Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 34, Number 13, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 October 1901 — Page 7

FARMERS CORNER

The Heaaian Fir. Every one who grows wheat understands pretty thoroughly the ravages of the hessian fly. The Illustration will give the reader some idea of this Insect land Its growth at various stages. The plant at the left Is an uninjured stalk, the one at the right shows a stalk infested with the hessian fly. It will be noticed that this stalk Is dwarfed, the leaves withered and the stems swollen near the ground. In the illustration A indicates the ieggs of the fly; B the larva much enlarged; C shows the pupa case; D the chrysalis; E the adult female, natural size; F the adult female much enlarged;

THE FLY AND ITS RAVAGES.

G the male much enlarged; H the pupa in position between the leaf-sheath and stalk, and I the parasite. After years of experimenting with different methods scientists agree that the only way of successfully fighting the hessian fly is to have the soil in which wheat is to be sown In the best possible condition, use varieties that are resistant and sow the seed as late as possible in the fall. The soil should be so well fed and so fertile that a strong healthy growth of (Wheat will be secured in the fall even though the seeding Is late. Dawson's Golden Chaff, Prosperity, Red Russian and White Chaff Mediterranean are among the best of the resistant varieties.—lndianapolis News. Fruit Growing and Poultry Raisins:. With a proper arrangement of buildings and yards, it is possible to make poultry raising and fruit growing combine profitable. If small fruits are grown extensively, it will be necessary, of course, to keep the poultry yards at pome distance from the fruit plantation, but where orchard fruits are growm, considerable saving can be affected by building at least a portion of the poultry yards in the orchards. It is not a good plan to build the houses In the orchards, but some portion of the ground devoted to runs should extend under the trees. This arrangement gives the fowis considerable shade, without any detriment to the orchard. jWhen poultry yards are arranged in this manner, especially if the orchard is young, the ground between the rows can be cultivated to advantage; in other words, it will not do to sacrifice the culture of the young orchard in any way to the poultry yard. One great advantage in combining fruit growing (with poultry raising is that most of the Important w r ork in the care of fowls is done at a time when there is the least work to do with the fruit. Cheap Corn Harvester, A simple device for harvesting corn is a sled mounted on wheels, the front edges of the wide platform being covered with irons sharpened at the edge. The stalks are cut with these sharp-

DEVICE FOR HARVESTING CORN.

-encd edges ns the horse walks between the rows, and the stalks as they fall are caught by men standing on the platform of the sled. At Intervals the tiorse Is stopped, the corn gathered and placed In the shock. This tool can be ■cheaply made at home. Points of a Dairy Cow. The following features should always t>e looked for in selecting an animal for jthe dairy: The skin should be thin and clastic to the touch, covered with fine 'hair. If the skin hangs tioght to the (body. It shows, ns a rule, poor quality In the animal, although it sometimes Indicates that the animal Is In poor condition physically. Standing directly back ■pt the cow, the lilnd legs should come to > the ground showing considerable space jbetween the hocks. The thighs of the dairy cows should be thin nud not fleshy. The back should be broad and level, with considerable depth of rib, a large body, which shows capacity for extensive feeding. The dairy cow |i Invariably longer In body than the beef type, has more space between the fibs, and greater space from hip to

rib. The neck is longer and thinnet and the head leaner. It has been considered that an animal showing a yellow skin, under its hair is Invariably a good dairy cow. This, however, is believed to be a mistake, for It has been repeatedly noticed that some animals having this characteristic are far from good dairy cows. It is also true that many large-bodied cows are selected mainly because of this characteristic, and turn out to be enormous feeders but poor milkers. Horae Raising Profitable. The advent of the automobile and similar contrivances seem to give farmers the impression that these mechanical things would largely take the place of horses, at leadt for driving purposes. During the Spanish-American war and in the present war between England and the Boers, vast numbers of horses and mules were taken out of the Ur ited States for use In the armies named, until to-day there is actually a dearth of work horses and mules. Everything points to the breeding of these animals being extremely profitable during the next ten years, at least. There is no question that there will be a heavy demand for American horses and mules In South Africa at the close of the war. Even at this time there is a decided shortage in horses in the English army operating in South Africa, and in sections of the West shippers of horses for war purposes are paying high prices for suitable animals. The Japanese government is also looking into the question of American horses, and there will be a large and steady demand from that country for the American product. The Japanese horse Is small, and not at all strong, ill-fitted to do work required of it as the Japanese advance in Western ideas of soil manipulation. With these two markets in view, those who arc familiar with horse and mule-breed-ing will find it profitable to go into the work again. Sunlight in Stables. A recent experiment demonstrated the value of sunlight in the stables, twenty-four healthy cows, known or believed to be free from tuberculosis, were divided, and one-half put in a dark stable, the others in a stable into which the sun shone freely. Then a number of tuberculosis cows were procured and kept at intervals first with one lot and then with the other, interchanging at stated periods. At the end of a year the twelve in the dark stable were tuberculous and only four in the other stable. Plenty of sunlight and pure air in the stables will do more alone to exterminate tuberculosis than all the tuberculin tests and consequent slaughter of suspected animals can do without these aids. A New Strawberry. A fine new strawberry is the Laxton. which was the center of a remarkable strawberry exhibition at the latest En-

