Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 34, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 January 1902 — Page 3

FARM AND GARDEN

Inexpensive Fodder Rack. A correspondent of the American Agriculturist describes a very cheap and entirely satisfactory fodder rack. The basis for this rack is two 2xß inch boards, each ten feet long. These are rounded at the ends like sled runners. Five 2x4 inch boards, each 5 feet 4 inches long, are bolted to these boards, as shown in the illustration, every four feet. There are several 2x4 Inch boards, each four or five feet long, spiked to the bridge boards in an upright position. complete the frame. A tight floor is placed on the crosspiece, and boards are nailed to the sides and ends up to a height of eighteen inches. A space of sixteen Inches is then left without covering. The sides and ends can be boarded up the rejuainder of the distance. These upper boards can be placed together or space can be left between them as seems best. Hay, straw or fodder thrown into this rack cannot be trampled and lost because of the tight bottom and sides up to 4 height of eighteen inches. There is no loss of food. Grain feed can be put Jnto this

CHEAP FODDER RACK.

rixik if desirable. The rack can be transferred from one part of the field to the other simply by hitching a team of horses to it Feeding Sheep Profitably. After several years of experience in the use of corn fodder for sheep it has bee-1 found profitable when made a small part of the ration and fed after shredding. Fed without cutting or shredding it is simply wasted. In some sections sheep men have used shredded corn stover entirely as roughage, but this plan has not always worked well. By using good hay, clover or timothy, every alternate day, with the shredded corn stover the results have been satisfactory,, especially when the sheep had roots once a day and were on a varied ration of grain, oats, bran and cornmeal. It is not intended that the corn stover, even if shredded, shall supply more than the roughage, for the grain and root feed must be liberal to carry the sheep through the winter in good shape. The cost in money or labor in shredding the corn stover for any stock is considered offset by the added value in manure. Housing Farm Implements. The good farmer is supposed *to clean and house all farm implements as soon as he has finished using them each day, but many do not do this. They should devote at least one day to the work of collecting them, rubbing the rust off, oiling the iron work, and putting in good order for another year’s work. When well housed ft will pay to go over the wood work with a coat of paint. When the tools are wanted for use again and they are found all ready and in good condition, this will prove one of the best day’s work done this year, as it will save several days’ time and bother with them in the busy season, save strength of men and teams, and prevent many of the accidents that unlucky men are so apt to have, in breaking down just when most in a hurry. Protect the Young Orchard. It will pay to do some work to protect the young orchard from the attacks of rabbits and field mice. Take a supply of long, coarse straw, or better, burlap, to the orchard and place a bandage around the tree, reaching up from the earth for a foot or more. Before doing this, rake off all the leaves or other trash around the tree for a distance of two ot three feet from it. If the ground is covered with snow It will pay to go through the orchard and trump the snow down firmly about the base of each tree. Mice work under the snow when it is soft, but will not burrow through hard, packed snow. If nny of the trees have been gnawed by rabbits or mice, they should be bandaged with thin cloth, over which is tied another bandage of the burlap. Basiness Not Overdone. The poultry business is not overdone. It Is like any other business In that it must be properly conducted. There la always a ready market for poultry and eggs every day In the year, and there Is a demand above the market prices for high grade stock and eggs. We are speaking now from the standpoint of the market poultryman. Conditions nre the same, however, with- the fancier. If you will show us a poultryman who is unable to dispose of his stock at profitable prices, we will show you one who does not take advantage of bls .>Pl>ortunlties and conduct his business upon a business basis.—Reliable try Journal. A Wrinkle in Apple Packirfg. “There is a knack in doing everything” is an old saying, and the truthfulness of it was brought to mind yesterday, saya the Oregonian, by a gang of men engaged in wrapping and packing apples. Each man had a full box of apples, a pile Of thin paper cut into

wrappers, and an empty box. Xn apple w|s taken from the full box, a wrapper put around it. aud it was put in the other box. It Ist not an easy thing to pick up a wrapper of thin paper from a pile without missing one occasionally, and in doing this the men adopted different schemes. -A new hand wet his thumb on his tongue for every wrapper. One who bad been longer in the business and found that it was unwholesome to be wetting his thumb on his tongue, had a slice of lemon beside his pile of wrappers and moistened his thumb in the lemon before picking up a wrapper. The scheme worked well, but he did not know whether the acid of the lemon would make his thumb sore or not A third man had a thin rubber thump stall on his thumb and could pick up wrappers all day long and never make a miss. He was an old hand at the business.— New England Farmer.

