VOL. XXVI.
\S
,/
INDIANAPOLIS, IND., OCT. 17,1891.
NO. 42
Written for the Indiana Farmer.
" An Indiana Autumn.
BY ALFBBD I. TOWNSE.D.
The dying leaves, their summer'*, duty oVr.
Now tinge the woods with Autumn's crimson
hue.
The walnut trees display their winter's store,
I.Ike infant worlds, against the heaven's blue.
The squirrels scamper quickly to and fro,
Each gathering his store ot winter food.
The happy children through the forest go,
Like busy squirrels of another brood.
The red haw. lends again Its crimson blush,
To brighten limbs of gray, and sombre brown;—
While yellow tinges, ln the lowly brush,
Beveals the ripened pawpaw, hanging down.
The hickory nnts. come rattling from the boughs,
While acorns patter down like driving sleet.
With hair unruffled, stand the lowing cows,
And calves go frisking round, with flying Uet.
Tbe corn shocks, stand like tents upon tbe Held,
The barns, are bursting with thelrgarnered grain.
The apples, have theirjuicy lips unsealed.
And shed their amber tear, like rain.
Thesnn, now hides behind the flying clouds,—
And now shines forth, with faint and yellow rays.
The fallen leaves, go rustling by In crowds,
Until the tickle wind their passage stays.
Summer is dead,—and o'er her new made grave,
The sorrowing trees now shed their leaves, like
tears.
But In the ripened fruits her dying grave,
We taste the summer Joys of coming years.
Los Angeles, California.
 .       Fall Preparation.
IPaper read at last meeting of the Marlon county
A. and H. Society by Theo. Wilson.]
This subject Is an Important one, and
shonld interest horticulturists generally.
Good soils play a large part in growing
fine fruits. Every home horticulturist
who wants fine and highly flavored fruits,
should study the nature of his soil, Its requirements and its adaptability to. produce certain kinds of fruits; and there is
no better time for reflection on this most
important subject than now.
^ -Of all the farm crops I have ever tried to
produce, on the average, none will yield
one half as much money to the acre ta
will a good strawberry patch, apple, pear,
or cherry orchard, properly managed by an
intelligent horiioalturlst. When God
created the earth, he left it in a crude
state. When he created man he made him
an intelligent being with reasoning faculties. This knack, skill or ability which man
alone possssses, enables him by practice
and ojmmon sense, aided by nature to
take this crude soil and mold it to suit the
requirements of tho different fruits he
may desire to produce. E very fruit gro w-
«r who aspires to success, gets there by the
knack of intelligence. To-day the man
that plants his apple, pear, cherry, or
any other kind of fruit tree, on soil unprepared, or in a crude state, is left. It is
a common practice among farmers and
slothful horticulturists generally, to order
trees every year from nurserymen, or buy
from agents and transplant them in the
unprepared soil as nature left it. Here
they receive no cultivation, no fertilizers.
no attention or encouragement whatever,
The grass and weeds spring up, and absorb the moisture and steal the food
from the soil. Tbe tree, if it grows at all,
looks just like the fellow who set it out.
After many years of experience, patience
and practice In planting and growing the
various kinds of small and large fruits, I
find the fall the proper time to prepare
the ground for the future orchard or berry
patch. Select a track of suitable land for
these fruits, aud if not previously heavily
manured, haul at least 30 or 40 tons of well
rotted barn yard manure to the acre and
spread it evenly over the surface, and then
with a two horse plow turn this under and
leave it until the following spring. When
this ground is rebroken In the spring, and
the manure properly Incorporated with
the soil, it gives ns a good bed for trees or
plants to grow in. If the trees or plants
We to be set in the fall, the ground should
be enriched, if not previously made so,
and then put in the best possible condition
by plowing, harrowing and dragging.
I find the best time to set fruit trees is
the fall. In the fall we generally are not
pushed with work as we are in the spring
and can take more time in the transplanting of the trees, and do the work better.
