iPurdue
[LAFAYETTE, m
VOL. LVIII.
INDIANAPOLIS. NOV. 7. 1P03.
NO. 45
Written   for   the   Inallana    K:ara.ia*r:
A    BOSKBUD.
(By Charlotte  Erancea Womack.)
Only  a  raasa*tiia.l   with  Jatst   sanaain.T's   bluaahea
Kati.-al  an.l   gone   fraain   thy  roaseate  cheek!
Bait ah, wha'u I see thee what fouil niem'ry ruahea
Back   tc   mv  mind   aa   I   fancy   I  aee
Her meek  loving eyea  aa  1  told  her  I  loyed  her.
And aaked if,  forever,,  my own she would be.
Then plncking a   rosebud  from out of her tressee
And touching her lips to ita oft crimson folda.
She   passed   lt   to   me,   saying   soft   as   I   took   lt,
tke  this aa a  token,  for my  love  it  holds.
In   life or  iu   death   1   will   be   thine  forever;
Whatever may happen my hesrt ls atlll thine.
God grant that no power howe\    atrong may sever
The love that eutwineth thy heart and mine.*'
And thou are the rosa'bud she gave me that even'
The rosebud, the token, which all her love holds
Sh,*  bas left me forever,  but oo power can  sever
The love in my heart from the love lu thy folds.
Growing Htilry Vetch For Seed.
The following iiil'iarimitiaair relating to
the growing of the hairy fetch for
is riirnisliaal ly the Bureau of Plant Inalustry of the U. S. Department of Agri-
fiilturi', throngh its seed laboratory, '»
r.'s|iaanse to miiiK'naus Inquiries on the
subject:
The cnltivation of hairy retch haa Increased rapially in the lust few years au.l
wonld be mnch more common if the seed
Tlii' best results were obtained with
seeding ***rem one-half to three-fourths bushels of retch and one-half bushel of rye
ta, the acre, sowing fnun the middle to the
lasl ef September.
The crop shaanhl lie cut about the time
the last pods are formed and the vtai ■
ur.* getting dry. The cutting is don* with
:i 11 ordibary mowing machine, after which
Iha' vines una] straw shaaiild be put  in piles
aad allowed to airy.     The threshing   can!
GOOD DIRT ROADS I'DsMKLK.
The taiK of Mr. D. Ward King, of Malt-
land, Mo., at the Good Roads Institute,
New Albany, Sept. Sth, interested us, fully
as much as the discussion on making roads
by government and State aid. The latter
subject is of great importance and the
roads that are built by the help of public
funds will no doubt be better than any
dirt roads can be taking the year through,
but it will take time to accomplish the
legislation necessary, and it may be years
before the national and State system is
put in execution, although we feel confident that it will.be brought about. But
the dirt road method described by Mr.
King, may be put in practice at once and
anywhere.
In 1896 Mr. King became desperate at
the condition of the road that passed his
farm, and made trial of the drag upon it,
using two slabs from a log ten inches
through and 9 feet long. The log was
split in two, and the two halves were set
upon edge about two feet apart, and fastened in that position by two inch plank
bolted  across  the   top. The  flat   sides
to the front. With this drag, set at a
slight angle, he dragged the road in such
way as to make the middle a few inches
higher  than  the  outside. He  kept  up
this method eTery few weeks until the
road became hard, dry and smooth. For
four years this road was treated in this
way. before the neighbors began to realize that it was the thing to do, ami now
they are dragging the roads too. This
road nf Mr. King's is on rolling prairie,
it is half a mile long, and full loaals can
be hauled over it at any time, while the
other part of the same road is Impassable.
Each time he drags he pushes a little
more dirt to the middle, making a water
shed that carries off the rainfall at once.
Teams do not have to go in ruts, but take
a new course each fime they traverse the
road. A scraper may be uses! in the
same way. but scrapers are expensive
while drags are cheap. Mr. King said
that since the people have become convinced of the great improvement made by
dragging the nnmber of drags has greatly multiplied in his neighborhood. It
takes him 20 minutes to drag his half
mile eaoh time. The road is not affected
by freezinir and thawing, as might be sap-
posed.       It is too dry.
We are glad to know that Mr. King
has been engaged to lecture on his system
of road making at a n'imhcr of our farmers' institute this winter. He has photographs showing how the roads lr>ok before
nnd after dragging. Wo got two of them
to use in the Farmer. There ean be no
deception in these photographs. The
r.aaals before drs-fgging were simply horrid: afterwards they were smooth and
solid.
K\t.
ilu*   retch   laa   make   a   very     satisfactory
growth by means aaf tha' inoculation on
ground where ii proves an entire failure
under ordinary cultivation.
Unless hairy  vetch  hns  already    been
grown successfully on a piece of ground,
it sliamld hi- Inoculated '.ta insure SUCCESS.
Inoculating material will be furnished by,
an.l all inquiries concerning it .should be
addressed to, Bureau of Plant Industry,
r. s. Department of Agri-culture, Washington, l>. 0.
