VOL. XXII.
INDIANAPOLIS, IND., SATURDAY, APRIL 23,1887.
NO. 17
Written for the Indiana Farmer:
A Home In South California.
J   F. MBNDENHAf.T..
In the Farmer of March 19 I notice an
extract from one of the speeches at a meeting of the Sulphur Well Club, entitled,
"A Oieat Conspiracy."
It is a wonderful pro! notion, reminding
me of the amusing speeches made before
the "Lime Kiln Club," or of the political
harangues delivered by the ordinary crossroads politician. It contains as little sense
as anything ever said before the Lime
K in Club, and aa many mis-statements as
any political demagogue ever got in the
same space. loan hardly believe "G. C."
Intended to be funny, but has endeavored
to mislead, and I feel it a duty to correct
some of his mis-statements.
In the first place there is no conspiracy.
No one has ever been instructed or re
quested to suppress the bad, and laud the
good points of this country. No effort
has ever been made to oirculate "boom
literature" exclusively, and keep our
newspapers at home. On the contrary, at
least 50 newspapers are mailed to the
Eastern States to every one of those fancy
pamphlets G C. speaks about. Who mails
those papers? Our visitors. Thousands
of visitors come to this fair land every
month, and are so delighted that thu lirsi
thing they do after looking around a few
hours is to get a doz an or so newspapers
and mail them to our eastern friends. It
is no uncommon thing to see almost a half
bushel of papers piled up on some of the
street mail boxes. Now, if our eastern
friends are not well posted about the "big
patch on the other shoe" it is their own
fault. They ought to know by this time
all about our scale bug, gophers, squirrels,
Jack rabbits, rloas, mildews, fogs and dust.
O C. would have us believe we were In
a land of destructive Insects, unconquerable rodent*, etuat, mildew, desolation
and despair. Let us see how far he has
departed from the truth. He speaks of
the scale bug as a terrible pest. It is quite
destructive in certain neighborhoods
where no effort has been made to kill it
out, but there are hundreds of thousands
of trees in South California entirely free
from the scale. It can be eradictted, and
as easily as any insect pest, but not in the
manner described by O. C.
After a careful study of our gophers and
sq nlrrels, I am inclined to think they are
blessings in disguise. The squirrels burrow deep Into the ground and carry the
rains and rich surface soil down ten or
fifteen feet which maybe beneficial to
crops and trees in the years to oome. We
have never discovered any particular
harm done by the little squirrels.
Oophers, like squirrels, honey-comb the
ground but they do little harm and are
rarely seen. When gophers are plenty we
rarely see a rat, and we would much
rather have the gophers than the dirty
mischievous rats, cutting and destroying
everything.
Mildew in South California! And right
in our raisin vineyards too! G. C. will
cause some of our raisin growers to open
their eyes and open them wide. Here
they have been industriously at work
producing hundreds of thousands of boxes
every season of the finest raisins the world
ever saw, with hardly a thought of mildew. In spite of G. C. I presume they
will continue in tbe good work and perhaps produce next season over 1,000,000
boxes, or twenty million pounds of choioe
raisins, To say we have mildew in the
houses and closets is simply untrue. It Is
on a par with the sitting hen story. No
one ever heard of such a thing out here.
■'Our fruits are sweeter than yours, every time," says G. C , "and we can sell all
we can raise at three to four times better
prices than you get." There is not a particle of truth in this statement, and it ia
written to mislead. Our strawberries,
blackberries, raspberries, peaches, plums,
apricots, nectarines, cherries, apples, pears,
and all other fruits, are just as sweet as
the same fruits in Indiana, or any other
Eastern State, just as juicy, and generally
larger. Some one, along time ago, started
the story that our apples, pears and peaches
were coarse and tasteless. This was true
of some varieties, but not all. Our rich
soil and favorable climate caused Home
fruits to grow large and coarse, and great
quantities were shipped East, and this
caused an unfavorable impression. With
tho exception of apples, all our fruits are
as fine and as sweet as any in the United
States. Our delightful climate causes apples to grow rapidly, and they are not generally as solid and as juicy as Eastern ap
pies, but this is not true in every case, and
the time is coming when an abundance of
good apples will be grown in this State.
We are young in apple growing. Great
quantities of choice apples are shipped
here from other States and are sold at about
Indianapolis prices.
Our Sulphur Well friend desires to know
why so many advertise to sell out here,
and intimates that they are aflxious to get
away, even if they have to get to Texas.
Bless your soul, man! matters would be
dull indeed if no one would sell out. "Make
hay while the sun shines" Is a good old
saying. In a growing country many are
willing and anxious to take advantage of
the demand for real estate and will sell
at a good advance and buy again. I know
of hundreds of sales of real estate, but I
cannot name a single instance where the
seller desired to leave the State. If asyone
should desire to leave this good land to go
to Texas to go into business we hope he
will go at once. We will not go Into bank
ruptcy on ace >unt of his departure.
"Who, within :i0 miles of the coast In
Southern California, ever sees a sunrise?'
Every one who will take the trouble to get
up in time will see the sun rise in this
part of the State oftener than he could In
Indiana. He will not be troubled about
tho fogs "ragiDg" to any alarming extent,
for they do not "rage" until nine o'clock
every morning. We do have fogs quite
often in the summer time, but they are
not unpleasant and I do not believe they
trouble any one. They are sometimes
very pleasant and enj lyed by maEy. But
we have many places out here where fogs
are almost unknown, and if anyone finds
them unpleasant he can easily move out
of tbe fog belt. We are not troubled with
dust, taking the year through, half as
much ns the good people of Indiana.
