VOL. LIX.
INDIANAPOLIS, APRIL 23, 1904.
NO 17.
%xyzximt» gjqnnrtmettfc
BROOM CORN.
Considers it a Very Profitable Crop.
lst Premium.—Broom corn can be raised on any soil that will produce a good
crop of corn. The richer the soil the larger
the yield. Indiana has plenty of good
bliick soil that will grow as fine broom
corn as any State in the Union.
The ground should be in fine condition.
Drill the seed in. A one-horse corn drill,
will do very well. Cultivate thoroughly.
I find shallow cultivation the best. AVhen
some of the seeds begin to turn browD,
or the seeds are in a milky, dough, is the
proper time for cutting. Don't let it get
too ripe, as the brush is of poorer* quality.
It should bo stripped as soon as possiblo.
If the seed is left on, it absorbs the sap
out of the brush, making it of poorer
quality. After it is stripped, it should
be dried, or cured, in a cool place in thi;
shade, care being taken not to hulk it together and cause it to heat and mold.
As to the profit, it depends on how yon
market it. If you sell to the trust ov
commission men, it might not pay any
tatter than corn, but if you can sell to
son.o-hraom factory, you ought to get a
better price. I have a broom machine,
and make my own brooms. Also make
for other people, for half of the brooms.
Last year I raised one-third of an acre
of broom corn. From this 1 made 209
brooms that sold for 25 cents each. I
made a machine to strip the seed myself,
using an old Buckeye mower for a horse
power. I took one wheel off, then bored
a hole in a block to fit axle whero the
wheel worked, and buried the block in the
ground, the bearing standing vertically.
Chained a 2x4 oak scantling to other
wheel to hitch a horse to. Took off the
wheel that ran the pitman rod, and fastened on a fourteen foot iron rod. Attached a pulley wheel to outer end of rod,
and had a nice one-horse power machine.
Got the wooden wheels, 10 inehes in
diameter, two inches thick. Took lumber
1x4 inches two feet long, and nailed thes.
onto the wheels, but drove twenty-penny
nails into strips first, for the teeth. Attached this toothed cylinder to an iron rod
two inches in diameter, then bolted another pulley wheel to one end. Set two
posts in ground to hold cylinder in place,
and put a luolt on, and was ready for business.
I have raised two varieties of broom
corn. One of them, the Tennessee Evergreen, makes the finest bnush in Ons county.
Any man sowing a small farm and having
spare time in the winter, will find making
brooms i.ne of the best things ho can do.
His neighbors will gladly raise some
broom corn and get him to make their
brooms for tliem, and he will find people
ready to buy all ho makes. This would
fettle the broom corn trust as far as the
farmers are concerned.
I find broom corn a very profitable crop.
The seed makes fine chicken feed; in fact,
any stock will eat it that can get it. and
my horses and cows eat all of the blades
left in the field early in the fall. The
seed heats and spoils quickly, if bulked together when first stripped.
Putnam Co. W. S. G.
The Sred Should Be Tested.
2d Fremium.—It is not a hard matter
to raise a good crop of broom com-. It
does well on any good corn ground, and
leaves the soil in much better condition
for a crop of wheat or oats than does com
mon corn. It stands drouth very well,
and produces 700 or 800 pounds of brush
to the acre under favorable conditions. The
latter part of May is tho best time to
plant. The soil should be put in fine tilth
j.and the seed planted immediately. Use
a corn planter, with broom corn plate, and
drill in rows 42 inches apart, one-twelfth
bushel to the acre; this will make about
150 seed to the rod. It is very important
to have reliable seed, and I prefer the Tennessee Evergreen variety. Cultivate
early and thoroughly, until two or three
feet high. Harvest when the seed is in
the dough, by cutting off the heads with
about six inehes of stalk. Tlie seed;,
should be combed out as soon as possible,
but never handle while wet. Place the
brush in thin layers, in a cool, airy place;
it will spoil if allowed to heat.
F. T. B.
Premiums of $1, 75 cents and 50 cente
are given for the first, second and third
best articles for tho Experience Department each week. Manuscript should be
sent direct to the Indiana Farmer Company and should reach us one weak be-
fort date of publication.
