19iO. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
601 
LETTERS FROM CONGRESSMEN. 
We are very sorry that we lack the 
space to print more of the letters from 
Congressmen about parcels post. They 
run all the way from “careful consider¬ 
ation” to a tone of badly injured inno¬ 
cence. One of the most straightforward 
letters comes from Hon. Arthur L. 
Bates, of the 25th Pennsylvania Dis¬ 
trict. Here it is: 
I have your kind favor and note what 
you say concerning the parcels post. I 
am in favor of a moderate parcels post at 
least, one that will give free interchange 
of moderate sized packages, as I believe the 
express companies are charging rates that 
are altogether too high. In fact, I am 
in favor of such a system as is in practice 
in England and Europe. This bill is be¬ 
fore the Committee on Post Offices and 
Post Iloads. It cannot be taken up in the 
House until it has received a favorable 
report from that committee. In answer to 
your question what are opposing the par¬ 
cels post, will state that I think the mer¬ 
chants of the entire country who pay rent 
and hire their help at home are opposed 
to it, believing that the great catalogue 
houses of the cities are already drawing 
their trade largely away from them. These 
are the two sides of the question. I believe 
in the rule of “the greatest good for the 
greatest number,” and am, therefore, in 
favor of parcels post, and think it will 
be adopted. Arthur l. bates. 
Mr. Bates represents the counties of 
Erie and Crawford. A quite different 
letter comes from Congressman Cyrus 
A. Sulloway, of New Hampshire. He 
could not find an express company with 
a microscope: 
Now, you are greatly in error to think 
that the opposition to parcels post comes 
from the big express companies. If it 
came from these big corporations, it would 
pass so quickly that it would make your 
head swim. Up in our section of the coun¬ 
try there is not much opposition to parcels 
post, but there has a great deal developed 
out in the Middle West, and the opposition 
comes entirely from the country store¬ 
keepers and the small merchants, who 
think their business is going to be ruined 
by the mail order and big department stores 
of Chicago and St. Louis. These country 
storekeepers are very bitter in their op¬ 
position to parcels post. As far as I know, 
none of the big express companies has dared 
to show their heads here, for there is not 
a man in Congress but who is thoroughly 
conversant with the exorbitant rates 
charged by the express companies, and it 
is going to be thqse rates that are going 
to result in the passage of the parcels post 
bill. Nobody is trying, as you state, “to 
fool the farmers,” as it is from the coun¬ 
try districts of the great Middle West 
that the opposition lias come. Personally, 
I am in favor of parcels post, and shall 
vote for the bill. I think we shall pass a 
bill during the present Congress. There 
are no “interests” here opposing it, and 
all such talk is purely moonshine. 
C. A. SULLOWAY. 
It is surprising how many of the Con¬ 
gressmen take this position regarding 
express companies. From his words 
you would think it a very unhealthy 
thing for an express company to show 
its head to Mr. Sulloway. These “coun¬ 
try storekeepers” seem to be terrible 
fellows—to a Congressman who is hunt¬ 
ing for a good excuse! 
EVENTS OF THE WEEK. 
DOMESTIC.—Collector Loeb, of New 
York, has sanctioned the seizure of 165,000 
pounds of frozen eggs appraised at about 
$30,000, which arrived at this port in 
December and January in the refrigerating 
rooms of the steamships Arabic, Minne¬ 
haha and Minneapolis. The eggs were in¬ 
voiced at London at five cents a pound. 
The appraiser decided that this was an 
undervaluation and added 11 cents to it. 
Under the law, which is automatic, the 
eggs were ordered seized because they had 
been advanced in value more than 75 per 
cent. The importers protested and took 
an appeal. General Appraiser R. H. Cham- 
berlaine cut the value to 13 cents, which 
still made the eggs liable to seizure, and 
three appraisers especially appointed, sus¬ 
tained the estimate of Chamberlaine. The 
eggs being perishable were not actually 
seized. Just a specimen case was held, 
and when the importers put up cash equiva¬ 
lent to the appraised value, the regular 
duty and the penal duty they were per¬ 
mitted to take possession of the eggs and 
put them on the market. The eggs are 
nnsbelled, and according to a customs of¬ 
ficial were originally put in tins in China. 
