VOL. LXV
INDIANAPOLIS, MAY 7, 1910.
NO. 19
CUT UP THE BIG FARMS.
Edit*!* Indiana Farmer;
There are thousands of farms ranging from 160 to 500 acres, the owners
of which are land poor ;buildings dilapidated and fences going into decay,
for the want of care. Now, if such
places as these were divided into small
tracts, say forty acres each and sold
on the installment plan, with a reasonable rate of interest, it would not only
be more profitable to the land owner,
but would provide a home for the people of our cities and towns that are
looking for just such opportunities.
Also making the country throughout
more thrifty. It has always been a
puzzle to me, why people owning large
tracts of land will hold them while
each year they are becoming more and
more run down. I had occasion to
take a drive through ono of the counties of Indiana where the lack of good
fencing and good buildings met me on
all sides; this land too was on good
pike roads accessible to railroads and
having telephone and rural routes. The
land was in large tracts, being no dividing fences and grown up in weeds,
briers and underbrush. What does
it profit to hold land and pay taxes on
mmething that the owners can not or
will not keep up. If lands such as
these were laid off and sold In small
tracts, the wilderness would soon blos-
Eom like tlic rose. Thereby giving opportunity lo the struggling mass of humanity that are just now trying to
cope with this momentous question of
how to  make a  living. It is  to  be
hoped that these few lines may attract
some one that is in position to help in
this matter and will do what he can toward it. Anna W. Dillman.
Monroe Co.
A QUESTION OP BREAD.
Edltora Indiana Farmer:
I have just read Dr. Hurty's article
on butter in your issue of the 16th, also
have read what he says in . another
number that there is not a farmers'
wife who can or does bake bread fit to
cat. I want to ask the learned gentleman how much the creamery men gave
him for his scientific article on butter,
and if the butter germ producers are
paying him to advertise their germs?
Also what the National Biscuit Company gives him to denounce all bread
but theirs, and to advocate cold bread
only—the only kind that the Bakers'
Association can get to the people; also
if the State Board of Education has in
contemplation the passing of a law to
establish a baking school in order to
make place for a few more men of the
Hurty sort?
It has come to pass now that all the
use parents have of their children is to
clothe and feed them, and turn them
over to others to teach from the time
they arc six to twenty-one, and of
course they are expected, yes forced, to
keep them in school and support the
book combine and the various other Institutions of learning, that have all
their salaries made by law.
Now, don't take it that I oppose education; I do not, but I do opopse raising
children to be pale and puny from long
days of confinemer'. between the walls
of the school room. I know that If
the teachers and pupils were to attend
a 6 months' school and learn the practicable education and    let the non-es
sentials off, both would be benefited.
There is much time taken in cutting
paper, drawing, singing, etc., that can
be learned at home in the open air;
that ought to be dispensed with; one-
half of the time is taken up with such
nonsense, while nine-tenths of the
graduates could see their own lot or
farm advertised for sale and the proper
numbers given, and they would not
know  that  it  was  theirs. I  believe
in a practicable education to be given
in the shortest time. A. C. D.
Kokomo.
—As to Dr. Hurty, we will answer for
him. Your questions do not apply. He
is not under pay of the concerns    you
CONSERVATION OP A COMMUNITY.
By Warren H. Wilson, Ph. D.
The farmers of Rock Creek, Ilinois,
found that the retirement of farmers
from their farms, for residence in the
towns, was destroying the social and
religious life of the community. They
took counsel to devise measures, by
which to save the community.
Their first proposal was a farmers'
union or a syndicate which would rent
the land offered by retired farmers, and
sublet it to desirable tenants, whose
presence in the community would not
be  a  detriment.      But  this  plan   soon
Farm Home of Jos. Kin der, Switzerland County.
name, nor any other. He is paid by
the State only, and is working conscientiously, earnestly and ably for the
welfare of our people. We regret,
however, that he has met with such
poor bread at the country homes where
he has stopped. His charge is too
sweeping. It would be very easy to
show him finer bread and biscuits on
the tables of farm homes than he eats
at his own home, if he buys of the bakeries. - The doctor means well but he
is mistaken, if he thinks our farmers'
wives cannot make good bread, and
many of them have learned to make
prime butter. Let him test the samples at our next State fair, or at the
county fairs.
TUBERCUIiOSIS IN INDIANA.