The   Department has  no  seed  of hairy
retch  for distributiaair.
_*9>   ______*
Dirt Boad.     Before Drug iring by the King Method.
was raised in this country, and especially
| on the farms where it is to be sown.
Practically all of the seed  now used in
j the United  States is  imported  from  Eu-
j rope.    During the fiscal year ending June
I 30, 1903, over 80,000 poumls of this seed
was brought in.
Experiments have been  carrieal  on . by
I the   Seed   Laboratory   of   the   Bureau   for
2 years in  St.  Mary's County,  Maryland,
and   the   past   year   in   Wayne   Oounty,
Ohio,   to   deta niiine   the   practicabilty   of
growing the seeil  in this  country.     Fraam
I the  results  of  these  trials  it  is  evident
be done with an ordinary grain thrashing
machine.
The four acres in Ohio yielded thirteen
bushels of vetch and sixty-one bushels of
ryi'. In Maryland the storms knocked
the tye down so it aihl not fill well, but
the four acres yielded 18 bushels of vetch
and eight bushels of ry<*. Reports from
Mississippi show a yiehl of from five to
seven   bushels  per acre   in  that  Slate.
te mnny Instances bairy retch has been
sa.wn anal proved a failure umler ordinary
cultivation. As it is adapted to a con-
siderable variety of soils ainl a wiala> area,
The Same Kaaa
thnt the seed can be produced at a profit
! over a wide area in the Unite<l States.
Great difficulty has been experienced in
harvesting the seed when* grown alone. It
ripens very unevenly    and if    left    until
■ most of  the  seed   is  mature   it   becomes
| matted on the ground and shells
and molds badly. It was found
that by sowing with rye a sufficient
support . was furnished to keep it
off the ground nnd allow it to be cut
easily with a mowing machine. Kye
-. ems b^st adapted as a supporting crop
m account of the time of ripening and
the stiff straw.
it is certain that the failure in most in-
i is alue to the absence of the or-
u-.iiiisiii whiah proaluees the root tubercles
anal has the property of fixing the free ni-
trogen in the air, making it available for
plant food. In sowing the areas referred
to above, the greater part was inoculated
with the nitrifying organism, but a strip
was left in each case on which none of
tue inoculating material was used. A
vigorous growth of hairy vetch was obtained on the inoculated plots, while on
the uninoeulnted plots in both cases the
growth was rery scanty anal the gronml
almost   bare.     This  shows  the   ability   of
Forgetting to Do Things.
Editors Indiana Farmer:
How true it is that forgetting to do
things in their proper order or at the proper time ca'tistitutes one of the most im-
portant leaks in tho economy of life. I
know I have fonml it so in my owu case,
and I will tell the Farmer how I have
managed of late to come at things in their
proper order.
There are a thousand and one little
things to do on the farm that it will not
do to neglect if we expect to succeed in
our chosen worl;.' There is a spot anions
the berry  bushes in  that low    spot    of
i   where  the .lune grass has  g
foothold   and   only   the  hoe   can   clean   it
out as  it ought to be.    When cultivating
we notice  this  fact  and  inwardly  resolve
to go at it with the hoe immediately.
After the day's work is finished we for-
get the promise we made and go at something else, nor do we think again of the
grassy spot until next time we cultivate,
when lo! the grass has taken a firmer hold
than ever. An hour's work at the proper
time wouhl have cured the evil which ne-
glect has rendered well nigh incurable.
There is the harrow left for a few
hours in ilu- corner of the field. At the
time of leaving it we intended to come
haak again in the afternoon*or the na*\t
morning, but something more pressing
draws us away and the harrow remains
■\ in the weather for a week or
two. A hoe is left in the field, a scythe
or soma' other tool, only fair a few hours,
we promise ourselv.-s at the time, but often it is forgotten fair a long time and in
eonse<Inenoe it is  injured more or less.
things ought not to be, yet every
farmer well knows how this habit
leaving things, or neglecting to do little
tilings of a b*C ssary nature grows upon
one. I fonnal it so in my own case anal
i finally becoming disgusted with my aiwn
shortcomings in this particular, formcal a
plan  for regulating it.
I procured a slate and hung it on the
wall of the living room, where its face al-
\\u\s  looked   Into  mine  whenever  I  came
to my meals.    On this I wrote down each
alay what ought to be done as  I  had  no-
Heed it at my regular farm work, or some
*' n  alutv flitted into my  brain.    To
the slate I attached a pencil by means a.f
a   string,  and  since the  motivation  I  find
much of the slackness about diaing things
■la,ne away with, and I go to i-est at night
thankful that I have don» some necessary
i thing that in the old days would have been
! neglected, to the detriment of all concerned. J. M. M.
Ashland, Mich.
The Best Paptr.
Editors   Indiana   Farmer:
I could not do without the Farmer by
any means. It keeps the farmer posted
on many things, and is the,best paper on
farming I ever read. J. L. C.
Shelbyville.   October  20.