780 
All Sorts 
Buying Coal by Test. 
Some of the papers have lately made 
statements about the new basis for buy¬ 
ing eoal. To the average man, one sam¬ 
ple of eoal is very much like another ex¬ 
cept when some kinds of coal seem to 
contain slate or some substance which 
does not burn up but comes away with 
the ashes. For a good many years peo¬ 
ple bought milk pretty much on the the¬ 
ory that one kind of milk was about as 
good as another. They found fault with 
the cream at times, but did not under¬ 
stand the real difference between two 
samples. The Babcock test for cream 
or butterfat has changed all this. Milk 
is now bought and sold on the basis of 
the fat that it contains, and this stand¬ 
ard for buying and selling has changed 
the entire character of the dairy busi¬ 
ness. In somewhat the same way, fuel 
tests are ibeing devised by means of which 
the heating value of coal can be decided, 
and many of the large manufacturing en¬ 
terprises now buy their eoal on such a 
test. .Samples are analyzed and tested 
so that the manufacturer may know 
about how many heat units be is buying 
when he pays for his coal. Why should 
one type of coal be better than another? 
The United States Geological Survey 
shows how resins in wood are largely re¬ 
sponsible for this difference in fuel value. 
Resins contain very much more hydro¬ 
gen and carbon compared to the amount 
of oxygen than ordinary wood, so that, 
other’ things being equal, the resinous 
woods make much hotter lires than those 
not containing resins, the hydrogen and 
carbon being the sources of the heat. The 
larger the amount of resin the hotter the 
fire. Many a Mississippi River steam¬ 
boat was blown up in the old days when, 
in order to win a race, the barrels of 
resin in the cargo were broached to feed 
the fires. Resins add heat value, not only 
to the woods that contain them but also 
to the coals. 
Being more resistant to decay under 
water than the wood cells and other tis¬ 
sues of the plants and trees from which 
the peats of bogs and coal-forming 
swamps are produced, the resin lumps 
and particles are generally left to be 
buried in the peat deposits, even when 
most of the surrounding wood has rotted 
away and disappeared. 
As these resins can resist water better 
Ilian the wood cells, they become concen¬ 
trated in the peats from which our coal 
formations have been made. The wood 
rotted away and disappeared but these 
resins remained and in some cases they 
formed a considerable part of the peat 
formation. Then this peat was changed 
into coal and naturally that ktnd of coal 
which contained most of these resins 
would be likely to have an increased 
value for heating purposes. Thus the 
test of the modern day for buying the 
coal goes back to the basis of ages ago 
when the coal was formed. 
Fishing Rights. 
If I have a spring or pond on my land, 
which I own. and stock it with trout and 
bass, can I fish and catch them any time 
I please? My friends say no. I claim I 
have the right. c. F. 
Glenco Mills, N. Y. 
If the water in question has been 
stocked with fish by the State since April 
17. 1896, the fish in it are the property 
of the State, and can be taken by anyone 
at any time during the open season, and 
by no one at any other time, without a 
permit from the Conservation Commis¬ 
sion. If the owner has stocked the water 
since April 17. 1896, and it was not first 
stocked by the State, and no State fish 
have since been planted there with the 
owner's permission, the owner can pre¬ 
vent trespass and can fish there during 
the open season. 
If the owner takes out a breeder’s li¬ 
cense and establishes a fish hatchery he 
may take and use or sell at any time arti¬ 
ficially propagated trout not less than six 
inches in length, provided he complies 
with all the regulations of the Conserva¬ 
tion Commission. Every trout so used 
must be tagged with a tag purchased from 
the Commission. This tag must be fast¬ 
ened to the fish by the use of a machine 
rented from the Commission. This tag 
must be left on the fish until it is con¬ 
sumed. These are the provisions of the 
law signed in April, 1914. They may 
have been changed by the recent Legisla¬ 
ture, but there is no way now to find out 
just what changes have been made. 
Wayne County, N. Y. a. c. w. 
THE RURAE NEW-YORKER. 
“ Sargol.” Events of the Week. 
I have been reading about “Sargol” 
building a person up somewhat; do you 
think it would be injurious? I do not 
see why the Government allows it to be 
advertised if it is a fraud, as; a sick 
man will try anything to get well. What 
do you know about it? P. P. 
Clarinda, Iowa. 
I know considerable about “Sargol,” 
the stuff having been analyzed and its 
utter worthlessness for the purposes for 
which it is advertised having been shown. 