glish Royal Horticultural Society meeting. It is described by American Gardening as “a darker, firmer and Improved Royal Sov- ’ ereigu," a famous English berry. Its raisers claim that it

LAXTON STRAWBERRY

is a “wonderful strawberry for earliness, size, firmness, quality, hardiness and vigor of plant combined.” Feeding: Bee*. It is generally admitted that the best time for feeding bees, when it is necessary to give them a full supply for winter, is before cold weather sets in. The hives should be carefully examined now-, and If there seems to be a scarcity of food, feeding should be begun at once. It is easy to make some sort of a vessel ready for feeding, but it will cost only a trifle to buy a feeder, which will be much better. The best winter food for bees is a sirup made by stirring granulated sugar in water, using equal parts of each and stirring until the sugar is dissolved. The feeder should be filled with this sirup and places in the hives at night, the idea being not to attract the bees from the fields during the day, as long as they are able to obtain honey therefrom. The feeders hold about a quart of the sirup, and in most cases this is all that will be needed, but by watching the combs one can readily see when more food should be furnished.

Form Note?. Don’t sow alfalfa on poor soil. Summer wood Is a good thing to be looking after In winter. In selecting strawberry plants get none that have borne fruit. Market when you can make a good profit, rather than hold for an uncertain rise. When picking and packing fruit for market Is done carelessly the results are rarely satisfactory. Cultivate often and never allow your groupd to produce weeds when it should produce another crop. Stalks break well In the winter time and they should be broken as soon as the stock Is through feeding off of them. Keep the farm well stocked. Buy plenty of calves, these grow into money quicker perhaps than any other live stock. Fix up your machinery. Very likely there Is some that needs a bolt hero and there. Faint will make all machinery last longer. A tin bucket is the lightest, handiest receptacle for cream. The old-fashioned cream Jar Is awkward to handle and so heavy to lift when full of cream. To Btart poultry raising on the farm requires little or no capital. Under any circumstances, with proper management, poultry can be made with little cost a valuable adjunct to the farm.

PRESIDENTS’ WIDOWS

QUARTETTE OF FORMER WHITE HOUSE MISTRESSES. Women Whim the Country Revere*, Not Only Because of Their Husbands’ Greatness, but for Their Own Noble Traits. • ~ In her widowhood the beloved wife of our last martyred President has the deep sympathy and compassion not only of the public generally, but in particular of three other ladies who have presided over the White House and who have since been bereft of the noble husbands on whom they leaned and to whom they were a source of joy and comfort. The eldest of these is Mrs. Ulysses 8. Grant. Julia Dent had married plain U. S. Grant Aug. 22, 1848, when he was in the regular army, stationed at Detroit. Later he went to Panama and the Pacific coast and, after leaving the army at 32, began a struggle for existence on a farm near St. Louis, with his wife and one son, now Gen. Frederick D. Grant. Mrs. Grant was by her husband’s side through all the hardships which followed. Few of the aristocracy of St. Louis in 1858 could have been made to believe that the Grant who hauled wood for them and the wife who waited for him at the farm would be on their way to the White House ten years later. It was in May, 1861, that Grant entered the service of the State of Illinois and began

WIDOWS OF AMERICAN PRESIDENTS.

