1910. 
HOI 
EVENTS OF THE WEEK. 
DOMESTIC.—Fire started in one of the 
oil tanks of the Tidewater Oil Company at 
Constable Hook, N. J., November 9, and 
caused 11 tanks to explode and burn. The 
red light that glowed from the great torches 
was so strong that although after • dark 
two miles away from the scene one could 
read a newspaper. It was three hours be¬ 
fore the oil had burned itself away. One 
man was killed and the property loss was 
$250,000. 
An indictment charging the use of the 
mails in a scheme to defraud was found 
by the Federal Grand Jury at New York, 
November 7, against the members of B. H. 
Scheftels & Co., the curb brokerage firm, 
which is alleged to have conducted a bucket 
shop business and which was raided last 
September by Federal agents. The indicted 
men are George Graham Rice, who is also 
known sometimes as Simon Jacob Ilerzig; 
Bernard II. Scheftels, nominal head of the 
company, though Rice is credited with hav¬ 
ing been the brains of the enterprise; 
George Sullivan, who is sometimes called 
Red Letter Sullivan; Charles B. Stone, 
Charles F. Belser, John Delaney and Ralph 
E. Waterman. At the time of the raid 
others who were found in the Broad stieet 
offices were arrested, but several of these, 
including Clarence McCormack and William 
T. Seagraves, the latter the president of 
the Mining Financial News, which exploited 
the mining stocks of which the indictment 
charges the Shoftels arbitrarily lixed the 
prices, are not named in the indictment. The 
indictment against the men contains seven 
counts and in brief charges the sending of 
letters, circulars, etc., through the mails, in¬ 
ducing people to invest money in stocks and 
then appropriating the receipts without giv¬ 
ing adequate returns. The stocks men¬ 
tioned as those for which the Scheftels firm 
lixed the prices and used the mails to pro¬ 
mote their sale are Ely Central Copper Com¬ 
pany, Bovard Consolidated Mines Company, 
Rawhide Coalition Mines Company, Rawhide 
Queen Mines Company, Jumbo Extension 
Mining Company and the South Quincy Cop¬ 
per Company. 
Fire which caused a loss of $120,000 de¬ 
stroyed the cold storage plant of the New¬ 
port Warehousing Company at Newport, 
Herkimer County, N. Y., November 9. The 
loss on the building is $40,000, on which 
$30,000 insurance was carried. The loss 
on the cheese and butter in storage is 
$80,000, and on this there was an insurance 
of $50,000. 
Four women will sit in the Eighteenth 
General Assembly of Colorado as a result 
of November 8 election. They are Alma 
Lafferty, Louise U. Jones and Louise M. 
Kerwin, all elected to the State House of 
Representatives in Denver districts on the 
Democratic ticket, and Agnes Riddle, Repub¬ 
lican, representing Adams, Arapahoe and 
Elbert counties. In the last General As¬ 
sembly Mrs. Lafiferty was the only woman 
representative. 
Insurance of 0,000 square miles of tim¬ 
ber lands against loss by forest fires by 
Lloyds of London, the first insurance of the 
kind ever effected on this continent, has 
been taken out by the largest timber land 
owners in the province of Quebec, Price 
Bros. & Co., Ltd., of the city of Quebec. 
This new form of insurance was brought to 
the attention of financial circles in Montreal 
and Toronto when Price Bros, announced 
the issue of $5,000,000 of 5 per cent, bonds 
on their properties. The issue is to cover 
the expansion of their lumber business into 
a paper making company, with a 150 ton 
newspaper mill now being built at Jon- 
quieres, Que., in the Lake St. John region, 
where they are developing 15,000 horse 
power. The insurance of their enormous 
holdings of timber lands against fire is in¬ 
tended as additional security to the bond¬ 
holders. It covers a term of thirty years. 
Attorney-General Wickersham, by direc¬ 
tion of President Taft, has begun an in¬ 
quiry to determine whether 0,000 acres of 
valuable oil lands in California were known 
to contain oil when patented to the South¬ 
ern Pacific Railway Company. If such is 
the case, suit to recover will be instituted. 
