VOL. XXIX.
INDIANAPOLIS. IND. MARCH 31, 1894.
NO. 13
■ '4
J
Couldn't Do Without the Farmsr.
Editobs Indiaka Fabmbb:
I think more of the Fabmbb thau ever.
I did without it three weeks after my time
expired, thinking I would do without it
owing to hard times but I found lt was a
mistake and tbat I must economize in
some other way rather than stopping a
good farm paper. F. S. Hamilton.
Johnson Co.
Deep Flowing and Subsoiling.
Editobs Indiana Fabhkbt
Mr. Dempcey came to Clay Co, in this
Btate a few years ago and bought u wot-
out farm. It had beoome so exhausted
that the former owner moved off it. He
could not make a living on it. The neighbors jeered Mr. D. over his poor land. He
asked them it it ever was fertile. They
said it was. He told to them wait and see.
He had plenty of teamB, so he broke his
ground as deep as he could plow it with a
two horse plow. Then he subsoiled it
■ with a deep plow of his own invention.
He put four horses to it and followed in
the furrow after the plow. He tore the
ground up over one foot deep, but did not
throw any of the subsoil on top. The result was the first crop ol wheat averaged
over 20 bushels per acre. It is now claimed
that Mr. D., has the best tilled farm ln the
county. He can raise good corn as wheat
on it. His subsoiler was made like a huge
sinele shovel plow. The plow was narrow
and long with plenty of suck.
Newton, 111. D. M.
Alsike Clover.
Sditobs Indiana Fabmbb:
I would like some information in regard
to Alsike clover. The time to sow it and
whether it makes a hay crop and seed crop
the same year; and if it does which crop
would be harvested first, the seed or hay?
Also how much seed it makes to the acre
on good land? And where can I purchase
the seed?   Please answer and oblige.
Bloomfield. T. C. O.
—Very little Alsike or Swedish clover is
grown in this part of the country, which
seems strange in view of the fact that it is
more hardy than red clover and is as
sweet and nutritious, will produce good
_ crops for four or five years and does well
' on stiff clay soil, too moist for the red variety. It has a smaller stalk than red and
ls greatly relished by all kinds of stock.
Beekeepers regard it as one of the very
best honey plants. The blossoms are on
for four or five weeks and have a peculiarly
rich fragrance. It yields but one crop in
a season which is a disadvantage and the
yield is not so heavy as that of red clover.
Any of the seedsmen who advertise with
us can furnish the seed. Sow six pounds
to the acre. The price ls 25 to 30 cents per
pound. If any of our readers have tried
Alsike will thsy please give their experience for the benefit of this and other read-
era?
Another Plan for a Hot Bed.
ECtTOBS INDIIHA F ARM IB*
Knowing that the readers of Indiana
Fabhkb are always ready for new ideas, I
send you another plan for making a hot
bed to be kept warm by a fire or furnace.
H. W. Buck.ee, of Bockford, HI., gave us
a good article on hot beds in Farmer of
March 3. His description if. carried out
will no doubt work well, but we people
out here think lt too mnch tronble to have
to make new bot beds every year, so we
make them as follows:
Select a well-drained location and one
that is never flooded by rain; then mark
out the size you want your bed, say 6x12
feet. This will make a small one. We
have them here 9x20 feet, or larger. Then
dig and throw out the dirt to the depth of
about 12 inches all over the space for the
bed. Next dig a space about two feet
deep ln the center of the lowest end ot the
bed, and two feet wide, extending three or
four feet beyond the end of bed. The
upper end of this space should be slanted
up to the level of the first dug out. Now
to make the f urnhce, stand some rocks on
edge for sides, then rocks crosswlse*on the
top; then throw dirt on top. When this
is covered back as far as the bed, commence putting down rock, say four inches
thick, cany way to make them convenient,
and lay fiat rock over them. Cover the
whole space of your bed. Tliis will let the
heat pass under all the bed evenly. A
hole in the center of the rear end will
ssrve for chimney. If the rock is properly laid down, so that no dirt will sift
through, it will last for years and is always ready. Now put about 6 or 8 Inches
of good dirt (no manure or straw) on top
of the rock all over the bed, and perhaps a
little thicker even and back of fire or furnace. Put your frame around the bed so
as to hold the dirt in place, and your bed
is ready to be bad heated up. This can be
done in a couple of days, and then a very
little fire will keep lt warm enough. Kiln
cannot injure this bed as much as other
kinds, as water cannot stand on it. Some
cover with glass, others use muslin or
plank. Keep the cover on of nights or
during bad weather. There is another advantage in this kind of a bed, for as fast as
earlier plants are taken out later ones can
be planted and so on; the heat will be always be the same. J. C. Hobson.
■ • .
Going Into the Sorgum Business.