MRS. ULYSSES 8. GRANT. MRS, JAMES A. GARFIELD.

that career which was to make him twice a President. Mrs. Grant was essentially an ornament to the White House, as distinguished in the social life of the capital as was her husband in national affairs. When his fatal illness came and the long struggle against encroaching disease those qualities which had at first endeared her to him became more and more nationally known, winning the unstinted admiration of the people. Mrs. Grant still lives, happy in the life of her children and grandchildren. Mrs. Rutherford B. Hayes, as the successor of Mrs. Grant in the White House, came into social life of the capital when much bitterness prevailed. Dempcratic authorities and Democratic wives believed that Tilden had been sleeted, and that President Hayes was an usurper. Mrs. Hayes was a woman Df tact, slow to give provocation and most anxious with her husband to allay the bad feelings aroused during the election. She succeeded in doing this long before her husband’s term ended. Dne„pf the strongest steps taken by her after her arrival in Washington was a itand against the use of liquor at PresiJential functions. Like Mrs. Grant, ihe survived her husband and is still living at Fremont, Ohio. Mrs. James A. Garfield is also living, [n wealth, In retirement and in the enloyment of her beautiful home at Mentor, the widow of the President who fell a victim to misguided political strife probably now thinks of the days, a score of years ago, when millions watched with her in spirit at her husband’s bedside and wept with her at his grave. The nation never knew Lucretla Garfield as it knew the wives of other Presidents. She never cared tor society and as mistress of the White House, during the brief period of her husband’s occupancy of the executive chair, she was little seen. She was in ill health much of the time. Mrs. Garfield’s maiden name was Lucretla Rudolph, and she was the pupil of her husband at Hiram College long before he married her. They began their home life under modest circumstances and accumulated little during the President’s lifetime. Ills estate, at death, amounted to His life Insurance was SOO,OOO. Could he return now and see the wealth and luxury of his family he would, Indeed, be amazed. His widow to-day is worth a million. When he died, Congress voted her his salary for a full year, In addition to an annual pension of $5,000. A fund was raised by the public amounting to $363,000. Cyrus W. Field Invested this for Mrs. Garfield and It has nearly trebled now. In addition to her vast wealth, she has what is Infinitely more precious—the memory of the repeated expressions of her husband, during his

long lllnesn, in which he spoke of hei love for and devotion to him. Of whpt Mis. McKinley has borne it Is not necessary to speak. The nation has observed the close union between husband and wife and it has touched the people’s hearts. Mrs. Benjamin Harrison cannot be properly called the widow of a President. It was not, however, until after he had left the Presidential chair that she was married to him; so that she does not occupy a place In the same category with Mrs. McKinley, Mrs. Garfield, Mrs. Hayes and Mrs. Grant The country remembers her as the widow of an ex-President.

Turned the Tables.

A little cotton-tail rabbit turned the tables on a party of 'hunters recently in a rather tragic manner. The Sunny South tells the story of how the hunted creature became the successful hunter. Louis Fries, a boy of fifteen, with hla father, Peter Fries, and Chris Blech, went out for a little sport They had walked a mile or two into the woods when a rabbit was started. The dog kept between them and the rabbit till the rabbit’s burrow was reached. The boy reached the burrow first He laid his gun, which was cocked, upon the ground, and securing a long pole, began punching Into the hole where the rabbit had disappeared. The rabbit, finding this procedure disagreeable, leaped from the hole so suddenly as to startle the boy and confuse the dog. At the first bound the rabbit’s foot struck the trigger of the gun. The force of the blow w r as sufficient to discharge

MBS. RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. MRS. WILLIAM M’KINLEY.

the gun, and the load of shot entered young Fries’ left thigh. The range was short, and the shot went into the boy In a bunch, making a wound that required an improvised tourniquet to prevent death from hemorrhage.

Conservative and Progressive.

A Mexican paper says that some of the old conservative business houses of the city of Montezumas cling te eighteenth century ways as persistently as do a few such establishments In London. Several of them are still using tallow dips. A bookkeeper, we are told, may be seem making his entries in a great ledger by the light of a single candle, and the wealthy proprietor may be found bending over his big mahogany desk flanked by two tall and stately candelabra. While Mexico holds on to the good old times and ways, farther north we do not know how to move fast enough, and the invention of yesterday must stand aside for the improvements of to-day. In California fruit-growers are no long*, er content to let nature take her own way, and freeze up their crops when she has a mind so to do. They now prevent damage by frost by forcing hot water through a number of furrows among their groves. The air is heated by the rising of the water vapor, and thus the temperature cannot cool to the degree of frost. Every country has its own methods.

He Knew of the Ailment.

