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IMIv  I .IT., nry
VOL. XXIX.
INDIANAPOLIS, IND., DEO. 15, 1894.
NO. 50.
Lower the Taxes.
Editors Indiana Farmeb:
We, a« tax payers of Delaware county,
are in favor of a law governing our officers' fees, by cutting to a reasonable
amount, not to exceed $2,00(1 for any office
in the county; to fix a limit to attorneys'
lees of not over 5 per cent of any olaim,
and to leave the road law in tbe bands of
our trustees, placing a limit on tbe levy
they make for township funds.
We, as tax payers and farmers, are getting tired of high taxes, and will rebel lf
they are not lowered. A Farm kr,
Statistics of the Farm.
Editors Indiana Farmkr:
I assessed our township for five years
and took statistics under the old law but a
great many objected to making a report of
tbeir farm products, claiming that it was
for the benefit of speculators in stocks and
grain; that it was for the purpose of governing prioes and to the prices as low as
possible. I found that it was hard work
to get a trne statement, and it took up a
great deal of time and cost a good deal of
money. I think our pople would not
favor such a law. J. B. J.
Farmers Should Report Their Own Statistics.
Editors Indiana Farmer:
- Mention was made in a recent number
of the Farmkr, regarding the assessors
taking statistics of farm products raised,
cost of same, various losses and gains, etc.
Such a course can not fail to be of great
benefit to the farmer. At present we get
our knowledge of the various farming enterprises only as it is voluntarily contributed to papers and magazines. This
knowledge is almost invariably given by
those who have been successful in tbeir
enterprises, for no man is anxious to go
on record as making even a partial failure.
Thus, we get only statistics which show
to best advantage. Let us have official
statistics from every farmer. Then we
shall be able to get the true percentage of
gains and losses. F. B. Randolph.
Waterman.
Prickly Lettuce ln Posey County.
Editors Indiana Farmer:
Prickly lettuce is quite common in this
oounty. There can be no mistake as to its
identity. It has not, however, assumed a
formidable as;ect as yet and I do not apprehend dire disaster to the farmer
through its agency. I have not yet met
with it on grazing lands, only where protected by the most conspicuous do-noth
ing law of this State—the road law. It
does not seem as yet to have a footing to
-mount to an object of notice aud probably the ordinary traveler has seldom or
never observed it. It no doubt will spread
here as freely as in the north part of the
State. The fertile lands of this county
have a habit of adopting all the foreigners
visiting our shores, (we have an abundance
of shore, 130 miles of navigable river front
to Posey) except the Canada thistle, which
I think has n* ver invaded us and do not
believe it will flourish this far south.
As to concerted action in such matters,
suoh a thing was never known and among
farmers never will be. Oar prickly gaest
has rapped at onr door, but before doing
so found the "latch string hanging out."
While some "will welcome it with bloody
hands to hospitable graves," others and
most will tolerate its company with a
grim grunt of dissatisfaction. This new
comer will hardly disturb the even tenor
of our ways for this is region of weeds,
where the husbandman does not will it
otherwise. Nature has provided for no
vacuums on her face in this county, hence
if one thing fails to grow another Is sure
to be there. The meanest weed we have
ia sorrel. J. B. Elliott.
Posey Co.
Cleaning Up tbe Farm.
Editors Indiana Farmer:
Several weeks ago the editor suggested
tbat a little time be spent in cleaning up
the fields, carrying away all the rubbish,
and making the farm look tidier. I think
the suggestion is well taken. There are
generally quite a number of pleasant days
in the early part of winter that can be
spent in this way to a very good advantage. In tbe hurry of the busy season
there are a good many odd jobs of this
kind that get neglected, and this makes it
necessary once in awhile to have a
' cl'arin' up day," as one of the characters
in Uncle Tom's Cabin has it. Of course,
we should aim to keep everything in
proper condition all the time, but sometimes this seems nearly impossible. However, now is time to clean up, if it has not
been done before. This will save quite a
good deal of extra work in the spring, and
besides, when the snow melts away, and
the warm weather comes again, there will
not be seen around us so many reminders
of the "breaking up of a hard winter."
H. S K  B
Better Roads.
