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VOL. LXIII INDIANAPOLIS, AUGUST 15, 1908. NO. 33 %xpzvizuct ^Department VALUE OF STRAIGHT FENCES. The Figures are Surprising:. 1st Premium.—There is a greater loss of ground caused by the old worm fence, as compared with the straight wire fence, than we would imagine until we stop to ligure up the loss. I have in mind au ordinary square 160 acre farm, with a ritihlic road on two sides and Hue fences sin the other two sides. Now by my way of figuring there is a loss of 6V2 feet v, idth, allowing 4% feet worm and one foot on either side for rails extending beyond the lap. This is supposed to be for a worm fence that is built up nice and straight, and not one corner in and another out. The 160 acres will require ssiy 1280 rods of fence, not allowing for orchard, truck patch, barn yard, etc. The old worm fence row that we cannot plow will necessarily be 10% feet, while the straight fence row need be but 4 feet, a difference of 6% feet. A loss of QY2 feet on 12s80 rods will figure a net loss of three and five-thirty-thirds acres. This is not all the loss. The worm fence is simply a nursery for weeds, brush nnsl briers. It blows down and is pushes! down by stock, and sometimes a big loss oomes in that way. There is only one thing in its favor that I know of, to offset its disadvantages, and that is it has no posts to rot off in a few years. The above is a fair estimate of the .1 mount of land we lose by the worm fence when, we keep the fence row clean and farm close to fence, but if we allow brush. 1 n'ers and weeds to take possession for a number of feet on each side then the loss will be greater. B. Four Miles of Fence on 160 Acres. 2d Premium.—It is rather difficult to make an estimate of the amount of ground tliat is lost on an average 160 acre farm by worm rail fences as compared with straight fences. It depends very much on the kind of farming that is engaged in .'ind how many fields are desired; also the manner in which the fence rows are handled. To divide the farm into 20 acre fields, with orchard, garden, barn yards, feed l"ts, truck patches, etc., will require about four miles of fence. Usually a rail fence is given four feet worm, while the space occupied by a wire fence corresponds to •he diameter of the posts. We may say then that there is a difference of at least a yard in favor of the straight fence. Un- (ler some circumstances, however, the difference is not so great, as some farmers have their fence rows set in timothy and tin's is mowed as regularly as the timothy meadows. But a great many, because "f the inconvenience of mowing the fence rows by hand, permit them to go untouches and this ground is therefore lost. There ls always some space on either side of a fence that is not worked, but this perhaps does not apply more to one kind of fecne than another. For this reason we °an only reckon the ground that is actual- >>' occupied by the fence. If the fence r"ws were set in grass and were regularly "»>wed the difference would not be great, ''Ut considering the fact that this is not usually done we may say that the differ- enc| amounts to a strip of ground a yard wide and four miles long. This would "Jake \i_ acres, enough for a Chinaman, rrpnchman or Italian to make a fortune on. There would really be more difference than this iu the actual width of the fentes, but since some profit is usually derived from the fence rows by pasturing we may estimate it at a yard in width. It is often said that a foreigner could make a good living on the ground that is wasted in on American farm, and when we see people plowing farther and farther away from the fence, because of the en- cioaehing brush, we cannot help but think that this is true in far too many cases. A. B. C. A SERIOUS QUESTION. Editors Indiana Farmer: Mr. Gregory's article, "Question of Farm Help," is well worth attention. As this matter is becoming a serious one we have some expressions that seem pertinent to the times. This country is a great agricultural section and yet the rewards in the way of paying crops is far from satisfactory, and unless this is in some way changed farming must take a back seat among the callings. The great change made in A Grant County Farm Home, Owned by Samuel Leer. Rail vs. Wire. 3d Premium.—There is a large amount of ground totally lost to the farmer who has nothing but rail fences. Figures show that in a farm of approximately 100 acres the waste due to rail fences is about twelve times the necessary waste where wire is used. The width of the average rail fence is about six feet; of the wire fence, not to exceed six inches. In an interior fence, the difference between rail and wire would be five and one-half feet multiplied by its length; whereas in a partition fence the difference would be two feet nine inches multiplied by the length. In a 160; ere farm where wire is used, the loss aggregates 33 square rods; with rail fences exclusively, the loss is 400 square rods. By using the wire 367 square rods, or more than two acres, is saved, this being the difference between the one kind of fence ond the other. Any kind of a straight, narrow fence ;s far superior to the old-fashioned, unsightly, ineffective worm'rail fence. I hope that tht.rtly the wire fence, trim, neat, durable, effective, will become universal; for it ro mains the best type of fence ever invented. C. S. tt. No. 650, Aug. 22.