VOL. LXIII
INDIANAPOLIS, MARCH 28, 1908.
NO. 13
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Harm School --Natural  Oas.
Walter S. Smith.
1 had it from my favorite authority, Dr.
R. T. Brown, that the natural gas will
not give out. His theory was propounded in the first years of the discovery, when
the State gas inspector was figuring up thsj
"judgment day" of the commodity at eighteen months ahead. I remember how
oracular the inspector's prophecies seemed,
and how severely the general public was
distressed. It was that that called out
the doctor's pronouncement. He reasoned
as follows:
"Natural gas is carburetted hydrogen.
and hydrogen is one of the two elements
of water. Every tyro in chemistry remembers "H20,"—2 equivalents of hydrogen to one of oxygen. These simples are
two gases, quite different in nature, which
unite chemically aud makes a body not in
the least resembling either of them. it
is a liquid known over the globe in various
conditons, and covering from two-fifths
to three-fourths of its entire surface.
When I say it is a liquid, I mean in its
most common form. It is changed by
heat into steam, and by cold (the loss of
lient,) iuto ice. But whether ice, water,
or steam it is the same chemical compound, made up of oxygen and hydrogen.
These gases unite with a loud explosion
when run together and affected by certain
influences, like heat or electricity; but a
heat great enough will cause them to separate. That is, when steam is superheated, to a few hundred degrees the hydrogen and oxygen lose their mutual affinity, and like a badly married couple they
separate.
Hydrogen is a very light gas and oxygen is very heavy, gaseously speaking.
Moreover, oxygen is "polygamously inclined," and will readily unite with most
other substances.
So the hydrogen rises, through all apertures and cracks, and the oxygen unites
with whatever comes near it. The light
gas comes up through strata of carbon that
nature long ago deposited, and takes on
that element forming carburetted hydrogen, readily distinguishable by its odor.
If in its upward course it strikes no carbon stratus, it comes up without the odor.
The odorless gas is also a smokeless gas.
There are extensive fields of it in the
Ij nited States; one of them at Waldron,
Indiana.
Now for Dr. Brown's theory:
1. The interior of the earth is in a
Molten state, and its fires are more intense in their heat than we can possihly
imagines.
2. The crust of the earth is only a
thin shell about the melted body. But
this shell is made of rock.
•>■ In the process of cooling, the rocky
"hell is cracked, in places, and through
these cracks the waters, everywhere present on and near the surface, seep down
to Portions heated to a white heat, but
ni>t reduced to a melted condition. There,
water springs at once into steam, and
steam is superheated, so as to break up the
affinity of the two gases. The hydrogen
"*", until it strikes a stratum it cannot
Penetrate. There it accumulates, until its
Wewmre disturbs the solid crust and gives
<•» earthquakes. Volcanoes are only vents
' . >neh vshieh    the gases    escape,    often
nvmg before them showers of Hshes and
"""!. fragments of stone and that melted
•to«f called lava.
*•    Portions of the rocky crust are full
of holes like the air cavities, in a loaf of
bread. There is a stratum of rock that
crops out at Trenton. N. J., called Trenton
Kock. This stratum in Indiana is eight
hundred to a thousand feet under the surface. This rock baring the porous na-
txre is filled with the rising hydrogen and,
as it is overlaid with shales and clays and
granites, impervious to the gas, it stays imprisoned until the shales, etc., are bored
through.
With 800 feet above, the pressure b
too grent for the crust above to give way,
and the gas accumulates till it can accumulate no longer, and then it rolls sill I (-
tween the crust and the melted body, and
the waves in the .fiery sea produce the
quakes.
There is commonly a volcanic eruption at
In either case the formation uf gas
may be going on, and its exhaustion not at
all likely.
Birds uf the Uardcn
By Grace Eby.
This great country is exceedingly rii h in
liirsls of song and beauty. The Uuited
States can truly boast of a larger variety
.si charming birds than any other region on
the globe. In the merry spring time we
may listen to a concert of music which nowhere tinils its rival. Without these jubilant and cheerful songsters Nature would
seem to us lifeless aud dead. Our birds
art the true poets of the landscape imbuing woodland and meadow, orchard and
field    with gay    happiness and songs.      A
Farm Home of S. C. Mc Conn, Hendricks, County, Ind.
the time of an earthquake; so scientific
men generally believe both are due to the
same cause.
The "shooting" of a well is a process
of breaking the Trenton Rock, so as to al
low the gas in all contiguous cavities, to
come together and find vent in the bored
channel.
The pressure is sometimes so great that
it is difficult to anchor the casings. Sometimes tbe roaring and trembling of the
earth arc so great as to be perceived a
mile or more from the well.
Dr. Brown's notion seems to be proving
true: to-wit, that the supply is inexhaustible.
Many old wells that were abandoned
years ago are coming back into usefulness.
They cast up a carbon deposit, crude kerosene, in fact, that crystallizes inside the
tubes; and the passage is thus cut off
while there is an abundance of gas. With
this cleaned out, and arrangements perfected for the separating of the gas from
the water that often becomes bothersome,
r.lmost any old well cnn be made worth
saving.