Topics for discussion in future lumbers of the Farmer are as follows:
No. 425, Ap**'! BO.—Give experience with
cream separators. Should th«y be in
general use?
No. 426, May 7.—Give experience in
bee-keeping, for pleasure and profit.
No. 427, May 14.—Teli how to manage
tho sheep and lambs through summer and
fall.
<§ujc x g antl &nsmzv.
Please tell me what will cure piles in pigs, and
what causes the same. J. II. Parker.
. Cause of Heamorrhoids depends upon some obstruction of the portal circulation, constipation, and frequently on retention of hardened faeces in the rectum.
Treatment, gentle laxative food. Take
equal parts of oak gall and hogs lard, and
apply two times a day.
Please Rive in the Indiana Farmer a good cure
for the thumps In a hog, and  what causes them.
Clay Co. E. L.
Thumps are due to cold and over feeding with corn. It is sometimes due to
pleuresoy or pneumonia. Give easy digestible food; keep in dry, warm place and
give the following, night and morning, in
soft food, viz: Sodii salicylate, 3 ouuees;
nitrate potash, 2 ounces; geutiana, 2
ounces. Mix and make into 1G powders,
give one powder night and morning in
feed.
We havo a young liorse that has enlarged place
on hoatl just below eyes. tl sj*ems to lie an
enlargement of the Ijone. Nose discharges white
snbst.-ucjj similar to distemper. Horso breathes
hard anil can be heard fur 20 or 30 feet. Can yjju
suggest  a  remedy?
Pa port e Co. T.   Bros.
Your horse has what is called absces of
frontal sinuses, due either to catarrh or
diseased molars. Would advise calling
your nearest veterinarian and have the
bones triphin_d, as medication is out of
the question.
Will you please let me kijoiw through your
Veterinary Department what treatment to give a
horse injured in tbe shoulder? She became frightened at an automobile and ran with great force
against a telegraph pole, striking her shoulder,
'vhieh has caused her to be lame ever since. Any
infjjrmation and treatment for same will greatly
jtblige, A      Subscriber.
Injuries of that kind aro not easy to
diagnose at such a distance, but no doubt
if the force of contact was very sovere
the result would be dislocation or fracture. The best plan wculd be to have
nn export veterinary surgeon to examine
the  horse.        I  would  recommend   abso
lute rest until the animal is again sound.
If thero is heat and swelling the shoulder
should be bathed with hot or cold water,
three or four times a day and cooling lotion applied after each bathing: Whitch-
hazel, tincture arnica and spirits camphor,
equal parts. This should be applied 3
times a day after oach bath. The horse
should not work until entirely recovered
from his lameness.
My cow's bowels seemed to clog: I gave physic
until the discharges were copious, but as soon as
the passages became natural she seemed iu misery,
would stretch her head upward and sometimes lay
lt against her side. This Is about the only
symptoms of misery. Then I repeat the physic
and she would seem well again. Has had a
gj-od appetite all the time when not sick. One
half the day would chew her cud, the other half
be slek. nut I keep repeating the physic and
she stays about so. Disease and treatjnent,
please. W.  W.  R.
The cow is undoubtedly suffering with
chronic indigestion. I would advise giving her a mild cathartic. Then follow
with strict diet, such as soft food, plenty
of salt so as to induce her to drink«plenty
of water, and give the following three
times a day: Tincture nux vomica, 2
ounces; tincture gentiana, S ounces. Mix
and give one ounce in a little water as a
drench three times a day.
m-Att *lCWS.
For the first time in 10 years, at this
season of the year, two inches of snow carpeted the grass at Charlestown on tlie
llth, speedily vanishing when the sun
arose.      Fruit buds are damaged.,
George W. Moycr, of Orestes, built the
house, in which' no still resides, 00 years
ago, and he boasts that a birth nor a
death never occurred within its walls.
Farmers around Milton are disheartened
over the backwardness of tho season. The
crop of oats will be short, as some have
already abandoned the idea of putting in
oats.
A dog owned by Daniel Regan and a
largo turkey gobbler belonging to Dr. W.
