Garden*
o'
VOL. LVIII.
INDIANAPOLIS, MARCH 28, 1903.—TWENTY PAGES.
NO. 13
Labor Unions and  Automobile  Manufacturers Join Hands for Oood Roads.
Edltora  Indiana Farmer:
The convention of American' Road
Makers, which met in Detroit, February
13th anti 14th, was remarkable ta tliis respect, that Mr. George Burns, the (.-rent
labor leader and President of the Michigan
Labor Union, advocated the use of prison
labor, either in building roads or in preparing material to be used for hardening their
surfaces. 11.- is the lirst great labor leader
to advocate this course, although it has been
suggested by many speakers and writers
ou this iiues! inn during the past tea years.
Mr. Burns sirs that it would be clearly
an the interest of such prison labor and
also in the interest of free labor to have
Ihe great army of prisoners, now in the
jails in the various States, who are doing
po good for themselves and adding nothing
to the common wealth, applied to the road
proposition in some form or other. Many
people object to a suggestion of this kind
because they say that the use of such
labor for sueh a purpose would have a
contaminating influence in the community
where the work is done. But to avoid
such a result Mr. Burns showed how this
labor conld be applied in the preparation
of material, either brick or broken stone,
where tbe prisoners could be worked in in-
elosures ns they now are. The products
s.i produced wonld not come in contact
with free labor as the articles generally
produced by sueh labor doj consequently by
this conrse you avoid competition with the
manufacturer who offers for sale the manufactured article, aar competition with the
free laborer who works to produce these
."articles, and at the same time the prisoner is receiving more useful instruction,
having more healthful exercise anal adding
..greatly in the course of years to the com-
mon wealth. If Mr. Burn's idea, which
is undoubtedly a Bound and wholesome
cne. should be adopted by the labor unions
of this country generally, it woulil taring to
tin* mad cause a great and much needed
aid.
The great meeting of the Automobile
Manufacturers aaf America, hehl in Chicago
soon after this Detroit convention, February 20th and _l~t. developed the fact that
?11 of the Automobile Manufacturers of
America are heartily in favor of some g**n-
aral plan of road building that shall be
upplicable to all the Statea in the Union.
Being unanimous in this view they adopted
a resolution indorsing the passage of the
Brownlow bill which provides for a system
of National. State and local eo-oi>eratia>n In
the permanent Improvement of the public
highways. It is very evident from the
logic of events that the time is rapidly approaching when the Mends of the gool
roads cause will be able to unite many
forces in favor of the general plan of roaal
improvement that have heretofore been
either indifferent or hostile.
Hon.  Martin Dodge.
Washington, D. ('.
When I Was a Boy.
Editors  Indiana  Farmer:
The boy of to-day can make more money
in 30 days than I could call my own at the
end of 12 months on the farm a third of a
century ago, when I longed for a higher
education than the "deestrict school" afforded at that time. With little inclination to follow the life of a farmer, yet by
force of circumstances I saw no other
future than to be dutiful toward my parents as the one depended on to take charge
of the farm, *S5 acres cleared anal the
balance of the 1*30 nnfenced, wet, in the
brush and timber.    I was told to go ahead
and do the best I could, and all above
necessarj expenses for the family and farm
I should have or control. In my eighteenth
year I possessed $30, invested iir three
scrub ealves and an eight-weeks old sow
pig of improved stock for $6.
The sow I lost at time of farrowing, also
lost my best steer, when two years old.
The other two cattle I sold at 30 months
old, and in-vested in seven other calves
with money left. Not discouraged by
misfortune I went ahead, forcing in the
i alance of tiie wo.nl land, cutting away
the brush and clearing for more pasture
and farming lands, giving room for thirty
or forty acres of corn and a few acres more
of wheat. Thus began the "widening out"
process by method and application of rude
business  principles. With   several   hun-
alred dollars to my credit, I made a purchase payment on some land adjoining, be-
l"i.io reaching my majority, that parties
could not make a living on or did not, and
ltfl with taxes delinquent. With more
laml, more room for farming, a little heavier, and seeing the advantages with natural wet lands, until such times as outlets
could be secured for drainage, I made
grass and the growth of young stock the
oasis of operations. I bought during tne
following years of the land's contiguous:
It became more stock, more land, more
trass and more stock, until I got more than
1 wanted, or was necessary, amounting to
nearly 800 acres. Meantime the pushing
for outlets for ditching on the company
plan went on, followed by a thorough system of tile drainage, bettering the conali-
tions forever of the pastures, the main
feature at Milierton farm, that maintains
from six hundred to a thoiisanal sheep, few
cattle, anal pigs, whieh pays taxes and a
small per cent, without so mnch everlasting "digging" up of the land, and toiling
from day to day by the more exclusive
grain and hog raiser.
