VOL. LV.
INDIANAPOLIS, IND., JAN. 20,1600.
NO. 3
\%xptvizut6 gjepartmeut
Under What Clrcumttanoss Should  Cot'
toisoed Meal  and Linseed Mtal  Be
Usod as a Food?.-Give Its Oood
and Bad Effects.
lit Premium.—Cotton seed meal ia a good
food for both dairy and beef cattle, but much
oare miut be uaed In feeedlng lt. It may be
fed with cut eto ver or clover hay ln quantities
ranging from one pint to three pints at a
feed. It la tomewhat binding ln ita nature,
and la valuable to ttock when running on
green pasture or to beef cattle when feeding green corn. It may be fed heavier to
beef cattle than to milk cows. Some feed lt
to make the butter stand better in hot weather.
But too much will make the butter taste badly. Millet hay if fed ln large/ quantities will
do the same thing. Some say that when cotton seeed meal is fed in large quantities lt
will cause a kind of oil to rise on the milk
while still warm.
While it is somewhat constipating ln Its effects it ls a good feed to mix with wheat bran
or watary-green feeds. It seems as though
linseed meal works to the contrary and has a
loosening tendency. Cotton eeed meal ranks
nigh as a fertilizer, ana as there ls no Dawer
feed for beef cuttle, we ca-- prepare to save all
the manure and still save its fertilizing qualities to a great extent. B. W,
____vn_w.
The theory of feeding these boughten feeds
ls to balance the ration, so ae to make it more
digestible and improve the appetite. It also
increases the power of assimilation. Oae objection to them is that it is cheaper to feed
as much as one can the products of the farm.
It avoids the middleman ln bo*h ways if one
can balance the ration with clover or roots,
or peas, or cow peas, or something grown at
home.
It Is true that these products like linseed
meal have a large manurial value, if the manure is well saved, but lt ls commonly lost with
hoge running ln barn lots, and Is not very
valuable outside of Its feeding value. It costs
about a csnt a pound and is so concentrated
that it takes very little of lt to balance a ration. Cotton seed meal is not very good for
hogs, but linseed meal may be fed to all kinds
of stock.
Many kinds of animals do not take to these
feeds at first, but soon become fond of it.
For a 200 pound sow one may give one tablespoonful in slop once a day for a week and
then Increase lt to a half pound. Even more
may be used if thought beBt. For a thousand
pound cow a good ration is:
Silage  80 lbs.
Clover hay 10 "
Cora meal.    6 "
Bran    8 "
Oil meal    » "
This Is Intended for one feed for a milk cow,
and the ratio le L to 5 I heard an old feeder
talking at an Institute on feeding etock. He
spoke slowly and with mixed grammar, but
they knew he had a valuable experience, and
they caught every word. He feebly eald: "In
my experience I find it necessary to watch
closely the cost as well as the kind of feed, or
one wllitend to a whole lot of etock and then
find that there was no profit."
I have heard so much of cow peas by Mr,
Wolfe of New Albany lately that I am almost
converted to sowing them. You know they
are a true legume, and take the place of clover. And they can be sowed ln corn with a
common five hoed drill or even with a corn
drill, just as you lay it by. It should be as
early as possible in the season. They make
lote of feed and fix pigs or eheep In the early
fall. Sheep may ba put ln the corn before lt
Is harvested.   People who have tried it eay
that pigs will not bother corn when pasturing
cow peas ln the same field. I know myself,
that they will hardly touch corn, when ln a
field of Canada peas.
The writer would Impress the thought that
after all the talk about these balancing foods
lt should be remembered that the great reliance must be on corn and grass. I prefer to
allow the animals more time for growth,
especlal'y in case of hogs and steers than to
push them into market very quickly on costly
boughten feeds that have passed through middlemen and carry the burden of two profits.
It ls true that tbere is a vast amount of difference between the cost of grass that the
animal harvests and boughten feeds. We all
talk learnedly perhaps about balanced rations,
but the fact Is we all depend on corn. Now
if our readers will remember that the extra
feeds are to be used only sparingly and as a
secondary or auxiliary feed lt will do.
There are more feedere ueing eome of these
meals to help the major diet than we commonly think. I find a lot of such men alj
over the country. They are our best feeders
too, and many of them make money out of lt.
But it le hard to keep a hog in a bandbox and
feed him sugar and rub him down every day
and make his carcass pay the bill.    Silage ls
not a fancy feed. It is the cheapest feed on
earth, except grass.    ""'       ■""■aWfc.*-—
P0STAL CARD CORRESPONDENCE.
