Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1901-04-04

1t you want to raise nice lot Of
CELERY for your own use, buy a paper
of celery seed now and SOW it in a box
of earth. We will tell you later on
what to do next
If you are sure of a heavy, soaking
rain just as the corn is caring in Au-
gust, it may do to plant four kernels
In each hill, but if such rain Is want
ing you will be better off with two.
Some men are so fortunately situated
in North Dakota that they can go
down cellar on a cold day and dig
all the coal they need to keep them
nice and warm up stairs. Every coun-
try has its compensations.
An eastern man owning a rather wet
quarter section in a western country
received recently the sum of 5000 as
the proceeds. of his share of the crop
AS the owner had but $4,000 invested
In the land he received a dividend of
over 20 per cent on his investment.
The Poland-China lard hog is just as
much logical product of the great
corn belt as the bacon hog is Of Cana
dian foods and conditions. Any type
of bacon hog would become under corn
belt conditions in course of time lard
hog, and the Poland China, fed only nj
trogenous foods, would in time be con-
verted into bacon hog.
The only consolation connected with
the failure of the Grout bill to become
law is the fact that the river and
harbor bill failed also If an existing
fraud could not be stopped, it is some
satisfaction to know that at least an
other was not perpetrated. The dairy
men must wait. Old Bossy will be
heard from at the next session.
Modern progress and invention have
made of copper one of the most valua-
bic minerals. Not less than 25O dis
tinct appliances associated largely with
electrical development open up new
fields of usefulness for this metal, with
the result that the owners of copper
mines are piling up as large fortunes as
the silver barons and the owners of
gold mines.
One feature of legislation which
would aid in the cause of better roads
would be to authorize the proper off
Gals to condemn land needed as
gravel pits. This power is lacking in
most of the states now. and where
such deposits of gravel are found and
needed the public now has to pay
three or four prices for them or do
without them
Three hundred farmers. some young
men and some of them gray headed.
took advantage of special three
weeks course at the Iowa Agricultural
college this winter, the special work
of this course being instruction in
stock Judging. Several who attended
tell us that it was the most instructive
and profitable three weeks they ever
put in on farm work.
The strippings of cows milk prod
uct are said to be valuable tonic for
weakly persons who cannot assimilate
other food If the use of strippings
should become general by people in
need of a tonic. a marked lowering of
the test at the creameries may be look
ed for. We have known a good many
degenerates needing moral tonic who
hankered after strippings.
The best remedy we know of for hog
cholera may be summed up thus:
Breed only from Well matured par
ents and keep corn away from the
pigs until they are year DID, then fin
Isl, them for market. There may be
NO money in raising hogs after this
rule; still we believe it would pay bet
ter than maintaining hog cemetery
on nearly every farm in the country.
On many of the stock farms of the
west the land has become too rich to
produce profitable crop of small
f,iuiii' IhC StidW SloWlbS So ucuYy ludL
the crop is lodged by the wind and
never fills and ripens. The remedy for
this difficulty was the subject of dis
cEssiOn at farmers institute lately.
A crop of flax to precede the small
grain was agreed upon as a cure for
this trouble
The manager of the largest creamery
in the west. operated on the farm sep
arator plan. told us recently that his
patrons place value of 30 cents per
on their slimmilk for
feeding calves. Ten cents per hun
dredweight would be a big price for
the skimmilk as usually returned to
the dairymen from the creamery sepa-
rators. There is a point here worth
thinking over.
The most beautiful bird in North