THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
746 
1910. 
MILK FARMERS AND BOARD OF HEALTH 
It lias always seemed to me that for a 
man to be successful in his line of business 
he must manage the business himself, and 
for that very reason the dairyman must 
manage his own affairs, for surely no one 
knows the many little leaks he has to look 
out for better than himself. We country 
people do not take kindly to the idea of be¬ 
ing compelled to dairy according to the 
dictations of city officials. In the first 
place, lots of dairymen cannot rebuild their 
barns, for they have not the money to do 
it with, but it looks now as if with the 
rulings that Judge Coman gave in the 
Bellows case, if the Board of Health of 
New York City says repair or build your 
barn anew, it will be so ordered by the 
court, and it seems it isn’t even necessary 
to show that milk is not wholesome. If 
we have to be run over in this way, the 
sooner we go out of business, the better, 
for if we continue we shall be forced out, 
and then I expect if New York does not 
get milk enough, they will ask that the 
farmers be compelled to keep more cows, 
and no doubt it would. be so ordered. I 
expect Judge Coman did what he thought 
was for the best, but he cannot help but 
see that it was a great blow to the dairy¬ 
men, and if he was to come up for election 
this Fall I do not believe he would get a 
single farmer’s vote in Delaware County. 
There never has been a time when so 
many dairies were being sold as to-day, 
a”d they like to sell to men who will ship 
the cows either to a Southern or Western 
State so as to get the milk away from New 
l'ork City; the feeling among the dairymen 
toward the city is one of hatred. As far 
as the milk inspectors are concerned, I 
never had any trouble with them, and as 
far as the Board of Health went, I got 
along with them. To be sure, I got their 
orders, but there it ended, for I never made 
any changes. I built my barn for my own 
convenience, and as for the health of my 
stock, I can say I have kept cows for 30 
years, and never have lost but two. One 
got poisoned 26 years ago, and last Fall 
one got choked. If the Board of Health 
would send out some bright farmers to 
look over the dairy barns the dairymen 
would welcome their coming, for they 
would have confidence in that class of in¬ 
spectors, knowing that common sense would 
be used, but when the health board sends 
out men that do not know the difference 
between concrete or wooden gutters by the 
look, they must expect trouble. New York 
City officials will never run my business 
unless they pay for the privilege. 
Delaware Co., N. Y. e. e. s. 
EVENTS OF THE WEEK. 
DOMESTIC.—As a result of the wide¬ 
spread movement for a sane Fourth of 
July injuries and fatalities were greatly 
reduced this year. The list of dead through¬ 
out the country as far as reported totals 
28. East year the same total was 44. The 
whole number of injured last year was 
2,301. This year it was only 1,785. Giant 
firecrackers caused most of the hurts, and 
there were few wounds from firearms, 
owing to their banishment by order of the 
chief of police. 
The Brooklyn Federal authorities July 7 
seized 25,000 pounds, or more than 12 tons, 
of frozen egg products stored in the plant 
of the Kings County Refrigeration Com¬ 
pany. The Government alleged the eggs 
not only taste and smell bad, but contain 
30,000,000 germs to a gram, including 100,- 
000 of the streptococcus variety, which 
produce blood poisoning, erysipelas and 
pneumonia. The eggs, it is said, were sent 
to the cold storage plant by Droste & 
Snyder, of No. 177 Duane street, Manhat¬ 
tan, and originally were made up by the 
United States Packing Company in Chi¬ 
cago. There are 984 cans in the present 
seizure, holding 25 pounds each. In May 
85 cans at one time and 75 cans at an¬ 
other were seized at the same place in 
Hall street. It is asserted the 984 cans 
left Chicago on June 27 on the Delaware, 
Lackawanna & Western Railroad. The 
eggs will be destroyed by the Brooklyn 
Board of Health on July 27, unless the 
owners put in a claim and start a fight in 
court. The product makes a good fertilizer, 
the health men say—but not for humans. 
