Gardeh
VOL. LXV
INDIANAPOLIS, MAY 21, 1910.
NO. 21
Written for the Indiana Farmer:
ON THE ROAD.
By J. H. Haynes.
At home one sees but Uttle of what
is going on in the world. We read but
we forget. On the road, if we are
wide awake, much can be seen and seeing leaves imprints not easily erased from the mind.
To cure ourself of a spell of the
"blues," caused by the "young winter"
that played h voc with the fruit, we
spent a few days in a trip northward.
The lessons we learned were many.
Much is yet to be accomplished in the
agricultural world before success will
crown our efforts, to induce Mother
Earth to yield bounteous harvests. We
were astonished at the following existing conditions over the sections we
traveled.
lst. The vast amount of uncultivated land over all northern Indiana, most
of it covered with wild grasses and
scrub forests.
2d. The scarcity of farm homes,—
few houses to be seen and these
seemingly miles apart; more especially
the absence of good barns wa3 notic-
able, stables and sheds answering the
purpose. School houses and churches
in the rural sections are few in number, due we suppose to the very scattered population.
3d. The absence of stock on these
vast prairie ranges; but few cattle and
no sheep nor hogs were noticed. We
do not doubt but that in days prior to
settlement more animals lived oft these
lands than do now.
4th. The many miles of swampy
marsh land unfit as it now is for any
agricultural purpose. All of which
could be rendered fertile and productive and be a source of health and
wealth to the state.
5th. The great shortage of wheat
acreage and the poor condition of what
was seen. It is certain that a good
yield can not be had from it. The
very small area of plowed land, for
spring crops was also noticeable, probably due to the wet condition of the
soil.
6th. The absence of orchards or
fruit gardens was strange to us. It
seems that in this age of the world men
will neglect such opportunities to benefit themselves, their families and humanity by planting the fruits so generously  provided   by  the  Creator.
On enquiry we learned that a great
part of this waste unfilled land was
held in vast estates by individuals for
speculative purposes, as much as 30,-
000 acres being owned by a single person. From these lessons we believe
the key can be forged that would solve
the mystery as to how to relieve our
cities of a part of their congestion of
humanity. As things now are this
herding of our people in these cities
places them in a sad condition and unfits them for usefulness or happiness.
Their environments are such as to forbid them the comforts of life—which
we will fully show in a future article.
If scattered over these waste lands and
given opportunities they might become
a power for good to the State.
Mr. J. H. Haynes, Carroll Co., says
that Delphi is to have a button factory
to employ 76 to 100 men. The pearl
for the buttons will be taken from the
Wabash river and Tippecanoe rivers.
CAPILLARITY ILLUSTRATED.
The principle can be studied by the
inquirer at home if he desires to do so.
Get some cakes of loaf sugar and dip
one end of these cakes in water. You
will see the moisture immediately go
up through the cake of sugar clear to
the top. Moisture is continually coming up through the soil in the same
way. If the soil is allowed to become
compact clear to the surface the sun
and wind lick this moisture up very
rapidly, particularly in the higher altitudes.
Holding this cake of sugar in the
moisture lay another cake on top of it.
You will find that very, very little mois-
crops in any country, any year. With
a soil and subsoil such as I have referred to there is scarcely any country
but that has moisture enough to produce a profitable crop of the grains
that are adapted to the conditions
existing ln that particular locality. '
Now taking another cake of sugar
and placing some pulverized sugar on
top of it, and holding the lower edge
of the cake in the moisture, you will
observe that the water passes up
through the cake readily, but hesitates and passes into the pulverized
sugar very slowly. This is because the
particles of pulverized sugar are broken   apart     sufficiently     that    moisture
Farm Home of Frederick   Feitig,  Shelby  County.
ture will pass into the upper cake, and
unless they fit very closely together
there will, practically, no moisture enter the upper cake. This is because of
the small space between the two cakes
of sugar. If they were one solid cake
it would go clear to the top of the entire block, even though it were a foot
high.