—When, a green crop, such as clover, is turned under, what is the effect on the soil and on the succeeding crop? No. 651, Aug. 29.—If you sell 200 bushels of wheat from 10 acres of ground and make no return of fertilizer to the soil, how much land have you sold; that is, how much is the soil depleted? the farming population, from 1870 to the present, indicates a return to feudalism which prevailed all over Europe for centuries. One of the leading causes of this scarcity of farm help is the exodus of all the young men to the cities. Judge Grosscup of Chicago fully illustrated this feature in an able address In Cincinnati last fall. He said: "The vast number of young men leaving the farms for city life is changing the nation from an agricultural to a commercial one, very much to the detriment of the nation." In this county forty years ago the writer was a teacher, well acquaiuted all over the country with the conditions of tlungs iu the farming communities. "Eivery farm home had its own help in the family of boys aud girls, and instead of the expensive machinery of this age the crops were tended by manual labor. True, the areas were less in extent than now, but the returns were greater in proportion, because of ample help at much less expense. Our schools afforded ample means for a proper education of the young boys and girls and as a rule these children were happy and contented with their lot. But a great change has come over the tation. Our country schools no longer furish the necessary qualifications to the young in the way of an education, and as soon as they become familiar with the A, B, C's ths?y are hustled off to the town or city schools', where they have so many taore facilities to make or unmake themselves—too often the latter. Every morning, from early fall till late iu the spring, a score or more of these country lads and lasses come from their rural homes to the town for their higher education. Want of proper exercise, so easily had ou the farm, is supplied by gymnasiums or foot ball scrambles, till finally these become distasteful. The brain is superficialy crammed with nonsense, in the way of studies not essential in ordinary life, and the cliild loses all love of home and its surroundings. At the end of the course they graduate nnd take themselves off to the cities for an easy life, leaving the old father and mother to care for the farm. Now comes the result: Shorn of the necessary help in farm matters the farmer provides instead a large amount of costly machinery to replace the loss of the children's help, only to find thut it does not prove a paying investment. The cost, breakage and wear, combined with the short time used, all go to cause the debit side of the ledger to overbalance tbe credit side, and soon you hear of the farm being deserted by its owner for a home in town as a retired farmer, while the acres go uncultivated us of yore. What becomes of the young man who tl.us left the farm for the city? Judge Grosscup says: "Not one out of a thousand ever own property. They simply become vassals to corporations, as clerks, etc., at a fixed salary, barely sufficient to live on,—and so they live and die." Half a century ago the writer left his town home for the country, and the same fsrm that he moved onto he still owns, surrounded with plenty; no ambitious desires for city notority ever troubled him. God has blessed our labors in the rearing of a large family, all of whom work in cooperation and all look upon labor as a bessing, not a curse. Brother farmers, am I not right in my surmises as to what is depleting our farms of their rightful help? And if I am have we not a remedy? Stop catering to the whims and fancies of a superficial life and enter upon that broader plane of usefulness laid down by the Deity. "By the sweat of thy brow" shalt thou earn thy way through this life. Keep the boys on the farm. Make them partners of all the farm interests, provide amusements tbat will keep them away form the glare of the footlights of shame aud moral decay so common to town and city life, and by so doing we will raise up a race of men and women to honor labor and respect the wants and needs of age when we ourselves cease to labor. J. H. Haynes. Carroll Co. The year 1907 witnessed a marked advance in mining in Alaska, despite the fact that the value of the production decreased $2,503,237 as compared with 1906. Nearly all of this decrease was in the output of gold, and is ascribed to labor difficulties at Nome and Fairbanks and to the diversion of labor to work that ia not immediately productive—the installation of mining plants, which are expected later to yield correspondingly large returns. The fall in the price of copper also contributed to the total decrease in production. As it was however, the preliminary estimates show that Alaska produced $19,600,000 in gold, $1,040,000 in copper, and $231,771 in other minerals.
