Jasper County Democrat, Volume 15, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 September 1912 — Page 6

FARMERS’ SERVICE DEPARTMENT

Tj AH inquiries on farm subjects will be riven careful and prompt atten Edited by J. EL WAGGONER Addrem 1 H C SERVICE BUREAU HARVESTER BUILDING CHICAGO

SELfcU IiNG SEED CORN Matter of Great Importance to the Farmer Field Selection of Seed Corn Is the Keynote to Successful Corn Breedl ing—Select the Ears in the Field (Reply to Jacob H. Marshburn, Catherine Lake. North Carolina.) We are delighted to know that you are interested in the breeding of gcod seed corn. Next to the better and more thorough preparation of the soil, the proper selection and production of seed corn is the work most heeded in the south. The variety tests at the Experiment Stations show that of twelve of the leading varieties of corn tested, the difference between the higest and lowest- yield per acre on the same kind of soil with identical fertilization and cultivation was 15.2 bu. We fully believe that tue average yield of corn in the south can be increased more than twenty-five per cent by planting prolific seed instead of seed that has run out. “Like produces like.” It will probably be best for you to buy the best seed from some reputable breeder in your section and then learn the best scientific "methods to further improve the seed. The buying of the best seed from some reputable breeder in your section will save you several years of labor and expense in breeding up the seed. However, you can, by following instructions, rapidly breed up your own corn. First, select stalks that bear the ears at a moderate height on the ■talks for the reasons that it is difficult to gather ears too high and the stalk is apt to be top heavy and easily blown down by winds. Second, select stalks of medium size, gradually tapering from base to tasjsl.

• Third, with large eared varieties, no stalks that have more than two ears should be selected, and an effort should be made to select some stalks that have two ears and some that have one. Fourth, the leaves should be broad and strong, from twelve to sixteen in number, and well distributed on the stalk. Fifth, the stalks should be well anchored by numerous strong base roots from one to two joints above the ground to enable to withstand winds. Stalks free from suckers should be selected as far as possible. Sixth, detassel all weak stalks and stalks growing only nubbins or no ears at all just before the silks begin to’ show in good number. This will prevent fertilization by Inferior stalks.

Seventh, the ear should be cylindrical or nearly so. It should be full and strong in the middle portion and the circumference should be approximately three-quarters of its length. The shuck should be heavy and well extended over the end of the ear and closely gathered about the silk. The shank that bears the ear should be long enough to permit the ear to droop •t maturity. Eighth, from ten to thirty times as many ears should be selected as will i be necessary to plant next year’s 1 crops. Ninth, it is best to select and pick the seed corn in the field before the first frost. The seed ears should be placed where they will be kept dry, and where they will be protected from damage by weevils, rats, etc Tenth, during the winter remove the shucks from the ears of corn and select the necessary number of the best ears to plant in the spring. The rows of kernels should be straight, and not less than sixteen nor more than twenty-two in number. The ear ■hould be from eight to ten and a half inches long. The color of grain ■heuld be true to variety. White corn ■hould have white cobs and yellow corn red cobs The tip should not be too tapering. It should be well covered with straight rows of regular kernels of uniform size and shape. The rows of kernels should extend in regular order over the butt end of the cob, leaving a depression where the shank is removed. The tips of the kernels dbeuld be full and strong, leaving no ■pace between them near the cob. The kernels should be about fivesixteenths of an inch wide by fiveeighths of a inch long, and about six to the inch in the row. It is a good plan to have a specif Seed patch and plant say twenty-five of the best ears in this patch. Each ear should be planted in a row without mixing with any other ear. Twentyfive rows planted in this way will be sufflcient for the average farmer. At maturity, harvest each row separately and weigh the yields. Select the ears tor next year’s seed patch from the rows that give the highest yields, and the remaining portion of the rows of highest yield are used for planting the field crop. And so the work Should be continued from year to year. Yours very truly. I H C SERVICE BUREAU.

