VOL. LXV
INDIANAPOLIS, NOV. 5, 1910.
NO. 45
Written for the Indiana Farmer:
THK   FUTURE    OF      AGRICUI/Tl Ki:
By J. II. Haynes.
I
A gentleman said to us: "Fifty
years hence our systems of agriculture
will be as obsolete as are the methods
used fifty years ago. Science and our
agricultural schools are revolutionizing the methods. Just see the meth-
aials used in our selection of seed corn,
etc"
We made no response of "yes" or
"uo" to his observations but we did do
a little thinking.
First as to the methods of 50 years
ago, we plowed then just as we do now
—just as deep and just as well. We
cultivated the same way—-kept down
weeks with perhaps a little more hard
labor. Wi- harvested more wheat and
gathered more eorn to the aere than
we do now. The same ratio in production was found in all our products,
even though agricultural schools did
not aid us, and science has since improved machinery. Wbat aliout our agricultural schools? What are they
teaching? Agriculture'.' No Wel aster de-
lines agriculture as "that species of
cultivation whicli i.s intended to raise
grain and other tielal crops for man and
beast."
They are teaching methods of raising stock, fancy and otherwise; that's
not  "agriculture."
They are teaching the combatting of
diseases in stock; neither is that "agriculture."
They are teaching dairy methods
and poultry tactics; neither of which
is "agriculture."
The very essential things they should
teach, they do not teach, and that is
the study of the character and condition of our soils and the adapting of
those soils to certain crops. What good
does their teachings do if we are constantly losing productive power in our
soils and having added to our list of
worn out soils many other thousand
acres every year? With less productive power comes less feeding material and consequent higher prices, because of the inability to put on the
market the animals that give our meat
supplies. Confronted as we are with
these conditions why do not our
schools teach the remedy to lift us out
uf danger.
The Kgyptians, 4,000 years ago,
practiced what we would term a crude
tystem of agriculture. Yet they fed
their millions with ease. There was
not apparently much science in their
simple modes of planting, cultivating
ani harvesting, perhaps they learned
the secrets of soil fertility and how
to keep it, lessons we stand in need of
learning so badly today. The trouble
with our agricultural methods is they
are a sort of commercial robbery for
"revenue only," in taking from our
Ian Is all they will yield without paying
anything back.
How aliout the "seed corn" problem?
V.'e. oil larmers. 50 years asn went into the fields before heavy frosts came
and selected our seed eorn showing
early ripening and other good qualities,
and having gathered it we would hang
it up on the joists over our rude cabin
floors, or in the lofts or garrets above
our sitting rooms, and let the smoke
brown and fertilize the grain
through   the   winter   days   and   nights.
The next season when that seed corn
was planted the young blade showed
great vitality, and the product of that
seed corn ran from 75 to 100 bushels
per acre.
But it seems the "practice" became
obsolete, and now we have "schools"
teaching "seed corn" selection. What
do  "ye old  farmers"  think of that?
farms to the cities not only by the
greater attractions of town life but by
better pay received there even by unskilled labor. Investigation, however, would hardly seem to bear thi^
out, as the following figures will show.
They are furnished by a business man
of Indianapolis who is also a farmer,
and  who has constantly ln  his  employ-
On   the   Indiana   Union  Traction   Lines.
at  least   $50   per   month   to   equal   $30
with   the  advantages  above   mentioned.
O. S. C.
Passenger and Freigh t Station at  Kokomo.
Good seed corn is all right, but good
seed corn badly planted in uncongenial soil is a poor investment. Over
about Kokomo the farmer plants good
seed corn in alkali soils. In Carroll
county numbers of worn out clay land
farms still try to produce from 20 to
30 bushels of corn per acre.
Something to learn here. What
about 50 years hence? Simply this: If
present methods of soil robbery continue our fields will be as unproductive as are the hills and valleys of old
Xew England, where corn and wheat
proaluetions have become obsolete.
Every day we see loads of baled straw-
en route to the strawboard mill. Those
farmers who furnish this straw are
"soil robbers." Maybe necessarily so,
but more probably not.
