VOL. XXVIII.
INDIANAPOLIS, IND.  SEPT. 9, 1893.
NO. 36.
WEATHER CROP BULLETIN.
Department of Agriculture United States
Weather Bureau. Crop Bulletin of the Indiana Weather. Service in Co-operation
With the Agricultural Experiment Station
at Purdue University, Tuesday, September
5, 1893.
The drouth continued over the greater
portion of the State and sufficient showers
to do good fell only over very few fields in
the souther portionn. The average temperature was below the normal, with cool
nights and not very warm days. Uninterrupted sunshine prevailed every day.
Corn is turning yellow and the ears on
late-planted fields are still soft and undeveloped, and even should good rains come
soon they would not improve the corn
much in most localities. "Vegetation looks
dusty and withered and the leaves on
trees are browing and falling. Water is
getting more scarce every day, and farmers commenced to feed their stock, as the
pastures are ruined. Light frosts occurred
in some few localities on Wednesday
morning, doing no injury.   .
SOUTHERN POBTION.
Greene Co.—Moderately warm days and
cool nights, with a good rain on the 27th
expresses the meteorological conditions
for the past week; wheat is being sown
quite rapidly, the ground being in fairly
good condition; the early-planted corn
will soon be safe'from frost, but the late-
planted is yet green and the ear soft; there
will not be enough winter apples in Greene
county to supply half a dozen families.
Rainfall, 1.43.
Warrick Co.—Clear and warm days and
cool nights continued; beautiful weather
for the county fair; the best corn is not
more than half a crop; pastures are almost
gone; water is getting scarce in some
places.   No rain.
Dubois Co.—Late corn is looking much
better and with another good rain will
make a half crop; late potatoes are looking
well except where bugs have injured them;
still there will probably be two-thirds of a
crop.
Jackson Co.—Another week of pro
tracted drouth to the serious injury of
corn, pastures and late vegetables; at
Brownstown there fell a little rain on. Saturday and Sunday; fall plowing is delayed; people and live stock are inconvenienced and suffering for want of water;
field and forest fires are numerous and
destructive and generally the crop outlook
is not encouraging; grasshoppers are cutting vegetation in some fields.   No rain.
Decatur Co.—Another very dry warm
week, except very cool nights bordering
close onto frost; the corn "crop in the dry
portions of the county is about ruined, it
probably will be good for fodder but will
last only to the time when farmers generally begin to feed hay or fodder; the drouth
Is proving damaging to all growing crops.
No rain.
CENTRAL PORTION.
Marion Co.—Cool temperature, especially during the night, and much sunshine
prevailed; no rain on most fields; corn is
growing yellow fastjeverything is dry and
dusty, and losses following. Rainfall, 0.01.
Johnson Co.—No good rain has fallen
here for eleven weeks; vegetation is drying; the leaves of the trees are drying and
falling like in dctober; much corn on clay
ground is killed by the drouth, while
much on black and rich soil looks fair;
Franklin, in this county, has now a water
famine; the drouth is the most severe
known here at this time of year, and very
little ground is broken for wheat. No
rain.
Shelby Co.—The corn crop will yield
about one-half of an average crop; plowing for wheat has been generally abandoned, it being too dry.   No rain.
NORTHERN PORTION
Allen Co.—No rain yet; everything is
drying up; pastures are burned by the
drouth; water is getting very scarce; wells,
cisterns and small streams are getting dry;
many farmers have to drive their stock to
water and the stock has to be fed; some
are cutting corn and are digging potatoes,
corn will yield about half a crop; potatoes
one-fourth.   No rain.
Koscuisko Co.—The bottom land corn is
holding its own; some corn is being cut;
preparing wheat lands is in progret s but
the ground is not in very good condition;
a large acreage will be sown; frost on
Tuesday night did some damage to low
growing crops; all superflous stock is being disposed of because of lack of food.
Rainfall 010.