President Taft decided to act after several 
conferences with Secretary Ballinger and 
the attorney-general, just before he left 
Washington on his trip to Panama. Mr. 
Ballinger and Mr. Wickersham had a long 
conference on the subject again November 
10. The allegation has been made to the Pres¬ 
ident that thousands of acres of public 
lands have been patented to individuals 
with the knowledge that they contained 
oil and in many cases found their way into 
the hands of corporations. 
Twenty-one years in the Rahway Re¬ 
formatory was the sentence given to Henry 
It. Anthony, the so-called “boy burglar,” 
by Judge Scott in the Court of Special 
Sessions at Paterson, N. J., November 11. 
Anthony is twenty-one years old. His home 
is in Passaic. He confessed to having 
robbed seventeen houses in Passaic and 
Paterson within a few months. 
In Burlington New Jersey’s first pros¬ 
ecution under the new forest fire law was 
heard in the local court November 11 be¬ 
fore Magistrate Smith. Walter Sloan, of 
Chatsworth, was charged by State Forester 
Gaskill with causing a fire which on April 
16 swept over a thousand acres in Wood¬ 
land Township. Sloan acknowledged hav¬ 
ing burned off a portion of his own laud, 
but he claims to have had permission from 
the district fire warden and declares his 
fire was extinguished Thursday. The main 
fire was discovered Saturday morning. The 
case is regarded as of immense importance. 
The penalty is a fine of $200. Magistrate 
Smith reserved decision for one week. 
Fire started in the paint room of the 
Coldwell lawn mower works, Newburgh, 
N. Y., November 11. The fh’e spread so 
rapidly that before the alarm could be 
sounded the entire structure, 200 feet 
deep and 300 feet long, was in flames. The 
loss will reach at least $200,000 and over 
two hundreds hands are out of employ¬ 
ment. The company has just been putting 
in new machinery. 
November 13, at Kalamazoo, Mich., a 
JWain street trolley car, filled with people 
on^^their way home from Saturday night 
shop? 
freighl 
l^ing, was struck by a westbound 
engine. Twenty persons were killed 
andTnai^P were injured. The conductor was 
on the flagging his car across. Some 
box another engine standing on 
a side tra^ k obstructed the view. It is 
THE RURAL 
said the approaching train sounded no 
warning. 
Five miners were killed and eighteen 
were injured in an explosion November 11 
in the Shoal Creek Coal Company’s mine 
at Panama, a mining town in the southern 
part of Montgomery County, Ill. Fifty men, 
working in the section of the mine where 
the explosion occurred, were rescued. Alto¬ 
gether 350 men were underground at the 
time, but 300 of them were in no danger. 
The cause of the explosion is not known. 
The dead and Injured were burned by the 
flames of the explosion, but the mine was 
not set on fire. 
The case of Wright vs. Knights of the 
Maccabees of the World, which may in¬ 
volve more than 90 per cent, of the mil¬ 
lions of outstanding fraternal insurance, 
came up for argument on November 14 in 
the Appellate Division of the New York 
State Supreme Court at Albany. Alton B. 
Parker appeared for the fraternal society. 
A brief has been filed by George W. Miller, 
who is an authority on legal aspects of 
fraternal insurance and a law partner of 
Representative James R. Mann of Chicago. 
The case involves directly the continued 
life of the fraternal system of insurance, 
for the reason that the right to collect from 
members rates adequate to provide sound 
Insurance is at issue. Counsel on both sides 
regard the outcome of this case as mo¬ 
mentous to fraternal insurance throughout 
the country, which is held by upwards of 
6,000,000 members. This case of Wright 
vs. the Knights of the Maccabees of tiie 
World originated in 1904. Dennis L. 
Wright of Watertown, N. Y., in 1905 was 
suspended from membership in the Knights 
of the Maccabees because of failure or re¬ 
fusal to pay membership dues at rates ad¬ 
vanced by the Supreme Council because the 
previous rates were found to be inadequate 
to pay the cost of insurance and of man¬ 
agement. A suit was brought to secure 
the reinstatement of Wright and to enjoin 
the fraternal association from changing his 
dues and assessments. The case has been 
passed upon before by the Appellate Court, 
the lower court, which held for the plaintiff, 
Wright, being reversed, on the second trial 
judgment was entered for defendant, which 
was confirmed by the Appellate Division 
of the Supreme Court, but this was again 
reversed by the Court of Appeals. On the 
third trial the plaintiff again won, and the 
hearing is again on appeal, this time of the 
defendant society. 