Eggs by the Pound. There has been much talk about selling eggs by the pound. In and around some of our larger cities there are many sohj In that way, but they are pot sold In the shell, .Cracked eggs and the larger ones among the dirty eggs, if fresh, are broken out, and the white and yolk well beaten together. Some packers use a churn to thoroughly mix them, which is Important, as if they are put up just as they come from the shell the yolk becomes dry and mfialy. They are then frozen solid and kept tn cold storage until wanted. They are packed in tins of from ten to forty pounds each, and of course the demand for them comes principally from the bakers, for cakes and similar uses. It is said that a pound of the frozen egg is equal to ten eggs of the average size. They will not keep sweet long after they are thawed out, so that it is Important that the user knows how many pounds he needs at one time, and opens no more than that Packers who are careful to avoid putting in any tainted or spotted eggs get about 12 to 13 cents a pound. While other grades not as carefully selected have to be sold at 10 cents. We are wondering whether this plan could be used successfully in putting up smaller cans for family use. If it can we expect some one will try It.—Massachusetts Ploughman.

Using Mineral Fertilizers. When liberal applications of potash and phosphoric acid are to be used, it is better to put them on as early in the spring as possible, and work it well into the soil, even two or three weeks before the seed is put in. Upon a heavy clay soil it would probably be even better to put it on in the fall. By the early application it becomes partially dissolved in the soil and better distributed through it, and there is no danger of its injuring the germination of the seed as it might do if it was put on when the seed was put in, and they came in contact. When tankage is used for nitrogen this may be put on at the same time as the other fertilizers, as in the cold ground it will take some time for it to decay enough to make its nitrogen available. There would be very little if any loss of nitrogen. But in using nitrate of soda wait until the seed is put in, or even until the plants are up, and then scatter it around them, not getting it on them when they are wet lest it should burn. For a crop that needs the whole season to grow it is often better to make two light applications of nitrate of soda, the last when the plans are about half grown, than one heavy one. —American Cultivator. Value of Corn Stalks. The corn shredder is learning the farmers to save all the corn fodder they have. One farmer refused to buy a corn reaper because it did not cut close enough to the ground. The Maine Farmer says that in well-grown corn the lower six Inches of the stalk represents a ton of fodder to the acre, Which may be one-tenth of the crop. Chemists have told us that the stalk below the ear is much more valuable in food elements per ton than that above the ear, and when reduced by shredding it will be all eaten. .. . _ Fattening Cattle. Fattening stock may be fed quite often, but should at no time be fed more than they will eat up clean. ’ln nearly all cases the more rapidly animals are finished and fattened the greater the profit. Better results will be secured if all the young stock are fed separate from the old animals. The Rheep-Raiaing Industry. New Mexico is a great sheep country. There is but one other State or Territory which excels it in sheep raising l . That is Utah, where there are 8,000,600 or 9,000,000 sheep. New Mexico lias about 6,000,000. The Industry was nev* er so prosperous as at present.

Flavor of Mutton. The peculiar flavor of mutton is due largely to the food of sheep, the locality in which It has been raised, its treatment and the manner the carcass has been dressed. Farm Notes. Do not allow tile milk to freeze. Never mix fresh milk with that which has been cooled. Peas make one of the very beet feeds for sheep in the winter. The broom corn crop Is estimated at 4,500 tons less than last year. Keep the lambs growing. They will never recover from a setback. Ono breed of fowls well kc]>t Is more satisfactory than several that are poorly housed and fed. Poultry houses and yard should always be situated omhlgb, dry land; a sandy hillside is the best of all. It la reported that there has been an increase in the output of canned corn in Maine of 20 per cent over -that of last year.

STRANGE SERPENT SLAIN IN EVERGLADES.

“DRAGON OF THE EVERGLADES," FROM A SKETCH BY AN INDIAN.

