VOL.LX.
INDIANAPOLIS, APRIL 15,1905.
NO. 15
THE TEACHER'S SIDE OF THE
CASE.
Editors Indiana Fanner:
lu a recent issue of the Indiana Farmer
tliere appeared an article over the signature -of a ilrs. Ilubbard relating to the
subject of teacher's wages. We would
like to have space in your valuable paper
to present a different view of the case.
For the sake of argument, we will agree
with her that it is absurd to talk about
pensioning old teachers. Would it nut,
however, be equally absurd to talk of
pensioning old farmers? The latter
would certainly be more absurd because
farming is the profession, of all others,
in which one ought to be able to save
somiething for a "rainy day."
. Can school teachers, at the present
wages, save anything for the "rainy day"
which is sure to come? A large majority of the teachers of Indiana teach
only six out of the twelve months in a
year. The average teacher will get
about $325 for the' six month's work. He
is thus compelled to hunt another joih for
the summer to keep the wolf from the
door.
The ordinary day laborer makes more
money in a year than a teacher does. The
teacher has spent several hundred dollars
for books and educational and professional training. The labors has nothing invested.
Now in view of these facts, it seems
to me wle ought to grant that the teacher
ought to receive more for a year's work
than the day laborer. His is
a profession that should . make
him   a   living. Any   and   every   other
trade   or   calling   is   supposed   to   do   as
much as usually does.
But it is suggested that, instead of loafing during the summer, teachers might
lind other employment and come out at
the end of the year with more money than
the farmer. Wle are willing to admit
that there are a few cases ot a teacher
loafing, but that is the exception to the
rule and not the rule itself. Many of
the most progressive teachers spend most
of the summer and most of their money in
equipping themselves for better work. Is
that time and money foolishly spent?
The teacher's calling is a high one, second only to that of the minister of the
Gospel and I have heard some contend
that it was not even* second to that. A
prominent -educator once said that a
teacher's work was higher than a preacher's work, because the teacher had to deal
with the people who had had nothing
done for them, while the preacher dealt
with people that had had about all done
for them that could be done.
Why, then, should the term not be
lengthened and the wages raised, until
the teacher's work will make him a
living and enable him to provide for the
proverbial "rainy day," and thereby dodge
the poor house and the potter's field?
Why? *T. M. Vandever.
Boone  Co.
EVERY FARMER SHOULD TAKE
IT.
Editors Indiana Farmer:
Enclosed please find a one dollar bill
for my renewal of your farm paper. I
like the Farmer and think every farmer
should take it, as it helps us in different
ways. JV. A. Hoffman.
'    FROM NEBRASKA.
Editors Indiana Farmer:
Red Willow county is in the Southern
tier, 70 miles east of Colorado. Crops
were light the past season. . The best
wheat only made a little over 20 bushels
per     acre,   and     some   poorly     putx   in,
•;t;,££^SB£^*SS-**
Lfi&V S-it-**1' -"V*****"-*-  _ w-**^:"—*j   ■    *■'--
\es-*ridd    -\0-*,
FIRST   FLOOR
SECOND   FLOOR.
Farm   Residence   Plans,   Copyrighted by     Co-Operative     Building   Plan
Association,    New York City.
With 32 feet length including veranda 3G feet 6 inches. Cellar 6 feet G inches;
first story nine feet; second story 8 feet 3 inches. Foundation stone and brick.
First story outside dropped siding, and second story and roof shingles; gables
panels and shingles. Outside blinds to all windows except cellar and attic.
Inside hard white plaster with plaster cornices and centers in hall, parlor and
dining room. Yellow pine floors and inside finish. Ash stairs. Bath room and
kitchen wainscoted. All inside finish hard oil. Outside painted to suit. The
plans show size of rooms, an-d closets are also shown. Bath room complete
plumbing. Fire plans with hardwood mantels in parlor and dining room. Cost
New York prices $2,430.      One to two hundred less in central west.
hardly paid expenses. In '92 and '93,
it ran 25 to 40 bushels per acre. Crops
are not irrigated here. In '93 this county
had nearly two million bushels. Many
farmers had 5,000 to 6,000 bushels and
some over 10,000. Two brothers had 23,-
584 bushels. In '92 and '93 there were
thousands of acres where the crop
each year on one acre, would more than
pay  for  three  acres  of  good  land.
The bottom land is alfalfa land. It
makes four crops a year. The year's
growth is tew to eleven feet, and the
yield four to six tons per acre. It has
been raised for ten years, and not a year
but the crop paid ten per cent on $150
per acre, and the last four years on
S200 per acre; still a few good alfalfa
farms can be hr. .>..... **-*> to $30 per aere.