Dr. J. N. Hurty, secretary of the
State Board of Health, in a recent address stated that Indiana, while productive of more cases of tuberculosis
than most other states of the Union, is
making no united effort to fight the
disease, while Massachusetts, Illinois,
Michigan, Missouri, New York, Pennsylvania and almost all other states
have sanitariums for tuberculosis patients and laws which will prevent the
spreading of the disease.
He said the average death rate caused
by tuberculosis in the State is 4,471 a
year. Of this number 1,964 are male
and 2,328 female. Last year 826 mothers were claimed by the disease and
343 fathers died By the advance of
the disease during the year just past
2.340 orphans were added to the enrollment of the orphans homes of the
state. Statistics show that 3,849 Indiana homes were invaded by tuberculosis last year.
proved its weakness. The retiring
farmers were only too willing to put
their lands in the hands of the syndicate, and go to town or city; reassured
that while they were enjoying town
life, its good schools, its music, and lectures, for the retiring farmer is an intelligent, aspiring man,—that their
farms would be well rented.
. So the sons of the early settlers decided that they must go deeper. They
undertook to provide their community
with better schools. They erected a
building as good as one finds in town or
city, and they abandoned the old country schools, with their small districts
and poor teaching. They thus assembled about a hundred children in one
school company. They hired wagons
to carry them back and forth. They
employed good teachers, and put in
laboratories, work benches, sewing machines and ranges, for teaching manual training and domestic science. They
heated it well, and lighted with gas;
and in the third floor they had room
for a meeting-place for all the people
of the community. Out of doors they
have grounds for games, base ball, tennis and foot ball.
The result has been that the retirement from the farm has been stopped.
The place has come to be so desirable
as a place of residence that the rental
of land has gone up, and the average
tenant will not go there. Foreigners
are excluded, and the drifting element
of the population has ceased to be restless. Social life has been restored, and
the continuous life of the institutions
of the countryside has been assured.
This cannot be accomplished by mere
prosperity of the individual farmer, nor
by the increase of the general products
of the soil. Without the saving of
the community all other gains are only
partial. Even the saving of some souls
will do little good, unless they have a
home to live in, and that home a part
of a growing, intelligent community, in
which women shall be happy and children shall be contented to live all their
lives. The country community must
make itself the best place on earth, not
only to the man, who makes the
money, but to all members of the family, among whom the money will have
its greatest value.
EIGHT HOURS A DAY WONT DO.
Editors  Indiana  Farmer:
As to Joseph Nolting's, Linton, Ind.,
lengthy letter. Just think of eight hours
a day on the farm!
The farmer of this country to-day if
he had eight hours to do his work in
i-ouldn't even more than get his daily
chores done, let alone any of his farm
work. It is very easy for some people
to write and tell others how to do, but
let them come out into the hay field
and see if they don't get buncoed in the
proper way. When you are working
on the farm you are not in factories or
autos riding.
Joseph says if you in the city gat
hungry como to the country. Most of
the city people that come to the country get a blame sight more hungry than
in the city. They think the dolars
ami dimes just pop up out of the
ground into their pockets. They think
they have got a snap, but when they
get to the end of the rein it happens to
be a buckle. Whenever the farmer
can do all his farming on the eight
hour system he will know of a different
gart to take after the season is over.
Also the farmer can't work every day
like the factoryman. They have bad
weather to be bothered with.
Orleans, Ind. D. Thomas.
 . ♦ .	
A PAYING  CROP.
Editors Indiana Farmer:
To any who may bo interested and
especially to new beginners in the crop
of broom corn and especially of the
crop of the past year has been a very
paying one. My crop made me from $65
to $85 for brush alone per acre, selling
at $200 per ton, as soon as ready for
market, grown on ordinary good average corn ground, no fertilizer. Of
course this means for brush alone; the
average about $65. The seed from
crooked, kinky and faulty brush was
separated by separating brush before
threshed first and spread on floor for
drying, giving plenty of ventilation; the
cull bush taken to another place threshed, and fed whole to chickens, or
ground for stock with other feed; seed
almost paying for harvesting even at
feeding prices. Seed sells at $7.50 for
a hundred pounds for carefully hand
selected, and $5 per hundred for cylinder threshed, and cull brush thrown
out. Can not the farmer do well raising a crop like this, even should the
price be reduced quite a bit? It will
surely take a large crop to overstock
the market for the coming year. I
won lst on seed rt Indiana Sta <* Pair,
1908 and 1909, also one first, two seconds and one third on brush at same
fair and offer seed for sale for the first
time. While early in the season the
crop needs careful attention, later it is
easier tended than field corn and
brought a much larger price last year.
Muncie, Ind. C. S.