The story of a racing swindle as told 
the police in New York by Henry Wagner, 
senior member of a firm of billiard table 
manufacturers, has no equal in the annals 
of the New Y'ork Detective Bureau. To 
obtain $10,000 the swindlers intrusted their 
dupe with $106,000 in cash, hired a private 
car from Baltimore to Jacksonville, Fla., 
and impersonated a party of wealthy men. 
Late last month Mr. Wagner met a man 
representing himself to be Alfred San¬ 
ford, private secretary to a rich Pennsyl¬ 
vanian, with money to spend on coal lands. 
Would Wagner take an option on 2,000 
acres, at $7 an acre? lie could sell at a 
huge profit. A trip to Baltimore followed, 
where entered the “millionaires,” including 
“H. II. Rogers, Jr.,” and “Col. Moffett,” of 
Colorado. From Baltimore the party jour¬ 
neyed to Jacksonville by private car, and 
at the race track there was heavy betting, 
and the victim was made stake-holder un¬ 
til at one time he held $106,000. His draft 
for $10,000 was obligingly cashed, and he 
loaned the money to one of the crowd to 
fill out. a $20,000 bet. Then came the 
escape of the men, one of whom was later 
arrested. 
A sensational move by the Pennsylvania 
State Pharmaceutical Board, which is car¬ 
rying on a crusade against the illegal sale 
of cocaine in Philadelphia, was made April 
8 when Benjamin P. Ashmead, United States 
Government inspector of drugs for the 
port of Philadelphia, was arrested on a 
warrant charging him with being engaged 
in the traffic. The warrant was sworn to 
by a man whose name is withheld, who 
charges that Ashmead is the largest dis¬ 
tributor of the drug to peddlers in Phila¬ 
delphia. Dr. Christopher Koch, of the State 
Board, who is directing the crusade, said 
April 8 that it was possible for 
Ashmead to obtain cocaine at $3 an ounce 
and sell it to peddlers at $8 an ounce. 
These peddlers, Dr. Koch said, in turn 
sold the cocaine in small quantities to 
users of the drug at a profit of between 
$25 and $30 and sometimes $40 an ounce. 
Assistant Attorney-General W. T. Den¬ 
nison has issued half a dozen Grand Jury 
subpoenas for Federal officials and sugar 
men in the investigation into alleged fraud¬ 
ulent underweighing of sugar at New Or¬ 
leans by agents of the sugar trust. Gov¬ 
ernment agents who have been investigat¬ 
ing the methods of weighing import sugar 
have, it is understood, gathered evidence 
to show that there was organized under¬ 
weighing of imports. An authority deemed 
reliable has declared that the underweigh¬ 
ing there was more extensive in proportion 
than in New York. 
The 850-ton mill of the Goldfield Con¬ 
solidated Mines Company, at Goldfield, Nev., 
was damaged by fire to the extent of $250,- 
000 April !). After an explosion in the 
refinery the fire spread to a conveyor, 
which carried the flames to the sampling 
department and stamp batteries. A shut¬ 
down of sixty days will be necessary. 
The deaths of nearly a dozen persons in 
Westerly, Stouington, Conn., and vicinity, 
within a week, under circumstances indi¬ 
cating that most of them had been poisoned 
by wood alcohol contained in a mixture 
labelled “Whiskey,” has stirred the au¬ 
thorities of Rhode Island and Connecticut. 
The concoction is said to have come from 
a Westerly drug stone; and it is believed 
that a clerk, in mixing a “medicinal whis¬ 
key,” ignorantly used wood alcoJiol, a dead¬ 
ly poison, instead of ordinary alcohol. 
Westerly is a temperance town. Thus far 
eleven persons have died suddenly and it 
is known that at least nine of the number 
had partaken of the poisonous potion. 
The party consisting of Thomas Lloyd 
and three companions which left Fair¬ 
banks, Alaska, three months or so ago to 
attempt the ascent of Mount McKinley, 
the highest mountain in North America, 
has succeeded in its purpose. The summit 
was reached on April 3 after a month of 
steady climbing from the base of the moun¬ 
tain. The party left Fairbanks on De¬ 
cember 22. They established a camp at the 
base of the peak in March. No trace of 
Dr. Cook's ascent could be found on either 
peak and no records were discovered. 
