VOL. LXVI
INDIANAPOLIS, JULY 15, 1911.
NO. 28
Written for Indiana Farmer:
fl |   AND    OUR PLANT    FRIKXDS.-
EARLY VISITORS.
By Mrs. Fred Nisewanger.
After our long weeka of winter,
spring finds us watching eagerly for
the first bit of green and the first
swelling buds that promise leaves and
flowers, yet there are many common
plants we have seen every year of our
lives that we hardly know by sight, to
say nothing of having a speaking acquaintance with them.
Let us take a look at the dandelion,
violet and strawberry. I have chosen
these because I think you may find
some of them still in bloom for their
season is longer than that of some of
the early friends. And you have noticed, haven't you, that they sometimes bloom again in the fall? A few
scattering strawberry blossoms in September and little short-stemmed dandelions hurrying to get through with
their second lifetime of work before
winter comes. Last October, when
my four little girls and I were hunting
fair all the different kinds of burrs we
could find, we gathered quite a bunch
ot violets in the woods along the Missouri.
You smile and say you certainly
know these early visitors by sight, but
are you sure? Their flowers, probably,
but I have known a single dandelion
leaf to puzzle older people than you,
when placed singly among others from
different plants. Just bring in a leaf
from each tree, shrub and common
plant about your home, lay them before the family, and see how many will
be hesitated over or wrongly named.
How we do cheat ourselves when we go
through life in a beautiful world with
our eyes shut.
Did the dandelion's root break ofl
when you pulled it up and did you
know, before, that it had such a long,
strong, thick root? The roots of the
violet and strawberry are very different. They do not run deep, but spread
out near the surface of the earth in
Many small roots with branching root-
■ets. The stems of the violet and
dandelion are short and thick, sitting
'lose ln the ground instead of growing
above like a bean plant, and the stem
r,f the strawberry lies down, creeping
along on the ground
If we  had   tried   we   could   scarcely
bave  found   three   plants   with   leaves
■"ore  different.      Those   of   the   violet
are smooth,  shining and  rather heart-
'baped;   those   of   the   strawberry   are
*aeh made up  of    three  soft    leaflets
*'th veins strongly marked, while the
°aS, slim ones of the dandelion are so
'ut up and  irregular as to be almost
btyond description.
What you   call   the   flower     of     the
fawberry is made up  of six regular,
h'te, flower leaves, the violet has four
egular flower    leaflets, and    the one
"■dellon is really a whole bouquet of
jr'*ers for each slender, yellow object
'^"ilng its head ,is a complete "flow-
in botany.
,^    e honey  of  the  strawberry  is  at
e base of  each   flower   leaf;   of  the
^ndelion, in uie heart of each  "flow-
'   and the violet, in the spur at the
**? <* the flower.
. Jne fruit of the strawberry will be
[, "Scious berry dotted over with the
vi„,__ ,of tne flower, the fruit of the
a brown case filled with seeds;
the fruit of the dandelion is a puff ball
made up of little winged seeds that fly
everywhere in  the  wind  when  ripe.
The strawberry furnishes food for
man, the dandelion food and medicine
the violet perfume; and all add beauty
and interest to the world and to our
lives.
Perhaps you did know these little
plant people by sight, but don't you
feel a little bit as though you had
hardly been on speaking terms with
them?
The better we know plants, the more
we find that they resemble people and
the greater the interest we feel ln
them. Things do not Just "happen" in
Nature; there is a reason for everything, but it takes thinking to find
these reasons, and then, sometimes,
even those who study a great deal,
have to say, "I don't know."
We have had just a glimpse of a few
plants as a whole, but each part of
every plant has its own work to do
and its own story to tell. It Isn't
enough to say: "Like us, plants eat,
breathe, drink, perspire, work, rest,
live in homes and families," and all
the rest of it, we want to know
"how."
Don't you want to begin making a
book of pressed plants (herbarium) ?
Perhaps you have a large blank book
at home or can get a 25 cent scrap-
book at town. I have three such books
that I think a great deal of—a plant-
story of my girlhood home, one of
some school years away from home,
and one of a year spent in the Rocky
mountains.
Plants should be laid smoothly between blotting papers (to take up the
moisture) and pressed until dry, then
fastened lightly in their book with two
or three gummed labels or small strips
of paper with a drop of muscilage on
each end. A few words written under
each plant telling name, place gotten,
and giving a few words of description,
make an interesting little  history.
WHAT A    FARM LIFE    GIVES    US.
There Is no occupation at which a
man can earn the necessities of life for
himself and growing family with so
small an amount of labor and skill as
he can at farming. Skill and industry
are indisputably of great value in
farming, but no other occupation can
be so abused by the lack of them and
still yield its followers a livelihood.
There are all over this country, occupying positions of trust and responsibility, men and women who grew to
maturity on farms. Pood grew there
to feed them, of clothes they required
few, and the little country school-
house laid the solid foundation for the
practical education that they acquired.
It mattered little to them in early life
that the fields were rough, the crops
weedy and scanty, and their companions the horse, the cow, the pigs, and
the chickens. They grew strong and
rugged in the pure air and the help
they were often obliged to give unwillingly to the raising of corn and potatoes enough to appease their ever vigorous appetite was an education in itself. It does not tend to the strength
of mind and morals of the man in later life to have toe easy a childhood|
Vigorous exercise of both is essential
to perfect development.