In the fall we generally find the ground
in much better condition to work than we
do in early spring. I find that trees
planted in the fall if properly done in a
well prepared soil, make the following
year, twice the growth of trees planted
late in the spring. We all have time to
plant trees in the fall, but many of us put
it cff until spring. When spring comes
we are so pushed with other work we
postpone planting until another year, and
then perhaps find some excuse and not
plant at all. There is no danger of losing
a tree or by transplanting in the fall, if
properly done and the tree or plant protected. Trees planted in the fall should
be banked up about the trunk eight or ten
inches with earth. Small fruits need a
mulch of straw .manure applied late in
the fall and removedjwhen warm weather
comes in the spring.
Blackberries, raspberries, currants and
gooseberries should be planted in the fall.
They all start to grow very early in the
spring, and here iu Indiana we often have
our heavy rains in the spring and do not
find the ground In condition to work so
soon.
The fall of the year is the best time to
do our pruning. After the wood has
matured and hardened we should attend
to this important work. Grape vines and
fruit trees pruned in the fall soon recover
from the wound** and when healed over the
wood is solid, while those pruned in the
spring often, if not always, take on a soft
rot and the tree soon perishes.
What can be done on a fruit farm, as
well or better in the fall, should never be
left until spring, and then perhaps not
done at all. The fall is the best time for
the small fruit grower to lay in his supplies of berry cases, and to build and repair his packing houses. Berry cases can
be bought in the fall at half what they
will cost in the berry season. Many of
our commission men, having new and
second hand cases left over, will sell them
this time of year very cheap to make
storage room for potatoes, apples, etc.
The fall is the best time to engage your
hands to work on your fruit farm the
following summer. If you delay this
matter until your fruits are ready to be
gathered, you often have to pick up raw
recruits, persons inexperienced in the
picking and handling of fruits. Good
berry pickers nearly always have a contract ahead, and If you do not engage them
In the fall you will not find them when
you want them in berry season.
The fall is the proper time to make arrangements for the disposition of your
fruits another year. If you are going to
let a commission man handle a part or all
of your fruits go to him now and make a
contract with him, and he will furnish
you cases at reduced rates, and stands free.
These you can haul home this fall and
store in your picking houses for future
use. If you propose to sell your fruits on
the streets, now is the time to map out
the district you intend to sell over. Do
not take in too mueh territory, just what
you can go over in about four or five
hours. Go over this district every fore
noon with your fine fresh berries and
you will have no trouble in finding customers to buy your whole load at a good
price.
Strawberry beds should be well mulched
late In the fall with clean wheat straw or
manure free from seeds. Some berry
growers wait until spring to do their
mulching and then do not do it at all.
The fall is the best Ume to haul  out a
good supply of manure for your fruit
farm. "If you want the old cow to give
milk, feed her well." If you want fine
fruit and plenty cf it, feed your trees, and
don't do it sparingly. If you want to become a successful horticulturist make
good use of your opportunities. Put your
wits to work, It is Intelligence that tells
in the end. Plant your fruit tree Beads in
the fail. Plant only those of the best
varieties that can be secured. Remember
it is the strain of blood in a Jersey cow
that tells.
THE SEED.
"A wonderfu* thing ls a seed,
The one thing deathless forever.
The one thing changeless—utterly true,
Forever old a..d forever new.
And fickle and faithless never. '
Plant blessings and blessings will bloom;
Plant hate acd hate will grow.
You can sow to-day, to-morrow shall bring
The bloom that shows what sort of a thing
Js the seed, the seed that you sow."
[Lord Beouhuton.
Recommends it to his Neighbors.
Editors Indiana Farmer: .
I can say I am well pleased with the
Economy sewing machine I bought from
you last January. I have loi ked at the
machines they have for sale at $35, and the
Economy, as far as I can tell, seems to be
every bit as good as theirs. I have been
recommending it to my neighbors.
John McFarland.
Medary ville, Indiana.
The Wheat In Market.
Editors Indiana Farmer:   -
The bulls and bears in the wheat pits at
New York, Chicago, Minneapolis, St. Louis,
Cincinnati and elsewhere are still engaged
in warfare, and now that London, Havre,
Antwerp, and other foreign ports of entry
for the grain shipped from this side, have
ceased purchasing in this market
temporarily, the bears have begun to
taunt the bulls with having pnt up prices
so high as to check the movement, in
short, with having something like designs
on the goose which is willing to go on laying golden eggs.
