Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 37, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 April 1905 — Page 3

FARM AND GARDEN

The more litter in the manure, the slower the process of decomposition. But few plants will thrive in a wet soli. A good drain is sometimes better than manure. Don’t feed too many of so-called poultry foods. Some are good and some are not. A short-legged, short-bodied sheep is often heavier and will produce more than one that looks considerably larger. The sheepman who has a nice patch of rape upon which to turn his flock need not worry becatfse the pastures are giving out. In nearly all calks animals In low flesh are more liable to disease than when in fine bodily condition, and it costs more to keep them. In mixed farming there is enough going to waste oin every farm to almost maintain a flock of sheep, which would be lost without them. When the fowls are confined a bunch of wheat or oats hung up about two feet from the ground will help to give them exercise in securing the grain. Sheep require food to sustain life and make growth as well as other animals. If the pasture is getting short, supplement with something else. (let t!ie first sowing of sweet peas into the earth as soon as the frost is out. Cover four or five inches deep. C'olii weather after planting will not hurt them. If tlie rhubarb is run out or more plants are wanted it can bo propagated by divi iing the old roots. Each eye or loud when broken apart with a root attached forms,a plant. On many farms a 200-egg incubator could be used to good advantage during tlie winter in hatching out early broilers for the spring market and early pullets for early fall and winter laying. It’s “trouble” to look after a flock of poultry during winter in the way It should lie iloiie-*-but It pays. A dozen eggs in winter is worth about three times as much as In April or May. For tlie good of tlie lawn some gardeners soalter fertilizer or bone meal on tlie last light snowfall, or a light dressing of manure left on through the spring rains will disfigure the lawn only for a short time and can then be raked off. — Every farmer should have enough prldi In bis operations to conduct them Si) each passerby will make remarks of commendation as lie passes along. The farm surroundings ought to be such as to call out the exclamation, ‘*l*ll bet a good farmer lives here!” Tlie better the quality of tlie manure tlie less tlie cost of Dandling. Bulk does not give quality, and this is especially the case with manure. To have and to handle great quantities of unrotted. coarse, bulky material cost Uie labor of both men and teams. Sheep are necessary on some farms in order to save much of the waste materials. sheep will eat many plants that other animals will not touch. It may not lie profitable for some farmers to' kt’cp large flocks of sheep, but a dozen sheep will cost almost nothing. The same may be said of one or two pigs, which give a profit because they consume materials that would otherwise go to the manure heap, but too many sheep or pigs may make tlie item of labor too costly to allow of a profit, -er Doctor Mayo of the Kansas Agricultural College states that he lias received the present spring quite a number of reports of what seem to lie clear cases of young pigs and other animals dying ns a result of eating young cockleluu's. He says that the young burs are very poisonous at certain periods of growth, mostly when they are in the two leaved stage, causing Inflammation of the stomach and intestines, but cannot throw nny< light on tlie nature of the poison, lie does not hold out much hope of successful treatment after the poison has once entered the system, but suggests that perhaps raw linseed oil might he help ful. Age to Breed Sows. The age at which to breed young sows depends on tlie maturity more than age. says American Agriculturist. A gilt that has been properly handled will weigh 200 pounds or more at eight months and ought to raise a good litter of pigs If bred then. When n young sow has only a few pigs or Is a poor milker or a careless mother, (die should be sent to the meat barrel at once. But if she Is a goal milker and attentive to her young, she should be tried again, for the second llttey will usually be larger than the first. If her second litter shows Increased •umbers and the first one developed