Forest fires in northern Wisconsin are 
daily becoming more threatening. Hun¬ 
dreds of persons were homeless July 8 and 
the damage is well toward .$2,000,000. The 
news July 8 from thx-eatened districts is as 
follows : Eau Claire—Two farmhouses 
burned and the entire fire and police de¬ 
partments turned out to keep the flames 
from sweeping through the city. Eau Claire 
is the fifth city in size in Wisconsin. Pren¬ 
tice, Wis.—The mill of the IJpham Lumber 
Company, at Ogerna, is destroyed with a 
loss of $100,000. Thorpe—Eighteen set¬ 
tlers were left homeless with their families. 
Houghton, Mich.—A wall of fire between 
four and five miles long was working to¬ 
ward Ontonagon. Galesville.— 1 The entire 
place was fighting fire with back fires and 
trenches. The front of the fire about On¬ 
tonagon, Mich., measured at least five miles. 
Driven by a 30-mile gale from the north¬ 
west smoke from fires on the Canadian 
shore of Lake Superior hangs over the lake 
and is coming inshore in a black pall. In 
the vicinity of Ahmeek firemen and miners 
were battling with the fires for three days. 
Many thousand feet of banked logs have 
been - burned and the loss in standing tim¬ 
ber is enormous. All the mills have shut 
down and the Glenwood Lumber Company 
lost $25,000 worth of banked logs. Home¬ 
steaders coming in from the burning dis¬ 
tricts report the loss of their homes and 
crops. No rain has fallen in the threat¬ 
ened district for six weeks and the temper¬ 
ature is hovering about the 90 mark con¬ 
tinuously. A sparsely wooded space inter¬ 
vening for about a mile between the fires 
and the village of Ripley may save the 
town. Here are the large storage tanks of 
the Standard Oil Company, which would 
add ferocity to the hunger of the flames if 
the village is touched All the district 
north of Greenwood and Powers was ablaze. 
Sophie Beck, the last of the four princi¬ 
pals accused in connection with the Storey 
cotton swindle to be brought to justice, was 
freed at Philadelphia, July 9. She pleaded 
guilty to conspiracy to defraud by using 
the mails illegally and was sentenced to pay 
a fine of $300 and $200 additional, her pro¬ 
portion of the costs of the prosecution of 
the swindlers. She paid. Judge Holland 
was minded to be merciful because Sophie 
Beck was a woman, and because, he said, 
she had been “used” by strong, shrewd 
men. When she was secretary of the 
Storey Cotton Company before it went to 
smash, five years ago, Sophie Beck re¬ 
ceived a salary of $500 a week. 
The British steamer St. Nicholas, from 
Antwerp, arrived at San Francisco July 10, 
with a report of remarkable fires at sea. 
The vessel left Antwerp on May 3 with a 
general cargo for San Francisco and Puget 
Sound ports. On June 3, when south of 
the equator, fire broke out on the shelter 
deck from spontaneous combustion in oil 
soaked rags. After a few hours the fire 
was put out. On the following day fire 
was discovered in the lower hold. All hands 
fought this fire for eight days before it was 
subdued. At least half the cargo was 
burned or jettisoned before the flames were 
controlled. In all this time the steamer’s 
boats were trailing alongside with pro¬ 
visions and water, and it was not known 
at what moment the crew would have to 
abandon the ship. 
Fire July 11 damaged the plant of the 
Columbia Cotton Oil and Provision Com¬ 
pany at Relee, Va., just across the Potomac 
River from Washington, D. C. A big abat¬ 
toir, boiler-house, and power-plant were 
burned. It is estimated that the damage 
will reach $200,000. The buildings were 
insured for about half that amount. The 
cotton-oil factory of fireproof construction, 
in which there was about $500,000 worth 
of unfinished cotton oil, was not damaged. 
Fully three thousand persons in Camp- 
bellton, New Brunswick, are homeless 
through a fire which July 11-12 destroyed 
a large portion of the town. Campbellton 
was the largest cedar shingle centre in east¬ 
ern America. Practically all the mills 
there were burned down, including the big 
plant of the Shivee Lumber Company, Rich¬ 
ards Lumber Company, and the Moffatt 
mills. The property of these three concerns, 
in which American capital was interested, 
was valued at $1,000,000. In addition, the 
Intercolo' al Railway station round houses, 
hundreds of cars, two churches, two banks, 
and other business houses, and many dwell¬ 
ings, largely occupied by mill hands and 
railroad employees, were obliterated. The 
fire started in the mills of the Richards 
Lumber Company, and fanned by a south¬ 
westerly gale spread to all parts of the 
town. The fire spread to the woods and 
underbrush, and extended as far as Rich- 
ardsville, two miles from Campbellton. Sev¬ 
eral buildings in Itichardsville were burned. 
