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VOL. LVIII.
INDIANAPOLIS, MARCH 21, 1903.---TWENTY-FOU. o 'AGES.
NO. 12
"A Little Farm WeU Tilled."
Edltora  Indiana  Farmer:
I have read many different agricultural
papera llnee I commenced farming, but
I intend to make the Indiana Farmer my
'"standby." I enjoy reaaling a real far-
niir's experience, and so I will write my
experience, ami perhaps some oue will enjoy reading it, as I have others.
lu the first place, I am very much in
love with fanning. No one can ever suc-
ii*i*l unless his mind and body are in har-
maany. I h ive a small farm, 62 acres, 22
nans in nice timber. Metliinks I hear
some brother farmer say "he will starve to
death with 22 acres in timber on a 62-aere
farm." But hold on; about 18 years ago,
I bought 40 acres on time; paid for it,
cleared it for the plow, and tiled it; bought
an addition of 22 acres and-paid for it,
built a aS-room honse, barn and djutle corn
crib, had a well drilled, and everything
paid for, and all made on the farm. I
spend every dollar I have to spare in improvements.
Now, how do I farm? I raise corn,
.oats, a few hogs and sheep. I take a ten-
pcre field and sow half in* clover, and the
other half in rape early in the spring. I
keep sheep in the timber land till the middle of June; then I turn them on the rape
and clover till fall. This keeps up the
fertility of the soil and keeps down the
weeds. I do this on the field two years;
then two work another field the same way,
until I get once around, then commence
at the beginning again. I plant my corn
with a two-horse check rower, and culti-
rate with double shovel plow. I see
some of you smile again. Well I raise
on an average 5 Oto 75 bushels per acre,
while those that use the shallow scrateh-
t rs get from 20 to 30 bnshels per aere.
My oats last year averaged 70 bushels
per acre.
I would rather farm less acres, with a
double shovel and get more bushels than
farm more with a two-horse cultivator and
get less: there's more money in it. If any
rne feels like laughing at my primitive
farming, let them come andl will give them
tlicir dinnersfwife is a god cook) and show
them well kept wire fences, buildings
painted, crib* full of corn, sleek farm animals and no debts. Now friends if the
editor does not put this in the waste
basket you may hear from me again.
Blackford Co. J. F. F.
—We'd like to see that little farm onr-
self.—Ed.
stretcher a single wire can be stretched
mnch tighter than several wires woven together; doesn't it?
Mr. Crocket says he has had a machine
on his farm for 18 months or more, and
has put up two lines of fence, and has not
woven one rod with the machine; and that
was the ease with two of his neighbors. It
looks very much, from this, as though he
had not had very much experience with a
fence machine? If he had he would
have known how to get those wires off the
ground on tliat hill and also how to
get them down in the hollow, for that is
a very easy matter, and he would also
have known, how to get around that bend
and corner too.
Please allow me to tell you how to build
■   first  class  woven  wire  fenee  and   also
lay every farmer in this State as it is second_
to no farm paper. Wm. H. Pownall.    3
Fulton Co.
—Mr. I'ownall, with his letter, sends' us
a diagram of his farm, showing nine fields
and the crops he had them iu last year,
namely, three in clover, two in corn, one
in oats, oue in rape, one in wheat and one
in grass. He puts his mind into his farm
and is up-to-date.
Practical Pen Points—Fertilizer  Talk.
Editors  Indiana  Farmer:
The three prindpal elements in a complete fertilizer are nitrogen, phosphoric
acid and potash.
Of these three nitrogen is the most expensive. It exists in soils and fertilizers in three distinct forms, viz:     as or-
Prefer to Weave My Own  Fence.
Editors  Indians   Farmer:
In Farmer of February 7, 1903, Mr.
Pence Crocket of Virginia, gives his opinion of fence already woven, as compared
with weaving it on farm.
Mr. docket says there is no fence machine which the farmer can use. He is
mistaken. I have put up several hun-
alreal rods of as good woven wire fence as
ever was made in any factory. I say
as good, and I believe better, and will
give my reasons why. First, because from
experience on my own farm there is no
woven wire fence that will give entire
satisfaction with all kinds of stock, hogs
especially, without a good hog barb woven
in the bottom anal a cattle barb in top.
will try their best to get under a
fa*na-e, and if there is a good hog barb
in the bottom they will soon get all they
want of it; but if a smooth wire they will
either succeed In ga'tting nnaler or damage
the fence. Second, we know a barb is
mueh stronger than a Bmooth wire therefore it will stay the fence better and make
it stronger.
It looks very reasonable that with, a good
K half pure; in other words sulphate of
"/- sh is about 50 per cent pure, and when
| a in the analyses on sack or sample,
J* »y: 6 to 8 per cent sulphate of pot-
2, in actual potash it would just be 3
% -.  per cent. Kobt. W. Shaw.
Jefferson Co.
Tomato gathering on farm of W. L. Bostiak,  Tyler, Texas,  on Cotton Belt Route.
overcome all the obstructions Mr. C. mentions.
First, I take my machine to the place
of beginning, and set it on the right siale
of the anchor post, and just back of it; put
up stretchers at the other end of string of
fence, then put reel back of stretchers and
put on spool of wire; string out your barb
wire first, putting it through the machine,
then stretch it till you break it, if yon want.
to, and the smooth wire the same. Now. if
you have hills to go over, take a piece
of two inch plank, six inches wide and
cut notches in, every 41,'■■ inches apart; cut
them slanting downward, so the wire cannot come out. Put tliis on end on your
hill, and as you stretch the wires, drop
them in the notches; then when you come
to the hollow take fence staples, pull the
wire down and tack it enongh to holal
till you weave to it, before you loosen it,
lack back of machine taa keep fence down,
nnd you will have no trouble.