Most of our trees are green the entire
year, and the "brown and seer" time never
comes. We don't care for your Invigorating snow and  spicules  of frost,   We can
see enough of these "spicules" afar off on
the mountains. We learn much from G.
C. about the heat of the country which,we
never could find out by a residence here
Finally, we hope our Sulphur Well friend
will come to this country and learn something, and sit under the shade of our "everlasting pepper tree" and enj ly some of our
"sunshine and glory."
Los Angeles, Cal., April 11,1887.
 »  m ■*	
Written for the Indiana Farmer.
Letter from Washington Territory
No. 3
IIY .1    V. MKKKKK.
Although Western Washington Is several degrees further north than Indianapolis, yet our winters are much milder than
with you. The present spring is remarkably backward, yet to day, April 7th, In
walking over my wife's flower garden I
observed dailies, pansies, hyacinths, o tody
tuft, daffodils, tulips and crown Imperial,
all in full bloom In tbe open air. Her lied
of crocus bulbs was In full bloom more
tbat a month ago. I have resided here
about Ti years and have gathered wild
flowers every month In the year. At this
date my own kitchen garden showsonlons,
radishes, carrots, spinach, peas and early
turnips growing nicely, also lettuce, cabbage and cauliflower, transplanted, all
started In the open air.
But the winters although mild are not
altogether agreeable, especially to new
comers. About the first of October the
winter rains set In and continue until
spring opens. Momeseasons spring logins
early in February; at other times It ia delayer) until about April 1st. Oar winter
rains are usually a drizzle ami become
monotonous even to the eldest Inhabitant.
The mercury seldom falls below the freezing point and usually but little snow falls.
However, I have seen winters here that
gave us Immense snows and tine sleigh
riding for two or three weeks.
7he summers are cool and pleasant.
ihe mercury seldom registers above SO"
at mid-day, while the evenings and nights
are quite oool, so cool Indeed that we tiud
a tire in tbe grate agreeable every evening.
We are favored with abundant showers
during summer, so that we seldom suffer
from drouth.
I am in receipt of a letter From a aiib-
scrlber to the FarmKB who writes that he
has lived In Indiana above mi years, lie
expressed a wish to sell out and come to
this country. I wrote him In substantia
thai at his time of life he had best remain
where he Is. Improved land here Is held
much higher than in Western States.
What will your readers think when I tell
you that Improved lands are here held at
from $100 to foou per aore. Now don't
throw down the paper In disgust, for I have
something more to tell you. 1 know of
land within two miles of here that was
recently rented for this season only for
|100 per aore. More than this I recently
drew writings for one of my neighbors
who leased a tract of It acres, for a term of
five years, at a yearly rental of $1,200, receiving at the time of said writing |600 to
apply upon the fifth year's rent. Now
these high rates of rent do not prevail be
cause of proximity to a large city, but be
cause of the kind of srtf>s we raise, which
find markets elsewhere.
This region Is peculiarly adapted to the
growing of hops, an industry in whioh we
are largely engaged, and of which I will
write more In another letter. This being
a timbered country many hard knocks are
required to make a farm, and an old man
had better not attempt opening a farm
here. But to young men who are blessed
with industry and pluck, I would say
come, and hew out a farm, and participate
lu the future greatness of this country.
In my next letter I will tell your readers
something more about the products of
Western Washington.
Scattering Manure.
editors Indiana Farmer:
When I sit down to recount my "mar-
cles," I cannot, like the backwoods preacher, "thank tbe Lord that I never scratched
ray back againat a college wall " While
at Wabash I learned a little of chemistry;
among other things that the volatile substance called ammonia, Is valuable to the
farmer. Ho when 1 read a few weeks ago
In the Farm eh, a communication from
Mr. Shephard advocating scattering manure directly from the wagon, 1 paused and
thought of ray chemistry. When scattered,
directly the sun, wind and rain combine
to carry away the most valuable Ingredient
-ammonia. When placed In piles, say
five or six to the wagon load, until within
au hour's time ofthe plow, all the precious
gas Is retained and enters the soil. In my
experience I find this plan the best; lt requires more work hut I think the result*
secured are better.
Scattered weeks before plowing while
the ground la frozen, probably with no
snow precipitated to carry down the gas
Into the ground, and with the high winds
the ammonia Is carried away and dry
worthless straw Is left. Again, in rolling
ground, washing rains will carry away
valuable portions. A good hand will soat-
ter the manure while his homes "blow,"
and the fresh, upturned earth will absorb
this  Meeting plant food.
A. K. M.
Another Swlndld
Editors Indiana Farmer:
Another farmer duped out of f2,000 by
confidence men. Au old quiet farmer
near Warren, Ind., on the lath inst., under
the gas and oil boom in that vicinity being offered as he thought, an enormous
price for his farm, took a draft (v i In excess of the stipulated amount, giving his
Individual check tor jfcj.oOn to make the
trade even. The confidence men at once
presented the check at the Warren bank
and it was honored, and they got a livery
rig and drove to Marion where they took
the 0. W. and M. train north. 'They were
last seen at Wabash, ind. J, H.
Arcana, Ind.
('anllnal Gibbons has sent from Pernio*
valuable cameo ring as his contribution to
a church fair soon to beheld lu Baltimore.
Mi. Astor Carey, of Mew York, a wealthy
student at Harvard College, haa given
f2S'uO0 for the erection of aswlmmlug bath
for tbe use of the students.
A prairie fire near Huron, Dak, Saturday night did great damage. Edward
Maloney, Kate Maloney and Annie Ma
rine were burned to death,