VOL. XXXII.
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liBK
INDIANAPOLIS, IND.. JAN. 2, 1897.
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NO. 1
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EXPERIENCE DEPARTMENT
NEW YEAR'S.
It's Memory and It's Promise.
1st Premium—The old year Is now
Hearing its close and the new year is
about to dawn. Now what shall we do>
supposing the two years 1890 and 1897 to
be a book? Shall we re-read the same
leaf, or shall we turn a new one? Do you
not want to make the incoming year a
much happier and better one than the
present year has been? Do you not
think you can make it a happier one to
both your friends and yourself?
If you had ever so good a time in 1890
you would not enjoy the same old time
over again as you would a different life>
would you?   I think not
Can you not lead a better life next year
thanfwe have this? Let us try and see if
we cannot make better men and women
of onrselves in '97 than we have in '90. I
know there is room for an outcome, for
there is no one that has grown to perfection.
I know there is some point in our lives
that we can make much better if we will
only try.
Although we compare years to a book
it is not like a novel, for as we read a
novel we form a thought in our minds as
we think it should end; but, alas, it is all
in vain,for the novel is already .written,
and we must read lt as it is.
But it is not so with the new year, for
we have it in our own hands to make it
come out as we will. Now let us form a
thought in our minds, as to how we
would have others see us in the incoming
year, and strain both mind and muscle to
make our thoughts come true. We
should not be found at the card table at
the hour of midnight, when the new year
first comes upon us, gambling our hard-
earned dollars away, and our families at
home starving and freezing to death
This is not all. It is a bad example for
the yonng generation that is coming on
But we should start out with a full determination to make our lives much better in the future than they have ever
been in the past.
.We should start a new rule that will
not only benefit us, but will shine before
others that they may see to walk in the
darkness without stumbling. -Let us
hope and do as we think for the best,
though it be for the worst; but whatever
we do let us make the new year an enjoyable one. B. W.
Harrison Co.
BKVIBW.
Time is so precious that God does not
give it to ns all in a bunch. In fact he
divides his own great work in the natural
and spiritual world into cycles, years,
seasons and days.
All attainment signifies a struggle. All
human effort must enjoy periods of rest
and recovery and retlection to do its best
Personal endeavor must be directed toward a definite end and nothing is more
fitting than that at the close of the year
we should round up our struggle of days
and seasons, and measure the results, as
well as review methods.
Did you ever think of the fact that
bright daylight, far better than artificial
light, is flooded upon the world of activity for only a few hours at a time? With
the rising of the sun the chill and fog are
cleared away and everything leaps into
action. A plant grows a hundred times
more in daylight than in darkness. For
a few hours all is activity, hurry and
growth, when night intervenes and
hushes everything into a restful slumber.
Again and again this is repeated,day by
day till the season closes and all things
make a graceful pause; all nature becomes silent, and a mantle of pure white
marks the period of rest and rellectiori'on
the individual struggle of the past year.
We are all life students. Our experience is a sohool of training. Our Great
Teacher gives us but one day's lesson at
a time. Then bids us stop and talk it
over in the twilight of the dying day and
and make it onr own. Then rest a pace
before resuming our task with the aid of
our increased knowledge and skill.
To us this is the struggle of living. To
the Good Father it is the school of life.
And like a fitful child, to whom the lesson
of experience and the broad purpose of
life are obscured by the burden of present necessity, we clamor and fret and
weep and shout. We do not realize that
character and individuality are everything, and that to lay the foundation of
these we mast stem the tide of inherited
bias, must resist tbe influence of degrading surroundings and obtain growth and
strength from the struggle of daily experience.
Examination day has come; ring out
the old year. Its days and seasons of effort and responsibility have passed. Its
fulfillment of expectation and its cup of
sorrow are vivid in our memory. How
many of us find the words of Coleridge
true?
O! woeful impotence of weak resolve-.
Recorded rashly to the writer's shame,
Days pasB away and time's large orbB revolve,
And every day beholds me ■till the same!
Till oft neglected purpose loses aim.
And hope becomes a llat, unheeded lie.
