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WEEKtf VOL. XXVI. i- INDIANAPOLIS, IND., NOV. 14,1891. NO. 43 Our New York Letter. From Our Regular Correspondent: The government crop report, so far as the wheat crop Is concerned, was a surprise to many, In that It places the probable average yield per acre at 15 bushels, a rate of production on the average which I believe has not been heretofore reached, should tbis estimated yield of wheat throughout the country be general, some of the larger estimates as to the size of the crop will be likely to prove true, though it must not be overlooked that serious damage has been done to wheat in the northwest since the report .was prepared, and that the report itself admits a decreased average in California. It is n >t improbable, even after making due allowance for these drawbacks if the 15 bushel per acre estimate be accepted, that our wheat crop this year may touch the unprecedented total of 580,000,000 bushels, acd It will. be of interest, two months hence, to note how far this total will vary from the "official" crop estimate which will be due about the middle of December. One month ago government reports were construed to point to a yield of about 550,000,000, although a well known Cincinnati bread stufls and provision journal has long contended that 535,000,- 000 bushels would prove about correct, and a prominent Philadelphia daily has stuck a "pin in at the 000,000,000 bushel mark. Indian corn crop prospects have "'Brightened ia'M6'TXgEr^1~mmt~*SpattB; but the cotton crop has probably been damaged quite a good deal. It should not be overlooked, however, that present damage to cotton has been offset by improvement in price. General business is still marked by a somewhat slower general movement, although there ls no depression observable. Gold arrivals by European steamers and the practical elimination.of the so called "silver scare," in the face of such elements of prosperity as unprecedented grain harvests and large crops of cotton, fruit and vegetables, rapidly increasiug railway earnings, and impibving bank clearing", with increased probable demands for our surpluses from Europe, will render it doubtful if 1891-1892 can help being one of marked commercial and industrial ac.ivity. In explanation of the seeming delay in the revival of the demand for iron and steel, Mr. Joseph D. Weeks, Editor of the American Manufacturer, than whom perhaps no one is better informed on that subject, writes me as follows: "I do not think that, with the possible exception of the steel rail makers, the iron and steel trades of the country have any reason to complain of the volume of business. It is simply enormous. Possibly the returns for the year 1S91 will not show as large a volume of business as those of 1S90 exhibited, but still the production will be very large, so that, on the score of volume of business, as I state, I do not think that the Iron and steel manufacturers of the country can complain. I have excepted steel rails from tbis general statement, but I do not think that the output of steel rails in 1891 will be by any means the smallest in recent years, and if the railroads buy as they ought to be able to do, in view of the heavy traffic that they are receiving and that is promised them, I thing the early part of 1892 will find heavy orders for steel rails on the books of our manufacturers. While the prices received for product are less than they were ln 1890, I do not believe that, on the whole, tbey are unsatisfactory. In some localities the prices received for pig iron may have been too low, and it ls possible that in certain branches of the iron trade where raw ma terials were bought at a high price and the product sold at a low price, profits may be small, but yet on the whole I believe that they will not be entirely unsatisfactory when stock is'taken on the first of the year. "And this is all happening in the face of the fact that we have enormous capacity for production, a capacity very much in excess of our wants at the present time, and built largely on the future. The demand of the country Is by no means equal to keeping this capacity employed, and when in addition to actual increase in plants,furnaces, trains of]rolla,etc.,itis remembered that old works have greatly increased their capacity for output, it will be seen at once how much idle capacity there is waiting for emplsyment, and I think it ia this that has prevented the revival ln the iron and steel trades, as the reports in the Americau Manufacturer for July, August and September show that we have made mote iron in these three months than was made in the corresponding three months of 1890, the last six months of 1890 giving the largest production of pig iron ever known in our history. The first part of the year there was considerable fall off In production as compared with 1890, owing to the