1910 . 
'THE RURAb NEW-YORKER 
681 
EVENTS OF THE WEEK. 
DOMESTIC.—Twenty persons were in¬ 
jured, two probably fatally, and a score of 
farmhouses, besides numerous other struc¬ 
tures, were demolished by a tornado which 
swept through a portion of Smith County, 
and the edges of adjoining counties, in 
Texas, June 10. Nearly all buildings, 
fences and trees in the path of the storm 
were wrecked, and crops were badly dam¬ 
aged. 
Fires that broke out on the northern 
waterfront at Seattle, Wash., during a gale 
June 10 was carried by the wind to a dis¬ 
trict to the eastward, thickly covered with 
wooden buildings, and, in a short time 20 
acres were ablaze, causing a loss of $1,000,- 
000, and making 500 persons homeless. 
The largest buildings burned were the 
Galbraith-Bacon warehouses, which covered 
the entire block bounded by Railroad and 
Elliott avenues and Battery and Wall 
streets. They were erected last year at a 
cost of $200,000. Another large building 
destroyed was that of the I’uget Sound 
Sheet Metal Works. 
Illinois State’s Attorney Wayman was 
authorized June 11 by Attorney-General 
Stead to begin suits against nearly 1,000 
firms and corporations of Cook County 
charged with violating the anti-trust 
act of 1891. The law was passed 
on July 1, 1891, and demands that on or 
about September 1 of each year each firm 
or corporation file an affidavit with the 
Secretary of State declaring they are not 
affiliated with any pool, trust, agreement, 
combination, federation, understanding or 
partnership to fix prices. When the affi¬ 
davits are not filed the Secretary of State 
submits a list of the names of the violators 
to the Attorney-General, who in turn trans¬ 
mits the list to the State’s Attorneys in 
whose counties the violations occur. Some 
of the alleged violators among electric lines 
and railroads are the Union Loop Elevated 
Railroad Company, the Chicago and Oak 
Park Elevated Railroad, Northwestern Ele¬ 
vated Railroad, the Chicago Great Western 
Railroad, the I’ere Marquette Railroad, and 
the Illinois and Wisconsin Railroad. Some 
of the packing firms to be sued are the Na¬ 
tional Packing Company and the Schwarz- 
child & Sulzberger Company. The law 
makes the corporation or firm liable to a 
fine of $50 for each day after the date set 
for the filing of the affidavit. 
W. A. Kenyon, Assistant Attorney-Gen¬ 
eral, who succeeded Wade Ellis as trust 
buster, arrived in Chicago June 11 with a 
suit to file against the Union Stock Yards 
Company, alleging a monopoly and charg¬ 
ing rebating on freight rates. The suit, he 
said, would be filed in the Federal Court. 
The suit is based on the Hepburn act, 
which the Union Stock Yards Company 
and the Chicago Junction Railway Com¬ 
pany are said to have been violating by 
combinations with cattle raisers and those 
who purchase the cattle; It was ordered 
by Attorney-General Wickersham. 
Charles R. Ileike and Ernest W. Ger- 
bracht, the two sugar ollicials who were 
convicted in the United States Circuit 
Court of complicity in the sugar weighing 
frauds, will go to prison pending appeal. 
Sentence has been suspended until August 
30, on which day motion for arrest of judg¬ 
ment will be heard. Judge Martin released 
the prisoners June 11 on $25,000 bail each. 
In the meantime their original bail of 
$5,000 in Heike’s case and $10,000 in Ger- 
bracht’s will stand. In raising the bail 
Judge Martin remarked that there was a 
presumption of innocence before, whereas 
now the men were found guilty, and more¬ 
over he had some doubt in his mind as to 
whether the offence of which they stood 
convicted was extraditable. James F. Ben- 
dernagel, in whose case the jury disagreed, 
was released on his own recognizance of 
$5,000. lie will not be tried again, and the 
nominal arrangement for bail is more or 
less a mere formality. In the case of the 
minor defendants who pleaded guilty on 
the sudden anpearance of Oliver Spitzcr as 
a witness, James F. Ilalligan, Jr., and 
Harry I’. Walker were sentenced to three 
months on the Island. Judge Martin de¬ 
clined to sentence Jean M. Voelker because 
he is practically a dying man. Henry F. 
