VOL. LXII
INDIANAPOLIS, MARCH 9, 1907.
NO. 10
A  Winter Home in a Summer
Land.
Editors Indiana Farmer:
Ynu ask me to write au'other Florida
letter. 1 will be glad to do so if it gives
jou and our Indiana Farmer friends
pleasure. Myself and son came here
lirst week in January; come to rest ami
uit away from the disagreeable winters
in   Indiana. I  have  spent   13  winters
here. When I came I thought I could
not get up enough to fill another letter,
but now I am so enthused I feel full of
it, aud think I could write a .book, the
thoughts till my head and "often in the
chilly night" slumber's chain don't bind
me, for I hear the songs of the south
winds, the swish. swash of the little
waves on Lake Wier's fairy slimes. People are all well and busy und happy. They
giect you with a smile and a handshake
that makes  your  toes  rattle. We  had
some frost the 124th of January that
knocked the leaves off of small trees in
some   localities;   the   most   of   the   oranges
were gathered. Chandler shipped over
0,000 boxes of oranges and as many
crates of peaches. People are planting
thousands of peach trees here, as the new
selected seedlings and Japan, Chinese and
Persian peaches do finely and get ripe in
May. The   trees   bear  some   the   next
year after setting out. I have peaches
now   as   large  as   walnuts.
AuotJier new industry ia pecan growing
the new improved paper shell, budded or
grafted, bears in three or four years, and
live and bear the finest nuts I ever saw.
They sell for 40c to $1 a pound, while
common seedlings bring only 20c a pound.
Ther are some pecan trees in Chandler
that bear 00 to 100 pounds of nuts annually. They grow without fertilizer,
so do pearlies for a time, but the fertilizer is needed to grow big crops. Cattle
run wild in the woods all winter, and live
throngh, but they fatten them for beef
on velvet beans, that grow rapidly in this
poor sandy land. They feed their milk
eows on cassava and sweet potatoes. We
can raise 800 bushels of sweet potatoes
on an acre, and from 5 to 10 tons of
cassava   roots.
Mr. Green, school teacher and editor
at Belle View, only four miles from here
iold me that he fattened 20 hogs on 4
ai ies of cassava, and then dug np three
wagon loads that  the hogs left.
I came here for fun and a full stomach. We have plenty of sweet oranges.
1 have them knee deep in my barn yet.
and eat 20 to .'ill a day trying to get
enough, while 1 have a ehanee. The
people here take it easy, like the Boston
clock; they have all the lime there is.
and don't fret and worry after the nimble
dollar. "like ••yon uns" up north. They
live and help live, and I like lo look
up.     lift   up.     and   like   to  gel   up   myself.
It is a great fad here for young ladies
to walk 10 to 20 miles a day. when up
uoHh they could hardly walk a block.
Some of the young Ladies get away from
fashion's thrall up north, come here and
pnt on a wrapper and No. ."> shoes, and
Ml grub like they meant business. They
don't seem to have any veriforin appendix, but they get a broad brisket that
would make a young lioosier smile to sec
so much raw material that would likely
do the milking and draw a Roosevelt
medal. The   women     have     beautiful
voices,    and  are  good  singers. This  is
a good place for picnics, and fish fries;
there are several fine launches on Lake
Wier: and Lover's Lane, ami Fairy Bowers on its shores;  lined  with holly,  mag
nolia,   palms,   air   plants,   mistleto,   etc.
Will  Martin,  of Booth   Itaub,   india na,
walked 25 miles with me one day—I am
only 7S years old—but he had all he conld
do  to keep up with  me.
Early     mornings     we    can     hear    the
Alsike clover does lest on low land.
Many sow it in the spring with barley or
Oats, llie same as red elover. Sow ten
lo twelve ponnda of seed to the ai re.
Some claim it is more hardy than red
clover.
Residence of August Bcheffler, Johnson Connty,  Iml.
trumpeting ernne's song reverberating on
Lake W'ier's lovely shores, and the water
is so clear you can see the fish 20 feet
deep.
