VOL. LXV
INDIANAPOLIS, APRIL 9, 1910.
NO. 15
THE YEOMANRY AS TO SUPPLY.
By Walter S. Smith.
Where is the supply to eome from?
Our boys and girls are more and more
attracted to the cities; the boys, to professions or some line of merchandise;
the girls to clerkships or office work.
City-grown boys will commonly not
succeed well on the farms, for two or
threS reasons. I. They have not the
vital strength of sinew and bone. 2.
They can not like the change to isolation and loneliness necessarily found in
the fields or forests. 3. They lack
the peculiar intelligence that is necessary in farm work. They would have
to learn the names of all the trees,
weeds vegetables and soils with which
the country grown boy unconsciously
grows up acquainted. The processes
required for overcoming all these difficulties are so trying and unfamiliar
that few eity boys could stay through
them.
So the future farmer will have to
grow up on the farm; and a change in
the tendency must in some way be
brought about.
I think, however, that the prospect is
a little better than it was before the day
nf rural delivery, of telephones and of
traction cars. It is one of the most
obvious of facts that country life is to
be preferred above city life. There is
better air, better food, better water,
and a better view of life in the country.
Sleep is better and exercise more
healthful; so farm-grown men are
larger and stronger than the city
grown. This  cannot  be  true   of  the
bodily growth without being also true
of the brain. The brain is but a part
of the physical body.
City-boys have always had the advantages at the point of scholastic opportunity; more days of sehool and
schools better graded. They may also visit copious libraries and hear good
lectures. But that distinction is fading out, and the day will arrive when
the full grown brain of the country
liny will receive ample culture. In
fact, it has for several years been easier for country boys to procure city advantages than for the city boy to take
on the intelligence required on the
farm. This may explain the fact that
most of our great men of the city are
country-bred.
Xow, what we really want is a plan
for holding our own boys on the farm
and so supplying the forces from within
the ranks. This will require some
planning and some real study on the
part of parents.
I think we misinterpret some of the
facts. We  have  an  idea     that     the
learned professions are affairs of the
City, and necessarily so. Our boys
Brow ambitious as they become educated}, and we encourage them to "aim
high" as we call it.
In the first place the professions are
not necessarily affairs of the city. There
ought to be good doctors and lawyer!
in country neighborhoods. And the
same is true of preaching and literature. Bethany College in AVest Virginia was built right In the woods; and
Mr. Campbell further isolated himself
hy building an eight-cornered study
room without windows, so that he
could do his writing undisturbed. The
hooks and    literary    works in    general
that he gave to the world will never
die.
The greatest American book is Ben
Hur; and Ben Hur was written under a
beech tree where General Wallace stationed himself to get away from the
world.
The country is admirably adapted to
intellectual activity, and it is a good
place to live.
Then it is a mistake to suppose men
with well trained minds must run to
the professions. Farming has come
to demand intellectual culture. There
is no one else situated more favorably
tion of crops and handling of the timber. Yet we see the same thing being repeated year after year, wliile
never a thought is given to the needs of
the land, but we go along in the same
old way, planting crop after crop of
the same kind upon the same ground,
and then put it on the market in grain
or hay, or what is almost ar bad some
sort of scrub stock. One of the biggest wastes that is practiced on the
farm is the feeding of good feed to
scrub stock. I mean the kind of
scrub stock that results from a big proportion  of  the  cross  breeding  that  is
Elmer   Strattan,   Hamilton   County,  and  his pure-bred  Scotch  Collies.
for the study of botany, geology, chemistry, natural philosophy or zoology
than the farmer. He is in direct contact with these themes of nature every
day; and, like Hugh Miller in the stone-
quarry, he may find books in running
brooks, sermons in stones, and good in
every thing. That is, let us stay on
the farm and be professional; or being
professional, let us stay  on the farm.
Instead of growing fewer, farmers
should grow more numerous. Estates
are divided as families increase in number, and as farms become more numerous, they are necessarily smaller. This
is a good thing. A little farm well
tended is more profitable than a large
one   half-neglected.
So without being intensely agricultural we can have a good living and enjoy intellectual matters at the same
time.
FARM WASTES.
