VOL. XXIX.
INDIANAPOLIS, IND , JULY 28, 1894
NO. 30.
WEATHER CROP BULLETIN.
United Stales Department of Agriculture,
Weather Bureau. Orop Bulletin of the Indiana Weather Service in Oo-operation
With the Agricultural Experiment Station
at Purdue University, Tu-nday, July 24,
1894.
Dry, very warm and sunny -weather
oontinued until Thursday and Friday
when numerous light and heavy local
showers fell, especially ln the central and
southern portion, much needed and beneficial to corn and growing crops. But the
rains were badly distributed and many
fields of oorn, tobacco, etc., are still suffering for rain. Wheat and rye threshing
continues and the reports as to the yield
continue to be very fluttering. Oats cutting has begun now everywhere and in
most localities the yield is reported good.
Hay is nearly all secured in best condition, but timothy hay is not all made yet.
In some fields the yield of potatoes is not
so good ss in others. Pasturage is getting
short and water scarce in some counties.
In some localities of the northern portion
there are apples in abundance. Corn is in
silk in many localities and even ln fields
where no rain fell it still looks green and
hardy. Some seventeen year locusts have
arrived in the northern portion. Blackberries need rain to make a good crop.
SOUTHERN PORTION.
Gibson, Posey, Warrick and Spencer
counties.—Dry and warm weather continued until the latter part of the week when
numerous local tains fell much needed by
oorn and other growing crops; wheat
threshing continues, the quality is very
fine and the yield immense, in many fields
about 40 bushels per acre; some oorn
fields need rain much; pasture is getting
short and some feed cattle like in winter,
and water is getting scarce SKWarrick
county.
Dubois, Orange, Perry and Crawford
counties.—Light local rains benefitted
oorn; wheat threshing continues; corn
nearly all "layed by;" hay is all secured
in good condition; a moderate crop of
blackberries only in Perry county.
Harrison, Floyd and Clarke counties.—
The drouth which began to tell on the
crops was broken by numerous local rains;
wheat threshing progresses fine; yields 25
bushels per acre and oats from 35 to 40
bushels in Floyd county; corn is now taa-
seling and looks well.
Scott, Washington and Jennings counties.—The hot and dry weather was followed by numerous local showers the latter part of the week; wheat threshing continues and yields well; oats makes a fair
crop nearly all in shock with heads well
filled; timothy is a good crop and nearly
all cut.
Jefferson, Switzerland, Ripley and Dearborn counties.—Rains the latter part of
the week caused corn, tobacco and other
crops to recover; the hay harvest is nearly
over; the crop better than expected; wheat
threshing continues with good results;
oats ia all in shock; a fair quality; corn is
doing well where it has been well tilled;
pasturage is short and it is telling on the
stock; there is some timothy to cut yet;
the berry crop ia cut short; too Uttle rain.
Bartholomew, Lawrence and Jackson
counties.—Only light local rains the latter
part of the week; not enough to do much
good; oorn and other crops need it badly;
wheat nearly all threshed; oats all cut and
in shock and hay in the barn; potatoes
nearly all matured; pasture is failing; oorn
is tasseling and looks better in fields where
rain fell; timothy all cut; millet doing well.
Knox, Greene and Daviess coun'.it s —
Timely rains on Thursday and Friday
came just when badly needed to save the
corn at the time of shooting; tobacco was
also much benefitted; wheat threshing
progresses rapidly; a good yield of oats is
in shook and hay is secured in best oonditlon; cattle still is in excellent oonditlon.
CENTRAL PORTION.
Vigo, Clay, Vermillion and Fountain
oounties.—The drouth was broken on the
21st., the showers refreshing corn and gardens considerably; wheat threshing well
advanced; shelling ranges from 30 to 39
bushels per acre.
Parke, Putnam, Boone and Montgomery
counties; threshing well under way,wheat
yielding 20 to 40 bushels per acre, a high
griade; a fine week for hay making, not
heavy but good; corn good but still needing rain; dry weather will cut potato crop
short; oats nearly all harvested; threshing
under full head; berry crop benefited by
rain; pastures needing rain; yield of apples better than for several seasons.