Jennihqs Co., Jan. 12.—The prospect for
wheat in thie county and Jackson ls good, except for the fly, and on the sand hills.
G. W. McC.
Mokoa.n Co , Jan. 13.—The fly and freezing
weather without snow have injured the wheat
very badly; stock ls almost sold; a light snow
fell last night; health good; the apple crop
was good, but most of them have rotted in
the cellars. A. H.
Clay Co., Jan. 10.—We have been having
aome cold weather on our late wheat, but
there is no snow. The thermometer was 3 degrees below zero. All timothy sown last
spring is dead; clover all right so far; feed
plenty. Stock, cattle and hoga are scare and
high, J. F. H.
LaPorte Co., Jan. 12 —Moderate winter
weather; ground frozen nights and thawing
days; no snow except some old drifts. Wheat
ln very bad condition, in fully two-thirds of
the fields. Butter 1G. eggs 18 j Apples at farm
houses nearly all gone; fruit buds all right so
far. Mhs. B. A. Davis.
No. 203, Jan. 27—Boys; their faults and
ideals.
No. 201, Feb. 3d—How may consumption
and typhoid fever be prevented?
No. 205, Feb. 10th—What .shredders are most
dangerous? What can be done to make them
safe?
No. 206, Feb 17th—Do you break land ln
the fall or spring? How deep? Name a good
plow. What about the jointer. How do you
know when too wet to plow?
No. 207, Feb 24th—The farmer's bird friends.
Premiums of $1, 75 cents and 50 cents will
be given to lst, 2d and 3d beet articles each
week. Let copy be as practical as possible
and forwarded 10 days before publication to
Carmel, Ind. E. H. Collins.
on; oat Bubble looking well; some wheat
sown ln corn looks badly while other fields
ehow up well; do not think the freeze Injured
wheat to any great extent; fine weather for
eowing timothy. B. H. W.
Wabbkn Oo , Jan. 10, 1900— Wneat ln this
vicinity came out of the recent cold spell ln
aa good shape as could be expected; are having moist warm weather now which seems to
help it along. The fly has bean working in
some fields more or less. Prospects so far
are better than we had for the past two years.
0. O. L.
Schedule of Farmers'  Institutes for the
Season of 1900.
Following ls the county, place of meeting
and chairman of Institute, date, assigned
speakers:
Tippecanoe. Lafayette; J. W, Smith, Mont-
morencl, Jan. 29 and 30; Hobbs and Johnson-
Clinton, Frankfort; D. F. Maish, Frankfort,
Jan. 31 and Feb. 1, Hobbs and Johnson.
Tipton, Tipton; Mrs. W. L. Berryman, Tipton; Feb 2 and 3, Hobbs and Johnson.
Madison, Anderson; O. C. Mays, Frankton,
Feb. 5 and 6, Mb. Bates and Husselman.
Franklin, Brookville; Clem Conn, Phllan-
trophy, ()., Feb 7 and 8, Mrs. Bates and Husselman.
Rush, Rushville; E. A. Frazee, Orange, Feb-
9 and 10, Husselman and Troop.
Boone, Lebanon; R J. Riner, Advance,
Feb. 5 and 6, Mrs. Erwin and Wolfe.
Marlon, Cumberland; W. B. Flick, Lawrence, Feb. 7 and 8, Mrs. Erwin and Wolfe.
Morgan, Mooresrille; D. B. Johnson,
Mooresvllle, Feb. 9 and 10, Wolfe and Mrs.
Bates.
Marshall, Plymouth; E. S. Freese, Twin
Lakes, Feb. 12 and 13, McMahan and Babcock.
Whitley, Columbia Oity; John Dietrich,
Larwlll, Feb. 11 and 15, McMahan and Babcock.
.Lake, Crown Point; O. B. Benjamin, Leroy,
Feb. 13 and 11, Mrs. Bates and Husselman.
Porter, Valparaiso; A. B. Lantz, Hurlburt,
Feb. 15,16 and 17, Mrs, Bates, Babcock, Husselman and Latta.
Adams Oo , Jan. 12.—Farmers have taken
good care of rough feed, and some are feeding cut fodder with satisfactory results.
Wheat looks fairly well, but lt needs to be
covered with snow. All stock has wintered
well so far; prices good. December was quite
cold the thermometer was at zero for one or
two days. For a few days the weather has
been quite warm; roads muddy.     C. W, B.
The present crop of peanuts, while not of
excellent quality, ls abnormally large.
Big Corn.
Editors Isdiana Fabmeb.