Editors  Indiana  Farmer:
When we think of the many wastes
on the farm we do not wonder that so
many boys get discouraged and leave
the farm to go to the city to seek employment, and that many older men
complain of the adverse circumstances
and surroundings on the farm.
Think of the rich fertile soil of the
hill lands as it was in its crude state,
covered with good timber, a good portion of which was practically wasted,
While the farm stan,1s today unfenced,
and the buildings poor and small, while
the fertile soil is exhausted, leaving
clay pointy and old discarded fields in
its stead.
This  all  results  from  improper rota-
practiced today.
What would you think of a railroad
company using an engine that could
pull only twenty cars, when one better
constructed 'will pull thirty, with the
same amount of fuel and labor? You
would think as I do, that it was poor
management.
That is what a great many farmers
are  doing  today. The same  amount
of feed and care that is required to
produce a 1,000 pounds scrub steer
will produce a 1,300 pound well bred
beef steer. The same with the horse.
A $200 Percheron can be produced
with practically the same cost and care
as a $90 or $100 chunk, and so on down
the line.
Another great waste is caused by not
having the farm properly fenced, so as
to be able to use all the good pasture
that goes to waste during the summer
and   fall. It  wouKl   be  worth   many
times more if converted into beef, mutton,  milk  or  horse  flesh.
There are many farmers who are
compelled to begin feeding dry feed
early in the fall, when there is a large
amount of much bettor feed going to
waste, all for the want of fencing.
I have one farm in mind where the
man lost $100 worth of hog feed last
fall for the lack of one-half mile of
hog fence.
Another waste is caused by the neglect of properly housing the farm tools
and machinery. Think of the thous
ands of dollars worth of tools that are
allowed to go unhoused from year to
year. Not only do they rot and rust,
but when the time comes to use. them,
much   time   is   taken   to   get   them   in
working order. All this oan tie  r,,<=-
vented in a short time by housing and
oiling   them   after   use.
Another great waste is that of time
and opportunity. Many little things
could be done to make the farm what
it is, the most delightful home on
earth. The planting of small beds or
plots of berries, grapes and many
other things adapted to the climate,
setting out nice trees of all kinds, seeding the lawns, repairing the fences,
throwing some rocks or trash in a gully, swinging the gate that is down, and
many other little things that only require a short time.
There is enough waste on an ordinary
farm by poor management to keep a
small  family the whole year.
It is slow but sure, you will never
know how great It has been, or how
much it has hurt you, but it will pay
you   to   watch   it.
I am a farmer boy of southern Illinois (Egypt), and if there is any man
that reads this who is not guilty of
some of the wastes mentioned, he is
ahead of me. • P. W. Ballance.
NO DANGER OF STARVING.
The Department of Agriculture has
collected data showing that lass than
one-sixth of the area of the IJnited
States is actually under cultivation.
This will be good news to people who
were looking forward to the time when
this country could not grow enough to
feed its own people. And to help them
to sleep easy of nights over this matter,
let them consider that under more intensive culture production is being
greatly increased per acre, and that
this will go on rapidly from now on.
The increased price of food is sure to
advance increased production. The
agricultural experiment stations are
showing how this is done, and energetic
farmers are taking hold of these newer
and better methods and are actually
increasing production of corn ami other
food crops. So when we get the other
five-sixths of the land under cultivation and the better methods in "full
blast" we will be able to feed our increasing population and some other
parts of the world with a lavish hand.
THE NEWEST THING IS A CEMENT
ROLLER.
The Colorado Agricultural College
liked the Corrugated iron roller so well
that they wanted one among their tools,
but since it is quite expensive they devised a plan by which they made one
equally useful and durable out of cement. They claim that after using it
one season they scarcely find that it was
the worse from wear and tear, and
that it cost only one-third as much as
the iron roller.
They claim for the corrugated roller
that it leaves the ground In ridges instead of smooth, so the dirt does not
blow so badly and does not lose its
moisture by evaporation as readily as
the smooth roller that leaves the surface level. The corrugated roller also
crushes the clods better and does not
tend to mash them down into the seed
bed.
Our State Board of Agriculture is
expecting to make the largest Horse
Show next fall In the history of the
State Fair. It seems a little strange
that the people are so much interested
in horses, while automobiles are multiplying so rapidly.