I „..»«fv|vf_
VOL. XXXI.
INDIANAPOLIS, IND., AUG. 1, 1896.
NO. 31
EXPERIENCE DEPARTMENT
What Social, Intellectual and Spiritual opportunities do you Enjoy in
tbe Home Life and Surroundings of Your Family.
Socially, we enjoy evenings spent in
discussiug subjects of importance, as; the
welfare of the little folk, the advantages
aud disadvantages of wind, weather and
soil upon our prospective harvests, planning for material improvements in our
surroundings, determining the cause of
our fellow workers' rise or defeat in the
ranks of life, reading the Indiana
Faiimer in search of its valuable hints;
entertaining our friends betimes and allowing thom the right to return the
compliment with us; in general by endeavoring to strengthen the bond of
sympathy and helpfulness with which
(iod has joined all persons together. Intellectually, we enjoy tHe good of as extensive and model a library as our means
will permit, as many of the best periodicals and home papers as we can read
carefully, attendance at many of the Intellectual treats that occasionally come
to our town and educational advantages
of a district school, well graded and a
higher institution as the needs of our
children require it. Spiritually, we enjoy the satisfaction of knowing that we
-.ryand inculcate into our own minds
-md thwsrofour f-tmifyfideas of hdh&fy,
kindness and love, devotion to the comfort of others in preference to one's self.
In general, from the prayer by mother's
knee which is an act never to be forgotten, we endeavor to make every one near
and far, as happy and as thankful as possible through all the years that we live.
Wo have the privilege of weekly atten-
dence at church and Sunday school services. D. K. Drake.
No. 24, Aug. 8.—Digging and storing potatoes.
No. 25, Aug. 15.—Economical hog feeding for market—(does not include breeding).
No. 20, Aug. 22.—Uow do yon cut, cure
and feed corn fodder. Experience with
corn harvesters.
No. 27, Aug. 29.—Do you support the local and State fairs. In what way do they
help you, and how may they be improved?
No. 2S, Sept. 5.—Tile drainage Practical methods of ditching.   Size of tile, etc.
No. 29, Sept 12.—Describe a convenient
arrangement for keeping milk and butter
for family use.
If our friends will write as soon as you
can on any of these topics, your copy will
be Hied away and be ready when the
topic is published.
"TAKE A DAY OFF."
E. H. Collins is Chasing* Pleasure Over
the Ohio Pikes.
Near Pendleton,   Ind.,   I   saw   a horse
~"hose pastern had been badly cut with
barbed wire.   They  asked  "what  to do
'or it"   One said pour on turpentine.   I
said, "what for?"
"To keep the soreness out"
"Hut it must get sore to heal."
"Well, what will make it heal quick."
"Nature; if it heals at all.   You might
*°ak a rag in tar and wrap it loose around
11 to keep away ilies and dirt"
The writer onco had a horse injured
'hat way and didn't do anything for it
and it healed all right. If nature don't
wake it sore use burnt alum or a wash of
""do carbolic acid. If nature makes too
-"'gh an inilammation nse a wash of turpentine with all the camphor gum it will
""■••i-iJye. Wet a rag and apply it aliout
l)ie sore. If nature is doing a nice job
et 't alone and keep tho animal in a dark
"able. -_,
-soon passed alongahedge and noticed
a couple of dead spots in it I inquired
what killed thoso spots, so I would know
how to kill a hedge.
"Some trash got aiire inone place and
some school children crawled through at
the other all winter."
This bruising while frozen reminds me
of a neighbor who had a bad thicket, and
the croek backed a littlo water through
it which froze hard. This man went on
tho ice and chopped down the thicket,
and scarcely a sprout ever appeared there
again. In this case of the hedge the man
said all the hedge men would be glad to
get rid ot their hedges it they knew how.
A few miles further on a field had been
sowed to millet. It hardly showed and I
asked why it was so poor. They said:
"I don't know; it didn't seom to come up
woll." I knew. It was where wheat
failed and half ot the liold was not
plowed. The other broke cloddy and dry
late and was sowed cloddy. It only came
up in spots and the chinch got the spots.
They, like so many farmers, never ask
why and repeat the mistake. Horace
Greely said "lie often made mistakes but
he tried to see that they wero all new
ones."
I spent tho night with W. W. Prigg
who writes for this department He said:
"Why, hello! Is this Mr. Collins? I
thought you would be an old man with
long white beard."