It belongs to the large class of medical 
fakes sold as flesh builders, and, while I 
have never seen the proprietors of the 
preparation, I haven’t a doubt that they 
present every appearance of being well- 
fed gentlemen. Unless you feel charita¬ 
bly disposed toward them, however, I 
would advise that you keep your own 
money for real food and for the services 
of some reliable physician near you who 
can ascertain the cause of your being 
run down and suggest proper remedial 
measures. Perhaps the worst that can 
be said of this preparation is that it is 
of no more value than that other widely 
advertised nostrum, Sanatogen, the 
claims for which fill so many pages of our 
very ethical publications. When all pub¬ 
lishers realize, as all will be forced to 
realize, some day, that they cannot retain 
the respect of their readers and print ser¬ 
mons on one page and advertisements of 
fake medical nostrums on another there 
will be less need of government super¬ 
vision over journalistic enterprise. The 
very fact that “a sick man will try any¬ 
thing to get well” places an obligation 
upon publishers which they can no long¬ 
er afford to ignore. M. B. D. 
Farm Drainage. 
Most of us consider that drainage is 
only needed on wet soils, or where there 
is too much water for the good of the 
crops. It appears, however, that irriga¬ 
tion continued for a term of years brings 
about a condition of the soil which also 
requires drainage. The Agricultural 
Department has issued Bulletin No. 190 
on “The Drainage of Agricultural 
Lands.” This pamphlet brings out the 
idea we have just suggested. We may 
take dry land on which crops will not 
grow until the artificial watering is 
given. When water is turned on there 
is, of course, a great increase in pro¬ 
duction for a term of years. After a 
time, however, especially on the Western 
lands, the production begins to fall off. 
It is found that the soils are becoming 
water-clogged, and that alkali brought 
into the soil by the irrigation water has 
not been washed out of the soil. In 
order to overcome these objections a 
system of drainage is started which opens 
up the bottom of the soil and provides 
an outlet for the surface water, and per¬ 
mits the alkali to be washed out. Thus 
we see that there may be too much of a 
good thing in water as well as anything 
else. 
Iron In Water. —The Geological Sur¬ 
vey makes the following statement about 
waters which contain iron. We have a 
number of questions about such waters— 
most people believing that they are very 
valuable: .... 
“Half a part per million of iron in 
water is detectable by taste, and more 
than four or five parts makes water un¬ 
palatable. In some mineral springs iron 
is the constituent which imparts a medi¬ 
cinal value to the water, but ordinarily 
it is undesirable. More than 2.5 parts 
per million in water used for laundering 
makes a stain on the clothes. Iron must 
be removed from water from which ice 
is made, or a cloudy, discolored product 
will result. An iron content of over two 
or three parts per million in water used 
in the manufacture of paper will stain 
the paper. Iron is harmful in water used 
for steaming, for it is in equilibrium with 
acids which inside the boiler become dis¬ 
sociated, with the result that the free 
acids corrode the boiler plates; but the 
amount of iron carried in solution by 
most waters is so small that the damage 
it does to steam boilers generally amounts 
to little.” 
My eye caught the paragraph “Keep¬ 
ing Russet Apples,” on page 683. I im¬ 
mediately went to the cellar and got two 
large smooth, plump and firm russets, 
from a barrel, one of several barrels that 
we picked from a tree which has prob¬ 
ably been in bearing more than half a 
century. These apples have kept splen¬ 
didly. This is how we did it; lined 
clean sugar barrels with clean news¬ 
papers, put the same papers between each 
layer of apples, covering the top with 
several layers of paper, kept the barrels 
in a clean cellar where the temperature 
is kept as uniformly cool as possible. I 
never would bury good apples; “not for 
mine.” F. C. D. 
Connecticut. 
kt 
DOMESTIC.—The jury in the Barnes- 
Roosevelt case, at Syracuse, N. Y., re¬ 
ported to Justice Andrews, May 22, a 
verdict in favor of Col. Roosevelt. The 
one juror, Edward Burns, who had held 
up the verdict because he wanted Roose¬ 
velt to pay half the costs, finally yielded 
to the other 11. 
Raymond McCune, a mining engineer, 
was arrested, May 22, at New York 
chai-ged with using the mails to defraud 
in connection with the Peruvian Gold 
Mine Company, with offices at Wilming¬ 
ton, Del. McCune was actively inter¬ 
ested in the Peruvian Gold Mine Com¬ 
pany, a Delaware corporation, capital¬ 
ized at $5,000,000. Several months ago 
the mining company started to sell its 
stock and flooded the country with allur¬ 
ing circulars. The District Attorney 
stated that $200,000 worth of mining 
stock had been sold through the mails 
before the post office inspectors made an 
investigation of the company and swore 
out warrants. 
The submarine F-4, lost in Honolulu 
harbor with 19 lives nearly two months 
ago, had been lifted clear of the ocean’s 
bottom, May 12, but naval officers have 
no assurance that the first gale will not 
part the cables again. Whether the 
cause of her loss can be determined after 
such a long period of submersion is 
doubtful. 
