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VOL. XXXI.
INDIANAPOLIS, IND., MAY 2, 1896.
NO. 18
EXPERIENCE DEPARTMENT.
How Do You Fight Drouth?
list premium.—In my corn crop laat sea-
sou, I fought the drouth as follows : The
ground was plowed as soon as it was dry
enough to work, and as prospects were
good for a great drouth, the fresh dirt
was rolled as fast as it was plowed. This
rolling firmed the earth, and helped to
retain the moisture. I took advantage of
a small shower the first of May, and commenced to prepare my ground for planting. Tbe early broken ground, well
rolled down, was moist and nice, and
what clods had been turned up, and not
crushed by the roller, had become soft,
and readily yielded to work. With
the harrow I leveled down the
surface, and brought the small
clods to the surface. The ground was
again rolled,and followed by a second harrowing. This made it in fine condition—
not only on the surface, but down as deep
as it was broken, and was in first-class
condition to absorb the moisture brought
up from the subsoil.
The corn was planted from the 10th to
the 15th of May, and as soon as we were
through planting, we rolled our entire
crop, following with the steel tooth harrow. In less than a week, we rolled and
harrowed again. AU this work was done
before the corn came through the ground
For a period of a little over one week"
during which time the corn was coming
through the ground, we did not molest it;
but as soon as the corn was up a few days,
I went over it with the Breed Weeder,
and again rolled; followed with the
weeder a second time in less than a week
from first operation. Would like to have
rolled again, but feared the corn was too
high in places. We then started our
Eagle claw—four shovels on a side—cultivator, with which we continued to cultivate at least once a week until tho corn
wasjas high as we could straddle, then we
took our little 14 tooth harrow, with lever
adjustment to make it fill the rows, and
with this, we continued to cultiv-f.e untU
all was in tassel, and occasionally a silk
could be seen. The earth mulch thus
formed and kept by frequent shallow
cultivations broke the capillary attraction, and I could at all times kick up the
fine moist earth within an inch of the
surface, although we practically had no
tain from the time corn was planted until it was laid by.
Scientific experiments had told me that
it took over 400 pounds of water to mature
one pound of weeds, so I was careful that
~H moisture went to the corn, by keeping all weeds down.
As a result, I had an unusually large
crop of corn, and an excellent seed bed
I 'or wheat, and a fine chance for the
I ."°ung clover recently sown on it.
Henry Co. XV. XV. Prigg.
M Premium.—In fighting drouth the
£f~t essential is to plow deep, eight or
"'ne inches, as soon as ground is dry in
"Pring; then when time to plant use har-
ro~" and drag until soil Is perfectly, mel-
low to a depth of five or six inches. Thus
Jou have a deep mellow seed bed, which
""ill help to give the young plant a good
lh"lfty start and better enable it to withstand severe drouth. After potatoes or
] "°~n are planted, harrow ground with
I me tooth harrow or weeder every few
[ J*?", and especially as soon after each
as  ground  is  dry  enough to work
rain
nie
foil,
e-   When  plants  are  up so you can
low the rows, cultivate  level as possible with some good fine tooth cultiva-
ri Ave ov  six  inches  deep  as  close to
'laat as you can.   This gives the ground
»thorough stirring up after the frequent
."rrowings.    Then  use  weeder,  going
l^ghtover the rows, this will  kill  the
I   e~ds starting  in  rows and make a fine
I ar'h mulch that will better hold mois
ture. After this our cultivation is all
shallow, using cultivator and weeder alternately every three to five days. The
weeder can be used until potato tops are
about eight to 10 Inches high, without
injury to the plants. I consider the
weeder the best implement for saving
labor and fighting drouth that I know of.
Uy using it in time, it often prevents
weeds from starting and keeps tho surface fine and level. We cultivate potatoes as long as we can go between rows
with harrows and cultivator, but not
close to rows after plants are large. During the entire season we aim to work the
ground after each rain as soon as it is
dry, with cultivator and weeder, and as
fast as possible to get the soil stirred before a crust forms. Uy following this
plan we have succeeded in growing good
crops of potatoes almost without rain.
Jay Co. M. O. Wright.
3d Premium.—In a dry season I prefer
level cultivation, and I want the cultivator to go into the corn field all the time.
