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VOL. LIX.
INDIANAPOLIS, FEB. 20, 1904.
NO 8.
Broom Sedge.
Editors Indiana Firmer:
I could give your Kokomo correspondent pointers or broom sedge. While
broom sedge thrives and does well in
Southern Indiana, you will not find it
on a well cared for farm, but you will
find it on the best land in Southern Indiana if it is not kept down by the mower
and not let get started on the land. I
have seen hundreds of acres of broom
sedge in the North-western States where
the soil is better than it is any where in
Howard county, and the soil is a great
deal better in these North-Western States
than it is in Southern Indiana
and broom sedge grows much taller there
than it does down here. Would you think
those farmers up in the North-West
should plant cow peas and use commercial fertilizers to bring up their farms?
I don't; in fact I think the least you have
to do with fertilizers the better you are
off, and take the mower to the broom
sedge and sow just a little more clover,
ahd when you do that just sow a little
more, and keep it up. This same rule
•will work up around Kokomo.
Jennings Co. J. T. McConnack.
—Of course broom sedge will grow in
rich soil, most any plant will; but it will
also grow jn soil so poor that hardly any
thing elese will. Even the better class of
weeds will hardly sprout in it. What
our Kokomo reader wants to know i3 how
to improve such soil so as to make it grow
paying crops. We know of nothing better than cow peas, if they will grow in it.
We doubt if clover would make a catch
there. The land you speak of in the
.worth-Western States is rich, and does
not need fertilizers. If put in cultivated
crops a year or two the sedge can be killed
out, as is done in places in the Blue grass
region in Kentucky.
Last week one evening I dropped off a
Union Traction car in North Jonesboro,
at the junction* of the Gas City tracks, on
my way home from Indianapolis, and
from a near-by saloon came a young man
young woman, well dressed, but so drunk
as scarcely able to stand, and by the support of the youug man she staggered to
tlie car and was put aboard for Marion.
An expression of mingled sympathy and
disgust was noticeably among the observers; ''bad enough to see a man drunk, but
how much worse a woman" was the
thought.
Tho Marion papers next morning told
how a couple of wayward women and
young men went up to North Jonesboro
has inherited tendencies from the father
by these facts that do reflect in the second and third generation, and that is why
it requires strong language to criticize
strong cases, the result.of the increasing
crimes against law and decency.
I. M.
The Old Days on the Farm.—No. 7.
Editors Indian*  Parser:
Boy—Wealth.
My father was one who had the wisdom to believe that the farmer's boy
should be encouraged on the side, as it
were, thus adding inducement to industry,
and so certain little sources of revenue
were  placed  at my  disposal.      For ex-
Matter for Serious Thought.
Editors Indiana Firmer:
la a recent number of the Farmer, my
friend Mr. Waite eulogizes the editors
for the stand they have taken in regard
to morality, temperance and keeping their
pages clean of even tobacco advertisements.
Justly true, and it is well they do commended for it, as I believe it has exerted
an influence for good more than they
would claim for; yet I recollect calling
down the editor 20 years ago last fall,
with exceptions to his recommendations
for converting the excess of the apple
crop into cider and vinegar, observing as
I had done the effect that cider produced
in many families in cultivating the taste
for highly seasoned food and drinks more
or less alcholic in their nature.
Previous to that I had come into possession of rich black soil that several
suggested I could make a fortune on by
planting it in tobacco, ond tho in debt for
back payments on the land, I said: "No,
if certain of making $75 per acre out of
tobacco growing I would not raise it,"
as that would have been the limit to be
gained in production, being unsuitable for
man or the animals as a food product,
but, rather, a useless, expensive, degrading habit for boy or man to epgage in by
using it."
Mr. W. says he is "no pessimist," which
I take him to mean politically, on questions that would touch party affllations;
—in other words, would not speak of temperance, morality, etc., as a political party measure.
Here we differ for.I am a "pessimist"
from away back, on these and many more
questions that involve the public welfare.
Group of Six Belgians, owned by Frisinger & Co., Decatur.
the day before to have a time, and coming
back were helped off at 12th and Washington streets, South Marion, by their escorts, but too drunn to walk, and fell by
the wayside gutter, cursing the passers by,
but soon attracted the police, and were
taken to jail and assessed the regulation
price for disorderly conduct. The young
men*, who had so openly and conspicuously chaperoned them on their rounds during the day's eventful career, skipped out
just before the police came on the scene,
and, hence went free of calumny and
doutless that or some evening later were
welcome visitors in the homes of young
ladies, whose respectability, so far as
known, is above suspicion, and the parents tolerate them with every consideration becoming gentleman visitors.
Such things we have in our midst happening every day, and on the increase,
because the young men are priveleged to
visit most anywhere and everywhere they
choose to go, anu it is only when death
by the more vicious hand oJ the assassin
befalls the all too trusting girls is there a
ripple of excitement; and then witness
the fathers and brothers with a system
soaked by the use of stale drinks and tobacco fumes talk of protecting the purity
of the girls whose very existence has become largely more or less tainted by the
influences so*unworthily thrust upon the
daughters as well as sons, by heredity
and enviroment.