DISK GRASS The Disk Harrow Is Indispensable and Should Be on Every Southern Farm (Reply to F. L. Webb, Lee Hall, Va.) You can not invest the same amount of money to better advantage than by purchasing a good disk harrow. The difference in the working of a cutaway and a solid disk is that the cutaway penetrates the ground much deeper and throws it up in a much coarser condition than the solid disk. The solid disk pulverizes the soil much better. The double disk harrow is desirable for farmers who wish to do two diskings at the same time. The front harrow can be set to out-throw and the rear harrow to in-throw. This will thoroughly pulverize the soil and leave the field level. The main advantage of the double disk harrow is that if you desire to use the regular disk, you can remove the rear attachment very quickly and easily. This will depend on the nature of the soil, the angle given the disks, and the weight of the man on the harrow. As a rule, it is not advisable to purchase a disk harrow with more than eight 16-inch disks for use on a three-horse farm. Bermuda grass will probably make a good pasture on your land. The Rhode Island bent (Agrostis Canina), creeping bent (Agrostis Stolanifera), and common redtop (Agrostis Vulgaris), form one of the most dense sods known. The chief value of these grasses is for pasture. They are especially valuable for making pastures in sandy, moist places. The following mixtures are frequently used in your section of the country: (1) Timothy, 16 pounds; redtop, 16 pounds; red clover, 4 pounds—per acre. (2) Redtop, 13 pounds; orchard grass, 18 pounds; meadow fescue, 9 pounds; and red clover, 4 pounds—per acre. (3) Tall oat grass, 28 pounds; and red clover, 8 pounds—per acre.

The arsenical solution Is used by the United States Department of Agriculture and is probably the best solution to use. Write Dr. A. J. Kiernan, Federal Building, Nashville, Tenn., for bulletins on the eradication of the cattle tick, the extermination of fleas, lice,, etc. The mangels should be pulled before heavy frosts, the leaves cut off to within an inch of the crowns and the roots stored in a cool cellar or in pits in the ground, and covered over with straw and earth deep enough to prevent freezing. It is not advisable to feed your stock on frozen mangels. | I H C SERVICE BUREAU.

SQUARE SILOS.

Ira Wampler, Carthage, Missouri, writes as follows: “I wish to build a square silo in one corner of my barn, but do not know the best way to pn> ceed. Any information you can give will be appreciated.” The square silo is fast going out of use, because of the difficulty in constructing same in such a way as to make it profitable. Several years ago, or, in other words, when silo building was in its infancy, a good many square silos were constructed, but they were soon abandoned for several reasons, mainly because it was impossible to prevent leaking at the sides, and second, the silage spoiled in the corners. The next step of advancement was to board up the corners, which made the silo more of a round structure, and the latest development has been the round silo, which is considered far superior to the square type of construction.

We are sending you under separate cover our farm barn plans, and you will note that there is a plan for a silo. This is a concrete silo, which is similar to many that are being built in various sections of the corn belt When properly constructed, the concrete silo is more permanent than the wooden silos, and preserves the silage equally as well as the other types. The first cost may be a little bit more, but the permanency offsets this objection. There is another type of silo which is being built very extensively throughout lowa, which is known as the lowa silo, and is built of hollow tile or hollow building blocks. For further information on this silo, we suggest that you write to Professor M. L. King, Ames, lowa.

SEVEN COMMANDMENTS OF ALFALFA GROWING.

Thou shalt not sow alfalfa seed on wet or undrained land. Thou shalt not sow alfalfa seed on Acid or sour land, but shalt apply calcium in the form of lime, or ground limestone rock. Thou shalt supply alfalfa land with an abundance of stable manure. Thou shalt thoroughly prepare the alfalfa seed bed. Thou shalt sow only good alfalfa seed, free from noxious weeds. Thou shalt inoculate the soil if thou wouldst reap the best benefits from the alfalfa crop. Thou shalt not sow hi late fall, if then wouldst obtain a creditor • tand -

FEEDING CORN FODDER

Exptrljnetits Show that Corn Stover Is Valuable in Beef Production— Ccrn S'over Is One of the Many By-Products of the Farm. (By J. E. Waggoner of the I H C Service Bureau) Profit is a stimulus which causes men to engage In some one or more of the many phases of busim'ss. *lt may be commerce, the industries, banking, farming or some other activity, yet when all is said, the profit trom that particular line of work is usually the attractive feature. Competition has become so strong that profit in many undertakings is made only by practising the strictest principles of economy and exercising unusual care in looking after the small things and what might be termed “by-products.” For instance, one, of the sources of the banker’s income is the small increase in the rate of interest on money loaned over what it cost him. The same is true of the farmer. The increase in the value of land has. putting farming on more cf a business basis in order to realize a profit on the investment.

