*436 
•D* RURAL NEW-YORKER 
Varieties Running Out. — I wonder if 
it is the tendency of all vegetables grad¬ 
ually to run out. Some time ago celery 
growers began to find that they could no 
longer get good results with Paris Golden 
or Golden Self-Blanching, and many of 
them gave up trying to grow early celery. 
Now difficulty is being reported with Co¬ 
penhagen Market cabbage, which has long 
been a standard, and has been grown very 
extensively. Much of the Copenhagen 
Market cabbage this year has come very 
poor, indeed. Possibly, though, this is 
due more to poor seed than to any real 
deterioration in the race. This fact is 
indicated, as sometimes what appear to be 
several different kinds of cabbages are 
found growing in the same field. Still, 
plants of different kinds do show a ten¬ 
dency to run out. and this is true of flow¬ 
ers as well as vegetables. For years 
William Sim of Cliftondale was one of 
the most prominent violet growers in the 
East, but he has given up this crop en¬ 
tirely because he found his flowers grow¬ 
ing poorer each season. He believes that 
the variety which he was using has lost 
its vitality. It is a well-known fact that 
carnations are good for only a few years, 
the limit sometimes being placed at seven. 
It, is seldom that one finds anybody grow¬ 
ing the carnations that were popular a 
few years ago. even the famous Lawson 
pink, for which the well-known financier 
paid $30,000. having almost passed out of 
existence. 
Remedies for Vegetable Pests. —To 
return to cabbage, a number of growers 
in Massachusetts are trying the plan in¬ 
troduced from the West of spraying their 
cabbages with saltpetre, potassium ni¬ 
trate. in the proportion of one tablespoon¬ 
ful to six quarts of warm water, to con¬ 
trol worms. It is claimed that this is a 
certain remedy, and will not poison the 
chickens or any other stock that may 
happen to eat it. Of course, we all hope 
that the chickens will keep out of the 
garden, but sometimes they will get loose 
in spite of our good intentions and sup¬ 
posedly well-made fences. I confess that 
I am a little skeptical of that plan, which 
has also been suggested as coming from 
the West, of soaking corncobs in hot coal 
tar and scattering them among the squash 
vines to keep away the stink bugs. Still, 
it may be that the fumes of the tar are 
especially objectionable to the bugs, 
although when it comes to a choice of 
perfumes, that of the bugs seems worse 
than that of the tar. Anyhow, I pro¬ 
pose to experiment with the plan. 
Goon and Poor Beans. —In spite of 
wet weather beans have been doing very 
well, and so far little trouble has been 
experienced with the green worm which 
caused so much damage last year. It is 
not probable that Black Valentine or 
Refugee will ever figure on my bean list 
again. These varieties this year have 
had so #many strings that it has been 
almost impossible to use them. To be 
sure, the Refugee beans which I planted 
were some which the Government sent me, 
which may account for the poor strain. 
These Government seed are uncertain at 
best. About the finest string bean which 
I have seen this year is a climbing kind, 
called Golden Cluster, which is prolific 
almost beyond belief. I am growing for 
the first time the new Italian bean which 
is being sent out from Boston. It’s a 
pole bean, bears continuously, is entirely 
stringless, and excellent in flavor. Still, 
as a matter of choice. I think I prefer 
the old-time Kentucky Wonder. Some¬ 
how I prefer the round-podded kinds to 
the flat beans. Occasionally one gets a 
strain of Kentucky Wonder which is 
stringy, but as a rule this is unsurpassed 
as a pole bean for home growing. 
Sunflowers. —I am using the Giant 
Russian sunflower stalks again as substi¬ 
tutes for poles, and the results are as 
satisfactory as ever. Certain people were 
inclined to poke fun at me when I advo¬ 
cated this plan for small gardens where 
poles were hard to obtain, but now I find 
it getting to be quite a common expedient. 
The only point to remember is that the 
leaves should be kept stripped off, except 
a few at the top. In speaking of sun¬ 
flowers. I am growing a few of Burbank’s 
red sunflowers this year. The plants are 
low-growing, and the flowers are not large, 
but they are distinctly ornamental and 
well worth a place in the flower border. 
Greenhouse Prospects. — Prospects 
are not especially good for greenhouse 
men, owing to the difficulty in getting 
coal. Predictions are being freely made 
that many of the larger houses will be 
cold during the middle of the Winter, at 
least, being planted to cucumbers in the 
Soring. It is curious to find the way in 
which one industry reacts upon another. 