Have we lost sight of our lesson, as the
busy months roll by, through onr misconception of the meaning of life? Do
we fail to see the beneficent purpose
which lies behind all human experience?
Is it not strange that we should look so
superficially on life as to allow our emotions to go into paroxysms of joy and
grief, and our life to be racked, and tossed
by every surface wave, like a straw on
the bosom of the sea? When by a broader
view, a firmer anchor in the deep foundations we might ride smoothly amid the
clashing of the surface waves?
The temperature of this climate seldom
falls to more than 20 degrees below zero.
Science has produced a temperature of
more than 4,000 degrees below. Yet a
chance fall of a few degrees more than 20
causes great comment and even anxiety >
and we begin to talk about "the oldest in
habitant." This is true of variations of
rainfall and of drouth, of loss of stock
and crops. Did you ever think that this
very kind of weather has existed for untold ages and that we but recently
stepped on the stage for a little space?
That instead of standing aghast at these
variations we should endeavor to adapt
ourselves and our farming to them.
Our land should be drained and fertile,
our stock provided with shelter and
abundance of food. When the writer was
a boy we had a neighbor (an old Virginian) who always raised paying crops and
herds. T. B. Terry made his biggest
money from potatoes in the dryest years.
Did you ever think what a calamity it
wonld be for all the world to raise a maximum crop of everything for several
years? There would be no market and
the soil would become rapidly exhausted.
The bright side of a great drouth shows
empty granaries, a brisk market for the
future, fields clear of weeds, rotting and
mellowing of the soil by airing, enormous amounts of fertility brought to the
surface by evaporation, and new lessons
in tillage and economy. With changeable seasons,of ten adverse the battle is to
the skillful, the thoughtful.
There is a lesson in the drouth, the
flood, the frost, the microbe, if instead of
grieving and accusing and apologizing
we accept the issue and fight out the
problem.
What does examination day bring to
you, as a farmer, as a father, as a citizen?
Have you given the family fair treatment? How often has the faithful wife
been oft the farm? Does the daughter,,
who is so much help about home, have
anything to read?   One siugle book, new
book, with her name in it? Can't you
trade four pounds of butter for the
Ladies' Home Journal to knock at your
door every month? Does your son, who
throws into the common family life the
whole strength of his young manhood,
enjoy one agricultural paper or magazine! Not one, sure? Isn't it nice to
carry the purse? Can't we thank Mr.
Blackstone for saying that "the husband
and wife are one, and .hat one is the husband." Mr. Blackstone might have said
the family and father are one, and that
one is the father.
Do you run to town once or twice a
week and spend 50 cents for lunch, and
treat friends to tobacco or worse, and not
remember those faces who are tired of
being always at home and looking out at
the window at those who pass, like prisoners behind the bars?
Good books and papers are the cheapest thing a man can buy. Cheap as dirt.
You don't pay much more than the postage that mails them. The writer once
bought a $5 magazine by throwing a dime
in a collar box every day. Better than to
buy cigars with it.
But we have been looking into homes
this New Year's day that are not the
brightest side of farm life. I am so
thankful that most of those who read the
Indiana Farmer have sunny homes,
books, papers, magazines, pictures, lawn
and flowers. What shall the Good Father
mark our examination paper if we do not
navs tnein; especially if we waste money
on bad habits when we might have added
culture and education to our homes? Yet
the most cultured home also has a lesson
ot endeavor. The rapid improvements
of the age are offering each year new opportunities and laying on our shoulders
new responsibilities. Both of these, if
rightly used, will add their greater bless-
ing. Lst ns enter upon our New Year's
work with a firmer, truer step and a
larger hope, which shall give promise of
a broader life, a greater helpfulness and
a sweeter joy.
Ths 014 Tear laid upon the portals of the past
A trembling hand.
And said, "O, let me die and be at rest
Within thy misty land!'
Then all the years that lived and died before
Reachedforth and drew the wanderer safe within
the door.
The New Year laid upon the portals of To-day
A firm young hand,
And said, "Oh, let me come and live and work
Within thy shining land!"
Then all the years that are to be replied,
"This feyour world," and drew the youth inside.
