VOL. LXIV
INDIANAPOLIS, AUGUST 7, 1909.
NO. 31
Some Sun Studies.
By Walter S. Smith.
1. To Aid in Comprehending the Di-
ameter—I stood once on a lumber pile
;it Michigan City and watched a sunset.
There were great swells rolling south-
wvstward on the surface of the lake,
which I had been studying quite a
while. They    would    have measured
twenty-five feet from crest to crest;
und at the moment when the sun was
half submerged, I counted six of these
waves very clearly outlined on its diameter.
This was very surprising to  me;  for
it  showed  me  the  real  length  of      	
that diameter to be    150 feet    at
the distance of three    miles from
the place    of    observation.      The
well-known   proportion   came     to
my  mind,  relative  to  similar  triangles.     "Similar    triangles have
all their like parts proportional."
So  the  perpendicular  three miles
Is to the perpendicular 95,000,000
miles as  150  feet ls to  the number of feet in the sun's diameter;
Stated in this way, 3 is to 95,000,-
000    as 150 is    to the    diameter.
Making the  calculation,  we     find
the diameter is 4,750,000,000 feet.
As there are 5,280 feet in a mile,
this number of feet will    make as
many miles as 5,280 is    contained
times   in   4,750,000,000.       This  is
897,443.
To the mathematical boys this
will be very interesting and very
surprising, as it is within 30,000
miles of the diameter estimated
by astronomical instruments.
2.    To Aid in Appreciating the
Sun's Heat—I once examined the
fourteen-foot    telescope     of     Dr.
Fitch, an old teacher whose home
was in Morristown.       On the end
containing the great lens he had
fitted   a  brass  cap   having  in  the
middle of its crown a hole three-
quarters of an inch, or so, in diameter,      I asked him what that
cap was for, and he answered: "It
is    necessary      as    a    protection
against the heat.       When studying sun
*ln>ts,  if I allowed  the full surface  of
my lens tq be exposed,   the heat, focalized  on  the  smaller  lens,   would  melt
'he glass    of which    it is    composed.
Tliat is there Is heat enough spread on
a. twelve-inch surface to melt glass."
This reminded me of my own tests.
The common little botany glass, which
gathers together the rays of one square
inch or less will make heat enough to
ignite gun-powder; to burn a hole in
"asssls-n cloth; to make a blister on the
Kkin. Suppose then we were able to
1_ some sort of unit of heat, for the
»mare inch. Then the 144 square inches of the square foot would collect
144 such units; and the heat of the
sun OB an acre of ground would be be-
> "ini  our power of imagination.
1 'ur whole earth does not receive
more than a triliipnth part of the sun's
heat; so how hot is the orb? God
only is able to comprehend it.
3- To Study the Sun's Light—Take
a ripe buckeye from the tree, before
'he bursting of the hull, and you will
be stiipris.,1 to find the hull covering a
white, <)r rather a cream-colored nut.
"old the newly-stripped nut in your
hand  ai   I'.-w    sieonds,    and    you    can
watch the change of color to the characteristic beautiful chocolate shade.
Blanching cabbage or celery is no
more than cutting off the sun's light.
And the greening of the potato is no
more than exposing it for a few hours
to that influence. Apples are painted by the light. Mr. Thomas Newby
of Carthage, showed me an apple with
his initials on it, painted by the sun,
which had been allowed to strike the
skin through rifts he had made in the
paper cover. This is not true  of all
colorings of fruits; for grapes tied in
a'paper bag will take their own prop-
er color, as they ripen, in the dark.
4.    To Study the Sun's Motion—It is
ty. It is a gri'at University, and one of
the greatest booms to progressive
farming the State has ever afforded.
Purdue has been seriously handicapped
by not having financial aid, and the
support it should have had years ago
to carry on its good work, but thanks
to our last legislature the appropriation it gave will help to put it on its
Is s-t and make it one of the greatest in
our land. Purdue does for us what it
- would take years of toil, discourag-
ments and capital to accomplish. We
have a few farmers here in Cass Co.
that think of Purdue as the above
mentioned gentlemen do, but if you
will visit their farms you will find their
CONSKRVATION   OF  THE  MANURE
SUPPLY.
\  Concrete   Tank   for   Liquid   Manure
i'lml  Also Serves as a Barn Drain.
By A. A. Houghton.
