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,VOL. XXXI
INDIANAPOLIS, ;IND_, JUNE 27, 1896.
NO. 26
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EXPERIENCE DEPARTMENT
^ OEIMSOIT'OLOVEEAND'ALrALrA.
i
How They Succeed in Indiana
(Nov Competitor for onr Common Red,
But Well Worthy of Further Trial.
, What Old and Experienced Farmers'
•    - ;-     \-   '       Say.        .  " •    j
lilt Premium. -1 have had no experience
Witli alfalfa, and but one year's experience with crimt.6-_f clover.. In my diary
for 18951 find the-.fallowing: -"July 16—
liad a good'_ra.-r_yesterday, and to-day I
sowed f!5 pounds pf ■■ crimson clover , seed
on three- arubone-half acres of -bottom
land.'. Covered ttlpseed with a 14 teeth
cultivator, going .once in "each corn row."
_-.lyjsiv J Snd '^he following: ''We had a
vary heavy rain this evening, the heaviest for over'a year:' Great for corn and
poiatoes,""a£d'just the thing for my crjm-
-wn Clover so-vn, four vdays ago." j
It will be seen by the foregoing that I wait
very fortunate In getting a good soaking
rain .ostas my seed'was coming through
the ground. As a result, I got a splendid
I f rt»".d,'.«n_l "in .a), few .weeks, the ground
. was entirely covered. My seed was sown
fn, bottom lauds," tile drained, the level of
vhicl_, was fiot more than four feet above
ran on one side-tf-Mlie-patOh. -At.thejtime
of seeding the ground wss covered with a
dense growth-of corn', drilled east ind
west, so that the young plants were most
thoroughly shaded during the long and
severe drouth that followed the seeding.
After about three weeks the clover apparently ceased to grow, on account of
the drouth, but none of it died, and at the
time the corn W*8 gathered in November,
the clover formed .__■ complete turf that
held up the" wagon, almost like blue-
grass sod. When we had an open spell in
the winter for a few days I could see the
clover made some growth; bnt March was
so hard on all clover and wheat that I
feared it would succumb, bnt it did not
freeze out at all, although winter oats
light by the .side ot it nearly all froze out-
On account of its getting no start in the
fall, I did not get any winter or fall pasture oft from it, but the first of April it
was up a good height, and I turned in six
head of horses and one milch cow. The
three and one-half acres not only supported this herd of stock, but continued
j to gain on tbem, and after my other, corn
was planted, on the 19th day of May, it
was a foot high, and a profusion of bloomr
-nd I turned it under, for another crop of
I corn. The gronnd on which it was sown'
I is excellent corn land, but too low and'
I black for best results for wheat, and I
i by the use of crimson clover each
hear, to increase the fertility, and at the
I same time, have a green coating for pro-
I lection during the period when there is
I most danger of overflows and washes,
r observation leads me to believe that
| crimson clover is safe in this latitude-^
grees north—if you are successful in
I getting a stand in time for the roots to
I Set a good hold, and form a turf that will
loot succumb to the freezes. The Ohio
| R*perimen t S tation at Wbos ter, • 0.,Ml
rees north—has tried crimson clover
|foat years and failed in every instance,
use of drouth killing the young
Iplants in the early fall. An "Esteemed
■contemporary" recently called for experience with; crimson* clover north Of.the
Pth parallel, and quite a number.of perron- in latitudes ranging from 39 to .41}..
pve successful experiences, and many
Pho reported partial success attribute
Iheir partial failure for drouth in the ,fall
loon after sowing, I*do not -expect crim-
jon clover iri any way to interfere with'
|ir noble little red clover, but as a catch
f"op for early pasture and a fertilizer, I
belleye it will prove successful in,.onr
latitude, and be of benefit to the farmer,
though I will experiment in a small way
for a few years, and advise others to do
the same. ' W. W. Pniaa.
• Henry Co.
__ Premium.—This is my fourth season
with crimson clover, and although I have
never succeeded in getting a good stand I
expect to oontinue sowing under certain
circumstances. I find two places where
crimson clover is Just right when we can
secure a stand. 1st, where one expects to
follow corn with corn, crimson comes in
and fills the gap togood advantage. 2d,
where the common red sown in wheat
fails, tbe crimson can be sown after harvest and again fills ths gap to perfection.
Last year my common clover failed on
my glory patch. After removing the
wheat I sowed crimson clover and harrowed it in with Acme harrow, weighted
with child large enough to drive, l.esult
a stand of clover, except some spots
where harrow did not cut the .soil very
much. Job W. Wii_.r.iAMk
Clark CO. ;        j.