It is a little different to weave around
a bend, but it can be done. At the
n*rna*r take machine off and start as before. I do not see how yon could stretch
a fence around a corner and get it tight.
Naver put up a woven wire fence of any
kind without putting in* very large and
well lasting anchor posts, as a little slack
in anchor loosens fence. I prefer to
weave only about 32 inches high, then put
two barb wires on top; then if stock reach
i.ver the top they will not crowd down
and ruin the woven fence; a woven fence
once mashed and twisted cannot be of
much service again, and how it looks.
I have used fence and seen lots of fence
i f all makes used and must say I prefer
the home-made, with the barb wires woven
in as stated.
I consider it foolish to build any fjen-ee
but woven wire; use spring coil  wire so
I the weather will not have any effect on
:t.     Hoping your paper may soon be read
ganic matter, as ammonia, and as nitrate.
Nitrates are the most readily available
forms of nitrogen and the most common
forms are nitrate of soda and nirtate of potash (saltpeter). Nitrogen iu commercial
fertilizer increases its cost more than three
dollars for each unit given in the analyses,
oi in other words if a fertilizer contains
1 per cent of nitrogen the nitrogen itself
would cost $3_ or more; if it contains 3
per cent the cost would bo $9. It
is the general opinion that, unless the fertilizer is to be used on a very thin soil,
it is not necessary to purchase much nitrogen or ammonia.
Phosphoric acid is the most important
of the three fertilizing elements, and is
derived from materials called phosphates.
It does not exist alone, but in combination
commonly as phosphate of lime, in the form
of bones or rock phosphate. The phosphate most available is made from treated
South Carolina and Tennessee rock. It
is ground and treated with sulphuric acid
and is thus made immediately available.
Good phosphate contains all the way from
8 to 16 per cent of available phosphoric
acid, and costs fraam 11 to 18 dollars per
ton in small quantities, and you should
not pay much over %\ per unit for a phosphate. Supcr-phospha_te and acid phosphate are names sometimes used in speaking of thea* treated rock, and all mean the
same thing.
Potash is the third fertilizer constituent
■ind exists in a number of forms. It is
used most principally on spring crops, but
here of late experiments have demonstrated
that on certain soils it greatly increases
the yield of wheat and other fall crops. It
'a largely imported from Strassfurt, Germany, and comes in the form of potash
suits. Sulphate of potash and muriate
of potash are principally nsed in fertilizer,
the former the most extensively perhaps,
and they cost abont $50 per ton and are
How Many Trees to the Acre.
Editors Indiana Farmer:
I noticed in a recent number of the
Par-met the statement is made that 170
trees are too many on an acre. I think
the law was intended to encourage the
continuous growth of timber on the land
exempted from taxation, and in order to
.I*, that there must be small trees as well
as large. In timber where stock do not
•un you will find trees of all sizes, from
the tiny seedling to the giant centuries old.
Trias, to do well for timber, should stand
close together. About 15 years ago my
father planted a locust grove of several
teres. Tha trees were set seven feet apart
each way. aar over SIX) to the acre. If they
bad been set 1 feet each way, or over 2,700
taa the acre, their growth for the first few
years wonld not have gone to make so
many usaless limbs, and some of them
could have been taken out, when they be-
• -nn* large enough for small posts. To
talk of fewer than 170 trees to the acre
sounds too mueh as if people wanted their
old pasture fields exempted, because they
an*l  a  few shade trees in* them.
Land devoted to timber should not have
irtock on it, at least none of the herhivora.
Xf young trees are kept eaten down by
stock a forest has no cliauce to renew itself, anal will finally die out. The island of St. Helena was once densely tim-
lifiial: giants were turned out to run wild
upon it, nnd it is now a barren rock—trees
and soil both gone.
If people only realized the profits that
come from timber culture, the State would
not need to pass laws encouraging farm-
ars taa plant and care for their trees. A
fa*\v alays ago a neighbor made tho remark
that lie would rather have our locust
urove than any other part of the farm.
This fiadd was formerly too hilly for grain
and too poor ami washy for good pasture
Jafferson. B.  S. C.
—One hundred and seventy trees on an
acre, is an average of 13 feet apart, which
seems close enough for forest trees to
stand.
The question is asked, whether wearing
sulphur in the shoes or in a bag suspended
over the breast will be a protection against
small-pox?
As our readers know, we have published
at different times a large amount of evi-
dence showing that it protects against
yellow-fever, malaria and grippe, but
whether it protects against the germs of
small-piax we do not know.—Our Dumb
Animals.
We should never become discouraged
on account of our mistakes, errors and sins;
but we" should earnestly and persistently
and in a really sorrowful and pentient
way go down on our knees is our closets
and secretelv pray to the merciful Father
to forgive all of our shortcomings and give
us strength, guidance, light nnd wisdom
to live a pure and Christ-like life. Then,
and not until then, can God and the Angels
help us.
Our characters are made according to
what our minds feed on and assimilate. If
we are wont to think of mean things, we
become mean ourselves. If we welcome
noble thoughts, we are uplifted and become
noble.