Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, December 23, 1910, Page 4, Image 4
4 THE SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL Betcre* at tfce Atlanta PostoffW an Mail Mat tw of tt» Second Claes. JAMES *. OSAT. Bditor and General Manager. bVBSCBIPTIOM PBIC® Twflr» month* *•* Six moat»« **’ Three mrnttM The Semi Weekly Journal is publiebed on and FrMav and is ma Had by tbe abort- ■ est routes for early d«4i»ery. •It contain* news from al! over tbe world. 1 brou<ht by speetal leased wires Into oar office It has a staff of distinguished contributors with *trvn< de; »rtn»enu of special value to tbe borne and tbe farm Ageet* wanted at eeerr pootofflce. liberal eomaaiesx-n allowed. Outfit free Write to I P. B. Kandoipb. Circulation Manager. Tbe onlr traveling representatives are base are J. A. Bryan. B F. Bolton C C. Coyle and . M. R Gilreath We will be responsible only for moatr paid to tbe above named traveling , representatives. ♦ NOTICE TO BUBSCRIBXRB ♦ , ♦ ♦ ♦ The label used for addressinc ♦ ♦ poor paper shows the time your ♦ ♦ subscription expires. By renewing ♦ ♦ at least two weeks before the ♦ + date on this label, you insure ♦ ♦ regular service. • ♦ ♦ Tn ordering paper changed, be ♦ w sure to mention your old. as well ♦ as your new, address. If on a ru- ♦ ♦ ral route, please give the route ♦ ♦ number. •w- We cannot enter subscriptions ♦ ♦ to begin with back numbers. Re- ♦ ♦ mittsnce should be sent by postal ♦ ♦ order, or registered mail. ♦ a- Address all orders and notices ♦ a- for this department to THS ♦ ♦ SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL, At- ♦ ♦ lanta, Ga ♦ Widening Peachtree street will be one of the popular midwinter sports with At lanta. Macon's mayor says that he intends to Stop the sale of liquors in that enterprising city. ' Jack o* the Beanstalk wasn't in it with tbe New Orleans negro who stole a SI,OOO -for his Christmas dinner. We are prone to remark with more truth that regard to orthography that “The melancholy ’daze - have come." Germany, too. is threatened with an j election, but we hope it won’t last two! weeks and 'its result be unintelligible. | The fact that Christmas comes on Bunday this year will undoubtedly make blue Monday a little harder to bear. And now the melancholy days are come, the saddest of the year—for Pa who has to foot the Christmas shopping bills It wouldn't be a oad idea for Mr. Car- ’ negie to investigate and report on the true inwardness of our preparedness for . war. We respectfully put our friends on no- ' ties that we don't want any more mani < ure sets or cigar holders this Christ- : mas. • Not the least interesting of the holiday ; offerings of literature are the circulars sent out by the wholesale whisky houses It is admitted that Chief Justice White ' plays the piano; but the bitterest ene- ■ mies of the administration dare cot say be plays ragtime. The Teddy Bear of other days seems to have been struck with the desire to emulate Its illustrious “fore-bear" and hunt tbe tall timber. The man who said that "there is no such thing as a pretty good egg" never relied upon hash houses and prune saui- ' tariums for his daily bread. The tfeather may be unpleasant; but as long as it continues cold it helps tbe peach crop and minimises the annual spring "crop killed” report. The visit of President T aft and Colo nel Roosevelt next March should do much toward bringing the golf and tennis • players Into closer relations. A woman and a pet cat fought for jealousy of a neighboring cat tn New York Monday. It must have been claws against claws and the aharpest win. Atlanta housewives put milk bottles and other perishable liquids in the ice bogs* Tuesday night to keep them from freak ing stiff. That beats old Aesop’s fable. A man from Missouri has just died at toe age of M years without ever tell ing a he or quarreling with his wife. Verily, she must have been long-suffer tn< '' I - 1 The overtures from “William Tell" and “Parsifal" win make the Thursday night organ concert at the auditorium-annory thls week one of the finest of the winter Mason. Sixteen families have just moved to Haselhurst from Anderson. S. C-, which shows that Memphis failed to get all the available! before the census was taken. A Pittsburg soman has blossomed forth as a regular "hold-up." which is merely an illustration of what every man has known of every woman since time began. The ambiguity of the newspaper head line. “Water Free to Wash Ladies ini Milwaukee'** is almost a reflection on the godliness of the feminine population of, that middle western city. As usual. murders, suicides. other' bloody crimes and even battles, are mul-j tiplying on the anniversary of the eve. when herald angels sang "Peace on earth, good will to men.” Spell the Mikado. “McAdoo." and it ought to get god patronage from the Irish. It’s a bully attraction anyway, ac cording to the verdict of people who saw ft the opening night. Atlantians will be relieved to learn that the Christmas mail-order whisky which killed two prominent Birming ham men Monday did not come from either Chattanooga or Jacksonville. Cement coffins are being exhibited at the Madison