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. . * ' ' THE McHENltT PLAINDEA1J5R, McHENRY, ILL. V'hy'- -Vr'..',' .mm** i - :iim %• % 6 % €%>mr &ROwrrArr&R v%rc%r 6y Robert H. Mouliorv. An enterprising Indiana, far?. £/>! met followed advice given | 4 by the Department of Agri­ culture' and planted- sand} vetch on dead soil T IS. rather unpleasant to s« tltat the world Is being Invited to face tire cold, raw fact of a gradually increasing scarcity of the prime necessaries of life. Agricultural figures Just pub­ lished in Rome by the International Institute of Agriculture show that the process of scrapping the most essen­ tial of all our foods, grain, goes on apace. Steadily the arable land of the world shrink# a,s the area under permanent grass* often a eu­ phemism for land that is derelict, extends Its frontiers. At the present moment the United States is dependent on imported supplies for an appreciable amount of wheat and for different cereals consumed in this country. There is not only a tremendous shortage of wheat In the United States today, but of corn also, as is testified by the price of $1.20 per bushel paid in a number of instances recently for the latter grain. This is about three times as much as the farmer has received for It in normal times. Figures posted by the Chicago i>oard of trade indicate that the visible supply of corn in this country today is less than half what it wal a year ago. Of course, the war has had much to do with the depletion of our stores, and a con­ sequent rise in price. But even granting that the demand has been phenomenal, the fact re­ mains that our- farmers are not producing as much corn as they should. Evidently something Jg wrong with our system of growing corn. Most farmers understand the importance of good seed for planting, and the . 'majority of them employ scientific methods of cul­ tivation. The trouble, then, would appear to He with the soil. Everyone knows that, unintentionally perhaps, most farms in this country have been robbed of much fertility of the soil. In every state there . ore thousands of farms which formerly produced big crops but are now so worn out that the land will not return enough to pay for the labor of * tilling it. Many a farmer .says, as he gazes over his broad acres: "I remember when I was a boy that field was fine for corn, but now it's only fit for pasture." But if he only knew, that field is capable of producing Just as mrech corn as it did In the old days; it is even probable that it could be made to break the records established in Its earlier prime. iTiis, at any rate, is what William C. Smith; an Indiana farmer, says, and Mr. Sihith ought to know, for he has performed some seem­ ing miracles with worn-out land down Indiana way. Farm journals, agricultural colleges and the United States department of agriculture have been doing a wonderfully good work in* telling the farmer how to increase the fertility of his soil, Iwt Mr. Smith, apparently, has discovered the easiest, simplest and most inexpensive way of all. Almost anyone can tell how to spent! a hundred dollars per acre on fertilizer, crushed lim.estone, etc., and in the end improve the land. But It takes a practical, successful farmer like Mr. Smith to demonstrate how a field "never known to have on It a crop of any value" could be made within one year to produce 72 bushels of corn per acre at a cost of $3.50 per acre, aside from labor. The how and why of it all has been put Into a book, "How to Grow 100 Bushels of Corn on Worn-Out Soil," which Mr. Smith lias dedicated to the Amer­ ican farmer. And he believes that any other farmer who will follow his teachings will be equally successful. It all sounds like a fairy fctory, but Mr. Smith has facts to back up all his statements. fFurthermore, he is known nationally for the remarkable experiments he has made. In 1906, Mr. Smith purchased a farm that had the reputation of being one of the poorest in In­ diana. It had been kicked and buffeted about as trading stock. Each owner no sooner got into possession of it when he found he had purchased n gold brick, and never rested until he succeeded In unloading it upon some other victim. It never seemed to occur to any of its owners that the farm had simply been handled by soil robbers and was paying the penalty by withdrawing Its boun-v - ty. Mr. Smith purchased the farm because of its cheapness, location and possibilities, and \Vas given the laugh for so doing. The entire farm in Its early history was cov­ ered with large walnut, poplar, oak and other tim­ ber, the timber on the sandy land having been as heavy as on the, other portion of the farm. The land was a portion of an Indiana reserve, set apart by the government to the Indians in 1818 and by the Indians sold again in 1835, and was cleared more than 60 years ago. and fQj" many years produced large crops. It had always been farmed upon the principle of getting out of it all you can each year and putting nothing back into the soli. Under this system of farming the. soil bad become so poor that in the best season it produced but 15 to 20 bushels of corn to the acre, while in bad seasons the crop was an entire fail­ ure. V Mr. Smith had read in one of the bulletins of the department of agriculture that the value of an acre of "Sandy Vetch" plowed under Was equiva­ lent to putting into the ground $20 or $40 worth of commercial fertilizer, and straightway decided to try it on his farm. Accordingly, he ordered enough seed to plant two acres. The seed ^was planted In August, upon the vzttfr iirrz/j^z, jailor!--* poorest and most rolling two acres of sand land on the farm. It grew rapidly, and by winter the ground was so completely covered w-ith its foil- it ge that washing of the land was entirely pre­ vented. An examination of the roots showed them set thick with nitrogen nodules. Early in the spring, before any other grass or vegetation be­ gan to grow, the vetch plants were pushing out their summer foliage, and by May 1 they were four feet in length. About the first of June the two acres were cut for hay. Seeing that he had found n valuable plant for the farm, Mr. Smith planted 25 acres to Vetch the next year, the sowing being done on the poorest and sandiest land of the fitrm. It was decided to seed 21 acres of tliis land to field corn ahd-leave the other for pasture. The vetch grew luxuri­ antly. . The spring of 1908 was very wet, and it was May 1 before the ground was in condition to l»reak for corn. Delays were such that the 21 acres reserved for corn were not entirely broken until May 25. The vetch had grown to a helcbt of five feet, and the mass of vegetation was so heavy that It was almost impossible to turn under. A half dozen makes of plows were tried with com­ plete failure, when finally success was obtained with a double disk plow, and the field was finished. The prospect did not look Invltinjr. for bunches of vetch showed here and there sticking out of the ground. The field was worked down to fairly- good condition for planting by dragging and roiling, and on June 3 and 4 was planted to yellow corn. Dire were the predictions made as to the out­ come. Many contended that the heavy mass of vegetation would absorb all the moisture from fhe ground and the corn would die. But Mr. Smith gritted his teeth, held his counsel and awaited results. The corn came up a splendid stand. Dry weather set In. which added no little discomfort to the situation. The corn grew slowly, and as soon as it was sufficiently laqge the cultivators were set to work, and were worked with a little difficulty on account of bunches of vetch insuf­ ficiently plowed under catching on the cultivator points. , The neighboring farmers came around, leaned over the fence, and Indulged in sarcastic remarks. The gist of these remarks was that they had never in all their experience seen so unpromising a prospect for corn as this field presented. The weather was dry. and the, corn grew five or six inches, and made no further growth for more than a week. At the end of this time it seemed to take on new life, and grew with such rapidity that even Mr. Smith was astounded. , When the corn reached waist height the pro­ phets who had predicted its early demise on ac­ count of the great nu>ss of vetch turned under tried another tack: "Walt until it begins to ear,** thjpv safd. "and yon will see It fire And wither up." But the corn refused to side with these chronic croakers, and grew up and up until it reached the height of eight to ten feet, silked, tasseled, and bore its ears of golden corn. It was subject to six weeks of dry weather after it had silked, and yet it had not fired and • every hill was bright and green. Across the road l< neighbor's corn fired clear above the 'ears of the corn, and did not make more than 20 bushels to the acre. But Mr. Smith's corn finally reached its harvesting stage, sound and. solid. It was CQRir cRGPJ3FrT%n CtROP gathered, hauled to market, and made by weight 72 bushels to the acre, and brought