VOL. Lxni
NOV 6  1908
INDIANAPOLIS NOV    7, 1908.
NO. 45
Country Life.
By an Indiana Farmhand.
An Indiana farmhand has written a letter to President Roosevelt about the work
which the Country Life Commission is
carrying on. The President has turned
the letter over to the Country Life Commission, and the Commission has asked
the farmhand to write some more.
"I have been a farmhand just long
«jaough,"  says  the President's  correspon-
yecrs ago that life is too short to work
for Pete? Tumbledown farmers."
"Now, Mr. President," he writes, "you
can take this for what it is worth. I have
uot given yoa half of my experience." The
Country Life Commission has written him
that his suggestions are so useful that they
hope he will send more.
"Compel the fanner to be a business
man," he says. "Go into the home's of
seme of the farmers, and the so-called
farmers, and ascertain how they live, and
le.irn of their methods of doing the busi-
Sunday morning as well as on week days,
and do the necessary Sunday morning
chores, and then go to church and show the
business man in the city that Sunday on
the farm does not consist in changing the
stock from one field to another, or salting
it, or unloading a load of hay that was
brought in on Saturday evening.
"Coming to the meals at meal hour
makes it easy on the wife, so she can arrange her household duties in order, as oan
also the husband his farm work.
"Men of worth and standing in the shop
the self-fertilized ones. This is most
striking in the case of corn. It is the
experience of most corn breeders that it is
uot possible to produce on an acre more
tban five bushels of uniform ears even of
our most improved strains. A large majority of the plants produce ears of small
size, irregular shape and light weight,
which  are  undesirable. Many  of  the
stalks are barren. Ouly a small proportion of the plants produce the maximum
size and weight of ear. ' In corn fields
of the central Mississippi Valley the corn
Cement Wa 11   Uong Pike West Side Wabash River at Terre Haute,  Ind.
dent, "to learn the cause of so many sons
and daughters and well-meaning, reliable
farmhands leaving the beautiful farm and
country and going to the city. A lack of
order and system on the farm and too
king hours for a day is what is driving
the best minds from the farm to the city
and shop. What can we expect of a
band, or the farmer's wife and her posterity in the wray of intellectual development when they get out of their beds at
330 in the morning and work from that
time until 8 or 9 p. m? And no attention
paid to the sanitary conditions of the
b«me, and necessary conveniences of the
farm for doing the farm work with the
least labor and time."
This man has given the Country Life
Commission some very interesting first-
band information about rural conditions
and recommendations based on a long experience in farm work and farm life. He
bas worked for all kinds of farmers, good
and bad, he says, and he has always hnd
his eyes open to detect the causes of their
success or failure. He has drawn his
•wn conclusions aud sets them forth in
down-right, straight-forward fashion. Education pays in farming, he says. The
farmer who plans out his work and carries
it thru in a systematis, business-like manner, just as the city man does, will be
able to shorten the hours of labor. "So
n^ny farmers measure everything on the
farm from the standpoint of muscle," he
continues, "and are extreme in some things
and slack   in others.    I   decided   several
nuss in which they are engaged, and you
will be surprised what a variety you will
find. Ascertain what they read, and
what stress they put on the literature that
comes into their homes (if any comes)
tearing on the business they are engaged
in See what per cent study their business.
"Give me the educated farmer as a boss
and the educated farmhand as a hand.
V. hen I come in contact with a hand or
farmer that studies his business I iind him
advancing, and it is a pleasure to work
f..r snch men.
"The majority of the farmers are slight-
hour men, that is, eight hours iu tbe
forenoon and eight in the afternoon. Eight
or ten hours on the farm cannot well be
adopted in all cases, but itneed not befrom
fourteen to sixteen hours. If the family
arise every morning at 5 o'clock, and the
wife and daughters attend to the household
duties, and the farmhands and sons attend to the chores and go to the field at 7
o'clock and work until 11 or 11:30 and go
!•) the field again at 1 and keep at it until
6 o'clock, and go to the house and eat the
supper and then do the evening chores,
they have done a farm day's work. Regular hours for work, and regular hours for
meals, and regular hours for sleep, and
regular bonrs for rest and recreation, with
plenty of standard papera and books, including the best agricnltural papers and
books, and a full faith in God, and good
grub are what is wanted.
"The family shonld rise nt 5 o'clock on
end city tell me tbat if order and system
were used on the farm they would go back
to the farm. If tbe farmer wants to keep
his sons and daughters on the farm he
must not lengthen the hours for a day's
work at both ends. Limit the hours of
work on the farm to twelve or thirteen
with pay for overtime, and freedom to the
hired man on Sunday."
The Country Ufe Commission welcomes
letters like this, because as Professor
L. H. Bailey, Chairman of the Commission, recently pointed out, oue of the objects of the investigations of the Commission will be to obtain, as fully as possible,
the opinions of both farmers and of their
hands concerning the question of farm
labor and the condition of hired help. It
is likely that when the Country Life Commission reaches Indiana in the tour of the
country which it will make early next
rr.onth it will endeavor to get into personal
touch with this letter writer.
Lack of Uniform Size in Corn.
By Guy B. Mitchell.
"The lack of uniformity in our heavy-
bearing crops," said Prof. A. D. Shamel,
Physiologist of the Department of Agriculture, in a recent interview, " is responsible in great measure for the present
low average yield of our most important
cereals. It is due to the variability of
the plants of these varieties—more evident in the cross fertilized er«ps than in
is usually plauted in hills, 3 feet 6 inches apart iu checked row. The rows
are arranged 3 feet 6 inches apart and
the hills are checked so as to permit
cross cultivation. This arrangement
provides for 3,556 hills to the acre. An
average of about 3 kernels is planted to
every   hill. If  every   kernel   produced
a uniform plant and the plants bore uniform ears weighing 1 pound each, the
yield per aere would be about 10,668
pounds, or aliout 155 bushels of shelled
corn per acre. The fact that the average yield in this section is less than 40
bushels per acre is striking evidence that
only a small proportion of the plants bear
ears of the maximum weight.
"The work of producing improved
f.trains of existing varieties can best be
done by the corn grower ou his farm." If
the farmer will select ears which are uniform in size and from fields where yields
have beeu heavy, a step will*be attained
foi the production of bigger and better-
paying crops.
"The difficulty in securing reliable ans]
pure seed of the variety of crop desiredj
continued Professor Shamel, "has be/n
the chief barrier in the way of the Cnbre
extensive use of improved seed by/4iarm-
ars. This is especially true with/regard
to varieties of corn which are sifbject tu
cross   fertilization. To   do   this   it   is
necessary thnt the crop be grown in some
isolated field, or protected from the pollen of other varieties grown in adjoining
fields.        In  nddition  to cross-pollination