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VOL. LXVI
INDIANAPOLIS, AUG. 5, 1911.
NO. 31
KEW MOVE FOR AGRICULTURE.
UlTOXAIi    CO-OPERATION    WITH
THE SEVERAL STATES FOB
BETTERMENT.
proposal   for  Greater Development  In
Agriculture,   the  Industries  and
llaiini- Economics.
The whole  country  Is  coming  more
I ,nJ more to understand that the productive forces  of  the  nation  and  the
home economics are the factors making It great and strong, and that what-
,-,,-r measures are taken to develop and
build up  these are the greatest functions   underlying      public    legislation.
[Looking to  this  great  work   is  a  bill
no* pending    in Congress,    known as
St-nate Bill 3, the    purposes    of which
| ,re indicated in its title as follows:
|i,,eloping Productive Industry.
To cooperate with the States in en-
Icouraging instruction in agriculture,
I the trades and industries, and home
|„ iaiimloa in secondary schools; in
Inulntaining instruction in these vocational subjects in State normal schools;
lin maintaining extension departments
lin State colleges of agriculture and
IwKhanlc arts; and to appropriate
fnoney and  regulate   its  expenditure."
The details of this proposed work
Iprovlde for connectlonal relations with
Ithe National Department of Agricul-
Iture, the Interior Department, and the
liVcretary of Commerce and Labor,
Ittae all co-operating with State instl-
Itutlons now organized or to be organ-
lized for this purpose. The author of
|this movement wisely says:
"I believe the people of a great majority of the States in the Union are
Iripe for a beginning of the work on
Ithis great problem, but before they will
luke the initiative to any considerable
Intent the .details must be worked out
l»nd the trail blazed by the general government, either in the way suggested
|br my bill  or some  other  having the
ne objective points, as was done in
oviding education of college grade
u°ng these lines, and as was done in
*te experiment station work.
1>>e Coming Young Manhood.
~h* High School, the Academy and
''-liege are  taking  excellent  care
those boys who are financially able
1 avail themselves of their advantages,
" It requires only a superficial exam-
'•uon to show that the average boy,
arriving at the age when he  must
Nn, because of lack of means, to be
^read-winner for the family, is negated by the State and in far too many
• following the lines of least re-
lc*4 drifts into a cheap manhood.
The Example in Germany.
"at Germany Is now outrunning us
"ie race for commercial supremacy
J"ilversally conceded.      In my Judg-
'his is due In a large measure
* faot that when the German boy
1 the age of 12, 13 or 14, his
'•"lstics, his physical equipment,
**• of his mind—his Idlosyncrac-
to speak—are    carefully ascer-
*nd he is agiven a training which
y* nlm for the life work which he
Sit* to follow.
** and Yonng People of America.
0 with the American youth of
the great middle class, especially in our
villages and cities. He is turned
adrift and the question presented to his
mind is, not what will my future life
work be?' but rather, 'Where can I get
a job that will furnish me the wherewith to buy my clothes and pay my entrance with my best girl to the moving
picture show?' If he can find a position as boot-black, newspaper vender
or messenger boy, he is content. In
any event he follows the lines of least
resistance and takes the work nearest
at hand with little or no thought as to
growing up into a well-rounded manhood. If he be a farm boy, he works
along without specific training and becomes  another   of  that  great   number
sorblng our surplus, and at the present
rate of Increased demand and increasing population here at home, the only-
thing to meet It Is Increased production
and the thing that will give us Increased production is better knowledge how
to produce.
The State Agricultural Colleges and
Experiment Stations are doing a wonderful work along these lines, but the
pending act becoming a law would so
organize industry as to very greatly
accelerate activity, increase production,
and conserve our resources and
strength as to nearly or quite double
our industrial capabilities on the same
area. This is a great movement and
should be speedily consummated.
ataammaam'o- ■■... ., t^nsot--;:*;* 7*^s»
Yields of Onions on Irrigated Plat  (on  left)   and   on     unirrigated     plat   (on
right,) at the Missouri  Experiment Station
who secure from the soil only half the
profits they should.
Building Boys and Battleships.
"We spend ten or twelve million dollars to build and equip a single battleship. The same sum spent for the
benefit of these boys who are to be our
farmers and industrial workers, and
for those girls who are to be our home-
makers, would change the whole course
of their lives and thereby materially
benefit the nation.
"I believe that the expenditure of one
cent per capita per month by the National Government, if expended under
the wise direction of a properly organized force, would put in motion the
entire machinery which is outlined by
this bill, and which I feel confident will
bring about the results so absolutely
essential to the welfare of the great
mass of the boys and girls, too, of our
land.