CT? N enormous neptile, more like the mythical dragon than a land serpent, has been killed by a hunter in the lower Everglades. For 100 years it <■*?> has not only been a tradition among the Seminole Indians, who live in the Florida everglades, that an immense serpent made its home in that region, and they affirm that two Indians had been carried off by the monster. Recently Buster Ferrel, one of the boldest and most noted hunters at Okochobee, who for twenty years has made the .border of the lake and the everglades his home, on one of his periodical expeditions Into one of these lonesome wilds noted what he supposed to be the pathway of an immense alligator. For several days he visited the locality for the purpose of killing the saurian, but was unsuccessful in finding him. Finally he decided to take a stand in a large cypress tree and await ths coming of the alligator, taki«|g provisions to last him several days. For two days he stood on watch, with his rifle ready, but without the desired success. He was becoming discouraged, but determined to give one more day to the effort. On the third day, before he had been on his perch an hour, he was almost paralyzed by what looked to him like an immense serpent gliding along the supposed alligator track. He estimated it to be anywhere from twenty to thirty feet long and fully ten to twelve inches in diameter where the head joined thg body and as large around as a barrel ten feet farther hack. The snrke stopped within easy reach of his gun and raised its head to take a precautionary view of its surroundings. As it did Ferrel opened fire on it, shooting at its head. Taken by surprise, the serpent dashed into the marsh at railroad speed, while Ferrel kept up fire on it until ha had emptied the magazine of his rifle, but failed to stop it. i About four days afterward he ventured back into the neighborhood to see how things were, and about a mile from where he first saw the snake he saw a large flock of buzzards and went to see what they were after, and there he found the creature dead and its body so badly torn by the buzzards that it was impossible to save the skin. He however, secured its head and has it now in his home on the Kissimmee river. It is truly a frightful looking object, fully ten inches from jaw to jay, with ugly, razorlike teeth.

AMERICAN SCHOOLS EXCEL.

Chicago Professor Gives Particulars o ■ Deficiency in European Schools. The American schoolboy Is two Inchet taller than the average European schoolboy of a like age, writes Prof. Watt,-of Chicago. lam positive of this declaration after a tour of Inspection of the various schools of Europe, and I place the usefulness of the Instruction dnaparted, fronf ahTeducatlonal and a hygienic point of view, as follows: First, the JJnlted States; second, England; third, Germany, closely followed by France and Russia. There Is a great difference In the school systems, but in two ways is this more noticeable, viz., Inspection of school work and its results. The system of Inspection abroad has been developed to such an extent that it is more of a science than an ordinary routine, as in this country. The Inspector spends at least a day a month in each room, making copious notes of ifcth teachers* and pupils’ work, criticising In open class the deficient studies and commendingdhose that are satisfactory. I am willing to concede that It Is possible to be more definite abroad than at home, owing to more specific aims in

the minds of both the educators and text-book writers. Text-books are rarely changed abroad, and a student is taught rather to grasp and retain detailed information than look for it In himself. Blinders, as it were, are placed on his eyes, so that he is unable to look sidewise. Certainly these schools are more advanced in theory than ours, bue we surely excel them from a practical side. We aim td impart a theoretical and practical education combined, and more nearly to procure the acme of usefulness in after years. Then, too, the natural tendency of the American youth to apply knowledge as soon as acquired is a superiority that greatly aids the teacher to attain results. Probably, and most likely, the lack of the foreign student of this essential is off account of the system of supervision and restriction that obtain abroad. It is almost a crime for a junior clerk to suggest an improvement to the manager of a corporation and likewise it is considered very bad for a student to advance any ideas in class. Any one of the foreign schools Is better equipped, more expensive to maintain and better fitted to exert an influence in the student body than ours, but the medieval practice of restrictions places them beyond the pale of our work. Omitting the English schools, any one of the others has a distinct advantage over our schools from the fact that reading and spelling are mastered In three years, because words are spelled as spoken. Many of our pupils are unable to read English after ten years’ steady application. Arithmetic is much easier abroad, because the tables nre founded on the decimal system, like our money, and require very little memorizing. It |s conceded that a boy coming out of the preparatory school en the continent is about two years ahead of our boy of the same age who Is graduating from our high school. While this is true, our boy hns done at least three years more work in mastering the reading, spelling and grammar of our difficult language with Its barbarous spelling and numerous irregularities of grammar. Then, too, our high schools take In nil tlasess of boys who can afford to re-