Now, Mr. Editor you may think a part
of the above a little strong, but have
lived quite long enough to see the results
of contamination on the offspring by the
parent stock, and tho pity it fs, but the
girl in spite of restraints placed upon her,
ample, there stood adjacent to the house
a fine sugar camp, which was, to my
youthful mind, one of the proofs of a
good Providence—for why should so many
of these useftil trees have been brought
together as men planted orchards, unless
it were so designed for human benefit?
All the amber syrup this grove was capable of yielding, over and above a few
gallons for home consumption, was mine,
if I chose to expend the necessary labor.
And how I would look forward to those
early mild days following crisp nights,
that would set the sap to mounting!
These were the days, too, that set the
blood to bounding with the joy of tlio
first promise of spring, and to this day
the "peter, peter, peter!" of the little sugar-bird has for me associations that are
awakened by no other sound of nature.
It brings back to me not only the joy of
the warm sunshine after winter's long
reign, but all the glad preparation of the
pails, the overhauling of the stock
of spiles and replenishing the same with
new ones from elderberry stalks; the tapping of the trees; the setting jup of the
big kettles for the boiling. Then the precious sap with its drip, drip, drip—how
slowly it accumulated! Yet nearly a
hundred "spickets" working faithfully
through the sunny hours made quite as
much as a boy wanted to carry to the
kettles. Then came the boiling down—
the feeding of the fires from a plentiful
supply of old limbs and refuse wood, the
watching of the kettles as their contents
seethed and heaved, lashing the hot hissing sides; the dipping from one to another down the steaming line, and the changing color in the cauldrons, from the fresh
sap at one end to a dark brown syrup
liquid at the otlier. Sometimes this boiling continued into the night, the leaping
fire lighting the grove up weirdly, and
the novelty ofi it was quite romantic
enough to pay for the extra work. Surely, the town boy who has never known
the joys and cares and the anticipations
of sugar-making is to be pitied. And tlie
reward was golden! What came out of
all those barrels of 6Ugar-water, ultimately, seemed discouragingly small in quantity, but every gallon of the rich, brownish-yellow syrup with its matchless flavor *
(fit for the palate of a king) was good for
a big round silver dollar, at least.
Again, when the ground was prepared
for the spring crops,  there was  usually
a corner somewhere set aside for my special  labor,  the harvest thereof  to be  my
own.    My  experience  as  a  husbandman
on my own hook were not always encouraging.    One of my earliest ventures, I recall, was the cultivation of sweet potatoes.
I was very fond of sweet potatoes, and it
struck me that for anything so good people would pay a good round price.    Then
I had  chanced  to notice how  one  littlo
plant,   costing  almost nothing  would  fill
a. hill Mp with great fat tubers, and so it
seemed to me like a sure and easy way
to all  the circus  money  I would  get  a
chance to  use.        It happened  that my
ground  that  year  had  on  admixture  of
day in it, and was-turned up before quite
dry  enough.     Accordingly,   tlie   first  job
after the ridges were thrown up was to
pulverize them with a hoe, which long and
arduous task had not entered into my calculations.    But that was only the beginning.    It had been suggested to me that
clay soil was hardly the thing for sweet
potatoes, but as I seemed not to ibe seeking advice I  suppose my father thought
experience   would   be   the   best   teacher.
Nature went out of! her way  to  thwart
me that season.    She got up  a drought
for  mo  and  kept  from   raining,   though
time   and     again     the   clouds  had   hard
work  to  hold   in.     I,   in   turn*,   tried   to
thwart her malevolent intent by carrying
water in pails an eighth of a, mile and
pouring it on my beloved plants, but the
thirsty ground absorbed it like a mighty
sponge.     Finally,   what  with   much   clay
and   little  water   my   anxiously   awaited
harvest came out of the ground looking
a crop of fish worms, and my faith in industry as a sure road to reward was sar-
iously   undermined.     Subsequently,   however,  things  went  lietter,   and   my  littlo
crops,of potatoes, onions and other staples
annually gladdened  my heart.    The dollars  netted  by  them  and  by  my  sugar-
making, though not very many, were the
most  important I  ever earned,  for they
had a new meaning to me.    Riches won
from nature  by  the  voluntary  sweat of
my brow, they were thoroughly mine and
I  felt a  proud ownership  in  them.    All
tbe pleasures of that thrift—how I watched those potatoes and onions as I  hoed
them week by week; how I gloated upon
them as I dug them from the soil where .
they had  grown  big  and  plump,   I  will
remember, and with what satisfaction and
sense of importance did I contribute to the
world's market, gathering, in return, the
reward for my service. G. S. C.
* I have heard James AVhitcomb
Riley, the poet, say that the note of the
sugar-bird was to other bird-notes as the
flavor of maple syrup was to other syrups,
and it seems a happy figure.
The first steam warship was the Fulton,
tuilt in Brooklyn Navy Yard in 1815. She
was 2,000 tons and carried thirty guns.