We went to see his corn. Half of one
bottom lield had turned under a heavy
■gfb^lfSfTrfmso-i 'clover Ibwn Tn c6r__* ■
last fall. The other half was on winter
oats that looked dead this spring, but was
not dead. The corn on the clover part
was a foot higher to the row than the
other, and was very dark green. Mr.
Prigg said he sowed it in front of his 14
toothed harrow, and that a neighbor who
sowed on top and didn't cover lost his
clover. The whole corn crop had been
run through lately with a harrow and
then a small weatherboard drag, which
left it looking fresh and line as an onion
bed. The very bottom blade was dark
green.
This was in sharp contrast to so very
much corn and potatoes which I had seen
in riding, where the surface was left
ridged and hard.
I asked if one can afford to do so much
work on 15 cent corn. He said that he
had two boys who helped and that they
were not busy at any thing else and could
do this with practically no cost, while
many farmers would be loafing. It hadn't
rained to wet for two weeks, and tlie
ground was real dark and moist under
the mulch.
As I sailed along sometimes 10, sometimes 15 miles per hour, I noticed some
wild lettuce scattered about. i_ut it seldom appeared in well set meadows or
blue grass sod, and never in cultivated
crops and never in pastures. So I am not
much "afeared" of wild lettuce. It was
more annoyance in wheat and clover
meadows thinned by last year's drouth.
We may kill it on our own farms, but I
rode by whole bottom thickets and wild
places where men never expect any crop,
and it was often seen there. So we shall
never exterminate it.
I came north faster than tho oats harvest advanced, and tho crop is badly
down here and not cut
This is Gallion, O., July 2d. Wheat
still in shock and no good. Oats heavy
everywhere. Corn very good. "Taters"
immense and fruit wasting by bushels,
Can buy two quarts of fine plums for a
nickel. I bought 3 cents' worth of apples
and ate my fill evening and morning, and
left some at the hotel. Surely, surelyi
central Indiana and Ohio is the garden
spot of America. Fine, white pikes
stretching like tentacles every way. I
soon ran White river to its source, also
the Miami, but the long, smooth stretch
of splendid pikes waa ever before mo till
I came near CJallion, where I ran into
mud till my wheels filled the forks, and
looked as ill at home as a fish on land.
Wallowing through 10 miles of this horrid road stirred up a high appreciation of
good roads and of the enterprise tliat
made them. It also stirred up a good appetite. But I mopped tho sweat from my
face, the mud from my shoes and wheel
and shall take the train to Cleveland. No
one can appreciate the capacity of a good
wheel by playing around homo with it.
iiutgetit stretched out on these pikes
and he can average 100 miles a day, for a
week, and think its fun.
I would roll along a level, well farmed
country, perhaps an hour, and then dash
down a long hill and 'round a shady
bend, overhung with groon trees and
drooping vines, with a gontlo stream
llowlng among luxuriant vegetation, and
the cool breozo aud grateful sliado would
complete the picture ot luxury, variety
comfort and pleasure.
Many of you know that Ohio has a local option law. At I-ellofountaino they
have no saloons as usual, lint tho whiskey men put in a sham drug store and
sell under prescription. These proscriptions are marked "refill." I walked into
one and looked behind tho screen. The
first saloon I'vo been in in "many aday,"
and it appears to bo about as bad as a saloon.
A fow regular drug stores do not abuse
the law, and refuse to sell for beverage
purposes. 1 was amused at the colored barber v.liile shaving mo..lie said."thls is a
good town?' " ~ "Godd 'place to make
money" but thom there Mothodists; thoy
think they must run things, and them
and some others jes' shut up the saloons—
an' folks wont come here like other
towns." "Sech as that kills any town;
done care whare you air." "Then a man
can't hold property in dis town; caze
they tax you to death. Poer man can't
own no home. They ought to let the saloons run and make them pay license
and cut down taxes."
The silly man didn't know that the
money paid the saloons would pay both
tho ontiro city and county taxes, when
the.license would be.onlya small per
cent of it
At Marion whiskey is all open. The
town has the appearance of existing
principally to accommodate the farmers
and traveling public with intoxicants.
I enquired for a hotel without a bar, and
was promptly and emphatically told that
there was none in town. I took meals at
a restaurant and secured a room in the
private home of the president of tbe water works, who told me that the "citizens
do not drink a great deal; these saloons
would nine tenths die if it wore not for
the farmers who lino this square witli
teams every Saturday and loaf, and
many of thom both drink and take it
home with thom.