The total loss in Campbellton is estimated 
at $2,000,000. The population of the town 
is about 5,000. 
FARM AND GARDEN.—The first Cana¬ 
dian National Apple Show will be held at 
Vancouver, B. C., October 31 to November 
5, 1910. There is an extensive list of 
prizes offered, more cash being offered for 
the prize-winning exhibits than at any 
previous show. The first prize in 10 dif¬ 
ferent classes of carload exhibits is $500, 
second $250, and third $100, while the 
sweepstakes prize in this class is first 
$1,000 and gold medal, second $500 and 
silver gold embossed medal, third $250 and 
silver medal. The officers of the show in¬ 
clude Earl Grey, Governor-General of Can¬ 
ada, honorary president; Sir Thomas 
Sliaughnessy, president of the Canadian Pa¬ 
cific Railway, president; secretary, L. G. 
Monroe, secretary Washington State Horti¬ 
cultural Association. 
The Summer meeting of the New York 
State Fruit Growers’ Association will be 
held at Sodus, August 5 and 6, 1910. Ad¬ 
dresses will be given by Dr. L. H. Bailey, 
Prof. Cavanaugh and Prof. Herrick of Cor¬ 
nell College of Agriculture. It is expected 
that Prof. S. A. Beach of Iowa Agricultural 
College will be present and address the 
meeting; also some other men of horticul¬ 
tural fame from other Western States are 
expected. Cornell College of Agriculture 
has a field laboratory established at Sodus 
and is conducting many interesting and 
valuable experiments in spraying, all of 
which will be explained at this meeting. 
The third annual convention of the 
Greenhouse Vegetable Growers’ and Market 
Gardeners’ Association of America will be 
held at Brand Rapids, Mich., September 27, 
28 and 29, and promises to be the most suc¬ 
cessful ever held by that organization. 
Grand Rapids is the home of Grand Rapids 
lettuce and Davis Perfect cucumber, and 
the convention will afford an opportunity 
to visit the famous forcing establishments 
in that city. Any vegetable grower desiring 
further information should write to S. W. 
Severance, secretary, 508 Walker Building, 
Louisville, Ky. 
The eighteenth National Irrigation Con¬ 
gress will meet at Pueblo. Col., September 
2G to 30. Experts in irrigation, drainage, 
and forestry, statesmen, scientists, and 
men who are powerful in industrial and 
financial circles, will be among the speakers. 
The problems of the irrigation companies, 
of the settlers who raise the products, and 
of the railroads who haul them will be 
considered. The views and methods of 
foreign governments will be explained by 
the foreign delegates, and one session will 
be turned over to the Governors of States. 
The Maryland State Horticultural Society 
will meet at the .1. G. Harrison & Sons nur¬ 
series at Berlin, Md., July 28. 
Sea Island cotton growers from Georgia, 
'Florida and Alabama met at Waycross, Ga., 
July 11, and perfected an organization un¬ 
der the name of the Union Sea Island Cot¬ 
ton Company, which will have headquarters 
at Savannah. It proposes to build a large 
warehouse with branches at various points. 
The object of the union is to secure for 
the producer the best possible price for 
both long and short staple cotton. Reports 
on crop conditions by members of the com¬ 
pany are that the Georgia crop will be 75 
per cent of normal and that of Florida 60 
per cent. 
