Written for the In.	
The Ideas oT Others
By Walter S. Smith.
Kezin Davis further said: "I plant
early apples in large quantities, forsthe
following reasons:
"1. Other do not think of them for the
trade, and there is never a glut in the
market. I can therefore find a sale for
all I can produce, and always at a good
price.
"2.    The worms get in their work after
early    fruit comes    off; ^_zz=_z_________________-
and early apples are,
therefore, free from
most of the defects tbat
affect the later varieties.
"3. Early apples are
uot expected to keep;
so I can gather them
with much less care,
and at a smaller expense, and dropped apples are not objected to."
I have had the pleasure of an interview or
two with the Honorable John K. Gowdy, of
Bash county, who gave
me a 2-year supscription
for himself and three
tenants. He and his
\\ ife and daughter have
returned from Paris
where he served the
United States as Consul
General for eight years.
It is interesting to hear
them describe tlie land
of Napoleon. French
fruit is not afflicted as
ours is with blight and
cureulio. The growers
produce most perfect
flowers and fruits; and
they do some fantastic
things that Americans
never think of; for instance, they train
pears, plums, cherries,
and apricots about as we
train our rambling roses
and grape vines. That
is,     they    fasten      the -
tranches against a wall, and the fruit
seems improved by it, both in appearance
arid  in  finality.
Mrs. Gowdy said the first thing that
caught her attention was the total lack
of fly screens. Inquiring about it, she
was answered: "We have no flies."
1 asked her if Saint Patrick had been
there and had driven them out, as the
Irish believe he drove snakes, toads and
lizards out of Ireland. She likes Paris,
but feels better satisfied in Indiana.
Arlington, my home town, is proud of
the distinguished honors conferred upon
these worthy citizens by President McKiu-
ley and his successor-
Minister Gowdy's extensive estate is in
sight of Arlington, and it is interesting to
see him engaged in making his cattle and
horses and even his hogs comfortable.
There nre no landlords in my circle of
acquaintance, that provide houses for
tenants to live in as perfectly comfortable
as his tenants enjoy.
I find it an almost universal sentiment
among land-owners that their tenants cannot be trusted to take care of property.
Hence they plant no orchards for them,
provide them no good house or barn, and
expend nothing that makes for their convenience or comfort. It seems to me
that this is wrong in two ways. First,
tenants ought to care for what they rent,
for their own  interests  are  enhanced  by
to provide such things as are needed. In
most cases such care would be appreciated, and the landlord would find it to his
own advantage.
COMMERCIAL  FERTILIZERS.
By Fred W. Morse.
The New Hampshire College Agricultural Experiment Station has just issued
its annual bulletin giving the results of the
As a rule, nil the fertilizers showed a
larger percentage of soluble phosphoric
acid than of the reverted form, which indicates that carefully prepared superphosphates are used by the makers. Although soluble phosphoric acid soon
changes to the reverted form in the soil
after dissolving in tbe soil water, it is
reasonable to assume that it is more evenly distributed by reverting iu the soil
water after its application than when reverted  in  the  fertilizer before  it  is  used.
This is believed to be the largest pile of apples in. the world. There are 21,-
000 bushels in this pile, all gathered fromm 40 acres of land near Sunnyside, Wash.
The apples are winter varieties, piled in this manner for convenience before they
were packed and shipped to eastern markets and to England. Sunnyside is one
of the finest fruit growing countries in America. Some of the fruit land about
Spokane is irrigated and other portions require no irrigation. The Sunnyside
district is in the irrigated belt.
inspection of fertilizers for last year. The
State Board of Agriculture forwarded to
the Station samples of 105 different
brands of mixed fertilizers, collected in
all parts of the state.
Analyses showed that in 27 instances
there was a failure of some constituent
to reach the manufacturer's guarantee.
In all but nine of these cases the lack in
one element was made good by an excess
of another, so that the valuation of the
brand was unaffected. It was noticeable
that the majority of the deficitits occurred
in the available phosphoric acid and in
low grade goods.
An important feature 'of the trade in
the state is that 43 of the brands contained less than two per cent of nitrogen,
and few of these low grade brands showed
any nitrate ef soda as a source of that
element. In practically nil of the higher grades a good portion of the nitrogen
was from nitrate of soda or, in a few
cases, from sulphate of ammonia, thus insuring more quickly acting fertilizer than
the low grades.
A comparison of the highest grades with
the lowest grades of fertilizers, demonstrates that in buying a half ton of the
former one secures more and better nitrogen, as much or more potash and
enough phosphoric acid to balance them,
for less money than in a ton of the latter.
This is because it costs as much to mix,
bag, freight and handle a 'ton of low
grade as a ton of high grade, and in buying a hnlf ton of high grade these charges
are reduced one-half.
SPAIN'S QUEEN ELECT.
Princess Ena of Battenburg, betrothed
to the young Spanish king, quite like an
ordinary maiden, is having troubles of
her own. An appeal has been made to
King Edward, asking the throne to interfere nnd prevent a marriage distasteful
to "federated feelings of state." Just
what His Majesty will do is awaited with
bated breath, for upon his royal decision
or decree may rest the future history of
nations. The love of a dear little princess, it would appear, is no different than
that of any other little love-lorn maiden.
BUYING A FARM.
Editors Indiana  Farmer
In purchasing a farm there are more
things to take into consideration, than in
any other form of investment. What
will suit one party, another will not consider at all, and this is well enough for
if this were notthe case some lands would
never find purchasers. Resident buyers
are usually looking for well improved, productive land. He will figure that the
well improved, rie hand productive land is
. a better investment, at
a comparatively high
price, than the unproductive land is at a low
price. One must consider, in buying a farm, the
neighborhood school,
roads, market and other
essentials.
I can buy a rich, well
improved farm, say at
$100 per acre or more.
That farm is, at the
limit, perhaps ^ far as
sale value is £~ oerned.
On the otb ^ and, I
ean purcht*/ §** e cheaper, unim/ j*' d land,
and by ts *»" stock and
proper r/ n of crops,
can   inc the   value
of the _^**» all the time.
A goocTTnany farmers
at present are buying
live stock that he would
farms for their children.
Of course, as a rule, the
boy wants the best possible, and the father
generally thinks that
the hest is the cheapest.
Now the best is the
cheapest as far as figures are concerned, for
the young man can go
on this farm and grow
large crops of all kinds
nnd his income will be
large. But the chances
are that he will not give
the same attention to
■^===^ if he were on a
less finished farm and
consequently in a few years he will find
his income growing less, and his farm
getting poorer. On the other hand, if
he started on the less productive farm,
while his income at first would be smaller,
yet with live stock and proper rotation of
crops his income would increase year by
year, as would also the value of the land.
And what would be true of the farm
would be true of the man also, for we develop by overcoming obstacles. Young
man, in purchasing a farm look to your
own development.
Of course, I do not believe it policy to
go to extremes in buying land. There is
some land that would cost more to develop than it is worth even if you had
the land as a gift. There is a medium,
between the extreme high priced land and
the worthless land, that ought to be considered.
I do not think that farm land is too
high, for I believe it will increase in value;
but I do believe there is an inequality in
the rise in price of land which will correct
itself in time. For instance, in this
county, Parke, land in the Wabash bottoms, subject to overflow, is held as high
as $75 per acre, without any improvements, while there is plenty of upland
with improvements, that can be bought
for less money, which with stock and
proper crop rotation, will give a greater
income than the bottom land.     Farmer.
k