a money value of $35 per acre. The planter used to plant the corn was set to drop three grains to the hill, nn<l never missed putting three grains in the hill, but too often dropped four grains, which made the corn too thick, and this condition reduced the yield fully ten bushels or niore to the acre. But think of 72 bushels of corn being grown on lan. 1 that had not for over 20 years produced iriore than 20 bushels to the acre, and this feat accomplished In so short a time and with so little expense, as the cost .of the vetch seed was but $3.50 an acre. v .This experiment wjtli vetch made Mr. Smith a vetch enthusiast. The following y< ar he planted ten acres of better and higher land to vetch, and the yield of corn on this land aftc the vetch was over 90 bushels per acre., the cost of the vetch seed for this field being only $3 per acre. Similar experiments were made with the crowing of sweet corn and potatoes on land that had first been planted to vetch, and the results were equally successful. Vetch, according to Mr. Smith. Is no respecter of soils. It settles down and makes its home with the flch or p«>or. clay as well ns.flie rich or poor sand, and commences Its business of soli restora tion at once. It has no terrors of frost or draught Winter will grasp it with its hand and hold It in its icy clasp for months and months, and when the warm sunshine of spring releases it, it smiles with Its freshness of green and continues doing business at the old stand. The drought of fall, spring or summer will blow its breath upon it, but it heeds Jt not, and continues its, business of stor­ ing fertility In the soil as though it were being con stantly caressed with refreshing showers. Big Elephant Butte Dam Will Curb the Rio Grande Floods The United States reclamation service has com­ pleted by the bujilding of the Elephant Butte dam a reservoir capable of Impounding 862.200.000,000 gallons of water. That is to say, within an artifi­ cial lake 45 miles long and with a shore line of 216 miles, water enough will be stored to be spread a foot deep over an area of 4,285 square miles; or„lf twice that depth. 1t would cover the state of Delaware. The purpose of this water is 1o irrigate 185.000 acres in four valleys lying be­ low the storage basin in New Mexico and Texas. While the dam Itself is not so high as others In the United States for a kindred service, still the massiveness of the structure and the capacity of the reservoir make the project not only the big­ gest tiring of its kind, in the I'aited States but the most ambitious in the world. The famous Assunn dam in Egypt impounds only two-thirds as much water and cost $14,000,000 more than the Elephant Butte structure, or $19,000,000. Elephant butte Is in New Mexico, about twelve miles west of Engle. and in order to carry materials to the dam site it was necessary to build a branch railway nearly thirteen miles long tnpping the Atchison, Topeka rtnd Santa Fe line. The government con­ structed this road and operated something like a fourth of it. and in this way saved $130,000 in frri<>ht charges alone. The dam is built of great rocks burled in a mass of concrete and/blocks a canyon on the "Itfo (Jrande. Frolli the lowermost point of the parapet wall the dam rises 318 feet, and nearly a third of this is below the river bed. At its top the struc- ttre has a length of 1,674 feet and on It runs a fine roadway 16 feet wide. The dam Is 225 feet thick at Its base and the entire mass, which called for 610,000 cubic yards of material, represents n dead weight *of 1.000,000 tons. This strength and Inertia are needed to halt the onrush of the erratic and the torrential Rio Grande and to hold the accumulated waters so that they may be supplied slowly and safely to the widespread acres reach­ ing fur 171 miles. Work was begun in 1911, and half of the suc­ ceeding six years was taken up in preliminary operations before the great bulwark could be reared. This preparatory work called for the con­ struction of; a great sluice to divert the river's flow and enormous bulkheads or subsidiary dams above and below the permanent dam. The climate Is an equable one In the region opened to the farmer, and ""the soil is abundantly productive when properly watered. A practical husbandman with $5,OQ0 working capital has a splendid chance. NOT N0BL£ ANIMAL Man Not Such Finished Product Human Cody Has Points of Deeded Inferiority to Despised Mammals, It Is Asserted. ; investigation Is proving, ^declares Dr. F. Wood