The argus., October 09, 1897, Image 7

About The argus. (Holbrook, Ariz.) 1895-1900

Image provided by: Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records; Phoenix, AZ

                
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FARM ANDJRCIIARÜ
Some Interesting News for the
Ruralist
- SPOKEN OF IN THIS COLUMN.
A Few Sensible Hint to Suit the Bun y
Agriculturist. Item That Slay
Benefit Our Readers.
LINCOLN, Neb., Sept. 28. Aside
from disappointment over a smaller
attendance from outside States than was
expected, the conditions for the opening
nf the Sixth National Irrigation Con
gress were most auspicious. Thirteen
States were represented this morning.
Irrigation topios were discussed by such
authorities as E. R. Moses of Kansas,
Dr. George E. Young of Utah, Ex-Sena
tor Carey of Wyoming, Dr. E. L. Kel
logg of Colorado and C. H. Hamlin of
Texas.
. Special features of the present gather
ing will be an address by W. J. Bryan ;
a talk by Booth-Tucker on the Salvation
Armv colonization of lands. C. C.
Wright the author of the celebrated
'"California act," after which the Ne
braska law was copied, and Binger Her
man, commissioner of the general land
office, will also be heard. C. B. Boothe
of California will act as president until
his successor is appointed.
President Boothe called the congress
to order at 2 o.clock in the assembly
hall of the University of Nebraska.
Rev. A. J. Mailley offered prayer.
Chairman Moses of the national com
mittee announced the names of the sec
retaries, and Secretary Heintz read the
call for the meeting. Gov. Holcomb
welcomed the delegates in an address of
some length.
E. R. Moses, chairman of the nation
al executive committee, said in part:
"The people of the United States
must know of their country in order to
judge intelligently of the wants and
needs of any part of it, and then they
must have that love of country so
strong in their hearts that they forget
self, section, hirth-place and state in
their desire to build up America as 'the
land of the free and the home of the
brave.' When this is done there will be
no longer a flaunting of the bloody shirt
" at every hustings, oi in every spread
eagle speech, the constant repetition of
'a solid South,' and a 'wild and woolly
West.' The time has come when this
nation, like the other nations of the
earth, must ever he alert in making due
and amule preparation for the comfort
and happiness of her people.
"This government, founded as it was
upon that grand and paternal proposi
tion, 'to secure the blessings of liberty
and happiness to ourselves and poster-
itv.' can no longer forget her posterity
than a father can his children. Forget
them. I say, by withholding from them
for settlement the many thousands of
homes that lie in this western country
homes that are their birthright, as
much so as the homesteads that are now
the castles of so many true .brave an
noble merican citizens. Heretofore
this government has been most generous
with her free homes for ner people.
The people living in this sectiou are
most patriotic, and to their borders
many of the 2,000,000 or more idle and
homeless in the over-crowded and
congested cities of the east are looking
for the time when these western lands
are made available for settlement
Philanthropists and humanitarians see
the great opportunity for solving one of
the most vital and serious questions of
the times 'the settlement of the unem
ployed and homeless' upon these lands,
while politicians and statesmen realize
the fact .if thev do not carry it into
practice, that the safety and perpetu
ity of this government lies in having
homes for its worthy homeless citizens
"The time has come to the minds of
all who fullv know the condition of the
east and the west that this country can
no longer remain half settled and half-
unsettled, any more than it could have
remained hall-free and half-slave. In
dividual and co-operative efforts have
Kone as far as thev can go. Uncle Sam
owns this unsettled laud, and it has
now come to the parting of the ways;
either the government must open these
, lands for settlement, or turn them over
in fee simple to the states and territo
ries in which they he, that they may
open them for settlement. The settle
ment of the west means only that the
products of the soil go east for the pro
ducts of the loom and the lactory ; that
the settling of the surplus population in
the west relieves the east of great finan
cial burdens, which give only temporary
relief. The opening of the west will
not only give homes to the present
homeless, but to future thousands, in
stead of forcing them abroad as Eng
land. France and Germany do their
homeless people for want of territory.