Much has been said and written regarding saving and utilizing the waste products of the farm, and it is encouraging to note that more farmers are making better use of all the products of their farms than ever before. One of the most serious wastes has been the neglect to save and utilize the entire corn crop. The principal market demand has been for the grain. This, combined with an abundance of hay, has not been conducive to the use of corn fodder as a rough forage. Conditions have changed the past few years; among other things, hay has advanced in price to such an extent that it is only good business practice for a farmer to supply his rough forage in the form of corn fodder and put his hay on the market. Every grower of an acre of corn should know the feeding value of the entire crop. It is quite generally known what returns can be expected from the grain, but few farme/s know the feeding value of the corn stover (stalks without the ears). Reports from the Nebraska Experiment Station on experiments made comparing combinations of shelled corn, snapped corn, alfalfa and corn stover show that when stover is used as half of the roughage it reduces the cost of gains on two-year-old steers from 40 to 48 cents per hundred. The stover w’as found to be actually worth $3.55 per ton as compared with alfalfa fed alone at $6.00 per ten. The farm value of alfalfa and other hay crops reached a mark of more than twice this amount the past year, thus increasing the value of corn stover from 18.00 to 512.00 per ton.

With these figures before us, it is plain to see that the corn belt farmer is neglecting one of his important sources of income by letting his cornstalks stand in the field. Considering the small yield of only one ton of stover to the acre, the returns of the American farmer would have been increased millions of dollars last year if this what might be called by-product had been saved. Coming back to the Individual farmer, he would have realized his proportion of this profit. During this summer is the time to plan on cutting the corn for fodder this fall and utilizing to the best advantage the entire corn crop. We find that the Nebraska bulletin No. 100 says: “By feeding corn fodder, we utilize the stalk and yet are put to no extra labor husking it. In fact, corn can be cut with a harvester and put in the shock cheaper than it can be picked arid cribbed, inasmuch as three men with a team and harvester can cut and shock seven acres per day. Records from the farm department of this experiment station show that it costs sl.lß per acre to cut and shock corn, which figure does not allow for the wear’ and tear on the machine. Three cents per bushel should cover the cost of harvesting corn with a machine and putting it in the shocks.”

The logical way of saving the corn crop is to shred the fodder. Extensive experiments at the Wisconsin Experiment station show that about 24 per cent of the feeding value of fodder is lost if left exposed to the elements. By shredding and storing, this loss will be prevented. The fodder is also in a much more convenient form for handling, and is relished more by the stock. Shredded fodder does not occupy as much room for storing as the unshredded, and the stable manure is much easier handled. In summing up the results of various feeding experiments with corn in all forms it is found that the best way to utilize the corn crop is to save the stalks either in the form of ensilage or shredded fodder. The records of the Nebraska Experiment Station dispel any doubt as to the economy of harvesting corn by the use of the corn binder as compared w;ith husking the standing corn in the field. Under ths latter condition the stalks would be lost. The value of the stalks as a rough feed, considering hay at the present price, is at least SB.OO per ton. An ordinary yield of corn will produce two or three tons of stover to the acre. Compare this value with the price of fifty cents per acre, which is usually paid for stalks standing in the field. When corn is fed as shredded fodder, the loss of stock due to cornstalk di=e?se is entirely prevented. Every farmer that has stock to feed should plan to turply the most of his roughage in the of shredded corn fodder, thu= utilizing In the l est possible way his entire corn crcp.

Forty per cent of the feeding value of the corn crop is found in the stalk.