Object Description
Title | Indiana farmer, 1908, v. 63, no. 33 (Aug. 15) |
Purdue Identification Number | INFA6333 |
Date of Original | 1908 |
Subjects (LCSH) |
Agriculture Farm management Horticulture Agricultural machinery |
Subjects (NALT) |
agriculture farm management horticulture agricultural machinery and equipment |
Genre | Periodical |
Call Number of Original | 630.5 In2 |
Location of Original | Hicks Repository |
Coverage | United States - Indiana |
Type | text |
Format | JP2 |
Language | eng |
Collection Title | Indiana Farmer |
Rights Statement | Content in the Indiana Farmer Collection is in the public domain (published before 1923) or lacks a known copyright holder. Digital images in the collection may be used for educational, non-commercial, or not-for-profit purposes. |
Repository | Purdue University Libraries |
Date Digitized | 2011-03-23 |
Digitization Information | Original scanned at 300 ppi on a Bookeye 3 scanner using internal software. Display images generated in CONTENTdm as JP2000s; file format for archival copy is uncompressed TIF format. |
Description
Title | Page 1 |
Subjects (LCSH) |
Agriculture Farm management Horticulture Agricultural machinery |
Subjects (NALT) |
agriculture farm management horticulture agricultural machinery and equipment |
Genre | Periodical |
Call Number of Original | 630.5 In2 |
Location of Original | Hicks Repository |
Coverage | Indiana |
Type | text |
Format | JP2 |
Language | eng |
Collection Title | Indiana Farmer |
Rights Statement | Content in the Indiana Farmer Collection is in the public domain (published before 1923) or lacks a known copyright holder. Digital images in the collection may be used for educational, non-commercial, or non-for-profit purposes. |
Repository | Purdue University Libraries |
Digitization Information | Orignal scanned at 300 ppi on a Bookeye 3 scanner using internal software. Display images generated in CONTENTdm as JP2000s; file format for archival copy is uncompressed TIF format. |
Transcript | VOL. LXIII INDIANAPOLIS, AUGUST 15, 1908. NO. 33 %xpzvizuct ^Department VALUE OF STRAIGHT FENCES. The Figures are Surprising:. 1st Premium.—There is a greater loss of ground caused by the old worm fence, as compared with the straight wire fence, than we would imagine until we stop to ligure up the loss. I have in mind au ordinary square 160 acre farm, with a ritihlic road on two sides and Hue fences sin the other two sides. Now by my way of figuring there is a loss of 6V2 feet v, idth, allowing 4% feet worm and one foot on either side for rails extending beyond the lap. This is supposed to be for a worm fence that is built up nice and straight, and not one corner in and another out. The 160 acres will require ssiy 1280 rods of fence, not allowing for orchard, truck patch, barn yard, etc. The old worm fence row that we cannot plow will necessarily be 10% feet, while the straight fence row need be but 4 feet, a difference of 6% feet. A loss of QY2 feet on 12s80 rods will figure a net loss of three and five-thirty-thirds acres. This is not all the loss. The worm fence is simply a nursery for weeds, brush nnsl briers. It blows down and is pushes! down by stock, and sometimes a big loss oomes in that way. There is only one thing in its favor that I know of, to offset its disadvantages, and that is it has no posts to rot off in a few years. The above is a fair estimate of the .1 mount of land we lose by the worm fence when, we keep the fence row clean and farm close to fence, but if we allow brush. 1 n'ers and weeds to take possession for a number of feet on each side then the loss will be greater. B. Four Miles of Fence on 160 Acres. 2d Premium.—It is rather difficult to make an estimate of the amount of ground tliat is lost on an average 160 acre farm by worm rail fences as compared with straight fences. It depends very much on the kind of farming that is engaged in .'ind how many fields are desired; also the manner in which the fence rows are handled. To divide the farm into 20 acre fields, with orchard, garden, barn yards, feed l"ts, truck patches, etc., will require about four miles of fence. Usually a rail fence is given four feet worm, while the space occupied by a wire fence corresponds to •he diameter of the posts. We may say then that there is a difference of at least a yard in favor of the straight fence. Un- (ler some circumstances, however, the difference is not so great, as some farmers have their fence rows set in timothy and tin's is mowed as regularly as the timothy meadows. But a great many, because "f the inconvenience of mowing the fence rows by hand, permit them to go untouches and this ground is therefore lost. There ls always some space on either side of a fence that is not worked, but this perhaps does not apply more to one kind of fecne than another. For this reason we °an only reckon the ground that is actual- >>' occupied by the fence. If the fence r"ws were set in grass and were regularly "»>wed the difference would not be great, ''Ut considering the fact that this is not usually done we may say that the differ- enc| amounts to a strip of ground a yard wide and four miles long. This would "Jake \i_ acres, enough for a Chinaman, rrpnchman or Italian to make a fortune on. There would really be more difference than this iu the actual width of the fentes, but since some profit is usually derived from the fence rows by pasturing we may estimate it at a yard in width. It is often said that a foreigner could make a good living on the ground that is wasted in on American farm, and when we see people plowing farther and farther away from the fence, because of the en- cioaehing brush, we cannot help but think that this is true in far too many cases. A. B. C. A SERIOUS QUESTION. Editors Indiana Farmer: Mr. Gregory's article, "Question of Farm Help," is well worth attention. As this matter is becoming a serious one we have some expressions that seem pertinent to the times. This country is a great agricultural section and yet the rewards in the way of paying crops is far from satisfactory, and unless this is in some way changed farming must take a back seat among the callings. The great change made in A Grant County Farm Home, Owned by Samuel Leer. Rail vs. Wire. 3d Premium.