Square garden. They will probably not become as popular as the proverbial asbestos ones with people doubtful of their future destination. There seems to be sound legal sense In the decision of the Philadelphia coroner that killing a man in a prise fight Isn't murder But it doesn’t at all condone the brutality of that kind of fighting. Roetan.i flatly refused to let Bernhardt play “Chantecler’ in France, but .he can't prevent Maud Adams from appear ing in that virile role in America. Worse luck for American theatergoers, perhaps Cincinnati is suffering from a shortage of dolls. And New Orleans is suffer ing from a shortage of babies. Can't some genius discover a means of adjust ing these two conditions, the one with the other! . * TWO HUNDRED MILLIONS IN CROPS. In the products of her soil, Georgia is two million, three hun dred and ten thousand dollars richer this year than in 1909. So says Commissioner of Agriculture Hudson in an interesting state ment just issued. The total crop value for the twelve months now drawing to a close approximates two hundred and thirty-thret million dollars. This is brand new wealth. It has sprung straight from the soil between April and October and the treasuries of sun and shower and fertility whence it came are still waiting to pour out other streams of gold as the season's wax. Such is the founds tion upon which the prosperity of this commonwealth rests. Commissioner Hudson’s report reveals a number of striking details. The state’s greatest advance has been made in the pio duction of corn. For 1909 Georgia raised sixty-one million, one hundred and sixty thousand bushels of corn, thirteen and nine tenths bushels to the acre; In 1910 she raised, sixty-four million, eight hundred and eight thousand bushels, a gain of nearly on< bushel to the acre. The total value of this one crop is about two milljon, one hundred and ninety-two thousand. In wheat also, material advances have been made. The pro • duction of this grain has gone from two million, four hundred and fifty thousand in 1909 to two million, seven hundred and sixty thousand this year. It is particularly gratifying to note that the cultivation of truck and garden products has increased during the year. The campaign diversification of crops is already showing results. This is the sort of progress that has nature herself as its base and which therefore is enduring in character. OUT OF THE PUBLIC S POCKET. In fixing lower and more reasonable charges for sleeping cai berths, the Interstate Commerce Commission estimates that this reduction will amount to nearly a million and a half dollars an nually. That is the sum which the people of the United States have heretofore been forced to pay the Pullman company in excess of the real value of the service they received. Such is the logical inference from the commission’s statement. The fact that this million and a half dollars has been dis tributed over the entire country apd, as a tax, has been collected piece-meal from thousands of different persons does not lessen its injustice or the loss which it represents to the American pub lic. Such is the case with all excessive transportation charges. Because they are paid for in dimes and quarters, they are none the less a burden upon the people and eventually upon the individual. This is truth to which the public is just beginning to wake-', as it is just beginning to waken to the evils of an extortionate government tariff. Any charge that represents more than a fair return upon the cost and value of the service rendered is harmful to the interests of every man, every industry and every household in the nation. The injustice which the people permit collective!}, they pay for one by one. And so this million and a half dollars which went into the Pullman company’s treasury when, according to the commission it belongs rightfully in the pockets of the traveling public, has been a national loss, trivial perhaps in its individual items, but tremendous in the aggregate. SOME CHRISTMAS MEDICINE. In this season of generosity, let us not forget to be just. In bringing special gifts, let us not leave behind the ordi nary duties. These are very trite observations, but like old household medicines, they are good for divers ills, and this week nearly all of us will need, them for one thing or another. Christmas, indeed, is a tonic to the splendid virtues, but often sorely trying upon the more useful ones. Our hearts warm toward our friends and open to the poor. We are bent upon giv ing particular happiness to the people we care for and to those whose needs are brought home to us by the spirit of the hour. But these are not the only folks in the world. There are the people in the stores, working from breakfast to bedtimg in order that we may buy our Christmas presents. There is no halo about the part they play in Christmas, but they have certain unwritten rights that w*e ought to bear in mind and respect. We ought not to wait until the last hurly-burly, helter skelter minutes to ask them to serve us, and in all our dealings with them we should be as prompt, as patient and as kindly as we can. This applies to the grocery shop as