Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1901-07-30
Dealers Report High Market and
Scarcity of Product.
WHEAT ALONE IS OF GOOD QUALITY
The Situation Is Becoming Alarming
to Those Having Stock-oats Are
Not Justifying EARLY Predictions, the
Grain Is Very Small.

Feed of all kinds, including oats,
corn, bran. shorts and chop, have
climbed up the past few weeks keeping
step with the thermometer, and what
is worse manifesting no disposition to
abandon the lofty perch no matter
what the mercury may do at some
later date.
According to a grain dealer seen by
a Courier representative this morning
the present high prices will not soon
step down and surrender their high
chairs, but will give the suburbanite
who has boosted to his less fortunate
neighbor of the exquisite quality OF
Jersey cream and the comforts one
takes in keeping family horse, a
shock such as he has not received
from watching the glass tube burst,
and spray the pink alcohol and mer-
curry over the surrounding landscape.
Hay Is High.
Hay, which a week ago could be
bought for $12 ton, now costs from
SIS to SIC baled, timothy has jumped
a dollar, while oats have raised
to forty cents per bushel. But
these quotations are as nothing
when it comes to corn, bran and chop
feed The golden cereal has advanced
from forty-eight to sixty cents a bush
el, while chop feed now brings $40 per
ton, an advance of over 81 in less than
week. Selling by the bushel at
S125 Even bran is worth ninety
cents per bushel and shorts in SYM
pathy has shown the spirit to reach
the even dollar mark.
No Prices Quoted.
1t has come to the point where the
local dealers refuse to quote prices on
corn, not knowing whether they will
be able to deliver bushel of it to a
prospective customer, Notwithstanding
the report circulated that a large mill
ing company has a reserve stock in
store ready to dump on the market at
propitious moment, the fact remains
| that it hasn't been moved, or shoVels
frightened in it's removal, and some
of the dealers are skeptcal as TO
whether it really exists. Most OF the
| feed stores today had limited supplies
Of feed with the possible exception OF
cast, and should sudden Impulse oc-
/ cur among customers to buy heavily,
it would be keenly felt. Hay has been
slow in coming to the market, the
farmers being busy baling it, as we'll
as holding it for higher prices which
are inevitable Baled hay this noon
commanded in retail $3.50 delivered
per ton
/ A Poor Crop.
A. Thompson, a farmer residing in
Highland township, on the old Rogers
farm disposed of oats which he but
threshed this week TO reporter he
said: Prom field Of forty acres, on
account of the poor crop only half
was cut and that when threshed aver
aged not twenty bushels to the acre.
The oats displayed were quite an OBJ
iect of interest on account of the
smallness of the grain. Much of the
: oats are so dry when they are thresh-
ed that there are many hulled kernels
among them. BY rubbing in the hands
the hull can be easily removed.
Wheat Generally Coed.
Wheat holds the record this sum
mer. The crop is generally good, Sc
good in fact that the average not sci
+, dom, but often, rivals and exceeds rec
f ognized wheat states crops.
: A Good Wheat Field.
, Joseph Engle, west of Keb, on seven
), teen acres, has thresbed over five hun
c dred bushels, an ayerge per acre o
n thirty-seven bushels of sixty-twC
pounds each. A local dealer who's
!. business on the market affords hin
opportunity for observation not &C
cessible to everybody in reviewing tn
situation said:
e cts my opinion, from what | gath
S er in conversation with the farmers
It that corn will be only half crop thi
o year, this depending largely upo
n whether it rains within week. Not
y withstanding the disposition of tn
e crop experts to be optimistic, the sin
e pie truth remains that the farmers rt
d alize that corn is nearly ruined. Tha
it which was planted late in the seaso
may bring forth a half or even two
e. thirds crop, depending upon the raj
l. and the absence OF an early fros
a. Corn which is in tassel is in bad shap'
e and on the uplands many of the farm
g ers have already been cutting an
h. shocking it for fodder. In the loy
j. lands, of course, it is in better cond
re ton, although rain will not help it
d great deal possibly giving the larmel
about fourth of a crop. Hay, fort
nately, is in fair condition, particl
larly that in the loWlands. Pasturas
is becoming limited and the grass
brown and dried UP so that stoc
growers will have to begin feedin
hay much earlier than usual unless raj
should come. The farmers, in .orde
to save their hay and corn for tt
market are feeding oats from tt
shock and will make money by so d
ing.
Reports from southern Nilsson
and portions of Kansas indicate tn
Iowa stockmen are picking up all Il
loose cattle thrown on the mark
there. Yearlings and 2-year-olds c;
be bought for half what they a
worth, but it is a question whether
o. will pay to buy the stock bring it nor
k. and feed $40 hay and 70 cent cor
ny The scarcity of feed has thrown
Ia. large amount of poor cattle on t
X. market, and prices have suffered
he cordingly. Fat cattle, however, W
bring top-notch prices.
ty
nd WANT HARVEST HANDS.