If there is anything to feel elated over
in lookirtg back to my boyhood days when
buying my tirst piece of land it is the remembrance of the old men who indulged
me in my efforts to do, in refusing to take
a mortgage on the land, for back payments, saving your word for it, or note is
sutlieient."
This is somewhat egotistic to relate, but
in recent years with my surplus funds I
hnve thought to befriend some young men
with funds to help themselves, and am
orry taa say how few tha-y are but will
take advantage of one who tries to be-
triend   him. I.   M.
TO ILLUSTRATE ANYTHING.
"We've a storehouse full of them,"
the photographer's assistant, as he produced the bulky list of stereaaptienn sliala*s
in- stock. "What, yaau thought lei-turers
had to go snapshotting to the north pole
or Senegainbia when tbey ah-sired t** give
an illustrated lecture of these places? Oh,
no; we have everything from St. I'eter's
to the hula-hula dancers of our new islands, and from scenes in the Bowery to
tin* Parthenon at Athens. You'd have a
hard time choosinpf a subject for which we
couldn't supply slides. Islands in the
South Pacific, or the "Passion Play" at
Ober-Ammergau—it's all one to us. We
have thousands and thousands of them,
every one mentioned in that bulky book.
We let them out at 2 cents a day, or
sell them for 40 -cents. The colored ones
( re priced at $1.20; we must have a week's
notice for colors, as we do not keep them
in stock. Oh, yes; they're very fascinating,
especially before one gets used to them."
—Philadelphia Record.
Interesting Facts From the   Agricultural
Department.
Editors Indiana Farmer:
The new Agrostologist of the Depart-
ini nt of Agriculture, i'rof. W. J. Spill-
man, has a series of maps from Census
Oflice figures showing the distribution of
hays, clovers and green feeding stuffs over
the United States. Clover and timothy
are found generally in the East and alfalfa
in the West, where also considerable bar-
l.y and wheat are cut for hay. The
•.mast striking feature of the exhibit is the
small amount of hay of any kind produced
throughout the entire South. "A tre-
nienalous transformation must come before
the South will again become agriculturally
rich,"  said  Prof.  Spillman.  "Cotton   was
* in e a profitable crop, but it has come to
Ihe paiint where farmers are losing money
nn this crop, no replenishment of soil fertility is practiced, even the cotton seed is
shipped away and they are selling their
I'm ins with their crops. The hope of
ihe South lies in raising live stock and
growing more grasses and cow peas. The
natural soil conditions throughout much of
the South are excellent, but the laird has
been worn to a thread. Compare Illinois
End Georgia, Tin* Census figures show
thai on the regular Georgia farms, not. tho
t:*ua*k farma alone, bnt aan tho field crops
commercial fertilizers arc used in enormous
quantities—to as great an extent as in
any State anal yet the general run of farmers iti* losing rather than making money.
Illinois on the contrary ones almost no
commercial fertilizer. She raises Kve
stock and grown grasses and clovers and
her land is growing so rich that wheat
i**e*'**s down."
Prof. Spillman succeeds I.nnipson-Scrib-
na r as Agrostologist of tho Department of
Agriculture, who was sent to the Philippines iu charge of tha* government experiment station. Prof. Spillman comes
[Tom      Pullman,   Washington,   where     he
worked    along Government    agricultural
|-'nea    [or   SOI light    years.        Pullman
]■■ siutatcd in what is known as tin* Palouse
country, the great wheat section of Washington. The best farmers of the Palouse. Prof. Spillman says, average about
40 bushels rf wheat to an acre without
irrigation. tn fact this yield is produced with only 20 to 22 inches of annual
rainfall.    Gooal crops of wheat are raiseal
* *M as littla* as 12 inches. Prof. Spillman
himself raiseal <'.I.S bushels per aire, land
measured and wheat weighed. Th.* Pa-
1**11-1* country, however, has .*ui extremely
fertile saail faarmed from overflow lava
beds. Xo soil, it is said, exceeds In fertility disintegrated lava, and there is practically no bottom to this soil. In one
place the Snake Kiver has cut through this
lava 5,000 feet, forming a gorge hardly
[second to the Grand Canyon of the Colo-
railaa.
