976 
R U R AL N E W-YO R K E R 
AuRUS?t 17, lOlS 
tlioir live slock of all khuls. and jnst now 
a largo truck piled high with coops of 
fowls wont by at a 40-inilo clip, a regular 
air trip drive for the hens. Hear those 
shrill voices and api)arent vehement com¬ 
motion. It is a motley crowd of gypsies, 
in a long, rakish auto, women in gay, 
brilliant colors, men in more sombre at¬ 
tire, and the children not much distressed 
about attire. No horses, nothing to 
trade; the jtast forgotten and the future 
before them, Avith 10 gallons of gasoline 
in the tank. J. G. 
Ohio. 
A New Potato Trouble 
Lack of Water ond Proper Food 
I’AKT I. 
The following report is made by Prof, 
(t. J’. ('linton, of the ('onnecticut Experi¬ 
ment Station. Many of our readers have 
been i)uzzled bj’ the behavior of the 
))otato crop. 
Symi’Toms of the Trouble. —There 
appeared suddenly in Southern Connecti¬ 
cut an unusual trouble popularly desig¬ 
nated as a blight, which was first c.alled 
to the writer’s attention on .Inly (!th in 
a field that had grown potatoes for three 
years. In this field a spot had y«‘llowed 
uj) and was dying prematurely, and the 
owner said that he had first noticed the 
trouble two or three days previous. Since 
then the writer has seen many fields and 
received numerous comiilaints of the same 
or similar troubles, confined chiefly to the 
southern half of the State. Many fields 
have been visited and a careful exaniina- 
tiou made of the plants, both in the field 
and in the laboratory. The trouble seems 
to be a complicated one, with indications 
that more than one factor may be con¬ 
cerned with it. However, the general con¬ 
clusion that we have come to, to date, is 
that primarily, at least in most cases, 
the trouble is not due to fungi but rather 
to lack of sufficient food and moisture for 
continued plant grow’th. The fields vis¬ 
ited have shown two or three types of the 
trouble, as follows: 
1. A prematuring of the vines in which 
the stem and leaves gradually turn yel¬ 
low', the plant often remaining erect, the 
leaves dropping off or dying, and finally 
the whole plant succumbing. 
2. Plants wilting and flopping over as 
if the stem had not enough strength to 
sui)port them. Parts normally green and 
no particular spotting of the stem. 
‘1. A bi’onzing more or less of the stem 
and .spotting; plants lopping over some¬ 
what ; frequently the stem is rather soft 
near the ground .so that it is easily 
pinched together and giving somewhat the 
appearance as if some fungus or borer 
had been at work. 
WuAT Examination Suows. — We 
have carefully examined the stems above 
and below the ground in the field and cut 
many sections of the stem and leaves in 
the laboratory, and while we occasionally 
find bacteria and fungous threads which 
might aid in wilting, and a Phoma (para¬ 
site fungoa) that might possibly cause 
rotting, we have found as yet no definite 
association of these particular agencies 
with these troubles. Prof. Whetzel of 
Eornell, who has made some study of the 
trouble in Long Island, seems to have 
come to the conclusion that the trouble 
there may be caused by a form of Phoma 
fungus disease which he claims to be new 
to this country. Ilis investigations are 
not complete and we are inclined to be¬ 
lieve that this fungus, if associated with 
the trouble, is not the responsible agent 
in the majority of cases in this State, al¬ 
though w'e have found such a fungus on 
some of the stems. 