—There is a large amount of ground totally lost to the farmer who has nothing but rail fences. Figures show that in a farm of approximately 100 acres the waste due to rail fences is about twelve times the necessary waste where wire is used. The width of the average rail fence is about six feet; of the wire fence, not to exceed six inches. In an interior fence, the difference between rail and wire would be five and one-half feet multiplied by its length; whereas in a partition fence the difference would be two feet nine inches multiplied by the length. In a 160; ere farm where wire is used, the loss aggregates 33 square rods; with rail fences exclusively, the loss is 400 square rods. By using the wire 367 square rods, or more than two acres, is saved, this being the difference between the one kind of fence ond the other. Any kind of a straight, narrow fence ;s far superior to the old-fashioned, unsightly, ineffective worm'rail fence. I hope that tht.rtly the wire fence, trim, neat, durable, effective, will become universal; for it ro mains the best type of fence ever invented. C. S. tt. No. 650, Aug. 22.—When, a green crop, such as clover, is turned under, what is the effect on the soil and on the succeeding crop? No. 651, Aug. 29.—If you sell 200 bushels of wheat from 10 acres of ground and make no return of fertilizer to the soil, how much land have you sold; that is, how much is the soil depleted? the farming population, from 1870 to the present, indicates a return to feudalism which prevailed all over Europe for centuries. One of the leading causes of this scarcity of farm help is the exodus of all the young men to the cities. Judge Grosscup of Chicago fully illustrated this feature in an able address In Cincinnati last fall. He said: "The vast number of young men leaving the farms for city life is changing the nation from an agricultural to a commercial one, very much to the detriment of the nation." In this county forty years ago the writer was a teacher, well acquaiuted all over the country with the conditions of tlungs iu the farming communities. "Eivery farm home had its own help in the family of boys aud girls, and instead of the expensive machinery of this age the crops were tended by manual labor. True, the areas were less in extent than now, but the returns were greater in proportion, because of ample help at much less expense. Our schools afforded ample means for a proper education of the young boys and girls and as a rule these children were happy and contented with their lot. But a great change has come over the tation. Our country schools no longer furish the necessary qualifications to the young in the way of an education, and as soon as they become familiar with the A, B, C's ths?y are hustled off to the town or city schools', where they have so many taore facilities to make or unmake themselves—too often the latter. Every morning, from early fall till late iu the spring, a score or more of these country lads and lasses come from their rural homes to the town for their higher education. Want of proper exercise, so easily had ou the farm, is supplied by gymnasiums or foot ball scrambles, till finally these become distasteful. The brain is superficialy crammed with nonsense, in the way of studies not essential in ordinary life, and the cliild loses all love of home and its surroundings. At the end of the course they graduate nnd take themselves off to the cities for an easy life, leaving the old father and mother to care for the farm. Now comes the result: Shorn of the necessary help in farm matters the farmer provides instead a large amount of costly machinery to replace the loss of the children's help, only to find thut it does not prove a paying investment. The cost, breakage and wear, combined with the short time used, all go to cause the debit side of the ledger to overbalance tbe credit side, and soon you hear of the farm being deserted by its owner for a home in town as a retired farmer, while the acres go uncultivated us of yore. What becomes of the young man who tl.us left the farm for the city? Judge Grosscup says: "Not one out of a thousand ever own property. They simply become vassals to corporations, as clerks, etc., at a fixed salary, barely sufficient to live on,—and so they live and die." Half a century ago the writer left his town home for the country, and the same fsrm that he moved onto he still owns, surrounded with plenty; no ambitious desires for city notority ever troubled him. God has blessed our labors in the rearing of a large family, all of whom work in cooperation and all look upon labor as a bessing, not a curse. Brother farmers, am I not right in my surmises as to what is depleting our farms of their rightful help? And if I am have we not a remedy? Stop catering to the whims and fancies of a superficial life and enter upon that broader plane of usefulness laid down by the Deity. "By the sweat of thy brow" shalt thou earn thy way through this life. Keep the boys on the farm. Make them partners of all the farm interests, provide amusements tbat will keep them away form the glare of the footlights of shame aud moral decay so common to town and city life, and by so doing we will raise up a race of men and women to honor labor and respect the wants and needs of age when we ourselves cease to labor. J. H. Haynes. Carroll Co. The year 1907 witnessed a marked advance in mining in Alaska, despite the fact that the value of the production decreased $2,503,237 as compared with 1906. Nearly all of this decrease was in the output of gold, and is ascribed to labor difficulties at Nome and Fairbanks and to the diversion of labor to work that ia not immediately productive—the installation of mining plants, which are expected later to yield correspondingly large returns. The fall in the price of copper also contributed to the total decrease in production. As it was however, the preliminary estimates show that Alaska produced $19,600,000 in gold, $1,040,000 in copper, and $231,771 in other minerals. |
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