Laporte Co.—The drouth is with us still
and pastures are_ as bare as in winter; cows
and horses are being fed on hay; roads are
very dusty; the corn is nearly all dried up
and as it and other vegetation is ruined
the frosts on Tuesday and Wednesday did
no damage.   No rain.
Newton Co —Weather cool and dry; a
light frost on the Wednesday morning
injured late corn in spots; it was not general.   Rainfall, trace.
Carroll Co.—Frost on the morning of
Wednesday destroyed cucumber vines in
low flat grounds; no injury on upland.
Tippecanoe Co.—The weather this week
has been quite cool; especially at night,but
with the exception of a little shower on
Saturday the drouth continued; a light
frost formed on Tuesday night; it did no
damage and was only in certain localities.
Rainfall, 0.04.
Steuben Co.—The drouth continued, and
it is the driest time noted here for 20 years;
the nights were quite cool and the days
warm; farmers are cutting corn; pastures
are all dried up; farmers are plowing for
wheat with the ground very dry; stock of
all kinds is doing well, but farmers will
have to feed if the drouth continues. No
rain.
H. A. Huston,
Director Indiana Weather Service.
Per C. F. R. Wappknhans,
Weather Bureau, Assistant Director.
tSztxsxul Mews.
Fashionable Tea-Drlnkinsr..
The temperance administration made
tea-drinking more popular than ever
in Washington. The women here seem to
make it in the best possible way. Perhaps
they learn it from the observation at the
house of diplomates, as at these receptions
they are able to see the methods used by
nations who have been cooking it for a
longer, period than we have. Since our
first great national tea party, at BostoD,
we have not been a tea-drinking people,
but Americans learn to drink it while
abroad, and it is becoming a more fashionable beverage every year. Tea a la Russe
is the rage at present, prepared with a
samovar, which is a part of the Russian
tea service. Russian tea can be made very
well without a samovar, after all, I am
told by a lady who has traveled in that
country, and who is, besides, a good house
wife. A samovar is merely a silver-plated
tank with a charcoal burner beneath, and
the tea is boiled in the tank. The tea may
be strong, or weak, or of any brand, but
no milk must be used, and when it is
poured into the delicate porcelain cups a
bit of lemon must be put in it with Ihe
sugar. Sugar-tongs, forks or fingers may
be used in handing the lemon to your
guests.—Washington Ex.
MixU flcxos.
There is a genuine case of Asiatic cholera
at Jersey City.
There was a violent storm Rome, N. Y.
The report of it says that "hail stones as
big as tomatees, weighing a quarter of a
pound, fell."
Fiveihundred Arkansas convicts have
been leased to work on the Mississippi
levees. This will make the prison self-
sustaining.
A protest has been sent from California
to.the treasury department at Washington
against the importation of all kinds of
dried fruits from foreign countries.
Dr. T. T. Graves, of Denver, who
figured in one of the most celebrated murder cases in the history of the country)
committed suicide in the jail at Denver on
Sunday.
The Portuguese government has declared
the port of Pensacola, Fla., to be infected
with yellow fever and has ordered the detention in quarantine of all vessels arriving from that port.
Cattle near Bloomington, 111., are suffering from a peculiar disease of the eyes,
which rerralts in total blindness. The disease is contagious and was brought by
animals from western Missouri.
A case of yellow fever has been discovered at Port Tampa, Fla., in the person of
a clerk employed on the steamship pier.
Quarantine has been established, and it is
believed that the disease will not spread.
In a street car accident on the Avondale
line in Cincinnati one girl was killed, six
persons fatally injured and nine dangerously hurt. The brakes refused to work
and the car got beyond control on a steep
grade.
Latent news from the Peary Arctic expedition is rather discouraging. On August 5 Lieutenant Peary was at Nain, Labrador, and had failed in his efforts to purchase dogs, without which the expedition
can do nothing. He offered 40 cents each,
but the Esquimaux would not sell for less
than $4 and $5 each. As the party is now
a month behind its schedule time and the
Falcon is certain to be frozen up the future
of the expedition is problematical.