well as to the de partment store; to the porter and the little ragged delivery boy as well as to the most important salesman or saleswoman. Every household, too, has its little outstanding accounts, debts due various people who have done one service or another. These are generally trivial in amount, but they may mean a great deal to the ones who are waiting for them. They ought be squared up before Christmas day and not allowed to run over, forgotten, until the next week. Now comes the season of the twelvemonth when the house wife, in her brisk plans to make the home bright and merry for a day, proceeds to make herself jaded and listless. The house must be spotless and garnished. The dinner must be a Belshaz zar’s feast. Os these things she thinks most unselfishly, but of herself, who is to be the light and savor of it all, she is neglect ful and selfishly so. This is one Christmas custom that ought to be wiped out. What we are saying here is about as commonplace as the average sermon , but it is all as true as that next Sunday will be Christmas, and as much worth thinking over. WHEN THE EARTH FREEZES TO DEATH The earth is slowly but surely growing colder, says Dr. Har vey W. Wiley, of pure food fame. There will come a time, ac- ’ cording to his theory, when straw hats will never be in fashion and when ladies will cafry hot water bottles instead of fans. Finally, even that portion of the race that dwells along the equator will give the furnace a good-by poke, curl up and freeze to death. The terrors of this prophecy are somewhat softened by the fact that its fulfillment is still a few millions of years away and before the long cold spell settles down in earnest posterity may escape in aeroplanes to a more genial planet. But according to known facts of science, which are proverbially cold themselves, Dr. Wiley’s prediction is far from merely fanciful. The earth has been steadily cooling for many aeons and so has the sun. Good astronomers and true have reckoned that the sun cannot supply enough light and heat to serve man for more than ten mil lion years. Every second, day and night, it is throwing off its warmth at a prodigious rate, and even the sun can’t expect to stand such extravagance forever. So run our mortal theories. But we are reminded just here of the story an old professor used to tell. There once lived a race of little creatures whose abode was on a thermometer, and each of whom lived but a second. They were an inquisitive lot and of a most scientific turn of mind. And so they began making a record of the readings of the instrument which was their uni verse. For ten geaerations careful notes were kept. At the end of that period, the Thermometerites found to their alarm that the mercury in the tube was rising at the rate of one one-hundredth of a degree each second. Ten generations later, these readings were formulated into a theory and when the sixtieth generation, that is, a minute, was reached no intelligent Thermometeritc could any longer doubt that eventually the mercury would strike the top of the tube, overflow and wipe their race out of existence. But after the lapse of three hundred generations it was found, to the chagrin of the scientists but the great joy of the populace at large, that the mercury had actually started down again. Whereupon, the story concludes, even the wiseacres among the Thermometerites were constrained to admit that there more things in heaven and earth than were dreamed of in their phil oaophy. THE ATLANTA SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL, ATLANTA. GEORGIA. FRIDAY, DEC. 23, 191 G. jy." timely tomcs.-' TICE PENSION BXLX—OCTOPUS It needed but an hour or less of con gressional debate last week to pass a federal pension bill carrying the enorm ous sum of $166,000,000. This is the annual sum authorized and it must come every year. The civil war closed in April, 1860 —ls years old —to be exact, 46 years and 8 months. These pensions are supposed to be paid to the survivors of the grand army, the Federal forces that overrun the now defunct Confederacy. It is clearly evident that these pension ers will never die, or at least there are people who certainly step into their places and continue to draw the money. Every taxpayer in the union is - forced to pay tribute to these pensioners, ip greater or less degree. If they have but little they must part with some of what they do have. If they have considerable they must run down deep in their pock ets 'and pay it out. nllly-willy. There is no option in this matter. This money, this tribute money, has got to come. Southerners as well as the northerners and westerners must bring in tithes to the Federal soldier, nearly 50 years after the close of hostilities. This $156,000,000 goes only to Federal soldiers. In addition, Georgia (and the former seceeding states) has to pay an other enormous pension bill every year, and it is a well known fact that an am bitious politician will vote for any sort of a pension bill, even though he knows that the honest labor of this country will be taxed thus unmercifully for another 50 years to come. We also know that thousands of names of pensioners" should