"If any bill is passed lor the reclama
tion of arid and semi-arid America, it
must first be drafted by this body or the
people of the west. The last irrigation
congress passed uion a bill ,a very good
one for a starter, known as the 'public
land commission bill. It was intro
duced into the house of representatives
neat the close of the session, and awaits
resurrection. It has firm supporters in
both houses, and with proper efforts on
the part of this congress could become
law.
"More acres are under cultivation by
means of irrigation than ever before,
and perhaps more miles of irrigating
ditches have been built in the last few
years than in all the previous years.
Through these annual congresses an im
petus has béen given, and a line of in
dustry that has worked night and day
to perfect the pumps and machines to
draw water from the bowels of the earth
at such a mimimnm cost as to make it
profitable to irrigate in this way. The
ingenious mind has been set to work to
conserve the storm waters that run in
torrents to the sea. The eyea of the
east and the south have been opened to
the fact that we can ditch, drain and
keep the water at proper times with
better results.
"We irrigationists are satisfied that
Congress will have to adopt our plan of
preventing the overflow of large streams
by the storage of water near the head of
such streams at times of low water, ana
at other times to be used in irrigation,
navigation and manufacturing indus
tries; and in this way the damage to the
areas in the vicinity of the streams will
be prevented, and large tracts of arid
lands can be reclaimed by these waters,
and opened for settlement. The people
of the nation would soon find it a pay
ing investment if Congress would apply
the appropriations annually made to
prevent floods, temporary makeshifts,
to the storage of the waters, as well as
for the use of agriculture and horticul
ture.
"Following in the wake of irrigation,
and closely allied to it, is colonization.
The people of the west do not want
these lands made tillable unless they
can teem with life and are settled with
the hest brain and brawn of the old and
young, rich and poor, who desire homes
in this sunset land of America."
S'ate Board of Horticulture.
The executive committee of the
State Board of Horticulture, con
sisting of R. D. Stephens, Sacra
mento; Ell wood Cooper, Santa Bar
bara, and Frank A. Kimball, National
City, met at the office of the State
Board of Horticulture, beptember lb.
The date for the holding of the next
State Fruit Growers' Convention, under
the auspices of the board, was fixed for
November 16 to 19, inclusive, to be held
in the senate chamber of the State capí
tol. It was also determined to hold a
State convention of fruit growers at Los
Angeles in March next, the date to be
hereafter determined. This latter con
vention will first meet at Los Angeles
for two days, then adjourn to meet at
San Diego for one or more days, then at
Riverside and Redlands, one day each.
This will give the visiting horticultur
ists from throughout the state an oppor
tunity to visit the different fruit-grow
ing sections of the south, while attend
ing the Eession of the convention.
Aomng the important subjects that
will be considered at the state conven
tion at Sacramento, in November, will
be: Transportation of all California
products to all markets; rates of
freight, abolition of rebates or other
means of giving one Bhipper an unfair
advantage over another shipper; possi
bility of shortening the time for deliv
ery to eastern points, and probability of
eliminating the icing of cars, and thus
in a large measure reducing the cost of
transportation ; the best system of dis
tributing green and dried fruits to near
by markets; the distribution of green
and dried fruits toeastern markets; the
best system of distribution to foreign
markets; should the production of de
ciduous and citrus fruits be checked un
til a more perfect (system of distribution
is effected? relation of the olive indus
try to the fruit industries of the state;
poesibility of this state to produce all
the olives and olive oil consumed in the
United States; adulteration of olive oil
and the failure of the pure food law to
suppress its adulteration, or to prevent
the sale of imported oils which have
been adulterated, or to prevent the sale
of other oils as oilve oil; adulterated
foods and the influence of their saie on
the productive industries of the State;
the olive industry, including area in
each county in the State adapted to the
production of the fruit; probable in
crease in production.
