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VOL. LIX.
INDIANAPOLIS, JULY 30, 1904.
NO 31.
Written for tbe Indiana Farmer:
The Circus.
BT Ia. C. BISirOP.
An old-time circus will be seen
At BerryvlUe next w„ek.
And eveyone, for miles around,
Of nothing else can  speak;
For flaming posters have  appeared
On every barn and _ence>
So really  'tis not  strange that  the
Excitment  Is intense.
Amazing girls in spangled  tights,
Leap high through, big balloons,
The while the band, one hundred strong,
Discourses lively tunes;
And here too is the same old clown
Who cracks familiar Jokes,
And gets off on  the ring-master,
In turn, each well-worn hoax.
One hundred sun-bright chariots
A brilliant picture make,
On paper, and the posters say
"This feature is no fake."
This peerless pageant will parade
With horses by the score,
With camels, and with elephants,
j And curious things galore.
Tho steam piano will be there,
The yawning lions'  den,
The ponies, and the monkeys, too,
Will all be seen; and then
Kach one of us who can provide
Himself with fifty cents,
Will see the "T__. Great Shows In One,"
Inside  the  mammoth  tents.
Sheron's Truss Boof Barn.
Editors Indiana Farmer:
,\Ve have just completed a barn on our
farm, two miles west of Marion, Ind.,
that we think is a model barn for a
farm of from 60 to 80 acres. Wo have
it so arranged that it suits us very well
but probably would not meet with the approval of every one.
The architect and builder of this barn
was J. L. Sheron, a brother. The dimensions are 32x50, the basement being 8
feet high. It has a stone foundation,
with a cement floor through the entire
btirn.
The frame above basement is 16 feet
to the plate line, and is built entirely of
two-inch plank with a truss roof, that
does away with all posts and beams. It
has 30,000 cubic feet of hay loft, without a thing in the way. The hay is
taken in at the rear end through gable
doors, hung with rollers, and track that
runs down the gable, and can be handled
by one man very easily.
^'he doors above the basement are not
intended for a driveway. They are for
loading hay to take to market, as we
consider tho room more valuable for hay
than a drive way. Tbe basement has
room for 18 head of cattle and horses,
with a drive way in rear of cattle, and
barn floor space for machinery and buggies.
The truss roof was invented by J. L.
Sheron and so far has given good satisfaction, and I believe the Indiana
Farmer company can recommend it to
their subscribers.
Grant Co. Robert Sheron.
'gxpsxieute gzpnvtmmt.
HOW TWO RAISE SMALL FRU TS PROFITAB-
LY.
The Strawberry It one of the Best.
lst Premium.—To grow small fruit successfully one must start out right. The
different varieties must be on soil that
suits them and be given the correct treatment, or the grower will in a few years
say that, "fruit growing does not pay."
In any lime of business one enters, the
work.must be studied and the trade mastered, and small fruit is not an exception..
Strawberries are  one of the most pro
be removed, but turned around in the row,
unless they become too thick in the fall,
when a runner cutter can be used. TIiq
cultivating is important, as the runners
require a me'Iow soil to take root in. Some
growers, after the ground freezes, haul
stPaw or some other trash and place upon
the patch to protect plants during the winter. In the spring it is taken off and
put between the rows. Good varieties,
succeeding over a wide range of soil are,
(imperfect): Warfield, Haverland, Greenville, Sample and Bubach; (perfect): Excelsior, Brandywine, Lovett, Senator Dunlap, Philip's Seedling and Parker Earle.
With raspberries, one of the main things
is to get them thick enough in the row.
Ira Double, a 10 year old boy, living in
a remote part of Jefferson county. Wells
county, is still in a precarious condition,
as the result of a Fouth of July celebration. The young man purchased some,
fireworks at Tocsin, a small town near
his home, and being unable to carry the
fireworks in his pocket he slipped them
into the legs of his trousers, which were
fastened at the bottom by bicycle trousers guards. Either the friction of tho
metal guards or a flying spark ignited the
fireworks and in a short time Double's
legs were horribly mangled, and, it is
said, he cannot live.
pany and should reach tu one week before date of publication.
No. 439, Aug. G.—Describe conveniences
about the barn, particularly those not in
general use.
No. 410, Aug. 13.—What farm crop is
the surest to produce a profit, and why?
Qttsrg vluSL &nsxo&c.
I would like to know the cause of the pear
and applpe tree blight, and remedy, as I have
quite a number of trees affected. Please answer through Indiana  Farmer. L.  V. P.
Farmland.
The disease known as pear blight, or
apple twig blight, is caused by a germ
that gets lodgement in the tips of the
buds, in the spring, where it multiplies
and works downward, under the bark, in
the pear tree extending into the limbs
and then into the body of the tree and
killing it, unless tlie diseased limbs are
cut off; in the apple it stops at the base
of the young twig, which it kills, but does
no further damage. Cutting off the blighted limbs is the only approved remedy.
Sheron's Truss Roof Barn.