A MODERN RANCH NEAR MONON

The “Kelly Farm” Transformed into a Fine Productive Ranch From Frog Pond. A staff correspondent of the Indianapolis News has written up the Kelly Ranch, near Monon, and as it lies only a short distance from Rensselaer and the Jasper county line and our readers will ba interested in reading about it, we publish the article in full. Monon, Ind., August 31. —From frog pond to one of Indiana’s finest farms! It sounds mythical, but Kelly’s ranch, two miles southwest of. Monon, has attained that remarkable transformation. Round dollars may give an idea of the change. Four years ago the 1,800 acres now occupied by the ranch were valued at from $2 to S2O per acre. The Kelly stock farm today with its fields of waving corn, its shock-dotted wheat and oats fields, and its acres of green pastures, could not be bought for SIOO per acre. The transformation wrought by the Kellys also has caused surrounding marsh lands to assume a value, The practical use of tile did it all. The ranch belongs to the estate of Thomas Kelly, formerly the president of the National Live Stock Commission company, Union stock yards. Chicago. Mr. Kelly visited* White county four years ago to look for some cheap lands with a view of establishing a feeding farm for cattle and hogs and sheep. His business as a stock dealer in Chicago’s meat producing centers made hfim know that a good fattening farm would prove profitable if the land could be bought at a reasonable price and at least a portion of the feed raised on the place.

Visits Marsh Lands. In his search for available land Kelly visited Monon, and was told of the cheap marsh territory southwest of the town. It was called almost worthless, in fact, there’were many who said it was not wrorth the taxes paid on it. Kelly waded over the district and finally decided to try an experiment. He set his agents to work to buy the marsh land at the lowest possible figure, and when all the options had been obtained, he bought eighteen hundred acres, taking in many small farms that were slightly above the marsh level. The frogs sang to the Chicagoan their merriest tune, never dreaming that he had come! to take from them their old camp ground. The new farmer employed expert drainage engineers, and landed them in the midst of the marsh. “Now dig your way out,” he said. The engineers first sought outlets for the water that spread across the marshes. The big Monon river was almost two miles away, and the Tippecanoe river, which empties into the Wabash river above Lafayette, was the outlet for the Big, Monon. It was decided to open' four big drainage canals, all to lead to the Big Monon and Tippecanoe rivers. These ditches it was planned would have to be sixteen feet deep, from forty to seventy feet across the top, and from twenty to thirty feet across the bottom. It meant the expenditure of a big lot of money, but Kelly was game. He ordered the drainage canals dug, and a large force of men were set to work to establish outlets for the water that covered his eighteen hundred acres. This meant that a tract two miles from east to -west and l-% miles from north to south would have to be drained. 1 300 Carloads of Tile Used. The magnitude of the task may be understood when it is stated that more than three hundred carloads of tile were used in draining the Kelly ranch. Lines of tile were placed one hundred feet apart, and the size of the tile ranged from six to twent*y->four inches. Suddenly land that knew the sun’s rays ouly during the drought period of the summer peeped form beneath its ancient watery bed and the farmers of the vicinity began to realize that their predictions had gone awry. Most of them had said that Kelly had gone crazy and was a spendthrift. They thought his ideas of drainage were mythical and »saw nothing ahead df him but financial ruin. The Big Monon and the Tippecanoe rivers gathered unto themselves the waters of the Kelly ranch, however, and the frowns of the pessimists were compelled to soften. Kelly had made good.

As has been so often the case in a great undertaking the projector did not live to see his dreams come true. "Mr. Kelly died while the work was at its height, and the ranch passed to his heirs. The family decided that the pet project of the dead man should be carried to a successful end, and his brother, Charles Kelly, also connected with the National Live Stock Commission Company, took up the management of the ranch. He knew his brother’s ideas perfectly and, besides, he was a practical stockman himself. Ranch Inclosed in Wire. The next move was to inclose the entire ranch ( in wire fence of sufficiently heavy mesh to prevent the escape of small sheep. The wire was of the sixty-inch width and was attached to cedar posts. The inclosing of the ranch cost several thousand dollars, but it was done in a manner to make it lasting. The farm was inclosed without a single public road crossing it, but it is bordered by splendid rock roads, such as have made White county noted for good highways. There is a force of men now’ at work building driveways across the ranch, so that iq a short time the former marsh land will be intersected with highways, that, a few years ago, many believed would be impossible of construction. Another thing—much of the marsh timber has been cut away, thus giving the sfun a chance to dry the ground formerly reached only during a short part of the year. Al-