At the last meeting of the State board
of horticulture a committee was ap
pointed to investigate and report at the
coming convention on fruit transporta
tion, freight rates, etc. This commit
tee is composed of R. D. Stephens,
Sacramento; B. F. Walton, Yuba City;
Dr. Echleman, Fresno; and M. F.
Righter, Campbell. C. C. Thompson
of Pasadena was added to this commit
tee to fill the vacancy caused by the res
ignation of William Boal of National
City.
Alexander Craw, quarantine officer
and entomologist of the board, was pre
sent at the meeting of the executive
committee, and made an extended re
port of his visit to Los Angeles, Santa
Barbara, San Bernardino, Riverside,
San Diego and Orange counties. He re
ported that as far as crops are con
cerned, they are looking well, and pros
pects indicate a prosperous season the
coming year, especially in citrus fruits.
Peaches Without Down.
William P. Winter, a retired carpen
ter who lives at 826 North Carey street,
has entered heart and soul into the
wizard business with remarkable re
sults, says the Baltimore American. In
a cosy little yard back of Mr. Winter's
home grows a peach tree that has pro
duced annual crops of lusoious fruit for
a number of years. Two years ago Mr.
Winter grew weary of the conventional
covering of the peaches in his limited
orchard, and determined at least to pro
duce a peach minus that objectionable
nap or down.
He began a series of experiments,
and that year produced a peach clothed
in the ordinary raiment of the banana;
but, not satisfied with the result of his
startling assault on nature, he has suc
ceeded in producing a crop, which is
just now ripe, that looks for all the
world like a tree full of apples. The
skin of the fruit is perfectly smooth
and of a dark red hue, shading gradu
ally into a yellow that Mr. Winter claims
is a remnant of the banana skin.
"Next year," said he, "I will have an
orange skin on them."
The method employed by Mr. Winter
to produce these startling results is a
profound secret, and he is preparing to
copyright the scheme. Grapevines,
as well as peach trees, tremble before
the skill of the ex-carpenter, and
among the curious things that thrive in
the rear of 826 North Carey street is a
vine of this sort that bears at this time
ripe grapes as sweet as honey and un
usually large, half ripe grapes, blossoms
and buds, which Mr. Winter expects to
ripen by Christmas.
Fighting Black Scale.
Prof. A. J. Cook, in Los Angeles Her
ald: As stated in last week's Herald,
the black scale is unquestionably the
most serious and destructive insect now
working generally in the citrus, and I
might add, olive orchards, of Southern
California. It is also true that when
not properly treated the loss to orchard
anu iruit is ouen oy no means incon
siderable. That those orchardists who
have learned how best to combat this
pest are assiduous in putting in practice
what they know are saving immensely
is surely true.
That the various sprays, kerosene
emulsions, resin wasn and the various
soaps all have vitrue is certainly true.
It is probably true that if applied suffic
iently thorough and often that they
would keep the scale insects well in
check. These substances kill bv con
tact, and to touch every insect in trees
with foliage as dense as that of citrus
trees is by no means as easy task. It
is quite probable that in young trees
the first four or five years after setting,
spraying is the cheapest and easiest
way to fight these orchard pests.
Coupled with a great deal of observa
tion, that we may know when and how
often to spray, I am sure from my own
experiencethat a young orchard may
be kept almost entirely free from scale
insects by use of kerosene emulsion
and that with no great labor or expense,
A good article and great thoroughness
are the absolute requisites to success.
The steam power pumps used in San
Diego and Santa Barbara are certainly
a great aid toward the necessary
thoroughness.
HORTICULTURAL NOTES.
Srawberries need a fertilizer contain
ing potash, bone and muriate of iron.
Don't shoot the little burrowing owls.
They are good mousers and destroy
many injurious insects.
Preserve the "thalporcharis cocopha
gus," a little gray butterfly. The larva
preys upon the black scale.
M. C. Allen, Point Loma, sprays his
scale with sal-ammoniac, one pound to
ten gallons of water, and retires the
greedy scale from business effectually.