Madison, Hendricks, Marion, Hancock
and Hamilton oounties.—Wheat yielding
good; corn much refreshed by the rain of
the 20th; pastures drying up in places;
plenty of hay and in good condition; potatoes not up to expectations; oats promise good crop.
Wayne, Delaware, Randolph, Union and
Franklin counties.—Cooler weather and
rains latter part of week were very beneficial to corn; oats harvest progressing,
grain of good quality; pasturage was getting short before the rain. Tomatoes and
tobacco are almost a month earlier than
usual; wheat threshing progressing, a
good yield; oats nearly all cut.
Decatur and Shelby oounties.—Very
warm and dry until the 19th and 20th,
when some localities were favored with
favored with showers; pastures not in the
beet condition; oats will make a good
yield; the outlook for co'rn since the rains,
is very favorable; wheat threshing in
progress and turning out well; in a number of localities there has been no rain,
consequently corn and gardens are suffering.
Owen, Rush and Johnson counties.—A
hot week until the 19th; corn is needing
rain in most places; pasture short; stock
doing fairly well; wheat threshing in full
blast and grades 61 and 62; yield good, 26
to 36 bushels to an acre; oats still being
cut and yielding a moderate crop; timothy about the same; potatoes not as good
as expected, all growing crops needing
rain.
NORTHERN POBTIOH.
Lake, Jasper, LaPorte and Starke counties.—Warm and dry weather continued
till Thursday, when it became cooler and
light local showers fell; the rains were
badly distributed and many fields of corn,
potatoes, etc., need rain much; all threshing machines are busy in Starke county;
the yield is from 13 to 32 bushels per acre;
the oats and hay harvest continues, both a
fair crop; peaches are falling off in LaPorte county, because it has been so dry,
and blackberries are drying on the bush;
the 17-year locusts appeared in LaPorte
county.
St. Joseph, Pulaski, Marshall and Kos-
cuisko counties.—Good rains fell at the
end of the week and improved oorn, pota
toes, pastures and the growing crops very
much; a gocd potato crop is assured; corn
is in tassel and promises an immense crop;
wheat threshing progresses; the yield in
St. Joseph county is from 18 to 33 bushels;
the oats harvest has commenced and much
is in shock; apples and pears were badly
blown off in Kosciusko county and hail
did some damage.
Elkhart, Noble, Whitley and Lagrange
counties—Good rains fell over some fields,
but not enough on others, where, corn
especially, needs it much; wheat and rye
threshlDg progresses with good yields, the
former from 20 to 40 bushels per acre in
Noble county and from 8 to 33 bushels in
Whitley oounty; oats is ripening and tbe
harvest has begun; the hay orop is small,
but of best quality; apples are falling off
much.
Allen, Steuben, Adams and Wells oounties.—Wet and dry weather continued; oil
Friday light local showers fell, but not
heavy enough to do much good, and all
growing crops are suffering; pasturage is
drying up and farmers in Allen county
feed the stock; wheat threshing continues
from the shock, yielding from 20 to 35
bushels, testing about 60 pounds; oats are
mostly in shock; hay is well secured; potatoes are injured by the drouth.
Blackford, Grant, Huntington and Jay
counties.—Hot and dry until Friday, when
badly-distributed rains fell, much to the
benefit of some fields, while corn in other
fields is still sufferic^; pastures and
streams are dry in Huntington county; a
good crop of oats is being harvested; wheat
threshing is going on; the yield is large,
being from 10 to 44 bushels in Jay county
and from 20 to 30 bushels or more in Grant
oounty; potatoes, cabbages and cucumbers will be short on account of the drouth
in Blackford county.
Mlamla, Carroll and Cass counties.—
Very hot and dry weather oontinued; light
local showers fell on Friday doing no good
and all growing crops are still suffering
and endangered for the want of rain especially oorn; the potato crop will be short
and pasturage is drying; hay is secured in
good condition and a good crop of oats is
being harvested; wheat threshing progresses vigorously yielding a plump crop
of from 20 to 40 bushels per acre.
Tipton, Howard and Clinton counties.—
Good local rains refreshed growing crops
in some fields while not enough or none
fell on others; oorn is in tassel but has
grown but little; pasturage is drying up in
Howard county; the oats harvest has begun; will yield a fine crop; timothy is not
all secured yet but a fair crop of hay is in
good oonditlon; wheat threshing continues and the yield is from 20 to 40 bushels
per acre.
