Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1901-09-05

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The injured corn will make the
finest sort of ensilaGe.
Hay almost always brings good
price when it is burned up by the rail
way companies.
A Nebraska creamery traced the
cause of q lot of poor butter to the
Kaffir corn fed to the cows which sup
piled 1t with milk.
rounded up, it will be found that there
will be abundant reason for the proper
observance Of Thanksgiving.
Some men. are public spirited only in
tl1is-that they will raise enough foul
weed seed not only to seed their own
farms, but their neighbors' also.
The apple orchards have been singu-
larly free from any trace of fire blight
this year, traceable, we think, to ex-
IRENE dryness of the atmosphere.
The best way to oil a-windmill is to
hire some active young fellow to do it.
1t is hardly necessary to add that the
bestdime to do it is when the mill is
dead.
The average price of a bushel Of
wheat in England for the past p
years has been 81 cents. This fact had
to be determined by the agricultural
commission of the country in order
that the salaries Of some of their rec
tors could be fixed as provided by
some ancient statute.
The demand for the Pacific coast
lumber is increasing all through the
central west at great rate. This lum-
Der, having to be shipped by rail, leaves
many coast cars to be returned as emp
ties at a heavy cost or to be filed with
the products of the central west There
Is thus opening a chance for low freight
rates on many products from the Mis-
sissippi valley to the coast which will
be utilized.
The man whom we mentioned last
spring as trying to put in crop of
oats on a piece of cornstalk land
which was covered with a mass of
stalks and pigeon grass harvested his
crop the other day. While his neigh
bors were getting a yield Of 35 bushels
of oats to the acre, he got IL bushels,
and there is quite little farming Of
this sort being done on land which
sells for $50 per acre.
Another product Of the vast swamps
OF the north is coming into use-viz,
the sphagnum moss, which forms the
basis Of the immense peat deposits of
these swamps. 1t is used largely by
nurserymen and florists as wrapping
for plants and shrubs when shipped
long distances and as a filling in some
lines Of upholstering. Verify there are
bqt 4eN natural products which the
genius OF Americans cannot in some
manner utilize!
Insa late English paper we note under
the head of police court proceedings
the case where a hired man quit his
employer after working four days Of
hisS contract, period of one year and
was hauled up before the court and
Hned $40 and costs. Just suppose we
had that sort Of law in America!
In this case the man was to receive
Sill for his years work and board
himself. The wonder is he worked the
four days.
. The writer this spring bought 4S
square rods of ground at a cost of $3.50.
One-half Of 1t was set out as a straw
berry bed; the rest was planted in pota-
toes and sweet corn. If the whole
piece had been planted with potatoes
Early Six Weeks-the crop would have
paid for the land, but then who could
foresee that September potatoes would
sell at $1.25 per bushel? Why could
not the weather prophets have put us
on to this snap2
Possibly 1t does not pay in the mere
matter of dollars and cents to paint the
farm home and the farm buildings, but
the doing of it will do something to
remove that tired feeling common to
many people who live on the farm A
man may very properly wear 10 cent
hat, DO cent shirt and 35 cent pair
Of Overalls while doing hts farm work,
but his home--the place where he lives
should not be rugged out on the IS
and 40 cent basis.
There are probably more aged Tran
scendent crab trees to be found scat
tered all over the northwest section Of
the country than of any other variety
of apple. In root and trunk and top
they seem to be every whit as hardy as
the native bur oak tree. They have
withstood the effects of droughts, OF
test winters, of blight and all the ills
which beset the apple In that territory