Tobacco men tell us there is no rea
son why good cotton cannot be raised in
Southern California. The specimen
plants raised at different points are
thrifty and heavy bloomers.
Sow your peas as the rains come, in
fact, plant everything for winter here
as you would do in the east for early
garden, such varieties as light frosts
will not harm.
When you use buhac as an insecti
cide, put one ounce into three gallons
of water and let it stand for twenty-four
hours before using. If you dust it in
dry form, use equal parts air-slacked
lime.
Mr. Eisenhour, Pacific Beach, says it
is a mistake to think that tobacco can
not be raised near the salt water. In
Cuba it is grown so near the ocean the
breakers almost splash on it. He will
put in twenty acres at the beach.
The Los Angeles county horticultural
commissioners have commenced a vig
orous campaign against certain unscru
pulous persons who have been shipping
inferior and scale-covered fruit to east
ern markets as choice Los Angeles
county products
An attempt is being made to revive
the Yuma canal scheme of boom times,
by which water was to be taken from
the Colorado river twenty-five miles
above Yuma and used to irrigate fifty
miles of desert country this side of the
line 100,000 across in Sonora. The At
torney-General of California some years
airo cave an opinion that the waters
would not be allowed to be taken out of
the United States for irrigation purj
poses.
BIRTH OF THE BLOOMER.
It la
Forty-six Tears Since
They
First Came Into View.
Forty-six years ago the bifurcated
garment for female dress was ushered
into a cold and critical world, and the
mother of this now popular invention,
Mrs. Amelia Bloomer, was thereby
placed in the niche of deathless fame.
Mrs. Bloomer's high social position and
intelligence cannot be disputed. She
was engaged In editing the Lily, a tem
perance journal, when her crusade In
favor of dress reform was begun, and
the columns of that paper fairly bloom
ed with the advocacy of her radical
ideas.
The use of the bloomer is at present
chiefly confined to athletic sports, but
its originator Intended it to have a more
general adoption. It was to take the
place, on every occasion, of -the more
cumbersome skirt, which at that time,
was increasing in size to such an extent
that, in the language of a contempo
rary English writer, the men were "be
ginning to ask what proportion of the
geographical area the ladies meant to
occupy." Iter own hrst appearance in
the new costume was at a ball, given at
the house of one of the leaders of so
ciety in the town In which she lived,
and she was the center of attraction
during the entire evening.
The press of the country discussed
the bloomer from all points of view and
women in those days had not the moral
courace to wear the carment. So it
passed into a stage of suspended anima
tion until fanned into life by the neces-
THE ORIGINAL BLOOMER COSTUME.
sities of .women astride the bicycle.
Mrs. Bloomer wore her garment until
she died, but her personal following
was small.
"Within thirty-five miles of Philadel
phia there is a community, a large pro
portion of the female population of
which at one time wore regularly the
"rational" garb. When in 1801 Charles
IC Landis laid out and opened for set
tlement the town of Yineland, N. J.,
the inducements offered by him to in
tending purchasers of land early at
tracted a large influx of a very mixed
element. Among them were the
"Bloomers," in faith Spiritualistic and
all firm adherents of the trouser cult
All were agriculturists and men and
women alike labored in the fields, so
that at a little distance It was a matter
of some difficulty to distinguish the sex
of the toller. The dress of the women
consisted of a sort of blouse, coming in
some instances just above the knee,
in others a little below it. Beneath
this the inevitable trousers, reaching
half way to the ankle, where thny were
met by a sort of woolen legging, cov
ering the upper part of the shoe. This
costume was generally of light cloth,
usually of a faded reddish color, the
whole surmounted by a broad-brimmed
slouch hat, such as the Dunkards are
nccustomed to wear. Sometimes in
summer linen would be substituted for
the more weighty cloth, but the style
Invariably remained the same. At one
time there were between twenty and
thirty "bloomer" families living In and
about Yineland, but at the present time
only two representatives of the sect re
main. INHERITS A MILLION.