I sowed crimson clover seed in growing
corn lastof August and harrowed lightly.
A good rain soon followed; .seed all grew
andvplantsgot .a good -star.t, but not
enough;growth to afford any pasture as
advertisers' .claimed; looked well 'utitil
Febrnary^When a dry freeze did riot-leave
-tgi_.gl*-^ai^^Ials<*>-'soW-b<l-in-*^l_-<i-->-
Eferry patch.">A few planjs _got through,
alive, which made a feeble growth! of
about eight inches. lint I was not satisfied yet. The next year I tried a small
amount of seed again, but not a single
plant showed up the next spring.
Warrenton, 111. C. E. II.
We have not had much experience in
crimson clover * and alfalfa. In fact I
don't think thero is any alfalfa in this
neighborhood. We _ have a red clay soil
here, and I don't think it is suited to alfalfa. As to crimson clover we sowed it
three falls in succession and it did no good.
I think it was too dry for it. If it had a
fair trial no doubt it would do better. I
will notice what others have to say > on
this subject. Bbnj.Wili.iams.
Harrison Co..
REVIEW.
Every plant hunting anew home meets
two obstacles. The lst is change of climate. The 2nd is our ignorance of its peculiarities.   • '■"-..' i   ;
-.Show . me any. plant, however useful,
that did not have this fight to make and
did not meet with liberal condemnation,
mixed with enthusiastic support. Gradually as it makes its mission known and
finds its congenial place it becomes appreciated and adopted.
Although crimson clover has been successfully grown for years in New Jersey
and has become a staple crop in that section, yet in attempting tb spread over
the northwest it has met three years of
most disastrous drouth. Timothy sown
during these dry falls has nearly always
failed and we simply said "it was;too
dry." Ked olover failed in the spring
and we said "it was too dry." Crimson
clover sowed in the hot August weather
and often among corn made a slight
growth in the fall and perished in the
winter, and we say "it is worthless; away
with it" '   .: •   ;
The seed of crimson clover ripens in
May and.is beaten into the ground tb
grow in July or August. The seed of red
clover ripens iri August and is hurried by
winter weather to grow in early spring.
Crimson will grow at a lower temperature than red and is really a winter
grower. It is not recommended for hay
though it makes good hay. But the mission
of crimson clover Is as a nitrogen gatherer to cover our bald fields with green,
during the idle months, and to be turned
under as a fertilizer and humus crop In
the spring. • *
: Probably nearly half of the cultivated
land in Indiana lies naked in fall and
winter, bleaching and leaching out nitrogen and growing sad and. hard.-' • ~-l/i~-y
'■' Here is the place, for crimson; clover;
We have repeatedly said naturejkeeps the
surface covered at all 'times with' green
crops. Weeds ,came.to,coverJ-bkre.places
and check the waste -of fertility.'during
the most prodigal summer months, but
most weeds die with frost. It is true 'we*
would cover our : ground with wheat or
rye, but they [are exhaustive; crops and
we are glad to welcome this »clover—a
winter grower that revels in frosty
nights' and' gathers .up with 'willing
hands the crumbs of nitrogen and other
fertility which are the overflow of the
summer tillage in growing exhaustive
crops.       - ■
> Yes, it will die sometimes. How often
have you lost' red clover in 20 years?
There are two causes of its dying. The
slight growth .in dry falls, and foreign
grown seed.   ,
A neighbor in' buying seed last fall
wrote a well-known firm in this State
asking if they had home grown seed and
that theyi positively knew to be home
grown.. They said they had and he sent
and got seed, but not being satisfied he
wrote again asking them to give tbe
.name of the firm they bought from. This
they refused to do, and said It, their word
■wasuH good enoughiBe-might return' the
seed. He returned, the treed at once and
sent to New Jersey at some greater expense for Beed. ! '
Seedsmen do not always appreciate the
importance of knowing beyond doubt tho
history of seeds. The writer once sept to
a Philadelphia seed firm for a sample of
Learning corn. They sent it. I then sent
for two bushels and they sent a big yellow corn. I paid $2 50 a bushel for it and
fed it to my hogs. ■
A firm in Indiana sold me Jerusalem
artichokes and tho next year they made a
run on Early White French. They took
my whole crop and shipped them as
Early White French.
I speak of these instances to caution
farmers to buy sure American grown
crimson clover seed, and it is better to
buy from a farm in New Jersey where
the same has been repeatedly grown for
years.
Several prominent farmers say. they
would freely sow it on naked land if they
knew it would winter kill, since tbe fall
growth would richly repay the cost of
say GO cents per acre for seed in the fertility it would yield and the shade it
would afford. The writer sowed red
clover two different years in corn when
"laying it by," following close to the cultivator. It came well both times but
perished in a dry August.