Into good hogs, she might be retained for a breeder until a better sow can be obtained. Apple for Cold Climates. Throughout the cold flections of the Northwest the pioneers brought varieties of apples from the Bast, and found none that were entirely adapted to the new conditions. The severity of tlie climate of the prairie States was so much different from the conditions of the East that most of the varieties were too tender. Without many varieties that seem to be worthy of planting In this cold section, many of the horticulturists turned their attention to European countries, and especially to the prairie regions of Russia, where conditions seem to be similar to this region. In tlie early seventies and eighties, large importations of apples were made and of tills large list of varieties that have been widely disseminated throughout the cold regions of tlie Northwest, but few are worthy of planting. Among this list can be mentioned a fall variety known as the Eongfield. It Is one of the most hardy and productive sorts of the Russian collection. It is of medium size, roundish, slightly conical in form, with a yellow surface and a bright red blush on tlie sunny side. The flesh is tender, white and very juicy. Tlie flavor is slightly subacid, and quality good. The tree is a strong grower and has a tendency to overbear. The fmit should lie carefully thinned each year, so that it would not be undersize and too poor for the market. Caring for the Horse. Tlie horse, like a person,, requires frequent large drafts of water. But if allowed to drink all tire cold water lie wants when lie is heated he may drink too much and bring on a fatal spell of colic. Again. Watering should be done awhile before feeding and not for some time afterward, or the quantity taken may so weaken the digestive juices as to prevent their proper operation. A horse, if he be used to violent exercise, will stand a lot of It in hot. weather without injury. But whether he be usdd to it or not, be should be Closely watched, and when there are signs that indicate his getting too warm stop him. .fust a simple sweat is no, sure sign that a horse is getting too warm. But when a horse lathers much and breathes hurriedly and with great effort it is time to stop. Always turn his head to the wind if possible when stopping. You have no idea how much good it seems to do if you have never tried it. If there is a time when it is more usual than at any other time to overheat horses, it is when driving hurriedly to got in out of a rain. Then it is time, too, when probably much the most damage is done. It may not lie so immediately apparent, but those who attend driving horses soon notice tlie difference. The trouble comes not so much from overheating ns from cooling off too quickly. Often tlie storm will be so close that the team will be bitched, hot and sweaty, to he drenched in tlie rain and chilled by the wind. A few such experiences will so affect the stoutest horses as to render him unfit for use on account of rheumatism, stiff joints and other ailments caused by taking cold. Heredity n Big Factor. . The : > re-tnlts of experiments undertaken at the Rhode Island agricultural station for the purpose of determining the influence of selection in increasing the)number of ears of sweet corn per stalk are in harmony with the general law which seems to prevail throughout the plant world—that It Is the characteristics of the parent which produced the seed that.are likely to be perpetuated rather than the characteristics indicated by the position or type of the individual seed Itself. A small potato from a productive hill affords more desirable seed than n large potato from an unproductive hill. Seed from a late garden tomato produced by a plant which ripened tlie majority of its fruits early is likely to produce earlier bearing plants than seed taken from an earlier ripened fruit from a plant which ripens most of its fruit late. So with corn, the character of the plant from which the seed came Is of much more Importance than the point on that plant from which It came. Since tills question has been nnswered in reference to sweet corn the selection from lower ears has been abandoned at the station, and henceforth the i>lan will lie simply to select the best seed from stalks which bear the largest number of oars. This line of selection, whereby the number of cars Is Increased, seems to promise more for the grower of silage corn than for the market gardener who grows sweet corn to market on the ear, The Increase in number of ears Is due to thp production of ear ben ring suckers to a greater extent than to an Increase of ears on the main stalk. The real point at Issue so far as grain Is concerned is whether such a stalk produces a larger weight of kernels than does an ordinary on* currying one or two ears.

NIAGARA FALLS IN DANGER.

Time Coming When CommerciaHem May Destroy Great Cataract. "Niagara Falls are doomed. Children already born may yet walk dryshod from the mainland of New York State reservation to Goat Island across the present bed of Niagara river.” With this startling prediction Alton D. Adams opens an article in the March number of Oassier’s Magazine. This writer declares that certain economic, industrial and political forces are working strongly toward this result, and that their course can be stayed only by the strong arm of the government. It is not so much to their extraordinary height as to their great volume of water that the falls owe their boauty and grandeur, and as Mr. Adams shows that any diversion of the water Of the great lakes reduces by just •o much the amount that goes over the Niagara cataract, it matters little as to this result whether water is taken from Lake Michigan at Chicago or whether it is diverted from Niagara river near the upper rapids and then discharged into the gorge below by means of canals, pipe lines or tunnels, thither process, it is declared, will dry up tlie falls if it be allowed to progress sufficiently far. According to the measurements of United States engineers in the years 1899 and 1900, th'e normal discharge of the Niagara river for mean level in Lake Erie is 222,000 cubic feet per second, but this sinks, at times, to as little as 105,340