A home for friendless boys, to be known 
as the Ellis Farm Boys’ Training School, is 
to be established between Willsborough Bay 
and Lake Champlain, on the main line of 
the D. & H. R. R., 112 miles from Albany, 
N. Y. The farm includes 600 acres. The 
school is under the direction of a Board of 
Trustees, consisting of Dr. Ellis M. Santee, 
Willsborough; Ira II. Schoonmaker, Albany, 
industrial agent of the Delaware and Hud¬ 
son company; Prof. James E. Rice, Cornell 
University; John Baldwin and Eben Sug- 
den, New York City. Dr. Santee, an expert 
in the line of agricultural pursuits, and for¬ 
merly connected with the State Health De¬ 
partment, is the general superintendent of 
the farm school. 
BLEACHED FLOUR SUITS.—The jury 
in the bleached flour case at Kansas City, 
Mo., July G, returned a verdict that the 
flour seized was adulterated and misbrand¬ 
ed. as charged by the Government. The ver¬ 
dict was returned in the Federal Court 
after seven hours’ deliberation by the jury 
that for more than five weeks had listened 
to testimony for and against the charge of 
the Government that 625 sacks of flour, 
bleached and sold by the Lexington Mill 
and Elevatoi Company of Lexington, Neb., 
and seized by the Government while in the 
possession of the purchaser, a grocer in 
Vastle, Mo., were adulterated and misbrand¬ 
ed. The verdicts of adulterating and mis¬ 
branding were a complete victory for the 
Government, which prosecuted the suit un¬ 
der the Pure Food and Drug act. The Gov¬ 
ernment charged that the flour was adul¬ 
terated in that it was bleached by the Alsop 
process, which makes use of nitrogen perox¬ 
ide in bleaching flour. Misbranding was 
charged in that the flour was labeled a 
fancy patent, whereas it was not made of 
first grade, hard Winter wheat. Attorneys 
for the millers will file a motion for a new 
trial. If the motion is overruled the case 
will be carried to the Circuit Court of Ap¬ 
peals. Millers say that the bleached flour 
decision will handicap farmers of the South¬ 
west $16,000,000 a year. They say the old 
differential of 5 cents a bushel in vogue in 
Chicago and St. Louis markets before 
bleached flour came in will soon reappear. 
They further say that farmers of Missouri, 
Kansas, Oklahoma and Nebraska will lose 
5 cents a bushel on their present crop and 
that flour made from hard Winter wheat 
soon will be selling at 25 cents a bushel 
less than at present. Millers are consider¬ 
ing the establishment of bleaching stations 
in States where the use of bleached flour is 
not prohibited. Thus, they say, they may 
avoid the Interstate Commerce law. 
ADMINISTRATION.—President Taft an¬ 
nounced July 7 that under the recent act of 
Congress providing for the Executive valida¬ 
tion of withdrawals of public lands he had 
affirmed the withdrawal of 35,073,164 acres 
of coal land in Washington, Arizona, Utah, 
Colorado, North and South Dakota. Of this 
total 20,688,469 acres, comprising the with¬ 
drawals in North and South Dakota, had 
not previously been authorized and are new. 
The remainder, 14,374,695 acres, were with¬ 
drawn under the previous Administration, 
but were considered of doubtful title. The 
act of the President merely makes the with¬ 
drawals made before legal and will prevent 
any question being raised in the future. 
This is the second time within a few days 
that the President has made use of the new 
validation act. It was this law which he 
urged so consistently on Congress at the 
last session and which he regards as the 
vanguard of his conservation measures. Un¬ 
der validations announced previously the 
President confirmed withdrawals of phos¬ 
phate, petroleum and power site lands 
amounting to practically 8,500,000 acres. 
The land taken from the public domain by 
executive order was indorsed for with¬ 
drawal by the Geological Survey. 
CROP NOTES. 
We have very fine prospects for the apple 
crop ; it appears better as time passes. I 
believe our State average is quite 75 per 
cent of a full crop if not even better. 
WALTER WHATELEY. 
Virginia Horticultural Society. 
The outlook for apples is very much more 
promising than for several years during 
June. More spraying is being done in this 
section than ever before, and those who 
have practiced spraying before are doing 
more thorough work. The crop at present 
promises to be larger than last year. The 
peach buds were badly injured by cold 
weather and the crop will be light. The 
strawberry crop is large and prices rule 
low. Much attention is being given to corn 
and the aereage is large. s. r. w. 
No. Leominster, Mass. 