N.IIorueeugagedin a fierce fight in a barn
lot at the rear of the Home home at Anderson. The turkey apparently won the
fight, the dog running away and howling
with pain after receiving a vicious blow on
the head from tlio gobbler's foot. One
of the dog's eyes was ruined.
Orval Zerfas, ->f Michigantown, owns
a thrifty pig with two well-developed bodies ,eight legs, fonr ears and but one head.
Tlie legs, ears and bodies and also the head
are normal. The question puz_ling thoso
who seo the animal is the distribution of
food through one mouth to the different
digestive apparatuses. The respiratory
aud circulatory, as well as • the nervous
systems, appear to be entirely distinct in
tho two bodies attached to ono head.
(Seueval p exvs.
Tho pay roll of the navy is $20,000,000
a yoar.
Pens aro polished witli emery powder in
a large revolving drum.
In the religious communities where the
use of meat is forbidden appendicitis is
>unknown.
Thirty years is the average age of an
ostrich and the annual yield of a bird in
captivity is from two t four poumls of
plumes.
All the Mocha and Java coffee coming
to this country is for private orders, says
Dr. 'Wiley, of tho eDpartment of Agriculture, and hardly a pound is sold over
store counters.
Tho averago Korean lives in a thatched
cottage having three rooms in a row. The
kitchen fire is a one end and its chimney
at the other, tha flue passing under the
rooms  warms  them.
There are very few paupers in Japan,
because old age is revered there. No
parents or children como to want there
unless all their natural protectors are
dead or disabled.
Theordore Pidcock, a Washington, N. J.,
farmer, claims to havo the oldest plow
in America. He has also many other old
farming implements and the lot will be
shown at tho St. Louis Fair.
Seventy years ago the trade unions of
Boston gave a dinner and found no place
open to them except Faneuil Hall. Twen
ty-two societies refused to rent their halls
to labor organizations.
Oswald Fritz Bilse, the German ex-
lieutenant who is now undergoing his six
month's imprisonment for publishing a
novel of garrison life, is only twenty-ono
years old. He is the son of the head
master of a school in Thuringen.
A machine has been invented which is
capable of splitting wood two feet long
and eighteen inches thick. It is run by
a three horsepower gasoline engine, and
consists of a huge knife which works
through tha knottiest wood at tho rate of
GO strokes a  minute.
Japanese postage stamps are rated as
the most artistic in the world. There is
a great demand for them in London at
present. The first stamps were issued in
1S71. There are few rare ones, the highest price ever known to have been paid
for oae being ?50.
Workmen "and women in Itussia factories receive from 20 to 75 cents a day. The
work is so hard that most of tliem are
wrecks before they reach tho age of 40.
Twenty head of Guernsey cattle, the
finest herd ever imported to America, are
at the World's Fair to compete for prizes
in the dairy tests. They are valued at
$30,000.
In the large German cities there are
many children who must attend school, beginning at 8 o'clock in the winter, and 7
in summer, who do not get enough to eat
for breakfast. Conseuently, arrangements have been made in a number of
places for providing the necessary food
for those in need. During the winter
of 1002-03 in the ten largest cities 24,000
were fed daily.
MANILA AT ST. LOUIS.
At the St. Louis Exposition, the Philippine exhibit employs the services of 1,000
natives of our new possession to depict tlie
life, manners, and customs of the archi
pelago. Parts of the walled city of
Manila, a market place in Manila, native villages of many island tribes makes
other natives, divided into families, are
r.n exposition within itself. A great lake
surrounding the north ami east and front
of the Philippine reservation furnish a
marine theater for acquatic sports and
water transportation. Three native
bridges span the water. On this ideal
location, commanding a view of the exposition, 400 of the native constabulary
and 200 Macabebe scouts show the Filipino families, are engaged in tho peaceful pursuits of that clime. Not only the
life of Manila, but the tribes which build
their habitations over water and swing
their domiciles in the trees will mako the
unfamiliar American and European acquainted with their brothers of the human
race. The whole natural treasury of tlie
rich archipelago will be spread in profusion for our inspection.