w£^-\
VOL. LIX.
INDIANAPOLIS, MARCH 19, 1904.
NO 12.
QntKVl UVL& &USTV&C.
-Whit Is the best time to sow alfalfa, and
will it be all right to sow with oats, how many
pounds to the. acre? A Subscriber.
Our correspondent will find his enquiries answered on the first page of the Indiana Farmer of __arch 5th.
I hate several dozen Gladioli bulbs snd Ma-
deria Tine tubers, and a few Cans bulbs, and
vhlle they last I will Rive a few each to farmer's wires and daughters w1» will send stamps
to pay postage snd packing.
:    Shirley. Mrs.  C.  E.  Byrtcet.
Who wants them?
1 bave a pasture of timothy and red clover,
white cloycr, red top and June grass. Is this
pasture bett.fr than a timothy and red clover
pasture) M.   S.
It is considered good pasti re, but nothing is quite equal to blue grass, where
t_>e latter will grow.      »
Can any of the readers of the Indiana Farmer
inform we where I can buy metal bands for
marking turkeys. They are for fastening aronnd
the leg. T.  C. A.
I_afayette.
Some one should advertise these in our
columns., >''...■*
Please tell me through the Indiana Farmer
where I can get the seed of Alfalfa, snd the
price of It; also tell how much to bow per acre?
Warren Co. J. T.
, In your copies of the Farmer for a
month past you will find a full discussion ot tlie subject.. -
i     1.   W'jn   a   bull   breed   that   ls   a   twin   calf,
whose  mate  was   a   heifer?
2. How long after sale of a registered calf
can transfer be made to puchaser of same by
association? C.
1. Yes, but the heifers are ffreemartins
and do not breed.
2. Any time the certificates of transfer
are presented.
Please state bow to plant catalpa seed and
replant  t_e  trees? A.   W.
riainville.
You can start the plants in nice, mellow, sandy soil, in rows a foot or 15 inches apart. Thin the young trees to
six or eight inches in the rows,' and cultivate well the first summer. Next year
transplant into rows four feet apart.
Please tell me through your valuale paper how
to plant and cultivate and manage a raspberry
patch for market use. Also where to get good
plants at reasonable price; what distance apart
to plant? How and when to prune, how to
cnltivate,  etc? A  Subscriber.
Apply to any of the fruit growers who
advertise with us for plants. They are
not expensive. They should be set
about four feet apart in rows five feet
wide. Cultivate with cultivator and
harrow three or four times the first season. Ask us about pruning later. You
do not need that information till next
season.
I notice in the Farmer of March Sth. you say
that alfalfa seed can be bought for $2.25 per bu.
will you please tell me where it can be had for
t-at. I would also like to know how long lt
takes red kidney beans to mature, now they
should  be planted  and  if  they  are  a  profitable
cr-.? ...     _, A Subscriber.
Hamilton Co.
The price given for alfalfa seed was a
typographical error. Any of our seed advertisers can quote you prices per pound,
and bushel.   Write to them.
2. It depends on quality of soils. If
rich they mature about same as other like
varieties, and yield well.
'T*"hat ls the best wsy to get rid of tbe stslks
in a corn field, for breaking; np in tbe spring?
How wonld you make a permanent pasture out
of a field that ls now in timothy sod? I want
it in blue grass, or blue grass and white clover.
Adams Oo. F. D. B.
The quickest way to get rid ot the
stalks is ta drag the field with a heavy
rail or pole, forwards and back, when the
ground is frozen, and then raked into
Piles and burn them. Bnt that is wasteful, and we hope yon will run a lolling
cutter over thom,  and  turn  them under
with a big breaking plow. Prepare your
timothy field as soon as it is possible to
do it well. The ground must be thoroughly pulverized and harrowed down
smooth. Then there ought to be no
trouble in getting a good stand of bine
grass on it. We wuuld not advise you
to mix white clover with it. A good
s*t in blue gras3 is all you need.
I have IS acres of new ground that was ln
corn last year. It is stumpy and I want lt for
pasture this summer. What must I sow, and
how mnch per acre, for hogs and cattle? My
plan ls to bow oats, rye and clover.
Fountain   Co. A   Subscriber.
Don't plow the ground; work it up shallow with disk harrow or cultivator, Drill
1J,4 bushels oats to thle acre, or broadcast
it and harrow lightly. Follow with ten
it and harrow lightly. Follow with 10 lbs.,
clover seed, lightly brushed or harrowed
ever grew from Indiana, and Illinois saod,
50 to 70 bushels per acre.
National Horse Thief Detective Aee'n.
To the Officers and Members of tbe respective  Detective Companies of the
N. H. T. D. A.
A resolution was passed at the Grand
Annual 'at Richmond, authorizing the
Grand Organizer to make an arrangement
with the publishers of the Indiana Farmer,
whereby the losses and matters of general
interest to the members pertaining to the
doings of the N. H. T. D. A., and the
local companies may be printed in a certain column of the paper. The Indiana
Farmer will therefore give free publication to items and articles of interest received from the members. I would suggest that the secretary of each associa-
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Indiana Building,  at W orld's Fair, St. Louis.
in. All this must be done early, just as soon
as the ground will do to work. Some
timothy added to the clover will help. Do
uot pasture the clover too close in dry
weather, especially by hogs, and while
pasturing the oats watch the hogs to see
if they are injuring the yonng clover.