Mount McKinley is said to be 20,500 feet 
high. It stands in latitude 03 degrees 
north and longitude 161 degrees west. It 
is about 280 miles south of the Arctic cir¬ 
cle and is in the backbone of the greatest 
watershed in Alaska. It is the highest 
far northern mountain peak in the world. 
POLITICAL.—The first remedial legisla¬ 
tion recommended by the Senate commit- 
fee that has been investigating the high 
cost of living was submitted to the Senate 
April 5. Its purpose is to limit the time 
during which perishable articles of food 
may be held in cold storage, so as to pre¬ 
vent the maintenance and advancement of 
prices artificially. The committee unani¬ 
mously reported to the Senate a bill mak¬ 
ing it punishable under the provisions of 
the pure food act to keep in cold storage 
for more than one year any article of food, 
and requiring that all articles of food held 
in cold storage any length of time shall 
bear a label plainly and correctly stating 
the period of time so stored. Any food 
articles held in storage for more than a 
year become “adulterated,” and if articles 
stored for a lesser time do not bear the 
prescribed label they become “misbranded,” 
and are liable to the penalties imposed in 
the pure food act. 
If a bill ordered reported April 7 by the 
House Committee on Military Affairs is en¬ 
acted into law, Capt. Peter F. Hains, of 
the United States Army, who is serving a 
term in Sing Sing prison, New York, for 
the killing of William Annis, will be 
dropped from the rolls of the army. The 
bill, which was introduced by Representa- 
. five Slayden, of Texas, authorizes the Pres¬ 
ident to drop from the rolls “any officer 
who is absent from duty three months 
without leave or who has been absent in 
confinement in a State prison or peniten¬ 
tiary for more than three months after 
conviction by a civil court of competent 
jurisdiction.” Although Hains is still car¬ 
ried on the rolls of the army, he is not 
drawing pay. There is no authority in 
present law to separate him from the 
service. 
A bill appropriating $61,000 for the re¬ 
lief of the contributors to the Ellen M. 
Stone ransom fund passed the Senate April 
12. There was objection to the measure 
until Senator Lodge explained that the 
State Department pledged the good faith 
of the Government to reimburse the con¬ 
tributors to the fund. The bill, which 
passed the Senate at the last session of 
Congress, provides thtft no claim shall be 
paid unless shown that the contribution 
was made on the faith of the promise of 
the Government to reimburse contributors. 
Miss Stone, who was an American mis¬ 
sionary to Turkey, was abducted by brig¬ 
ands in September, 1901. 
FARM AND GARDEN.—A conference 
will be held soon in New York City to en¬ 
courage the movement for the rehabilita¬ 
tion of abandoned farms in New York 
State. The subject was discussed at a 
conference held in New Y'ork, ' in which 
Representative Dwight, President Brown, 
of the New Y'ork Central, and other men 
interested participated. To this meeting 
will be invited the heads of the important 
New York State railway and financial in¬ 
terests. It is planned if possible to have 
present George W. Perkins, representing J. 
I’. Morgan; William Rockefeller, W. K. 
Vanderbilt, President Truesdale, of the 
Delaware, Lackawanna & Western; Presi¬ 
dent Underwood, of the Erie; G. S. Sims, 
second vice-president of the Delaware & 
Hudson; President Fowler, of the Ontario 
& Western, and representatives of branch 
and subsidiary lines. Mr. Brown assured 
Mr. Dwight that it would be possible to 
have all these men either present or rep¬ 
resented at the proposed meeting. Mr. 
Dwight on his part promised to get Sec¬ 
retary of Agriculture James Wilson, Sec¬ 
retary of Commerce and Labor Nagel and 
experts from the two departments, the en¬ 
tire New York Republican delegation in 
the House and representatives from the 
New York State Department of Agriculture 
to attend. 
Attorney-General Wickersham instructed 
Special Attorney A. E. Harrison April 7 to 
determine whether it is true as reported 
that a board sitting at Elgin, Ill., fixes 
the price of butter throughout the country 
and otherwise exercises a control over the 
trade in a manner alleged to be in violation 
of the Sherman anti-trust act. It was said 
by an officer of the Government that the 
operations of the Elgin board of trade have 
been under investigation for several weeks. 
