VOL. LVII.
INDIANAPOLIS, DEC. 27, 1902.---TWENTY PAGES.
NO. 52
Old Times and Now.
Editors Iadlana Farmer:
l.y a Hoosler girl who lias lived in Indiana orer seventy rears, ami has hail Borne
experience in pioneer lift' and has seen
the wilderness blossom like the rose, ami
has seen the price uf land advance fron
$1.25 per aere to $100 per acre, ami has
liasseil throngh financial panic more than
once.
Ami now we are crammed full of good
times, and overwhelmed with privileges,
aud yet some people murmur ami say
"Give me the good old  times again."
The   writer   visited   Indianapolis   when
there   was   no   railroad   passing   through
the city.    The old  Madison road  was finished that  far, and  it was as much of a
cariosity   to  see  the  train  come  in   as   it
would   he  now   to  see   Marconi's  wireless
raph.     It   took   three   days   to  make
the round trip, eighty miles.    Then  thorn
Was  Uncle  Sam's mail carried on horse-
«baek from Indianapolis  to  Brookville,  by
postboy splashing throngh the mud ami
- the cross  ways.    Nothing was  gnp
'Ac* 2S st°P u'm Dllt Hoods an.l high wa-
I'a.s ,./''*  he  was  faithful  am]  delivered
wire a week, and the post office
none t"*> grqplthe most of the time, open only
is   alway.***time in the evening.    So different
i'— then  irom  iiuwi    Xow all we have to do
•s  turn* the  key  and  strike  a  match  and
step out to the mail box and get the morning  paper,   and  sit  down   and   read   the
news   from   all   over   the   country,   whilt
the   women   fix   breakfast.
If this don't go into the waste basket
I would like to become a contributor to
the  Ladies'  department.
I hare been* a reader of the Farmer for
a number cf years and I like to hear from
the  sisters. A  Header.
.^ Bush
_t —We shall be very glad to have our friend
write for the Ladies' department, whenever she feels disposed to do so. She ean
tell lots of interesting things about how
they   lived   in   early   ti:i
I
Tne Old Style Wat»r Mill.
Editors Indiana Farmer:
ie mouths ago a little story was pub-
lb In*.! in the papers telling us how a * ;■
hut enterprsing youug lady of Georgia
iiad begun the manufacture of corn meal
in the i.'.*i_iil, old fashioned way by grinding slowly, on burstones, selected South-
corn and producing a meal that was
far superior to the meal ground in our
large mHls. The writer told us how the
young lady began by selling in ten* pound
ges to the neighbors, but the meal
■il that the fame of her mi''
spread far ainl wide, and she was now
pending out thousands of poumls. The
meal was ground on luii-stones run very
slowly by wan r power, .iml so as to keep
the meal perfectly cool when grinding
Great care was used irr selecting the corn,
rnd all damaged ears were rejected, an*!
the tip ends cnt off before grinding. Care
was taken* to grind the meal a little coarse,
to prevent tbe flour taste so common
iu the meals produced in onr large mills.
Years ago all our meal was produced
in this manner in central Indiana, and it
- to me the meal was far supetior
to the kind wc buy nowadays. The mush
made out of the meal was delicious, and
the bread had a sweet, fresh taste quite
different from the bread made out of tne
meal procured from our large mills.
We grow excellent corn in southern Cali-
fonia, much like the corn grown in the
Southern States, but somehow, by the
time it gets around to our table tho taste
lias  been   "killed,"   ami  generally  it  has
been kept toe lung in storage. To get the
results and have the finest meal,
eorn should lie ground soon after it gets
ripe, and the meal used within a few
months at most. The large mills all over
the country grind too fine, and so rapidly
the corn is made quite warm and the fiue
ouality is  "killed."
When I read the article referred to
above. I felt very anxious to procure some
of the meal, an.l wrote immediately to the
newspaper agency that sent the story out
and requested the address of the young
Georgia lady. I wanted to get a hundred
pounds or so, and see if it was like the
good, old fashioned kind of our childhood
days. I tried in vain to get the address
ami finally came to the conclusion that
the writer simply had a dream, and that
there was no Georgia lady manufacturing
old-fashioned corn meal.