There is another theory that to me seems
more reasonable than the doctor's. That
is, that the interior fires are driving off
the carburetted hydrogen from the soft
coal and making anthracite. Anthracite
is the same as coke, except that it is solid
and coke is porous. If coke were submitted to millions of pounds of pressure
while in the process of cokeing, it would
be pressed  into a  s.ilis]  body. Such    a
condition can easily be conceived of, by
supposing coal measures under the Trenton rock and near the heat.
The anthracite we now use may have
been made in the far back ages when the
fiery interior was nearer the surface.
sympathetic sentiment is created in the
heart of every feeling person by the innocent life of the happy birds. Tliey must
attract the attention of even the most casual observer. A rich vegetation, and
consequently an abundant supply of insects is necessary to bring bird life to
its  greatest   perfection.
The bobolink, one of our most enchanting songsters, is the poet of the low, flower adorned meadow. The cheerful redwing blackbird enlivens the sedge covered
sloughs nnd swamps, and the social yellow headed blackbird was once very common in the prairie marshes of Illinois. All
the deciduous woodlands of the middle
states hear the sweet e-o-lie of the wood
thrush.
The true homes of the richly-colored scis-
sor-tailed flycatcher are the live oak and
rnesqnite prairies of Texas. Although
the gardens of the northern and eastern
parts of onr country possess a large number of fiue songsters, they cannot compare with those of the south Atlantic and
Gulf States, where that "king of song," the
mockingbird, from night to morn and from
morn to night pours forth his beautiful and
characteristic music, ever new and never
tiring.
This bird is the jewel among our song
birds, and, according to the best judges
of Uermany, it finds not its equal either in
tbat country or any other.
In the East only one species of hamming
birds buzz from flower to flower, wliile a
dczen or more occnr west of the Rocky
mountains. The purple martin, the
largest and most beautiful of the swallow
cril.ss. J4j not an agreeable companion, but
is extremely useful as a destrssyer of in-
seels, which exclusively constitute its food,
ami   as  a  protection  to  the  farmer  from
lu.wks and crows, as one of these predatory birds dare uot approach the vicinity
of a pair, mueh less a colony of purple
martins.
lf onr birds were only held in esteem
and our boys taught to love the birds and
nut delight in robbing their nests, our gar-
.Is us. orchards and parks would be populated by happy and useful songsters. We
ought to be proud of the fact that our bluebird, beautiful and lovable, is encouraged
to seek human society in Europe; also the
semi-domesticated robin redbreast is invited.
Goethe, somewhere or other, makes ssne
of his characters declare that,  "it  is    a
mark of a motley, dissipated sort of life,
to be able to endure monkeys, and parrots
and  black  people  about  one's  self."       I
disagree with him, and favor the saying of
Sydney  Smith,    tliat  wittiest of divines,
who with a more kindly   appreciation    of
"Pretty    Poll,"    remarks:      "I think    no
house is well fitted up in the country without people of all ages.      There shouhl be
an old man or woman to pet; a parrot, a
child, a monkey; something as the French
say  "to love and    dispise."      The    mily
member of the parrot family found in the
United    States is the    Carolina parrot  or
parrakeet.        Its general  hue  is  a   light
green,   with purple tinges on the wi.
rich yellow on the upper part of the neck,
and a patch of orange red on the forehead.
Many years ago when our Southern and
Western States were sparsely settled,   this
parrot was very abundant in those parts of
the    country    ranging from    Florida    up
through Tennessee and Kentucky to Ohio,
and  even to  Michigan.      In early   times
large flocks of these birds were to be met
with on the Ohio river.        Now they are
seldom found east of the Mississippi. Stoma
of our oldest inhabitants relate how in the
autumn these birds would fall on the grain-
stacks and commit great ravages.        The
farmer would  take revenge upon his de-
spoilers and thus they have been extermin-
atesl.
The question now is, what shall be done
v.-ith the "English sparrow," a bird infested with small lice which are carried to various poultry houses; a bird which is very
destructive and does not warble a very
pleasing note. This is the only bird I
have not felt kindly towrards. Let me
hear from some of my readers through
this paper what they think about it.
—We remember seeing a large flock of
parrokeets in the Wabash bottom in Vermillion county, when a boy, some 65 years
ago. We must offer a bounty on English
sparrow  scalps. Besides  being  a   nui
sance and a pest they carry the San Jose
scale from tree to tree and orchard to orchard.
Rape for Pasture.
Editors Indiana Farmer:
I would like to ask a few questions about
rape pasture.
Where can one buy the seed, and what
does it cost? How much does one sow to
the acre?
If sown this spring cnn it be pastured
this siuing? Does it grow something like
onts? A. C. B.
Walton.  Ind.
—Any of the seedsmen who advertise
with us oan furnish rape seed; the cost
varies with the amount purchased from 6
to 12 cents a pound. Sow from 3 to 5
pounds per acre. Drill from 2 to 3 pounds
per acre. Sow in May or June. It
may be pastured two months after sowing.
It is not at all like oats.