Rensselaer Journal, Volume 10, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 January 1901 — Lesson in Economies. [ARTICLE]

Lesson in Economies.

The freight rates on iron and steel shipped from Pittsburg to New York have been reduced from 18 cents to 13 cents per hundred pounds. The rates to Chicago have been reduced from 18 to 15 cents. This ia no voluntary decrease on the part of the roads. It has been extorted from them by Mr. Carnegie, who threatened them with the loss of business. This is a threat to which, when railroads see it can be carried out, they will generally yield, no matter if they are more thoroughly combined than the Eastern roads are now. The Carnegie company intends to build extensive works at Conneaut, O. It owns the railroad over which it transports to Pittsburg from that point more than 4,000,000 tons of iron ore a year. At present the cars which carry that ore run back empty to Conneaut

When blast furnaces and a tube and pipe plant are erected there the cars will have return loads of coal, coke, and limestone. Nor is this the only advantage. A great part of the steel tubes made in the United States are exported. The Carnegie company, with a plant on Lake Erie, will not have to. pay railroad freight to get its products to European markets. It will be able to send them direct by water six months in the year. It will enjoy lower freight rates than the National Tube company,the great combine with which it intends to compete. The products of the Carnegie company made at its Confleaut plant can be shipped to Chicago by water as well as to Europe. It is altogether for the interest of the company, therefore, if freight rates out of Pittsburg are excessive, to manufacture all it can on Lake Erie and to add nothing to or to lessen its output at Pittsburg. The Irish episcopate has furnished of late a group of names that have made their mark in the literary world —Alexander, Graves, Trench. Archbishop Alexander has just produced a new volume of verse and now a near relation of the late Archbishop Trench of Dublin —Herbert Trench—is to publish, under the title of “Deirdre Wed,” a first volume of poems, which hare already become the subject of highly favorable report Senator Chandler was late In reaching the capitol the other day and was informed by a sarcastic newspaper man that an executive session had Just closed. “What was done in the secret Bession?” asked the senator. "I really would like to tell you,” was the reply, “but you senators are so leaky that I'm afraid to.”

Horticultural Obaarrmtlona, _ Something should be done by reputable nurserymen to prevent the sale of orchard trees not true to name. One man mentions, in an exchange, that he ordered a large number of winter varieties of apple trees, and among them only ten summer varieties. When the trees came Into bearing he found that he had 225 trees of summer varieties. This is very discouraging to the planter of orchards, and it re-acts on the nurseries. If the farmers were sure always of getting the trees they buy, they would plant far more extensively than they do at the present time. • • * A western fruit grower tells a new plan for stopping the formation of wood in the fall. He deals with prune trees principally. He says: “The scheme was to twist the limbs so as to break the wood and not crack the bark or break the limb off —so as to check Its growth and not let it bleed. This, Mr. Porter says, would permit the limbs to grow In thickness and not in length. This was done In August I note the effect and believe it would be beneficial for all trees that grow so tall and spindling to twist them back in season so as to permit the wood to mature and the body to grow before the winter sets in. This treatment is not expensive and the effect can be noticed by anyone trying it. Last season I tried It on a few trees and the effect was marvelous. I can now go and cut just below the twist and give the top a perfect bell shape, being careful to twist them properly." • • • The people that advocate the planting of apple trees along the roadside are very philanthropic—by proxy. They are willing that farmers and other men interested in the growing of fruit should purchase trees at their own expense and set them out to grow fruit for the public. But we know in what manner such philanthropy is'repaid. As soon as the trees get large enough to blossom the limbs are broken off by whoever comes along, for the sake of having the bloom-laden branches in the home for a few brief hours. What is left of the tree ultimately bears fruit that is picked before ripe by some man who is afraid if he leaves 4 some other man will get it. The public, in such cases, ruthlessly plunders and destroys. The man that has set out the trees can haraly be expected to go to the further expense of putting a guard over them. Moreover, fruit trees set by the wayside are, in this country, almost invariably sat in sod, and are uncared for in the respect of cultivation. The farmer cannot afford to spend precious time cultivating trees that are to bear fruit for others, nor can he afford to spread around them manure that he needs on his fields. Altogether the idea of setting out fruit trees by the roadside is not one that appeals to the men that understand all the circumstances of the situation.

Range Horses tn Wyoming. J. B. Sparks of Greenriver, Wyo., in discussing Wyoming range horses, is quoted as saying: “I cannot say how the supply is cast of Wyoming, but in that state as well as Utah, Oregon, Idaho and Washington I find fewer animals than last year. You see, when buyers come out to the ranges, as they are doing now, they clean out about everything in sight from the ranchman, make a contract for the whole business, colts, mares and stallions, with the result that some of the smaller owners haven’t got enough horses left to run an automobile; in other words, have sold everything. They ore generally stocking up again from the big ranches, hut nevertheless the drain is heavy, and I think is in excess of the breeding. The range gras r is not extra at present, but horses and sheep are both in good condition. In Idaho I think they have had more rain, and a better season, on the whole, for live stock than they have had for years.” Wild Hones of Nevada. About three years ago the legislature of Nevada passed a law legalizing the indiscriminate slaughtering of the wild horses on the ranges. It is estimated since the passage of that measure upwards of 6,000 horses have been destroyed as burdensome cumbers of the grazing districts. Now that the demand for range horses is in excess of the supply, the owners are bewailing the loss of a quarter of a million dollars, which at current prices the horses would have brought if rounded up. The range horse industry is doomed, and the unexpected demand comes as a salvage to the ranchmen so. the closing out of the residue of the herds.