strtke in the coke regions, and the shutting down of the Mahoning and Shenange Valley furnaces, but for the last three months we have been making more iron than for the corresponding trade of 1890. A somewhat similar condition of affairs exists in other branches of the iron industry, so I think it may be safely said that the reason why the iron and steel tftM&s _.rtf_ltfW lrr*revl-_.njr*_!r the enormous capacity for production that we have in the country, a capacity much in excess of our present demand." Albert C. Stevens. New York, Oct. 15. Threshing* ln California. Editors Indiana Farmer: Suppose you go with me to a thrashing now in progress at neighbor Crawford's. You will notice this crop of barley has been cut by a header. There are about 400 acres in the field, and for the sake of convenience the grain is piled in loDg ridges, ln perhaps tix or seven places. No effort la made to rick the barley with a view to turning rain. Though cut the first of July, and ricked as fast as cut, it has laid there without even a stack bottom ever since. The header cuts through 12 feet wide, and loads it into an immense grain wagon, driven by the side of the machine. Two of these wagons are required to a machine, one unloading while the other is being loaded. Thus binding and shocking is dispensed with. The header ls a rtality of the "cart before the horse." The horses are hitched behind the machine. The steering is done by a rudder, the driver standing astride of it; inclining it to ths right or left, while both hands are manipulating the lines of tbe four or six horses driven abreast. With this imperfect description of cutting and ricking, we will pass to the arrangements and machinery for this work, which are quite novel to a Hoosier. All the owner has to to do about the whole job is to provide tbe sacks and haul off the grain. The latter, however, is not always done at once, and it is no uncommon thing to see ricks of sacks filled with grain in the field, with nothing between them and the ground, or to keep off the rain for weeks before they are stored away or sold. The owner does not have to kill a pig or chickens, or even prepare fuel for steam, and the women have no additional work to do In cooking, or bed making. The thresher goes prepared to board himself, has his hotel on wheels, does his own cooking, and sleeping, feeds his horses on the grain he is threshing, and burns straw in his engino for steam. The entire outfit comprises from 17 to 20 men, and from 20 to .5 head of horses are used In hauling water. The thresher is similar to those back East, except lt is larger, but lt has two carriers, one conveys the grain to the cylinder, and stands at right angles to the thresher, and near the ground. A derrick stands over this and a man seated at the outer end of the carrier operates two immense straw forks by machinery attached to the derrick. Each of these forks is worked by a man drawing it back to the pile of grain to be threshed, where it is inserted and then it is elevated over the carrier and the grain dropped on it. Tbe forks work alternately. You now see the use of the double row of ricks. The carrier is between these and one fork is used on each rick. Two men stand at the pile of grain dropped on the carrier, and rake it on as evenly and as fast as necessary, and from there it ls carried about 25 feet to the cylinder, but no one is required to "feed" aa with you back East. You see they dispose of the straw differently from what prevails with you. Two horses blindfolded by placing a common grain sack with one side ripped open over their heads, and reaching down below their noses, open end down, and the silt fitting around the n«ak sorves to keep the (Just, or the most of it out of their eyes and noses. These are attached to each end of a scantling about 12 feet in length, and when the pile of straw Is of proper size, one horse is driven on one side, and the other on the other side, drawing the scantling against the straw, and thus it ls dragged away ,-and scattered about to- get rid of it, an occasional load being taken to the engine for fuel. The grain is all sacked and sewed up. Generally two men do the sowing, and it is wonderful how dexterously tney do it. AU this large outfit can be set up and started in ten minutes. With these trained men the novelty has worn off, and everything goes like clock work. They claim to thresh from 1,100 to 1,500 sacks a day. The sacks average 105 pounds. Take 1,300 sacks as an average and we will have 2,275 bushels as a day's work. They charge 10 a sack for threshing. Hope this will compare favorably with "Threshing In Kansas" In Indiana Farmer of Oct. 24th. A. Furnas. ElModena, Cal. . m » Bee Answers a Reader From Tippecanoe County. Editors Indiana Farmer: Has the querist asking for a remedy to "rid" his family of "city visitors," during the busy season, ever tried paying them