Cochrane, counsel for Ilalligan and Walker, 
made a brief plea to the Court for lenity. 
Walker, he said, had a family of eight 
children who needed him. Neither man, he 
said, had anything against him except the 
misfortune to have been connected with 
the system of frauds on the Williamsburg 
docks. 
. Richard Sage, a 17-year-old chauffeur, 
who was convicted of manslaughter in the 
second degree, while on a joy-ride, was sen¬ 
tenced to spend 15 years in the Elmira Re¬ 
formatory June 13 by Judge Dike, in the 
County Court. Brooklyn. Sage ran down 
Catherine McCoy of No. 339 Dean street, 
Brooklyn, on May 7. He tried to escape, 
but was prevented by a driver, who put his/ 
team of horses directly in the patli of the 
motor car. Judge Dike remarked that the 
next joy-rider who was brought before him 
would be sentenced to Sing Sing. 
With the collapse June 13 of the sup¬ 
ports of the sprinkler system tank on the 
roof of The Herald building. Montreal. 
Canada, between 30 and 40 persons lost 
their lives, and 40 are now in the hospi¬ 
tals, most of them dangerously if not mor¬ 
tally injured. The great mass of metal and 
water, weighing 35 tons, crashed through 
the building from top to basement., com¬ 
pletely wrecking it. Fire bursting out im¬ 
mediately thereafter added to the confusion 
and loss of life. The flames added greatly 
to the horror of the disaster. The firemen, 
however, rescued scores of people from 
f ierilous positions in the jagged and totter- 
ng walls. Some of the walls had to come 
down before the work of recovering the 
bodies could he safely attempted. 
Charles K. Hamilton flew in his biplane 
from Governor's Island to Philadelphia, 8G 
miles, June IS, and then, after resting two 
hours, flew back over his aerial course, and, 
with liis destination only a few miles away, 
was compelled to descend to the marshes of 
Raritan Bay, near South Amboy, to adjust 
a hitch in his engine. He continued his 
flight later, finishing his journey within the 
time specified. The conditions of Mr. Ham¬ 
ilton's undertaking were that he was to fly 
from Governor's Island, New York, to Phil¬ 
adelphia and return in the same aeroplane 
within 24 hours; the start and the finish 
both to be made by daylight. No condi¬ 
tions were made as to stops. 
With Frank .T. Miner, one of its man¬ 
agers, under a five year sentence in the 
penitentiary and its wire service withdrawn 
by the Western Union, the Merchants’ 
Stock and Grain Company of St. Louis, 
Mo., announced its suspension June 14 with 
the close of the market. The Merchants 
was accused of being one of the largest 
bucket shops in the country and had offices 
in 300 cities of the Southwest. Its closing 
marks the passing of what was once one 
of the greatest speculative concerns in the 
United States. It was formerly known as 
the Celia Commission Company and was 
operated in connection with a large num¬ 
ber of Eastern houses. The Celias dis¬ 
posed of their interests two years ago. At 
that time it was said the Celias had ceased 
all bucket shop connections. Since then 
indictments have been returned in Wash¬ 
ington against Louis Celia, alleging his 
connection with a New Jersey firm. 
POLITICAL.—In consequence of infor¬ 
mation sent to the House by -the War De¬ 
partment. disclosing the alleged fact that 
Frank W. Carpenter, executive secretary 
of the Philiopine government, and E. L. 
Worcester, had bought and leased "friar 
lands” in the Philippines, Representative 
Martin (Dem., Col.) introduced June 13 a 
resolution demanding an investigation, and 
charging malfeasance in office. 