The Attorney-General was prompted to take 
action at this time as a result of state¬ 
ments made by John Newman, representing 
the Elgin organization, before the Senate 
committee inquiring into the cost of living. 
Mr. Newman told the Senate committee 
that five men sitting at Elgin fixed the 
price of creamery butter to the consumers. 
He added that the board usually taxed the 
market all it could stand. It was fur¬ 
ther brought out that dealers who sell at 
prices below the Elgin quotations are ex¬ 
pelled from the organization, which is co¬ 
operative and is composed of creamery 
men, farmers and local dealers. 
The American Cranberry Growers’ Asso¬ 
ciation, at a special meeting held in Phila¬ 
delphia April 6, decided to inaugurate an 
educational movement to run five years, 
during which time the association will 
spend more than $250,000 in teaching the 
American and English housewife just how 
cranberries should be cooked. The associa¬ 
tion will also endeavor to disabuse the 
minds of the public from the idea that 
cranberries should be eaten only with poul¬ 
try. More than 100 members of the asso¬ 
ciation attended the meeting, which was 
called to order by E. II. Durell, president. 
George E. Gossler. secretary of the Special 
Committee, announced that the cranberry 
crop last year amounted to 600,000 barrels, 
valued at from $6 to $7 a barrel. He said 
that cranberries were grown chiefly in 
New Jersey. Massachusetts and Wisconsin 
and that the movement under way to en¬ 
lighten the public regarding the importance 
of making cranberries a regular table dish 
had the indorsement of every cranberry 
grower in the country. No effort will be 
made to market the American cranberry in 
France and Germany, as in both countries 
a prohibitive duty of $19.35 a barrel is 
levied. Resolutions were adopted favoring 
the formation of the American Cranberry 
Growers’ Advertising Agency. The money 
necessary to carry on the work will be 
secured by taxing each grower a certain 
percentage of his yield. Among the promi¬ 
nent New Jersey cranberry growers present 
at the meeting were J. J. White, New Lis¬ 
bon : Theodore Budd. Pemberton; Charles 
D. Makepeace, May’s Landing; A. J. Rider. 
Hammonton: E. II. Durell, Woodbury: 
Frank S. Gaskill. New Egypt, and It. Har¬ 
rison. Trenton. Mr. Rider is secretary of 
the association. 
Overflows in the valleys of the Nueces 
and Frio rivers, Texas. April 3-9 drowned 
• lore than eighty thousand goats, accord¬ 
ing to the estimates of ranchmen. More 
than fifty thousand head were of the An¬ 
gora variety. Several ranchmen lost from 
five to ten thousand each. Some of them 
have not a goat left. The floods swept 
through the valleys before the animals 
could be rounded up and driven to higher 
land. 
An unusual question of law arising out 
of the grazing of cattle within the limits 
of the Yosemite National Park was argued 
April 11 in the Supreme Court of the 
United States. In 1906 .T. B. Curtin was 
the owner of a large tract within the limits 
of the park. At that time Major II. C. 
Benson was superintendent of the park. 
Major Benson forcibly prevented Curtin 
from using the public toll-roads leading 
to his lands and from utilizing his lands 
to graze cattle upon them until Curtin had 
complied with regulations of the Interior 
Department requiring him to fence in his 
lands. Curtin came to the Supreme Court 
to argue that the regulations were invalid, 
on the ground that the Secretary of the In¬ 
terior had no right, to enforce regulations 
impairing or restricting the rights of per¬ 
sons owning patented lands within the 
Yosemite National Park as to the use of 
the land or the public roads for anv lawful 
purpose. The Department of Justice de¬ 
fends the regulations, as necessary to pre¬ 
vent the reservation from being overrun 
by herds of cattle. It claims that Curtin's 
cattle have been straying over the park for 
years. The argument is presented that, 
unlike an individual, the Federal Govern¬ 
ment is not required to look to the State 
to punish trespassers upon its proper, v, 
but may inflict punishment for such in¬ 
fringement itself. 
A “NIGHTSHADE” COME TO JUDGMENT. 
Among the horticultural papers which 
joined the nightshade family is our old 
friend Green’s Fruit Grower. Many of its 
readers, as soon as they saw the advertise¬ 
ment of the Wonderberry, wrote asking why 
it was ever printed. Some of them were 
told in effect that very likely before the 
season was over such men as H. E. Van 
Deman would show that the Wonderberry 
is “all right.” As an outcome of this, 
the question was asked squarely of Mr. 
