VOL. XXVII.      \;
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INDIANAPOLIS, IND., JUNE 18,1892.
NO. 25
WKATHEB CROP BULLET-St^--
■Wil
United Stales Department of Agriculture
Weather Bureau. Weather Orop Bulletin
ofthe Indiana Weather Service, in co-operation with the Agricultural Experiment
Station at Purdue University, ending Tuesday June 14,1892'.
Local rains fell still the first few days,
but clear, exceedingly warm and sunny
weather prevailed the rest of the week;
muoh corn was planted and in the southern and central portions the planting is
finished or nearly so; much cultivating
was done; the earlier planted corn advanced most rapidly and stands knee high
iamany fields; wheat is maturing fast
under the favorable weather conditions of
the past few days; it is in most fields in
fall head and ripening; still promising a
good crop; barley is harvested in-the
southern portion; oats and pasturage are
ln fine condition and clover can be cut
soon; the fruit crop is not so promising as
much fruit is falling off.
SOUTHERN PORTION.
New Albany, Floyd  Co.—The weather
has been very favorable for growing crops
the past week; much cultivating has been
done and crops have made a rapid growth;
wheat is in full head  and with favorable
weather till harvest will make a full crop;
oat. is still promising and meadows  are
.ery fine; apples are falling off badly; the
crop will be short;  peaches  will yield a
fair crop.   Rainfall, 0 64.
Troy, Perry Co.—With very favorable
weather during the past seven days farmers have about finished corn planting;
barley is harvested; wheat is ripening
nicely; early potatoes are looking well;
grapes will yield a heavy crop; plums a
fair crop; apples are dropping.
Vevay, S _ itzerland Co.—The moderate
rainfall of the week with genial sunshine,
has been very favorable to wheat which
begins to color and ripen; the crop is
most encouraging from all sections of the
county; potatoes are of thrifty growth;
the late rains have given transplanted
tobacco a good start; the corn crop is less
encouraging and not all planted yet: apples will bs short and also cherries; strawberries yielded a good quality, large size
but not as sweet as in former seesons; the
hay crop is good and meadows are clothed
in lively green aff.rding a good prospect
ol harvest.   Rainfall, 0 22.
Marengo, Crawford Co.—The ground;has
been in fair condition to be worked during
most of the week; corn is not quite all
Planted yet but will be within a few days;
wheat, oats and meadows look well. Rainfall, 0 21.
DeGonia Spings, Warrick Co.—Thunder
showers prevailed at the beginning of the
"weak but the latter part the weather conditions were just right for all crops; corn
Planting is about all done and it is grow
mg fast and other crops are in good condition; no bugs or injurious insects are
noted.   Rainfall, 0 67.
Princeton, Gibson Co.—We have had
onr clear fine days and most of the corn
"planted; the growing corn looks well
bnt rather weedy; wheat is maturing
nnely on the uplands and will be ready to
«nt next week but It is damaged inthe
owlands; clover and meadows are in fair
condition; much of the young fruit has
alien off; the melon crop is not encour-
•Png.   Rainfall, 1.47.
BaUervHie, Jennings Co.—The past few
o-_mM h0t 8unslline have been very fav-
int 0whoat whicn ia rapidly matur-
at_-?-1 wUlb6 ready to harvest in a week;
ont_ U --lu-**ntules h»ve appeared
th_    .-fheatheads;comis «Pready for
-_.__!,     bandit looks well, but there
mU some fields to be planted; straw-
lerries and eaily cherries are finished
crops.—Rainfall, 0.80.
Worthington, Greene Co.—Since the Oth
the weather has been clear and warm;
corn that is up is growing well and wheat
is maturing rapidly; the harvest will begin the first of next week; farmers are
busy, some planting, others cultivating
earn.—Riinfall, 148.
Mt. Vernon, Posey Co.—The weather
was very favorable to all crops and permitted corn planting, it is all planted except on the oveiflowed Wabash bottoms:
the wheat harvest will commence on the
18th or 20th; in some fields the wheat
looks thin but a full average crop is expected from general appearances.—Rain-
fill, 0.40.
CENTRAL. PORTION.
Indianapolis, Marion Co.—Rain fell only
the first day, and the warm and dry
weather prevailing was exceedingly beneficial to all vegetation; the csrn is all in,
and the earlier is growing very fast, some
of it standing knee high; wheat is ripening fast and grass in most excellent condition.— Riinfall, 0 79.