Farm Home of W. E.   Harton,  Rush County.
now known that the sun rotates on its
axis just as the planets do. As Its
diameter is almost a million miles, Its
circumference is a little over three
millions; and as it rotates in ten of
our days, any spot on its equator must
move at the rate of three million miles
in ten days, or 300,000 miles a day.
This is more than 12 thousand miles an
hour, 200 miles a minute, or more
than 3%  miles in a second.
Of course, the motion of the sun
which we see is in reality the motion
of tne earth. It used to be supposed
thai the sun came up every morning
and traveled entirely around the earth
each day. This would be a motion so
rapid tha* no account of it would be
possibli-. It   was   very   puzzling   to
great thinkers; and a wonderful relief
was experienced when the fact became
known that the real motion is in the
earth and not in the sun and stars.
A Word for Purdue.
Editors Indiana Farmer:
I have read two articles in your valuable paper one from Mr. J. H. Haynes
of Carroll Co., June 6th, the other from
J. F. Fensel of Blackford Co., July 10.
I do not agree with either of the genT
tl.-nu-n   in   regard   to   Purdue   Universl-
fence rows overgrown with weeds and
briers, their buildings unpainted; tney
want no public improvement, want no
farmers' institutes and are always complaining about hard times and the
weather.
I get many good practical lessons
from the bulletins we receive from
Purdue as well as from the Indiana
Farmer, and I do not want to do without either.
We have three boys and I want them
to be farmers and we want them to get
a good practical course at Purdue.
Now my advice to friends Haynes
and Fensel would be for them to take
the Farmers' Short Course at Purdue
this winter and get an inspiration, and
go home resolved to do better farming
and help a good catiss-.
Cass Co. C. M. Harness.
Lightning tore down a trolley wire
of the traction line Thursday during
the storm, at Elwood, the wire wrapped
around the stove pipe on the car, the
current communicated to the woodwork and the car was set on fire. The
tiames were put out with chemicals but
ths- line was put out of commisison for
several  hours.
The progressive farmer willingly
concedes that the loss of plant food
constituents from the ordinary barnyard manure is enormous, when allowed to be scattered over the entire
yard.
The constant    leaching of the    most
valuable portion of this fertilizer, when
left   exposed   to   the   elements   is   in     a
measure a direct loss of money to the
farmer  as  there  are   today     very-
few   farms   where   the   soil   is   so
rich that the use of manure can
be dispensed with.
There are thousands of farms
whereupon the barn and stock
yards are exposed to the weather;
the manure is thrown out in large
heaps and then littered over the
entire yard by the stock trampling on same, with each rain the
most valuable portion is leached
Into the soil and wasted, while
the straw and coarser part is
drawn to the fit-Ids. I have found
some farmers who believed, to
their loss, that the lower layers
were of/ no value so left them in
the yard year after year.
The fact is so apparent that it
hardly seems possible that any
farmer would neglect to stop this
loss of a valuable and needful adjunct to good crops. As water
leaching through ashes produces
lye, so rain and snow leaching
through the manure heap absorbs
the greater portion of the plant
food properties of same and in
turn they are absorbed by the
soil of the yard—an absolute loss
to the farmer and one that could
be  easily avoided.
The  concrete     manure   pit  and
barn  drain  illustrated  in  this article is only one of several methods  whereby   this   leak   in   profits
could  be stopped.
To   construct   the   pit,   as   illustrated,
excavate   to   the   depth   and   size   required; a pit 10x10 or 12x12 feet would
be   ample  for  the  average   small   farm
and for either size would be constructed  as follows:       Have the sides of excavation  straight  down  so as to  form
one side  of mold;   for  the  inside  form
of walls,  set  2x4   inch  uprights  6   feet
high, with boards laterally on these to
mold the wall;  the side walls must not
be less than G inches thick fora pit ofl2
feet square, this will be strong enough
if the concrete is tamped thoroly when
placed in forms.
After the walls are built to the ground
level or nearly so, which will be six
feet, allow them to "set" before removing forms, and build the two supporting posts in center; these are built 8
inches square and 24 inches apart, as
illustrated, a plain box form five feet
three Inches high and 8x8 inches on
the inside is the best method of construction, this box must be so it can
be easily taken down so as not to Injure the concrete by pulling or pounding, hooks and eyelets on two sides
would be the most simple and easiest
made.
In  36 or 48    hours after    walls and
Continued on page 4.