though this has been a remarkably, rainy summer, the Kelly ranch is' as dry as many upland farms. I Groves of black oak trees havej been left standing in various parts of the ranch to serve as shelter for; the stock on warm summer days' or in time of storm. These groves! dot the place and add greatly to Its newly created beauty. There are nineteen buildings on the Kelly ranch, and more are to i be built during the coming autumn. One new barn, said to be the largest in Indiana, is now being 1 built. It is to be 512 feet long! and 94 feet wide, >and will be used for housing sheep in stormy weather. There is another sheep barn already in service that covers an area of 75 by 150 feet. At present there are more than three thosand sheep grazing over the Kelly ranch pastures, and by the time winter sets in and sufficient housing room has been acquired the sheep folds will contain not less than eight thousand sheep. Included in the nineteen buildings on the place are houses sor 1 cattle, shep, hogs, mules and poultry. One of the cattle barns contains stall room for three hundred ’head of cattle. All floors are of concrete and are inclined so as to be easily washable.

Bins for Grain. There are five immense corn cribs of sufficient capacity ’to contain twenty-four thousand bushels of corn. The cribs are constructed high above the ground and are well ventilated. There are bins for the storage of five thousand bushels of wheat and nine thousand bushels of oats. Besides these there are numerous hay sheds in which are stored many tons of hay cut from once unproductive fields. Feeding time at the Kelly ranch is a lively hour. All the feed is ground or mixed with the preparations that keep cattle, hogs and sheep in good health. Every provision has been made for doing the work scientifically and with a view to perfect sanitation. A twentyhorse power gasoline engine stands in a concrete enclosure at the east end of the iaqge barn. By its power all of the feed is ground and mixed. When the engine is not in use as the feed grinder it is put in service to supply the motive power for the threshing machine or- for running the saws where timber is to be cut. It does general traction duty, too, and is called a good investment for a farm because of the various functions it! performs. Another small engine does the farm's tool grinding. , Nothing goes to waste on the Kelly ranch. When the corn is ground' for feed cob and all goes into the general food fund. One cattle composition consists Of 60 per cent, corn, 20 per cent. cotton seed hulls and the remaining 20 per cent, is of cotton seed meal. The sheep are fed alfalfa meal and shelled corn, and they thrive on it. For rough feeding shocked corn and hay are used. Place Immaculately Clean. The entire place is almost immaculately clean. ■ For instance, ,du ring the winter, when snow covers the ground, the hogs are fed on a concrete feeding bed 50x150 feet in dimensions. This feeding bed is so constructed that when all the hogs have been fed and the corncobs are scattered over the bed theiy may, in a few minwtes, be, swept together and removed. The feeding bed adjoins the hog barn of the same area of the bed and it is scrubbed while the hogs are fed. The swine have been given such a sanitany consideration that they are provided with concrete wallows. The old idea was that hogs had to be hogs in order to thrive. The average farmer believes that unless the hogs had a filthy, green scummed hole in the corner of the lot, they would not grow up to be marketable. On the Kelly ranch a vastly different idea prevails. The wallows of the Kelly ranch three in number, are shallow, con-crete-faced ponds 75x40 feet in area. These wallows are cleaned at regular intervals and fresh water placed in them. The hogs apparently enjoy the modern way of taking a bath and do not seem to long for the old-fashioned cholera haunt in the corner of the barn lot. Raising hogs to be cleanly is the idea fast developing amongst the stock raisers. It is the boast of the Kelly ranch men that they have not had a case of cholera, to deal with in the last four years, and they have had many thousands of hogs to care for. At present there are more than five hundred hogs on the farm and all appear to be in perfect health. On an average of once in every two months every hog on the place is dipped in a disinfectant Placed, in one of the wallows, and this helps tupkeep down danger of disease., The ranch men are much interested in the experiment now being tried on the Seaton farm, near the Indiana state fair grounds, Indianapolis, where pjano boxes are being used to house hogs. The Seaton farm hogs are changed regularly from one box to another, each box being cleaned with the same care and regularity of a hotel room. The Seaton hogs have no wallows at all, contenting themselves with rooting around in the grass. No cholera has developed. At both the Kelly and Seaton farms' the old-fashioned wallow is absolutely prohibited. There are sixty-one breeding pens for hogs on the Kelly ranch, and these, too, are kept constantly in a sanitary condition. The pens have concrete floors and outside each of the doors is a runway wherein the mother and the brood may enjoy sanitary exercise. There are no dark spots around the Kelly ranch, every barn being_well lighted and Ventilated. these conditions dirt does not get an opportunity to secret itself. Muscular Motive Power. It require sixteen men and thirty mules to supply the muscular motive power to make things go on , the Kelly ranch. Nearly every man

