VOL. XXVIII.
INDIANAPOLIS. IND. NOV. 11, 1893.
NO. 45.
California Notes.
Editobs Indiana Fabmeb:
Last night and this morning we had our
first good shower of rain for this season.
Not enough to start vegetation, but it
may be followed by more in a day or so,
and by November the green picking may
be good enough for horses and cattle.
We are not anxious to see rain—in fact, we
would rather have it come a month later.
This may seem strange to Indianians, and
no doubt you must think it "an awful dry
oountry.'^ We do not need the rain and
prefer to have dry weather until November. It is not half as dry as you might
think, and farmers have nothing to complain about. The fruit crops are all about
in, and it is too early to make garden or
sow grain. After six months of dry
weather here the country roads are not as
dusty as I have often seen in Indiana after
a dry spell of four or five weeks. This
country is quite different from the Eastern
States, and is cut out for a dry and wet
season, and it would be impossible to
- change this plan. A shower now and
then during summer might be pleasant in
some ways, but a soaking rain would do
great damage. When the wet season—or
rather showery weather sets in, the air is
cool and vegetation Of all kinds starts up
and grows very fast. In five or six
months grasses and weeds have made
their growth and ripened their seeds and
most everything dies to the ground. After
this, in the middle of summer a soaking
rain would start vegetation, but the air
gets .so dry and the days are so sunny it
would require almost a daily shower to
keep the vegetation going. Farmers and
gardeners provide for this dry spell by a
system of irrigation and keep their crops
going until harvested. A week of dry,
sunny weateer in the middle of summer
wonld kill most of the grass, and it is
easy to see a soaking rain would do more
harm than good. The ripened grass and
weeds are full of seed and it is like so
much rich hay all over the ground. Cattle and horses fatten on it, but having no
growth it requires a greater range for cattle than on green pasture where the growth
is almost equal to the loss. Heavy rains
during summer would be of great damage
to the fruit industry, and it would be almost impossible to prepare the thousands
of tons of dried fruit which are shipped
out of the country every season. Unless
rains come just at the right time during
summer it would be more desirable to irrigate the soil. This can be regulated to.
suit the crops and season and everything
can be kept in the best possible condition.
If the orange orchard needs irrigation
it is better to turn on the required amount
of water than to wait for showers of rain,
which may not come until too late to
benefit the crop. If the gardener needs
water to bring on his crops of cabbage,
lettuce, beets and potatoes, ull he has to do
is to make the proper furrows and turn on
the water from the Irrigation ditch. If
his strawberries are lagging behind, one
day's work with irrigation will bring
them out in fine style. If he had to depend upon rain his crops would be quite
short some seasons. A field of alfalfa located where it can be flooded water will
produce six crops in a year, and the hay
will sell for enough to pay 10 per cent net
on land worth ?500 an acre. I do not want
my Indiana friends to think everything
must be irrigated during summer. On
the contrary, we have hundreds of thousands of acres needing no irrigation. Even
on sandy soil peach, plum, apricot, walnut
and apple trees nre rarely if ever supplied
with water except what falls from the
clouds. The best peach orchard I ever
saw was ln deep sandy soil, and never received a drop of water during the summer. The trees are nine years old and this
season produced a crop worth ?300 per
acre.   Oranges,  lemons and olives need
ome irrigation, and gardeners irrigate
small fruits four or five times during the
season.
At the Irrigation Congress held in this
city this month I saw a simple contrivance
to manufacture tiling right in the ditches
where wanted. The machine complete
would hardly cost ?5. It consisted- of a
sheet iron tube with an upright section
near the middle used as a feeder, and an
arrangement inside similar to an ordinary
pump. The tiling was made of Portland
cement and sand, with a little lime. With
two men or boys to mix and keep the
feeder supplied and one man to work the
pump-handle arrangement and guide the
machine in the farrow, at least 1,000 feet
a day could be made of continuous pipe,
which would harden in a few hours and
last a lifetime. It would be necessary to
make holes every few feet to let the water
in, as there are no joints. This was done
with a round wooden pin fastened in the
neck of a broken beer bottle. In this
country tiling is intended for underground
irrigation, and the holes are made to let
the water out, but it seems to me that
such tiling might work in Indiana to carry
the water out of the ground. The holes
are fitted with a hollow cork made of
Portland cement and fine sand, which the
manufacturers claim will allow the water
to flow in or out and yet prevent any
roots or dirt getting into the pipe. First
cost would be greater than ordinary tiling,
but it would last a life time.