The attorneys for the “prosecution” and 
“defence,” in the matter of the charges 
avainst Richard A. Ballinger, Secretary of 
the Interior, filed briefs with the Ballinger- 
Pinchot Congressional investigating com¬ 
mittee June 13. Louis D. Brandeis, coun¬ 
sel for L. R. Glavis, ex-special agents of 
the General Land Office, and Mr. Pepper, 
counsel for Gifford Pinchot, ex-chief of the 
forest service, contend in their briefs that 
the evidence adduced during the investiga¬ 
tion has shown that Secretary Ballinger 
is unfit to administer the affairs of the 
public domain. They condemn his attitude 
toward the champions of conservation, and 
charge him with causing embarrassment to 
the President and loss to the people. John 
J. Vertrees, counsel for the secretary, in 
his brief, declares that none of the ac¬ 
cusations made against him has been sus¬ 
tained by presentation of facts. Mr. Ver¬ 
trees attempts to show by the evidence 
that there has been a conspiracy afoot to 
secure Mr. Ballinger’s removal from office 
because he did not approve of the so-called 
"Garfield policies.” 
When an effort was made June 14 to 
have the Senate agree to the report of the 
conferees accepting the House postal 
savings bank bill the friends of statehood 
for Arizona and New Mexico prevented ac¬ 
tion. Senator Bailey gave notice that an 
effort to accept the report of the conferees 
on the postal savings bill would develop 
considerable debate. “We were given the 
assurance,” said Senator Bailey, “when the 
conservation bill was made the order of 
business after the disposition of the rail¬ 
road bill, that the statehood bill would ho 
the next measure to receive the considera¬ 
tion of the Senate. Now it is proposed to 
take up a bill passed by the House and 
that the Senate had never seen. It is an 
essentially different measure from that 
passed by the Senate, and it will be dis¬ 
cussed longer than the Senator from Mon¬ 
tana imagines.” Another effort will be 
made to bring the postal savings bank bill 
before the Senate. 
FARM AND GARDEN.—As a means to 
increase population and prosperity in the 
fertile farming sections of the State, the 
operation and extension of interurban lines 
was made the subject of special study June 
13 at the headquarters of the Street Rail¬ 
way Association of the State of New York 
in this city. Fully 1400 miles of track 
are now in use in the farm sections, ac¬ 
cording to the latest statistics, and four 
hundred small towns are directly connected 
with a dozen of the largest cities of the 
State on the main lines of these roads, 
while a score of rich farming counties are 
crossed by them. Almost 1,000 more miles 
of interurban track have been projected to 
connect other agricultural sections with 
the market centres, the records show; but 
hard times and the reluctance of capital 
to enter the present public service field in 
this State are assigned as the reason for 
the present stagnation of such enterprises. 
Fearing that it will be difficult to con¬ 
vince a Long Island jury that three hunt¬ 
ers ought to be fined $47,505 for netting 
of ducks, the State Forest, Fish and Game 
Commission will ask for a change of venue 
from Suffolk County in their suit against 
Charles B. King, William E. Raynor and 
Edward Hardy, of Good Ground, L. I. The 
defendants are accused of netting wild 
ducks instead of shooting them, taking 
them between sunset and sunrise, and kill¬ 
ing them out of season. The offenses are 
alleged to have been committed in 1908. 
The game laws with regard to ducks are 
not viewed with favor by Long Islanders. 
They argue that the short duck season does 
not lessen the killing of ducks, but does 
send hunters to other States, thereby de¬ 
priving Long Islanders of part of their in¬ 
come as guides and professional hunters. 
Farmers in Decatur County, Ind., who 
have given over their lands as game pre¬ 
serves are being confronted with a situa¬ 
tion that promises to bo serious. The Hun¬ 
garian pheasants that were placed in the 
game preserves are becoming exceedingly 
tame, and it is no uncommon thing for 
them to wander into barnyards. On the 
Charles Throp farm, near Greensburg, an 
unusually large pheasant seems to have a 
particular aversion to turkeys. It has de¬ 
stroyed two or three turkey nests and 
whipped the gobbler of the brood to a 
“frazzle.” It is a common sight when a 
pheasant appears in a barnyard to see a 
fight between it and chickens, and the 
pheasant usually wins. 