After a rain I start tho plow In my com
as soon as the ground Is fit. It will hold
moisture longer. I_ast fall I broke land
in a field when it wa3 in/ood order; later
when it had dried out I broke the rest of
the field. I rolled it after the plov. I
harrowed it both ways and dragged it
and sowed to rye. The first was moist all
the time and the last was dry and cloddy,
and never came up till late. The rye is
up fine on the piece broke first, while on
the rest of the field you can scarcely see
any rye at all. For corn, potatoes, onions
and garden truck I use a fine tooth cultivator all the time. I say keep the ground
perfectly level and stir it often in a dry
season, and always plow it after a rain.
Harrison Co.    .       Benj. Williams.
take a single tender. Stay with the corn
till it is in roasting ears, if il does not raint
and you will have a full crop; or in fact
the more you harrow and roll your
ground after it has been plowed the better you are prepared to meet a drouth.
But the tile is tho most important throat
for water and air lo pass through. The
moro air and heat in the ground the more
tho moisture'will raise during tho night.
Thou try filling tile with water.
Stark Co. D.C. XV.
If we only knew a sure way to fight
drouth to perfection it would bo worth
many dollars to us. Our method is constant, shallow cultivation. Breaking the
ground deep, preparing a good fine seed
bed, and then cultivate so as to retain all
the moisture possible. After a rain as
soon as the ground will permit, we stir
the surface leaving It level. Keep this
up at intervals of one week apart during
dry weather. By thus forming au "earth
mulch" we can retain considerable moisture that would otherwise escape.
Jackson Co. T. S. Cross.
get to keep tho weeder after instead of before the roller.
I must commend Mr. Prigg's very late
working of corn in drouth years. I have
tried his whole method and am very much
pleased with it.
Have not tried Mr. Wamsley's sub-Irrigation, but would ask if the moisture
which is so costly to handle, is not
already there? The secret is, and I feel
sure I'm right, that wo need to givo moro
attention to checking wasteful evaporation than adding to water.
A good surface stirring with the eagle
claw or spring tooth, followed by the
weeder, will prevent the evaporation of
10 or 15 tons a day per acre, and that is
surely cheaper than to pump it into costly
tiling.
Will mention corn roots next week.
We are thankful for so much good copy.
K. II. Collins.
review.
The normal rainfall for 21 yoars for Indiana is nearly 40 inches a year, and is
slightly heavier in the six warm months
than in the sixcood months. One inch of
rain per acre weighs about 113 tons,
Forty inches of rain a year equals about
A Trip to the West Florida Highlands.
Editobs Indiana Fabmeb:
When I left home on April 7th the
thermometer registered 20°, and the next
day at noon when I arrived at Pensacola,
Fla., it registered near 80°. Winter clothing and underwear were a burden.
Sad scenes of '61-'(ll passed through my
mind, when I remembered how then I
tramped to the tap of drum, carrying
knapsack and gun, and now how different—riding in palatial cars at tho rate of
havo
The first thing to be done to work
against drouth is to break the ground
deep; subsoil It if possible, and keep as
level as possible. If for a spring crop,
such as corn and potatoes, I think it
should be cultivated often but shallow, as
it will hold moisture in this way longer
than if it is loosened up deep. The
ground should be kept level as possible
at all times.
Harrison Co. James D, Lemay.
Our rule is to break the soil six to eight
inches deep, and harrow and roll before
planting until in good condition. I do
not like the plank drag used by many
farmers, because it does not cultivate but
only drags many clods into low places.
We plant our corn with acheckrowerand
cultivate twice each way with spring-
tooth cultivators. Never cultivate after
harvest. Cut out with the hoe the weeds
that may have escaped the cultivator.
Union Co. W. H. Lafuse.
Preparation for drouth should commence with rotation and first breaking,
notation may be such as to aid drouth
and do injury. First plowing should be
deep as circumstances will warrant and
thorough. Seed bed should be well prepared. Cultivation should be frequent,
shallow, level and thorough. Earth
should be kept compact as possible. The
word shallow is used in connection with
cultivation with some doubt. Deep it is
feared would imply the destruction of
radicles and spongioles, thus rendering
It impossible for the growing corn to get
nutriment from thc surrounding earth.
Clark Co. X. Y.
The way we fight drouth is with tile
and cultivation, roller and with water
run in at the upper end of tile, closing
lower end to hold wator back till plants
feast on water; so use your tile to irrigate
when dry as well as to drain when too wet-
Also the drier and hotter the ground gets,
the oftener you should stir the ground.