,on the place is a specialist at some ' particular phase of farming. One ! man, B. B. Curtis, is expert ini chief, that is, he is superintend(ent of the place and knows somel thing about evesything in connection with the ranch’s life. Another ! interesting man is Frank Wilkinson His chief interest lies in the cars of the thirty mules and the great i drove of hogs. He knows both I from A to Z. The thirty mules on the Kelly ranch live like fire de- ' partment horses. Each mule has a roomy box stall and while they work out in the field a. man goes from stall to stall and prepares for them a comfortable bed for the night. -'“We believe that a mule has rights the same as a human being,” Wilkinson says, “and mules like the kind we have on this farm deserve every care. There isn’t a kick or cross word in any of them Our mules simply get out in the morning and work with a will until evening. They earn tneir board , and keep and Mr. Kelly believes in giving it to them. Some of the farmers around here say we are giving our mules better treatment than anybody ever got in a Pullman sleeper. I call that a compliment. Mules know when they are properly cared for and if anybody tells me that he was kicked by a mule I know that the mule had a kick coming and handed it out. Mules are not dummies. They are able to discriminate between friends and enemies, although, like human, beings, they frequently kick the wrong fellow. lam on friendly terms with every mule on this place. There isn’t an animal in the outfit that won’t bring the top i price in the market.”

A Magnet for the Pigs. W ilkinson also takes great pride in his hogs. They are a clean, looking group of porkers and when he lets out his eveniing yell of “peegooey,” the call to assemble in food convention, there is a scramble that any city “kid” would call a pig panic. It is an interesting sight to see about five hundred big and little pigs doing a marathon to get to Wilkinson, who, with his arms fi ibd wpo corn, is a magnet that well meaning hog would overlook. The hundreds of sheep which throughout the day, always head toward the sheep pens in the evening to get the special morsels that are theirs after a day in the pastures. The cattle also gather at the big barns and gates and the poultry around the place likewise have an eye on feeding time. It looks as if father Noah were gathering all animal kind unto himself again when the Kelly ranch aggregation begins to gather in at night,. The number of heads of stock will be increased almost daily from now on until midwinter. Then there will be a general exodus, market conditions controlling the coming and going of the inhabitants of the Kelly ranch. Most of the stock goes to the Chicago markets. The cattle is of mixed breeds and is usually young beef sent to the farm for fattening. Corn Market for Farmers. It requires thousands of bushels of corn to feed the stock on the Kel>y ranch, and the place is a good corn market for the farmers of White county. Mr. Kelly bought almost twenty-five thousand bushels of corn from the neighboring farmers, paying 1 cent more a bushel than the Monon grain men, last winter. They raised several thousands of bushels of corn on the ranch, but it does not begin to supply the demand. There are three machinery buildings on the ranch, all filled with the tools necessary for the performing of practically every service known to farm life. The larger building of the three looks like the display room of the agricultural exhibit at a state fair. Everything is there, from a sickle to a threshing machine. All the ma*chi<nery is carefully stored away after the farming season is over, not a single piece being left outside to face destruction by rain and snow. The tenements occupied by the isuperintendent and his help ;ara comfortable and provided with as many of the modern household necessities and utilities as it is possible to give a farmhouse. The water comes from deep wells and is driven through pipelines to every part of the farm. The Kelly ranch is, in fact, now the extreme opposite of what it was said to be— a frogs*

W. M. HERSCHELL.

natatorium.

To Friends of The Bemocrat Instruct your attorneys to bring all legal notices in which you are interested or have the paying for, to The Democrat, and thereby save money and do us a favor that will be greatly appreciated. All notices of appointment—administrator, executor or guardian—survey, sale of real estate, non-resident notices, etc., the clients themselves control, and attorneys will raae them to the paper you desire for publication, if you mention the matter to them; otherwise they will take them to their own political organs. Please do not forget this when having any legal notices to publish., ’Phone 315 if in need of anything in the job printing line and a representative of The Democrat will call upon you promptly.

Glasses flitted by Optometrist Rensselaer, Indiana. Office over Lons’s Drug Store. Phono No. 131.