One neighbor near here sowed alfalfa
last spring, and it is doing finely. There
is a volunteer patch on the west Bide
of Pennsylvania street, north of Tinker
street, Indianapolis. I noticed it last
week; It was over three feet high and
would yield a heavy acreage.
I wish more would try it. Give it deep
soil and low soli.. Plow early as for "taters ;" harrow every,week to sprout out
weed seed, and sow about 30 pounds per
acre about the middle of May; cover
with light harrow, and not roll after sowing. If bothered with weeds mow as often as needed, and leave them on the
ground as a mulch.        E. H. Co_.i_ins.
in theio'me'lifo'andsnrrOundingsofyour-
famil-yL ' ._.'>,-■ :
No. 24, A~i-f.$_—Digging and storing po-
.tatoes. '_■. _,' •-'.-,-
'.No.'25j Aug.. 15.—Economical hog feed-
ing.for.mar___9t--(doeftnot include breeding).^ :.:**\ •*;'.ii*   .'/;■   . -
Western Florida Water and Health.
Editobs Indiana Fabme-**. "
A few years ago I brought a number ot
excursion parties from Indiana and Ohio
to.West Florida and in each of them were
several people afilicted with various diseases, such as catarrh, rheumatism, liver
complaint, kidney complaints, gravel,
diabetes, etc.; Manyj of these were very
bad cases and of ~ long. standing. lwas
much surprised to find every case quickly
relieved arid nearly all';of _ thepi perma- ■'
pently- cured -by a winter's'sojourn here.
By watching the results I was led to believe there was more virtue in the water ^
than in the climate. So I took different'
samples back to Indianapolis and had
them analyzed and every report was
''pure, soft arid'free from all-mineral.'..-1
The late Dr. Harvey, of Indianapolis
was at that time our family physician
and I had him examine tho water and
when he spoke of' its purity I expressed
my surprise at the results of its use on so
many differenti diseases, "saying that I
was under; "the, impression- that catarrh'
needed one kind of treatment, rhenma-"'
tism another, kidney disease another and .
familiar illustration of how tho w_k
acts on* the entire system." Water has a____
affinity for minerals, and especially for
lime and all the water of our country Is
strongly impregnated with it. If you
get a new tin teakettle and use in it our
well water, you will find that in two
weeks it has deposited in it a thick coating of lime. Now .without removing the
lime, use rain water or any soft water for
a week and you will find that it has absorbed the lime and.carried it off. When
this lime water is taken into the system
it deposits more or less of the lime iri all
the-organs it 'passes through and this
causes irritation and disease,and for local
treatment the different maladies require
different medicines, but when pure soft
water is taken into the system it in turn
absorbs these particles of lime and carries
them off and a cure is effected. It will
even relieve the blood of these irritating
particles and in that way reach many
diseases in organs not reached by the
water. Let your friends drink all that
water they can."
In many cases the parties had spent
large sums of money and suffered several
years without being cured, but found relief here in a few weeks, using our soft
well water.
. Chipley weather report for week ending
June 20,-90:
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No. 19, July 4.—The value of rye and how
it is grown."
No. 20, July 11.—How do you save and
use manured ••.-•■
No. 21, Jt-ly.%7Preparing ground . for
Wheat and sowing on fallow or in corn.
, No. 22, July 25.—Experience with winter oats. , *      u
No. 23, Aug. h—What social,inteIlectual
and spiritual opportunities do you enjoy
6 A.M.
NOON.
6 P. M.       REMARKS.
San.
70°
71) o
7G~>
Mon.
70''
80"
78"
Tues.
77"
84"
80"
Wed.
74"
8~"
77"
ThurB.
•76"
85"
81"
Frl.
77"
84"
78"                Rain.    .
8 lit.
76"
78"            Showers.
Good breeze every day.
Chipley, Fla
 !!--_,
A. G. CirANDi.EE.
The only time to do a thing is the right
time. If the soil is stirred and the fields
kept clean during the month of June,
the corn plants become stocky and as-'
sume the best condition to make rapid
growth when the hot July sun starts
them with new vigor. If neglected now,
It will be impossible  to  give   the  corn
proper attention later..
        . m
There is a way to overcome everything,
even the nuisance of a muddy, barnyard.
It is surprising tbat good farmers do not
contrive more speedy ways, to cure the
matter. Such a thing is a detriment to
the whole place, and an eyesore to the
whole country around. Clean it up and
drain it off. ... .
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