Largely as a result of testimony adduced 
by the Senate committee investigating the 
cost of living, the 'Federal Government 
June 13 began an attack on the Chicago 
Butter and Egg Board. United States Dis¬ 
trict Attorney Sims filed a petition in the 
United States Circuit Court seeking to en¬ 
join the board from issuing quotations and 
asking its dissolution. The gist of the 
charge against the board is that its Quota¬ 
tion Committees send broadcast quotations 
which during the last three years have 
varied from one-half cent to one and one- 
half cent under the actual price in the open 
market. In this way, it is charged “in¬ 
siders' on the board, particularly those who 
are members of the Quotations Committee, 
buy from the original producers at a lower 
price than dealers who go into the open 
market. According to the Government 
petition, the board meets daily. Members 
post tiie amount of produce they have to 
si'll, and other members bid for what they 
want. Actual trading over, it is alleged 
the Quotation Committees meet and “fix’ 
the official ouotations for the day. These, 
it is alleged, are usually placed under the 
actual market price, and it is alleged are 
intended merely to mislead farmers and 
other producers. Members of the Quota¬ 
tion Committees, who serve for three 
months, it is charged, also have an undue 
advantage over other members of the board, 
in that they made contracts long in ad¬ 
vance, and on the day of delivery make a 
quotation regardless of actual values to suit 
their own needs on the day of delivery. 
PLAIN FARMING FOR AGRICULTURAL 
STUDENTS. 
In regard to the editorial in Tiir R. 
N.-Y., page 648, I would like to say that I 
do not believe we students in agricultural 
colleges would be at all benefited by a prac¬ 
tical course on a farm for a year or two. 
Here at the Massachusetts Agricultural 
College numerous other courses besides 
agriculture are taught, such as chemistry, 
civil engineering, entomology, etc., and 
those who elect agriculture and go back to 
the farm after graduation are usually 
farmers’ sons or those who have had ex¬ 
tensive experience on the farm before en¬ 
tering college. They have had the practical 
experience, and want some theory, and as 
farming is coming to be a verv exacting 
business, too much theory and book learn¬ 
ing is not likely to be given. We have la¬ 
boratory exercises and practicums once or 
twice a week in which all up-to-date 
methods in pruning, spraying, planting, 
etc., is carried on. On the other hand all 
students who have not had any previous 
agricultural experience but who wish to 
take up some form of agriculture as their 
work, may spend their Summer vacations 
working on farms, thus getting the practi¬ 
cal experience. To sum it up, I imply that 
students at our college do not need to 
spend a year of the two or four-year course 
in practical work on a farm because most 
of them have already had such experience, 
and that they need all of their time (out¬ 
side of practicums) on their books. If you 
wish to give them practical work in the 
course, how about a plan for a two-year 
course that would give six months of the 
year in the class room and the other six 
months out on the farm doing the regular 
work? I hope to see more written about 
this from students in other agricultural 
colleges. a. R. J. 
Amherst, Mass. 
TAXES IN WASHINGTON. 
I have been interested in the discussion 
of taxes in The It. N.-Y. recently, and we 
in the Yakima Valley think the limit has 
almost been reached with us. The tax rate 
varies some in our county, as the different 
road and school districts have different 
levies; but in my district our tax rate this 
year is 2.82 on a 00 per cent valuation. 
In my case.it amounts to over $1.50 per 
acre on land which is a great deal of it 
fit only for cow pasture, and good pasture 
only till July at that. Real property is 
valued every two years in this State, and 
this year the assessor has in our neighbor¬ 
hood doubled tiie valuation, and is assess¬ 
ing at full value, claiming that tin 1 rate 
is to be lowered. There is considerable 
complaint, for we have reason to believe 
that the taxes will increase with the in¬ 
crease in valuation, and we are planning 
to go before the commissioners when the 
time comes and make a protest. The prop¬ 
erty of Yakima County is assessed this 
year for $903,000 and the authorities are 
calling for more. Some of us can’t see 
where we get much for our money. 