J. F. Mendenhall.
Los Angeles, Oct. 22.
Illinois Free Short Course in Agriculture.
The College of Agriculture of the University of Illinois offers a Free Short
Course in Agriculture to those who cannot
attend any of the more extended courses.
This course will begin January 2nd, and
close March 20th, 1894. There will be four
lectures or class exercises daily, given by
Professors Morrow, Burrill, Mcintosh,
Forbes and Farrington and by Messrs.
Gardner, McCleur, Marten, Clinton and
Gibbs.
The following subjects will be discussed:
Farm Management; Crop Culture; Animal
Husbandry; Dairy Farming; Diseases of
Animals; Orchard and Garden Management; Injurious Insects, Vegetable Physiology; Applications of Agricultural Chemistry.
All the facilities of the College of Agriculture and the Agricultural Experiment
Station will be freely used in illustration.
A circular giving detailed information
will be sent on application.
G. E. Morrow.
Dean College of Agriculture.
Champaign, 111.
chief manure ingredients in barnyard
dung, the manure ingredients from artificial food and in artificial manures, still
the difference of form in which these
substances are met with greatly affects
their value. The present method of analyzing manures does not properly recognize these distinctions, and the valuations
founded upon these analyses are altogether
false and erroneous."
It Is an unquestioned fact that a fertilizer can be manufactured which will analyze high in nitrogen and yet have very
little agricultural value as a fertilizer. The
ordinary method of analysis, as is commonly used in this and many other
States, gives the total amount of nitrogen
in the fertilizer, without specifying
whether or not the nitrogen is in a form
available for plant food, but they assume
that the organic nitrogen is from the best
sources, and consequently highest cost,
and value it accordingly.
The principal use of commercial fertilizers is to give an early and vigorous start
to the hoed crops. It is very important,
then, for farmers to know how much of
the nitrogen in the fertilizers to be used is
in such a form that it is available for this
early, rapid growth. Nitrogen is used in
commercial fertilizers in three forms, as
nitrogen of nitrate salts, as nitrogen of ammonia salts, and nitrogen in combination
with animal or vegetable matter, commonly called organic nitrogen. All ammonia and nitrate salts are soluble in
water, and hence immediately available to
the plant. Nitrate salts also contain alkalies in addition to the nitrogen. With organic nitrogen the case is quite different.
The principal sources of organic nitrogen
are fish scraps, dried blood, slaughterhouse refuse, horn and hoof meal and
leather waste. These materials have a
very different agricultural value; dried
blood for instance decays rapidly in the
soil and soon yields its nitrogen to the
crop, while hoof and horn meal and leather
waste resist for a long time, with ordinary treatment, the process of decay and
till then are practically worthless.—Prof.
Andrew H. Ward, in Exchange.
Analysis of Fertilizers.
It has long and often been claimed by
farmers that the chemist, in his analysis
of commercial fertilizers, does not tell
them enough about their composition.
They say that the chemist gives them commercial values only, and frequently incorrectly, while the agricultural value, which
is the important thing to the farmer, is
not shown or pretended to be.
With regatd to phosphoric acid, the
present methods of chemical analyses are,
on the whole, satisfactory and furnish a
reliable basis for a judgment as to the agricultural value of this ingredient, but the
prices founded on these analyses are very
wide of the mark, In the case of_ potash,
the difference in form, whether a" carbonate, muriate or sulphate greatly affects its
value. In nitrogen, the most valuable,
and claimed to be the most costly element
in fertilizers, no one questions that the
complaint of the farmers is not well
founded.
Sir. J. B. Lawes says: "Although potash, phosphoric acid and nitrogen are the
Thanksgiving' Proclamation.
By the president of the United States of
America.
