The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1901-10-31


bring up beef production to equal the
demand.
Through the west there has been four
times as much corn cut up, bound and
shocked as ever before. This forage
will release an immense amount of
hay and thus become indirectly a sub
Stantial source of revenue to thousands
Of farmers.
A good many of the Illinois men who
sold out at 500 per acre, expecting to
buy just as good farms in Iowa and
southern Minnesota at $50 an acre,
were not quite quick enough and found
cut that the last named farms have
jumped in price to $40 and $50 per
acre.
The peach growing belt in the west
was moved easily a hundred miles
north the past season in all the west
ern states and large crops raised where
1t had been thought impossible to grow
this fruit. Perhaps the peach belt will
follow the corn belt in its extension
north
A feature of the dairy interest in Nor
way consists in placing a dish of por-
ridge on the threshold of the cow barn
en- Christmas morning. While this
of superstition, it is still better
than swiping old bossy with the fork
handle on days which are not rated as
holidays.
One reason why the south does not at
tempt to raise its own corn is the great
difficulty in keeping the corn when
raised. The moist, warm fail and win
ter weather prevents the perfect ripen-
ing of the corn, while even northern
grown ear corn placed in crib in Lou
isiana will mold and spoil.
We know of several men who will
harvest thirty-ive or forty bushels Of
good corn to the acre who should, if
they don't, feel real miching over the
way they howled over the loss of their
corn crop last July. 1t always pays to
trust Providence just little bit when
a fellow has done his level best.
The harvest is past and the summer
ended, and every weed which grew in
the highway around the farm went to
seed. So general has this thing been
that we are ready to favor change in
the law which will compel man to
fence his crops and leave the highways
as a commons pasture for the stock.
We rode over a section of country
lately where the cocklebur held undis-
puted possession of nearly all the till
able land on the farms. 1t was the
very worst weed show that we ever
saw. The landowners in that section
have a serious problem to contend with,
and it will require united effort to sub
due the pest
One of the very prettiest of lawn
trees is the common haw, or thorn
bush. 1t may be pruned as closely as
a red cedar into almost any shape and
Al NJ luJult lut grass WHICH
grows beneath it. These trees may
be found in an old pasture
where they have been browsed by the
stock into an ideal shape for lawn
tree.
Whatever method you may adopt in
the handling of the shocked corn, do
n nErn to, h. co1l
snow is piled up two feet in depth
around the shock, for if you do you
will wish that you had never cut up
hill. Nothing wears on a mans piety
more than to have to handle shocked
corn when the butts are frozen into the
mud and snow.
We once watched man cultivating
a little patch of corn upon the side of
a West Virginia mountain. The slope
was so steep that he had to do all the
work by hand with a hoe. This was
raising corn crop under difficulties,
for, aside from the hard labor, the
coons, crows and gophers were each
waiting for chance at the crop as
soon as it was big enough for them to
eat.
We note with pleasure the work that
is being done by many of the great
railway corporations in the matter of
the looks of their rights of
way and their depot grounds. In fact,
the roads are setting the farmers
splendid example in the matter of keep
ing down the weeds, while the small
parks at the depots are becoming OBJ
Ject lessons in landscape gardening
and decorative effect for ALL
We note that the old trouble in the
matter of tying the shocked corn is
just as common as ever this fall. The
shocks are tied too low down, leaving
the head spreading and fuzzy to catch
the rain and spoil the corn and fodder
also. The well put up shock should be
cone when settled. Nearly half of
the fodder was spoiled last year as a
result of this careless and improper
method of tying the top of the shock
A reader anxiously inquiries whether
it is any worse for farmer to go off
on a Sunday excursion than it is for