NIAGARA FALLS.

cubic feet per second; and this latter amount, great as it is, is said to be not beyond the capacity of water power developments like those now in progress about Niagara to seriously diminish or even dry up the falls. From estimates lately obtained of tlie various hydraulic plants now operating or in course of construction on both sides of the falls, it appears that these plants have a total capacity of about 48,800 cubic feet per second, or over 29 per cent of the minimum discharge of the river. The consumption of water by the prospective new barge canal, following the line of the present Erie canal from Buffalo to Savannah, will greatly add to tlie drain, while the Chicago drainage canal is already said to require as much as 0,000 cubic feet per second. Mr. Adams estimates that the total diversion of water from the great lakes above Niagara Falls, for all purposes, will reach as much as 07,400 cubic* feet per second when all of the works now operating or under construction are carried out to their full authorized capacity. This would be 41 per cent of the minimum discharge of the Niagara river.

PRESIDENT’S HUNTING CABIN.

Log '‘Shack” in Colorado Which Shelters Nation's Chief Executive. Tlie hunting cabin occupied by President Roosevelt and party- is about twen-ty-five miles from Newcastle, Garfield county, Colorado. It stands on what is known as Huntsman Ilills, which are the center of a region teeming with game, but more especially of the large kind. The cabin is a comfortable log “shack,”

THE PRESIDENT'S CABIN.

substantially constructed, and amply provided with tlie necessaries for creature comforts. Temporary partitions have been put up, one of the rude apartments being assigned to the use of The President. When blizzards come, traveling in the rugged region becomes most difficult, but Mr. Roosevelt is not likely to let n few inches of snow, more or less, interfere with liis plans to enjoy to the utmost his mountain outing. The pilot of a locomotive at Laramie. \Vyo., struck a little girl named O'Connor nnd threw her into the air, where she turned a complete somersault, and again fell on the track. Tlie engineer reversed and tlie locomotive stopped with tlie pilot over tlie child’s body. Steel cars will soon he running on some of the surface lines in New York. The first lot of a large number ordered has been received and will be put luto service at once. Wood is used only for inside trimmings and even this is supposed to be fireproof.