We do not see how you are going to
work rye and oats together. If rye
is put in, 1.5. bushels per acre, early in
September it will furnish late CaU and
early spring pasture, and you can add
clover to it in the spring, but for this season your best plan probably will be to
depend on oats and clover, and in order
to have the best possible chance for a
stand of clover, plant early, the earlier
thi? better, and plant while the ground
is fresh and mellow from the harrow.
tion act-as a correspondent -thereof or
select another in his stead. Let the
items and articles be condensed and the
thought plainly expressed. We hope
the members will take advantage of this
offer and will cordially respond to the
kind offer of the Indiana Farmer Company  in  this   matter.
S. D. Anglin, Grand Organizer.
I have a patch of catalpas, 4 to 5 feet high.
ITnd I. better cut them off at the ground this
spring,? or let them grow? I hare some black
lJKUst seed I want to plant; bad I better plant
them in nur.ery rows and transplant them, or
plant them where I want them to grow? What
time had I better plant them, and must the
seed be scalded? W.  K.  W.
Shelby Co.
We can see no advantage in cutting
the Catalpas at the ground., Trim them
;>nd let them grow. Sow the locust
seed at one-, after scalding them, in rows
two fleet apart. Cultivate and thin to
eight or ten inches, and next year transplant to rows fonr feet apart. Locusts
suffer from borers of late years, so
that they are being abandoned for post
timber. ' Yon must prepare to fight the
borer, or you will fail. .
Urich Low, Carrollton, Indiana:—Yes,
a large nnmber of Indiana readers of the
Farmer for several years past have grown
good acreages of corn th*-y obtained in
Iowa, which yielded as large as any they
About Alfalfa Again.
Editors Indiana Farmer:
I uvtice that you refer to my letters
of February 13 and March 5, 1904, for
answers to alfalfa inquiries, and that you
state that alfalfa seed sells at $2.25 per
I bushel! I would like- to buy a few
carloads, at that price, if seed is free
from buck horn. I can Curnish good
seed, free from weed seeds, at $10 per
bnshel, bags included; but would say beware of seed that has buck horn in it, as
a gift.
Would say in reply to the question of
S. H., Edgar Co., 111., "Do we need alfalfa in our bnsiness?" That we certainly
do.   .    I   would   not   try  to   farm  high
priced land, if I could not raise alfalfa
[ and pure blood cattle. S. H. asks if "Al-
! falfa would take the place of, or be any
I>etter than blnegrass."     "Wouldn'J it be
I better than little red clover in preparing
'soil for corn?"       "Is it any better than
oler^r or timothy  as  pasture,   or  when
cured for hay?"        I answer yes,-to all
these questions.        I  mean  to  plow up
eight or ten acres of fine bine grass sod
this  f-pring.  and  sow  to alfalfa,  simply
to get the land in alfalfa and bluegrass,
both  for  pasture.
Bluegrass is a shallow feeder while alfalfa roots very deeply, thr_s, the on.>
does not interfere with the other and you
will have fine pasture, even in droughts,
while blnegrass is dead and parched, and
ss you have blnegrass in your alfalfa,
there is not so much danger of bloat, as
there would be from alfalfa alone.
If alfalfa is all right in the West, where
it is raised by irrigation, why can it not
be raised here, where we do not need
irrigation? I find that very little grain
is needed with alfalfa hay, and I do not
raise corn at all. On my farm of 100
acres, I have no room for corn. I have
50 acres of alfalfa and 50 acres of blue-
grass. I buy a little corn 'each year,
but my mature Herefords get no grain,
iimtil in February and March, when I ,
feed them some corn and oats. I feed
n little grain to calves, even while they
are on good pasture. I have never
plowed up any alfalfa to put to corn, but
I have noticed that the outside row of
corn, next to an alfalfa field is taller than
the rest of the corn in the field, and it
must be caused by the fertility that the
alfalfa accumulates from the air and.
from great depths in the soil, as, generally, the outside row is thepoorer in the
field. J.  N.  Shirley.
The Coming; Season,
ltdltors Indiana l**ar___r:   -
The season for sugar making is about
gone and .no .sugar ■ or, sap .for pancakes
this year. Early sown wheat is _iII
right, late wheat is a failure. No
peaches. t Of other fruit it is too soon
to predict. This year will be the farmer's picnic, as the deep freezing and the
overflowing of all low lands will get away
with moles, ground hogs, and countless
insects thst prey on all kinds of crops
Tne deep freezing and sediment on
ground is a grand fertilizer, and one that
will tell its own tale the coming sum- .
raer.
The summer that 'followed the hard
winter of 18S0 and 1SS1 was about the
hottest of any in the history of tlie
State, and in which there were 2t» d:.y.
that the temperature reached 100 degrees
and over, and one day each of 100, 107,
108 and  11.0 degrees in the shade.
H. B.    .
Indiana Butter.
We have before given n.itice that Prof.
H. E. Van Norman, of the Purdue Agricultural school is superintendent of the
dairy exhibit to be made (by Indiana at
the coming St Louis exposition, and has
sent out notice to the farmers all over the
state asking that every one desiring to
offer country butter to be placed in the
exhibit shall send in one pound packages
of bntter to him at once, at Lafayette,
Ind.
The purpose of this is to assist prospective exhibitors to bring their product up
to the highest standard of excellence. As
fast as the packages are sent in, the butter is scored by an expert and the score,
together with any criticism or suggestions for bettering the product will be returned to the maker free of expense.
The dairy school established by Prof.
Vim Norman has already received replies
ers over the state who regularly send in
samples of their bntter for analysis lias
proved successful in raising the standard
of /butter made by all the pupils. Professor
Van Norman ha salready received replies
from shape of the pound. packages from
many farmers who contemplate making
exhibits. The matter has never been
put properly before the public, however,
and Professor Van ..orman has appealed
to the papers over the state to help him
in giving publicity to his scheme.