Seed Not to Blame. —Our investiga¬ 
tions lead us to the conclusion that the 
trouble cannot be associated with any 
particular type of seed, whether home or 
Northern grown, or the character of the 
seed, whether first class or poor, or the 
conditions under which it was stored as 
to freezing, aeration, etc., although there 
are other troubles that may be connected 
with such unfavorable conditions. Neither 
does the trouble seem to have been asso¬ 
ciated in any way with care or lack of 
care, regarding spraying for either insects 
or fungi, since some of the fields thor¬ 
oughly sprayed for both have gone down 
just as badly as those receiving no treat¬ 
ment whatever. We have found, how- 
•‘ver. that there are certain conditions 
under which the trouble has appeared 
more or less injurious, as follows: 
Varieties Affected. — The trouble 
first showed on Irish Cobblm-s or other 
early A'arieties, later appearing on the 
late A'arietics. Of course Irish Cobblers 
and Green Mountains are the varieties 
most frequently planted in this State and 
are the ones upon which the trouble has 
ajjpeared most i)rominently. Dibble’s 
Russet seems, so far. to have been the 
least injured variety, but is rarely grown. 
The time of i)lanting or maturing of the 
plants seems to have had considerable to 
do with its appoiirance. In other words, 
the trouble does not soem to develop until 
the plants have bloomed and are in the 
stage Avhere the foliage has made its 
growth and most of the energies of the 
plant are bent to the formation of tubers. 
We have seen the trouble very i)rominent 
on Irish Cobblers when Green Mountains 
beside them did not show it. or on Irish 
Cobblers when near-by rows of the .same 
variety planted a few days later did not 
show it. In time, however, both the 
Green Mountains and the later-planted 
Cobblers did show the trouble when they 
reached the same stage of maturity. IVe 
know of one farm w'h(‘re the owner 
planted Irish Cobblers and Green Moun¬ 
tains on four different dates covering a 
month, and the trouble appeared i.i the 
fields and varieties in tlie order of their 
planting and maturity, being quite severe 
on the earliest when just beginning to 
show on the latest, and the Irish Cobblers 
showing sooner than the Green Moun¬ 
tains. [prof.] G. P. CLINTON. 
Crops and Farm News 
The crops in the .southern portion of 
Albany County are very good except hay, 
which over the hill farms is less than .TO 
per cent. Oats, which are not yet har¬ 
vested, promises a bumper crop. Blight is 
on some pieces of potatoes, and the crop 
will not average as good as last year. The 
extreme cold weather was very injurious 
to apple trees in this section, Baldwins in 
particular. Some orchards lost m.any hun¬ 
dreds of dollars worth of trees. All fruit 
crops are short. Apples blossomed well, 
but now have about a 40 per cent crop, 
and scarcely any pears. Our creamery 
returned its patrons 43c for .Inly butter; 
eggs 45c; veal calves IGc; good hay, JflS; 
rye straw !j;i2; mill feeds .fGS to .$(>5 per 
ton. j. A. V. 
Albany Co., N. Y. 
The dealer is paying at the present 
time at Ilightstown for potatoes $ 1.30 
per bu.; corn, .$1.75; wheat, $2.10. Rye 
in sheaf $15 per ton; clover hay, $18. 
Potatoes are blighted and about half a 
crop; very little good corn in this sec¬ 
tion, Hay was good, rye good, wheat 
good. Very little plowing is being done 
on account of dry weather. c. H. s. 
Mercer Co., N. J. 
At Peekskill market, wholesale, we get 
the folloAving prices: beaus, snap or wax, 
per bu., $1; sweet corn, per 1(K), $2.50; 
beets, per 100 bunches, $4; carrots, per 
100 bnuches, .$4; cabbage, per bbl., .$2; 
peas, per bu., .$2.25; sfiuash, crookueck, 
bbl., $1.50; tomatoes, 20-qt. crate, $2.25; 
pcqipers, jier basket, $1.50; potatoes, per 
bbl., $4.75 to .$5.25; lettuce, per doz., 25 
to 50c. J. A. 
Westchester Co., N. Y. 
This is a mixed farming country; 
dairying, cabbage, potatoes, oats, barley, 
and corn for silo. There is not much 
market for farm products at present. 
Some milk is shipped to New York, and 
we receive $1.73 for 3 j)er cent milk, 15c 
per can for delivery to station. The 
creamery paid 44c per lb. for butter, re¬ 
ceiving skim-milk back at creamery. Old 
hay, .$15 to $20 per ton delivered at 
Syracuse. New seeding is good. Old 
meadows are light. Oats and barley are 
looking fine. I’otatoes are commencing 
to blight. Coni is backward. Cabbage 
crop looks good at present. Farmers are 
getting 42c for eggs. Pork, 23e per lb.; 
veal. 2.5c per lb. c. P. E. 
