VOL. LXV
INDIANAPOLIS, FEBRUARY 19, 1910.
NO. 8
Written  tor the Indiana Farmer:
TAXATION.
J. H. Haynes.
On this subject an able editor of one
of our farm journals wrote me saying:
"There is something radically wrong
with the system that makes men so willing to violate the moral code of honesty and truth, and if we can find
anything that will give everybody a
square deal without advantage to those
who have wealth I am sure the taxes
would  be wonderfully reduced."
The plea coming from New York,
Ohio and Iowa is to be relieved from
this burden of taxation. From this it
would seem that the Octopus with
headquarters in  our state —
is  reaching   out   its   arms
to neighboring states.
Our State Statistician, I..
L. Peetz, has conferred a
great boon on the people
of Indiana, especially the
farmer in issuing the Tax
Payers' Bulletin for 1909.
We have contended all
along for years that some
suah general information
should be given. Now the
way is open, and we trust
our efficient official may
continue the good work
adding a few more items
to it. Every farmer in the
State should have a
copy.
We wish to notice a few
facts derived from this
Bulletin in the hope that
it will set somebody
thinking: We find that
the total annual tax of Indiana is
thirty-five million dollars. This sum is
equal to $12 per capita for every man,
woman and child in the State. Also
that there is a mortgage exemption of
$52,000,000, which means that the mortgaged indebtedness of the state is over
150 million dollars because the exemption law limits the amount to about
one-third the total, judging from this
county's report. The limit we believe
is $700—on any mortgage. This means
that somebody is paying taxes on over
one hundred million dollar mortgage
indebtedness in the State. Who can
this be but land owners?
From this bulletin we learn something startling about the road taxes.
Taking our county for an example we
see that Carroll county pays (for all
road taxes) the sum of $84,000 in the
year 1909, and yet a great number of
our roads have been macadamized for
years. If all other counties are in a
'ike situation one can see the enormity
of the wrong somewhere. (We suppose this news will make the "autoist"
smile.)
Along with this bulletin news we
wish to couple the annual report of
our auditor for the fiscal year beginning January lst, 1910, and we presume every county auditor in the state
'ssues the same kind of a report. It
shows that on the lst of January, 1910,
'here is a balance in our county treasury, after all the indebtedness was set-
u«> in full of $171,fi22.
Taking our county as an average, we
flnd that about 17 million dollars of
orplus is carried over from year to
^ar- What for? Who will answer?
trustees in this county carry over
from year to year some $40,000 surplus
funds.      What for?
Is it any wonder we call the system
an octopus and that neighboring States
are fearing its deadly touch? To use
the language of one writer in New
York the whole system is a "legal holdup" of taxpayers.
But now comes the serious or seriocomic part of our story. The country is being flooded with Single Tax
Circulars. Wonder if our auto friends
are doing this. If not, who is? Certainly not land owners.
Taxation has become such a burden
that to get rid of their part of it some
people wish to throw the whole burden
on the land. Under existing conditions
it is the hight of folly to talk single tax.
and machinery to the farmers at a
profit, and whether or not it was an exorbitant profit? Do you not think from
the dividends paid and from
the increase in capital stock that their
profits have been equally as great as
that received by the farmer at the present time?
Now, fellow farmers, is the time for
you to get busy. Get together while
the weather is bad and talk these matters over. Meet at the schoolhouses,
organize and stand together for one
year. If those people can abstain
from eating for a period of sixty or
seventy days, put them on half rations
for a whole year. Make arrangements
to cut your crops short and put in your
spare time to the repair and improve-
Written for the Indiana Farmer:
SOIL EXHAUSTION.
By E. J. Chansler.
Students Judging Cattle, Purdue University.
Before such a thing could be done the
whole ground work of the nation must
be changed, as they admit. To attempt
such a thing would be to reduce the
farming class be they tenant or owner
to a worse vassalage than the Helots
were subject to under Spartan rule.
Imagine collecting 35 million dollars
in taxes off the farms and other lands
of the State, a sum equal to the value
of 350,000 acres, at $100 per acre, sacrificed each year to this octopus.
Carroll Co.
 .   ♦   ai
A  QUESTION FOR THE FARMER.
Editors  Indiana Farmer:
Mr. Farmer: Sit. up and look at
what has happened you! You are
boycotted! What on? Your hogs, your
cattle, your butter and your eggs. Who
by? By the Government's Grandpapa,
the millionaire; by the government itself; by the press; by the cities; by the
unions; and I dare say by the churches
and  the  ministers!
