VOL. XXII.
INDIANAPOLIS, IND., SATURDAY, JAN. 22,1887.
NO. 4
HANDY FIELD FLATTIlfO.
It is often well to know the contents of
Irregular fields or tracts. A square, or oblong square tract, is of cr.irse, readily
measured; but to one whose knowledge
of surveying, or of geometry is slight, the
work of measuring an irregular tract is
perplexing. The heavy lines of the diagram represent the boundaries of an Irregular tract; the light lines represent the
sides of right-angled triangles, the dotted
lines represent the complementary triangles, which change the right angles into
squares or parallelograms. The principle
Involved may be applied to any tract
bounded by straight lines, no matter of
how many sides, and it is only necessary
to desoribe lines running from one angle
to another, so that the various sides of the
tract shall become diagonals of a square or
parallelogram, to make eaoh of them
easily measurable by ordinary multiplication. Study of the diagram will make
this clearer than a volume of explanation.
Suppose we have suoh a field. We will
designate its corners (angles) as A B £ D
C. It is best to run lines through the
longest section, say from B to C, and from
C to E. From these lines run a line tbat
is a right angle to these base lines, bo that
they will strike the corners, as from e to
E a to A, and d to D; measure these lines,
and also measure from these points of beginning to the corners, as from a to B, e
to B and d to C. These lines then beoome
the two sides of a square or parallelogram,
which multiplied together give the area
of a square. Bat as these areas are exactly double the areas of the right-angled
triangles, when they are divided by two
they will give the areas of the triangle.
By adding these areas together the area
of the whole traot will be fonnd.
rig. 1.
Beginning with tke small triangle to
the left, we find that B. e is 24 rods, and
e E 29 rods. These figures multiplied
together and divided by 2, give 448 eqiare
rods as the contents of the triangle B e
E, Proceeding with the triangle B a A,
we find that the sides are 48x48 rods,
wbich divided by 2 give its area as 1,182
square rods. The triangle A a C measures 48 by 150 rods, divided by 2, or 3,600
square reds. The middle triangle C e E,
which to avoid confusion of lines is not
"squared" in the diagram, measures 174
rods from C to e and 29 rods from e to E,
which m iplied together and divided by
two. • 6re give 2,673 squ»re rods aa its
(The dotted lines are omitted
I
in this triangle to avoid comparison in the
diagram. In practice it is not necessary
to carry them ont, as they only illustrate
the principle.) The next triangle E d
D measures 144 by 36, or 2,592 square rods.
The next and last angle measures 36x86,
and gives 648 square rods as its area. Adding these together we have 448 plus 1,182
plus 3,600 plus 2,573 plus 2,592 pins 649, or
a total of 11,043 square rods aa the area of
the entire tract.
as possible, or square, else the results will
not be accurate.
Fig. 2.
The only "instrument" needed in making these measurements is a circle of card
board accurately spaced into quarters, of
90 degress each. (See Fig. 2). This should
be pasted upm a piece of board, and the
board mounted upon three legs (a tripod) so
that the board may "swivel." The board
when mounted should lay approximately
horizontal, and at the center of it should
be placed a pointer that would have upon
eaoh end a piece of wood, with a small
hole, to right through, and so placed that
the two right holes would be in line with
any one of the diameters of the circle. To
make this take a piece of lath 14 inohes
long. Saw a slit from each end lengthwise, leaving an inch or so untouched in
the center. In a line with this slit and in
the center of the lath, insert a screw and
screw it onto the center of the cirole. To
take an observation with this instrument,
place a stake at each of the corners of the
tract or angle to be measured, then bring
the rights of the lath so as to intersect the
stake, and thus bring the circle so that one
of the lines will be under the silt in the
lath. Then turn the rights (but not the
circle) to one of the quarter marks on the
circle, and have an assistant set another
stake so that it will be seen through the
rights. This line wiil be at right angles
to the first, and their lengths may then be
measured.
A right-angled triangle made of wood
with sights along its sides, and made so
as to revolve horizontally, or flat wise
with the screw upon which it swivels set
accurately in the angle, wonld be still
more simple, and would have some advantage in accuraoy in that when the
sights of one of the sides intercepted the
stake the other side would intersect its
right angle. With the other, however, if
the oircle be spaced into 360 equal parts, or
degrees, any angle could be measured.
In fact, a square piece of board will have
angles of 90 degrees, or right-angles, and
by sighting along tbe sides these lines
may be prolonged, it only being necessary
to bring one of its sides along the base
line, to make the other intersect the new
line. It is necessary, however, that in
making right-angles, they should be true
Written for the Indiana Farmer.
A Joint  Public   Meeting   of    the
Grange and Knights of Labor,
BT D. ta THOMAS.