The Department Of Agriculture has 1s-
rued a pamphlet summing up the results of
•in experiment by the Wisconsin station.
* bowing that the claim that a nurse crop
:-• necessary for grain anal clover s*>wing is
without   foundation,     Then*   is   no   a 1
whatever for sowing oats, barley or any
'.ther graiir with grasses for the purpose
*af yielding shade and protection. "Young
grass and clover plants are not injured
by direct sunlight and heat more than
otber plants of our fields." The experiments, made over a series of years, show
lhat grasses and clover sown by themselves, on properly prepared soil spring up
at once nml make rapid growth, bearing
wed heads the same season. The objection
ihat weeds spring up, can be overcome
largely by running a mower over the fiebl
when the weeds me about eight Indies
gh. letting the cutter bar so that the tops
of the weeds an* cut while the grass plnnts
IM not hurt. Soil. howoviT, to be planted
b) this way shoulil be fairly free from weed
seeds. It is recommended to sow
early in the spring. Experiments similar
to the above have also been- carried out in
New Jersey where the seed was however
■owed in the fall.     In either event a very
fine tilth is essentia] to a good stand.
G. E. M.
Washington. D. ('.
.a.	
How to Make Big Figures.
Kdltors  Indiana  Farmer:
\V. M. W-a of Lawrence county, asks:
"How doea the 'billion dollar grass' coni-
pare with the Germin Millet as to quantity ami quality for hay crop? Is Bromus
biennis a good forage grass, or is it the
seme as our broom sage in this country,
that when it gets stalled takes everything
before it. If not, does it grow coarse
and woody, so much that stoek do n**t
relish it? Is it nutritious? The answers
to  the  above   will   be  highly  appreciated.
—These questions are tola much faar US,
with our*present information. Our Experiment Stations do not see to have decided
upon Ihe merits of the first of the grasses
named. The strong probability is that
ihe gri'iit desire of some enterprising
seedsman to distribute a large quantity
of tin* need has l**ai him to maka* statements
that eannot be substantiated by
1 uls. We henr of a certain variety of
corn yielding over 300 bushels per acre,
according to the seedsman's estimate. l"p-
on being closely questioned on the subject
ilia* soe.lsinaii was compelled to admit that
I e made hi-* estimate from the yield of a
single stalk. It was something like tliis:
"One stalk produced six fair sized ears.
weighing half a ponnd each." Now in a
Held of an acre there might ban* been
9,680 such stalks, planted eighteen inches
apart in rows three feet apart. Three
pounds   aaf   eorn   taa   each   stalk   woulil    In*
.'s.iun pounds, which divided by 70, gives
•413 bushels. Tin* seedsman generously
threw *"it 113 bushels, fm* dry weather, **r
other hindrance. He did not pr**ta*nsl to
■fay that any such crop hail actually been
produced on an acre. It is quite Iika-Iy
tliat tin* preposterous statements abont certain grasses and grains ara* based on such
Foundation.
As to Bromus Biennis is not broom
bnl is a dry weather grass; that is,
.' lives through droughts uninjured, aud
grows rapidly when the rains begin, and
produces valuable forage, though not in
very great quantity. It doea better on
p.*i*r and airy sa.ils than most of the gras~. -a,
and   winters   wa*ll. "It   is."   says   Prof.
Tracy, "nearly related to the Rescue grass.
1 lit superior to it. anal is fresh and gr* **;i
during the winter months, is eaten well
by all kinds of stoak. am! continues Tn
good condition well into the summer. It
produces a alense mass of leaves a foot or
more in length, which makes the finest ha.v.
Tt is pre-eminently a winter grass." From
this account we should say it is worthy of
cultivation, on poor ami dry soil at least,
but we would naat give up blue grass for
ii. if our soil is what it ought to be,
bv any means.
Tho commercial fertiliser used annu-
flly in the United States amounts to !><*-
tween $40,000,000 and $50,000,000. Moat
of the States have provided for official inspection of fertilizer to protect the farmer from fraud. The heaviest applications nre made in the Southern States.
In some of the prairie States, hardly any
commercial   fertilizers   are  sold.