The Department of Trade and Commerce 
of Canada announced November 15 that the 
Government had taken drastic measures to 
put a stop to the smuggling of Chinamen 
and opium into Canada. Sir Wilfrid 
Laurier designated Mr. Justice Murphy of 
British Columbia with the power of a royal 
commissioner to institute an inquiry into 
the frauds recently discovered at Van¬ 
couver. it was found there that hundreds 
of Chinese classed as “merchants” were be¬ 
ing admitted. A casual inquiry disclosed 
the fact that they were getting into the 
country on fake papers and the collector of 
customs, a son of Sir MacKenzie Bowell, 
former Premier of Canada, was suspended. 
In large cities the kinds of “has been” 
eggs known as “rots” and “spots” have 
been quite extensively used for food pur¬ 
poses mainly by bakers. By picking out 
the worst of the black spots, and a saillful 
use of chemicals it was possible to dis¬ 
guise t)ie flavor of these eggs so that they 
would work into bakery goods. The au¬ 
thorities in New York and Philadelphia are 
on the track of those engaged in this un¬ 
lawful business and several convictions, 
with jail sentences in some instances, have 
resulted. 
A meeting in charge of the Fostal Prog¬ 
ress League will be held at the rooms of 
the Merchants’ Association of New York, 
corner Lafayette and Lispenard streets, 
November 29, at 2 P. M. Mayor Gaynor 
and others are expected to speak on the 
need of a parcels post. The secretary of 
the Postal Progress League is James L. 
Cowles, 361 Broadway, New Y'ork, who will 
be glad to furnish information and litera¬ 
ture to all interested in postal progress. 
FARM AND GARDEN.—The annual con¬ 
vention of the National Grange opened at 
Atlantic City, N. J., November 16. Among 
the legislative matters that will come up 
for consideration will be Federal aid for 
highway improvement, the parcels post, and 
a more stringent enforcement of the oleo¬ 
margarine laws. 
The supply of Canadian turkeys for 
Thanksgiving Day in the United States will 
be less than half the usual quantity this 
year on account of the blackhead epidemic 
now prevailing in all the turkey growing 
sections of Canada. Dr. Higgins, the Do¬ 
minion biologist, says that disease is kill¬ 
ing turkeys by ten of thousands throughout 
the country. It is a parasitical disease and 
gets its name from the appearance of the 
comb after the parasite has attacked the 
birds. The disease affects the digestive 
organs and in most cases keeps the birds 
very thin and scrawny in spite of heavy 
feeding. In some cases it causes them to 
swell abnormally but in all cases it ren¬ 
ders them unfit for marketing. A simple 
remedy has been prescribed and the Gov¬ 
ernment has sent out bulletins announcing 
it to all parts of the country. The birds 
are starved for two days and then they 
are allowed to drink a mixture of water 
and muriatic acid. Where cures are af¬ 
fected, however, the birds are still too 
thin to be killed and marketed. 
Representations have been made to the 
British Columbia provincial authorities that 
special and drastic measures should be 
taken, either by the offer of a substantial 
bounty or otherwise, to secure the exter¬ 
mination of the herds of wild cattle in 
the vicinity of Masset, in the Queen Char¬ 
lotte Islands. Latterly these have not only 
wrought much damage to the property of 
isolated settlers, invading and destroying 
their young orchards, robbing their vegetable 
gardens and breaking down their fences, but 
have viciously attacked both men and 
women at sight. They are declared to be 
more dangerous than any other wild ani¬ 
mals of British Columbia with the sole 
exception perhaps of the grizzly or silver 
tip, and more certain to charge on sight 
than even these. Should the settlers be 
successful in their appeal for Government 
aid it will not be the first time that the 
Parliament of this province has subsidized 
the slaughter of animals classed as domes¬ 
tic, but reverted to savagery. For years 
the pioneer settlors of Lillooet, Kootenay 
and portions of the Okanagan suffered pe¬ 
riodically from the incursions and depreda¬ 
tions of bands of wild horses, the hunt¬ 
ing of which offered most exciting sport. 