Who of you ever knew of the farmers attempting to boycott the above
classes when they (the farmer) was receiving only 45c or SOc for wheat, 2%c
or 3c for hogs, 2c to 4c for cattle, 8c to
10c for butter, and from 8 c to 10c for
eggs, all of which prices were below the
cost of production from one-third to
one-half?
Furthermore, who of you ever heard
of the President asking Congress to
investigate "what was the matter with
the people that they didn't eat more
and make prices better for the farmers?" Who of you ever knew of a
Federal judge instructing a Federal
grand jury to investigate the manufactories to see why they sold  fertilizers
ment of your farm. Give your farm a
much needed rest from cultivation and
you will be benefited by it. Arrange to
use the machinery you now have or
swap work with your neighbor for such
as you haven't got and this will give
those manufacturers and union men a
rest and time to attend the ball parks,
theaters and other places of amusement without going on Sunday. Then
listen and hear what the next cry will
be. I may as well tell you in advance; "Government Control" or "Get
down and work, twelve or fourteen
hours per day," as you have done heretofore; for the only profit the farmer
ever made was by working over-hours.
May I have your views?
Paoli, Ind. J. T. Poison.
USES THE   SULKY RIDING   CULTIVATOR.
I checked 20 acres of clover sod last
spring, that I had fed hogs on the year
before, broke with three-horse sulky,
disked twice, harrowed twice and
planted three grains to hill, three feet
six inches, both ways, cultivated four
times with sulky riding cultivator,
gathered and weighed every load, at
75 pounds to the bushel. Results: 90%
bushels per acre, or for the 20 acres,
1,810  bushels. I have used  nothing
but riding cultivators for the last 12"
years, and can do a better job with a
rider, and feel more like doing up the
evening chores than after walking all
day. Any of the sulky cultivators of
today are good, and will do just as
good work or better than the walkers.
J. C. Whitehead.
West Point, Ind.
Doubtless the belt of land of which
Indiana is a part, everything considered, is one of the grandest on the globe.
It is admirably situated, is well watered and has a fine climate. Its soil is
largely the result of the glacial action
of past ages, which has accumulated
vegetable and animal fertilizers, thru
time  immemorial.
We have a great diversity of soil
composed of river bottom, prairies and
uplands, and it would be difficult to
find another section so well adapted to
the different cereals, grasses, legumes,
— fruits, vegetables and
stock raising as Indiana.
Now at the noonday of
life, as I remember the
genial soil of my boyhood,
as I observe too many of
the wornout hillsides and
other depleted soils of
this country, I can not
help but look with a sigh,
and ask: What is the
trouble?
All about us we hear
the same old story, that
the climate has changed,
that we can not raise
wheat as we used to, that
clover and timothy do not
do well now.
The climate changed.
Bosh! That the clearing
of the forests and drainage    of    our    land    have
        altered the climate some-
== what I will not attempt to
deny, but I do not think this has much
to do with this crop production.
The fact is this: Our original soil
was very fertile, we grew large crops of
waving grain; corn, wheat and grass
did well everywhere. All you had to
do was to sow clover, scratch the land,
and haul in the loads of golden grain.
But what now? Alas, we danced,
and now we have to pay the fiddler.
We failed to realize that in moving this
vast amount of grain, large quantities
of phosphorus, nitrogen and potash
have been removed from our soil, and
the bulk of this went to *he cities, and
foreign countries. And this was not
enough. Oftentimes our nights were
illuminated with lights from the burning straw piles. And our slipshod
methods of feeding stock, and handling
the manure of the past, ofttimes caused
the streams to run red to the Gulf of
Mexico, with this farm treasure. So,
often stock was fed in pens, lanes, on
hillsides and by the streams that the
fertilizers were virtually  lost.
Farmers as a rule are attempting to
run too much land. Hence the result:
Intensive farming will be the theme of
the future. It will be the amount of
bushels and dollars, then instead of
acres. Our State boasts the past season of forty bushels of corn per acre
average. Forty bushels per acre? And
this the great corn prize State? Well
the day will come when it will grow
eighty bushels per acre. It will have
to, to feed the teeming millions of the
future.
England and France grow anually
thirty-flve bushels of wheat per acre,
and that too on land originally likely
not as fertile as ours, and it has been