Editors Indiana Farmer:
This being an age of steel and fast rid
ing, the ox teams and stage coaches have
been exchanged for steam, electricity and
bicycles; and in consequence of tbis change
great droves of stock have left the high
ways for quicker transportation. Having
bettered the roads by grading, graveling
or macadamizing, they may be kept good
with least expense by keeping the travel
on the grade.
To accomplish this it should be lawful
to place smooth wire fences near the grade
with posts no higher than the fence, leaving the side ditches In the fields and making the farmer responsible for these being
kept open. Thereby the farmer wonld
have the benefit of the waste ground and
lessen the work of the supervisor. Many
of the public graveled roads are GO feet
wide. Twenty to 25 feet drive-way is wide
enough for any country roan.
The farmer should have the benefit of
unoccupied lands along the railroads and
it should be made lawful for farmers to
place their fences near the grade for agricultural purposes. Thus by utilizing the
public extravagancy, thousands of acres
of land would be restored to agricultural
purposes for the people of Indiana.
A Subscriber.
Why Lawyers Are Chosen to Make the
Laws.
Editors Indiana Farmer:
The question is sometimes asked, "Why
do you farmers send lawyers to the Legls
lature?" to which charge I as an individual, plead not guilty. I have not voted for
an attorney for a legislative offloe in twenty
years. B it I believe tbe answer to the
question, as regards other farmers, is tbat
it is because there is a generally accepted
opinion that a candidate for the Legislature
must be able to make public speeches over
the county; hence a lawyer is generally
chosen. Tbere is also quite a general idea
that none but a prac llclng attorney is fitted
to serve as judge in our courts, an error to
my mind worse in its oonseqnences than
the other. I claim that the education and
occupation of tha practicing attorney
wholly unfits him to sit on the bench in a
court of justice, and that a fairly educated
broad minded farmer or mechanic is far
better qualified, by his surroundings, his
associations and his interests, to preside as
j^dge and secure the ends of justice.
I believe that the present practices of our
courts and attorneys, if unchecked by the
strong rebuke of the people, is more dangerous to American liberty and American
institutions than all of theso called anarchists of the world. And why should I say
this? Because anarchism oan find no congenial soil in America, only as the law  Is
made odious by vicious legislation or vie-
Ions execution of tbe same
Boone Co. A. S. C.
The Season ln Southern Kansas.
Editors Indiana Farmer:
The season here in southern Kansas has
been somewhat similar to what you had
in Indiana. March was dry cold and
windy. There was ice for nine mornings
the latter pari of the month. It so injured the growing wheat that it only
made half a crop. From April to tbe last
of June we had enough rain for growing
crops. The hot dry weather set in about
the first of July. July and August were
very dry and warm. The dry weather of
July ruined our corn crop in this section.
Tbe rains began again the first of September. We had plenty of rain during
September and October, which soaked the
ground so that it gave the wheat a good
start. November was dry so tbat the
wheat did not grow much. The last ten
days we have had damp, cloudy weather
and the wheat is growing and looks we'l.
There is as large an acreage of wheat sown
as usual this fall. The most of tbe live
stock is pes'.ured on the growing wheat.
We have not had any snow yet. The
roads are good. Farmers are now plow
ing for spring crops. There are thous
ands of bushels of wheat fed in this oounty
every week. At the rate that it has been
fed this fall some claim that the entire
wbeat orop of 1894, in Sumner connty
will be exhausted by the time another
crop is harvested. Sumner oounty pro
duces more wheat than any other oonnty
in Kansas. DMA
Some Needed Legislation
Editors Indiana Farmer:
As our newly elected Legislature will
soon meet to enact laws for the welfare of
the people I think It would be well for
farmers to suggest through your columns
such legislation as tbey may think neces
saty in order to secure "equal aid exact
justice to all," and as a starter I wish to call
attention to some practices in our courts of
justice (?) one of which is the frequent
changes of venue from one oounty to an
other often secured by perjury and with
no other purpose in view than to defeat the
ends of j ostice. Another to my mind very
wrong practice is that of courts appointing
one, two or three attorneys to assist in the
prosecution or the defense of a criminal,
and then making allowances of from $50
to 1600 for services not at all proportioned
to tbe fees allowed. As an example I
would refer to a ease that was venued from
Marion to Boone county. Three attorneys
were appointed to assist in the prosecution
and each waa allowed f250 for his services
One of the attorneys did nothing in the
ca=e but take the reports in shorthand for
the prosecution; the same service for whioh
the court reporter was allowed 850. In
another case a young lawyer was appointed
to assist in prosecuting a colored man for
murder, and was allowed a $300 fee. Now,
I ask the question in all fairness, are such
allowances made by the courts, and in the
name of justice, any better morally than
highway robber,}? I would propose as
remedial legislation that the costs of a
change of venue in all civil cases be
taxed to the party asking for the
change; and that a change in criminal
cases be allowedonly after the most
searching investigation by the court
of the grounds on which said change is
asked, and that the county commissioner'
and not the judge, have tbe authority to
make allowances for the legal service*,and
that they are not to exoeed ten dollars per
day for the actual time spent in trial of the
case. A. S. Campbell,
Boone County, Ind.