main in school, because we are an educated people, while in Europe no common boys attend the secondary schools. Only those yvho are in training for professional careers and who are supposed to be specially well endowed mentally enter those schools at all. Again, the matter of fitting a ptipil so that he is able to step Into an office as soon as he is out of the high school is not considered abroad as it is here. Little or no attention is devoted to what we call commercial training, such as shorthand, typewriting and commercial law. This instruction is 6nly obtained by a European student in a college course. The same openness of mind so noticeable in the American youth is totally lacking in the foreign student, and he is held to the facts in his books until he has no breadth of range. He spends much less time In the open air and takes less exhilarating exercise than our boys. Add to this the scientific ventilation of our classrooms, .the dash of our methods, shorter hours of instruction, more cheerful methods, periods of relaxation more frequent, and it is no -wonder our boys grow two inches taller than the foreign boys when taken age for age.

The American does not work a colt before he has grown, and it is on this idea that our educators refrain from putting our students to the severest mental test. We do not ask how much can possibly be accomplished by a child, but how much is best for him. The fullest answer to the whole question is to compare the ages of the average college graduate. In this country it averages about 22 years, while abroad it is about 28 yeqrs, and from that we see that our pupils progress slowly in an educational line at first, but after the faculties are thoroughly developed a very rapid advance is made, and we alm as nearly as possible to devolep the mental and physical natures of the student at the same time. The success of this plan, I think, is evident from the number of young men at the head of the many large industrial establishments successfully competing with the product of the world in every line.

A Question of Need.

“What have you done with all the money I gave you for campaign purposes?” asked Senator Sorghum. “I have put It where it was needed,” answered the agent. ’That’s what 1 thought," was the disconsolate answer. “Before I can rely on getting it all placed 1 suppose I've got to wait until you get more than you need.”—Washington Star.

She Wouldn’t.

"Be mine!’" be cried. But she wouldn’t, for she was an heiress and knew that he looked upon her as a gold “mine.” —Philadelphia Bulletin. Every time a girl falls to get a letter from her steady she looks upon the mall carrier with suspicion, and, rather than think the steady has grown cold, she concludes the mall carrier has stolen the letter. If you do not receive a bottle of elderberry wine occasionally as a present, you have no friends who are really oldfashioned. Too many people de what they should do and then expect credit for it

BIG NAVAL BATTLE.

TERRIBLE RESULTS OF FIGHT IN PANAMA HARBOR. * ;»■■■■>>• ■ 7 ■*' .. Five Vessels Reported Sunk—Three Rebel Boat*'Lost—Two Government Ships Also Go to the Bottom—Governor of Panama Killed. " ' - Advices were received in New York Monday from Col. J. R. Shaler, general superintendent at Colon for the Panama. Railway Company, saying that three insurgent and two government vessels.had been sunk in the naval engagement in Panama harbor. The naval battle began at. 6 o'clock in the morning in the harbor of Panama. The revolutionary fleet consisted of the steamers Padilla, Darien anil Gaitan. They attempted to farce a landing off Saoana. The Government ships were the Chilean Line steamer Lautaro, the I’jieific Steam Navigation Company’s steamer Chicuito and the Panama Canal Company’s steamer Boyaca. The first named was seized by Gen. Alban and the other two had been chartered by the Columbinn Governments States _ cruiser Philadelphia is dose to the scene of the fighting. The State Department “received the following cablegram from Consul Gudger, dated Panama: “Fighting in bay. Governor killed. Excitement great.’’ Panama is the capital of the £tate of Panama, and one of the finest seacoast cities in the United States of Colombia. It is on the Gulf of Panama and south of the Isthmus of Panama. It is the starting point of the Panama canal and is a favorite name in that locality. Thu city contains a population of 40,000, and its more important part stands on a peninsular tongue of land, across which its streets extend from sea to sea. It is a bishop’s see, and has a handsome cathedral and five other Catholic churches. It has a normal and several primary schools, all sustained by the government. Various convents which formerly existed have been disposed of for secular uses. Panama supports a daily newspaper that is published part in EnglisJh anti part in Spanish. The rise and fall of the tide at Panama is from sixteen to twenty-one feet, owing to which ships lie at anchor at some distance from the shore. The harbor is protected by numerous* islets and affords secure anchorage. X The city has but little trade, although the country round about is fertile. It is a station for the malts between countries of the Atlantic and those on the South and Central American coast on the Pacific, and is the Pacific terminus of the Panama Railroad, which connects this place with Aspinwall on the Atlantic side of the isthmus.