Jones, professor of anat­ omy at the university of London, In his new book, "Arboreal Man," that the hu­ man body is no such finished product of evolution as we have fondly imag­ ined. It has points of decided inferior­ ity to the physical frames of mammals upon which we look with disdain aa less finely formed than ourselves. Some of the lower animals are more capable of exquisite adaptations than are we ourselves. Their bodies are more splendid instruments than ours are, more complex. Indicative of a higher stage Of evolution on the physi­ cal plane. The upright attitude of man has been employed as an argument in favor of his superiority to the four- footed beast physiologically, although the evidence makes such an argument ridiculous. It would tend the qther way,, says a review in the Lon­ don Lancet. If we compare man's body with the body of so-called "lower organisms" we are astonished to find that his points of resemblance are \v*ith the lowest in the scale of conscious being. Man is oddly unlike the noble beasts of the jungle; but he Is amaziiygly like the creatures of a primitive type that Infest the bog, the pond and the swamp. His relatives are not the lords of the forest, not the kings of the Jungle, nor the mighty eagle, but the .creatures of the slime. , How Is It that the various elements of the remote ancestral limb have been preserved In humah limbs? Professor Jones' answer is that the primates broke away from the early land living mammalian stock while the primitive bones and muscles were still preserved In that stock. These primitive ele­ ments proved useful and were pre­ served in that particular form which adopted an arboreal life and used the hand and foot to grasp with. The prim­ itive plan on which the hands of man are built can be accounted for only by supposing that man's ancestry spent a long pilgrimage in the trees. It was during man's arboreal phase of exist­ ence that the vast majority of those anatomical characters which we re­ gard as adaptations to man's upright posture were evolved. These nnatoml- cni traits indicate how low we are.-- Current Opinion. • • Dirty Windows and Poor Syee. The factors largely responsible for poor illumination are small, narrow windows, low power artificial lights placed too far from the point of opera­ tion, and neglect of facilities at hand for obtaining light, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry. By this neglect Is meant lack of cleanliness. This applies first of all to the windows. There Is scarcely a single industrial locality which does not contain at least one building, and all too frequently sev­ eral buildings of the same type. They are built with a supply of window space sufficient to illuminate amply the Interior. The dust and dirt accu­ mulated upon them, however, destroy In large proportion their usefulness. The same condition Is found In arti­ ficial lighting. The electric light bulb, dusty or streaked with dirt, the result of hurried and incomplete attempts at washing, often shaded with a fixture meant to be a reflector, but which in r reality is anything but that, faintly illuminates the work and impairs the health and the efficiency of the work­ er.--Scientific American. His Fables Were Classics. Jean de la Fontaine, the seventeenth century French genius, who ranks among the greatest fabulists of all time, died 222 years ago, at the age of seventy-four, and to the last he was as naive, improvident, reckless and good- hearted as a child. * He was the son of a magistrate, and in his youth proposed to become a priest, but abandoned that project aft­ er eighteen months in a seminary, and thereafter, for several years, led an idle and dissipated life. His early ef­ forts as poet and dramatist were of little Worth, and it was not until he was forty-four that he gained fame with his "Contes pour Hire"--tales for laughter. La Fontaine's masterpiece, his "Fables," were published between 1668 and 1694, the last book having been completed shortly before his death. In these he satirized the whole range of human nature in its animal counter­ parts, and produced a work that will always rank as a great classic. fet Contents 15 Fluid Drachn ALCOHOL-3 PER GENT. AV^etabfelVepfifafeRfitfAs^ ! sifiulatin^thelbod fsy Reguta- J tingtheStomadis and Bowels cf j ihcietyftomoWî esti«i| Signature Cheerfulness and RESTCC*\taffiS (] O neither 0phtm,Morphlne nor Mineral. NOT NARCOTIC JixS--m AoSmlk̂ ' A he! pful Rented ft* , Constipation and Diarr*wet- and rcverishness afifi Loss OF SLEEP facsimile Sijaamreof ?