MRS. PHELPS ARRESTED AND LLOYD P. RICE OF HOMER ADDRESSES FARMERS' INSTITUTE

Cortland Evening Standard, Saturday, January 5, 1895.

MRS. PHELPS ARRESTED.

Arraigned, Pleaded not Guilty and Waved Examination.

   Mrs. Adelia Phelps was yesterday afternoon arrested at her home in Solon by Deputy Sheriff James Edwards on a warrant issued by Coroner George D. Bradford, charged with administering the poison which caused the death of her husband, Loren Phelps. She was brought to Cortland and was lodged in jail. She occupies a cell at the south east corner of the jail on the second floor. She was this morning brought before Coroner Bradford at police headquarters and was arraigned. Riley Champlin appeared for her and District Attorney Burlingame appeared for the people. She pleaded not guilty and waived examination to await the action of the grand jury which meets next week.

   A STANDARD reporter this afternoon called upon Mrs. Phelps at the jail and asked her if she had anything to say. Her reply was, "I am not guilty of course, but beyond that I will say nothing at present." She added a moment later that she had retained Attorneys James Dougherty and H. L. Bronson as her counsel. Mr. Champlin had acted for her so far but would not any more.

   Deputy Edwards informed the reporter that when he went to make the arrest he found Mrs. Phelps and her daughter alone at the house. Mrs. Phelps was knitting. He told her in as mild language as possible of his disagreeable errand. She did not seem much surprised or much moved, but her daughter burst into tears and sobbed bitterly. The son appeared on the scene before his mother left, but seemed perfectly indifferent to the fact that she was under arrest and was going to jail.

   Mrs. Phelps this afternoon sent a telegram to friends in Pennsylvania informing them of her arrest.

The Farmers' Institute.

   The session of the Farmers' institute has been continued to-day and the court house has been crowded. H. E. Cook of Denmark [New York] occupied the whole morning in a discussion of the subject "The Silo in Connection with the Production of Milk." The paper by George H. Hyde of Cortland on "Potatoes as a by-Product" was left over until this afternoon. The other papers of the afternoon are "Small Fruits for the Farmer" by F. A. Converse of Woodville, and "Possibilities for the Educated Farmer" by Fred M. Sheerar of South Cortland.

GREETING TO FARMERS.

Address of Welcome by Henry Howes at the Farmers' Institute.

   Gentlemen of the Institute:

   We welcome you to our beautiful village with its many churches, its printing presses, its halls of learning which are sending their rays of knowledge to lighten up the whole world. We welcome you in the name of the Patrons of Husbandry, whose hearts beat in unison with all members of our order, and also in behalf of the farmers of Cortland county whose thirst for knowledge into the hidden mysteries is unlimited.

   It has become necessary for the farmers of this state to decide for themselves a matter of great importance. That question is whether they shall continue on in the old-fashioned haphazard way of doing everything without any particular method and succeeding or failing as luck would have it, or whether on the other hand, they shall go about this matter and educate themselves as they would educate a son or daughter, not after the school of 1810 or 1820, but in the progressive school of 1895.

   We, the farmers of Cortland, propose to take the latter position, hoping thereby to increase our knowledge in the various branches of our business and to become as far as is possible thorough progressive farmers, and we wish to take part in your institute as students ready and willing to learn.

FARMERS' INSTITUTE.

Began Friday at the Courthouse in Cortland.

   The New York State Agricultural Society's farmers' institute opened at 10:30 o'clock this morning at the courthouse with a hearty address of welcome by Mr. Henry Howes of Cuyler. It was responded to by an excellent speech from Mr. F. A. Converse of Woodville, Jefferson county.

   He was followed by Mr. E. Van Alstyne, of Kinderhook, who ably discussed the question "Can the farmer use commercial fertilizers in connection with farm manure profitably?"

   The last period was devoted to a most timely article by Lloyd F. Rice of Homer. His subject was "How shall we improve our country roads?" He showed the particulars of construction of macadamized roads and concluded that they were advantageous on main lines of travel, but too expensive for ordinary roads. The remainder of his discourse was devoted to advocating the wide tire.

   The subjects under discussion this afternoon are "Small fruits for the farmer" by Mr. F. A. Converse of Woodville and "Is it practical to use the separator on the farm?"

   The program for to-night will include music by the glee club, a paper, "Stick to the farm," by Mrs. S. S. Hammond, a recitation by Miss Fannie M. Galusha and another paper on "Practical Poultry Keeping," by Mr. J. E. Rice of Yorktown.

   To-morrow morning Mr. H. E. Cook of Denmark will discuss the subject "The Silo in Connection With the Production of Milk" and "Potatoes as a by-Product" by Mr. George H. Hyde of Cortland.