Tipphcanoe, White, Benton and Warren
counties —Very warm  fair weather continued; few local showers fell on Friday
but they were too scattered and not heavy
enough to do much good; although needing rain still corn  stands well and is not
suffering yet, but potatoes and pasturage
show the effect of the dry weather; a good
crop of oats  is  being   harvested; hay and
timothy are nearly secured so far in good
condition; wheat threshing still continues;
the yield is from 20 to 35 bushels per acre.
H. A. Huston,
Director Indiana Weather Service.
Per C. F. R. Wappenhans,
Weather Bureau, Assistant Director.
itself is rather an uncertain and indefinite
practice and makes the proper distribution of the potash difficult. The corn crop
is always better if planted upon a buried
sod, and the sod is always better if manured the year before it is burled. The
place for all the manurlal accumulation of
the farm is on a sod that Is to be plowed
for corn the following year. The sod is
helped and gives better results during that
year and the manure is gotten into hotter
condition to feed the ensuing corn crop
than if applied firstly to it. The sod needs
the potash too and should get lt all over.
So after putting all the manure you can
make on the sod give it in addition all the
potash and phosphoric acid you can afford.
They will not get away from you. The
wonderful absorptive power of the soil
will hold them for the future crop and the
well fed sod will give you a bigger crop of
corn for it. With that Increased mass of
organic matter, the process of nitrification
will go on rapidly through all the hot
weather during which corn makes its
growth and whatever nitrogen may have
escaped in top dressing the sod will be
made up many times over. I would advise the use of not less than 200 pounds of
muriate of Potash per acre on the sod, and
that the home-made manure be made to
stretch as far as possible. The manure
can be hauled out on the sod all summer
as fast as made, and thus save the enormous waste of leaving it in the yard and the
hurry skurry to get it on land to be
planted in the Spring.
Use your manure and your fertilizers to
feed a sod and trust the sod to feed your
crops, and you will never be disappointed.
W. F. Massey.
Potash With Barnyard Manure.
Editors Indiam. Farmer:
With ordinary farm or stable manure it
will generally pay to use some potash for
corn; 125 to 150 pounds of muriate of potash has given profitable results.—Prof.
Brooks, Massachusetts Agricultural College.
Very true, farm yard manure is rather
one sidtd; having an excess of nitrogen,
and a vast amount of organic matter,
which will keep up nitrification in the
soil, but W deficient in potash. But we
have long been of the opinion that the
cumulative process of indirect fertilization
for all of the ordinary grain and sale crops
of the farm is decidedly better than to apply these manures and fertilizers directly
to the tale crop. And then the effort to
help out the deficiency in the stable manure by adding potash to it, while good in
Advantage of Roads.
It would be dollars in our pockets to tax
ourselves heavily for good roads. Markets would be open to us all times of the
year; we could haul our supplies at less
expense; there would be less wear and
tear on wagons and injury to horses; the
church, the school and the doctor wonld
not be so far away; the members of the
agricultural community would be brought
closer together, and a more intimate
social intercourse would result.
The countries of Europe do not stop because of the expense of a construction of
good roads, for it was long ago proved that
they pay. They look npon the profit, and
not wholly upon the aesthetic side of the
question. When two horses can do the
work of three, the subject is worth consideration. It would save the expense of
millions of horses to us.
We must not make our roads but to destroy them. The narrow tire must go. A
broader tire would not only do no damage, but would pack and smooth the road
bed continually. If the axles were cf different length this end would be further
attained, and the old ruts would disappear.
Perhaps just at this work is the place to
use our convicts. It would be no more
expense to the State than to keep them in
prison. They would come in competition
with no skilled labor. This matter has
been well considered in some of the States,
and in it may be the solution of the road
problem—S. K. R.
James Banyan was the first white person that died in Eel River township,
Greene county. It was in 1818, and as the
nearest saw mill was fifty miles away it
was impossible to get lumber to make a
coffin. The neighbors went to the woods
and made a trough out of a popular log for
a coffin, by splitting a slab off from one
side of the log, and digging out the trough
in which the corpse was placed and the
slab was laid over it for a lid.
It is said that the crop3 of hickory- nuts
and other mast will be large this year.