While the American people should every
day remember with praise and thanksgiving the divine goodness and mercy which
have followed them since their beginning
as a nation, it is fitting that one day in
each year Bhould be especially devoted to
the contemplation of the blessings we have
received from the hand of God, and to the
grateful acknowledgment of his loving
kindness.
Therefore, I, Grover Cleveland, President of the United States, do hereby designate and set apart Thursday, the 30th day
of the present month of November, as a
day of thanksgiving and praise, to be kept
and observed by all the people of our land.
On that day let us forego our ordinary
work and employments and assemble in
our usual places of worship, where we
may recall all that God has done for us,
and where from grateful hearts our united
tribute of praise and song may reach the
throne of grace. Let the reunion of kindred and the social meeting of friends lend
cheer and enjoyment to the duty, and let
generous gifts of charity for the relief of
the poor and needy proved the sincerity of
our thanksgiving.
Grover Cleveland.
By the president:
Walter Q. Gresham, Sec'y of State.
 »—♦—.  ■
United States Department of Agriculture.
Among the publications of the United
States department of agriculture for October are:
Suggestions for the Establishment of
Food Laboratories in connection with the
agricultural experiment stations of the
United States. Pp. 20. (Bulletin No. 17
office of experiment stations )
A paper prepared by Hon. Edward At
kinson, of Boston, Mass., with a view to
point out the need of scientific investigations relating to the nutritive value of the
various foodstuffs, the proportions in
which they should be combined to accomplish particular results, and tbe methods of their preparation best adapted to
insure digestibility.
Report of the Statistician—October, 1893.
(Report No. 100, division of statistics.)
Contents: October crop report; notes
from reports of State agents; imports of
hay into the United Kingdom; cereal crops
of France and Italy for 1893; citrus fruit
crop in Italy for 1802 '93; production, commerce, and consumption of wine in Italy;
corn as food for horses in Germany; reports from consular officers relating to -
crops in Germany, Scotland, New Brunswick and Ontario; domestic and transatlantic freight rates.
Synopsis or report No. 109, Division of
Statistics.   Pp. 4.
A summary of the October crop report,
showing the estimated condition of cotton;
the rate of yield per acre of wbeat, rye,
oats and barley; and the final report for
the season of the condition of corn, potatoes, buckwheat, tobacco and sugar cane.
Eighth and Ninth Annual Reports of
the Bureau of Animal Industry, for the
years 1891 and 1892. Pp. 428, pis. 11, figs. 7.  .
Contents: Transactions of the bureau,
covering the inspection and quarantine
work, and the field and laboratory investigations; investigation of infectious diseases of domesticated animals; investigation of the effects of bacterial products in
the prevention of diseases; investigations
conducted by the biochemlc laboratory;
investigations relating to the treatment of
lumpy-jaw, or actinomycosis, in cattle;
investigations into the nature, causation
and prevention of Southern cattle fever,
condition of the poultry and egg industry;
the mule, its uses, how to breed, grow,
prepare for market, and sell; contagious
diseases among domestic animals in foreign countries; malady among horses in
Nebraska; cattle and sheep industry of
Colorado: "bottom slisease" among horses
in South Dakota; laws of the States and
Territories for the control of contagious
and infectious diseases of domestic animals; and miscellaneous reports of correspondents.
Washington, D. C.
SOKE OF OUB BOASTS.
Indiana did not show off very well at
the World's Fair, but she is a right good
State after all. Among the items of her
superiority are the following:
The public school system of Indiana was
selected as a model by the Emperor of
Brazil after he had .examined the schools
of Eastern States.
Indiana was the lirst State in the West'
to own a complete series of township libraries.
Indiana has the finest soldier's monument in the world.
Indiana soldiers are the tallest of those
in any civilized country.
Indiana is the greatest State for horses
in the Union, and the world's record was
made by a horse on an Indiana race track.
Indiana ranks among the first in the
production of wheat.
The largest of the world's gas belts is in
Indiana.
The largest wagon factory in the world
is located in Indirna.
It was in Indiana that the first American plate-glass was made, and the largest
glass factory is in the State.
No other State has made equal progress
with Indiana for five years in manufactures.
Indiana building stone is among the best
in the world.
Indiana is the center of national population.  '