When you plow your land you leave
between the furrow slice that you
turn over, and the subsoil below, more
space than there is between these two
cakes of sugar. Then you plant your
seed in the loose land that you turned
over with the plow. Consequently,
there is no moisture coming up to the
seed, and you have to wait for rain,
even though there is plenty of moisture
below the furrow slice that you turned
over. By disking before you plow and
then turning the fine soil down underneath, and again disking and dragging
on top you help make, and very largely
make this union between these two
soils. The sub-surface packer is probably the best tool known for that purpose. The principle upon which it
works has been demonstrated on every
farm in Illinois. After finishing seeding and dragging a field, no doubt the
inquirer h-.s seen a wagon driven
across the freshly dragged land, and if
the season were a little dry has noticed that the grain came up first in the
wagon track. That is simply because
the pressure of the wheels joined the
fresh soil to the undisturbed soil so that
moisture came up into the furrow slice
to the seed. It is this moisture that
comes from below that we depend upon
most largely for the production of our
moves from one particle to the other
very slowly. It will in time get up
through the pulverized sugar, but it
will take considerable time to do so.
While this moisture is held under the
pulverized sugar, there will not be any
evaporation from the surface. If granulated sugar is used instead of pulverized the moisture will come up through
much more rapidly, because the particles of granulated sugar are angular
and fit more closely together. In the
case of some sandy soils, it is 'found
that they become compact clear to the
surface much more quickly after cultivation than loam soils, because of this
same fact, and their greater weight.—
A. E. Chamberlain, in Dry Farming
Bulletin.
THE HYDRAULIC   RAM.
Editors  Indiana  Farmer:
There seems to be a great deal of
prejudice or contempt directed against
one of the simplest yet most effective
little machines known to man, namely
the hydraulic ram. Therefore I am
moved to speak in its defence.
A little over a year ago I built a
house on my farm some distance from
where the old one stood, and of course
one of the first things to provide was a
water supply. I had a fine spring
about forty rods from the house and
I determined to install a ram at the
spring to force the water to the house.
I had never seen one of these little machines and I therefore asked the opinion of some of my older neighbors. My
spring is about 60 feet lower than the
house and some did not think a ram
would lift water that high.   Others had
seen them tried and were convinced
that they were not a success, while ons
man declared that he "wouldn't have
one of the doggoned things" on his
farm. Not meeting with much assurance of success in" this quarter I sought
more expert advice, with the result that
I purchased and installed a number 2
ram. It ls a small thing—can be
packed in an ordinary suitcase, and
does not weigh over 25 lbs., but it surely does the work. I placed a five-barrel tank in my attic, and it will pump
'hat tank full in about two hours. That
means 60 barrels of water every 24
hours. More than most large farms
would use. The total cost of the ram
\. ith sufficient galvanized piping was
about $40. The labor of Installing it
amounted to about $15, leaving the
total cost much below that of a well.
It has now been runlng about thirteen
months and has not cost one cent for
repairs and I have not spent as much
as an hour altogether to keep it going.
It. seldom ever stops, only when a piece
of a twig or something solid gets under
the valve, and then only a fraction of
a minute is required to set it going
again. Of course all are not so situated that they could install one of these
machines, but I know there are hundreds of farmers in the state of Indiana who could install one. To such
I want to say that the hydraulic ram is
just as far ahead of the wind pump or
gasoline engine, as these are ahead of
the  "old oaken  bucket."
A man not far from where I llvo,
built a new house within 200 feet of a
fine spring and instead of installing one
of these machines, which in his case
would not have cost over $25, he drilled
a well and put in a pump, the two costing about $100, besides the drudgery of
pumping all his water by hand. Another family have carried their water
in pails up a steep hill 50 feet high
ever since I have lived in this neighborhood. Their water which they could
have for nothing—a ram would pay for
itself here in a few months—costs
them almost as much as their clothing.
A small ram will run on a flow as
low as one gallon per minute and will
furnish a surprising amount of water.
The larger ones require a stronger flow
to operate them; but will raise water
to a great height and force it almost
any distance that may be required. If
you have a spring within a mile of your
home, do not hesitate to install a ram,
as it will be the best investment you
could make. H. Buzbee.
Grant Co.
WHAT ONE MORE    EAR OF    CORN
WOULD DO.
Prof. P. G. Holden, of Iowa, shows
what benefit to his State just one more
ear of corn to each hill on every corn
fleld  would  be.       He  says:
"If one more little ear of corn to
each hill were added It would mean a
half million dollars more for every one
of the ninety-nine counties of the
state. Ten bushels more of corn to
each acre planted would make $50,-
000,000 more to be added to the total
of Iowa's wealth each year. Our present average yield for Iowa is only 35
bushels to  the acre. The cause for
this poor yield is barren seed corn, and
the remedy is the testing of every ear
to be planted and the selection of the
best seed corn for planting."