VOL. LXVIII
INDIANAPOLIS, JULY
NO. 27
,<sV
Sources of Loss on the /Average Indiana Fann
lsl Premium.—The question before
us this week is certainly one of great
importance. To my mind, the waste of
manure causes more loss to the farmer
than any other thing. Many farmers
get in a hurry to get their crops out
and permit the manure to remain in
the yard until it is rendered almost
worthless by the rain and by evaporation. Then too. It furnishes a breeding place for flies,  and  that	
will cause    more waste    en
the farm.
Allowing wagons and farm
implements to remain out
in the weather without sufficient protection, is another
source of waste on the fa.m.
"Wagons and implements
that would otherwise have
lasted for years will need to
be repaired and possibly replaced entirely by new ones.
A generous use 'st the
pair.t Drush and pail will
prevent another great loss on
tba farm. If a mat of paint
is applied occasionally, as
needed, to homes and barns
they will last about twice as
long and will look infinitely
better. Then think of how
many thousands of dollars
are spent annually for tire
setting on vehicles when
with a little care and paint
this expense could have been
avoided.
Making Good Vse of Idle
Land.
I believe I am safe in saying that there is enough land
lying idle In Indiana to more
than    pay    the    taxes     of
each  farmer  ln  the state,  lf   lt  were
properly  cultivated.       Not  only would
this land look better and pay better, if
taken care of, but lt would be prevented
from being an actual loss to the farmer
and his neighbors, for a vacant field is
the breeding place of all kinds of noxious weeds, which, if left to themselves
will seed the country for miles around.
Allowing the farm to go unfenced,
keeping no stock, not allowing a tenant
to keep any surplus stock, and burning
the straw on the farm, are practices
followed by some landlords, which will
end in loss to owner and tenant both.
Kosciusko Co. Q. B.
How to Prevent W.aste Suggested In Experience
Department
in the same light. Commercial fertilizer is sometimes bought and applied
largely without a proper knowledge of
its elements    or ratio    of plant    food,
The element of plant food taken from
the atmosphere by the clover plant is
practically all nitrogen; and the soil toi
which this may be applied may already
give this question of a balance ration
for his plants careful study in an experimental way.
The husbanding of the resources of
the farm has long been a question of
large discussion and consideration by
the foremost agriculturalists of tho
country, but the husbanding or conserving of the elements of plant food, has
not had its relative or comparative con-
      sideration.
Ready for a Day In the Wheat Field.
which may be entirely out of balance
for the demand of both the crops and
soils for which lt is used; likewise the
legumes and domestic manure used for
fertilizer may be found by practical experiment to have from one-third to one-
half of its money value wasted by an
improper balance.
contain enough nitrogen. In this event
unless balanced up by a proper ratio of
phosphoric acid and potash It will be
largely wasted. When this happens the
loss may be from thirty to fifty per cent
of its cash value. This great waste
continues from year to year, but it
could    be .saved if the farmer    would
Furnish Balanced Supply of Plant Food.
2d Premium.—"What do you consider
is the greatest waste on the average
Indiana farm and what sort of a plan
would you recommend to correct it?"
We answer: The failure to fully
conserve the plant food elements that
are applied to the soils of the average
farm, consists in its greatest waste.
This waste consists in the failure to
apply to the soils the clover crop or
other crops of the legume family, barnyard manures and commercial fertilizers, in a balanced form; that is to say,
the practice of plowing under the legumes is often considered as a complete
fertilizer; and the application of the
ordinary domestic manures is regarded
A Threshing Scene in Morgan County.    This wheat made 30 bushels per acre.
Conserve   Plant   Food   Elements.
We believe that the conservation or saving of the
plant fo«d elements when
applying them to the soil, Is
paramount to soil conservation. For if plant food Is
not conserved by proper balance, the soil cannot be
properly maintained, nor
made to be most remunerative.
The failure of a farmer
to get acquainted with his
soils and the elements of
plant food that is needed to
balance their demand, may
lose him money every year.
There is but one way that
a check can be put upon this
large waste and that is by every farmer getting "next" to
his soil and making his farm
an experimental field, or in
other words, asking the soil
in an intelligent way what it
wants, and true to nature it
will promptly respond. If
this is done this waste of
plant food elements can be
quickly turned into a saving.
        Get next to Purdue—keep
in close touch with Farmers' Institutes
—demand more practical demonstrations as tests for the needs of plants on
your own farm. A farm that is despised for lack of proper credit will
then blossom like the rose, and the boy
will stay on the farm and the daughter
too, and father and mother will be
happy. L. W. Hubbell.
Pulaski Co.
Build Barns for the Hay Crop.
3d Premium.—Both experience and
observation have led me to the conclusion that of all things which are wasted
annually on Indiana farms, that lost in
our hay and grain crops is of most importance. Most farmers could greatly
help their financial conditions by having their farms so equipped so that they
could store their hay crops in barns at
cutting time instead of stacking it out
in the open where under the most favorable conditions there is a great loss,
and where when conditions are otherwise the loss is even greater.
It is a well known fact that fields of
eorn contain much valuable foodstuffs
besides that found in the ears, and yet
it is astonishing the number of farmers who raise corn year after year and
think nothing at all of saving the other
material and feeding It to stock. By
the use of the silo one can save the en-
Continued on page 9.