Supreme Court Justice Philbin dis¬ 
missed, May 21, a suit by Waldemar von 
Wangenheim. head waiter at the Gotham 
Hotel, to recover damages from the New 
York Stock Yards Company because he 
was injured on November 3 last by shots 
fired by policemen who were chasing es¬ 
caping steers belonging to the defendant 
through the streets of New York. Yon 
Wangenheim was shot in the leg and 
George Beattie was killed at Fifty-fifth 
street and Fifth avenue. In announcing 
his decision Justice Philbin said the case 
was the first in which a civilian pedes¬ 
trian had been injured by policemen try¬ 
ing to capture animals running wild in 
a city street. The court ruled that the 
stock yards company would have been re¬ 
sponsible had its negligence, by compel¬ 
ling an involuntary act on the part of an 
outsider, caused injury to him, but in 
the present case the injury was from 
the voluntary act of an outsider, for 
which the defendant was not responsible. 
The Danbury hattei'S, defendants in 
the famous Danbury hatters’ case, in 
which 189 members of the industry were 
sued under the Sherman anti-trust law 
for boycotting the firm of I). E. Loewe & 
Co. of Danbury, may lose heavily as the 
result of the stand taken by the United 
Ilatters of North America, May 22, in 
convention. The organization refuses to 
pay the damages, which amount to about 
$300,000, and the only course left open 
to the plaintiffs to collect will be to 
seize the property of the workers. 
May 21 John D. Rockefeller, Jr., con¬ 
tinued testimony on Colorado labor trou¬ 
bles before the Federal Commission on 
Industrial Relations. He expressed a 
belief in force when duly constituted au¬ 
thorities fail to protect life and property. 
He said that some of his father’s most 
severe critics are in the universities to 
which he has contributed the largest sums 
of money. He has never interfered in 
the courts of justice in any State. It 
was the policy of the Colorado mine op¬ 
erators to get bankers 'and influential 
men to get the Governor and other offi¬ 
cials “in line.” Mr. Rockefeller had faith 
in the ability, fairness and honesty of the 
officers of the Colorado Fuel and Iron 
Company. He was informed by letter 
that other companies in Colorado were 
cheating the miners by means of false 
weight, but knew nothing about it aside 
from being told. Mr. Rockefeller said he 
had the power to veto any action of the 
Colorado Fuel and Iron Company offi¬ 
cials. 
Two children, a boy of two and a girl 
of four, were among the five victims of 
a boiler explosion whidh destroyed a 
dredge owned by the Delaware River 
Dredging Company at Bordentown, N. J., 
May. 24. Their mother was also killed. 
The captain of the dredge and the en¬ 
gineer, lost their lives. 
flight men were killed. May 24, by an 
explosion in the Yalklet Smokeless Coal 
Company mine near Johnstown, Pa. A 
ninth victim died as a result of being 
overcome by gas while attempting to ef¬ 
fect rescues. 
Mount Lassen, in Northern California, 
is again in active eruption, now throw¬ 
ing up quantities of hot mud. Consider¬ 
able damage is reported at Hat Creek. 
Western Pacific trains arriving at Oak¬ 
land, May 24, were covered with ashes 
and a film of mud thrown out by Mount 
Lassen. When 100 miles from the moun¬ 
tain, the passengers said, the trains 
were enveloped in an ashen cloud and 
were forced to decrease speed because the 
headlights could not show a clear way. 
Iliamna volcano and an unidentified peak 
on the west coast of Cook Inlet, Alaska, 
have been in eruption since May IS. 
The trial of the first case of a series 
resulting from the government’s investi¬ 
gation of the graft scandals in the 
Panama Canal Zone opened. May 25, be¬ 
fore Judge William H. Hunt, in the 
United States District Court, New York. 
John Burke, former manager of the com¬ 
missary department of the canal zone, ap¬ 
peared as a witness for the government. 
Burke is a co-defendant with Jacob L. 
.Tune 3, 1015. 
Salas, now on trial charged with bribing 
the manager of the commissary depart¬ 
ment to obtain tobacco contracts on the 
Isthmus. Burke admitted on the wit¬ 
ness stand that he entered into an agree¬ 
ment with Salas and Ricardo Bermudez, 
tobacco merchants, early in 1908. where¬ 
by the two merchants supplied “some¬ 
thing in excess of $200,000" worth of 
tobacco for the use of the Spanish la¬ 
borers in the Canal Zone, on which he 
received one-third of the profits. Four 
other firms have been indicted on the 
charge of bribing Burke to the extent of 
about $40,000 in all for contracts for 
supplies. 
