VOL. LIX.
INDIANAPOLIS, OCTOBER ,15 i904.
NO 42.
Alfalfa   Inoculation.
Editors Indiana Farmer:
Last sprinrg we prepared six acres-vot
ground nicely and sowed 120 pounds of
alfalfa seed on it. In a few days the
seed came up nicely, and in a few da.\s
more the grass came as thick as wool.
We mowed it once, and tiiere is stP.l
clover enough among the grass, but it
is small. Does this ground *eed inoculating? If so, can,I get soil »nd inoculate it, and save this crop, or had I better give it up and sow again?       J. F.
Johnson Co.
—If yj)u have a fair stand leave it; it
will take the ground next ye&r. In sucb
soil as yours seems to ibe we> doubt if inoculation would be much improvement
but we recommend you to try it on part,
say two acres of it, and note the difference next summer, and write and tell our
readers about it. Please do this; the cost
of inoculating soil is but trifling.—Eds.
Why do the Boys Leave .the Farm?
Editors Indiana Farmer:
I see in a recent paper that this weakness is ascribed to the fair sex. That is,
the farm boy is snubbed, and the law
limb or the medical tyro is preferred by
the average young lady.
This may be th© fact And the young
lady is not wholly to blame. Her mother, if a farmer's wifle, has done as much
work as two women ought to do, and she
has all along inclined to shield the daughter.. She has washed and baked artd
churned and run after the chickens, and
brought in the dinner from the garden,
and picked the geese and made the soap,
and dried the apples and peaches, and
mowed the door yard, and done the sewing and patching and tended the baby.
Her instinct is alert to sa.verher daughter from such a life, and she does not
even allow her to share the .drudgery ni.
home. She fancies that a.ftrwyer's wi_e
bias an easy life.
But here are two errors. T. irst, s _e
should not do all these things while the
daughter is idle or engaged in visiting and
entertaining. The  daughter   ought   to
carry a full share and learn it all. Even
if sh« marries a lawyer, the lawyer may
wisely move to the country arrd become
a farmer. Secondly, a lawyer's life does
. not make a happy wife. He has six ;<■
twenty years of hardship and poverty
for no young lawyer" gets a great practice. There is no vocation th%t develoj.
more slowly; unless it be that of the doctor. On the other hand, the young farmer may beginj the very first year, to accumulate and make himself a home. And,
now that the pnone, the rural delivery
and the * interurban travel combine to
make the country residence enjoyab">,
there is no young lawyer's wife half eo
well situated.     v . W. S. S.
larion  that will  positively  prohibit     the
right of way, on the public thoroughfares.
longs to the sporting   realm; Js-a-splendid
machine on which to wage a. bet; a thing
Arlington.
~<d	
utowblle.
r:    ^
The Auto'
Kditors Indiana Farmer!
Being an interested (observer fot the
pullic good, I have C-ipped from the
newspaperssome50notice_ of accidents ac-
casioned by the devil-dragon, known as
the automobile. The results have been
broken limbs, wounds, bruises, deaths, an>l
wrecked wagons, and ruined teams, w'th
doctor bills to match, not to mention the
suffering of weeks by the families afflicted. I am led to apply to this "pleasure car" the remark of Davy Crocket upon
his first seeing a locomotive: "Hell on
wheels!      Lord,  how she  snorts!"
And what are we going to do abont
it, is the question. There is but on«
thing that can be done.        Secure legis-
Let them meet at once, under some suggestive name, say "Anti-auto Society," or
"Alliance," or "Mutual Life Protection Society." Let each organization secure,
in advance, pledges from tlieir county
representatives, respectively to the legislature, of adequate legislation to protect
farmers and everybody else whose occupation is such as to demand the peaceful
possession of the highways, at will, goititf
or coming, without the risk of being per-
matnrely hurled to the devil, or translate!
torheaven by the go-devils, yclept automo-
bile_y as the case may be.