Farming ln the South.
Editors Indiana Farmer:
In the year UTS, in a trip through the
South, I met a Wisconsin farmer who had
bought a tract of land in the South with
the view of making a stock farm after
northern methods. He says, "I find the
Savannah markets largely supplied with
northern beef, wbich might just as well be
produced near the southern market, by
the introduction of northern methods. I
shall spend some $20 an acre in commercial
fertilizes in reclaiming the land, stock lt
well with clover and turn it nnder, green
manuring the land, and then produce crops
of forage and grain to fatten my beef, they
in turn fertilizing tbe land with their
droppings. I see no difficulty ln introducing northern methods. The need is simply some one to illustrate how it is done."
Northern thrift, economical habits and
keeping everlastingly at it, is good usage
in building up the soil and making crops
in the South, but the new comer on a
southern farm will find that he can learn a
good deal from the Georgia and Florida
"cracker." "Plow deep while the sluggard
sleeps" Is a very poor maxim for the sandy
lands of the S ;uth. He who attempts to
fertilize his hands with tbe red clover of
the North, or with alfalfa will be likely to
be minus bis seed, with very little humus
in return. Men cannot grow figs of thistles, neither is the Florida soil and climate
adapted to the cereals nor northern grapes.
Uood orange and sweet potato land makes
very poor return in oorn and wheat. But
there are crops that are rcher in portein
than northern cere-Is, timothy or clover,
and they endure the long hot sun of a
southern summer, and the burning sands
of the southern pine hills.
The southern cow pea contains all the
elements of nutrition to horse or cow and
more than most northern grasses, and is
equal to oorn for silage or soiling. Like
clover and other leguminous plants, it
draws its nitrogen from the atmosphere,
and excels olover in tonnage for feed or
enrichment of the soil, and will lloualsh ln
Florida sands where northern clovers
would be scorched to nothingness. The
same Is true of beggar weeds (Dcmiodium
nirillr), christened Florida clover. The
mules turn away from northern timothy
hay for the dstmo-M-M molle, and there is
hardly any limit to the production of tbis
crop on pine lands, tbat seem to be destitute of organic matter.
Unclaimed lands, of wbich there are
millions of acres in Florida, or rather waiting to be reclaimed by ditching, replace the
water saw grass with a pralrie*grass worth
f 15 a ton in our markets, In a very short
time after tbe water is drained off, making
some of the most valuable meadow lands in
he world.
There are wonderful possibilities in the
South to those who will seize them. With
the small development Florida now has,
the average value of its productions, per
acre exceeds that of any other State in the
Union. There is a good opening ln this
"most delightful climate in the world" for
those who will adapt themselves to its conditions—oonditlon of soil and climate—to
get more from tbe soil than in the freezings and thawings of the northern temperate zone, with a good pro«pectof a competence without very hard work in old age
in a well cared f jr orange grove that grows
better and bette-, as its proprietor becomes
less and less able to work. The writer has
been putting out orar ge trees eveiy year
for the past 12 y. a-r, and will probably
continue to do so; feeling it is a much safer
investment than growing northern farm
crops or in merchandizing or manufacturing. Geo W. Hastinos.
Interlachen, Florida.
Melvln L. Jones, of Delaware county,
several days ago had a tooth extracted.
Blood poisoning followed and he died.
Ernest Denwire, a farmer near Crown
Point, fell into the hands of lightning rod
sharks, losing.&STo.