Beekeepers were hard hit by the bad Win¬ 
ter, losing a large percentage of their 
colonies. As they had not wholly built 
up from the losses of three years ago. the 
toumber of bees in New England is neces¬ 
sarily much under normal. This fact 
brings serious complications to the cu¬ 
cumber growers, because without bees 
the cucumber blossoms are not fertilized 
and the fruit does not form. Cucumber 
men have gladly paid $20 and even more 
for a colony of bees this year, a price 
which was never dreamed of a few sea¬ 
sons ago. As a matter of fact, they have 
been tickled to get the bees at any price, 
and sometimes have had serious difficulty 
in doing so. It would seem as though 
it might be possible to work up a more 
systematic business in the raising of bees 
for cucumber houses, and certainly it 
would be much better for the cucumber 
men if they would learn to handle and 
raise the bees themselves, rather than de¬ 
pending wholly upon outside and some¬ 
times distant sources for their supply. 
Hot-Weather Lettuce. —All garden¬ 
ers know how difficult it is to grow let¬ 
tuce in hot weather, but very good results 
are reported from the new variety known 
as Regina. I understand that this lettuce 
is ready for the table 10 weeks from 
planting, with crisp and tender leaves, 
even if it was started in midsummer. I 
think I have spoken before of the value 
of a cold frame in growing lettuce during 
the Summer months. It even pays to 
stand four boards around a seed bed in the 
garden, thus providing an impromptu cold 
frame, especially if the garden is in an 
exposed position, for it seems to be the 
hot. drying winds which play the mischief 
with the young plants. 
E. I. FARRINGTON. 
EVENTS OF THE WEEK 
DOMESTIC.—Women of South St. 
Paul. Minn., claimed the distinction Au¬ 
gust 27 of being the first to vote under 
the provision of the Nineteenth Amend¬ 
ment, whose ratification was proclaimed 
August 26 by Secretary of State Colby. 
Vying for the privilege of being the first 
to vote, groups of women gathered in 
front of polling places long before the 
polls opened at 6 A. M., in the special 
election on a proposal to issue $S5.000 
in bonds for improvement of the water 
supply. 
Numerous newly enfranchised Allegheny 
County, Ta., women have been defrauded 
by a bogus tax collector who went into 
action soon after Secretary Colby signed 
the proclamation declaring woman suf¬ 
frage law, according to an announcement 
leading women in all walks of life in the 
city. . _ 
Two persons dead, a score injured, dam¬ 
age to the tobacco crop estimated at 
$2,000,000 and heavy losses to farm build¬ 
ings and general crops was.the toll of a 
series of electrical and hail storms that 
swept many sections of Connecticut Au¬ 
gust 31. The storm assumed cyclonic 
proportions in North Haven, North Guil¬ 
ford, East Windsor, Suffield, Granby and 
other towns. Miss Florence Linsey of 
Pittsfield, Mass., was drowned off the 
Mulford shore when high waves upset a 
rowboat. Raffaele Slialon. a water tender 
with a railroad section gang, was killed 
at North Haven when a group of frame 
houses were blown down. A branch fac¬ 
tory of a fireworks concern _ at North 
llaven was wrecked by the wind, and a 
dozen young women employes injured, one 
seriously. The tobacco districts of the 
Connecticut River Valley were hard hit. 
The crops in most cases were about 15 
per cent harvested, and the standing to¬ 
bacco was reported as a total loss on 
many plantations. 
Two persons were killed and 15 others 
were severely injured when elevator No. 4 
in the Clarendon building 215-219 Fourth 
avenue, New York, dropped, out of con¬ 
trol. from the tenth floor to the basement 
August 31. Snapping of the elevator 
cables is believed to have caused the ac¬ 
cident. 
FARM AND GARDEN. — Farmers’ 
Week at the Morrisville Agricultural 
School, Morrisville, N. Y., will be held 
October 12 to 16. There will be a trac¬ 
tor demonstration and meeting of all coun¬ 
ty agricultural organizations. The Farm 
Bureau picnic of Madison County, held 
on the Morrisville State School grounds, 
August 26. had an attendance of 4.000: 
nearly a thousand autos. It was the 
largest picnic ever held by the Farm Bu¬ 
reau in the county, with sports and fine 
speeches. 
The Rhole Island State College is now 
without a horticultural building. On 
Sunday. August 22. a fire broke out in 
the classroom on the second floor, and 
despite all efforts to hold it in check, the 
.1 Packing Tent on a Small Fruit Farm 
made August 27 by II. II. Rowland, Dis¬ 
trict Attorney. The fake collector oper¬ 
ated in the McKeesport district. The 
bogus agent, victims reported, appeared 
at their homes, informed them that they 
must pay him a poll tax if they wanted 
to vote in November, collected the money, 
handed out a receipt and disappeared. 
