VOL. LXV
^ INDIANAPOLIS, OCT. 29, 1910.
NO. 44
INSTITUTES,   1910-11.
Editors   Indiana   Farmer:
The season for institutes is nearing.
These are of great benent to the farmer
if the discussions are of a practical
turn. Theories may be all right but
experiences are better teachers.
Too much is taught along certain
lines and too little in others. Train
lectures on methods of growing wheat
and methods of saving good seed corn,
etc., are all right, but there are things
of far more importance before the
farm world as we shall show.
The wheat crop of 1910 is threshed
and we think 75 per cent of it is sold
and out of the reach of the farmer. We
base this assertion on the fact that
fully 75 per cent was hauled direct to
elevators from the field, and no storage is allowed by elevator companies.
J. J. Hill (good authority) says:
"Seventy per cent of the cost of living
is transportation." What doea that
mean? That 70 per cent of the money
paid by the consumer for the farm
products, wheat, corn and meats goes
to the transporting companies and the
other 30 per cent to the farmer and the
middlemen. Of what avail is it to tell
us how to grow more wheat, more corn
or p rk when '. 0 per cent of it is taken
as Hill  says.
Better far tell us how to save a part
of that 70 per cent and let the farmer
and consumer profit by it. The charge
is made that the press is paid for suppressing existing conditions and made
rich for lying about crops. The writer
making that statement, does not include the farm press in this work. If
this charge is true why not discuss it
in the  institute.
The news is heralded far and wide that
we are to have a "bumper" corn crop
of over three billion bushels and this
statement is made at a time several
weeks distant from the assurance of
no corn crop at all, considering the
general drouth and approaching cold
weather.
Any intelligent reader knows better
and knows why these deceptions are
made. Laet the institutes talk over
these matters.
An Eastern farm paper puts the
query: "Why is there such an unrest
among the people?"
If there is dissatisfaction and unrest
there is a cause. Why not discuss that
topic?
As institutes are now conducted it
seems as if the farmer is an intruder
if by speech or action he does not agree
with what is taught.
In early school institutes the teachers of the township did the work. They
were not all equally gifted but they all
had experiences and what one knew he
told and we profited by it. But in
these latter days the teachers are supposed to be incapable of such work and
Prof. Stubbs is brought in to theorize
on this or that topic while the teacher
sits by and absorbs what he can. This
t" the fault with the farmers institutes.
Every locality has its issues that
might well be discussed. Roads,
schools, taxes, grafts, fruits and many
other kindred subjects of vital interest
to the  farming community.
Last year we heard an interesting
talk on "How a worn out farm was restored to fertility." But now, "How to
stop wearing them out and still make
both ends meet in farming them,"
would   be   more   appropriate   for   dis
cussion.
A Michigan man said to us the other
day: "If the farmers of Michigan
pursued farm methods as Indiana
farmers do they would starve. The
wasteful destruction of farm fertility
in your state is fearful." And he is
right. Think of farming our upland
washed clay lands year after year in
corn and getting only 15 to 25 bushels
per acre. Here is a fit subject for institute talk.
Another topic might be of value. We
have passed through eight months of
the year that has been one of strange
and abnormal weather conditions, but
the  remaining  four     months     will   be
tilizers that would make plants grow.
Yet they have found nothing that
equals common manure. This is nature's fertilizer. Plants respond to it
in the tropics and as far north as they
grow. By using it intelligently the
fertile soils of North Dakota Or of Illinois can be made to bring forth crops
that will yield almost twice, what
could be secured without it
It should be taken right from the
barn to the field. In some cases when
it contains a good deal of weed seed it
may be advisable to let it lie in a heap
for awhile. It has been found at the
North Dakota Agricultural College that
the  best  place  to  apply  it  is  on  pas-
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Homestead Stock Farm, T. H.  Little, Prop., Hendricks Co.
more perplexing than the former. An
nual rainfalls average year by year the
same. In the past eight months we
have had less than one-third the usual
amount and the remaining two-thirds
must come in the next four, or break
the records.
Let institutes inquire into these
cycles of drouths and floods and other
adverse  weather  conditions.
The Department at Washington has
issued a bulletin to farmers saying: "It
will be well for farmers to use great
caution and wise planning to head off
these disastrous cycles of weather conditions," through which we pass so
frequently. Now the government is
surely not "cranky" on these matters.
Institutes can well afford to look into
these troubles. The year 1911 will be
an ideal year to study these phenomena and profit thereby. Reader make
a note of this assertion.