In "the meanwhile those of us who are*
not farmers may keep them and ourselves
to the adjustment of this trouble. Many
of the- autoists are gentlemen and kindly
disposed, but like poor dog Tray, they are
found in a company, the majority of
whom do hot care fbr the life and limb
•of others, tb whom it is the race of terror
and death, while it is a mere pastime of
comfort and sport to the "Lords of the
Tub" flying in sumptuous attire at breakneck speed.' W. O. Pierce.
Hamilton Co.
Logging Camp and Tramway,  Northern  Washington.
of any motor power vehicle that is used
as a, menace to the life, limb, or property
of others. If such legislation excludes
the use, even of the traction engines, however useful, it will have to go, for there
is nothing more precious than human
life, and the right to live over against
miking money, or the gj>dless, maddening
pursuit of pleasure for the mere sake of
selfish gratification, as evidenced in the
use of the automobiles. We speak of the
traction engine as being included if necessary, to secure a law that will rule out
the automobile. It is to be hoped that
the traction engine will stay, on the
ground of utility. The auto is to
be classed with the locomotive, and has
no more right than it to a place
on    the   public    thoroughfare. It    ;s
not a necessary element in our industrial life  aa  is  the traction.      It    be-
of wealth and luxury, and ruled out from
the things that meet the necessities of our
civilization. There is only one way to
bring it  under  control. An   exclusive
right-of-way secured from the public- cs
the right of railroads is secured, by pay-
in? for it in cold dash, to be built by an
auto company and operated under sivh
restrictions x.b will not interfere with carriage and wagon transit of the public
roads. In a word, auto roads, as we
have railroads, distinctly and exclusively
used for auto traffic, racing, fun • aud
frolic. It is the only solution of this
vexed problem. In another paper I «:11
outline a bill suitable as we believe for
legislative enactment, provided the Farmer will see fit to publish it.
In the mean time the farmers in evrry
country of the State should organize to
secure legislation at the next legislature.
REAPING   THE WESTERN WHEAT
HARVEST.
Day after day    the    dispatches    from
the wheat-belt grew more hysterical.
"Late frost has caught it now" read
the doctor at breakfast; "won't be halB
a crop." The next morning: "Wheat
wasn't hurt so bad after all, the paper
says—but Hessian fly's mighty thick."
And then: "Rain has killed the Hessian
fly—but look out for rust! Th' leaves
are turning yellow." At last: "It's all
Tight—just th' ripening. Heads are filled,
kernels big—want twenty thousand extra
hands—th' chance of a lifetime,"
"Chance for what?"
"To get up at four o'clock in th' morning and work till nine, at night, get two
dollars a day—and found—cure my atta.sk
of the blues, and come to enjoy my
meals."
Harvest was ready. Rich fields
stretched away to the misty horizon,
dimpling, smiling like seas of gold. Shadow-waves chased in riotous courses over
the undulating surface and great cloud-
islands moved slowly upon the sunlit expanse. It was the Middle Wiest in its
glory—the perfect fruitage of the farmers'
yoar.
How they came, those harvesters—a
motly company, gathered from a " doeen
States and as many occupationls. Wo
watched the train as it drew out of the
distance.
"Hope they'll know what they're tryin'
to do," remarked Farmer Mangold, whj>
sr.t in his wagon waiting for a load of men
receded on his ranch fifteen miles from
town. "The' lot I got last summer hitched th' horses up wrong end first and called the sod barn a 'mud house' and th'
cyclone a 'hurricane hole'."
Not all were of this kind. The farmer loaded up his wagon with well-tanned, strong-armed, whiskered men from
Illinois. They had come from a coal
town and were blackened with the soot.
"Mighty clean out here, Jim," remarked one to his feiiow; and his eyes drank
in tne f.iir prairie landscape joyfully.
They were the first comers—men used to
these summer excursions for wheat-gathering. They knew which end of a horse
should bear the breeching and none • referred to the mowing machine as a "lawr.
mower."—From "Journeying with Harvesters," by C. AI. Harger, in the July
Scridner's.