be eliminated from the pension rolls because they do not come up to the requirement, do not be long there in justice and In right. There has been a violent and incessant scram ble among pension attorneys to put on names that should not be there, and It costs every prominent politician his of ficial position if he atempts to weed out the fraudulent names. Hon. H. Clay Evans, of Tennessee, is a case In point. He is dead now, but he as a United States pension commis sioner, did attempt to revise these pension rolls, and the people who are thus sup ported from the United States treasury demanded his official head and got it. Like the head of John the Baptist, which Herodias demanded—he was polit ically decapitated and became a martyr to that extent. I well remember meet ing a Pennsylvania federal soldier, who was among the first yolunteers, and was a three months’ soldief under President Lincoln's first call for troops. He told me he only served three months and was mustered out before the first battle of Manassas. He never volunteered again, and his war experience was sim ply a picnic, as he expressed it. Said I: “What a pity you did not stay a little longer, so you might have had a pension.” "Oh,” and he laughed merrltly. “All the same I got It, and also arrears of pension” (which carried his service back to the beginning of the war). “How so?” I persisted. "Oh." said he, “they handed it to me and I took it” Here you, are. That’s where it works. A little false swearing didn’t feaze a man who thus imposes himself on a tax ridden community. Some years ago I was appealed to to testify that a certain colored woman who married one of our former slaves, was really the person she claimed to be. Imagine my surprise when I found out she was seeking a soldier's widow’s pen sion-claiming that this former slave served in the war. To my certain knowl edge he was not in the war at all, and he did not take the woman, to wife, until many years later. This is one case PREPARING FOR AN EMERGENCY. The boll weevil will reach Georgia about 1912, Anthracnose and the wilt disease are destroying millions of dollars’ worth of cotton for Georgia farmers each year. The cattle tick holds in check the development of our live stock industries. The methods of fertilization and cultivation now pursued tend to lessen the crop-yielding power of our soils. Failure to select seed corn and cotton results in reducing instead of increasing the yields ob tained. A serious situation confronts the state. There are mil lions of dollars at stake. The prosperity of the state hangs in the balance. The place of Georgia among the states of the union is being weighed. Realizing the momentous character of the issues involved and the prize at stake, the College of Agriculture has organized a Cotton School and Stockmen’s short course to teach farmers how to overcome these difficulties. It will take but ten days to secur? eighty hours of definite instruction and demonstration concern ing these vital matters. The cost of this instruction will be nom inal. Hundreds of Georgians will doubtless attend this short course and broaden their point of view, become more successful planters, advance the welfare of their families, increase their earning ca pacity, build up their lands, and make their state permanently prosperous. Everyone should prepare himself to meet successfully the is sues which changed conditions have imposed on Georgia agri culture. WHO WROTE IT? Next to the weighty problem of whence Peachtree street de rived its name or who really christened Atlanta no question of recent date has opened such an inviting field for discussion as that presented in yesterday’s Journal by one Mr. Randolph Kir cher. He wants to know who wrote the popular poem, “My Life Is Like the Summer Rose!’’ These verses, which all the young ladies of a few generations ago sang of an evening to susceptible young gentlemen and which are truly beautiful in their imagery and music, are commonlj credited to the late Mr. R. H. Wilde, of Augusta, Ga. But the inquiring Atlantian, who is evidently a saunterer in the by-ways and curiosities of literature, has discovered that back in 1b34, the American Magazine devoted considerable space to alleged plagarism on the part of the Georgia poet. It seems that friends of the Irish song writer, Patrick O’Kelly, contended that he was the real author. Others asserted that the poem was a transla tion from Alcaeus, a Greek bard who lived two and a half cen turies ago. ; f The settling of literary controversies is always a perilous undertaking. There are still worthy people who believe that those famous Elizabethan plays were not written by Shakespeare, but simply by a man called Shakespeare; that undoubtedly they were written by Bacon. And the quarrel will probably last sev eral centuries yet. Our impression has always been that ‘My Life Is Like the Summer Rose” was the production of the Au gustan. The fact is we didn’t know anybody had ever called the authorship into question. Albeit, scores of other mortals have doubtless felt like a sum mer rose and accordingly they have have said so in verse. We therefore leave it to our readers to give Mr. Kircher whatever assistance they can in solving thia problem. 