The bulls, or most of them, maintain
that Europe has got to take all the wheat
the United States will have to spare in
1891-1892, whether the total be 190,000,000
or 200,000,000"bushels or more; whereas the
the bears insist that prices must go otl or
Europe will not buy to the extent it
ortherwise would; In short, that Europe
will curtail its consumption of wheat If the
grain is to cost too much. It is worth not
ing how thoughtful and foresighted the
bears are. Now, lest some one who is not
used to the jargon of the market place be
led astray by the expression a "deficiency
in the world's supplies" of wheat, let it be
explained that the word is only used relatively and that a nominal deficiency is all
that Is referred to.
As put by a New York dally newspaper
which pays more attention to wheat than
any other daily in that city:—"The question is how much less wheat 200,000,000
people in a few of the most populous
countries of Europe will consume this
year, when their crops have proved a disastrous failure and their industries are
postrated and prices are high, tban they
usually consume. He would be a bold
man Indeed who would venture to predict
that the consumption would not vary as
much as half a bushel for each inhabitant,
from the average, and yet a variation no
greater than this would suffice to clear
away whatever supposed deficit in
European supply the figures have yet disclosed."
Your correspondent does not propose to
get up a controversy with the writer of the
foregoing, bnt one of the oldest members
of the New York grain trade, a thoroughly
representative member also, Mr. Henry T.
Kneeling, views the subject from what is
called by some a bull standpoint. He
says:
"The defiolency lu the foreign wheat
harvests seems greater now than It was
estimated two months ago; while the supply from America, owing to magnificent
harvests, H greater than was estimated to
be probable at that time."
"Tell us about prices, please, and their
probable effect on consumption."
"The price of wheat ia not h'gh. The
theory that high prices reduce consumption is merely a theory. Neither do low
prices increase it. I have studied the statistics for a generation, and I have never
found there was any material decrease in
the consumption of wheat owing to high
prices, nor any material increase in its
consumption owing to low prices. Professor Cairn, in his work on "Political
Economy" mentions this fact, and he
went on to say that while high prices of
meat, say beef, restricts consumption
materially, there is no evidence that an advance or a decline in the price of wheat
changes the consumption materially either
way. It is this fact that makes speculation in breadstuff** so excaedingly attractive. The pric-3 at which one crop is
marketed, even if it be a small crop bears
no relation to the price at which a much
larger crop the ensuing year may be
marketed."
"What of the so-called world's supply
of wheat?"
'•I holdto the opinion that it is conclusive, from all the evidence before us, that
there is less wheat In the world to-day
than there was one year ago; and that
prices must reach a high range during the
ensuing crop year, and be maintained at
that high range of values because of the
deficiency in the rye crop in Russia,which
materially it creases the consumption of
wheat."
Now, that is good bull doctrine, of course,
but whether the views set fourth will
prove true or not the month of July, 1892,
will probably reveal to us.
Within the past week there has been a
marked im provement in the feeling among
speculators, investors and others in Wall
Street. This has been caused primarily
by the awakened interest in American
rail and other securities in London and on
the Continent of Europe. The prospects
for a good year for American carriers
are easy to be seen even by foreigners, and
whenever there is something in sight
wh'ch ts reasonably like "a sure thing"
our English and Continental friends can
almost always be found to have something left to invest, even if the times are a
little hard so soon after the Argentine
crash. Prospective English and other
foreign purchasers of American securities
are such, in view of those already made
that the one remaining bugbear in the
street has been practically removed. I refer to the fear that foreigners might seek
to pay us for our wheat with our own securities, thus presenting the return of
gold. The street takes it to mean that
with Europe buying American shares and
bonds and wheat, she must pay for part in
gold. The weakening foreign exchange
rates encourage this view also, and it will
not require much more to find stocks and
wheat going up in price together, something which has not happened before
since the boom in 1879-'83. Real estate investors are waiting to be assured of the
upward movement, and should the demand for iron start up, prices would be
likely to tend upwards all along the line.
Albkbt C. Stevens.
New York, August 27.
No Fanlt to Find.
Editors Indiana Farmer:
We are well pleased with the Economy
sewing machine. Have used it nine
months and have no fault to find. Will
also say that we like the Farmer very
much. Wilber Creek.
Yoeman, Ind.