Farmland, Rtndolph Co.—Ruin fell on
two days in the' last seven and the rest
were fine, warm days very beneficial to all
crops; farmers are doing their best to finish planting and it looks very much as if
they will succeed.—Rainfall, 1 35. .
Franklin,- Jc%-_>_! Co.—The weather
since last Tuesday was more favorable
and beneficial to vegetation; early planted
corn is up, it stands from four to seven
inches, and on Monday even higher; it
looks well,except the weids in it; oats are
growing fast and will make a fair crop;
clover is in bloom and will soon bo ready
to cut.—Riinfall, 1.75.
Cambridge City, Wnyne Co.—The
weather was fair or clear every day; corn,
which by reason of too much rain had begun to look sickly, has been greatly benefited by the fine weather, wheat is in
bloom; in corn'ground it will not ripen
equally and the yield will not be so large
as expected; the apple crop, except the
earlier varieties, will be a disappointment;
clover can bs cut in a week; timothy suffered from much moisture.—Riinfall, 1.01
Ashboro, Clay Co.—Corn planting proceeded vigorously, but much of the plant
ed is in poor condition; wheat has improved the past week and there Is a prospect for an average crop; farmers are in
good spirits as another week of dry
weather will insure an average crop of
corn planted; oats look well, but the acreage Js not large.—Rainfall,, 0.90.
Mauzy, Rush Co.—All the wheat is
headed and in good condition; corn is
gro wing "rapidly and is in good condition;
meadows also; light rains would be "bene
ficial as the temperature reached to 92°
during the day.   Rainfall, 118.
Irvington, Marion Co.—The rains have
at last ceased; the ground is badly baked
but with speedy stirring and continued
warm and fair weather fair crops may be
yet obtained.   Rainfall, 0.42.
Connersville, Fayette Co.—The weather
is the best that could be desired for wheat,
corn, and fruits; wheat is well headed out
but considerably  smutty.   Rainfall, 0.61.
NORTHERN   TORTION.
Warsaw, Kosciusko Co.—Corn planting
Is about done; not much ground could be
prepared and but little was planted only;
abont one third to one half of the crop intended has been put in; the continuous
warm temperature and much sunshine
were very beneficial to all vegetation;
wheat looks well on uplands but itis turning yellow in other fields; grass is very
good; apples are falling ofl.
'" Marion, Grant Co.—The past week gave
us less rain and more sunshine and a
higher temperature and* everything looks
mo're encouraging; if this weather continues a few days all corn will be planted.
Rainfall, 0 35.
Hatch's Mills, L.Porte Co.—No rain
since the 7th. inst. wheat Is doing well;
corn is growing fast; some are planting it
the second time; the peach trees are getting the "curled leaf" shedding the little
peaches fast; apples too, are not doing so
well they are falling off; strawberries are
very late and not ripe yet. Riinfall,
0.50.
Logansport, Cass Co.—The heavy rains
and hail of the preceding weeks have injured the wheat in some localities; and
in low places it will be a failure and yield
only about 20 per cent; the warm and dry
weather daring the greater part of the
week haa encouraged farmers; wheat and
some corn that was planted early are growing very fast; a few days more of such
weather will finish corn planting; the
fruit crop is good, except cherries and
peaches.   Riinfall, 0.56.'
Angola, Steuoen Co.—It rained only in
the beginning of the week; tbe latter part
was fair and warm and beneficial to vegetation ; wheat is getting too large; some of
it has lodged already; it is heading however; fruit is dropping very much. Rainfall, 1 00.
Rockville, Park Cj.—The weather was
very favorable to crops and planting of
corn; a large acreage in this county
promises an abundant yield of wheat; the
corn crop is not yet all planted but will be
finished by the 17th.   RUnfall, 1 56.
Delphi, Carroll Cj.—Four warm, sun-
shining days have greatly improved the
condition of all crops; and the prospects
are correspondingly good; in our next report we may be ab!e to give a more definite probable outcome.   Riinfall, 1.40.
Lafayette, Tippecanoe Co.—The past
week has been moderately dry and has
enabled the farmers to make rapid progress in corn planting; abont 25 per cent
remains to be planted; wheat is looking
well; and pastures'are in excellent condition.   Riinfall, 0 35.
H. A. Huston,
Director Indiana Weather Bareau.
Per C. F. R. Wappenhans,
Local Forecast Official, TJ. S. Weather
Bureau Assistant.
to the standard while others fall seriously
below.
