VOL. LIX.
INDIANAPOLIS, DECEMBER 3', 1904.
NO. 53
Our Letter From Washington.
No branch in the Department of Agriculture is busier the year round than the
publications division, of which George
William Hill, an old agricultural editor,
is chief. Mr. Hill is in fact the editor of
the Department and as su£h he is the
greatest editor in the world. His editorial state is also a big one. No other
government does so much printing as the
United States and as a rule the editions
of foreign publications are small and
copies are sold and not distributed gratuitously. The idea of printing documents
and distributing them free to the people is
original with the United States. All
the Departments issue publications for
gratuitous distribution, usually Iby senators and representatives, but Agriculture
leads all the others in the number of these
publications, and I might hazard in their
interest  and  usefulness.
During Secretary Wilson's incumbency
it has become a practice to issue a great
number of short popular pamphlets and
bulletins. Starting with a, special.Congressional appropriation of $30,000 for
such bulletins, two-thirds of which were
for the use of senators and members, this
appropriation has been increased from
year to year until it is now $105,000, and
the number of farmers' bulletins printed
i   last year was o,43_>,ooo.
"The popularity of these bulletins during the last seven or eight years 'has phenomenally increased," said Mr. J. A. Arnold Mr. Hill's active associate editor "and
this is due to the great interest Secretary
Wilson has manifested in them and to
the further fact that farmers have learned that they can he obtained upon application. I believe the result of the dissemination of this vast volume of! printed
information has been a greatly increased
interest in improved iagricultural methods,
with attention to details of cultivation,
and to breeding and raising of stock. The
further result is increased yields of improved varieties and better grades of stock
for whieh higher prices are received by
the farmer. We are glad to have application from every farmer in the land for
these  farmers'  bulletins. If  they  can
not he obtained from senators or representatives, the Department will endeavor
to furnish them."
December 17. G. E." M.
in poultry raising. Mr. Eugene Sites
of Elyria, O., has been secured, and will
devote five weeks, during the second half
of1 the term, to the discussion of poultry
raising and egg production, in all its
phases. Mr. Sites is not only a grower
and exhibitor of fine poultry, but am expert judge as well. He won many prizes
at the St. Louis Exposition, ,and will,
therefore,  he competent  not only  to  in-
Int*resting Letter From Minnesota.
Editors Iadlana Farmer;
As I have of late years written from
southern Kansas, so perhaps a few notes
by the way and up here would be of interest to the readers of the Indiana Farmer.
We left southern Kansas on the morning
of December 1st. It was a clear, warm
day; part of the day some of the car windows were raised.        When    the    train
Put due Winter School of Agriculture.
New Lines of Instruction.
Two new lines of instruction will be
offered in the Purdue University Winter
School of Agriculture, which will begin
January 10th, next: Mr. H. R. Row-
some ot Ontario, Canada, will discuss
bees, bee-keeping and honey production
during the first three weeks of tlie term.
It is Mr. Rowsome's purpose to take up
the subject in the order of the seasons.
His purpose indoing this is to givepractic-
al intruction and helpful suggestions on
points that are usually overlooked in books
on apiculture. Those who have become
interested in bee-keeping as well as those
who would like to take up this fascinating
and profitable pursuit, either as a side
line, or as a specialty on the farm, should
plan to attend the Winter School of Agriculture and hear Mr. Rowsome's lectures. Mr. Rowsome is not only an,
experienced apiculturist, but he has lectured before the regular Agricultural students at the Agricultural College, ~ -'^h*
Ontario, Canada for years. The .j-
who attend are, therefore, assured ot very
valuable instruction in this line.
The other new line will be instruction
ago we were tiiere, and Minneapolis was ouly a small town
of about 1,000 inhabitants, now it
is 10 miles long. Then the. whole volume of the river rushed over the falls and
there wore no mills except some saw mills.
They did not know whether they could
raise wheat or not. We went down to
see the falls of St. Anthony, but the falls _
are a thing of the past. Every drop of
water is taken from the river at the head
of the rapids, and used for power, and in
addition they use some steam. 'Where
the falls used to be, it was dry as the side
walks.