COUNTRY   VERSUS   CITY   IiABOR.
Editors  Indiana Parmer:
The tide that has been setting from
the country to the cities for some
years show little signs of abating
yet. but as the population becomes
more and more congested in the great
centers over the country, and the
prices of food stuffs soar higher and
higher, the limit must sometime be
reached and the pendulum swing the
other way. The opinion seems to prevail   that   men   are   drawn   from   the
both farm and factory hands. In his
factory the unskilled labor receive
from fifteen to seventeen and one-half
cents an hour, or from $33 to $38.50
for four weeks of fifty-five hours each;
and this may be taken as the usual
wage in the Indianapolis factories and
shops for workmen of this elass. It
should be added that holidays are deducted from this.
On his farm this employer pays $30
per month for the services of a man
and his wife, the latter being expected
to attend to the butter-making from
four cows. She is also afforded the
chance of extra work at extra pay if
she desires it. Besides the wages they
are allowed free milk and a pound of
butter each week, house rent, firewood
and garden stuff from the general
garden. How much these items reduce
the necessary cost of living may be
judged when it is said that my informant's last man, out of the $3G0 received during the year just past put
$200 in bank. How many men In the
city at a wage of $1.75 per day can at
the end of a twelve-month make that
much of a showing? With house-rent
at, say $10 a month and every item of
food to buy at present prices, to say
nothing of sundry extravagances whieh
almost inevitably accompany life in
the eity. wages there would have to be
FARMIXG   IX  EUROPE.
The friend from whose personal letter we quoted some notes of her European tour in the Farmer of August
27, sends us an interesting account of
farming as she saw it from the car
windows through France and Germany.       We quote: <
I was pleased to see as we eame into
France a few labor-saving machines in
the fields. In Germany and Switzerland no such thing did we see, but
men and equally as many women
working in the broiling sun, while little-
groups of children—from babies up—
were waiting about until work was
done. No one at home evidently to
take care of them so they had to go
to the  fields.
In France it is not uncommon to see
women working, but not nearly as
many, but we saw none of the "cut
and bind" kind. France is a vast field
of grain, outside the cities. We rode
from Paris to Chartres yesterday (50
miles or more) to see a great cathedral
and the "fields were white to the harvest" all along the way, and work going on. The country is almost perfectly level and the highways straight
and level, a paradise for automobilists.
Along the side of the road were heaps
of small stones and earth, all ready for
use at short notice if roads need repair. Never saw such good roads on
the stretch for miles. We could see
ahead ten miles of level and excellent
road. Of course the scenery was monotonous, but I love to see cultivated
,fields all in such regular shapes, although not a fence anywhere. The
country is too dry and oats were small.
We saw mountains in Switzerland,
grand, grand! No words of mine can
describe Switzerland, but the people
outside the towns and cities, work so
hard to sustain life on the steep mountain sides! The women looked as if
life was a sorry matter to them; so
thin, gaunt, ill-dressed, old before their
time. But we saw no untidy, ill-kept
or deserted homes. They are cleanly-
good sort of people although dpsper-
ately poor. The little clusters of
houses way up on the sides of the
mountains, away from everything, it
was pathetic to think of the lives spent
there. Only occasionally could they
come down to church or to meet their
kind. Now and then in the midst of
a village a church spire was seen. But
I never can begin to tell anything
about Switzerland. Such wonderful
engineering displayed in the building
of railroads, bridges, tunnels, etc.
Nothing seems too hard for man to
undertake in these days.
In his excellent book on alfalfa F. D.
Coburn says that fed alfalfa in reasonable rations of from ten to twenty
pounds a day, livery horses may be
kept in vigorous thrift with a small
additional quantity of grain, and thus
a saving be made of twenty to thirty
per cent in cost of maintenance. In
the alfalfa districts there may be found
many liverymen wh'o. having hail experience with alfalfa hay, feed their
horses little of anything else. In the
last few years there has been a growing demand for alfalfa hay for southern towns and cities.