Vice-Chancellor Backes. in Newark, 
N. J.. handed down August 27 a decision 
in which he held that a strike for the 
purpose of enforcing the closed shop was 
illegal and contrary to public policy. He 
granted an injunction to the Donnell- 
Zaue Company of New York restraining 
the International Brotherhood' of Bridge 
and Iron Workers of America and the 
Atlantic Smeltng & Refining Works of 
Brooklyn from inaugurating a sympa¬ 
thetic strike to prevent the completion 
of a contract between the Atlantic Com¬ 
pany and the Lehigh Structural Steel 
Company of New York for the erection 
of a Newark plant for the former concern. 
The Lehigh Company had sublet the con¬ 
tract to the Donnell-Zane Company. 
For alleged restraint and monopoly of 
trade in violation of the Sherman anti¬ 
trust law, the Federal Grand Jury at 
New York. August 3,0. indicted 38 of the 
leading transatlantic steamship companies 
plying to and from the port of New York. 
The most important of them are members 
of the Transatlantic Associated Freight 
Conferences. Indictments also were filed 
against 12 individuals identified with the 
steamship companies* and against four 
co-norations and five individual brokers 
who are members of the Steamship 
Freight Brokers Association. Simulta¬ 
neously with the filing of. the indictments 
an injunction and dissolution suit in equity 
was filed against the same defendants, 
'naming about 200 other persons who are 
officers, employes or agents of the cor¬ 
porations or associations concerned. 
It took a jury of 12 women in the court 
of Justice of the T’eace T. Ernest Maholm 
at Indianapolis. August 28. just five min¬ 
utes to reach a verdict in a suit growing 
out of a dispute over a talking machine. 
They decided in favor of the plaintiff. It 
was the first jury of women ever sum¬ 
moned in Indiana, and was composed of 
September 11 , 1920 
low-lying stretches about Lesser Slave 
Lake., Another large reclamation project 
is .being planned in Saskatchewan, where 
surveys are being made to determine the 
cost of draining a tract of 1.000 square 
miles east of Prince Albert, between the 
Carrot and Saskatchewan Rivers. This 
project will open to farm settlement an 
area which borders a highly developed 
agricultural district. 
Hucksters of Buffalo, N. Y., went on 
strike August 31 against an emergency 
order of the acting mayor, which permits 
farmers' to peddle their produce on the 
city streets. As a result of the strike 
more than a hundred farmers who came 
to the city markets found no purchasers 
for their truck loads of vegetables and 
fruits. The acting mayor’s order was de¬ 
signed to assist in getting to the consum¬ 
ers the large crops of vegetables and fruits 
held on the farms. Previously farmers 
had been forbidden to retail their produce 
in the city without obtaining a huckster’s 
license. Market men estimated that pro¬ 
duce worth $3,000 would go to waste as a 
result of the strike. 
OBITUARY. — James Wilson, who 
served as Secretary of Agriculture under 
McKinley, Roosevelt and Taft, died Au¬ 
gust 26 at his home at Traer, Iowa, after 
an illness of many weeks. He directed 
the agricultural development of the 
United States for 15 years, accomplish¬ 
ing phenomenal results largely by means 
of his hard-headed common sense and 
practicality and because of his unswerving 
courage. He held Cabinet office longer 
than any other man, although Albert 
Gallatin approached this record with his 
13 years’ service as ruler of the Treasury. 
He was director of the Iowa Agricultural 
Experiment Station, a professor of the 
Iowa Agricultural College at Ames, and 
the owner of the best run farm, 1.200 
acres, in Tama County, in all Iowa, when 
he accepted William McKinley’s call to 
service at Washington. Mr. Wilson was 
born in Ayrshire, Scotland. August 16, 
1835, and came to the United States in 
1851 with his parents, who first settled 
in Connecticut and then moved to Tama 
County, Iowa, ne was educated in the 
public schools and at Iowa College. lie 
served three terms in the Iowa Legisla¬ 
ture. the last as Speaker of the Assembly. 
In 1873 he was sent to Congress, where 
he spent, eight years in all, varying Con¬ 
gressional service with agricultural col¬ 
lege professorial duties and with practical 
farming. Among his larger services Mr. 
Wilson introduced into this country a 
number of valuable crops which had been 
successful only in foreign countries. 
Among these was durum wheat, which 
came to yield $50,000,000 annually to the 
farmers of the Northwest. He vastly 
extended the possibilities of wheat grow¬ 
ing. Under his administration the beet- 
sugar industry, now of gigantic propor¬ 
tions, was fostered and encouraged. A 
serum for hog cholera was given to the 
farmers and stock raisers. The whole 
country was aroused to the importance 
of tuberculosis in cattle, and great re¬ 
forms were made in dairy sanitation and 
in the care of and handling of milk. 