I would like now to inquire of the Palmer readers if any one knows of such a
mill. I mean* the old-fashioned, slow process water power mill, where meal is produced of grainy appearance and from
selected, sound corn. I would like to send
an order for such meal even at double
ihe price we now pay. I do not care lo
send away down* in Georgia, for I believe just is _;ood meal can be made in
Indiana as in any State of the Union.
Will some reader of the Farmer kindly
look the matter up, and if any old, slow-
going water mill is found, let it be known
through the Indiana Farmer. Perhaps
some enterprising Indiana girls may be
induced to build up a big sale of choice
meals. J.   F.   Mendenhall.
.Los Angeles, California.
—We trust that Mr. Mendenhall's request will be heeded. He is a persona*
friend of ours and a good, loyal Hoosier,
although now living in* California. He
takes the Farmer, and writes occasionally
tor the paper, as our readers will remember. We have a little hand mill, on which
We grind corn* to any degree of fineness,,
and it is very nice but perhaps not equal to
that from the old-time grist mills, of
which we know there are a few left \r.
the State, though we cannot exactly locate them.
Who was Our Candidate?
Editors Indiana Farmer:
The Indiana Farmer invites discussion
on subjects of interest to farmers touching legislation. May we not have some
concert of action by the farmers in voicing their opinions at this time?
Many of you may not even now know
for whom you voted at the recent election, but the candidates chosen* will be
ready to take their pay and look that yoa
the constituency, are up (?) against them.
I am reminded of meeting, the Saturday
before the late election, a bachelor friend
who had but recently returned from touring Europe, including its northernmost
points, otr the Arctic ocean, where, in
mid-summer, the sun never sets, and asked
him why he did not give us an account of
his travels in our home papers, as he did
on a former occasion four years ago.
What? I." says he, "give an account of
my travels: Humph; the people would
trot want to read such nonsense, besides
our papers have no room, when all the
tirst pages are filled with divorce court
proceedings. Why, people are a queer
lot in* this country. They elect men to
offices, and never think of them afterward or know who fills them scarcely
Only yesterday I was in the bank (he was
one of the members), five of us, discussing politics, inquired of them who was the
present Secretary of State.   Not one could
tell*, yet all voted I'm* him; so y.iu see how
it is . legislation ami taxation, and we
look nut int.i things as we should, and no
donbt are paying out twice what we
should to keep the local and State gov
irmnent going."
Tin* following Tuesday, election day. 1
walked down to the voting place of my
precinct, and some ten or twelve voters
were congregated there. When I relateu
what my old friend ha.l sai.l. They were
till in a dilemma, not knowing themselves
who was the present Incumbent as Secretary of State, and just then came up one
of the best read men* of the community,
end. winking to tin* others, I asked the
gentleman tin* question, and he could not
le.all his name; yet every mother's son
was fairly bursting the buttons on his
clothes to "get then*. Eli;" ami vote for
bis   party   man   and   candidate.
Some reasons probably existed for the
sbove forgetfulness on the part of the
men so suddenly called upon to name the
man, second only to the highest office in
the State, because of his silently meritorious service. Let it be claimed, rather
than notorious, for party offenses, peculation or malfeasance in office.
It goes without question that the joke
is t.i** tnie. yet it behooves the citizens of
every class as tax payers to give consideration to the things that vitally interest
their welfare, and the present time bespeaks  that  you  do  it. I.   M.
Grant Co.
 1—_ ai.	
A Nebraska  Letter.
Editors Indiana Farmer:
From  art Old  Hoosier  Boy.
Bed Willow county is iu the southern
tier, seventy miles east of Colorado. McCook, the county seat, has over 3,000.
There are over 200 old Hoosier boys here.
Many came poor and now own 100 to 500
acres.
On Thanksgiving, seven families of us
gathered at a farm home, and our pretty,
rosy-cheeked, mischievous wives and
girls fixed up things iu great shape. They
had roast roosters and gobblers, stall fed.
cranberries, cakes, mince, pumpkin, cherry and peach pies, sauce ami I don't know
what all, but soon after noon a lot of fellows looked like they had just come off an
alfalfa patch, "tite as tix." Christmas
and New Years, we meet at other homes
and thus enjoy life. Sunday school at
the Coleman; school house is fixing for a
Christmas tree. It has one every year.