1 in point, and I am satisfied the roll is packed with a mass of fraud or impost ure. But the turning down of United 1 States Pension Commissioner H. Clay Evans, who being aware of these numer -1 ous swindles, attempted to rid the pen ’ sion rolls of such fake beneficiaries, proved to my mind the impossibility of I cleaning off such filth from the pension 1 business. 1 No sensible person believes that it li needs $156,000,000 to pay the annual stipend of surviving soldiers and their legitimate widows at this late day— -1 nearly 46 years since the war closed. ’■ In defiance of common sense and com mon honesty, the names continue to in- 1 crease and this pension amount does 1 not mean all of it, by a long shot, be • cause half the pensions of lhe old moss backs, who cry "more," more,” all the 1 time. •I No reader of ancient history will fall 1 ; to see the coming doom of this repub lic. One half the population is now toiling to pay for luxuries and support 1; of the other half. ’ i It will take a revolution to wipe off the slate and when the end comes it will ' be largely owing to the greed an<| 1 graft which has not only absorbed the ' taxpayers’ money, but made us slaves •j to the Insolence of those who used po litical influence to make one half the | population support the other half. Buch ■ an abnormal condition prevailed in old ■ Rome, and Rome went down in ruins. 1 REAX CHRISTMAS WXATXXR Since the closing days of October, we in north Georgia have been having real winter. In my extended life I do not remember to have seen such severe and steady cold at this season. j We have had no Indian summer at all )ln the year 1910, for it has been steady freezing weather for two months gone. Tonight there is a cold drizzle that hangs lon the limbs of the trees and by tomor !row we may find ourselves on slippery ' roads and sidewalks, and a season of sleet. i The coal dealers are having a fine time of it, afid those who supposed they jhad laid in a plentiful supply for tbe winter may as well prepare to buy more and pay a good price during the balance of the season. If this hard weather prevails all over the upper portion of the United States we may count on a record winter for severity everywhere. The fatality among invalids is also Old people with thin {blood and sluggish circulation, are not I able to wrestle with long continued 1 heavy weather, and we hear of frequent paralysis and defective heart action in many cases quickly followed by death. The freezes are good for the soil and the steady cold makes fuel high, so we have a small grain of comfort to make the hard weather more tolerable. But we must be thankful that it is as well with us as it is, and that the clos ing of the year 1910 has brought us to a realizatiori of pur manifold blessings in continued life and health. So I wish one and all of you the best Xmas of your lives. The $7,000,000 Fifth avenue home of ex-Senator W ? A. Clark, of Montana, hgs been completed after eight years of work anc| will be occupied early in the next • year. It is to be the costliest residence ever built in America. The taxes as sessed on it by New York city amount to more than S2OO a day. The mansion contains 131 rooms, 31 baths and four picture galleries. No building in the world, according to ex perts, who have inspected the Interior, carries so much bronze as has been worked into this mansion. p^ r^^'l2 THE FOOD VALUE OF MILK B7 Caroline X. Runt It is a commonplace saying that milk, or. to be more specific, cow’s milk, is a perfect food. This may be taken to mean that it contains, first, materials which children need for growth; sec ond, materials which young and old alike need for the repair of their bodily machinery; and, third, materials which both need for fuel, 1. e„, to provide them with heat and with the energy necessary for work- It should not be understood, however, to mean that it has these Ingredients in such propor tions that It can serve satisfactorily as an exclusive food for a grown per son or eyen for a child. Though it U the best substitute for mother’s milk, it must be ’•modified" more or less before it can be used even for infant feeding with good results. It is likewise a commonplace saying that milk is a cheap as well as a nu tritious food. Just at present. with prices of all kinds of ' foods rapidly changing, it is not »o easy as It once was to make the comparisons that are necessary to show which particular foods are really pheap, but' While' the prices of food materials vary, the com position of most of them remains un changed. and it is always possible to compare their nutritive values. A quart of milk supplies practically as much of both protein and energy ps three-quar ters of a pound of bepf of average com position or eight average eggs, and can generally be bought for less money. In case milk is 8 cents a quart, beef 20 cents a pound, and eggs 34 cents a dozen, 10 cents spent for milk will buy a little more protein and much more energy than 10 cents spent for beef or 10 cents spent for eggs. Thus, while other animal foods than milk (meat, eggs