We are having a slight “breathing spell” 
(July 5) from the hot weather of last 
week, and are enjoying it immensely. I 
really cannot remember ever passing 
through such heat as we had last week, and 
yet the sun did not shine brightly a single 
day. Clover cut June 27, had to lie out all 
week in many cases, and then was not dry, 
owing to the peculiar weather. The sun 
looked like a ball of blood and did not 
cast a shadow for several days, though vis¬ 
ible all day. Corn, wheat, oats and hay 
are unusually good, but fruit is very 
scarce. Cherries, currants and berries are 
very high priced and scarce at that. 
Hardin Co., O. w. c. k. 
Generally speaking, the outlook is very 
good. The peach crop will give an average 
yield, and when I tell you that last year 
two of our growers netted $125,000 each, 
you will get some idea of what we have 
to sell. One of these growers spent $40,000 
in the care of his orchards and gathering 
and shippin" the crop. Apples will be 
above the average crop and the fruit will 
be of fine quality if the present sizzle 
breaks soon. New orchards are springing 
up everywhere, and waste land is being 
utilized for all kinds of fruit culture. The 
wheat is being harvested, and while not as 
plump and weighty as last year, the yield 
is very good and the acreage large. Oats 
and corn promise well. The former is rip¬ 
ening with a strong growth and the latter 
received much help from the recent rains 
and heat. The scale has made us much 
trouble and work, with good results when 
spraying was done promptly and well. The 
old neglected orchards show the ravages 
of the pest, and ornamental shrubbery and 
even forest trees have been greatly disfig¬ 
ured. The Japan quince is almost totally 
destroyed among the former and the hick- 
orv exhibits the greatest damage in the 
forest. T. m. g. 
Cbambersburg, Pa. 
I am five miles from Louisville on the 
Indiana side of the river, and own 58 acres 
of fairly good land. Land sells from $35 
to $100 per acre, according to distance 
from the city. We garden some and have 
a small butter dairy. We sell direct to the 
consumer and get 30 cents per pound for 
butter. Crops in general look fairly well. 
Wheat is good, but I am afraid will be dam¬ 
aged some by the rains of the past week; 
it is all in the shock and is beginning to 
sprout some. Corn is not what it ought to 
be owing to the late wet Spring, which de¬ 
layed planting. This is not a fruit coun¬ 
try, but there will be some apples on what 
orchards there are, probably half crop. I 
am interested in that Bellows milk case, as 
we have something of the same kind heye. 
The city of Jeffersonville wants us to pay 
a license to sell our own butter. It is not 
so very much, only one dollar, but the 
principle of it is what hurts. Some have 
paid it and some have not. The question 
is, can they compel us to pay it? 
Sellersburg, Ind. w. G. 
R. N.-Y.—No, they cannot compel you to 
take out and pay for a license to sell your 
own goods. If you buy from others and 
sell for them you will be classed as an 
agent or peddler and will be subject to li¬ 
cense tax—but not when you sell your own 
produce alone. 
PROSPECTS FOR HAY. 
The present indications are that the hay 
crop in the Ohio Valley will be at least a 
fairly good one, but it is too early as yet 
to know definitely just what we may ex¬ 
pect, as the hay crop in this country is 
sometimes ruined in three or four days. 
Cincinnati, O. whitcomb & root. 
It is too early to have any definite knowl¬ 
edge regarding the coming hay crop. I 
understand, however, in a generai way, that 
there is an indication of a heavy growth of 
clover and clover mixed hay, especially in 
sections where last season the crop con¬ 
sisted mostly of Timothy. 
New York. f. williams. 
From many reports received up to the 
present time from our numerous shippers 
all over the country, we are inclined to be¬ 
lieve that the crop of hay this year is go¬ 
ing to be a large one, but that the per cent 
of pure Timothy hay, as compared with 
other grades, is going to be very small. 
This is the case particularly in Indiana and 
in many parts of Ohio and Michigan. We 
also learn that the crop of hay, generally, 
through the New England Statis is un¬ 
usually large, and that being the case, and 
the New England States being usually the 
outlet for a very large percentage of the 
hay that is shipped out of New York State, 
Ohio, Michigan and Indiana, we are in¬ 
clined to beiieve that prices will rule con¬ 
siderably lower on the new crop than are 
prevailing at the present time. 