back in their own coin J If not try it; and if your city friends are stylish people, invite some old fashioned acquaintance to accompany you, one who eDjoys wearing ancient clothing. I never shall forget when a girl In my "teens," of the mortification a family I was visiting endured at the arrival of a family of relatives from the country to eat Christmas dinner with them, and they with a houseful of city guests. "Uncle George" wanted to look extraordinarily fine, and he did. He wore a silk bat tbat he had bought years before when he had lived In "town," a black broadcloth coat, of ancient date, a buff vest, and brown jeans pants. "Aunt Lucretia," made no change in her toilet, w aring a many colored flannel dress, a black silk apron, a bright shawl and hood. I am sure If our friend from Tippecanoe county, will try something similar he will not be troubled any more in the busy season with city visitors. I think city relatives who make themselves burdensome during the busy time with their country relative^ need a lesson. If our city friends will visit at such a time, let them roll up their sleeves and assist with the work. Now ln the incident I mentioned, it was quite wrong of course for the oity relatives to be ashamed of the old oouple from the country, yet It was not an unusual occurrence. At such* a time "aunt Lucretla's golden butter, delightful bread, preserves, and delicious this, that and the other" are entirely lost sight of and wonder why they did not send word they were coming, and then they would have sent some excuse to have kept them at home. They forget how they visit at Uncle George's every summer, never sending word, and often find aunt Lucretia and ber help in the midst of a washing, they must hurry through with in order to prepare a dinner for the harvesters. Asa rule country people are very hospitable, and I have seen farmers' wives and daughters in limited circumstances receive a carriage load of visitors from town with smiling faces, wait upon them, serving their very best food, and at the same time knowing there was work that could hardly be laid aside at this particular time. We all know that the busy season with the farmers'wife and daughters is just the time when city friends long for green fields, cooling streams, and a swinging hammock under some luscious fruit tree, with an interesting book for company, and after a while to hear a pleasant call to dinner or supper, as it may be; and tbe red and perspiring faces of the cooks tell their own story to those who wish to read. I am sure that the correspondent from Tippecanoe complains only ot the relatives who come at the busy season, to be waited upon, instead of making themselves useful. It would be a' hard matter also for friends with a family of little ones, and some of their neighbors thrown' ln, to be very useful, so I trust next summer they will, for the sake of many, rest under their own vine and fig tree. B__. Written for the Indiana Farmer. How Electricity Moves the Street Cars. BY R. HASSK M. D. Although Electric street cars have now almost got to be common in nearly all of our cities,notwithstanding their comparatively recent introduction, there is hardly any application of the electric force, that arouses more of a lively curiosity ani wonder in most intelligent minds, than the conversion of the electric current into that invisible force that drives the electric cars. From the bare copper wire lines over head, which are in connection with the heavier and insulated feed wire lines, strung from pole to pole along the road, the electric current comes down into the propelling gear or motor, which is located under the motor car, by way of that wheel- tipped rod above. An Insulated rod that runs down through one side of the car, connects tbat rod, at its universal joint end, which is mounted on the car _ top, with a switch which can be worked from, either plat farm, in order to close or to open the circuit, for allowing the electric current to reach the motor when starting, or shutting off the current when the car Is to be stopped. The instant the current enters the motor at the particular part, one of the two brushes that bear on the communicator the electricity runs through the several hundred yards of wire, which is wound around the field magnets ahd the armature of which every motor consists, and makes these parts correspondingly magnetic. This magnetization it is which pulls the revolving armature continuously around to meet the field magnet poles, which In turn exerts its traction force through appropriate driving gear upon the wheel axles of the car. The electric current takes lis passage through the car wheels and the rails, back again into the electric generators at the power station, thus completing the circuit through them. Indianapolis. By the Japanese earthquake 7,500 house,;*, I were wrecked and 6,500 people killed.