and cheese) an desirable to five variety to the diet it may be assumed that milk may be used as an economical substitute for any one of them. Os the vegetable fop4i, many (flour, for example) are found to be mueb cheaper than milk, when both price and nutritive value are taken into consider ation, and, as a matter of fact, they al- ways form tbe greater part of the bqlk of human food; ‘but of the ftnlmal foods' which are usually combined with the vegetable millj is on£ of the' cheapest. In spite of the fact that milk Is recog nized as a nutritious and a cheap food, there seemfc to be a gjspergJ tendency to think of it not ag a' possible substi tute for other more expensive foods, but rather as go addition to tbe bill of fare. To illustrate, milk is frequently 1 used as a beverage without the reduc tion of the amount of meat or other protein foods served. From the point of view of the need of tbe body, thia may be considered extravagant and the serv ing of a glass of milk or of a bowlful of soup or of such desserts as cus tards and baked milk, or tbe use of generous quaiftities of milk or white sauce on vegetables, offers an oppor tuity t° cut down the allowance of meats and eggs. RAISE MORX XUZ.EB The objection many farmers raise to the use of mules Is that they do not ‘breed, that they are stubborn, often vi cious, and that they are entirely unsuit ed to pleasure purposes. Those objections are worthy of con sideration. but tbe many good qualities of these sturdy beasts seem to more than offset them- M vl WP A fiMQ VIRGINIA MULE From a commercial standpoint, it may be wgU to remember that a pair of 6- ; year-old mules, well matched, well bro ken, and well grown, weighing from 1,100 to 1,300 pounds each, will bring from $550 to S6OO. More mules should be raised by the farmers all over the country. Breed your heavy-set mares to a good-s'.zed. stylish jack, and when your colts come, take' care of them and they will prove to be about the most profitable stock on the place, either to work or to sell. A OOMFONTASXE STAXX This style of stall affords a great de gree of comfort to the cow. The dis tinguishing features of the stall are the movable manger and rack whereby tbe length of the standing room in front and behind may be varied to suit the individual cow, and the fastening for the animal, which consists of a rope or chain across the rear end of tbe stall, to keep the cow from backing out. The stall should be tijree feet wide on centers. Tbe entire stall, from A to B (see cut), is seven in length. The gates (which should all swing one way), are about four feet long. The rear posts, I if used, should slant, as shown in the', cut. to allow the milker a little more room. In some stables these rear posts have been done away with entirely, the gates simply being chained or roped to gether. As usually bultt. the front rack or pane Ils made of 2x4 framework, with 7-1$ Inch iron rods; and this framework is fastened solidly to the manger; but the manger and framework are not at tached to the sides of thq stall, but left loose, so as to be adjusted to tbe length of the cow. In some cases, however, the rack is hinged at the top and the bottom allowed to swing in the manger, So that it may be swung toward the front several Inches. This allows the cow a little more freedom in getting up and lying down. Wooden slats may be| substituted for the iron rods, or in gome: cases a section of iron wire fencing is used in place of the rods. The rope across the rear of the stall is usually stapled at one side and hooked w.tb an ordinary harness-strap at the other. Every farmer should grow hogs, if only enough for home use. Os course, we would not advise the farmer to grow I more hogs than he can properly feed I and handle. The farmer must grow some class of live stock for meat, and the hog is about the easiest and cheap- ■ -at to band>” ' •’< SAVE FENCE POSTS It has been estimated by the United States department of agriculture that the farmers of the single state of lowa use every year $1,400,000 worth of new fence posts, which cost the ■equivalent 1 1 of JQOO.uOO for setting them in the ground. Without doubt a part of thia 1 1 expenditure might be saved. The opportunity for economy is found, ' j first, in using the kinds of posts which. 1 ! taking info account both cost and dur (ability, are cheapest in tbe long run. 1 wnd, secondly, by treating the posts to ■ 1 prevent decay. When a farmer sets a ' I post which will have a comparatively short life, he loses not only through having to buy a new post, but also be -1 cause of the additional labor involve<l in setting it. It is true that In both > cases no money outlay may be involved. I for he may set the posts himself, after | getting them from his own woodlot. Os ; the posts used last year in lowa, 79 pe r '! cent, it is estimated, were grown on | tbe farms where they were used, or j were obtained from other farmers or 1 ; woodlot owners, and only 30 per cent ■ 1 were bought from lumber dealers. Nev l; erthelegs, tbe farmer is out his labor 1 ! and the part of the product of his . woodlot which is used up, even though ■ he does not pay out any lash. 1 • The average life of a fence post is stated to be 14 years, and tbe average !I cost* 13.7 cents. There is. however, great -1 difference in the lasting properties of ■ [ different woods. Osage orange last? 1 more than five times as long as wil -1 j low, and for length of aervice it head:« 1 . the list of post timbers in the state. The comparative life of other posts ' is shown in the following list, ranging ' from tiie longest period to the shortest: Red cedar, locust, white oak. northern 1 white cedar (or arborvitae), catalpa, black walnut, buternut, red oak and » willow. I The average cost of posts varies for different woods, and for the same wooda In different’ localities. Red cedar is most expensive, at in average of 26 3-4 cent.s each, and willow the cheapest, at 6 cents. —■ 1 RAISING POTATOES ! Prijice TEfdward Isiarid is one of the most successful producers of the potato. 'ltg total area under cultivation is lees .than 1,800 square miles; the annual yield Os the potato crop averages *,000,000 bushels. The most favorable results have been obtained in fields that have not been ma nured for many years. The opinion pre vails that manure pollutes the potato and disposes it to rot before and after 1 digging. Newly cleared woodlandg yield large crops for many successive years without the addition of any fertilizer. To aid exhausted soil commercial fer tilizer is used. It has been found that lime, clinkers, and coal ashes thrown on a field will set up scab. It would thus appear that this disease may be due to mechanical irritation in the soil. To prevent rot, great attention is given to the time of digging. The best time has been found to be when the tops begin to grow a dark green, not when they have turned black. When the latter happens, the potato has already VcK UII to rot- By observing these methods, a white, smooth, pounded root of me dium size is secured. The best potatoes are shipped in boxes, carefully selected, and marketed as No. 1 and No- 2. IKTTJTX TAMMS From time to time skunk farms have been established, but from some cause, probably iacfc of experience, cost of feeding the animals, or fencing the in ciosures, the induatr ywas soon discon tinued. The majority of people who start in this business seem to think that the animals will take care of themselves, and do not appreciate that, to make a success, they will have to devote a great deal of time and energy. , This is true in regard to the domes ticated animals, and ig doubly so where wild ones are concerned. There is no ■ reason why a man should not suc ceed in the skunk business, if he is fond of animals and is willing to get well acquainted with their habits.—H- K. Fisher. QTSTXTUTXS KZI>F THE TAMJCEBJ Farmers’ institutes are to be found in many states and are doing much to im - prove the lot of those who cultivate the soil. The first of these institutes was established many years ago, but the movement for adopting the plan in as many communities as possible was not begun until about 1895. The insti tute resembles university extension work, and Is of great value in educat ing the farmers and giving them an opportunity for an exchange of ideas. When the farmers meet they are ad dressed by experts, who tell them of the latest advances in the various de partments of agriculture and give them pointer* regarding the improvement o< five stock and the selection of seed. t TVXA A* A GOOSE But few know how the term, as ap plied to a drinking man, "as full as * goose.” came into use in the long tim* ago. and is still in use. Close observ ing farmers will gecollect that hungry geese when turned on good grass o other good feed, will eat until the craw is filled to the fullest capacity, and tho passage from the craw clear up to the mouth, so that there is no room left, even for water to saturate with. Hence the term as "full as a goose" has got to be proverbial. The goose doesn’t get drunk when it gets full, but the man does every time. BAXL FENCE PHU.OBOPH T It would be a pity, indeed, if the great; forest reseves should be sacrificed to the politician and the lumber stealer. Neighbor Slowfoot seems to think that when the crops stop growing he might, as well stop work—and there are others No man ever breeds patches on th seat of his trousers by standing or ' walking. I Many a country lad who is on the to boggan. sliding down t othe devil, got his first push at home. Americans are beginning to learn that the adornment of the house and sur rounding grounds is an important ele ment in the education of children, and does much to cultivate good morals and good manners. Gasoline engines are rapidly finding their way into the south, and on many of the big farms of that section plow ing Is done by this means. One can destroy thousands of insects one cannot see by raking and burning all rubbish on the place. Whoever heard of a farmer being afraid of the beef trust? He can raise his own beef. Put up new "Shooting Forbidden” signs. The farmer's life is an independent one. The price of upper Pullman berths will be forty cents less after January 20. The forty cents we shall save about once a year will go as a partial pagyMat HJJ >, small steak.