Van Deman, and the answer is just what 
one would expect from him. It is printed 
in the last Issue of Green's Fruit Grower 
as follows : 
“My opinion of the Wonderberry is that 
it is worthless as an edible fruit or vege¬ 
table, for it is an annual that is being 
pushed because of its berr.v-like fruits. I 
have seen the growing plants and fruit, 
and. while it is claimed by Mr. Burbank 
to be a cross between certain species of 
Solanums of which S. nigrum is not one, 
as I remember, it is in all respects that 
very species. If there is no mistake on 
the part of Mr. Burbank, then man has 
by artificial means made a combination of 
two species that has resulted in an exact 
duplicate of another, S. nigrum. Last Sum¬ 
mer and Fall there were shown at the 
A.-Y.-P. Exposition at Seattle, Wash., sev¬ 
eral lots of specimens of the Wonderberry, 
both plants and fruit, from seed said to 
have been obtained from John Lewis 
Childs, that were in all botanical respects 
the same as S. nigrum. In fact, in some 
cases whole plants in fruit of both the 
Wonderberry and wild S. nigrum were 
shown together and from the same gar¬ 
dens, and 1 could see no material differ¬ 
ences between them. It being my official 
duty to inspect these specimens, ! did so 
with care and have no hesitancy in pro¬ 
nouncing them not only worthless but bit¬ 
ter and nauseating to the taste, both raw 
and cooked. And more than that, 1 found 
no one else who liked them. I notice that 
this thing is now being sold under a new 
name, the ‘Sunberry.’ Next year it may 
be called Moouberry. In any case, I wan.: 
none of it.” 
We are very glad to see Green's Fruit 
Grower come up to the mark in this way. 
It sets a strong example for the rest of the 
nightshade family. 
CROP NOTES. 
The fruit crop looks fine for a large crop 
of apples. If nothing more happens, the 
peaches probably will be 25 per cent of 
last year’s crop. All kinds of berries are 
in fine shape. Wheat, grass and clover all 
fine. No complaint, only it is too dry. 
Creal Springs, 111. l. j. r. 
We are now (April 6) spraying with 
lime-sulphur, 1% gallon to 50 of water, 
with 2M> pounds arsenate of lead. Blos¬ 
som buds about ready to open. We use 
double-action pump, two men pumping, 
two leads of hose, two Vermorel nozzles 
to each lead. We apply 800 gallons per 
day, coating by count 420 trees 15 to 16 
years old ; do a very satisfactory job. Our 
outlook for fruit was never better. Of 
course, we are in danger of frost injury, 
the buds opening out so early. There is 
double the crop in sight over last year, 
and we had over 4.000 bushels then. 
GRANT G. HITCHINGS. 
Onondaga Co., N. Y. 
We have had a very favorable Winter for 
farm operations, and everything looks good 
to the farmer and fruit grower unless he 
happens to be one who has an overdose of 
thrips. These little pests crawl' into the 
buds of fruit trees as soon as they swell 
the least bit. They seem to like the prune 
better than any other tree. Some orchards 
are so full of them that the prune blossoms 
will not open at all, having been eaten up 
by the thrips. My orchard work keeps me 
very busy. I have a variety of fruit, cher¬ 
ries, apricots, peaches, prunes and apples, 
vith berries, quinces, walnuts, olives, grapes, 
etc., on the side. Just now (March 31 i I 
am irrigating. The water we get is taken 
from the Los Gatos creek by a company. 
They have constructed ditches which lead 
through the principal orchard districts. We 
have to pay 50 to 75 cents per hour, and 
use the water day and night. A head is 
supposed to be 100 miner's inches, but 
when water is plentiful we get much more 
than that. Cherry trees are now in full 
bloom. Prunes are past their best. Apri¬ 
cots are as large as pink beans, and so 
are almonds. Some varieties of apples are 
in bloom and most other varieties are show¬ 
ing color. We are pruning peaches yet. I 
like to get the peach trees all pruned when 
they are in bloom if possible, as much 
thinning can be done with the pruning 
shears, and much faster than by picking 
off the fruit by hand. 
California,. . Horace g. keesling. 