Object Description
Title | Indiana farmer, 1891, v. 26, no. 46 (Nov. 14) |
Purdue Identification Number | INFA2646 |
Date of Original | 1891 |
Subjects (LCSH) |
Agriculture Farm management Horticulture Agricultural machinery |
Subjects (NALT) |
agriculture farm management horticulture agricultural machinery and equipment |
Genre | Periodical |
Call Number of Original | 630.5 In2 |
Location of Original | Hicks Repository |
Coverage | United States - Indiana |
Type | text |
Format | JP2 |
Language | eng |
Collection Title | Indiana Farmer |
Rights Statement | Content in the Indiana Farmer Collection is in the public domain (published before 1923) or lacks a known copyright holder. Digital images in the collection may be used for educational, non-commercial, or not-for-profit purposes. |
Repository | Purdue University Libraries |
Date Digitized | 2011-01-18 |
Digitization Information | Original scanned at 300 ppi on a Bookeye 3 scanner using internal software. Display images generated in CONTENTdm as JP2000s; file format for archival copy is uncompressed TIF format. |
Description
Title | Page 1 |
Subjects (LCSH) |
Agriculture Farm management Horticulture Agricultural machinery |
Subjects (NALT) |
agriculture farm management horticulture agricultural machinery and equipment |
Genre | Periodical |
Call Number of Original | 630.5 In2 |
Location of Original | Hicks Repository |
Coverage | Indiana |
Type | text |
Format | JP2 |
Language | eng |
Collection Title | Indiana Farmer |
Rights Statement | Content in the Indiana Farmer Collection is in the public domain (published before 1923) or lacks a known copyright holder. Digital images in the collection may be used for educational, non-commercial, or non-for-profit purposes. |
Repository | Purdue University Libraries |
Digitization Information | Orignal scanned at 300 ppi on a Bookeye 3 scanner using internal software. Display images generated in CONTENTdm as JP2000s; file format for archival copy is uncompressed TIF format. |
Transcript | WEEKtf VOL. XXVI. i- INDIANAPOLIS, IND., NOV. 14,1891. NO. 43 Our New York Letter. From Our Regular Correspondent: The government crop report, so far as the wheat crop Is concerned, was a surprise to many, In that It places the probable average yield per acre at 15 bushels, a rate of production on the average which I believe has not been heretofore reached, should tbis estimated yield of wheat throughout the country be general, some of the larger estimates as to the size of the crop will be likely to prove true, though it must not be overlooked that serious damage has been done to wheat in the northwest since the report .was prepared, and that the report itself admits a decreased average in California. It is n >t improbable, even after making due allowance for these drawbacks if the 15 bushel per acre estimate be accepted, that our wheat crop this year may touch the unprecedented total of 580,000,000 bushels, acd It will. be of interest, two months hence, to note how far this total will vary from the "official" crop estimate which will be due about the middle of December. One month ago government reports were construed to point to a yield of about 550,000,000, although a well known Cincinnati bread stufls and provision journal has long contended that 535,000,- 000 bushels would prove about correct, and a prominent Philadelphia daily has stuck a "pin in at the 000,000,000 bushel mark. Indian corn crop prospects have "'Brightened ia'M6'TXgEr^1~mmt~*SpattB; but the cotton crop has probably been damaged quite a good deal. It should not be overlooked, however, that present damage to cotton has been offset by improvement in price. General business is still marked by a somewhat slower general movement, although there ls no depression observable. Gold arrivals by European steamers and the practical elimination.of the so called "silver scare," in the face of such elements of prosperity as unprecedented grain harvests and large crops of cotton, fruit and vegetables, rapidly increasiug railway earnings, and impibving bank clearing", with increased probable demands for our surpluses from Europe, will render it doubtful if 1891-1892 can help being one of marked commercial and industrial ac.ivity. In explanation of the seeming delay in the revival of the demand for iron and steel, Mr. Joseph D. Weeks, Editor of the American Manufacturer, than whom perhaps no one is better informed on that subject, writes me as follows: "I do not think that, with the possible exception of the steel rail makers, the iron and steel trades of the country have any reason to complain of the volume of business. It is simply enormous. Possibly the returns for the year 1S91 will not show as large a volume of business as those of 1S90 exhibited, but still the production will be very large, so that, on the score of volume of business, as I state, I do not think that the Iron and steel manufacturers of the country can complain. I have excepted steel rails from tbis general statement, but I do not think that the output of steel rails in 1891 will be by any means the smallest in recent years, and if the railroads buy as they ought to be able to do, in view of the heavy traffic that they are receiving and that is promised them, I thing the early part of 1892 will find heavy orders for steel rails on the books of our manufacturers. While the prices received for product are less than they were ln 1890, I do not believe that, on the whole, tbey are unsatisfactory. In some localities the prices received for pig iron may have been too low, and