No. 41 Roughing horses and stock
through winter. Name a very cheap and
yet practical plan.
No. 45. Educating a husband. Is it the
wife's fault that husbands are careless
and burdensome. L9t each writer name
not more than two habits in which husbands may improve, and tell how to get
them to do so. I will publish only two
points to each writer on this one topic.
Let's see what variety will be suggested.
Everybody write. Those who are married, those who expect to soon be married
and those who would like to soon be mar
ried.   Try a postal card.
No. 40. Winter evenings. Are they
wasted? How may they be made stepping stones.
No. 47. Clearing land. Cutting off in
the green or deadening. How get rid of
thickets?   How do you clear?
No. 4S That sweet little daughter,
Her opportunity, her danger, her destiny
No. 49. Butter-making, saving cream
ripening, churning, salting.
No 50. Our schools. Their shortcomings; suggestions for improvement
No. 51. Fertilizers. Where can commercial fertilizers be economically used
and how?
No. 52   Name mistakes of recent years.
No. 51!   Renovating an old orchard.
No. 54. Best material for roofing. Your
experience in painting roofs.
No. 55. The best fence post and how to
preserve it
Let our subscribers write their experience. The purpose of the department is
not exhaustive articles but brief, pithy,
E. H. Collins.
POSTAL 0AED OOBBESPONDENOE.
Dubois Co.—W. S. says he learns a great
deal from our experience department and
is glad that we intend to keep it up.
Grant Co, Dec. 23.—Wheat in this
county looks very discouraging; the hard
freeze the first of the month has killed a
large amount; a small percentage of corn
is moving now at 1G cents; all stock are
wintering well, J. F. H.
Carroll Co , Dec. 19.—Wheat looks
very bad since the heavy freezing; most
of the hogs died with cholera last summer and fall; no wheat left in farmers
hands; plenty of corn, more than was
ever raised in one year, but it brings little
money, only 10 cents per bushel.
T. C. F.
Fountain Co.—Wheat seems to be badly damaged by the severe freezing, without snow for covering. Corn is about all
husked. Baling and hauling straw to
market is one of the occupations just
now. If the ground continues frozen
the farmers should haul gravel and get
credit at a fnture time for it. T. R,
Benton Co, Dec.[28—This Is a corn-
growing county, and has but little winter
wheat The farmers who are, to a great
extent, renters, are selling their corn at
10 cents. The average yield was 70 bushels. The elevators at Fowler have over
IGO.OOO bushels in store. Oats averaged 55
bushels, but are not of best quality, selling at 15 cents. K, G. C
White Co, Dec. 15—We are having
beautiful fall weather in a winter month.
Corn all husked with exception of some
little shocked corn; corn very cheap, 10
to 1. Wheat and rye looks very well, not
a very large acreage of either. Stock of
all kinds looks well; stock cattle very
scarce and high; lots of sheep buyers,
but farmers won't part with them. The
Farmer has had some excellent articles
on butchering. They would be very good
for young beginners to pattern after. 1
have helped butcher where we scalded
one end of the hog, and the water was
not warm enough to scald the other till
we took it out and heated it again. We
would have done better if we had had the
Indiana Farmer then to go by.
A. M. M.
To all who are Interested ln Farmers'
Orgranizationa.
Editoks Indiana faemib:
I believe there are many farmers who
do not know that the Grange is allve,and
in good working order, and doing much
for farmers wherever they take an interest in it. Brother farmers, it is alive,
east, west, north and south. Do you see
a need of organized effort? Do you think
we should co-operate to the end that our
calling as agriculturists may be made
one of pleasure and profit, instead of becoming more and more one of toil and
failure? There Is no power on earth to
lift us up, except in ourselves, through
organization and co-operation.
Hayden, Jennings Co.      P. B. Rwan.
 *	
Editors India*a Fakmzb:
We have been taking your paper, we
think, for the last 25 yea'rs, and it has
always been welcomed in our home. We
don't feel that we can afford to do without it a. N. Yen able.
A certain farmer of Gilmanton, N. H.
netted just two cents on live bushels of
apples sent to Boston. Last year the game
quantity brought him $13 75,