Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1901-12-05

Over 100 different attempts were
made at great expense to find water
supply upon what, with water, would
have made a very desirable ranch in
Texas. Failing to get water, the Sec
ton was abandoned to the prairie dogs
and wolves.
AS soon as the ground is frozen the
strawberry bed may be covered for
the winter. For this purpose nothing is
better than marsh hay. The next best
material is cornstalks, then clean straw
of any sort. The sole object Of covering
the bed is to prevent the thawing of
the ground and not the freezing.
A northern lake which has for many
years been known as a great resort
for canvasback and redhead ducks,
which fed on the wild celery which
grew abundantly in the lake, is now
entirely avoided by these valued game
birds because the carp placed in the
waters have eaten all the celery.
A young lady friend of ours Is work
ing as a hired girl for $3.50 per week
for the sole purpose of getting the
means wherewith to pay her way
through course at some college. That's
the sort of a girl we like. Her enter
prise ought to secure her not only an
education, but one of the best men for
a husband.
Try the experiment anyhow and send
the boy this winter to some good agri-
cultural school or college for three
months term. 1t will not cost very
much-less than 500 for clothes, books
! well invested The farmer under com
| ing agricultural conditions must know
more than his father who wrestled with
! pioneer discouragements and cheap
| land.
| We came across two men recently,
each over sixty, who had not made the
discovery during all their lives that the
fly which bites the horses is not the
same sort of fly which tickled their
bald heads and got into the sugar
bowl While these two varieties of flies
look almost exactly alike, they are built
very differently, the house fly feeding
by surface suction, while the horse fly
bores for blood like mosquito.
1t has never been entirely clear to us
why the pests of neutrality-suspicious.
pers, chinch bugs, potato bugs, bdfers,
hessian fly. aphides, purslane pigweed,
foxtail, ragweed and the like-should
have been endowed with such marvel
GUS powers of reproduction. They are
all propagated on q ratio not of twenty,
sixty or one hundred fold, but million
fold, and need but just foothold to
claim all the earth. The good things
Of life lack this power of fecundity.
When man plants out honey To-
Gust tree, he starts quite little trou-
BILE for himself as general thing. No
tree of which we know will so persist
emily extend itself by suckers, and the
more these suckers are cut off the more
they will spread, almost exactly follow.
ing the habit Of the Canada thistle in
this particular. We know Of one case
where single locust planted thirty
years ago has covered over several
acres of land with these sucker trees.
The government has interesting re-
ports from it's expert sent to examine
the agricultural capabilities Of the Yu.
kon valley in Alaska. He reports that
nearly all the common yegetables-po.
J tatoes, turnips, cabbage, onions, let
J tuce, radish-and in cereals barley car
be raised there without difficulty, the
almost perpetual sunshine of the sum
, mer largely compromising for the
shortness Of the growing season. The
native grasses are reported as very
luXurlant.
j In the abstract an ear of corn, :
) stalk of clover and milk COW are thu
commonest of things, but just the SAM
: they have offered problems which ia,
3 the best knowledge and wisdom of tn,
+ most wise and learned of men, ant
2 they have not yet found out all Their
is to know about this remarkable trim
ity of good things. The COW and he
8 milk, corn and it's utilities and Glove
as soil redeemer will still furnisl
: texts for valuable agricultural sermon
! many years hence.
: We were in one of the largest poul
e try establishments Of the west not Ion
: ago when large consignments of al
sorts Of dressed poultry were bein
received. Talking with the proprietor
e he said that there was loss Of froT
: 25 to so per cent to the average shippe
I or producer solely on account of care
u less dressing Of the birds. He shove
}, us turkeys which he was selling at 1
q cents pound, these well dressed, an