Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1893-02-23
From "Farmer."

the whole country has been sheet OF
ice, so that 1t has been difficult and
dangerous to get stock to the water, or
the water to the stock. Many acct
dents have occurred, and with horses
and cattle not few have been fatal.
Yesterday was warm and fine and to-
day. in spite of government kilograms
posted yesterday, and predicting snow
to-day, is as fine as yesterday, so that
the glider is going very fast and at
this hour stock can get about freely.
Wheat, which was generally late. is
very sorry looking. but it is one of
those crops that often deceives its looks
and it is too soon to predict anything
confidently, though its untoward con-
ditions seems to be stiffening the mark
ct already.
There is good deal of corn still in
the field, and much of it will be soft
when it thaws out. The truth is that
the corn crop was not equal to the esti-
mates and the shortage will tell pretty
soon. Your writer lately attended a
farmers institute at Winchester, Scott
county, and among the most interest
ing things brought up was the exper-
fence with the corn-shucking and fod-
der-cutting machine. Two men pres
emit owned and ran them for their own
use; others hired them. The machine
owner charges five cents bushel for
all corn shucked, cuts up the stalk and
fodder and elevates it into barn or
pen, the ears of corn going into a wag-
on. The farmer hauls the fodder to
the machine. hauls tie corn away and
furnishes fuel for the engine and board
of hands. It takes three wagons haul
ing fodder; one man, one team and two
wagons to keep the corn away. There
are four men with the machine-engi
neer, feeder, oiler and water-hauler.
Between four and five hundred bushels
is a fair days work.
Among other things at the meeting
a statement was made of the solution
of the clover puzzle, or why land some
times became clover-sick. Glover is
our only forage plant that will take
nitrogen from the atmosphere and give
it to the soil, but it is a rank feeder,
and if persistently grown and removed
will exhaust the soil of potash and
phosphoric acid, which are just as nee
essary to plant life as nitrogen, but not
half as costly to supply commercially.
Four-ifths of our atmosphere is nitro
gen, and hence the necessity of clover
as fertilizer can be readily appreciat-
ed. but the fact that it is exhaustive of
the other two necessary elements of
vegetable life must be disappointing to
the farmer who is hogging his land
down with the intention of clovering it
up. This points to natural laws which
we cannot violate without mourning
the painful penalty. In spite of ma
chinery and improved methods land
still needs what society needs, break
ing into smaller farms and the applica-
ton of more thought and labor. In |
this connection it would be we'll to note |
that though the population of the Unit
ed States has increased $4,000, 900 in
the last ten years, the rural population
has actually decreased, and, though
millions of acres in the west have been
broken up, the number of farms, in the
whole country, have decreased also.
The available area of arabic public
ands is about exhausted; we have de-
graded land to the level of speculation
Ind unless we change the tendency So
,iety will become more and more pro-
ific of such black brutes as Henry
smith and white brutes like his tortur-
'rs, who proved that the white man is
to the niger, even in brutal
ty.
Politics are very quiet here, though
! good many are waiting with their
mouths open, waiting for post-oface
'lums to drop into them. Our legisla-
ors are frittering their time and party
away like idiots. They are
Ike your correspondents of last week
rho would like something done to cor
orations, but didn't want anything
one that was radical for fear 1t would
isturb business. Bah! why the mis-
axes we have made are radical and
he remedy must be as radical as the
vii. Business that would be disturb
d by what is simply just ought to be
the more and the quicker 1t
done the better. 1.-The real DANGER"
sys Tom L. johnson, '.is not in going
70 fast and too far, but in going too
ow and not far enough" It's case
a '.bull in q china shop" and If our
ONCE holders are afraid to
take the bull by the horns" they will
ave to step down and out and let
else up and In who has more
'nse and courage. We want patriots
i'd statesmen, not Flanagans.
The REGISTER is right in regard to
king mortgages. Such schemes may