The greatest difficulty in connection
with the fertilizers ls with the farmers
themselves, who are frequently anxious
to have analyses made but decline to ap-'
pear as witnesses in case fraud is discovered. The Stato Chemist very properly
says, "It will be useless for any one to ask
for an inspection of a fertilizer unless fall
information regarding it is furnished and
the purchaser agrees to prosecute the
dealer in case the results warrant such a
proceeding" He says further: "Forten
years the State Chemists of Indiana have
urged that the present fertilizer law was
defective, in that it r.quires analyses to be
made from samples furnished by the manufacturers rather than from samples from
goods sold in the market. The great increase of brands and the results of such inspections as I have been able to make emphasize this matter still more fully." Yet
we can hardly hope to have a more efficient law put in operation unless all purchasers of fertilizers unite in helping to
enforce the present one, so far as possible.
Single copies of the bulletins will be
sent to any farmer, resident in Indiana,
who will apply for the same.
COMMERCIAL  FERTILIZERS   AT   OUE
STATE EXPERIMENT STATION.
The usual spring report of the State
Chemist, H. A. Huston, at Purdue University is at hand, it ls the bulletin relating to commercial ferti'z.rs and includes tables showing the analysis and
comparative commercial valuations of the
211 different brands now legally on sale in
the State. In addition to this there is a
considerable amount of text matter dealing with the approximate statistics of the
fertilizer trade and relating to the amount
of plant focd removed by crops and the
amount which might be made available
by utilizing much material which now
goes to waste. The general principles of
fertilizers are given, and those substances
which give value to commercial fertilizers
are discussed. The question of the total
supply of plant foods in the soils is taken
up and discussed with reference to the
amount of available plant food contained
in the soils and the means of supplementing this available plant food.
For this purpose a discussion is made of
one of the most common rotations used in
the State and the net losses of plant food
per acre are^figured for a number of sets of
conditions. Tho diflerent fertilizers on
the market are put into seven classes and
these classes briefly described. The
"adulteration" of fertilizers is discussed
and a number of analyses and reports of
inspections made from goods actually obtained in the market are reported. The
results show that some goods are fully np
MAKIUG TIU PLATES.
There are two ways of .making tlnplate,
the pure palm oil process and the acid' flax
process. The pure palm oil process is slow
but it is the best and the only way by
which really fine and durable plates can
be made. The acid flax process is'qulck,
cheap andeasy. To showhowit is made we
will take a box of IC 14x20 cheap roofing
tin, which is composed of 105 pounds of
sheet iron or sheet steel; to make the
finished plate, the sheets are pickled and
washed, a very simple and cheap process.
They are then taken to a patent machine,
worked by two boys. This machine contains about 500 pounds of metal, the proportion say about one pound of tin and
nine pounds of lead. At the present value
of metals this mixture is worth less than
6 cents.per^pound.
These two boys tin the sheets at the rate
of 13 per minute. They can finish a box in
about nine minutes and the amount of
coating put on is 114 pounds. To arrive at
the value of a box of such tin complete
take nine cents as the valne of the metal,
the boys' wages for nine minutes, and add
the value of the sheet iron or steel and the
cost of cleaning It, the total being the net
cost.
WORTH $1,000 EACH!
That is what each man, woman and
child would have if the nation's wealth was
evenly distributed. The Census Bareau
has issued a bulletin on the subject of assessed valuation of property in the United
States in 1890. The bulletin shows that the
assessed value of all property, excluding
railroad property, except in certain sped-
fied States, has increased from $ 16,902,993,-
543 in 1880 to $24,651,085,465 in 1890, an increase during the decade of $7,748,591,922,
or 45,84 per cent. Should it be found
upon the completion of the inquiry In relation to the true valne of all property in
the United States that thesame relation
exists in 1890 between the assessed valuation as existed in 1880, the absolute wealth
of the United States, according to the llth
census, may be estimated at f63,648,000,-
000, or more tban $1,000 per capita, against
$514 per capita in 1860, $780 per capita in
1870, and f 870 per capita in 1880.
Prof. W. H. Latham, of the Deaf and
Dumb Asylum, has shown us a fine new
seedling strawberry he is propagating,
that is peculiar for its very dark color. It
is almost black and is a rich red inside.
We have named it Damask, as its color ao -
nearly resembles that of the Damask rose.
It is large, of excellent flavor, and supposed to be prolific.