I have farmed here for tv mty years,
and began to sow wheat in January or
February every year but 'two. Some
plowing was done this month. The most
sledding any winter in twenty years was
seven days, and but two winters that
much. Usually the ground is bare, the
roads smooth arrd dry all winter. There
has been Tout two days sledding this winter; only two days the sun was not seen.
The soil worked nice a week ago. Roads
»re   dry   and   fine. We   raise   apples,
cherries, peaches, plums, pears and apricots. Sugar beets run ten to twenty
tons per acre. They brought $5 per
toir in McCook, the county seat, a town
of 4,000.
This county has 90 schools. The illiteracy is less than 2% per cent. The
county owes nothing and has over $65,000
in the treasury.      Uncle Billy Coleman.
McCook, Neb.
lire,    and the danger in their being pro-
micuously handled.
Not Ion ago a very careful farmer near
here, not given himself to smoking and
the carrying around of the ever accompanying match, said he found in the chaff
and litter on his barn floor a small tin
box filled with matches, that had been
mashed by the heel of a boot but did not
happen to ignite at the time aud so a.
probable loss of barn and contents was
prevented.
Inquiry disclosed the fact that his son
lost the maches but he did not know
where; having acquired the customary
habit of smoking when perhaps "doing
the fairs," exhibiting stock.
A few weeks ago I found a pipe partly   filled   with  tobacco,   just  outside  one
of my barns, that had  been dropped by
an assistant iir helping to feed.        ITe is
a number one fellow, but has acquired the
everlastingly despicable practice of smoking, and carries a pipe for convenience to
suit the morbid taste, yet he doesn't intend smoking when I'm around ,or liable
to   see  him;  but  I  have  seen  this   same
man, and others pull their pipes, smoking
hot from their mouths and smother them
in  their pockets,  thinking,  of course,     I
was none the wiser, or that I could not
smell the tobacco fumes in- the air or on
their  clothes,   almost  as   far as  see  the
smoke.
Some years ago I had a splendid good,
hand in my employ, font a chewer and
smoker, who, in our haying, when everything was dry as tinder, deliberately lighted his pipe on the load of hay he had
loaded for hauling to the barn, that already had perhaps 75 tons in the mows;
When I called his attention to what he
was doing of course he resented the idea
of danger from a pipe; but I told him if
ho must smoke then to get down and go
out to the road and take a seat on tlie
fence, under a shade tree where it would
be more comfortable and safer. Of course
he put tlie pipe in his pocket, but tfrom
seat on tlie mower I felt uneasy for liable
losses, as dry as it was, of thousands of
dollars, because of the deplorable curse
one may become when addicted to the
habit of the confirmed smoker. I once
knew one of these veteran smokers to set
fire to the straw stack he was on, with
his pipe, burning it to the ground and then
barely saved the thrashing outfit, by getting it away  in  time.
I believe there are more tarns lost from
fire by smokers and their carelessness
with matches than all other causes and
an unpardonable fault it is.
Grant Co. I. M.
FIRES FROM SMOKER'S PIPES
AND MATCHES.
Editors Indiana Farmer:
Ex-Congressman Steele, and present
superntendent of the Soldier's Home, near
Marion, Indiana, last week lost an elegant barn, recently built on his farm just
over the line in Blackford county, together with considerable contents and a
valuable mare. One report is that a
small child of the family living on* the
farm carried fire into the barn; another
that perhaps it was due to matches Iei(t
lying on a girth or tie in the barn, and
set off by sparrows or mice.
However, it is the same old story of
carelessness  in   the  use   of  matches,    or
A NEW F.RA IN TRsVNS PACIFIC
TRANSPORTATION.
The great Northern Steamship Company in placing in service between Seattle,
Wash., and Yokohama, Nagasaki, Kobe,
Shanghai and Hong Kong, the
Shanghai and Hong Kong, the magnificent
American huilt steamships the "Minnesota" and the "Dakota", marks a new
era in transportation facilities between*
the United States and the Orient. These
magnificent steamships with their superior facilities in handling immense freight
cargoes and the luxurious appointments
for passenger travel has given an impetus to our oriental trade. The North
Pacific Route to the Orient is rapidly becoming popular one and now that the two
palatial steamships, "Minnesota" and
"Dakota" have been put in commission,
there is no question* but that a further
greater increase in our trade with the O-
vient as well as increased passenger travel
to .\siatic ports will be inaugerated.