Only think what that money would do
towards making a home tidy, and how
many papers and books it would buy.
While the farmer is "at town witli tho
boys" what is the wife doing?
Do wife and daughters live as slaves, to
do.and help make money for tbe dear husband and son to bum with and treat their
chums with?
How do they enjoy the book account
which they know is often being added to
during hard time's whon money's too tight
to buy wife a now dress or daughter a
magazine or a book?
One needs to tako a week off and go-
get clear away. I can't get much relaxation by rising early, washing the sticks
out of my eyes rushing about to do a half
day'schoring before breakfast Currying
a dirty horse with sweaty  clothes and
ration and scold tho starched white shirt
for being so hot aud pssty like. Then
you dread the drive homo when the carriage top will smell of sizzling rubber and
the horso will foam when walking. Then
you know you must hurry on account of
the chores which you will finish about
nine p. m. When you eat another cold
bite and rejoice in your soul that picnics
come but once a yoar. About all the rejoicing you've dono all day, and tlie good
wife has done two day's work ln one too,
and tended to the baby and Is nearly
dead.
No, by all means go away—clear away,
you can't live withoutcaro and responsibility and should not wisli to. Neither
can you got them off your boart while
in tho midst of thom.
Last season my wife rode hor wheel
with mo to Lafayette, and then she took
tho cars and spout a wook in Kast Tonnes-
see.
Anyone wlio has never tried it does hot
know tho roliof and freedom he may enjoy in no other way but by taking a
"week off." K. II. Coi.i.inh.
How Do You Save and Uso Manure.
Editors -_.ni__i.__. F_.b_.kii:
Hoad dust or land plaster, and larger
quantities of bedding should be used in
all stablos and pons to sot and hold the
ammonia. Floors of all stables should be
tight enough to hold every particle ot
liquid manuro, for it is rich in nltr<*-<j«iis____.
;-White tmcgietivrt^m-ti v --ing
the summer, shade sheds.-oO- *^\. *"* -*^ue
forest spots will get most 6_Tind droppings
in the right place.
During the winter months whon tlie
stock is outof the stables they should be
kept in small lots which have boon completely covered with two or throo feet of
straw. Theso lots should bo ou level
ground and surrounded by a ridgeof clay
18 inches high, well packed to prevent
leaching. This plan is not so good as a
coverod barnyard, but Is practicable on
any farm, no matter what the financial
condition of tho farmer, bo ho owner or
renter.
To avoid lire fang manure from stables
should be hauled to tho fields as fast as it
accumulates or be scattered in the lots
just spoken of. Hogs fed a little shelled
corn in these lots will thoroughly mix
and break up the manure aud straw.
All manure should be used as a top
dressing. The stable manure produced
in ^January and February, I use as a
very light mulch on thin spots iu wheat
to insure a stand of clover. All barnyard manuro in March and April I use as
a top dressing for corn. Manuro produced
in May, June, July and August, I use as a
top dressing for wheat. Manure from
stablos produced in September, October,
November and December is either scattered on the straw in the barn lots, or
used as a light mulch on wheat.
Franklin Co. II. F. McMahan.
taking the  famii*
which has been a|
a day or two and
pasture and sltti*
grass.   You car
crawl over   yo
against your t
dinner both of
. to tho wife for
g  to some woods
und on the dry, hot
-*lp seoing the ants
nd   the  grass  slicks
like an aguo worm,
ar J you constantly mop away tho perspi-
Turkey raising is becoming more profitable and popular. Like sheep, they grow
and fatten in the fields on what would be
otherwise lost; beside, their eating of insects by the million is a benefit to the
crops. A good crop of turkeys brings a
fine income for a little expense. Thoir
long legs enablo them to move easily
anywhere.
During a heavy storm one morning last
week, tlie residence of William Norris, of
South Seventh street, Terro Hauto, was
blown into fragments and scattered for
several blocks. Tho family were buried
nnder the debris ln tho middle of the
street car track, and Mrs. Norris was
badly hurt.
William Thompson, of Lafayette, stepped on a rusty nail, which penetrated his
foot. He paid no attention to the injury
for several days. Meanwhile blood poisoning set in, finally terminating in lockjaw and death.
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