A special law appeared upon the statute 
book of the province providing liberal 
bounties for the destruction of wild stal- 
NEW-YORKER 
lions, and regular hunts were arranged by 
the settlers most concerned in the extinc¬ 
tion of the wild horse bands, the individual 
animals of which were as a rule of the 
shaggy mountain pony class and almost as 
sure footed and expert in hill climbing as 
their friends, the mountain goats. 
APPLE DAY IN THE “BASHFUL STATE.” 
The Montpelier, Vermont, Board of Trade 
held the first of a series of agricultural 
meetings November 11, with “Apple Day.” 
A good number of farmers anti city people 
attended and a most helpful discussion 
was had. The principal speakers showed 
their enthusiasm and imparted much of 
their spirit to their hearers, and when the 
last one, Charles T. Holmes, of Charlotte, 
who on this off year of his orchard sold 
4,700 barrels of apples, of which 3,900 
were hand picked and only 280 barrels of 
No. 2 quality, was kept busy answering a 
fire of questions for an hour, which showed 
that he had not grown gray-haired raising 
a 100-aere apple orchard now 43 to 45 
years old without learning how to grow 
fine apples and get a good price for them, 
lie reports selling apples this year in New 
York at $10 to $14 a barrel, and on a 
recent visit to the city saw his fruit in 
the market at $1.50 per dozen. Mr. George 
W. Perry, of Grand Isle County, had eight 
boxes of fruit that he brought here from 
the State horticultural meeting, all of 
which took prizes, one of Spy taking a 
special and sweepstakes prizes amounting 
to $20. Professor Cummings advocated 
bringing up the existing old orchards to 
profitable crops by pruning, cultivation and 
fertilization while waiting for new trees 
to come to bearing, and told how to do it. 
The sentiment of the day seemed to be that 
Vermont could and should be a large pro¬ 
ducer of fine apples, and that the mar¬ 
kets of the country would take an unlim¬ 
ited quantity of this fruit. All present 
thought the day a great success. 
C. B. G. 
FARMERS’ COMMISSION HOUSE. 
Your stand on the express and commis¬ 
sion business is commendable, but it's like 
pouring water on the duck’s back to drown 
it, and you can pound away until you go 
down to tlie grave without accomplishing 
definite results on the old lines of assault. 
When the producers make up their mind 
to establish commission houses in the 
cities where they can send their products 
to be sold by agents chosen by a board of 
directors elected by the patrons, who shall 
receive a definite per cent of commission 
on the products sold by them, and not till 
then, will the consumer get the worth of 
his money and the producer his rightful 
share of the dollar. w. d. c. 
Delaware County, N. Y. 
It. N.-Y.—Get the duck cornered where it 
must stand and you will get it if you use 
water enough. Y r ou cannot get farmers to 
support their own commission houses until 
they realize they are cornered and cannot 
escape. We intend to prove this fact to 
them. 
RETURNS ON APPLES. 
Here is the result of apples sold : 
10 barrels apples at $2.50. $25.00 
Commission . $2.50 
Cartage at 10 cents. 1.00 
Freight at 10 cents. 1.00 
Cost of barrels at 30 cents.. 3.00 
-- $7.50 
$17.50 
Leaving $1.75 per barrel to pay for pick¬ 
ing, packing, carting to station, pruning, 
spraying and fertilizing, besides interest on 
cost of thus producing the apples and the 
ground. B. c. T. 
Chester, Pa. 
R. N.-Y.—These returns are above the 
average. The apples probably retailed at 
$5 or more. 
FREIGHT AND EXPRESS RATES. 
