buffalo. N. Y. 
The next meeting will be held at Boston. 
The society now has 1.303 members, and 
is in a flourishing condition. 
The Florists’ Hail Association held 
its annual convention at Minneapolis re¬ 
cently. It reports a membershfp of 
1,613 and a reserve fund of $30,000 in¬ 
vested in high-grade securities. The as¬ 
sociation now insures 38,500,538 square 
feet of glass for its members. The losses 
for the year were 118,745 square feet of 
single-thick glass and 85.136 square feet 
of double-thick glass. Since the organ¬ 
ization of the association in 1887 1,960 
losses have been adjusted at a total of 
over $278,000. 
Two hundred and fifty enthusiastic 
friends of the Connecticut Experiment 
Station enjoyed its Field Day at Mt. 
Carmel August 15. Dr. Jenkins and his 
stall' were kept busy during the morning 
explaining the experiments and answer¬ 
ing questions about them. The experi¬ 
ment; field of 20 acres is divided into 
tracts of several acres each. In most 
cases a single crop is grown on each 
tract, with further sub-divisions into 
smaller plots where there has been varia¬ 
tion in the treatment. The field crops 
under experiment include potatoes, wheat, 
corn, Alfalfa, clover, tobacco, tomatoes, 
melons, cow peas and Soy beans. There is 
also an old apple orchard which has been 
“rejuvenated” and a three-year-old orchard 
of peach and apple trees. While a good 
crop is not essential to success in most 
of the experiments, the results obtained 
in some cases, notably with corn and ap¬ 
ples, would satisfy most farmers this dry 
season. One unusual crop is that of 
small pine trees of which the Station has 
about 250.000 growing on two acres of 
land. These are to be taken up next 
Spring and sold at cost to owners of 
waste or cut over land which they wish 
to plant with forest trees. Soon after 
noon the crowd gathered in the big tent 
for lunch. Sandwiches and coffee pro¬ 
vided by the Station supplemented the 
basket lunches, and seven barrels of 
watermelons contributed by an anony¬ 
mous friend of agriculture were also eas¬ 
ily disposed of. Following lunch the 
meeting was addressed by Dr. Jenkins, 
Mr. F. H. Stadtmueller, of Elmwood; 
Dr. H. J. Wheeler, of Boston. Mass., and 
Prof. C. D. Jarvis, of the Connecticut 
Agricultural College. The remainder of 
the afternoon was spent in further in¬ 
spection and discussion of the field ex¬ 
periments. 
Organization of farmers is going on 
steadily all over New York State. The 
last to be heard from is an organization 
of potato growers. A meeting was held 
at the farm of T. E. Martin, at 4Vest 
Rush, Monroe County, with about 300 
people in attendance, including farmers 
from the east end of Long Island. Here 
again the automobile comes in to make 
such gatherings possible. There was a 
programme covering an hour and a half, 
and an interesting study of field culture. 
A permanent potato growers’ organiza¬ 
tion now seems assured, and this is right, 
for sooner or later farmers must organize 
every branch of their industry and stick 
together. 
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. 
Summer meeting Pennsylvania State 
Horticultural Association, Gettysburg, 
Pa., September 10-11. 
Lancaster Fair, Lancaster, Pa., Sep¬ 
tember 30-Oetober 3. 
National Dairy Show, Chicago, Octo¬ 
ber 23-November 1. 
Vermont Corn Show, Windsor, Vt., 
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. 
Dover, N. J., Poultry, Pigeon and Pet 
Stock Association, annual show, Dover, 
N. J., November 24-29. 
The Capital Poultry and Pigeon Asso¬ 
ciation will hold its annual show at 
Washington, D. C., December 2-6. 
St. Mary’s Poultry Club, first annual 
show, St. Mary’s, Pa., December 1S-19. 
Peninsula Horticultural Society, an 
nual Winter meeting, Easton, Md., Jan¬ 
uary 13-15, 1914. 
Make the most of every trip 
with rod and gun. 
Take a 
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