BBsfli
VOL. LXIV
INDIANAPOLIS, JUNE  12, 1909.
NO. 23
Make the Garden Pay.
Editors Indiana Farmer:
While it is the extra early vegetables
that pay the big profits, late vegetables
oC some kinds also  pay well. Many
may be planted as late as the middle of
July and mature before killing frost, so
there is still time to make a profitable
garden this year if no early one was
made.
Late cabbage is a paying crop and it
is best to set out the plants about the
tenth of July. If set too early they are
apt to burst if a wet spell =
i ssines about the time they
mature. A rich dark loam
soil is best, but I have
grown excellent heads on
a medium clay by thoroly
preparing the soil and using stable manure liberally. We set the cabbage
eighteen inches apart, in
rows three feet apart. If
the green cabbage worm
becomes numerous use
Paris green or Bordeaux
mixture.
• Cucumbers for pickles
may be started up to the
first of July or even later.
They require a rich soil
for best results, and must
be well cultivated until
the vines make cultivation
cucumber pest is the
striped beetle, and we
have never found any
remedy that is entirely effectual. Ashes, tobacco
dust, and Paris green are
all partially successful.
Celery is not nearly so
difficult to grow as has
been generally supposed,
and it pays well if a city
market is near. Sometimes
the plants are hard to
grow and it is safest to
purchase plants from a
seedsman.    An abundance
of moisture    is    necessary       	
impossible.     Our greatest
for them to make good growth.
My most profitable crop is pole lima
beans. We sell all we can raise at
from fifteen to twenty-five cents a
quart, shelled. They have done well
with us on ordinary corn land, with a
light dressing of manure plowed in
early in  the spring.
Late peas sometimes do well but often the reverse, and they seldom prove
profitable. For the scalloped varie
ties of squash there is always a good
demand. Hubbard squashes too, sell
readily. A number of other vegetables
may be planted late and still yield a
fair return. Nat S. Green.
Ohio.
longer than 50 years ago; but have
failed ignobly because of lack of knowledge of fundamental principles. It
may be said without fear of contradiction that there never was such real
progress in, nor such opportunity for
good-road work as there is right now.
The Agricultural Department is not
only willing and anxious to freely give
the best expert advice to any county or
community desirous of road improvement but it will exercise a supervisory
interest   over   construction,   if   desired,
of issuing bonds for good roads, or
improving the roads by any means, as
stated by many farmers, is that it is expending money rather to benefit the
auto owners, who have no rightful
claim to the roads, than for that of the
farmera who made them for their own
use. The autos have driven thousands
of farmers and their families off from
the roads, and the better the roads are
made the less useful they are to the
farming public, because the more they
are used by the autos.
Race Track and Amphitheater, Indiana  State Fair Grounds.
I
Bond Issues for Good Koads.
Editors Indiana Farmer:
County bond-issues for good roads
building is strongly advocated by
Maurice O. Eldridge of the Office of
Koails Inquiry of the Department of
Agriculture as the most sensible method of local road improvement. If
this is such a good thing, why, it may
be asked, wasn't It as good 50 years ago
as now and why hasn't it been invoked
to a greater extent by various progressive communities?
The answer is that gAod-road building is a science and notlone to be mastered in a day, either. Many auspicious movements have been started for
extensive good-road construction much
so that there is no longer the ancient
danger of waste or error. The  De
partment can point to many localities
which are the most striking object lessons  of:
lst. The entire practicability of constructing enduring roads where they
never existed before, and
2d. The reduction of taxes following
construction and the general upbuilding of the community so improved.
"Money from bond issues for good
roads," says Mr. Eldridge, "means that
a county is able to secure immediate
benefits from improved roads instead of
by installments, as would be the case
under a cash system of taxation. The
county has the roads and receives the
benefit from them while it is paying for
them.
"Again, instead of getting piecemeal
and expensive construction, where the
money is all in hand ,the work can be
laid out in a comprehensive matins r
ansl accomplished in the most effective
and economical way.
"Bonds for road improvement frequently bring enough premium to pay
several years' interest on the principal. Ninety thousand dollars' worth
of 5 per cent bonds for road improvement sold recently for $110,000 in
Bradley  County,   Tennessee."
Washington, D. C. G. E. M.
—The great objection  to the scheme
Historic 11 ii liana.
Editors Indiana Farmer:
I agree with your editorial that a copy
of Mrs. Julia Henderson Levering's history, "Historic Indiana," should be In
the family of every farmer in the state.
If all cannot buy it for themselves they
can write to the State library commission of traveling libraries and have it
sent to them  to read. The commis
sion should keep many volumes of the
book in circulation and we country
school teachers would be glad to have
the State Teachers' Reading Circle
Board adopt it for next year's course.
I use it now for my class in American
history. Farmers' Daughter.
Secretary Wilson, of the Department
of Agriculture, is not fully convinced
that the college man is better than any
one else. When he is casting about
for men for his department, to do some
expert work, he doesnt care anything
about the man's college record or how
many universities he has graduated
from. "What I want," says the Secretary, "is a man that has gone farther
in some one line of inquiry than anybody else, and who is able to set forth
i la ally for the benefit of others the results of his inquiries." Secretary Wilson has a deep knowledge of agrlcul-
turs' himself and got a lot of it on a
farm out in Tama county, Iowa.
Hay-Harvesting Hints.
Editors Indiana Farmer:
Ha ing ready for haying before you
begin, is half the fight won. Have every
hay-tool in the very best working order. Thoroly overhaul rakes, mowers,
stackers, etc., and see that all are ready
for strenuous business. Oil everything
to the bone the day you start up, and
then keep them oiled. Oil is cheaper
than machinery, any day. Horses will
do a great deal more work, and do it
easier, too, with well-oiled machinery
— behind them. Have extra repair sections for the
mower, and several rake
and stacker teeth handy,
for quick repairs. Time
is too precious for you to
stop a set of hay-makers
and go to town after repairs during the busiest
season  of the year.
A canvas cover for
■tacks left open at night,
or when a rain is approaching, is one of the
lisst Investments you can
make in hay-time. It
pays for itself in a single
season, and will last for
years and years—so long,
in fact, that you'll forget
the small cost of it. Don't
get in such a rush that
you neglect to put good,
water-shedding tops on
your stacks, and when
thru haying, take the
plow and run a furrow
close to the stack, throwing the dirt up against the
hay. Water settling down
and running under the
stack is what causes all
that musty hay in the bottom of the stack, when
you feed it out, later on.
You'll likely pasture
the meadow after awhile.
Before   doing   so,   protect
        your hay by running three
good wires around every
stack of it. If allowed to run to the
stacks, stock will eat but the very
choicest hay, and trample the rest underfoot. That may be the easiest way
to feed it, but it isn't the most economical, by any means.
Remember, this is the season in
which you must provide for your winter's supply of feed. Don't be careless
and wasteful of it, just because there's
plentyof it now. You know, the most
of us paid out a lot of hard-earned cash
for feed last winter, when a little care
and foresight during hay-time and the
early part of the feeding season, would
have saved the greater part of this outlay.
M.  Albertus Coverdell.
Missouri.
Paper From Corn Stalks.
The farmers are in luck again. Experiments made by scientists In the U.
S. Agricultural Department show that
an excellent quality of paper can be
made from corn stalks, better than that
from wood of any sort, and there is
every reason to believe that the business of papermaking will within a few
years be revolutionized. This discovery will add considerably to the value
of the eorn crop, as the uses for paper
are constantly increasing and the material for making it is rapidly growing
scarce.