The bachelor who spends his Sundays in visiting his friends In the country proverbially has a "blue Monday” on his return. Sometimes his depressed mental state Is brought still lower by disagreeable neighbors on the homeward trip. One downcast traveler In the double seat of a railway car lately was greatly annoyed by his sentmate, a man whose flesh seemed to overflow, and who smothered the bachelor every time he turned a leaf of his newspaper. A peaceable person, and one rarely moved an anger, the bachelor found himself on this occasion so Irritable that he could not keep out of trouble; so, fully expecting that a fight Would follow, and rather hoping that it might, he leaned over and fetched the large man a fierce dig In the ribs with hid elbow. But only disappointment followed, for his neighbor turned and laughed in his face, and said, with misplaced sympathy: “Aha! Moudny morning grouch, I see. Had It myself, lots of times!"—New York Evening Post. Lots of men seem to think that there Is a patent on honest labor aud they don’t want to risk being Infringers. A girl’s Idea of a flatterer is a ruaq who Is always saying nlcs things t« other girls.

ANARCHY'S KEYSTONE

IT IS ATHEISM, DECLARES SENATOR DOLLIVER. In an Eloquent Address the Fallacy and Viclonsness of this Unrighteous Institution Are Tolnted out by the Brilliant lowan. The eloquence of Senator Jonathan P. Dolliver of lowa was employed at the Chicago Auditorium in eulogy of President McKinley and denunciation of anarchy. The latter portion of his address, spoken at the Chicago memorial exercises, Is particularly worth reading and pondering over, and a liberal extract follows: There will be opportunity enough to make inquiry Jtfto the causes of the enormous offense against mankind in which the President of the United States was the victim. But it cannot be out of the way, even at such a time as this, to recognize that in the midst of modern society there are a thousand forces manifestly tending toward thk moral degradation out of which this wicked hand was raised to kill the chief magistrate of the American people. The government of the United States has given no attention, and the government of the several States but little, to the activity in many of our cities of organizations, inconsiderable in numbers, which boldly profess to seek the destruction of ail government and all law. * Their creed is openly written in many languages, Including our own, and its devotees the world over do not try to conceal the satisfaction which they take in these deeds of darkness. The crime of the 6th of September, though evidently committed under the influence if not the direction of others, easily baffles the courts, because, being without the common motives of murder, it leaves no tracks distinct enough to be followed, and for that reason escapes through the very tenderness of our system of jurisprudence toward persons accused on suspicious, however grave. McKinley’s Spotless Life. Whether the secret of this ghastly atrocity rests in the keeping of one man or many, we may never know, but if

SENATOR J. P. DOLLIVER.

the President was picked out by hidden councils for the fate which overtook him, there is a mournful satisfaction in the fact that in his life, as well as in his death, he represented American manhood at its best. I have studied with some degree of care such literature as the working creed of anarchy has given to the modern world, and in all the high places of the earth it could not have chosen a victim whose life among men made a more -complete answer to its incoherent program of envy and hatred and idleness and crime. Without intending to do so, it has strengthened the whole framework of the social system, not only by showing Its own face, but by lifting up before the eyes of all generations this choice and master spirit of our times, simple and beautiful in his life, lofty and serene in death. The creed of anarchy, in common with all kindred schools of morbid social science, teaches that only the children of the rich find their lives worth living under our institutions, and therefore, in order to emancipate the poor, these institutions must be overthrown The biography of William McKinley records the successful battle of at least one young man in the open arena of the world, and tells the story of his rise from the little school house, where be earned the money to complete his own education, to the 'highest civic distinction known among men. One life like that put into the light of day, where the young men of America can see it, will do more for the welfare of society than all the processions that »ver marched behind beer wagons through the streets of Chicago, carrying red flags, can ever do it harm. The creed of anarchy knows no country, feels in its withered heart no pulse of patriotism, sees under no skies the beauty of any flag—not even ours, that blessed symbol now draped in mourning which lights up this time of national affliction with the splendor of the great republic. The Creed of Rebellion. The creed of anarchy rebels against the state, and with infinite folly proposes that every man should be a law unto himself. It is more mischievous because more pretentious than the common levels as crime, for without disdaining the weapons of the ruffian it does not hesitate to seek shelter under the respectability that belongs to the student and the reformer. It ought not to be forgotten that these conspirators, working out their nefarious plans in secret, in the dens and caves of the earth, enjoy an unconscious co-opera-tion and side-partnership with every lawless influence which is abroad in the world. Legislators who betray the commonwealth, judges who poison the fountains of justice, municipal authorities which come to terms with crime—all these are regular contributors to the campaign fund of anarchy. That howling mass, whether in Kansas »r Alabama, that assembly of wild beasts, dancing in drunken carousal about the .ashes of some negro malefactor, is not contributing to the security of society; it la taking away from society the only security it has. It belongs to the unenrolled reserve corps of anarchy in the United States. Neither individuals nor corporations nor mobs can take the law Into their own hands without Identifying themselves with this more open but hard-