Boston, Mass. lord & webster co. 
To our best knowledge through corre¬ 
spondence and a few trips throughout the 
State we actually believe that Minnesota 
hay crop will not exceed 25 to 50 per cent 
of the average crop per year. There are a 
great many localities throughout the State 
where every year they have had consid¬ 
erable hay to ship, while this year they will 
not have enough to feed their own stock 
without having hay shipped into the dif¬ 
ferent localities. Iowa, Nebraska, North 
and South Dakota do not report to us this 
season that crops will exceed 50 per cent 
average. We as a rule receive consider¬ 
able Timothv hay from Wisconsin, but this 
year Wisconsin will have practically noth¬ 
ing to ship. They are calling on us for hay 
now. We can hardly explain what our be¬ 
lief is as to what the situation will be dur¬ 
ing this coming Fall and Winter. Should 
we have rain now throughout this month 
and next the hay situation would prac¬ 
tically be unchanged, as such moisture 
would only cause pasture for temporary 
use. c. R. rank & co. 
St. Paul, Minn. 
From the information that has come to 
us, we are obliged to place this season's 
crop under the average. The West, includ¬ 
ing Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin, 
reports a very short crop of Timothy, and 
an average yield of elover and mixed, Ohio 
particularly reporting the extent to which 
mixed and clover predominate. New York 
reports a good crop of the average distribu¬ 
tion as to grades, and our nearby country, 
including Maryland, Pennsylvania and Vir¬ 
ginia, has less than an average crop, and 
of poorer quality than usual, the Timothy 
being weedy, and the mixed and clover be¬ 
ing the more plentiful. It looks as if the 
prices during the coming season would 
widen out considerably between Timothy 
and Timothy and lower grades, for above 
given reasons. The old crop has been pretty 
well cleaned up. High prices have prevailed 
right up to the present time and farmers 
sold willingly and freely during the exist¬ 
ence of the bright prospects that marked 
April and early May. From now on there 
will be a dribbling supply of old crop, at 
firm values in all markets, and a tendency 
to an early movement of new hay, not only 
from nearby, but from the West, as soon 
as it is considered fit to bale. 
Baltimore, Md. h. c. jones & co. 
ALFALFA HAY IN COLORADO. 
I saw a short article in The R. N.-Y. 
about the complaint by horse owners of the 
high price of Alfalfa hay, which was $20 a 
ton. Could you put me in communication 
with some of those owners? My neighbor 
ard I have or will have after the third cut¬ 
ting over 100 tons of good Alfalfa hay 
which we will bale and load in cars for $10 
a ton; if a carload is too much for one 
owner as many as wish to can club together 
and take a carload, each paying his share 
of the freight. We can furnish any amount 
of hay to any good person at any time from 
now on. Alfalfa is at its best this year, 
having had good rains earlier in the season 
as well as irrigation. I am with you every 
time in the way of cutting out commission 
merchants and middlemen and give the con¬ 
sumer the benefit of those two profits. 
Hartman, Colo. g. h. h. 
R. N.-Y.—The best way to reach this trade 
would be to advertise the hay. We have 
long desired to bring farmers together in 
business of this sort, and we print the above 
as an experiment to see if such direct trade 
is possible. 
Frozen Back Potatoes. —Our experience 
in Florida with Irish potatoes that have 
been frozen back ruzs about as follows: 
If the frost occurs just as the potatoes are 
coming through the ground, they are only 
slightiy or not at all damaged. When the 
frost occurs when they have reached the 
height of four or five inches, the crop is apt 
to be perceptibly lighter than when they 
an; not frosted. If the frost occurs after 
the potatoes are of a good size, we expect 
a very large cutting off in the amount. Of 
course, in Florida we cannot afford to re¬ 
plant. and at that time of the year it does 
not seem practicable to put in another 
crop, so we go ahead with the crop and 
do the best we can. Sometimes it pavs, 
and then again, we get only enough to pay 
for our trouble. p. h. roi.fs. 
Fla. Experiment Station. 