One of the most interesting and profitable industrial meetings ever held in Bush
Co.,came off this afternoon at Homer. The
Homer Grange extended an invitation,
which was accepted by the Rushville and
Manilla Knights of Labor, to hold a joint
public meeting. The hall was well filled
with ladies, farmers and workingmen.
The Orange furnished excellent music.
Numerous addresses were made by members of eaoh organization. The discussion
of the causes and remedies for depression
elicited the deepest interest, and all present seemed to be in perfect accord. The
speakers urged that the bread producers
and bread consumers must join hands to
bring about industrial reforms. That
they have the power in theit hands, bnt
for the want of organization had never
been able to wield that power. One speaker
said all other interests were organized.
That even the commercial travelers are
forming a protective association to compel
hotel keepers to give them the same reduced rates they did theatrical troups in-
as muoh as commercial men were the main
support of the hotels.
It cropped out during the discussion
that a oertain large reaper manufacturing company had declared against all
forms of organized labor, and was hostile
to both Patrons of Husbandry and Knights
of Labor, and in order to break down competitors had sold their self-binders in some
localities at the low figure ef 945. But one
speaker who has had ample opportunity
to investigate the matter asserted tbat
they then made money. He said aside
from the Interest on the capital invested,
it oost only $20 eaoh to manufacture self-
binders, and $12 each for light mowers.
This is brought about by the improved
machinery whioh is supplanting skilled
mechanic*. And this, too, explains why
American binders are sold at the same
figure, or less, in Australia that they are
at home. These revelations made the
farmers present resolve in their minds to
strike against high prices on binders in
the future. The speaker detailed how employes in that factory were treated, whioh
is simply atrocious and degrading. His
statement sprung the question whether or
not slavery had been abolished, and the
sense of the meeting was that a modified
form of slavery does exist in many places
in the United States. And that our country is cursed with a few land pirates who
sre controlling the prices and avenues of
trade, and robbing the people, and starving the poor.
The conclusion was reached that we are
not suffering from over production but
from under consumption. That the heel
of monopoly had imported pauper labor
and made so many American tramps.
That it is a disgrace to our civilizition
with granaries full, that tens of thousands
do not have enongh to eat, while thousands of children retire nightly crying for
bread, that but for the avarice of a few all
might bs employed and with their wages
consume our surplus.
This Orange and the Knights of Labor
will hold more such meetings during the
year, and form a closer union for the protection of their interests. And if like
movements were pushed all over the
oountry we would see an improvement in
affairs.
Bush ville, Jan. 15.
Make the Department of Agriculture a Cabinet Position.
Editors Indiana Farmer ■
"Unconstitutional" is about the first
word the average lawyer in Congress spits
out when Mr. Hatch brings up his bill to
make the Department of Agriculture a
Cabinet position. If it be unconstitutional
then the Cabinet officer who presides over
the War Department, and looks after a lot
of dress parade officers that hover around
Washington City by the year, is the same.
The same might be said of the Cabinet
officer of the Navy with its few old tubs
that are the laughing stock of every civilized nation on earth.
There is a marked difference between
those two Cabinet afficers and this one.
A cabinet officer at the head of the Departments of Agriculture and Horticulture
would represent more than twenty five
millions of people. We go farther and
say that over one-half of the people of the
United States are engaged in these two
pursuits. For years this bill has been
before Congress, having passed the lower
House last week, and there are plenty of
lawyers now in Congress, who to get reelected, have promised their rural constituency that they would vote to make
Col. Norman J. Coleman a Cabinet officer.
Some of tbem blowed it from stumps in
Indiana last fall that they were the sworn
friends of agriculture, and to make their
words good cited their vote in favor of the
Hatch bogus butter bill, and by so doing
they obtained many votes in the country
that otherwise would have gone to the
other man.
Now, Mr. Hatch has the floor again with
his bill in hand demanding that the greatest body of men on American soil shall
have a Cabinet representation. Now, we
appeal earnestly to every Indiana United
States Senator: Why should they not
have It? Every fair minded member from
this State must admit that this industry
is the foundation of our financial and
commercial prosperity. Then why not
vote that it shall have a head? The best
thing they can do is to lay aside the Inter-
State Commerce Bill and vote for this one,
for it is nothing more nor less than a bill
to take charge of the department we are
asking to have made.
It is well known that every trunk line of
railroad in the country has its paid tools
hovering around the Capitol every hoar
during the session of Congress. They
have millions at their command and on
their roll appear the names of retained
Senators, who are opposing the bill on the
ground that it will interfere with their
freight charges. It is to be hoped that not
a member from Indiana is among the "retained," and it is also to be hoped that
when a final vote is taken in the Senate,
eaoh of them will be recorded as voting
for the bill. W. H, Lawbencb.
Brightwood.