In Yakima County there are all kinds of 
valuations for land—anything of any ac¬ 
count being held at $100 per acre or bet¬ 
ter, and from that up to $3,500 to $4,000 
per acre. One 11-acre tract witli bearing 
peach and apple trees and a fairly good 
house about one mile from town recently 
sold for $35,000, and lots of places in that 
vicinity have a similar valuation. How¬ 
ever, if I had the $35,000 I wouldn’t want 
that place or any other at that price. About 
eight miles from North Yakima in one di¬ 
rection land is selling from $200 up to 
$350 or better; in an equal distance in an¬ 
other direction two or three times that, and 
when we have to pay the rate of taxation 
on those valuations our taxes are some¬ 
what burdensome. For my part I some¬ 
times think I would as soon sell out and 
go back to New York State and get some 
of their cheaper hut just as good land, even 
though the Winters are colder D. A. G. 
Washington. 
POULTRY FACTS AND WEATHER. 
I am feeding my fowls, pullets and 
young chickens a dry mash which I would 
he glad to have some of your cracker jack 
feeders comment upon. I am afraid it may 
have too much protein in it. Equal parts 
In weight of bran,; middlings, cornmeal, 
glucose and Alfalfa; the last is cut very 
fine. As tiie Alfalfa is very bulky the pro¬ 
portion of it in the mixture is in excess to 
the other materials. For my young ducks 
I add water, grit or charcoal to the mix¬ 
ture. It agrees with all the fowls, they 
relish it. hut some of the hens and pullets 
are getting too fat. For my grain mixture 
1 use cracked corn, oats and wheat, equal 
proportions. In feeding large flocks it 
takes considerably more time to mix up 
different mixtures of* dry mash at tiie time 
of using and I have been mixing mine by 
using a hag each. It struck me that Mr. 
Mapes’s house would lie too dark in the 
rear even to find eggs, and in warm weather 
the fowls would bo uncomfortably warm. 
Would it not lie possible and preferable to 
put in a window on the north side for 
light and ventilation in Summer? A double 
sash could he used in Winter. 
Weather in this part of Connecticut cold 
and wet, no warm weather since latter 
part of March. Potatoes doing fine, have 
some the size of a large egg; corn standing 
still, pea pods three inches long but no 
peas developing; tender stuff suffering and 
transplanted plants not as big as when set 
out. w. w. c. 
New London, Conn. 
THE TRUTH OF LAND BOOMS. 
The enormous amount of advertising 
now being expended in tiie agricultural, 
religious and secular papers in the effort 
to exploit the fruit and nut industry in 
the South, and incidentally to palm off a 
lot of cheap, and often worthless, land 
upon the guileless investor, calls for some 
formal protest. In approaching the her¬ 
culean task the writer confesses to a fear 
that his note of warning will provoke a 
storm of protest and abuse, not merely 
from those individuals who are indus¬ 
triously separating “the sucker” from his 
cash and giving him very little in return, 
but ljkewise from persons who are imbued 
with the idea that any investment made in 
a given locality is a net gain to that com¬ 
munity. 
The evil complained of is chiefly con¬ 
fined to Texas, which seems infested with 
a hungry horde of land boomers, whom I 
am proud to state are not "native to the 
manor” but from the North and West. 
These “Yankees,” as we of the South term 
all who hail from points north of "Mason 
and Dixon's line,” are truly artists in their 
line, and display an amount of energy which 
it is regretted could not be more honorably 
employed. The favorite scheme is the 
offer to sell, on the installment plan, five 
to 10 acres of “desirable fruit land” plant¬ 
ed to orange, lig or pecan trees, which 
are to be cared for by the land boomers 
until tiie orchard comes into bearing, when 
its revenues, according to the gilded ro¬ 
mance literature sent out, will render the 
owner forever independent. The article on 
page 583, on “The Florida Orange Busi¬ 
ness” serves a timely purpose, since it 
makes clear the fact that even under favor¬ 
able circumstances, it is not highly remun¬ 
erative. But this is not all. The orange 
is subject to a myriad of diseases and in¬ 
sect pests, and when these fail to rise up 
and plague the orange grower the boreal 
blasts which with almost unfailing regu¬ 
larity sweep down upon the Southland 
every 15 or 20 years, furnish a blizzard 
which utterly annihilates him. The pecan 
industry is in its infancy, and the roseate 
tales of the Dig profits from “grafted and 
budded” trees are exaggerations. We de¬ 
sire immigration and capital, and the 
purely agricultural resources offer speedy 
and ample return for money and labor ex¬ 
pended. The South is little short of an 
Eden, but the day of miracles is past, and 
the Divine edict: “In the sweat of thy 
face thou.'shalt eat bread” is yet unrevoked. 