Editobs Indiana Fabmeb:
I would like to ask some questions to
be answered by A. P. Cleland, or others
that have had experience in the sorgum
business. 1. To prolong the season for
making the sirup, would it be better to
plant an early and a late variety, or make
two or more plantings of one good variety? 2. Give kind and oost of machinery used to make the sirup? 3. Would
barrels, if got now of the groceryman, do
to put the sirup in? I mean barrels that
have been used for sirups, such as corn
sirup. 4. Can you get a market where
you can dispose of your whole crop at a
time? Suppose yon had 1,000 gallons. I
want to try a few acres of sorgum this
coming season. Jas. G. Lions.
Editobs India jr a Fabmbb:
In reply to Jas. G. Lyons: To prolong
the season for sorgum molasses manufacturing. 1. Plant Early Golden, Early
Amber, Folger's Early and Early Orange,
which will give you a long season, all
planted at the same time. I have planted
Amber, a small patch each week, up tb
June 20th, and that planted May 20th was
ripe as soon as that planted May 1st. The
largest yield was from Amber pl<inted
May 15th. One year 1 planted Amber
July lst and matured a crop, but the yield
was small.
I could not give cost of machinery unless I knew how much you wish to manufacture each day. My factory has a capacity of 225 gallons in 12 hours. I use a Palace, self-skimming evaporator. One cord
of four foot wood will make 200 gallons of
molasses. I use the Squlers mill. Seoond
hand sirup barrels will cost you about as
much as new barrels. I buy new kegs of 5
gallons up to 30 gallons to sell to my customers at home, arm what I wish to ship I
put up ln 50 gallon barrels.
It Is very difficult to clean secondhand
barrels so they won't give the sirup a bad
flavor. If I had ten thousand gallons of
sorgum at the present time I could soon
dispose of it. Bat if you go into the sorgum business you should get a gjod outfit
and go at it right, because I know of a
good many that have bought inferior machinery, because it was cheap and made a
failure of it. What I mean by a failure is
they made a lot of molasses as black as tar
aud they could not sell it.
Miami Co. A. P. C___and,
Qttmj and grtisvocKs.
Please let me know through your paper
where I may find some artichoke***, the
Jerusalem variety. I want them for
planting. J am a reader of your paper and
think it is the best published.     J. E. D.
You can order them from any of tbe
seedsmen whose advertisements appears
in our columns. It any of our subscribers
have them to sell they should advertise
them in our For Sale columns.
Please tell us what ails our fowls. They
beoome lame and stiff in the joints and
after a time lose the use ot themselves, yet
oontinue to eat for a time but eventually
die. Please give the remedy for said disease if there is any. P. B.
Montgomery Co.
If the disease ls what is known among
poultrymen as leg weakness, it is a result
of overfeeding. Put a teaspoonful of copperas in their drinking water and put
them on a low diet like bran or oats and
keep them away from the corn crib.
1. I have a hen that does not seem to
digest her food properly. Her craw is
tight and full, and she still continues to
eat heartily, but all she eats seems to remain ln her craw. Can you or any of the
subscribers tell the cause of her being so
and the remedy?
2. I set a hen on 13 eggs. The day before she waa to hatch I examined her egirs
and could hear chicks in all the eggs but
one, but five of them never even picked
the shell. On breaking the eggs dead
chicks were found to be in every egg. Can
you tell why they did not hatch, also
what would prevent them from being that
way?  ■ Young Farmer's Wife.
1. No doubt your hen is crop-bound
from feeding too much on dry corn. Press
tbe crop gently for several minutes at a
time, till the contents begin to move easily
under the fingers. Give a tablespoonful
of castor oil, and feed with bran or moistened bread.
2. You should have put the eggs into
warm or tepid water, and picked the
shells open carefully.
James Daughterty, a wealthy farmer of
Bartholomew county recently suffered the
loss ot bis barn and its contents by fire.
List week be reoeived an anonymous letter through the malls, warning him to deposit )150 ln a tin can and conceal the
same at a given place, else his stock would
be poisoned and his house blown up by
dynamite.
It is proposed to erect a monument at
Bedford, oommemoratlng the gallant record of Lawrence county in the war for the
Union, and lt is suggested that it shall be
built of a Birjgle piesce of Bedford limestone
61 feet ln hight. surmounted by a statue ot
a private soldier ln bronze, of herolo dimensions. On the sides will be carved the
name ot every soldier dying in battle.
Paschal Wllhtte, tbe eight-year-old son
ot Foster Fletcher, a prominent citizen of
Montgomery oounty, died on the 21st of
Injuries received ln a peculiar manner.
