Jasper County Democrat, Volume 11, Number 47, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 November 1908 — FARMERS’ SHORT COURSE. [ARTICLE]

FARMERS’ SHORT COURSE.

January 11-16, 1909-—Pardue University, Lafayette, Indiana. The seventh annual Farmers’ Short Course (formerly called corn school and stockmen’s convention) will be held January 11-16, 1909, by the School of Agriculture of Purdue University, Lafayette, Indiana. This course of one week is especially designed for and adapted to the needs of corn growers, stockmen, dairymen, horticulturists, and home makers. That the work is popular and has proven to be of practical value is borne out by the fact that more than 3,500 people have taken the course during* the past three years. The instruction consists of lectures and demonstrations which include a discussion of the various important phases of the subjects together with practical scoring and juding. The schedule for the week is arranged so that the time is about equally divided between the lectures and the judging work. On Wednesday of Short Course week, the State Corn Growers will hold thler annual meeting. Men with national reputations will be secured for the day. Corn growers should plan to attend. During the week the state corn and fruit shows will be held by the Corn Growers’ Association and the Horticultural Society. More than SI,OOO will be offered in premiums which is sure to bring out a large number of entries. All corn rand fruit men are eligible; no membership or entry fees being charged. For program and other information, apply to Purdue University School of Agriculture, Lafayette, Indiana.

Big “Easy Marks.’** Wonders repeat themselves in the financial work! as well as in less conservative fields, It seems. The transactions of Morse, the ice trust king, are a case in point. Not long ago the insurance investigation turned the searchlight upon the seamy side of life Insurance, and what had been mere surmise before was shown to b<r a fact. The so called “business” was a system of audacious and reckless exploitation. But life Insurance as conducted when the exposure came was comparatively a new thing. It might be believed that the methods employed in it were unique; that the evils exposed were peculiar and confined to that one field of financial activity. Yet th<? Morse revelations, following upon others of similar nature, indicate tiiat the insurance manipulators may have had coaching from old line financiers. They surely found imitators in recklessness and audacity.

Not the least of the wonders in the career of the ice trust was the ease with which supposedly clever business men wore “roped In.” They were handed as they supposed, and readily T'tit more money In to secure more profits. It Is a game well known in the most ordinary business experience, and yet it seems possible to play It on grownups with ease. Then* are people who can never disabuse themselves of the notion that money can be made in some unusual way, a road to wealth which old prospectors have overlooked. General U. 8. Grant’s financial tragedy was brought about in tiiat manner. He had been eight years at the head of affairs In Washington, yet he firmly believed the story that In some roundabout but perfectly legitimate way, known only to the partner whose scheme he financed, a fortune could be made through government favoritism, or practically that, He lost all but honor. for he was a victim. But bold men figure that the world never really learns the folly of expecting something tor nothing, enormous gains on a nominal Investment. Doubtless gullable ]>eople are becoming fewer. We should hope that crooked financiers will become fewer, but they will not wholly disappear so long as capitalists, great and small, are eager to swallow fairy tales fixed up by Wall street experts.

The Catfthc Rat. and the Plague. Science avd Its staff of theorists and specialists have beeu telling us where the rat comes in as a disease spreader, also how to exterminate the rat. Some of the highly alarmed experts have practically declared that we must fight rata to live, even if we end by living merely to fight rats. How to kill rats and lots of them without destroying life that is useful or at least a;|reeable no expert has found out. Here’s where the cat comes in. Introduced by Dr. Buchanan of the Indian medical service in the British army. Dr. Buchanan has been observing the ways of the rat, the cat and the plague in a district comprising fiftyfour towns and villages. Briefly his report is cats, no rata, no plague; or do cats, then rats and plague. All very simple for those who do not draw the line at cats, as some of the natives tn India do. Where the rata are spared the plague gets busy. Where the cats are spared the other end of the trio is the busy one. Traps and anti-plague serum, this authority declares, are aa useless as bread pills in a fsver epidemic. Salvation is by .tbs cat.