VOL. XXX.
INDIANAPOLIS, IND., AUG. 31, 1895.
NO. 35.
WEATHER CHOP BULLETIN.
United States Weather Bureau, Department of Agriculture. Crop Bulletin of
the Indiana Weather Service in Co-operation With the Agricultural Experiment Station at Purdue University for
the Week Ending Monday, A ug. 26,1895.
Central Station at Indianapolis, Ind.
The weather for the past week has not
been as warm as the preceding one, but
about as dry; a few local showers have
been chronicled, hut sufficient rain did
not fall to materially benefit the growing
crops. The corn on low, gray and marsh
lands is doing fairly well and a good crop
is still expected, but on stony, sandy and
clay lands the crop is hastening to maturity without full development; it is
burning np in many parts. Pastures,
with few exceptions, have become brown
and are drying npj stoek necessarily, is
being fed. Potatoes and tomatoes are
doing fairly well; late potatoes are being
injured by the dry weather. Tobocco is
being prematurely ripened, consequently
it is being cut and housed. Fruit is still
falling, but apples and pears will be
plentiful. Water very scarce; wells,
springs and brooks in many'places have
become dry. Fall plowing has been dis-
conlinued in many localities on account
of the grounds dryness.
SOUTHERN PORTION.
Bartholomew Co.—A few light showers;
corn suffering badly, some past redemption; olover seed turning out very well.
"Dubois —Light rains Have kept corn in
good condition; weather good for tomatoes and pastures; fruit falling off trees
badly. Floyd—Corn in some parts needing rain, late planted will be cut short if
dry weather continues. (Ireene—Hot and
dry weather a detriment o tcorn; the crop
on marsh lands is fine; pastures in bad
condition ; potatoes doing no good; tomatoes being seriously damaged; millet,
Hungarian and buckwheat very short.
Harrison—The past week too dry for
growing crops. Jaekson—The past week
has been warm and dry ;corn has suffered
from drouth ; wells and springs are failing : pastures dry and brown ; plowing for
wheat retarded; apples falling. Jefferson—Weather dry and hot; gronnd too
dry to plow. Jennings—Con tinned dry
weather; the corn crop will be cut short;
apples plenty; stock has to be fed, water
becoming scarce. Lawrence—Corn on
uplands "firing"; plowing for wheat discontinued on account of thc dryness of
soil. Ohio—No rain, corn burning up;
pastures dry; hauling water for stock; tobacco "firing," but considerable has been
boused. Ripley—Hot and dry; corn has
been materially affected by drouth; buckwheat and vegetables have suffered ; pastures dried up and stock has to be fed.
Switzerland—ltain badly needed; corn
suffering especially on thinorstonyland,
that on good gray or bottom land is still
doing very well; late potatoes are being
injured; pastures are brown and bare;
water for all purposes-is getting scarce;
tobacco is being prematurely ripened.eon-
sequently it is being cut and housed.
Warrick—Beautiful weather to ripen
corn, but rain is needed; pasture and
water are scarce with some. Washington
—Light rain, not enough to be of much
benefit for fall plowing, but will help
corn; tomatoes doing well; tobacco will
be light without more rain;pastures poor
and stock water scarce. Crawford—Corn
yet promises well; fall plowing in order,
but tbe ground is too dry; tomatoes fine,
but the crop will be short. Dearborn—It
has been a very hard week on vegetation;
late fruit is suffering; farmers feeding
stock and hauling water; potatoes and tomatoes are short. < Jibson—The little rain
did not do corn very much good, but is
holding its. own on rich black ground in
the bottoms; tomatoes doing well; young
clover is making no progress; fruit abundant; pastures drying up. Knox—Late
planted  corn   badly hurt; apples falling
badly; tomatoes sunburnt;  millet   going
into stack and barn.
CENTRAL TORTION.
Boone Co—Corn stands in need of rain;
tomato crop will be good in some places
and indifferent in others; pastures at a
low ebb; apple crop good, potatoes not a
prolific crop. Decatur—Corn past redemption in this county; clover seed
yielding fairly well; water scarce. Delaware—Corn crop badly damaged on clay
ground; tomato crop short; many farmers feeding stock; water scarce. Franklin—There are a few good yields of corn;
scarcity of stock water; apple crop being
injured for lack of rain. Henry—Corn
suffering badly for rain on clay and
sandy soil. Hancock—Vegetation is perishing for want of rain; nearly all late
crops are doing no good; apples are still
falling and pears are mostly ripe. Johnson—Late corn drying up; tomatoes
fairly good crop. Marion—Late corn
needing rain badly; pastures drying up;
wells failing; sowing wheat and rye; apples falling off. Owen—Upland corn cut
short; gardens and pastures burned up;
springs and wells failing. Parke—Continued dry weather damaging corn; pastures very short; truck gardening in a
deplorable condition; late potatoes suffering severely. Randolph—Rain almost
too late for corn on some land; tomatoes
will make a fair crop; stock water scarce.