   One of the articles Saturday afternoon will be ''Possibilities for the Educated Farmer" by Mr. Fred M. Sheerar of South Cortland.

   A question box is used at the opening of each session. Mr. George A. Smith is director. Headquarters are made at the Cortland House. Nearly every seat in the courthouse was occupied at both this morning and this afternoon's sessions.

Horses and delivery wagon stuck in mud.

OUR COUNTRY ROADS.

IN WHAT WAY CAN THEY BE IMPROVED?

An Excellent Paper by Lloyd P. Rice of Homer at the Farmers' Institute in Cortland.

   How shall we improve our country roads? The demand for better roads is now heard on every side. The rapidly increasing army which spin over the highways on bicycles, the multitude who ride over them in light vehicles for purposes of business or pleasure, the farmers who use them in transporting their produce to market all agree as to the desirability of a very material improvement in the condition of our country roads, and this renders specially pertinent in this connection the famous question of Mr. Tweed, "What are you going to do about it?"

   A very common answer is, buy a stone crusher. Excellent as broken stone is as a road material when properly used, it is to be feared that its use under the supervision of the average pathmaster would result in failure. Macadamized roads cannot be made by putting broken stone into the mud. An essential condition is that the material be free from dirt and standing water. The principle on which their construction depends is that fragments of stone when their surfaces are brought into close contact will bind themselves together into a solid mass. Any dirt or foreign substance mixed with the stone will prevent this close contact and interfere with the consolidation.

   The foundation should be prepared in the shape which it is desired the surface of the road should have and be packed hard. Broken stone placed upon and pressed down into soft dirt is practically wasted. The material should then be spread evenly over the foundation in layers and each layer consolidated.

   This leads to the use of another machine equally important with the stone crusher—-the roller. Not a land roller, weighing ten or fifteen hundred pounds, but a road roller, preferably driven by steam and weighing ten or fifteen tons, and costing three or four thousand dollars. It is true that if the public could be induced to drive over newly laid broken stone, the steam roller might be dispensed with, but, if we may judge by the way a new gravel road is avoided, people would drive around a piece of newly laid macadam until the road everywhere else became impassable and then they would drive on it and roll the stone down into the mud. The building of macadamized roads to the best advantage then involves the investment at the outset of four or five thousand dollars in special machinery.

   To macadamize a mile of road ten feet wide and six inches thick would require one thousand cubic yards of stone weighing about two thousand tons. This would employ a ten-horse power stone crusher from ten to twenty days, depending upon the quality of the stone and the skill with which it was managed. The qualities desirable in stone for road covering are hardness, toughness and ability to withstand the weather. Of the stone to be found in this vicinity these qualities are probably found in the highest degree in the common boulders and cobble stones to be found in the fields.

   So much depends upon the local circumstances that it is impossible to estimate accurately the cost of macadamizing roads, but under the most favorable conditions, where suitable stones can be found in the fields and can be had delivered at the roadside free, it is difficult to see how it can be done for less than a thousand dollars per mile. Nevertheless nearly all authorities agree that for our main highways this is the best, and, all things considered, the most economical method of improving our country roads.

   It is found by experiment that on a level road the force required to move a vehicle on a macadamized road is only one third that required on a gravel road and only one-seventh that required on soft dirt. On a road where thirty loaded teams pass per day going at the rate of three miles per hour, each team would spend twenty minutes on each mile which would be equal to the constant labor of one team for ten hours to haul the traffic over a mile of road, which at $3 per day for team and driver for two hundred days in the year would be $600 for team work on a mile of road. If by macadamizing the road the force required to move the vehicles could be reduced to one-third, there would be a saving of four hundred dollars a mile for team work in each year as compared with a gravel road.

   Single towns however cannot afford to purchase the needed machinery or to spend upon their highways a sufficient sum to keep the machinery in operation. A stone crusher working for six months will prepare material for ten or twelve miles of road, involving the expenditure of at least an equal number of thousand dollars. If our roads are to be improved in this manner, it can evidently be best done under the county system, the county purchasing the machinery, taking charge of the main market roads of the county and putting them in charge of a skilled road engineer, and when the steam roller was not in use on the county roads it could by some arrangement be used to great advantage on the roads which remain under the charge of the town authorities. That abomination, a new road, could by the use of a heavy roller be speedily put in such condition that it would not vex the soul of the traveler and at very much less expenditure of time and patience than when done by carriages, buggies and bicycles.