TOWNE ENTERS WALL STREET.

Ex-Senator Heads a New York Banking and Stock Exchange Company. In spite of his denunciation of tie “money power” and his invective against Wall street, ex-Senator Charles A. Towne is to enter that thoroughfare. The firm of C. A. Towne & Cd., bankers and brokers, will occupy handsome offices at Nos. 63 and 65 Wall street, and it is said negotiations have been completed for the new concern to acquire a seat in the New York Stock Exchange. In May, 1901, in answer to a telegram from a friend in the Beaumont oil field in Texas, Towne answered from Duluth: “What’s the use? I haven’t any money.’’ —HJa.Xriond urged that a good name was better than money, and the exSenator, who had retired to practice law, went to make a fortune. He successfully floated two large companies and six months ago was rated a millionaire.

MINERS IN CONVENTION,

Nearly 1,000 Delegates in Attendance [at Indianapolis, Ind. Nearly 1,000 members of the United Mine Workers of America were present at the thirteenth annual convention whim it opened in Tomlin.-on Hall, Indianapolis. Delegates were present from twen-ty-four States, representing every bituminous and anthracite coal field in the United States. Ben Tillett, the fampus British labor leader, who is m fins country studying labor conditions, was the guest of President Mitchell and the miners. His address was one of the features of the convention. The convention was to continue until the joint conference with the operators Of Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois and Indiana should begin. This last conference will probably last for ten days.

DIG PATH TO LIBERTY.

Desperate Criminals Escape from Prison on McNeil’s Island. Eleven of the most desperate prisoners in the United States i>enitentiary on McNeil’s Island, Wash., escaped Bunday afternoon. It' was the most daring and successful jail breaking ever, attempted in the State. A hole in the brick wall of cell No. 10, which was occupied by Convicts Snyder and Davis, revealed the means of escape. The wall is about a foot thick, and the floor of the cell is of the same thickness, and is covered with concrete. A tqunel was dug at the junction of the. wall and the floor, sloping outwardly, until it formed a connection with the air chamber about two feet below and a foot from the corridor wall of the cel). ' - Through this air chamber the prisoners crawled forty feet to where it opened into the boiler room, the opening being covered by an iron grating. This obstacle was overcome by the use of saws, and the prisoners bad then only to walk out of the back door of the boiler room and across the yard ami scale the board fence. A few yards from the prison grounds the dense growth of timber afforded them a safe retreat temporarily. Warden Palmer believes the prisoners used a spoon and wooden wedges to burrow through the brick.

Gain in Postal Receipts.

A general increase of 14.5 per cent is indicated by a statement of the postal receipts nJ the fifty principal postofflees for the month of December, 1901, compared to the currt'S]M>ndlng pertod for IDOO.*" Th* aggregate Is $5,137,310.' Chicago reports the-greatest' proportionate advance. 22.8 per cent, the total at that office being $783,994. New York advanced 1(1.7 per cent and Philadelphia has an advance of 14.9 per cent.