Amgryllis lillies, jessamine, oranges,
roses, etc., are now in bloom, mocking
birds beginning to sing, sometimes they
sing all night, moonlight nights. That is
a wonderful thing this cross breeding,
li\dridizing. natural selection, pollenizing
corn school business. Think of Burbank's
wonderfnl creations or Improvements,  iu
size and quality of pecans of peaches,
corn   .-ind   cotton. Now.     we   have   our
environments made for oa—we make our
nvn condition, but we are not all created
(or bom) equal, but man's place ill the
creation is to work out his own salvation,
and help the great Ruler ami Author of
Nature and Nature's laws to make tin-
world better, so that when the angel
conies again to earth he can find more to
take back to heaven than 'an infant's
smile, a mother's love and the fragrance
of a flower.'    Good-bye.
A. ('. Harvey.
Exports from the United States to
England last year reached SO.Vi.tVJo.OOO, a
gain  over 1005 of $77.00.000.
The Automobile  on the Farm.
By   H.  S.  Chamberlain.
Like the prejudice of people against
ihe innovations ami improvements of the
past the present day antipathy of farmers towards the automobile will gradually
wane until it disappears altogether.
When just laws are enacted to curb the
reckless chauffeur, who uses the country
highways to the detriment, danger and
even to the exclusion of the farmers and
their families, then will the latter realize
ihat tbeTC is some real virtue in the so
called "devil wagon." The time is near
at hand when the farmer will bring the
now hated auto into his own service. It
will and can be made to serve incidentally
in the way of pleasure; but by far its
most important use will be in the practical husiness Beld When the statutes become stringent with these disreputable
scorchers the present dangers from their
reckless driving will be past. The ire of
ihe agriculturists will subside into a
passive condition, and in this period the
'ilities of the automobile in relation
tc actual farm work will be studied. It
will not take  very  long  for the farmers
to discover that out of what we consider
an evil upon our highways will develop
cue ol' the best aids to agriculture in tho
way of utility anti power ever known.
Already has the automobile heen utilized
upon the farm, not only for traction purposes but as a means of transportation.
As prejudice fades away, as prices for
this machine decline and the full knowledge of their necessity and importance
in farm economy comes to the farmer the
machines will become more common than
traction  engines   are today.
The price of an automobile suited to
farm purposes is so high at present as
to make its use by farmers practically
prohibited. However   if   one  is   some
what of a genius in the way of mechanics
the price of a good powerful farm auto
can Ik- brought within range of the
pocket-book of the average farmer.
In- the cities there are hundreds of au-
lo  owners  who,     in  their zeal    to    keep
abreast of the times  in the motor world,
purchases    a    new machine    each season
and  are  usually  willing to sell their    old
ones  at a  liberal  discount from  its  cost
price.        Then too dealers always have a
lot of odds aud ends in second hand touring cars which they are usually eager to
dispose of,    and especially is this true at
the  end  of  a  season.        These  may   be
purchased at prices ranging from $>100 to
$500. depending upon the age,    condition
and  power of  same.
But you may ask what do we want
with a east off, second hand machine?
That's   just   it. 'I'he   second   hand   car
brings the price within reach. Then
when the machine is in your possesion,
proceed to adapt the same to your purpose. Kemove the body and substitute
therefor a platform or box. Remove
the pneumatic tires, and put in their place
sc lid rubber or iron tires Other changes
can be easily made when necessary, and
the result will be an invaluable self propelled wagon well adapted for light hailing marketing purposes. Such an auto
wagon can be used for delivering farm
vegetables, fruits, and milk to the interurban stations, taking grain to mill to be
ground into feed when occasion requires.
In fact .a hundred different uses can be
fouud  for it.
When not in use for traction purposes
this self propelled wagon can be utilized
as a power for driving stationary farm
machinery. By jacking up the rear or
driving wheels, and passing a belt over
one of them, one has a first class engine
for sawing wood, pumping water, grinding feed, operating an electric dynamo,
churning bntter, and the milking machine
when  once  installed. It  ca»  be  made
to serve every purpose of a stationary
gasoline or alcohol engine irf farm work.
As the engines of modern auto earn
range in strength from 10 to 00 horse
power, it can he readily seen that sufficient potential energy exists therein to
do all  the work required.
Corn and cob meal are all right and at
this season of the year the feeding cattle
will like the change. This combination
is really better than corn meal alone, for
the cobs help digestion. The corn meal
alone is too heavy.
By all means disc your corn ground
t,,r oats, with rows, aad then crosswise.
Ihis will mnke a good seed-bed for the
small grain, also fine enough for the grass
or clover seed. An early maturing oat
is liest for a nurse, or I think barley stil!
better.