RECORD OF THE WEEK

INDIANA INCIDENTS TERBELY TOLD. Great Reduction in Acreage of Wheat —Cigarette Lav in Effect-Woman's Search for Parents Ends—Jealous Girl Sentenced for Life. The State statistician has figures that ■how alarming conditions in wheat production in Indiana, indicating that it will soon cease to be important. The acreage has fallen to one-third of what it usually wasu In Howard county there are but 1,000 acres sown in wheat, against 8,000 in previous years. Tipton county produced 17,057 acres of wheat in 1903. The yield was 240,811 bushels. The following year 2,837 acres were sown and a yield of 24.094 harvested. This year there are only about 000 acres in the entire county in wheat. Benton county produced 300,030 bushels of wheat in 1900. The grain averaged twelve bushels to the acre, but the two years' following interest in the growing of this grain waned so much that for two years there has been scarcely any wheat grown in tlie entire county. The other counties, with the exception of Benton, have tried the production of wheat to about the same extent as, Howard county. For the last three years Benton county has been raising more than 80,000 acres of oats and about 100,000 acres of corn. Long Quest of Parents. After a quarter of n 'century of uncertainty as to what had become of her parents, and herself being mourned as dead by her relatives, Mrs. Clara Belle McKinnis. wife of William McKinnis of Logansport, through tlie assistance of the local authorities and court records, has finally succeeded in clearing up certain of her life mysteries. Her parents were Joseph and Harriet E. Culp, who. after she had attained tlie age of 3 years, became separated, tlie mother marrying Samuel App, an associate of John Condon, a noted turfman of Chicago, while the father moved to Columbus, 0., where he died a few years later. Shortly afterward tlie mother left App and went to Fort Wayne, where she committed suicide, tlie body being interred at Nappanee, where her father, John Daugherty, lived. Sounds Knell of Cigarettes. Gov. Hanly’s proclamation declaring in force the laws passed at the recent session of tlie Legislature was issued Saturday, and with its publication the anticigarette law became effective. Under its provisions any dealer having cigarettes or cigarette paper in his possession is liable to fine and imprisonment. In many cities of tlie State merchants engaged in tlie wholesale burning and throwing away of left-over stocks of cigarettes and cigarette papers. Cigarette smokers are preparing to get their supplies from other States by mail or express. It is understood the tobacco trust will carry the law to tlie Supreme Court on a question of its constitutionality* Life Sentence for Girl. In Logansport Blanche Mitchell was found guilty of the murder of Ella Swisher and sentenced to life imprisonment. Miss Mitchell shot Miss Swisher in a roadhouse at Kenneth because Miss Swisher, when the bells were ringing in the new year at midnight of Dec. 31, 1904, threw her arms around Miss Mitchell’s sweetheart and gave him a NewYear’s kiss. Lay Stabbing to Preacher. A sensation was created in Lebanon when Rev. John Dodge, pastor of the Holiness church, was arrested charged with having stabbed Oscar Johnson, a member of his congregation, during a quarrel which arose during a meeting held to consider the advisability of allowing a negro to preach to the congregation. All Over the State, The Campbell Street school house at Evansville was set on fire by lightning and destroyed. Loss between $50,000 and $75,000. John McDonald attempted suicide by hanging himself in the barn near his home in Washington, lint as he swung himself into space the rope broke. Saloonkeepers and gamblers have organized to close the drug stores and stop all Sunday business if the police continue to enforce tlie liquor laws at Elkhart. When Lon \yatkins of Terre Haute tried to take his nephew from Samuel Stnkz’s saloon, the boy, under tlie influence of liquor, struck, him wit,b a rock, blinding him for life. Silk thieves are believed to have start ed a lire at Knightstowu, which destroyed tlie dry goods store of George Williams & Co., and the grocery of O. A. Morris, causing a loss of $93,000. Alois Miller, a junk dealer, who lias been buying plunder from small boys, was found guilty of receiving stolen property and sentenced to 180 days in jail and a fine of $-550 and costs at Fort Wayue. The general store of Bryan & Goble and tlie hardware store of Goble & Farr at Paragon were entered by robbers. Several hundred dollars' worth of merchandise was taken, together with the township school funds. Fred Harrison, aged 19, and Earl .MeKinstory, 22, of Fisher's Station, while driving across the Pennsylvania railroad track at tlie crossing of tlie Indianapolis pike, were struck and instantly killed by a north-bound express. Henry Wilson, aged 07 years, living near Richards, fell into an old dry well on his farm and remained there for thir-ty-two hours, lie suffered from hunger and exposure, but will recover. The well is in a field, away from the house. Rosa Hammond, aged 27, a farmer’s daughter, was perhaps fatally injured in n runaway at Elkhart. Her wedding day is set for\ May 1. Tlie call was issued for the State convention of the Buplist Young People’s Union to be held in La Porte Jnly 3-12. Fouc hundred delegates will attend. Because he was arrested in a questionable house in Muneie George Patterson, 18. a well-known young man, killed himself by swallowing strychnine. Patterson came to Mancie some time ago from Greencastle and was connected vyith the American rolling mills.

COMPARATIVE STRENGTH OF THE TWO FLEETS IN THE EASTERN WAR.

HORDES OF IMMIGRANTS.