Rush—No rain yet; no grass; corn light;
few vegetables; water scarce. Union—
Fruit sufiering fox moisture; ther i will
be a good Crop' of corn on good land.
Vigo—Corn and tomatoes suffering for
rain; chinch bugs injuring corn and rye.
Wayne—Corn continues to suffer from
drouth; clover cutting with a good yield;
water very scarce.
. NORTH F.RN PORTION.
Adams Co—Hot dry weather; rain very
much needed; pastures dry and short;
clover threshing progressing well. Allen—Corn not doing well, drying up before ripening; pasture very short; cabbage small. Benton—Corn has suffered
hy continued drought; vegetables withering. Carroll—"Still hot and dry, corn
much hurt; potatoes a fair crop; gardens
drying up; too dry for seeding; clover
seed will be poor on some fields; apples
and pears a fair crop; pastures poor and
nearly dried up. Cass—Con tinned drought
has seriously injured corn and pasture;
wheat and rye land generally prepared
for sowing. DeKalb—Fall plowing ahout
completed; buckwheat looking well.
Elkhart—Kain badly needed for pasture,
and getting ground ready for seeding; all
growing crops are abont past help, with
few exceptions; corn good stand and fairly well eared; rye sowing continues.
(Jrant—Extreme hot and dry weather ha«
further damaged corn and pastures; fall
plowing is well along. Huntington—
Pasture drying up; the dry weather injuring late corn. Jay—The dry and hot
weather has been detrimental to corn on
upland; potatoes not doing anything;
water scarce; stock has to be fed. Kosciusko—Crops are doing very well, considering the weather; pastures very short;
too dry for buckwheat, bees are not getting much honey from it. Lake—A good
rain, all vegetation revived; corn crop
somewhat lessened by drought; potatoes
good; pastures dry enough to burn, meadows likewise; apples falling badly. Miami—The effect of the dry and hot weather is showing rapidly on corn and pastures; vegetation is at a standstill, not
showing any progress; cabbage small;
clover will be short but pretty well filled.
Porter—Weather very warm; corn on
low lands has made up rapidly, on high
lauds has fired some and will not make a
full crop; potato vines generally dead.
Pulaski—Corn needs rain, will be cut
short in some localities; tomatoes in
prime condition ; many wells and brooks
dry; apples plentiful; potatoes promise a
big yield. Starke—Weather still dry, all
growing   crops   are suffering   for   rain;
corn on high land is ruined, some being
cut for fodder; pasture is brown; stock
falling off in flesh ; milk cows are giving
but little milk. Steuben—Week hot and
dry; pasture needs rain; potatoes will be
a large crop. Tippecanoe—Pastures almost gone; continued drought has cut
short the corn crop; water lower than for
many years. Tipton—Corn dying on
clay lands, being cut on ; nearly all stock
are being fed, pastures about gone; a->-
ples and pears plenty. Warren—Corn
suffering badly for rain; water scarce.
Whitely—Corn suffering from drought;
tomatoes are late and small. Wells—Grass
dry and short; corn hastening to maturity without full development; potatoes a
short crop. Marshall—Corn will be a
good crop, but not what it would havc
been had good rains come in time.
H. A. Huston,
Director Indiana Weather Service.
Per W.W.Dent,
Weather Bureau, Act Assistant Director.
Sights By They Way.
Editors Indiana Farmer:
The writer rode his "bike" to Nobles-
ville yesterday, and studied the effect of
the great drouth along the way on the
different methods of tillage. I saw two
young men breaking oats stuble for
wheat, and rolled my wheel up hy the
fence and asked them if they were quite
sure it was better to break that ground
than to harrow with a Kandall twice,
drag, roll and sow it. You know wheat
likes a firm seed bed below, and this oats
ground has had so little rain that it is full
too loose now.
I noticed the plow turned up some show
of moisture low down and threw the
dusty top on to a heavy oat stubble on
the bottom of the furrow. In this way
the seed bed will be cut off from the
moisture below and dried out above, and
if light rains are all we are favored with
this fall, wheat will either not grow at
all, or sprout and die, or if rain is a little
more plenty will grow and turn yellow-
as, like it was with a friend last spring, as
we walked over a field planted to corn
and not up the 10th of June, he said: "Well,
sir, that field was rye pasture for my dairy, and I turned it under with a chain and
it formed a straw bed on which I turned
my furrow, cutting it off from moisture
below. Then I worked it down well and
stood right on the drill shoes of my corn
planter and mashed themindeep. There
came a half inch rain an wet the ground
some, but didn't quite reach down to the
corn, and I concluded I had placed my
corn between the 'devil and the deep sea,'-
too deep for light show ers, and carefully
cut off from moisture below, and there it
is, a total loss, 11 acres. How easy it is to
make mistakes in farming and how costly many of them are."