   Fortunately in the case of dirt and gravel roads there is a comparatively cheap and very efficient substitute for the steam roller—heavily loaded vehicles with wide tires. There is probably nothing which in proportion to the expense involved would do more to improve our roads than the general use of wide tires for all heavy traffic. Our wagons in common use seem designed with a special view to injury to the road bed. The tires are two inches wide or less and these are soon rounded at the corners so as to present a bearing surface of from an inch to an inch and a half, which after every rain cuts the road into ruts and these ruts are almost of necessity followed and worn deeper by every passing team. A wagon with tires sufficiently wide, on the contrary, would not rut the road, but would act as a roller, making the surface hard and smooth, better able to resist the action of water and more pleasant for light vehicles. It is a mistake to suppose that wide wheels are of heavier draft than narrow ones. They are in some particulars at a slight disadvantage in this respect. In going through soft mud on a hard bottom the wide wheel must push out of the way more mud than a narrow one, and on a rough road the wide wheel will encounter more obstacles than a narrow one, but a wide wheel will often stay on the surface when a narrow one would sink into it thus more than balancing any disadvantage.

   In this reform, however, as in many others the lot of the pioneer is one of hardship. When a road has been cut into ruts with narrow tires, it is almost impassable for wide ones, the ruts cannot be avoided, but must be followed. The wheels are too wide to sink to the bottom, but grind along on the sides, improving the road, but tiring the team and a man must have an extraordinary amount of public spirit to convert his wagon into a roller to repair the damages caused by others.

   Our present law which grants a rebate of one-half the highway tax to the amount of four dollars for the exclusive use of wide tires for heavy loads is good so far as it goes, but it doesn't go far enough. Whether we are to bring about the use of wide tires by means of rewards or penalties, they should be sufficient to accomplish the purpose. A farmer having a farm large enough to incur a highway tax of eight dollars would earn his four dollars many times over if he were to drag all his heavy loads on wide tires through ruts made by narrow ones.

   The use of narrow tires should be prohibited when the roads are in condition to be damaged by them. It is a maxim of law and morals that he who enjoys a public privilege should not use it in such a way as to interfere with its enjoyment by others. Those who wish to use the highways for light vehicles have as unquestionable a right to that privilege as those who use them for heavy traffic, and they who use them for heavy traffic have no right to cause them so easily avoidable damage.

   This reform is no exception to the rule that any improvement is accompanied by hardship. The introduction of the power loom rendered useless thousands of hand looms and threw out of employment thousands of hand weavers. When the city of London was first lighted with gas it was vehemently opposed in parliament on account of the injury to the whale fishing industry. The general introduction of cable and electric cars in the streets of our cities has made common horses almost unsalable. Notwithstanding all this, power looms and gas, and cable and electric cars have added immensely to the sum of human comfort and enjoyment. If the use of wide tires for heavy loads were enforced by law, some narrow tires might go rather prematurely to the scrap heap, but heavy loads would draw ever our highways easier than they do at present; our roads would be kept in better order than now with half the expenditure, and those who use them for light vehicles would not find them almost impassable by reason of ruts for half the year.

THE BENSON INQUEST.

Five Hours Spent To-day in Investigating.

   The inquest into the death of Christopher Benson, who was struck by an E., C. & N passenger engine on Thursday, Dec. 27, opened at his late home on Railroad-st, at 10:45 o'clock this morning. The jurors were A. B. Gates, Patrick Dwyer, John Mack, Clinton Stanton, A. T. Smith and Peter Cowley.

   The witnesses who were called were Dr. H. O. Jewett, who made the examination of the body after it was brought to the house, Frank Byrn, the engineer who was on the engine which struck him. Thomas Lynch, the conductor in charge of the train, Patrick H. Kiernan, the E., C. & N. yardmaster and Patrick Clancy, the roadmaster, the latter two being members of the searching party, which did not succeed in finding the body in the morning, and Mr. James Benson, the deceased man's son, who found his father while taking his dinner to him.

   A deposition from Mr. Thomas J. McEvoy, who was the first to discover the body, was read and placed in evidence. The inquest did not adjourn for dinner and it was 2:45 this afternoon before the jury retired.

BREVITIES.

   —The Bible class meets at 8 o'clock to-night in the Y. M. C. A. rooms.

   —The Chautauqua circle will meet this evening at 7:30 with Miss Norton on Railroad-ave.

   —All are cordially invited to attend the prayer meeting in Good Templars' hall, Sunday afternoon at 3 o'clock.

   —Mr. J. N. Meaker of the Normal school will preach in Memorial chapel on Sunday afternoon at 4 o'clock. All are cordially invited.

   —There will be a bear hunt in Candor Jan. 9, 1895. Frank Norton will let a black bear loose that day. Hunters of Binghamton, Owego, Waverly, Elmira, Cortland and Ithaca are invited. For further particulars address Frank J. Norton, Candor, N. Y.—Ithaca Chronicle.