Crow River is 75 miles west of Minneapolis. It is a small village. There is
a creamery located here. There are 15
br 20 ot them in Meeker county. This
is a co-operative company. There are
about 80 stockholders; they get the milk
from 500 cows. They now deliver threo
times a week. This morning we counted 1G wagons there at once, with from 2
to 1-1 cans each. They receive about
6,000 pounds of whole milk at each delivery. They have two large separators
that separate the milk as fast as weighed.
They unload their whole milk into the
weighing tank; then* they receive a small
weight, then drive to the other side of
house, attach this weight to a lever which
weighs out the skim milk to each patron.
They churn 200 pounds each churning, and
three times a week. The churn is a
large cylinder, four feet in diameter and
eight feet long. It churns the butter,
washes it, works and salts it, all before
it is taken from the churn.
This has been an unusually mild winter
so far. Zero has been the lowest The
first snow is falling now. There is but
little variation during the day from 10 to
20 degrees. The most of the men wear
fur overcoats. D. M. Adams.
Crow River,   Meeker   Co.,    Minnesota,
December 1G.
struct those who desire to engage in raising the practical barnyard fowls, but to
poultry fanciers as well. This instruction in ponltry will be introduced during
the Corn School, the fourth week in January, by Mr. T. E. Orr, Secretary of the
American Poultry Association. Mr. Orr
has lectured at Purdue on poultry for
several years. He is a practical poultry grower, an acknowledged authority on*
all poultry subjects and an entertaining
and effective lecturer.
The al>ove named lines of instruction
will be added to the course in agriculture
and horticulture, thus materially strengthening this course, and making it an attractive and valuable one for persons of
small means, as well as those who have
large farm interests to look after. Men*
and women, alike, will find this course a
practical and profitable one to take.
In the near future, the Winter Course
circular, setting forth the several lines of
instruction that will be offered during the
Winter months will be issued, and sent
out tj» all who desire it. Application for
siime/ should be made    to Profi.  W.    C.
"J., tta, Lafayette, Indiana.
j.   j» .
Single eyeglasses are prohibited in the
German army.
stopped for dinner the most of the passengers got out and walked around, as it
was so pleasant.
From Kansas City to eastern Iowa
we passed in the night. When
wie changed cars at Columbus. Iowa
it felt quite frosty. The train for the
north had double glass on the windows.
When daylight came we were near Cedar
Rapids. It began to snow while there
nnd continued to the north line of Iowa.
The streams were frozen* over. For some
miles the first land we saw in the morning was low flint hills; as we journeyed
north the quality of the land improved until we reached a fine well improved country.
In northern Iowa and southern Minnesota, they have good comfortable dwellings, and large red barns and out-buildings.
We spent a few days in Minneapolis.
The lakes in the city and vicinity froze
over while we were there. Minneapolis is
as fine a city as we were ever in. The
residence part" of the city is hilly; the
streets curve around these hills and the
little lakes. This gives a greater opportunity to make the buildings and
grounds show to advantage.     Fifty years
SUPERFLUOUS  HISTORY.
The family considered it a fine thing
when young John Robinson was sent to
Korea to represent the principal daily
paper in his State. His relatives gave
him much advice, many parting injunctions   and   numerous   keepsakes.
Just before John started for the train
his stately old grandfath«;r said, in his
deep, sonorous voice, which always made
everything doubly  impressive:
"My boy remember you are going to
make history. That the words you send
to your paper will go down* to future generations a part of the history of this war
between Russia and Japan; so weigh your
words well."
All the members of! the family were
tearful at the moment of John's departure,
bnt small Katheri__», aged ten, went so
uproariously that the others forgot their
own grief in attempting to assuage her«.
"Don't cry dear." comforted her older sister. "John is such a cautious chap
that he'll be sure to take good care of
himself. It probably won't be long,
either, before he's home again, simply
covered with glory." '
" 'Tisn't John I'm worried about,"
sobbed Kntherine. "It's that horrid old
history that he's gone to make. There's
more history now than I can learn*!"—X.
Y. Tribune.
Within a few days there will be wireless communication between the Farallon
islands, which the thirty miles off the entrance to San: Francisco bay, and the
navy-yard at Mare Island.