it ls possible that in certain branches of the iron trade where raw ma terials were bought at a high price and the product sold at a low price, profits may be small, but yet on the whole I believe that they will not be entirely unsatisfactory when stock is'taken on the first of the year. "And this is all happening in the face of the fact that we have enormous capacity for production, a capacity very much in excess of our wants at the present time, and built largely on the future. The demand of the country Is by no means equal to keeping this capacity employed, and when in addition to actual increase in plants,furnaces, trains of]rolla,etc.,itis remembered that old works have greatly increased their capacity for output, it will be seen at once how much idle capacity there is waiting for emplsyment, and I think it ia this that has prevented the revival ln the iron and steel trades, as the reports in the Americau Manufacturer for July, August and September show that we have made mote iron in these three months than was made in the corresponding three months of 1890, the last six months of 1890 giving the largest production of pig iron ever known in our history. The first part of the year there was considerable fall off In production as compared with 1890, owing to the strtke in the coke regions, and the shutting down of the Mahoning and Shenange Valley furnaces, but for the last three months we have been making more iron than for the corresponding trade of 1890. A somewhat similar condition of affairs exists in other branches of the iron industry, so I think it may be safely said that the reason why the iron and steel tftM&s _.rtf_ltfW lrr*revl-_.njr*_!r the enormous capacity for production that we have in the country, a capacity much in excess of our present demand." Albert C. Stevens. New York, Oct. 15. Threshing* ln California. Editors Indiana Farmer: Suppose you go with me to a thrashing now in progress at neighbor Crawford's. You will notice this crop of barley has been cut by a header. There are about 400 acres in the field, and for the sake of convenience the grain is piled in loDg ridges, ln perhaps tix or seven places. No effort la made to rick the barley with a view to turning rain. Though cut the first of July, and ricked as fast as cut, it has laid there without even a stack bottom ever since. The header cuts through 12 feet wide, and loads it into an immense grain wagon, driven by the side of the machine. Two of these wagons are required to a machine, one unloading while the other is being loaded. Thus binding and shocking is dispensed with. The header ls a rtality of the "cart before the horse." The horses are hitched behind the machine. The steering is done by a rudder, the driver standing astride of it; inclining it to ths right or left, while both hands are manipulating the lines of tbe four or six horses driven abreast. With this imperfect description of cutting and ricking, we will pass to the arrangements and machinery for this work, which are quite novel to a Hoosier. All the owner has to to do about the whole job is to provide tbe sacks and haul off the grain. The latter, however, is not always done at once, and it is no uncommon thing to see ricks of sacks filled with grain in the field, with nothing between them and the ground, or to keep off the rain for weeks before they are stored away or sold. The owner does not have to kill a pig or chickens, or even prepare fuel for steam, and the women have no additional work to do In cooking, or bed making. The thresher goes prepared to board himself, has his hotel on wheels, does his own cooking, and sleeping, feeds his horses on the grain he is threshing, and burns straw in his engino for steam. The entire outfit comprises from 17 to 20 men, and from 20 to .5 head of horses are used In hauling water. The thresher is similar to those back East, except lt is larger, but lt has two carriers, one conveys the grain to the cylinder, and stands at right angles to the thresher, and near the ground. A derrick stands over this and a man seated at the outer end of the carrier operates two immense straw forks by machinery attached to the derrick. Each of these forks is worked by a man drawing it back to the pile of grain to be threshed, where it is inserted and then it is elevated over the carrier and the grain dropped on it. Tbe forks work alternately. You now see the use of the double row of ricks. The carrier is between these and one fork is used on each rick. Two men stand at the pile of grain dropped on the carrier, and rake it on as evenly and as fast as necessary, and from there it ls carried about 25 feet to the cylinder, but no one is required to "feed" aa with you back East. You see they dispose of the straw differently from what prevails with you. Two horses blindfolded by placing a common grain sack with one side ripped open over their heads, and reaching down below their noses, open end down, and the silt fitting around the n«ak sorves to keep the (Just, or the most of it out of their eyes and noses. These are attached to each end of a scantling about 12 feet in length, and when the pile of straw Is of proper size, one horse is driven on one side, and the other on the other side, drawing the scantling against the straw, and thus it ls dragged away ,-and scattered about to- get rid of it, an occasional load being taken to the engine for fuel. The grain is all sacked and sewed up. Generally two men do the sowing, and it is wonderful how dexterously tney do it. AU this large outfit can be set up and started