In olden times the book educated
farmer was seldom found, yet in those
days as now brains counted and marked the difference between prosperity
and its opposite. The difference is
more marked at the present time for
conditions have greatly changed. The
educated brain is needed today on the
farm as never before. The new laml
of early days produced crops without
much skill or calculation. Today the
land needs scientific feeding in order
to obtain good crops. In early days
insects of numerous kinds did not fight
every inch of the way to obtain po-
session of the crops, nor rust and blight
overtake all that the insects left uneaten. The farmer who swaps lies with
his neighbor in the town or over the
fence while waiting for his crops to
grow will flnd it harvested for him by
his insect assistants. Eternal vigilence
is the price of anything in this hustling
age, and he who will not hustle will be
sadly left behind. Yit with all this
there are today thousands of so-called
farmers in the country who live and
rear a family liy the old slipshod methods, and while luxuries are lacking;
they have enough to eat, a warm shelter, plenty of room and clothes enough
to keep them from, suffering. Uncle
Sam takes care that the children shall
have a chance to obtain the rudiments
of an education and furnishes clothes,
books, and transportation, where it
can be provided in no other way. A
look at the poor in the cities will convince the most skeptical that for the
sake of the children, of which there
are larger families among this class
than among the well to do, the place
for the shiftless poor man is on the
land rather than in the cities. The
health, the sustenence, the morals, and
the happiness of the child is much
more  assured   there.
If the farms of this land, the poorer
farms they are too, as a rule, will do
this, and they will, what might the better farms under the care of the better
informed and more energetic class of
men be made to do? Give the farmer
a square deal in the markets and in
the legislative halls and there is no
better business on earth  than his.
TO    TRANSFORM  COUNTRY    LIFE.
Editors Indiana Farmer:
The Y. M. C. A. is now doing for the
country what it has long done for the
city. There the task becomes harder
as the cities keep on increasing in size.
To simplify it in the most desirable
way would doubtless be to render the
country attractive enough to entice
our young people to be content with it
for their future homes.
I remember our own country-side
took on quite a different aspect when
once we had a literary and "entertaining" society going.
About the same time one of our
neighbors made an advantageous home
arrangement. This was payments to
both boys and girls for outside work
done. In this way more can be attempted and more accomplished, with
adequate returns, beyond the cover of
the payments. To say nothing of making the children of the farm satisfied
with their lot.
Another neighbor has for years shared with her son the work of the Separator, together with the welcome
monthly  checks.
And now the social side of rural life
Is being taken with the well-known
earnest or the Y. M. C. A.   The "Coun
try I.iif commlnion" ruporla Unit some
25,000 men and boys In 750 different
counties are being reached. This is
outside thi' number of girls that are
attracted by it. A new interest is
awakened by the singing, and debating,
ball playing, and talks by experts, that
captivite and enlighten the community. There are the getting up exhibits
for county fairs, their own socials, together with the Sunday Bible-studies,
which gives a new character to "God's
out-of-doors," rooting them there, as
do their roots of their own orchard-
trees!
Nothing of the kind can be entirely
of spontaneous growth. While the
problems of each community must be
solved by itself, the parent Association
appoints one of its own members for
each county, who is paid to discover
and   train  it  local  leaders.
Portland, Ore. L. A. N.
WATERPROOF   CONCRETE    FOR
FARM USE.
Editors Indiana Farmer:
While the use of concrete on the
farm has been very much extended, the
principal objection to its use as a material of construction lies In the fact
that it is extremely porous and absorbs
water. On this account, it is well
known that buildings constructed of
concrete are very damp. In the course
of experimentation by the Oflice of
Public Roads, the discovery was made
that lt was possible to mingle mineral
oils with the concrete while it was still
wet and before it was laid or molded
in the forms. Under the supervision
of the office several road surfaces have
been made of oil-cement concrete,
while a bridge surface has been constructed of this material. After being
laid and in use for nearly a year, these
surfaces have given successful results.
The use of oil-cement concrete is, however, by no means confined to road-
surface construction, for it can be used
in replacing ordinary cement concrete
under almost all conditions. Floors,
cellars, foundation walls, tanks, silos,
manure pits, and similar constructions
where strength, solidity, and waterproof qualities require to be combined
can be today built out of oil-cement
concrete. In the investigations it was
found that the best results are obtained
when the amount of oil used represents
from about 10 to 15 per cent of the
weight of the cement used in mixing
the aggregate. The mixing presents no
difficulties whatsoever, either when the
concrete is mixed by hand with shovels
or when a mechanical mixer ls used.
The method followed is to mingle the
proper quantities of cement, sand and
water, and, as soon as these have been
given a preliminary mixing, a suitable
quantity of the oil is added, followed
by the gravel or broken stone. The
oil used is known as Standard Flux
55 Maltha. The great advantage of
oil-cement concrete lies in the
fact that lt is much more dense, entirely waterproof, and develops an ultimate strength about the same as concrete mixtures which do not contain
any oil.
This process was discovered by Mr.
Page, the director of the Office of Public Roads and immediately patented,
the patent, however being assigned to
the people of the United States for
their use without payment of a roy-j
alty. G. E. M.
Washingtom, D. C.