RECORD OF THE WEEK

INDIANA INCIDENTS TERSELY ’ TOLD. A Engineer’s Nerve Prolongs Two Live* —Mnncie Women Burn to Death—A Young Woman Found Dying—Fir* Loss at Shelbyville—Fatal QuarreL Mrs. Joseph Bagunir and her 6-year-old child were fatally injured while driv-. ing aerdss the Monon Railroad track five miles west of Flora, by beinft struck by a fast train. The horse jvas killed outright and the buggy was wrecked. When the engine struck the vehicle the occupants in somO inexplicable way were thrown upon the pilot, and with the assistance of the engineer, who walked out on the running board and climbed down to the pilot, the mother and child held on until the train reached Delphi, a distance of about a mile. But for the coolness of the engineer they would have fallen off and been ground to pieces. When removed from the engine they were unconscious. Aged Woman Burned to Death. Mrs. Nancy Taylor, aged oG. was bnrajed to death in Muncie while a girl and two women were attempting to respond to her screams, heard in the other half of the house. Mrs. William Warfel. her daughter Eflic, aged 13, and Mrs. C. A. Harter, went to the rescue, but found the door bolted. They could see the woman enveloped in flames through the window. While the two women were looking for an ax, with which Mrs. Harter burst open the door, Effie Warfel forced open a front door and ran to the woman* and was wrapping her blazing form in bed quilts wheu the women got in. A moment later Mrs. Taylor toppled over on the floor with her entire body charred, and died soon afterward. It is thought to be a case of suicide. Juror Held for a Robbery. I. G. Sheperd was arrested on the steps of the court house at Evansville, where he had just been dismissed as a juror in a case against the city. He confessed to "breaking into a grocery store and robbing it of S2O. Sheperd for a number of years has been prominent in politics and two years ago was applicant for the office of revenue collector. It is believed he is of unsound mind. Sheperd is 52 years old and has a large family. Found Unconscious and Dying. Lying unconscious in a pool of blood, which had come from an ugly hole in her forehead, and with a 32-caliber revolver on the floor by her side, Miss Lorette Devore of Peru was found by her father, Henry Devore, who stumbled over her prostrate form as he entered his home. It is presumed that the woman, who is 28 years of age, attempted suicide, but no reason is assigned for the aeL

Fire in Shelbyville. Fire in the Exchange block at Shelbyville damaged Dunn & Sayler, book dealers, about $6,500, and Miss Sadis Rhoades, photographer, $1,200. J. H. Aker’s dry goods stock was damaged SB,000 or SIO,OOO by water and smoke. The total loss is practically covered with insurance. Quarrel Ends in Murder. Frank M. Tilley shot and mortally wounded Mack Clark at Ashboro. Clark leased some land from Tilley on which he sunk a coal shaft. Trouble arose over the lease a few days ago and it is claimed that Clark drew a revolver on Tilley and the latter resented. Tilley is a prominent ritw-en nf AshboroState News In Brief. A runaway horse ran into Earl Bray, 7, at Washington, and crushed his skuiT. The Crawfordsville wire and nail mill, recently destroyed by fire, will be rebuilt. Viola Bridgeford, 19, pretty, tried to kill herself at Richmond, but failed. She was jealous. The leading fur buyer of Spencer says the value of Owen County’s fur products for this seasofi w : l' be not less than $12,000. ■ A wolf is said tc be living high on sheep in the vicinity of Scotland. Farmers will have a drive in an effort to capture it. Miss Minnie B. Ellis is superintendent of the Kentland public schools. It is said she is the only iady superintendent of a high school in the State. Orcar Deal, Owensville, used an oil lantern as a foot warmer. It exploded and bis buggy was completely destroyed. He escaped serious injury. At LaPorte following a quarrel with his family Gust Radtke saturated his clothing with kerosene and set fire to himself. Members of the household extinguished—the fames, but Radtke will die. Dr. John D. Green of Manilla, who brought suit against the estate of his father-in-law, C. E. Trees, a person of unsound mind, for SB,OOO for professional services, has compromised the case for $3,500. Otto Wright called on his farm tenant, Eli Passlinger, near Terre Haute, and demanded washing machine. A quarrel followed and Wright shot his tenant twice, both wounds being serious. Wright’s mother was with him. Henry Ilelmig, a one-legged man, was shot and killed by Charles Netherly, a saloonkeeper, at the Union railway station in Peru. Helmig was under the influence of liquor and creating a disturbance. The saloonkeeper claims he acted in self-defense.

In a fit of passion 7-y ear-old Claud* Fickle plunged the blade of his pocket knife into the back of his 10-year-old schoolmate, Ernest Blackledge, in the Fickle district school iu Clinton County. The knife blade jienetrated the youthful victim's lung cavity and the boy is in a critical, condition. Drunk and erased with Jealousy, Charles Pittser, a young soldier recently returned from the Philippines after an honorable discharge, shot and killed his bride of three months at Muncie. Mrs. Pittser was barely 18 years old. The young woman bad been followed by her husband from Daleville to her sister's house. The couple were joking when the husband chided the wife. She approach* ed and playfully kissed him. The caress seemed to madden Pittser. He quickly took a revolver from his pocket and shot the girl five times. She fell at hia feet, dead. e • |