The basis of a nation's prosperity lies
in its successful agriculture. Cripple
that industry in any way and all others
suffer.
Today business of all classes is holding back for flnal reports as to the
corn yield. If it is normal great advance in business lines will follow. If
it proves otherwise all enterprises will
be at a loss. Give the farmer a word
in the institute work that a more general understanding of things may be
had and then if there is time for theorizing on new fangled methods It can
be done. J. H. Haynes.
MANURE  AS   A   FERTILIZER.
Editors Indiana Parmer:
The  investigators  since  the  growing
of crops began have searched for fer-
ture, grass land and on corn land.
When applied to a grain crop it sometimes causes too big a growth of straw.
This comes from the fact that
the element in manure that
causes straw growth is available
at once, while the elements that
r.ll the kernel and add stiffness to the
straw are made available slowly, so
that the manure does not furnish grain
crops a balanced food. It can be applied though, if it Is put on thin
enough.
Corn makes its growth during the
warm part of the summer when all
the elements of food in the manure are
made available. In the case of clover or grasses it is the stalks that are
wanted, so this kind of growth is an
advantage If anything. When applied
on corn and grass land the weed seed
has little chance to do any harm. Then
when the grain crop follows the corn
or grass or clover that has been manured it gets a balanced food, and
well filled heads is the result. It has
also been found that it is best not to
apply over ten tons per acre, and the
even scattering of it is very important.
W. C. Palmer.
N. D. Agr. College, Fargo.
ucts being  $43,000,  a large  portion  of
which was profit.
This farm also maintains forty head
of horses, three hundred head of cattle,
three hundred hogs and four hundred
sheep, and has something for sale
every working day in the year.
In the growing of the pineapple
Florida is fast coming to the front, last
year no less than five hundred thousand crates of this tropical fruit being
shipped from the Peninsula State.
Poultry-raising is another very profitable undertaking in Florida, although
it has never been carried on in any
way commensurate with its possibillt-
iea An Idea of the profits that this
industry holds forth to the thrifty can
be gained from the following instance:
An old German farmer recently emigrated to Florida, and recognizing, with
characteristic German foresight, the
great market for poultry that the city
of Jacksonville, as the gateway to the
state offered, settled on the outskirts of
that metropolis, and commenced to
raise poultry in a very moderate way
starting with eleven hens. Unlike
most of his neighbors he refused to
sell any of his eggs, setting them as
fast as they were laid. He had to
deny himself, at flrst, but today, with
some 2,5 00 fowls, he is netting over
eight dollars every working day in tho
year.
Near Jacksonville is being erected
the greatest poultry farm in the South,
its buildings and runs covering over
ten acres, and the plant itself being
thoroughly modern  and sanitary.
The equable climate of Florida and
the peculiar freedom of Florida fowls
from the ills that beset their kind in
other parts, the great market that the
tourist trade affords, and various other
factors all contribute to the success of
poulty-raising in the Peninsula state.—
National Magazine for November.
FLORIDA    FARMING.
In Marion county a farm of about
two thousand acres produced last season nine car loads of cattle and hogs,
twenty-five car loads of cabbages, nine
car loads of green peas, sixty car loads
of watermelons, forty car loads of
cantaloupes, three thousand bushels of
corn, two thousand bales of hay, and a
thousand dollars worth of velvet bean
-eed, the  gross receipts for said prod-
CANADIAN EXPERT TAaLKS.
After traveling all over the world,
Dairy and Food Inspector Percy Brook
Tustin, of Winnepeg, who visited
Washington last week to Inspect
American methods at the Aagricultural
Department, says that in no other institution in the world is there such efficient and thorough scientific investigation of food products as here in the
Nation's Capital.
"I believe the American Agricultural
Department to be the best that possibly can be created," he said. "Under
your experts, agriculture has been
most carefully studied and the degree
of development that has been reached
and the results accomplished are marvelous."
During the conversation a discussion
came up of the relative condition of
the farmers along the border between
Canada and the United States. "Your
American farmers are emigrating to
Canada In large numbers," said Mr.
Tustin. "Ninety-five per cent of those
who have come over have brought
money with them, have bought fertile
farms, and are growing wealthy. With
but few exceptions they have become
loyal subjects of the British crown. I
mean by that that they have renounced
their American citizenship, become
bona fide subjects, and are as loyal to
King George as any other class of people in the Dominion."