I enclose a clipping from the “Florists’ 
Review” relative to express rates from 
Grand Rapids, Mich.: 
“As a sample of express charges, in 
shipping to Chicago, both plants and vege¬ 
tables, the rate is $1 per 100 pounds by 
express. If sent by interurban electric 
cars, via Holland or Grand Haven, trans¬ 
ferred to the Chicago boat, getting to 
Chicago about 5 A. M., the rate is 29 cents 
per 100 pounds for plants and 25 cents 
per 100 pounds for vegetables—a differ¬ 
ence of 71 cents to 75 cents per 100 
pounds.” 
We have somewhat the same proposition 
here. The express rate between Chicago 
and Saginaw is $1 per 100 pounds (spe¬ 
cial), the first-class freight rate is 37 cents 
per 100 pounds. The Grand Trunk Rail¬ 
road gives passenger time on freight from 
Chicago to Saginaw, so frequently wo get 
freight here quicker than express, allowing 
for city delivery. The special of $1 and 
the first-class of 37 cents apply on plants, 
but the express companies charge $1.50 
per 100 pounds on general merchandise, 
while the railroads make money giving 
special service at 37 cents per 100 pounds 
on any first-class freight. In the case of 
the Grand Trunk, which hauls its Chicago 
freight to Saginaw part of the way by 
passenger train, there are probably a lot 
of express shipments coming in in one car 
at $1.50 and in the car next to it a lot 
of just as perishable or important freight 
shipments at 37 cents per 100 pounds. It 
is truly marvelous what the country at 
large will put up with, isn't it? 
Michigan. H. H. gueene. 
R. N.-Y'.—It certainly is, but the end is 
coming. The American people seem to en¬ 
joy being humbugged and robbed. The facts 
have been put at them so openly and bluntly 
that it is a mystery why they do not fight 
for parcels post as they would for trade. 
STREET MARKETS FOR TURKEYS. 
I notice on page 1,057, where you de¬ 
scribe how turkey raisers are mulcted by 
middlemen. Perhaps a description of how 
the turkey question is handled hereabouts 
might help. A large number are raised in 
this vicinity, and a considerable quantity 
are brought over from Canada each Fall 
and dressed for the Thanksgiving market. 
The Rutland Railroad runs a poultry spe¬ 
cial, and the express company makes a 
point to ship a large number by distribut¬ 
ing empty express cars at the different sta¬ 
tions, and before the anti-rebating laws 
they gave substantial rebates to encourage 
express shipments. Rebates are now a 
thing of the past, however. When the rail¬ 
road announces the date of its train local 
buyers issue hand bills stating the dates 
on which they will receive turkeys, geese, 
ducks and chickens. I enclose' clipjnng 
containing such an announcement cut from 
local paper. reople with turkeys decide 
which market to attend and dress their 
fowls the previous day. The buyers are 
there in force and competition is keen. The 
price you will get depends on quality of 
stuff and ability to hang on and banter. 
The buyers assort and pack in several 
grades, and also accompany their shipments 
to market. The great bulk from here goes 
to Boston, Mass. Last year turkey prices 
for Thanksgiving were from 23 to 33 cents 
per pound; this year people with extra 
fine lots expect to get 35 cents per pound. 
Lisbon, N. Y. p. e. w. 
R. N.-Y'.—The advertisement referred is a 
large 9x11 inch display and gives the names 
of 14 dealers who will be on hand at Og- 
densburg to pay "highest cash prices.” The 
poultry must be drawn clean, and directions 
for killing and dressing are given. There 
were also prizes offered by the Business 
Men's Association for the largest turkeys 
and for the men who travel the longest dis¬ 
tance to the sale with 20 turkeys. 
FIGURES OF A POTATO CROP. 
I have been quite interested during the 
past season in the reports on crops; cost 
of raising through to sale of them, and 
would like to add the following to your 
list: The four and one-lmlf-acre lot which 
I used for my potato crop had not been 
cultivated for about 10 years, and had 
pretty well run out. It was plowed the 
first of April, left till the second wc< k in 
May, then harrowed well and planted on 
May 18 and 19; 1,000 pounds of commer¬ 
cial fertilizer was used to the acre. Even 
growth, kept quite clean throughout sea¬ 
son, one application of arsenate of lead. 
