The weekly Ottumwa courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1857-1872, 1871-10-12
ORDERS SOLICITED.



aim at is fewer crops, cleaner culture,
and q larger yield per acre. Weare
q great beef.eating people, and arc
taking kindly to good mutton when
it can be found. Already o largo
proportion OF the beef consumed in
the Atlantic cities is raised west OF
the Mississippi The price for the
moment happens to be low, but it
will not remain so long. M
The farmer who raises good beet
or mutton IN New England, New
York, Pennsylvania, Ohio Indiana,
Illinois, Iowa, or any of the older
settled States, need not fear that the
half.wild cutie Of Texas or else
where are going to drive him to the
wall. There is no sort of danger.
Unaided nature cannot compete with
agriculture any better than the In
dian can compete with. the Anglo
Saxon.
Our population is rapidly lncreas-
ing, and the demand for meat will
continue to increase from year to
year. The causes which lead to an
over supply for few months are on
ly temporary. The. demand is I'M
ceasing, and he is a wise farmer who
looks ahead and quietly and preserv.
ingly improves his stock and farm.
He is certain of his reward. Wool,
mutton, beet, pork, cheese, butter,
milk, poultry, and all other animal
products will be wanted more and
moro as the condition of the world
improves. There are millions ofpeo-
pie, even in Europe, who seldom
taste fresh meat. An Irishman eats
double the meat and does double the
work here that he did at homo.
Even the Chinese in this country eat
meat as soon as they eau earn mon
ey enough to buy it.
The point want to got at = this
We have large country. Land is
comparatively cheap, and labor COM
paratively high. Crops are great in
extent but small in yield, aud many
of our farmers are getting moro
weedy and less productive. Now
what we must aim at is to make
them cleaner and richer. We must
devote less time to the production Of
wheat and other grain that is sold,
and more to the production of such
crops as are fed out Ito the animals
on the farm.
We all know that it is far better to
raise 300 bushels of wheat from ten
acres than TO plow, seed and reap
twenty or thirty acres to get tho
same amount. We obtain no more
money for the crop in the ono case
than in the other, but the profits are
quadrupled. The market is not
glutted with grain, and there will be
more meat and wool to sell, and more
manure to use. To bring this about
we must summer. follow whom necea.
sary; SOW clover more frequently,
and not sell a pound let our land
lie longer in grass and when it is
broken up and planted to corn, culti-
vate it very thoroughly, and not
overcrop it before it is seeded down
again. In some cases it will pay TO
summer-tellow, and then seed the
land to grass without grain crop.
We must aim to save labor, enrich
our land, reduce our area updcr
tillage, and when it is plowed, culti-
vate thoroughly to kill the weeds and
develop the latent plant food in tho
soil.
Plant food is the farmers capital.
1t is present in large quantities in
| most Of our soils, but a great portion
oft lies idle. Our profits win be in
proportion to the amount of this food
that Eve can render available and
keep in active circulation without al
lowing it to diminish faster than
fresh quantities are developed from
the soil by the decomposing and dis
integrating action Of the atmosphere.
u Harris, in american Agricalturat-
| isf.