Onondaga Co., N. Y. 
Crops are fairly good here, but we 
need rain very badly. Hay is very good; 
nearly all tlie hay is secured in fine 
shap<‘. There is no hay selling here now. 
Wheat a fair crop; a good deal was 
dragged up and sown to oats and barley 
on account of winter-killing. It is sell¬ 
ing at .$2 per bu. Oats look fine with 
more acreage than usual. Old oats are 
90c per hu. Barley looks fine; quite a 
jfood deal sowed around here, but there 
is none to sell yet. Corn and beans about 
one-half of a crop on account of dry 
weather and root-rot in beans. Dealers 
ask $3.50 jier cwt. for corn. No market 
for beans just now. Potatoes need rain 
very badly. c. P. 
Wyoming Co., N. Y. 
EVENTS OF THE WEEK 
DOMESTIC.—Miss Anne Martin, for¬ 
merly president of the National Woman’s 
party, filed her petition as an independent 
candidate for United States Senator from 
Nevada with the Secretary of State at 
Reno Aug. 1. Miss Martin’s petition was 
signed by 7.21.7 electors. 
Twenty-nine children under the age of 
10 years Avere killed in the streets of NeAV 
York (’ity by automobiles in .Inly, accord¬ 
ing to the report of the National High¬ 
ways Protective Society. The total 
deaths in the city .streets from motor 
vehicles Avere 44. Six persons were killed 
by trolley cars and seven by wagons. In 
the State outside of the city 45 iiersons 
were killed by automobiles, while .30 Avere 
killed in the State of New .Tersey. 
Seven men. including six volunteer fire¬ 
men of the Peekskill, N. Y., department, 
lost their lives, four were injured and 
probably .$250,000 damage Avas done Aug. 
1 by .a fire of mysterious origin which 
destroyed a big grain warehouse at the 
plant of the Fleischmann IVIanufacturing 
Company in Peekskill. The victims per¬ 
ished Avhen the walls of the big warehouse 
collapsed, four hours after the fire Avas 
discovered. 
The Republic of France Aug. 1 filed in 
the NeAV .Tersey Supreme Court a suit for 
$53,755.20 against the Central Railroad 
of NeAV .Tersey for the loss of .500 cases 
of guncotton destroyed in the Black Tom 
explosion in 1010. 
A motion to remove the Avords “United 
States’’ from their literature was seconded 
and carried at a meeting of Industrial 
Workers of the World in Spokane. Wash., 
in .Tune. 1017, according to the testimony 
of IVilliam Moran, secretary of that 
branch, in the I. W. W. trial before Fed¬ 
eral Tndge Landis at Chicago Aug. 2. 
Moran came to this country from Austra¬ 
lia in 1007, but has not yet been made a 
citizen. 
.Tohn Hoffman, Sr., president of the 
.Tohn Hoffman Packing Company, was ar¬ 
rested at Cincinnati Aug. 2 on a Federal 
Avarrant charging him with violation of 
the espionage and sedition laAvs. Before 
the United States Commissioner he ple.ad- 
ed not guilty and was held under .$20,000 
bond for preliminary examination. Hoff¬ 
man secured bondsmen. 
Federal authorities have begun an in¬ 
vestigation into the presence of 180 
pounds of dynamite secreted on the farm 
of L. D. Rheinhardt, not far from the 
New York City water works, near Car¬ 
mel. N. Y. The d.vnamite was found by 
Trooper Kenneth Bender, of the State 
Constabulary, who seized the explosive 
and had it removed to a licensed maga¬ 
zine,. Rheinhardt, who leases the farm, 
denied owner.ship of the dynamite. He 
said it was on the property when he took 
possession of the farm recently. 