"It is going to be no easy matter to
bring about the passage of thla bill,
but lf the stronger agricultural and
industrial papers of the country will
aid in educating the public and in leading lt to consider this matter from a
broad, liberal, and patriotic standpoint,
I believe we can win out."
State Cooperation.
Here is an outline of a great work.
A few millions devoted to lt, in cooperation with the several States would
in a few years so broaden the knowledge of agricultural production as to
keep abreast of the world's demands
upon us for food and raiment. Already production abroad has fallen behind the demand, and It is rapidly ab-
TIMBER  AND  FLOODS.
Editors  Indiana Farmer:
When a college boy at Hanover, Indiana, I spent a vacation or so traveling for the American Bible Society,
and in 1874 found the farmers destroying their fine trees, and protested a-
gainst such vandalism. But they
made a weak defence by saying they
were not able to pay the tax on the
land and leave it to trees, and therefore must kill the trees. I explained
to them what would happen. So that
fall when I returned to college, I wrote
and published an article In the Indianapolis News, stating what I had
found ln my travels, and stating what
it would result in, unless arrested,
(and my predictions have more than
been fulfilled,) and asked the Legislature to take up the question, and to
pass a law by which all lands strictly
devoted to trees and forest culture and
preservation, should be assessed for
taxation at the nominal valuation of
$1.00 per acre, which would have been
about 1V4 cents per year tax, and
pointing out what would happen unless it was done. But as I was only a
a poor college boy no attention was
paid to me. Had the legislature taken
my advice and paid heed to my warning, Indiana today would have been
well timbered.
Last September I went for a drive
down ln Pike and Gibson Counties, to
look at the corn fields. My wife owns
lands In White River bottoms. Well,
there were thousands, of acres of the
finest corn I have ever seen and I have
traveled In 19 states and territories,
from Milwaukee to Interior of Kentucky, and from the Potomac to the Pa
cific and studied the conditions I am
talking about. Much of this corn, had
nothing happened from then till gathering time would have shucked from
80 to 100 bushels of the finest corn
that ever grew to the acre.
Well in a month from that time, in
October, it began to rain and rained
one week, and then stopped. By that
time the water was coming up and
covering the corn, and kept coming
until the corn was from 3 to 5 feet
under water, and the water remained
over the corn for two weeks, when it
began to go down and it was about a
week going down. Then it was learned that much fine corn was destroyed.
The loss in the White river region was
estimated  at  over   500,000   bushels.
Well, when God made the world he
clothed the White River hills with a
tine growth of timber to hold back the
water, and to cause the roots of the
trees to take up the rainfall and convey it down into the giound for moisture and as a reserve for drouths and
emergencies. Much of the rainfall
would be taken up by these means, and
utilized, and by evaporation taken up,
and would never reach the rivers; but
with timber gone, rain water that
formerly was five to eight months
reaching the river, would be in the
river inside of a few hours, and soon
bring the river out to destroy the corn;
while, when the timber was on the
hills in years gone by, lt would be a
physical Impossibility for a week's rain
to inundate the bottoms. It would have
required a month's rain to have
wrought such havoc. So you see the
poor misguided people who deforested the hills along the White river and
its tributaries, caused the overflow
which ruined the corn. They and not
nature were the guilty parties.
We are having a great time down
here. Parties are now trying to get a
levee association to levy both the White
and Wabash rivers. What a crime!
Then it will break up the farmers and
ruin the lands.
Then in the city, we are confronted
with a proposition to sewer our city
and carry the water into the Wabash
river, at a probable cost of $700,000 to
ruin the water. I am one of the parties who are fighting it.
Levees and sewers are a relic of past
foolishness. All levees should be torn
down. Sewers should be prohibited.
All offal should be conserved and turned into fertilizers. Our virgin soli ls
all gone. It must be replenished.
When and how will It be accomplished
when we run our offal and night soils
into the rivers to pollute them, instead
of utilizing them as fertilizers? The
analizing of the rivers of Illinois
which Is now going on proves that the
rivers of that state, that is their waters, are not fit for domestic or mechanical uses. Waters are so poisoned that they eat up boilers and machinery. Indiana rivers will soon be
no better. It .Is even now time the
government of the U. S. should step in
and take possession of her streama,
which she muat do aoon, and save
them for the people.
J. P. L. W.
 1 ♦ i
An alfalfa association has been organized by farmera of central IUlnola.
The object is to learn everything possible regarding the successful growing
of alfalfa.    A good Idea.