-'• -Jm CASTOBlit for Infanta and ffliUifrim. i Mothers Know That Genuine Castoria Always ; Bears the THE CKVTACNCOKP«A& NEW VPR* At 6months *Ul » t\ «»i- c. I<;Cems 35 Doves 35 Exact Copy of Wrmpper. for Over Thirty Years GASTORIA TMB eCWTAtlft MiMNY, MCWTOMK QfTf* 1 i »OH/v I H I r - I I I P A l T F A C a t a r r h a l F e v e r INFLUENZA P i n k E y e ' shipping Fever, Epizootic And all diseases of the horse affecting' his throat speedily cured; colts and horses In sam« stable kept from having them by using Spohn's Distemper Compound. 3 to 6 doaea often cure; one bottle guaranteed to cure one case. S&f* for brood mares, baby colts, stallions, all ages and con­ ditions. Most skillful scientific compound. 50c and $1 per bottle; $5 and $10 a dozen. Any drug-gist or deliv­ ered by manufacturers. SPOHN MEDICAL CO.. Goshen, Iai. ' '&}.&' <$1 ;V; The Man Hire Up. "Hello, hello, is this the fire depart- ment?" asked an excited voice on the telephone. "No, madam," answered the manager of an employment agency, whose phone bell had been rung by mistake. "This Is the hire department." A Valued Household Remedy for Over Half a Century. An our climate, with lta sudden changes of temperature, rain, wind and sunshine often intermingled In a single' day, It is no wonder that our children, friends and relatives are so frequently taken from us by neglected colds, many deaths resulting from this cause. A bottle of Boschee's German Syrup kept in the house, and a few doses taken in time, will possibly prevent a severe ill­ ness, a doctor's bill, and perhaps death. For fifty years this has been a very successful remedy for coughs, colds, throat or lung troubles. It Induces a good night's sleep with easy expec toratlon in the morning. For sale by druggists in all parts of the civilized world, 26 and 75 cent bottles.--Adv. Couldnt Keep It Up. The City Man (to ninety-year-old peasant)--Tell me, what must one do to grow to be as old as you are? Peasant--Don't drink, don't smoke, keep out in the fresh air. City Man--My father did all those things and died at sixty. Peasant--Yes, but he didn't do them long enough.--Fliegende Blaetter (Mu­ nich). One Too Many. Mr. Bruce Barton, editor of Every* Week, was describing the mental trepi* datlon of a friend of his who was mak» ing his first public speech. When he got up to speak the audi­ ence seemed to him like the result of a test a wife tried on her husband who came home early one ihornlng from a banquet where there had been a quan­ tity of some unknown beverage. The wife, who found her fears bad been realized, placed two chairs fac­ ing each other, sat down In one and applied the stare test, looking upon th« inebriated one with a cold, fixed stare. ** Til tell you all about it, my dear,* he hiccuped, "but that woman in the other chair looks so much can't tell which Is which.*" Ma , iiftl < *' ' o: . . }*j .J Pimples, boils, carbuncles, dry op mad disappear with Doctor Pierce's Qoldea Medical Discovery. In tablets or liquid. --Adv. People who talk a great deal find time to say anything. J :<r Satan is the father of Ilea aa matrimony is the mother of excuses. A Rare Breed. "He gives his family everything they want." '. * "Yes. He's one of the few men to whom the five-dollar bill they give their wives to spend doesn't look any bigger than the five-dollar bill they tos^ onto the bar to pay for drinks for the crowd." Getting Old Too Fast? Late in life the body shows signs of wear and often the kidneye weakta first, Th# back « lame, bent and achy, and the kidney action distressing. This makes people fee! older than they Don't wait for dropsy, gravel, harden­ ing of the arteries or Bright's disease. Use a mild kidney stimulant. Try Doan's Kidney Pills. Thofsands of el­ derly folks recommend themitf^ An Illinois Case JSZSS? Mrs. V. A. Boyd.f 715 W. Klrkhim St.. Litchfield, 111., saya: "I was laid up with kid­ n e y c o m p l a i n t a n d couldn't do any house­ work. When I sat d o w n , p a i n s s h o t through my back and shoulders and It was also hard for me to get up. I doctored, but didn't get relief until I took Doan's Kidney Pills. They removed the pains and aches and made my kidneys normal." C«t Doaa's at Aay Star#, 80e a Ban doan's •¥;&•/ FOSTER4MILBURN CO. BUFFALO, N. Y. •ja*-: r v V - HORSE MEAT MARKET OPENED ':lj. The first /Morse market for the sale of flesh In New York city, and nrobably in the United States, lias been opened, and if it is successful the city 1$ to have other