Inflax of Aliens Is Greater than Ever Before in Our History. A tidal wave of immigration is now breaking on our shores. It is computed by immigration authorities that 1.000,009 aliens will have lauded in the United States in the fiscal year which ends on June 30 next. Tlie figures for March arrivals amply sustain this prediction. As compared with former years, immigration has been steadily rising ever since last November. It is unusual for the rush to set in during the winter season, It seldom begins earlier than -March and the high-water mark is reached in April and May; yet tlie opening months of this year showed almost double the arrivals of the same months of 1904, the record for last January being 41,405. as against 23,129 in January, 1904. and for February, 48.000, as against 28,007 in 1904. This anomalous increase setting in so early in the year portends nothing less than a deluge of foreigners. To carry them over every available passengercarrying ship lias been put in commission and many tramp steamships have been chartered in addition, while all the regular passenger boats are booked to their full capacity for tlie next three months. Strange as it may Seem, industrial and other conditions in tlie United States are known almost as well in Europe as they are here. To every town and hamlet America spells prosperity and gigantic operations in which every man niay have a share. Many come here early in the spring in readiness to work on farms, but by far tlie greater number are laborers who expect to find employment on construction work. Every nook and cranny of Europe is apprised of tlie vast railroad and rapid transit developments now in course of construction or projected, and it is the prospect of work along these lines that is now largely responsible for the unprecedented rush of immigrants. For purposes of comparison it is interesting to look at some of the immigration figures for last year. The total number of alien steerage passengers who arrived at the port of New York during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1904, was (>08,922. These brought with them $15,030,340, or $24.09 per head* Of nationalities the .south Italians led with u total of 140,225; then came the Hebrews, with 84,910; Germans, with 59,327; Poles, with 50,313; Scandinavians, with 38,274; north Italians, with 55,1187; Irish, with 20,185; English, with 23,500; Slovaks, with 22,425, and Magyars, with 20,028.

A CONSUMPTIVES’ CITY.

Movement to Found Such Community in Texas or New Mexico. Physicians, bankers, business men, fraternalists and military engineers of St, Louis and nearby cities are interested ju a plan to found in New Mexico or Texas a city of consumptives. They have organized the National Fraternal Sanatorium for Consumptives for the establishment of this odd city. Last month a committee of physicians, business men and a sanitary engineer left St. Louis for a three weeks' tour of Texas and New Mexico to look a limit for a suitable site. They traveled 4,000 miles and visited seventeen different places. The competition for the site was keen, some places offering from 4,000 'to 100,000 acres of land for the proposed settlement, and one railroad official pledged to the sanitarium SIOO,OOO in cash and lands if it should lie placed along, hjs line. , The site has not yet been chosen. The proposed sanatorium will lie a departure from the usual lines along which such institutions have heretofore been conducted. It will be a community rather than the usual camp city, in which there will be opportunities for tlie consumptives to live amid healthful surroundings the ordinary life of those iu good health, working at farming, stock raising and other outdoor vocations. The sanatorium will lie conducted on the municipal ownership plan, with absolutely no commercial features. The revenue for tlie administrating expenses will be raised by a per capita tax on fraternal and other organizations to whose members the sanatorium will be open. It will be open to ail fraternal societies, churches, clubs, cities, counties and States ill the United States which contribute a per capita tax of one cent a month a member; to all union men of every occupation, as well as to nil other labor, benevolent or other organizations contributing a tier capita tax to the support of those whom they send to the sanatorium. The patients thus sent will live there as the guests of their respective organizations, with a minimum of personal expense. The Temple of Fraternity at tlie world’s fair will he removed to tlie site as soon as it is selected, and 'will serve as tlie administration building of tile colony.

Wrote His Will on Birch Bark.

On a piece of birch bark by the light of a tiny oil taper Robert McNeil), who lay down his life iu tlie quest for riches, scrawled a last message to his loved ones, and bequeathed to them tlie wealth that was his. McNeill's death came while lie was prospecting near the headwaters of the Stewart fiver in Washington, Tlie rumor of the probability of a renewal of the rate war between the Atlantic steamship companies is officially lenied at Lirernool.

WANT TO BE CONSULS.

