Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1901-12-24

w ~ ollOuib 10 anu Sell
all the stock which they have and buy
goats.
It is the sunshine which puts the
beautiful color on the apple and the
foliage of the forest in the fail, and
just so bright and cheerful way with
men puts rich coloring on all persons
ana things with which they come in
contact.
Every year there is some so called
scientist trying to scare folks with the
statement that next year the country
is TO be overrun with the seventeen
year locust. While there may be such
an insect, we have never in forty years
known it to do any harm.
1t does not take very big Office for
some men to imagine that the coun-
try could not possibly get along with
out their valuable services. We have
known county supervisor to really
believe that the business of the county
would go all to pot unless he was re.
elected.
We never saw more prompt con-
nection between cause and effect than
a few days ago. A large gang of men
engaged upon public building had
dropped their tools, taken off their
aprons and We're well out of the in
closure before the noon whistle had
stopped blowing.
If man was able to work as hard in
Alabama as he is in Vermont or Min
nesota, what a showing he could make!
But he cannot and invariably acquires
the "let her CO. Gallagher" habit for
which the climate of the south is alone
responsible whenever he goes from
Dakota to Texas.
A West Virginia reader writes us that
instead of the farmer in that state fret
ting about the coons working in his
cornfield he is only too glad to know
that they are, for a night coon hunt
in the cornfield and coon pot pie rep
resents pleasing feature of West Vir-
ginia rural existence
Many n boy has got his first induc-
ton into the real meanness of this old
world by having his dad sell calf or
q pig which the boy had had given him
and which he really thought he owned.
We do not know of any one thing
which will start a boy wrong any
more surely than this.
If the peat beds of the north-and
they are very extensive-can be used
to produce a valuable fuel at n cost
price of not to exceed dollar a ton
when pressed and dried. the northwest
can soon show the coal barons of the
east q new trick. 1t is claimed that
this thing can be done and is being
done.
Take it all round, the potato crop
was one of the most profitable raised
this year, no matter whether raised on
irrigated soil in Colorado the pine bar
rens of Wisconsin or the plains of
North Dakota. The price is abnor-
mally high. and, whether sold early or
late. the tuber has paid big profits this
year.
We have never seen a year when we
think we shall go as slow on potatoes
as next year. In the first place, the
seed potatoes will be high priced, and
then there will be enough others who
will plant large areas. expecting to
duplicate the experience of the past
year, only to have murphies to give
away year from next spring.
We knew of a case where a pretty
good sort of a man got so mad be-
cause he could not drive an old SOW
into the yard that he fairly foamed at
the mouth and had to have doctor
to get him out Of the fit. We did not
worry very much over the man or the
old sow, but did wonder if a woman
would not have a rocky time living
with such a man.
Corn fodder is the most easily han
died and fed when put in the silo, next
when it is shredded. Handled any 9TH
er way, q man should be sure that he is
converted and be a believer in the doc
trine of the perseverance of the saints.
1t is always easy to get up a revival of
religion where corn fodder is handled
from the shock because there are so
many backslders in the community.
We are asked why it is that certain
spots in field of corn will fire" dur
ing a dry and hot time and others will
not. The cause of this firing" is usu-
ally found IN the fact that the corn is
planted too thick, thus eXhausting the
moisture from the soil. A south side
hill or some spot fortified with coarse
manure will also be affected, but the
primary cause is the same in each case
lack of moisture.
We would give dollar apiece for
five hen hawks and five owls in a min
ute if their work could only be con-
fined to our large orchard Not a rab-
bit nor mouse could there live if
these birds could get in their work,