ly less odious attack upon the fortress o# thejocial order. The creed of anarchy teaches that popular government is a fraud and that en 4 actments made by the people for themselves are no more sacred than arbitrary decrees promulgated by tyrants andl enforced by bayonets. Anarchy says; “Vote no more.” The example of William McKinley, who in a public service of more than a quarter of a century, half of it in the field of controversial politics, never once disparaged the motives of those who did not agree with him, nor spoke an unkind word of an opponent, who allowed neither the cares of business nor the fatigue of travel to nullify his influence as a citizen, and never failed at any election to stand uncovered before the ballot box in the precinct where he had the right to vote, already has familiarized his countrymen with the higher ideals of civic duty which dedicate the heart and brain and conscience of America to an intelligent interest in public affairs. The creed of anarchy despises the obligations of the marriage contract, impeaches the integrity of domestic life, enters into the homes of the people to pull down their altars and subject the family relation, which is the chief bond of society, to the caprices of the loafer and the libertine. In all these things it has an alliance, implied if not expressed, with every variation of that rotten publia opinion which in many American State* has turned the court of equity into a doily scene of perjury and treason against the hearthstones of the community, a treason so flagrant that a year ago, for the accommodation of a single man, the Legislature of Florida was induced to descend below the level of all paganisms and all barbarisms by so amebding the laws of divorce as to permit a winter resident to legally desert the wife of his youth, not on account-of any fault of hers, but because of the pathetic burdens Avhich she bore. I count it of infinite value to every decent form of civilization that against this background of unworthy living, from the front porch of a little cottage covered with vines, yonder at Canton, the outline sketch of two lives has been thrown, so beautiful in their loyalty to one another that good men everywhere stand in silence before it, while the womanhood of the world, seeing the knightliness of love which alters not, draw near, from stations high and low, to salute the picture with the benediction of their tears.

Atheism Its Keystone. The fatal word in the creed of anarchy is “atheism.” Until that word is spoken, until all sense of the moral government of the universe and the spiritual significance of human life is lost, it is impossible to conceive, much less to execute, ths malignant propaganda against the rights of mankind. It is not necessary to think or speak unkindly of the noted men, many of them living a life of scholarly seclusion, remote from the practical, everyday problems which confront the police of all countries, who in the last generation have made the most influential contributions to the speculative literature of atheism. I doubt whether their influence will be permanent, either for good or evil. No man who brings nothing with him except a blind faith in natural laws, which nobody made and nobody administers, will ever find a permanent discipleship in a world like this. It is their misfortune that their works have had the most influence among those who have been least able to understand them. I look upon it at least as a passing misfortune for us that they have been translated into the language of common life by a famous American, now dead and gone, who in the days of his strength was the most captivating popular orator who ever spoke our tongue. On taking the chair as president of the American Secular Union he uttered these words: “Away with the old nonsense about free moral agency; a man is no more responsible for his character than for his height; for his conduct than for his dreams.” It requires no very deep investigation to find in such a sentiment the seed of all anarchies, beginning' with the bombshells in the streets of Chicago and ending with chaos come again. Goine to a Better Country.

In order to get the benefit of thegreatest of all markets. British manufacturers are establishing plants in the United States. Roosevelt on Protection. Here again we have got to remember that our first duty is to our own people; and yet that we can best get Justice by doing justice. We must continue the policy that has been so brilliantly successful in the past, and so shape our economic system as to give every advantage to the sjdll, energy hnd intelligence of our farmers, merchants, manufacturers and wage-work-ers; and yet we must also remember, In dealing with other nations, that benefits must be given when benefits are sought. It Is not possible to dogmatize as to the exact way of attaining this end, for the exact conditions cannot be foretold. In the long run, one of our prime needs is stability and continuity of economic policy; and yet, through treaty or by direct legislation. It may at least In certain cases become advantageous to supplement our present policy by a system of reciprocal benefit and obligation.—Vice President Roosevelt, In Minneapolis speech. An office seeker’s life Is checkered with appointments and disappointments.