The good-roads movement began and was 
energetically supported by Secretary Wil¬ 
son. who had. sample roads constructed 
in various parts of the country as olr'ect 
lessons. Agricultural communities were 
instructed how to build' good roads with 
their local resources and material. The 
forests were studied and a beginning made 
in conservation and reforestation. 
flames gained such headway that when the 
Wakefield engine arrived 10 minutes after 
the call, the building was a mass of rag¬ 
ing fire, and without an adequate supply 
of water, the firemen- were helpless. The 
greenhouses and other adjoining buildings 
were fortunately saved*. The loss is esti¬ 
mated at $6,000. 
The New England Ayrshire Club Sum¬ 
mer meeting was held on the grounds of 
Charles F. Riordan, Glen IIill Farm, 
Sharon, Mass., August 12. While this 
organization is the oldest Ayrshire Club 
in New England, this outing outclassed in 
every way other previous occasions of its 
kind. The farm is located 16 miles from 
Boston ; it is in the hilly part of Sharon. 
The house, barn and silo were designed by 
Mr. Riordan, who built them with farm 
labor, with the exception of two car¬ 
penters, and yet all these buildings are of 
reinforced concrete. Address of welcome 
by the hast. Mr. Riordan. was full of wit 
and humor. Clambake and all fixings 
were served to 156 guests. Speakers in¬ 
cluded Lieutenant-Governor Channing II. 
Cox, Glen C. Levey. Dr. Crossman and 
•T. G. Watson of the National Association. 
The great attraction was the Ayrshire 
bull Lessnessock Grim’s Good Gift of 
Glen Hill. There is no question that this 
is the largest purebred Ayrshire bull in 
the world. A few months ago he weighed 
2.298 Lbs. at that time at least 300 lbs. 
additional would only put him in good 
condition. 
At the recent annual convention of the 
Society of American Florists and Orna¬ 
mental Horticulturists at Cleveland, Ohio. 
Thomas Roland, Nahant. Mass., was 
elected president, and Adolphus Glide. 
Washington. D. C., vice-president. The 
1921 convention will be held in Washing¬ 
ton. 
Forty reclamation projects, involving 
about 500 000 acres, are being planned in 
Alberta. Canada, and surveys are being 
conducted to determine costs and means 
of bringing water-covered areas into agri¬ 
culturally useful land. Among the lakes 
which it is proposed to drain are Sullivan 
Take, near Castor; Cygnet T^ake, near 
Rrd Deer; Low Take, near Wabamum: 
Chip Lake, near Entwbistle, and certain 
Coming Farmers’ Meetings 
Iloosac Valley Agricultural Fair, North 
Adams. Mass., September 3-6. 
Michigan State Fair, Detroit, Septem¬ 
ber 3-12. 
New York State Fair, Syracuse, Sep¬ 
tember 13-18. . 
Norfolk County Agricultural Fair, 
Norfolk County Agricultural . School. 
Walpole. Mass., September 15-16. 
Eastern States Exposition, Springfield. 
Mass.. September 19-25. 
Agricultural Society of Queen s-Nassa 11 
Counties, annual fair, Mineola, N. 1-. 
September 21-25. . . 
Sussex County Fair Association, an¬ 
nual fail - , Branchville, N. J., September 
21-24. 
Interstate Fair, Trenton, N. J., Sep¬ 
tember 27-October 1. , 
International Belgian Horse Show and 
Dairy Cattle Congress. Waterloo, Iowa, 
September 27-October 3. _. 
Vermont State Fair. White River 
Junction, September 28-October 1. 
National Swine Show and Exposition, 
Des Moines. Iowa, October 4-9. 
Annual fair, Danbury. Agricultural So¬ 
ciety, Danbury. Conn.. October 4-3. 
National Dairy Show, Chicago, Ill-. 
October 7-16. . , 
Farmers’ week, Morrisville Agricul¬ 
tural School, Morrisville, N. Y., October 
12-16. TT , 
New England Fruit Show, Hartford, 
Conn.. November 5-9. 
National Grange, Boston, Mass., No¬ 
vember 8-13. ^ T - , 
American Royal Live Stock Show, Kan 
sas City, Mo., November 13-20. 
International Live Stock Expositm . 
Chicago, Ill., November 27 -December 4. 
Dibbins was dining with some peopl 
who were proud of the recent elevation o 
a member of the family to the House 
Lords. “This.” said his hostess makes 
the second of my husband’s family m tn 
peerage. Have you any relation in J 1 ’ 0 
House of Lords?” “No!” said Dibbins. 
“but I’ve two maiden aunts in the King- 
TTnovoB —Tnrrtnto Hun. 