Louisiana. c. J. Edwards. 
A SOP FOR PARCELS POST. 
On May 27 Congressman Weeks, of 
Massachusetts, introduced in Congress the 
following bill. We understand this repre¬ 
sents all that the committee on postal mat¬ 
ters will recommend in the way of parcels 
post. This committee has been deluged by 
letters and petitions, and its members knew 
the strength of public sentiment. We un¬ 
derstand that most of the members, at least 
the more influential ones, say that they 
oppose an extension of parcels post be¬ 
cause carrying merchandise is not a true 
function of the Government: 
A Bill to amend an Act relating to rates 
on fourth-class mail matter. 
Be it enacted by tiie Senate and House 
of Representatives of the United States of 
America in Congress assembled, That sec¬ 
tion twenty-one of the Act making appro¬ 
priations for the service of the Post-Office 
Department for tiie fiscal year ending June 
thirtieth, eighteen hundred and eighty, and 
for other purposes, approved March third, 
eighteen hundred and seventy-nine, is here¬ 
by amended to read as follows: 
“Sec. 21. That all mail matter of the 
fourth class shall be subject to examina¬ 
tion and to a postage charge at the rate of 
three-fourths of one cent an ounce or frac¬ 
tion thereof, to be prepaid by stamps af¬ 
fixed.” 
CROP NOTES. 
Prospects for as large a crop of peaches 
in this country have never been as good as 
they are this year, all varieties being well 
loaded, and the fruit is very even in size, 
with the exception of Smock and Salway, 
the latter tiie more noticeable, and indica¬ 
tions are that a good many will be lost in 
the June drop. With the Elberta. Lemon 
Free and Crawfords thinning wilt be neces¬ 
sary. While this has not been practiced 
very extensively, wherever it has been 
tried out good results have been secured. 
While apples are not grown very exten¬ 
sively, we believe that we shall have about 
70 per cent of a crop. Pears suffered very 
much from the frost, losing about 40 pel* 
cent. Plums perhaps will be about 00 per 
cent. e. v. 
Ottawa Co., Ohio. 
We had a few days in March of June 
weather, but we have fully paid for it 
since, as it has been cloudy, cold and rainy 
up to June 0; since when we have had 
fair warm weather. I never saw wheat 
look better, but it has been pretty wet and 
cold for grass. Spring crops, barley and 
oats that were got in early are looking 
splendidly, but a good many failed to sow 
before rainy weather came. But little 
corn has been p’anted (June 13), and that 
up looks as though it had the ague. 
Orchards are looking well and more spray¬ 
ing has been done than ever before. Anples 
are only a moderate crop as at present 
shown. More Greenings than Baldwins. 
Peaches a fine showing where orchards 
have been sprayed for curl-leaf, but I pity 
the man who has neglected this treatment. 
I went by two orchards the other day 
adjoining on the same kind of soil, one had 
been sprayed, the other not. On the 
sprayed orchard there was no appearance 
of leaf-curl, and a fine set of peaches. On 
the unspraved' orchard there was scarcely 
a sound leaf and no peaches. I saw the 
owner of the unspra.ved orchard at one of 
our club meetings, at which the matter of 
spraying as a preventive of curl-leaf was 
freely discussed. Verily the wise man said 
true,' “Though you bray a fool in a mortar 
with a pestle, yet will his foolishness not 
denart from him.” Sour cherries a failure. 
Sweet ones a good crop. Pears very light, 
especially Bartletts. Plums light, espe¬ 
cially prunes. j. s. woodward. 
Niagara Co., N. Y. 