It has hardly missed a lesson for fifteen
yean. There is also regular preaching,
class, prayer and Epworth league meetings.
Weather this    fall    has    been    lovely.
bright,  warm, still, clear days, only  two
the sun was not seen; roads fine al!
fall.
I have farmed here twenty years, and
not fed stock any winter two months. I
began to sow wheat in January or February every year but one. We raise fali
and spring wheat. This year many fields
of fall wheat made thirty to forty bushels
per acre, some a little more, 110 acres
run forty fonr bushels ami twenty pounds
per acre, land measured and wheat weighed. Some, not half1 put in, did not go
twenty. There are thousands of acres
that the crop on one acre will pay for
three acres of land. Last spring a man
1 might 100 acres with fifty acres of volunteer wheat on it. The crop paid for the
land. One rented 100 acres, cash rent,
sowed it to wheat. The crop paid ex-
. pensos, paid rent, pai dfor a half section,
and money left. The alfalfa crop this
year is bringing $25 to $30 per acre. Last
year and the year before it brought $30
to sin per acre each year and mil
Ihan (20 to -S'-.i any year, still some fine
alfalfa (bottom) land can lie had yet at
S20 to |20 per acre, one fiue quarter at
$15. This year some tried sugar beets on
i pland. They made ten to fifteen toirs per
acre and the crop brought $.">0 to $80 per
Cere. There an* a good many patches that
the crop mi ten acres will pay for L4ft
acres of land. We look for a sugar factory next year; then land will go way up.
I was born and raised on a farm in
Indiana. I first plowed corn there in
IMS. Corn is not so sure here every year
as there, still I have raised over sixty bushels per acre here on upland.
Now. old Hoosier boys anil girls, come
and help us with the turkeys Christmas
and Xew Years. Bring the babies. We
have a big turkey up now at our house,
stall   feeding   for   Christmas.
Uncle   Billy   Coleman.
McCook, Nebraska. December 11, 1902.
 1 «»-» ■**»■-.
"THS) NINETY AND NINE."
A traveler tells the story    of a  scene
which  vividly illustrates Christ's  parable
of tbe "Ninety aud Nine."     He says:
"One day we were making our way
with ice-ax and alpenstock down the glacier, when we observed a Hock of sheep
following their shepherd over the intricate windings between crevasses, and so
passing from the pastures on the one side
of the glacier to the pastures on the other.
The flock had numbered two hundred all
told. But on the way one sheep got lost.
One of the shepherds, in his German
patois, appealed to us if we had seen it.
Fortunately one of the party had a field-
glass. With its aid we discovered it up
amid a tangle of brushwood, on the rock
mountain side.
"It was beautiful to see how the shepherd, without a word, left his hundred ami
ninety-nine sheep out in the glacier waste,
knowing they would stand there perfectly
still and safe, and went clambering back
after the lost sheep until he found it. And
he actually put it on his shoulders and
'returned rejoicing. Here was our Lord's
parable enacted before our eyes, though
the shepherd was all unconscious of it.
An.l it brought our Lord's teaching home
to us with a vividness which none can
realize but those who saw the incident."
"Have you ever noticed," said a physician the other day, "the number of
young men who are nursing sore chins?
Some have swellings on one side; the
majority have them on both sides. Not
cne in 50 of those young fellows knows
what is the matter with him. Most oi
them imagine that their blood is out of
order and go dosing themselves, but the
disease still stays. Do you see this?"
And the man of nieilieiue pulled a small
bulldog pipe out of his coat pocket and
placed it in his mouth. "I put the pipe
to the right side, and note where it rests.
I turn it to the left, and see where it
rests. The howl almost invariably conies
in contact with the skin just at the forward bend of the chin, and the heat of
the lighted tobacco acts like a poultice
and draws to a head whatever impurities
may be in the vicinity. I have treated
some 20 cases and as soon as the short
styled dndeeu was abandoned for the
straight-stem variety the trouble ceased.
I think that I am the original discoverer
of the malady, and have called it 'pipeosis
chinnitis.' "—Philadelphia Record.
The bulk of the cranberries of this
country come from the part of eastern
Massachusetts which lies near Cape Cod.