I read in the Fabmeb about big corn. My
seed corn ls ln a room where there ls a gas
jet, so lt is dry. I got 11 ears that averaged
11% Inches long and 9 Inches round, and 7
ears weighed 9 lb , 10 oz. The other 7 averaged over one pound. The first eeven weighing 9 lb., 10 oa., 50 such ears would make a
bushel, 68 lbs. At the first fair held at Pendleton, I took some stalks of corn that measured over 20 feet from the ground to the top
of the tassel. One stalk bad six fair ears on
It. Edwabd R'-IIEBT.S,
Madison Oo.
This Ib immense oorn, and up to this date
you are ahead.
 -«►»- ■	
Editobs Indiana Fabmeb.
It may be of public Interest to the readers
of your paper to have the results of a corn exhibit and shelling out test which took place
here last Friday. The writer offered premiums for the bushel of ear corn of the crop of
1899, tbat would shell out the largest per cent
of shelled corn. It was first weighed in the
ear, then shelled and weighed, with the following results on the beet six bushels—the
figures showing the per cent of shelled
corn In the order stated: 8613, 8610,
85.97, 85,78, 85.71 and 85.59. In order to ascertain how many pounds of shelled corn
there would be ln a bushel of such corn multi
ply the above per cents by the pounds ln a
bushel. Thus 86 13 per cent of 68 pounds ls
58.67 pounds. This ls the amount of shelled
corn ln a bushel of No. 1, and eo on. It will
be observed that you have here six bushels of
rather remarkable corn. If any of your readers wish a deecription of the oorn it will be
given on application to the undersigned.
Franklin, Dec. 28 J. M Dunlap.
 —om	
Some  Object Lessons ln Corn Culture.
Editobs Indiana Fabmeb.
My neighbor'e corn grows short. My corn
growe tall. He cultivates with large shovels
and very deep. I cultivate with scrapers, the
two laet times very shallow. Neighbor Insisted that the difference of growth was ln the
corn. I put a peck of his seed corn in one
planter box and a peck of my corn ln the
other. This threw tiro rows of his corn
together and two of mine, but no difference
could be seen ln the growth of the corn from
Btart to finish. Different men could not'see
any difference and my neighbor could only
tell by the difference in the ears.
His corn ls a slim ear of 12 to 11 rowa. My
corn ls a thick ear of 16 to 18 rows An average ear of my corn will always outweigh an
average ear of his, although the cob of his
oorn ls much smaller than mine.
T"r~~"~W^WP8HW^M*WHr-nT the same size
side by Bide; one crib Is filled with small cob
corn, the other one with large cob corn, The
small cob corn outshells the other, and men
jump to the conclusion that it is the beet to
yield.
There is a very Important question overlooked here. How many acres of land did it
require to fill each crib? The large cob crib
will not shell out as much corn as the other
crib, neither did it require as many acres to
produce it.
Elghty-slx of the largest ears of Mr. Riley's
Boone County White weighs 70 pounds. One
hundred of the largest ears of Rtley'e Favorite
weighs 70 pounds. The cobs of Boone Oounty
White weigh (when dry) 11 pounds. The cobs
of Riley's Favorite weigh nine pounds. Thie
makes a difference In shelled corn of a little
more than two ounces to the ear In favor of
the Boone Oounty White. Counting 3,610
hills to acre and two ears to the hill and a difference of two ounces to the ear, I figure a
difference of 16 bushels to the acre in favor of
the large cob corn.
Since writing the conclusion above I have
examined the report of our experiment station for 1891 and find that for five years where
these varieties were tested side by side the
Boone Oounty White made an average of 71 5
bushels to the acre and Riley's Favorite 57 9
bushele to the acre. J. B. Mai-tin.
Piatt Oo , IU.
The Holiday Number Appreciated.
Editobs Indiana Fabmeb.
In renewing my subscription to the
"Fabmib" I wish to congratulate you on
your holiday issue ln particular and all in
general. Rarely do I find on one subject so
much well written, good sense, as is condensed on the 1 st page of Jan. Gsh number
Were I a young man, unmarried, and "farmer's daughter"—author of first act,—a young
unmarried woman, I would be tempted to inaugurate a matrimonial correspondence with
her. I also note ln "Postal card correspondence" on laet page, the common complaint
of Hessian fly. Conditions are bad up here,
worse than last year, and the Lord knows
they were bad enough then.
The grasshoppers did serious damage up
here, too, ln some localities, espcially to
young clover. E. F. Diehu
Leesburg, Jan, 10.
Henry county le out of debt and has a cash
balance of $55,000 ln the treasury.