establishments for the •nrne purpose. The new market is ttlbject to the regulations of the de­ partment of health, and in order that pervise the slaughterhouses and take ereiy precaution^.to safeguard the con-, sumer. Dr. W. Horace Hoskins. dean of the New York State Veterinary col­ lege, has written the following letter to the department of health of New York city in regard to the new ven­ ture : "I am much Interested, and 'twere may be no deception it will sell quite approve of the action of your ifething except horse meat. Veterinar- department In permitting the opening meat. So clean an animal, so free from tuberculosis and many other seri­ ous lesions com&on to our flesh-pro­ ducing animals, and the continually soaring high prices of animal foods make It extremely desirable that op­ portunities be afforded to obtain cheap­ er meats. The long prejudice held by so many people against horse meat 1 trust will soon be eliminated." No. Dorothy, it isn't because many men do not know how to sew that they iko Bot jsead tfc#4r CURIOUS CONDENSATIONS A new plane is provided with a shield for the hand to prevent it being bruised. A sparrow for a short distance can spurt by wing up to 80 miles an hour. Forty-one women out of every 100 marry between the ages of twenty and twenty-five. v * Shutters that can be operated fsom a driver's sent have been Invented to protect automobile radiators from The Eccentric Chinese. Petroleum may be a thing for which one's taste has to be cultivated. At any rate, the Chinese dislike the smell and touch of It so badly that they are much in the situation of the people who seventy-five years ago had salt works In western Pennsylvania--they abomi­ nate the petroleum and abandon a well when the proportion of oil to brine gets high. Their repugnance for crude petroleum may be measured by the fact that In China it takes from one to three generations to bore a well! For the refined products of petroleum they have no such a\*ersion, or even for the tin cans in which they get it from the United States, making out of the latter a source of almost as many of the necessaries of life as a South. Sea Islanders finds in his favorite conut palm.--The Nation's Business. A Helping Hand. Decker (watching the game over her shoulder)--Gee, Miss Oldgirl, I'd like to hold that hand of yours! Miss Oldgirl--Oh, Mr. Decker, this is so sudden! Canada Offers 160 Acres Free to Farm Hands Bonus of Western Canada Land to Men Assisftnf tm Maintaining Needed Grain Production The demand for farm labor in Canada is great As an ii to secure the necessary help at once, Canada will give Low Postage Rates. The cheapest postal service to the world is said to belhtt of Japan. Let­ ters travel for two sen--about seven- ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY ACRES Q£ LAND FREE AS A HOMESTEAD aifd allow the time of the farm laborer, who has filed on theiai: apply as residence duties, the same as if he actually had lived on it This special concession is the reduction of one year in the time to complete duties. Two years' residence instead of three as heretofore ̂ but only to men working on the farms for at least six months in 1917. This appeal for farm help is in no way connected with enlistment for military service but solely to increase agricultural output A won­ derful opportunity to secure a farm and draw good wagesat the same time. Canadian Government will pay all fare oyer one cent per mile from St Paul or Duluth to Canadian destination. InfbnnallQO as to low railway rates may be had on application to i H »s< • .V- CJ. law 412.112 V. ft., Qkap, • T C^j«» Goremmect Agents ITS Of course It is absent-mindedness when you forget, but it's gross neglect when your wife forgets. The largest settlement In Greenland has n population of less than 900. -*•- !ne Marine Is (or Tired Ejes. | S RIOVleS Red Lyes -- Sore Eye* -- s * Hyellds. B S KofrMhes Krsiure" Murine is a I'avuriti# g Z Tr«a.tmxnv for Byes that reel dry and smart. 3 S Girts ynur Byes as much of your U>viu», cai» S four Te«ib and with tbe sum# u.iiruy. i cm FM ma you CMMT IUT NEW ETES; E Bold a« Drtig and Optica) t+v.ros or bv MaiL TAI AVM IMM« U, CMOCI tm CANCER fn <r«mov«d) without kiuf« ' All workroJuwriUHKL C* . mrtt# torn** Smmmtmriw , Dr. WILLIAMS SANATOWU j is cow your opportunity Th vauaua chrap lands on ««rtb. Wbv not investment. Who!***> bi-.K'i* and i C. A.. P1KA.UB Hegiaul, Hi-- PATENTS ^ CHICAGO. Kauoii R. Coleman. Waafc. , W*uO. O.C. Book." ' «i it(«naciN. Heal f; ir'SS83SE33r