Stable fruits to grow, where good market is at hand and plenty of elbow grease
is used, but it must be remembered that
a great many people make a failure by
neglecting the details. I consider the
current and gooseberry as the least profitable of the small fruits. The raspberry, like the strawberry, frequently fails
on account ofi neglect. If you want i
fruit that grows without much attention,
after it is once started, try a blackbei-y
patch. Th_ market, however, is easilv
overstocked, on that account, low
prices resnlt. Une grower will be fully
repaid for the extra labor that he puts up
en  his blackberry  patch.
The strawberry does best upon a rich
moist, sandy loam, where it will not be
too wet and still not dry out during tho
fruiting   season. The   rsoil   is   peldom
if ever' too rich for tho strawberry, and
an excellent previous preparation is to
turn under a heavy clover sod. After
breaking in tho spring, the ground should
be thoroughly worked down with the harrow and drag, making a fine, loose seed
bed, where they can be easily set out.
They should be set as early as possible
in the spring, before they make heavy
growth, and the hot, dry weather sets in.
In setting the plants, we furrow out only
a few rows ahead so we will hare moist
earth to set them in, a single shovel Working well for the purpose. The plants
are set 18 inches in the row, and the rows
put three and one-half feet apart They
will then make matted rows, two or more
feet   wide  by   fill. Cultivation   com
mences soon 'after the plants are set and
continues iiintil fnll. They usually require hand hoeing, to get the weeds out
of the rows.        Tho  runners should not
Where they are thin it requires too much
ground to produce a bushel of berries.
They should be set about 18 inches iu
the row, and the rows about 1\_ feet
apart. They can be set out either early
in the spring, before they start growing,
or after the young sprouts aro a foot
or more high. They should bo cultivated, to keep the weeds down and th"
soil from drying out. The young growth
should be pinched back when about 18 in.
high, so they will make a wide spreading row of canes. The old canes shou'd
bo taken out after the fruit is off, or
when they are trimmed in the spring fcr
next year's growth. Good varieties are:
Gregg, Palmer, Nemeha, Cumberland. The
blackberry requires about the same treatment as the raspberry. Where the raspberry and blackberry patch can be
mulched with straw, they will make an
abundance of large, fine fruit.
One of the finest ways to grow currants
and gooseberires is to plant them on the
south or southwest side of each fruit
tree. They make fine frnit, are easily
picked, and protect the trees from sun
!>cald.
In marketing, nothing but sound fruit
should be put in the boxes, and they
should run as near the same as possible
from top to bottom. Never put little
berries in the bottom, and then top them
oJt with large ones. They should be
put in- in attractive packages.
Ilowia.d Co. C.  B.
How  should cherry  seeds be treated  and when
planted to produce trees?      Also apple seeds?
Flora. W.    K.    M.
Plant the seeds in the rows where the
young trees are to grow. They will
.prout early the next spring, and be ready
for budding iu August. Some nurserymen keep them in sand in the cellar till
spring, but in that case they must be
planted before they begin sprouting, anjl
it is not always easy to do that, on account
of unsuitable weather. Apple seeds should
be drilled in rich, well prepared soil in
October, and the young trees be oarefull/
eultivated through the next summer and
budded in early fall.
A couple of agents are canvassing this country
selling   black   locust   trees. They   claim   it   is
a paying Investment, and say that at the age of
five years one can secure from two to three posts
from a single tree. If you or anyone ela© can
give the truth about thie black locust would
be glad to hear through the Farmer. One thing
I  want   to  know  ls,  do they  sprout?
Swayzee. E.  P.
The posts would be too small at five
years old for anything but wire, and you
would hardly get more than one good wire
post from a tree at that age. Say 7 or a
years instead of five. Locusts do not
sprout to do any damage; that is the
young sprouts can be killed out as easily
as the weeds.
E. M., of Martinsville, ln your paper, July 9,
gives his way of making a fi_Jod-gate. Is there
any patent on that way of making them?
Gaston. A.  B. B.
Of course not, we would say, but let
us hear from E. In.., about it.
Premiums of $1, 75 cents, 50 centa
are given for the first, second and third
best articles for the Experience Department each week. Manuscript should be
sent direct to the   Indiana Farmer Com-
Automobiles.
Editors Indiana Fanner:
While tlie "men at the crank" on all
machines that frequent this neighborhood,
are always gentlemanly and offer aid
when any accident occurs, there are yet
occasional accidents: Run-sways, broken
limbs, etc., and the majority of ladies object to driving 'alone for fear of meeting one. Some horses seem to have no
fear of them, while others are rendered
frantic, and one never knows when to
prepare by taking extra drivers along, so
it is scarcely safe for a lady to drive out
alone when roads and weather are nice
for a drive. Something should be done,
but what, is the question.
E. C.
Michael Zerb, died on the
afternoon of July 20th at the
Pottsville, Pa., hospital from swollow-
ing cherry stones. He mounted a tree
and ate heartily of the fruit. The stones
united in a solid lump in his stomach,
blocking tho intestines. He died in great
agony.