A few were dug the first of September, the 
remainder with machine about October' 10 
to 12. The list of expenses and receipts 
may be of interest to you. Following the 
potato crop, the piece was cleaned, har¬ 
rowed and sown to rye. It is just through 
now, coming up very evenly; I shall plow 
it under in the Spring and try potatoes 
again. 
Expenses and receipts for four and a 
half acres of potatoes (Green Mountain) : 
Plowing and harrowing. $18.50 
Seed (60 bush, at 75c). 45.00 
Planting . 12.00 
Fertilizer . 75.00 
Cultivating and hoeing. 20.00 
Spraying . 4.00 
Digging and carting. 57.10 
$231.60 
Eight hundred and twenty-five bushels 
from field, counting all credits. 
450 bush, at aver, of 60 ets.$270.00 
50 bush, (seconds) at 30 ets. 15.00 
30 bush, (thirds) at 25 ets. 7.50 
Balance in storage . 150.00 
$442.50 
$231.60 
Credit .$210.90 
Woodstock, Conn. m. f. h. 
FIGURES FOR A CORN CROP, 
I have just read on page 1,024 what 
E. P. It. of Connecticut says about raising 
corn at $9.40 per acre and selling it at 
$50 for a 60-bushel yield. I must say he 
is exceedingly fortunate, both in cost of 
production and market facilities. Any 
western farmer or any other farmer would 
be well pleased with a net profit of $39.60 
per acre. The question is, did he give us 
all the figures? Anyway, he did not include 
interest, taxes, depreciation on land and 
equipment. I will give you some figures 
which are correct, on a 15-acre field which 
has been in corn 51 times out of 58 years 
that it has been in the grower’s family. For 
the past five years this field has averaged 
almost 90 bushels per acre. Time is rated 
at 10 cents per hour for horse and 20 cents 
per hour for man. Cutting and husking 
at the prices current in the neighborhood, 
which are: Cutting, seven cents per shock ; 
husking and cribbing, eight cents per bushel. 
150 loads manure. $37.50 
Hauling same; two horses, one man; 
140 hours at 40 cents. 46.00 
650 pounds 4-8-6 fertilizer and 
spreading . 8.05 
(Fertilizer put on a 40-row strip 
as an experiment.) 
Plowing—three horses, one man; 62 
hours at 50 <"uts... 31.00 
Harrowing—three horses, one man ; 
22 hours at 50 cents. 11.00 
18 tons ground limestone at $2.... 36.00 
Hauling and spreading—four horses, 
two men; 12 hours at 80 cents... 9.60 
Seed per acre, 40 cents, 15 acres. . 6.00 
Planting—two horses, one man; 14 
hours at 40 cents. 5.60 
Cultivating four times, 110 hours 
at 40 cents. 44.00 
Cutting 540 shocks at seven cents.. 37.80 
Total cost of 15 acres in shock.. ..$272.55 
Average cost per acre in shock.... $18.17 
Interest and taxes on laud and 
equipment: land $100 per acre.. 8.00 
Husking and cribbing two acres 
which were in; per acre. 7.66 
Fertilizer test and made 97 bush¬ 
els, 30 lb., and 94 bushels 15 lb. 
at 8 cents per bushel. 33.83 
Average cost per bushel, .355 cents. 
The field will make about 85 bushels per 
acre. If ,we count the fodder at 15 cents 
per shock or practically equal to the husk¬ 
ing and cribbing we reduce the cost per 
bushel .086 cents, or to .269 cents per 
bushel. We have kept an itemized ac¬ 
count on corn production for several years 
on an acreage of 45 to 50 acres annually, 
and the figures here given are very reliable. 
In looking over the accounts I find by 
leaving out the manure, fertilizer and lime 
and the work connected with them, that 
E. P. R. and I do not come far apart on 
other items. jno. Cunningham. 
Ohio. 
It. N.-Y.—The article referred to on page 
1,024 gave the following statement of cost: 
Plowing (per acre). $2.20 
Harrowing .90 
Seed and planting. 1.70 
Cultivating . 1.00 
Hoeing . 2.00 
Cutting . 1.60 
$9.40 
In the figures for that Ohio field 25 
cents a load for manure is very cheap. In 
the East we could hardly put that at less 
than one dollar per load. 