Tremendous Crush of Applicants for Foreign Bertha. Never before since the government began lias there been such a crush of applicants for consular posts as has been witnessed at the White House since the inauguration, says a Washington correspondent. Some of the men applying for consular billets present remarkable reasons for their desire to take office under this government in foreign countries. One of them, on his way to the White House to see the President, stopped at the State Department and filed a formal application for a post in Spain which he had been informed was soon to be vacant. “Do you speak Spanish?” the young man, a citizen of central Illinois, was asked at the State Department. “Nope—don’t know a word of the lingo,” was the applicant s reply. “That’s one of the main reasons why I want the job—want to learn Spanish.” Another applicant for consular preferment, this one from lowa, told the State Department people, upon whom he called to make preliminary inquiries, that he wanted tlie consulship—held down by a very eonqietpiit man who is not going to be disturbed—at a German city near which a famous spa is located, lie was asked why lie had fixed his mind upon just that place. “Well,” he replied, quite offhand, like a man sure of his ground, “I’m all run down with the rheumatiz, and I’m informed that them Dutch baths fix a? rheumatic feller up in no time. I want to git near ’em so's I can git boiled out.” Not less engaging was the reason offered by a young Michigan man for desiring a consular bertli in an Italian city of the second grade, this place also being occupied by a man who is going to be let alone. “You see,” he explained at the State Department, “a sister of mine married a Dago up in Detroit three or four years ago—Dago who paints, or sculpts, or something of that sort. He took her to this town in Italy—the place where I want to go—soon after they were married. The folk at liome have heard from various sources —not from Sis herself, because she never writes a word about it —that he isn’t treating her on the square, neglects her, and all that. I want to be appointed to that Italian town so’s I can be near Sis, and if I find that she's getting tlie worst of it, so’s I can punch the nose off the Dago. I guess that’s a pretty good reason, isn’t it ?” A Swede gave as a reason for wanting a consular office in his native land that he had a rich uncle there and wished to be near him when he died. “He may loaf me and leave me somet'ang fa his will.” The usual crowd of colored applicants for tlie Liberian post have come to Washington. One of them, a jolly, very fat and very black man from Arkansas, gave a singular reason for his desire to be appointed to the post on the east coast of Africa. “Ali'in dun tiuhd o’ desc liyuh nigguhs in dis country whut wants tuh be w'ite folks,” he said. “All wants tuh mix up wif sho’ ’nough nigguh nigguhs, dat doan’ want tuh be nothin’ else, fo’ uh change."

WORKMEN KILLED LIKE CATTLE.

Pittsburg a Veritable Slaughter House Kays an Official. “On account of insufficient laws regulating tlie matter, and tlie utter disregard for the laws which do exist, Pittsburg is being turned into a regular slaughter house, and hundreds of workmen, mostly foreigners, are being killed each year like so many sheep and cattle in the steel mills, the blast furnaces. and the coal mines.” Coroner Joseph <«. Armstrong made this startling statement in addressing it coroner’s jury investigating tlie death of a Hungarian killed at tlie plant of tiie American Steel - and Wire Company. Twelve deaths, lie said, had been reported in one month in a single plant. Adelbert Merle, Austro-llmigarian consul general, backed by the coroner, proposes to petition tlie State anil federal authorities to ascertain if something cannot be done. An attache of tlie consulate said the number of fatalities were never fully reported, hut that every year an investigation was asked of tlie cases of men who were reported to have disappeared. Two such cases now being inquired into were those of men employed at the tops of blast furnaces, who had probably made a misstep and followed the ore they were dumping into the furnaces, where their fate was something horrible to contemplate. Tlie officials of tlie steel mills say that they will do anything in their power to help better tlie conditions of tlie men. They claim that they have had uo knowledge that they were so horrible, and that the foremen iu charge are mainly responsible.

The $1,000,000 damage suit brought by the Morning Glory Mining and Leasing Company of Cripple Creek against the Mary McKinney Company lia9 been settled by the payment of a little over SIOO,OOO by the defendant to the plaintiff iu full settlement for all claims. Oiie of the most valuable libraries ever brought into this country, the Rowfant library, collected by Frederick Locker Lampson, the deceased English poet and Khakspearean collector, has Just been purchased by a New York publishing house.