Birds in Japan.
In Japan the birds are regarded as sacred, and never under any pretense are
they permitted to be destroyed. During
the stay of Commodore Perry, in that
country a few of his officers started on a
gunning excursion. No sooner did the
people observe the cruel slaughtering of
their favorites than a number of them
waited upon the Commodore and remonstrated against the conduct of the officers.
There was no more bird shooting in Japan
by A merican officers after that; and when
the treaty between the two countries was
concluded, one expressed condition of it
was that the birds should be protected.
What a commentary upon the inhuman
practice of our people who indiscriminately shoot everything in the form of a
bird which has the misfortune to come
within the range of their murderous
weapons.
. On top of the tombstones in Japan a
small cavity or trough is chiseled which
the priets every morning fill with fresh
water for the birds. Enlightened
America, Mr. Lergh, president of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, thinks, should imitate these cus
toms of the heathen Japanese, if not by
providing water for the feathered warblers, at least by protecting them from
vagabonds who uselessly destroy them or
rob their nests.
Ho! Traveler take Beecham's Pills.
The grasshoppers have reached Posey
county.
Hoar frost was visible in Montgomery
county last week.
Counterfeit twenty-dollar gold pieces
are circulatingat Bloomington.
Gov. Matthews called out the militia to
prevent the fight at Roby on Monday.
Indianapolis never looked more beautiful than she does now in honor of the G.
A. R. encampment.
Twenty-two inmates of the Soldiers'
Home at Marion have received notice of
suspension of pensions.
Fire destroyed a new thresher owned by
W. J. Richey, and 100 bushels of grain belonging to Pat Overman, near Leota.
While turning a saw-log in a mill at Orleans, Moses Johnson was struck by a
canthook, breaking his cheek bone and
causing a hemorrhage of which he will
die.
While the son of George Inco, of Grand-
view, was in the barn saddling a horse,
lightning struck the barn and killed the
horse. The lad was uninjured. The barn
was consumed.   Loss S2,000.
At a meeting of the monument commission on last Friday, it was decided to remove (he dates of the Mexican war at the
top of the monument, leaving only the
dates 1861 and 1865 in commemoration of
the soldiers who fought in the late war..
Dr. U. B. Kerr, of New York, who treated several hundred cases of smallpox for
the government in the Northwest, diagnosis the disease at Muncie as smallpox of a
mild type. He predicts that there will be
but little trouble in stamping it out.
Henry C. White, of Madison, was found
lying in the alley by his stable door,uncon-
scious and with his scalp and ear badly
tor **. It is supposed that he fell in a faint
and his horse stepped on him. He is one
of the best known residents of Madison.
David Morris, of Starke connty, after
rounding off a straw stack, undertook to
slide down, pitchfork in hand. He was
unable to slacken his speed, and the lower
end of the pitchfork striking the ground,
the end of the handle was driven upward
into his shoulder for several inches. Mr.
Morris fainted from loss of blood, and his
recovery is problematical.
The Destruction of the Forests of the
United States.
The United States sells its forest lands
at ?2 50 an acre, lumber companies indirectly acquiring a square mile of land for
little over $1,600, while the timber on it is
often worth ?20,000. The French government forests return an average profit of
§2 50 an acre annually from timber sales,
or two and a half per cent interest on the
value of tbe land. The United States now
only owns enough forest land to provide a
continual timber-supply to its present
population, if forests are managed and
lumber used as in Germany The United
States is exactly in the position of a man
making large drafts on an using up an immense idle capital, which, if properly invested, would return an interest sufficient
for his expenditures. In 1885 the govern,
ment of Bavaria sent an expert forester to
study the timbers of the United States,
who stated: "In fifty years you will have
to import your timber, and as you will
probably have a preference for American
kinds, we shall now begin to grow them,
in order to be ready to send them to you
at the proper time."