Such is the promise of this wheat sowed
on oats plowed up very loose, and filled
with trash. Yes, we may have heavy rain
and settle that seed and heal over this
man's mistake, but if the top of that oats
stubble had been worked, the heavy rain
would not have hurt it at all, and if light
rain only came, it would have meant all
the difference between success and failure.
Last year a friend asked me to walk a
half mile with him to see a field of wheat
that had been sowed in '98, He broke a
strip two rods wide around it. It was so
hard he quit and "Kandaled" the rest,
and then his wheat was showing to the
furrow very much better where he had
not broke the oats stubble.
I jumped on my wheel, and before
reaching town saw two men cutting clover seed. They had fastened a wide board
back of the cutter-bar, and one walked,
and with a wide, light rakedrew the very
short clover back on the board. ' He
would draw back about four strokes and
then with a backward and forward motion he would sweep all to one side in a
neat bunch, out of the way of the next
round. These men traded places to rest,
and it didn't seem hard and they were
cutting low enough to get it clean. In
fact, they were doing a very neat and satisfactory job. You know if you mow
such short clover it falls down betweeen
the stubbles and can hardly be raked. It
also shatters very badly in raking.
There is a sort of dropper attachment
made for mowers to cut clover seed. The
machine is supposed to straddle the
bunch as it passes on the next round.
They cost $16 00, and these two brothers
were about finishing 16 acres of short
clover with no expense at all. I bought
a Buckeye table rake, as good as new, a
few years ago, for $10 00. It does fine
work, you can cut English clover heads
olT, m we often do, and leave two to four
feet of straw on the ground.
This very short clover though of last
year and this, would clog on the cutter-
bar, below the rjel, and we had to remodel it a little and let the reel run low. So
driver has to hold the rake with his foot
till a bunch is ready, then lift his reel
with a strap which hangs down from the
lever, while he allows the rake to run.
This does fine work.
Carmel, Ind. Du. E. H. Collins.
The Weed Pests.
Editors Indiana Farmer:
The recent suggestion made by a gentleman from Clinton county concerning
the destruction of the wild lettuce and all
other bad weeds is very important.
Either by taxation or reward premiums
should be given to encourage every
farmer in extinguishing all those bad
weeds. .
It is not just at all for several scattered
farmers throughout the State to try from
year to year, all their lives to keep their
farms clean from worthless weeds, while
the majority make no efforts to do the
same. Consequently every farm will be
fresh seeded from year to year. On farms
located on creeks and branches it is positively impossible to extinguish bad weeds
unless every land owner, up to the
springs or swamps of such creeks will go
hand in hand fighting the weeds to a certain degree. A farmer fortunately located on high ground, having no bodies
of water running through his land can
more easily succeed in keeping his farm
clean.
While cutting my first crop of clover
for hay I cut thousands of seedless wild
lettuce. But later on it was branching
up with donble force among my seed
clover way above it and working fast to
mature, but I did not rest until I had
nearly every one pulled up by the roots,
being the only way to tight it successfully. Let us all unite, farmer friends; it
is to the benefit of all of ns. Watch your
wild lettuce, your prairie thistles, milk
weed or capsule weed, bull thistles, mul-
lins, sourdock and especially polkroots.
It is no funjand I speak from experience,
to have a farm well seeded with polkroots. Remember, my farmer friends,
and pull up all the weeds by the root, if
you wish to succeed, before they mature
Hancock Co. A. S.
To Keep Ice in Refrigerators.
Editors Indiana Farmer:
I have just learned after the season is
pretty well over for using ice in refrigerators, how to keep it to the best advantage, which I will give to your many readers. .My refrigerator is 22x12 inches
square and 10 inches deep. A block to fit
and 6 inches thick will weigh about 50 to
60 pounds and would last from two to two
and a half days according to the heat. I
found to take a heavy woolen blanket,
about three thicknesses, and cover with
and tuck in all around the ice, leaving
the bottom bare where it lies on thc grate
above the shelves, the ice would keep almost twice as long as without covering,
and keeps the refrigerator just as cool.
Also found quite a little difference in the
cost. Those having refrigerators should
try it and they will be convinced.
Worthington. h B