Twenty acres were 'found covered with 
fish when a coffer dam at the Govern¬ 
ment dam on the Ohio River a few miles 
below Evansville, Indiana, was pumped 
out. May 24. People came with baskets 
and sacks for miles around and carried 
the fish home. 
The British freight steamship Dewa, 
with a cargo of sugar from Cienfuegos 
and with 26 of her crew of 40 down with 
beri-beri. arived at New York, May 26. 
There is no record of any steamship ar¬ 
riving at this port with so many of her 
company incapacitated by any ship dis¬ 
ease, either beri-beri or scurvy. Beri¬ 
beri often occurs in sugar laden ships. 
The origin of the disease never has been 
definitely established. A few cases of 
it have arrived in American ports from 
Cuba in recent years, but never so large 
a number as are in the Dewa. 
That all goods imported in American 
bottoms are entitled to the five per cent, 
discount in tariff duties provided in tin* 
Underwood-Simmons tariff bill was de¬ 
cided. May 26, by the United States 
Court of Customs Appeals. The court 
also decided that goods imported in ships 
of those nations with which the United 
States has treaties, providing there shali 
be no discrimination, are also entitled to 
the five per cent, discount in the tariff 
duties. This decision affects goods im¬ 
ported before the tariff act of 1913 took 
effect, but which were entered in bond 
and held until after the tariff went into 
effect. This decision, should it be up¬ 
held by the Supreme Court of the United 
States, to which an appeal will imme¬ 
diately be taken by the government, will 
cut the revenues under the present tariff 
law to the extent of $15,000,000 a year, 
it was estimated by Treasury officials. 
FARM AND GARDEN.—The Sum¬ 
mer meeting of the New Jersey State 
Horticultural Society promises to be an 
unusually good one this year. It will 
be held on the Seabrook Farm, which is 
located near Bridgeton, in Cumberland 
County. The station is Woodruff, on the 
Central Railroad of New Jersey, where 
conveyances will be ready to carry tin* 
people to the farm. This farm is noted 
throughout Southern New Jersey for its 
system of irrigation. We published a 
statement from Mr. Seabrook in our Hor¬ 
ticultural number, and this statement at¬ 
tracted so much attention that we are 
very sure many of our readers will want 
to visit the farm and see just how the 
work is done. 
The Summer field meeting of the 
Massachusetts State Board of Agricul¬ 
ture is to be held at the farm of L. L. 
Richardson, Leominster, on Thursday, 
June 10. Mr. Richardson is a promin¬ 
ent horse breeder and so the principal 
feature of the day will be an exhibition 
of some of his animals and a talk on 
draught horses for Massachusetts farm¬ 
ers by Prof. J. A. McLean of the Massa¬ 
chusetts Agricultural College. There will 
also be a talk on the use of concrete on 
the farm by a representative of the 
American Association of Portland Ce¬ 
ment Manufacturers, and it is hoped to 
have a demonstration of a farm tractor. 
The full program may be obtained from 
Wilfrid Wheeler, Secretary of the Board, 
136 State House, Boston. 
Certified Milk Producers’ Association 
of America, S. L. Stewart, president, 
will hold its eighth annual convention at 
Atlantic City, N. J., June 30-July 1. 
Harry B. Winters, secretary-treasurer, 
Albany, N. Y. 
Gov. Whitman has approved items in 
the supply bill, aggregating about $757.- 
000. for indemnities to owners of glan- 
dered horses and tuberculous cattle and 
cattle affected with foot and mouth dis¬ 
ease, slaughtered under the provisions of 
the agricultural law. Of the total sum, 
$2S0,306.25 was for glandered horses. 
$152,416.50 for tuberculous cattle and 
$300,000 for cattle slaughtered on ac¬ 
count of foot-and-mouth disease, and $25,- 
000 for interest on claims. Commission¬ 
er of Agriculture Wilson announced, 
May 25, that the majority of claims in 
his department are in such shape as to 
be sent to the State Comptroller within 
a few days. 
The annual meeting of the Western 
Seedsmen’s Association was held _at the 
Rome hotel, Omaha, Neb., May 15. Re¬ 
solutions were passed touching the loss 
of Wm. Mitchelhill, of Mitchelhill Bros., 
St. Joseph, Mo., in the Lusitania dis¬ 
aster, also resolutions expressing appre¬ 
ciation of the great work done in behalf 
of the association by the late Jesse E. 
Northrup, of Northrup, King & Co., 
Minneapolis, Minn., one of the founders 
of the organization. The former officers 
were re-elected for the ensuing year; H. 
A. Johns, Sioux City, la., president; C. 
C. Massie, Minneapolis, Minn., vice- 
president; M. L. Webster, Independence, 
la., secretary; Henry Windheim, Omaha, 
Neb., treasurer. 