Enphemla McKay, a Cook of Long
Inland, Gets a Ble Fortune.
Here is a portrait of Miss Euphemla
McKay, the cook who has fallen heir
to a large fortune. She has gone to her
old home in Scot
land to receive $1,
000,000 left to her
under the will of
her uncle, who
went away to Afri
ca years ago while
she was a child to
seek his fortune.
In time the child,
growing Into a
IITUEMIA M KAT.
woman, came across the ocean and
settled in Canada. Twenty years of
the drudgery of domestic service made
but a little change in her. In the course
of these years her father and mother
died, nud the uncle returned to Scot
land with his fortune. Of late Miss
McKay has been employed by Mr.
Lawrence, of Bayslde, L. I., as a cook.
She says she has no higher ambition
than to make her home in Flushing
and help the poor.
!
THE FIRST ELECTRIC CAR,
Tae Memory of Farmer, It Inventor,
Honored This Week.
The first electric passenger car ever
made in the United States was dis
played to the public for the first time
at Dover, N. H., July 26, 1847. The
fiftieth anniversary of the event, which
occurred recently, has bee nfittingly
observed at Eliot, Me., where lived the
inventor of the car, Moses G. Fanner.
His daughter still lives there, conduct
ing a summer school of science and lit
erature, and it was at her home that
the event was celebrated by a company
of electricians.
Moses Farmer was a native of New
Hampshire and was bora In 1820. He
MOSES O. FARMER.
received a college education and taught
school. Of a mechanical bent of mind,
he spent many of his spare moments in
experimenting. He early became In
terested in electricity and the subject
of applying this force to propel vehi
cles occupied his attention. His ex
periments resulted in the construction
of a train of two cars, on one of which
was monuted the motor and battery
which furnished the current, the other
being a passenger car.
The rails of the track as built in 1S4T
were of cast Iron, and the ties, or sleep
ers, of wood. On these rails ran the
two cars, one for carrying passengers,
the other being the locomotive. The
electric current was generated in forty
eight cells of a Groves battery, the
TUB FIRST KLfcCTRIC CAR.
size of each cell being about one pint
in capacity.
The cars were exhibited In various
cities and attracted some attention,
but the time was not ripe for electric
transit and Farmer's scheme was not
utilized.- It formed the basis, how
ever, upon which engineers subsequent
ly built the electric cars of the present
day. Farmer died In Chicago during:
the World's Fair in 1S93.
WOMAN'S LONG RIDE.
Mrs. Margaret Le Long Wbe jlej from
Chicago to San Francisco.
Mrs. Margaret Valentine Le Long Is
a plucky little woman with a long name
who recently rode, alone, from Chicago
to San Francisco, her home, on a bicy
cle. She was on the road ninety days,
covering the distance, 2.0U0 miles, with
out a puncture. She made the journey
not to save expenses, for it cost twice
as much as by rail, but for the sake
of the adventure and the experience.
She had only one accident, a broken
pedal, when she had piled herself up at
the foot of a hill in the dark. She did
her own washing, had the good sense
not to try for a record, and rested when
she was tired. Eighty-six miles in
one day was her best performance. On
the way she lost eight pounds, made a
detour from Ogden to Salt Lake, rode
the railroad track for numberless
MRS. Margaret i.b lo.no.
rough and bumpety miles, and walked
on an average ten miles a day. ' She
Is muscular as few women are, and Is
as brown as the proverbial berry, for
she even tanned her bauds through her
thick chamois gloves. But she Is not
the least bit footsore or weary, and she
would do It again.
Slightly Daft.
"Bobson Is certainly daft about that
new baby of his."
"What has he done?"
"Why, we were all talking about the
tariff at the office last Saturday, but
Bobson only made one remark."
"What did he sayr
"He wanted to know If they had rais
ed the duty on catnip tea." Cleveland
Plain Dealer.
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