A new form of German propagand.a 
was unearthed by the Red Cross in New 
York Aug. 6, when it learned that pro- 
German agents, representing themselves 
as Red Cross workei's, had been visiting 
the relatives of American fighting men in 
France and informing them “officially” 
that the soldiers had either been killed or 
severely wounded in action. At least five 
instances of such false reports either of 
the death or Avounding of soldiers have 
been reported ,to the Red Cro.ss from 
Queens. “The Red Cross wishes to em¬ 
phasize the fact,” said an official state¬ 
ment given out by the organization, “that 
no information of this kind is given out 
by the Red Cross. The War Department 
reserves the right to announce casualties, 
and this information is issued before it is 
sent either to the Red Cross or the daily 
newspapers.” In none of the cases where¬ 
in the men representing themselves as 
Red Cross agents notified relatives of the 
soldiers was the name of the soldier on 
the official casualty lists. 
The Pennsylvania Railroad Company, 
Armour & Co. and Swift & Co. were in¬ 
dicted by a Federal Grand Jury Aug. 5 
on charges of violating the inter-state 
commerce laws, which forbid the giving 
or accepting of freight rebate.s._ The 
transactions involved, as stated in two 
indictments, are decidedly more compli¬ 
cated than the mere giving of cash de¬ 
ductions by a railroad^ to favored ship¬ 
pers. The Pennsylvania Railroad is al¬ 
leged to have turned over the Harsimus 
Stock Yards property at the foot of Sixth 
Street, City, to Armour & Co. and 
SAvift & Co. for one-fourth its true rental 
value. The packers are alleged to have 
collected big dividends on the operation 
of the yards and in addition to have_ been 
placed by mere possession of the facilities 
they afforded in a position of advantage 
over other packers. In exchange for the 
possession of the Harsimus yards on ex¬ 
ceedingly favorable terms the packers are 
alleged to have shipped all their live stoch 
sent from Chicago, Omaha, East St. Tvouis 
and other places to NeAV York over the 
Pennsylvania lines to the loss of the New 
York Central and Lehigh Valley Rail¬ 
roads, which had previously had this busi¬ 
ness. One of the indictments fixes the 
saving to the packers through their pos¬ 
session of the Harsimus yards at $.300,000 
in the three years preceding the finding 
of the indictment. The Government’s 
figures indicate that the packers have 
saved $750,000 in this manner in the six 
years in which the alleged conspiracy has 
been effective. The .six counts of tAvo .in¬ 
dictments make the defendants liable, up¬ 
on conviction, to fines aggregating $120,- 
000 each. 
TavcIvc of the eighteen raincoat manu¬ 
facturers taken in custody by the Depart¬ 
ment of Justice on July. 22 on charges of 
bribery and fraud in connection Avith con- 
tracts_ to supply the army with raincoats 
AA’cre indicted Aug. 5 by tbe Federal grand 
jury. The indictments were presented be¬ 
fore .Judge .Tulius M. IVIayer in the Fed¬ 
eral District Court. The indictments 
charge the _ manufacturers with jiaying 
money to inspectors to have defective 
raincoats intended for the army passed as 
perfect. In most of the cases they are 
charged Avith having paid this money to 
Charles E. Fuller, chief inspector of rain¬ 
coats in the. New York district. Fuller, 
according to the Federal authorities, has 
made a full confession and will be used 
as a Government Avitness at the trial. 
Aug 0 fire on the British Government 
freight transport Iluttonwood, lying in 
NeAV Y’’ork Bay, off Brooklyn, caused the 
death of one man, injuries to 18 others, 
and a property loss of $1,000,000. 33ie 
injured were gassed by benzol explosions. 