The lad was seated upon a rail fence and
had cut an elder sprout, the sharpened end
ot which was ln his mouth. Suddenly he
lost his balance and fell to the ground,
literally ramming the stick down his
throat by falling upon let. His throat was
terribly lacerated, and, after suffering excruciating agony, tha child died.
gtixU Qtvos.
A wild cat was killed last week in Huntington county.
A St. Louis firm will erect tin plate
works at Montpelier, which will employ
500 men.
Thomas H. Jackson, of East Connersville, is dead. He settled ln Fayette
county in 1839.
A wind storm passed over Delaware
county on the 21st, doing much damage to
fences and trees.
N. B. Groff, of this city, has been held
for grand jury action for having sold oleo-
margine as creamery butter.
The little daughter of Mrs Frank
Crabbs, ot Muncie, upset a kettle filled
with hot beans, and was scalded to death.
Cassias Gray, of Shelbyville, who set fire
to his unoccupied house to realize on |500
insurance, has been sentenced to two
years' imprisonment.
Ell Clark's residence near Hartford City
was destroyed by a natural gas explosion
on the 21st. A baby was so bady burned
it died, and six others are probably fatally
injured.
Mrs. Phoebe Brown Smith, of Greenwood, died on the 21st She had lived in
that oommunlty for 40 years, and for 61
years had been a steadfast member of the
Christian Church.
The revival ln the M. E. church at Bedford, conducted by the Rev. Mr. Teller, of
Bloomington, continued with wonderful
success. Two hundred converts have
been reoeived on probation.
Mr. and Mrs. Hewitt C. Thomas, of Calves tion, have celebrated the sixty-eighth
anniversary of their wedded life. Both
are verging on the nineties, but are still
active, physically and mentally.
Enormous quantities of salt water are
being drained into the Salemonle river,
the result of drilling for oil, but it is
claimed that it has not affected the bla-k
bass and p'ckerill with which tho stream
abounds. -
H- O. Huffer, a teacher of Farmland, has
Invented a gas pipe bomb .arrangement for
protection of watermelon patches. Strings
run in every direction from the device,
touching any one of which causes an explosion and the flying about of a wide
range of missiles.
©jetweral Ujcws.
Twenty-seven persons were anested and
will be executed for an attempt to kill the
King of Corea.
About 80 people lost their lives ln a cyclone In Texas on the morning the 18th.
Much damage was done to property.
The Massachusetts House of Representatives has parsed a bill requiring every man
to pay for his own drinks and making it a
misdemeanor to treat.
Tom Johnson's oompany is going to
build and equip an electrio street railway
100 miles long in Brooklyn, N. Y. It will
cost f 12,000,000.
The Rev. Thomas Spurgeon has been
elected pastor of London tabernacle, succeeding his father, the Rev. C. H. Spurgeon, deceased.
Vallandlgham Kellars, a two-year old
child, fell into water only a few inches
deep in a horse watering trough near Newark, O., and was drowned.
At Auckland, Cal, John Brady, a dissolute man, shot and killed his wife as she
was kneeling in church and then killed
himself with the same weapon.
The New York Senate has passed the
bill providing for taxing racing associations 5 per cent, on their gross receipts instead of only on their net receipts.
Chas. Randall is walking from New
York to San Francisco and has undertaken
to make the trip in 97 days. In 56 days
he walked 2,100 miles. He has 41 days left
to oover 1,409 miles.
A bank cashier of San Francisco, was
shot and killed on the 23d, by a crank who
demanded money. The murderer was
captured and identified as a desperado
who has already killed two other men.
Col. Allen Sells, one ot the original Sells
Brothers of circus fame, died at nis home,
Topeka, Kas., on the 20th, age 68. He had
taken an active part ln the Pop uliat party
in that city for several years. He was
widely known.
Preparations are being made at St.
Johns, N. F., for three Arctic explorations
this summer. The third expedition is to
be tbe largest projected for many years.
It will consist of 16 scientists and they expect to be gone four years. A steamer will
likely visit them at the end of two years
to take them a fresh supply of provisions.
What is believed to be a genuine case ot
leprosy in a family living ln a suburb of
Newport, Ky., has been discovered. The
victim ls Harry Albury, age 14 years. His
condition is pitiable. . He is a mass of sores
all over, and large patches of hair have
fallen from his head. He has been an invalid for four years. It is said that this is
the first case of leprosy tbat ever came
under the notice of Kentucky physicians.
Prendergast, the murderer ot Mayor
Harrison, of Chicago, who was to have
been hung on Good Friday, has been
granted a stay of execution for two weeks.
Buff Higgins who was sentenced to be
hung at the same time, paid the death
penalty. Higglns's crime was one of the
most brutal ever committed ln Chicago.
With two other hard characters Biggins
planned to rob an old citizen named Peter
McCo-ey. When the old man awoke and
tried to protect his house the leader of the
gang shot him before he oould leave his
bed.