in ten minutes. With these trained men the novelty has worn off, and everything goes like clock work. They claim to thresh from 1,100 to 1,500 sacks a day. The sacks average 105 pounds. Take 1,300 sacks as an average and we will have 2,275 bushels as a day's work. They charge 10 a sack for threshing. Hope this will compare favorably with "Threshing In Kansas" In Indiana Farmer of Oct. 24th. A. Furnas. ElModena, Cal. . m » Bee Answers a Reader From Tippecanoe County. Editors Indiana Farmer: Has the querist asking for a remedy to "rid" his family of "city visitors," during the busy season, ever tried paying them back in their own coin J If not try it; and if your city friends are stylish people, invite some old fashioned acquaintance to accompany you, one who eDjoys wearing ancient clothing. I never shall forget when a girl In my "teens," of the mortification a family I was visiting endured at the arrival of a family of relatives from the country to eat Christmas dinner with them, and they with a houseful of city guests. "Uncle George" wanted to look extraordinarily fine, and he did. He wore a silk bat tbat he had bought years before when he had lived In "town," a black broadcloth coat, of ancient date, a buff vest, and brown jeans pants. "Aunt Lucretia," made no change in her toilet, w aring a many colored flannel dress, a black silk apron, a bright shawl and hood. I am sure If our friend from Tippecanoe county, will try something similar he will not be troubled any more in the busy season with city visitors. I think city relatives who make themselves burdensome during the busy time with their country relative^ need a lesson. If our city friends will visit at such a time, let them roll up their sleeves and assist with the work. Now ln the incident I mentioned, it was quite wrong of course for the oity relatives to be ashamed of the old oouple from the country, yet It was not an unusual occurrence. At such* a time "aunt Lucretla's golden butter, delightful bread, preserves, and delicious this, that and the other" are entirely lost sight of and wonder why they did not send word they were coming, and then they would have sent some excuse to have kept them at home. They forget how they visit at Uncle George's every summer, never sending word, and often find aunt Lucretia and ber help in the midst of a washing, they must hurry through with in order to prepare a dinner for the harvesters. Asa rule country people are very hospitable, and I have seen farmers' wives and daughters in limited circumstances receive a carriage load of visitors from town with smiling faces, wait upon them, serving their very best food, and at the same time knowing there was work that could hardly be laid aside at this particular time. We all know that the busy season with the farmers'wife and daughters is just the time when city friends long for green fields, cooling streams, and a swinging hammock under some luscious fruit tree, with an interesting book for company, and after a while to hear a pleasant call to dinner or supper, as it may be; and tbe red and perspiring faces of the cooks tell their own story to those who wish to read. I am sure that the correspondent from Tippecanoe complains only ot the relatives who come at the busy season, to be waited upon, instead of making themselves useful. It would be a' hard matter also for friends with a family of little ones, and some of their neighbors thrown' ln, to be very useful, so I trust next summer they will, for the sake of many, rest under their own vine and fig tree. B__. Written for the Indiana Farmer. How Electricity Moves the Street Cars. BY R. HASSK M. D. Although Electric street cars have now almost got to be common in nearly all of our cities,notwithstanding their comparatively recent introduction, there is hardly any application of the electric force, that arouses more of a lively curiosity ani wonder in most intelligent minds, than the conversion of the electric current into that invisible force that drives the electric cars. From the bare copper wire lines over head, which are in connection with the heavier and insulated feed wire lines, strung from pole to pole along the road, the electric current comes down into the propelling gear or motor, which is located under the motor car, by way of that wheel- tipped rod above. An Insulated rod that runs down through one side of the car, connects tbat rod, at its universal joint end, which is mounted on the car _ top, with a switch which can be worked from, either plat farm, in order to close or to open the circuit, for allowing the electric current to reach the motor when starting, or shutting off the current when the car Is to be stopped. The instant the current enters the motor at the particular part, one of the two brushes that bear on the communicator the electricity runs through the several hundred yards of wire, which is wound around the field magnets ahd the armature of which every motor consists, and makes these parts correspondingly magnetic. This magnetization it is which pulls the revolving armature continuously around to meet the field magnet poles, which In turn exerts its traction force through appropriate driving gear upon the wheel axles of the car. The electric current takes lis passage through the car wheels and the rails, back again into the electric generators at the power station, thus completing the circuit through them. Indianapolis. By the Japanese earthquake 7,500 house,;*, I were wrecked and 6,500 people killed. |
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