WASHINGTON.—The war and ordi- 
n.ary expenses of the United States have 
reached .$1,508.282,0.50 a month, or ap¬ 
proximately $1.8,000,000,000 a year. 'Fhey 
are steadily increasing as the nation 
reaches a higher stage of war production, 
and the July figuies, the first month of 
the fiscal year 1010, are the highest re¬ 
corded. In July last year, Avhen the 
counti’y had been but a few months in 
the Avar, the expenditures were only 
$002,310,840. Of this sum, hOAvever, 
$4.52.500.000 Avas in the shape of loans 
to our Allies, leiiving .actual expenditure; 
about $210,000,000. Of the $1 .,50.8,2.82,0.50 
spent last month only $343,485,000 Avas 
loaned to the Allies. Desiiite the heavy 
rate of expenditures returns from taxes. 
War Savings Stamps and other income 
sources h.ave been so good that the Treas¬ 
ury has a ca.sh balance of .$1 ..507.2,81,074. 
Uncle Sam took charge Aug. 1 of all 
of the unskilled labor in the country, put 
into effect ncAV and drastic regulations 
and proceeded to supply the shortage of 
1.000,000 unskilled men that arc needed 
for the industries of the country. Under 
the system noAV in vogue the Government 
not only takes entire chai'ge of all em- 
ploymeiRs, but the agents in charge_of 
the various bureaus are empowered to 
send at will for such men as are listed as 
being engaged in non-es.sential employ¬ 
ment and conscript them for the amiy of 
toil. While it was expressly stated that 
the plan is a Avar measure, many employ¬ 
ers think that it will be necessary to con¬ 
tinue it during the period of readjustment 
immediately following the Avar. 
farm AND GARDEN.—Gov. Whit¬ 
man has appointed I’rof. Albert R. Mann, 
dean of the Ncav York State College of 
Agriculture at Cornell, as a member of 
the State Food Commission to succeed 
Dr. .Jacob Gould Schurman, president of 
Cornell University, who re.signed to en¬ 
gage in Y. M'. C. A. work in France. The 
appointment has been approved by the 
Federal Food Administration in Wash¬ 
ington. 
The Annual Field Meeting of the Con¬ 
necticut Agricultural Station will be held, 
as usual, at Mt. C.armel on Tuesday, Aug. 
20. If the day is stormy, the meeting 
Avill be held on the next day, Wednesday, 
the 21 .st. There will be an inspection of 
the field, a basket lunch, and spe.aking by 
various persons. Anyone interested in the 
development of Ncav England agriculture 
will do well to take a day off and attend 
this meeting. The Experiment Station is 
doing great Avork with varieties of Noav 
England corn. Soy beans, cow peas, and. 
many other crops in which New England 
farmers are interested. It would be hard 
to find in all New England a fiedd in 
Avhich there is more genuine practical in¬ 
struction than can be found at Mt. ('ar- 
mel. 
The New Draft 
Albany, N. Y., Aug. 6.—Governor 
Whitman today had Adjutant General 
Sherrill communicate directly with all 
city and county election officials of the 
State Avith a view toward enlisting their 
.services in securing the registration of 
1,750,000 New York State men eligible 
for service under the colors under the 
proposed new Federal statute extending 
the draft ages from 1.8 to 45. Governor 
Whitman’s action Avas prompted by a de¬ 
sire, JUS he point«!d out, to keep New York 
State in the lead in furnishing prompt 
and efficient aid to the Government in the 
present crisis. The Governor^ Ret the 
election machinery of the State in motion 
immediately upon receipt of a telegram 
from Provost Mar.shal General CroAvder 
suggesting that proper steps be taken be¬ 
fore the actual passage of the new draft 
law. 
Acting upon the probability of the draft 
extension being in operation shortly. Gov¬ 
ernor Whitman has urged the city and 
county election officials to keep intact 
their machinery to be used at the general 
lirimary election throughout the State on 
September ,3 in order that it will lie avail¬ 
able for the new draft registration a feAv 
days later. The belief is that the day of 
registration will bo September 5. 
The President’s Proclamation to be is¬ 
sued upon the passage of the act by Con¬ 
gress AA'ill fix the date for registration and 
the Adjutant General or draft executive 
of each State will be furnished in advance 
with necessary blanks and forms to con¬ 
duct registration. 