Shallow, level cultivation. If the corn
gets too high to *,'ua the double tender,
--  \JS IIJ    _L_JS.-_SS._»S_,1.   _.___.__   __, J S.»-   SSSjUSUE]   S.IJUUS   S-. _.  	
12 tons per aero a day.   This mudt supplv 140 mites an hour!   After  30^ yea-
evaporation, fin*, ing Streams  aud  muis.-   £**■—*—» —*—' *"= *=^j~r.-'*"'-' ■        "_..—
influencJy by  your
ure for plants. ]_i, aeration is immense.
In the warm mon'hs where the ground is
hard and naked, at many fields are in the
spring, it often av irages 20 tons a day per
acre.
Plow such groi nd one week and It is
mellow and nice, 0 days later it would
break hard and be very cloddy.
Fifty bushels of corn and the fodder require about 10 tons of moiBture a day for
100 days or 1,000 tons. This is also true of
a crop of clover of two and one-half tons
per acre.
While plants draw heavily on soil
moisture, we should remember that the
insensible, unseen evaporation is our
greatest robber, and steals the very life
blood from our seed bed and subsoil at
twice the rate that the useful plants require it.
Our common showers in warm weather
are almost entirely evaporated, and our
plants depend mostly on subsoil moisture
stored in cool months. We farm over an
ocean of fresh water which in the level
parts of Indiana is reached by wells from
four to 40 feet deep. r\Vater is brought to
the surface, not in tubes like wood pores,
but by contact of particles of earth. Kach
particle of dirt under a microscope has a
coating of water and the next particle
touching it if drier robs it'of part of its
moisture.
This is the secretof a lirm seed bod—and
separating these particles is the principle
of the mulch.
Many roll the seed bed to bring up
moisture, but forget the firm surface will
give it off to the air. Koll and then harrow and you invite it up from below and
shut it in from above, so it will accumulate in the seed bed.
Only yesterday I saw a field of oats
drilled and then rolled. The recent rain
had firmed the rolled surface which will
give up the moisture to the air and become hard. He should have rolled and
then drilled.
I may call special attention to the articles in this number by Mr. Prigg and
Mr. Wright. They had a close race for
lst.   Which would you give it to?
I like Mr. P.'s management of the seed
bed before planting when he.has a very
dry spring. I harrowed ground broke
for corn last spring every week before
planting. But if one drills in a furrow he
must be careful and not work the furrow
full till after his corn is well up, as was
mentioned two weeks ago, and don't for-
Ohio river. Bein;
descriptions of the West Florida Highlands, I was anxious to see them for myself. No description given by me will
add anything new to what has already
been written, and the articles in the
Farmer and Colony circular certainly
havo not been overdrawn in tho least.
The farm of G. A. Danley is certainly
an object lesson of the possibilities of a
Florida farm under high cultivation-
The farm known as the Kentucky farm
shows how soon a wilderness can be
transformed into a fruitful condition, I
dare not hardly tell how large some of
the peach trees have grown, that have
been planted three years, and that they
are loaded with peaches, or my veracity
might be doubted. It is certainly almost
a paradise for the fruit grower. There
are some drawbacks of course—distance
from market and only one rail-road, but
these will be obviated later.
Canning factories are needed, and evaporators to use up the surplus when shipment to Northern markets does not pay.
It does seem to me that a co-operative
canning factory of four or five fruit
growers could be made profitable.
I could not account for cheapness of
lands in the South before going, and cannot hardly now. If people only knew
the advantages of sucli a mild climate-
tho rush to the Northwest, with its blizzards and long winters would bo turned
southward where there are cheap lands,
with plenty of building material and
with fencing and fuel costing almost
nothing. But after all I agree with the
Farmer, that if you enjoy good health,
own a farm (however small) and are out
of debt, I would say just let well enough
alone. Yet to the poor renter that has to
struggle to make both ends meet, I say
pull up and go South, and get a home of
your own. The American landlord is not
a whit better than the landlords of
Europe; year after yoar thoy keep drawing the cords a little tighter.
Kushville. M. C. Dawson.
—Showing his faith by works it may be
said that Mr. Dawson took several tractor Colony land for himself and friends.
Bernard McDonnell, of Fairmoun
years old, served as a bearer at the I*
of  Gen.   William    Henry   Harris
North Bend, July 4,   1841.   He  w
ployed on the steamer which bor<*
mains to North Bend, and he as
carrying the casket to  its  fir
place.
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