Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1901-08-15

wheat are closer together in the mat
ter of price than they have been for a
good many years.
Corn is the crop of greatest value
produced in this country, followed by
hay, wheat, cotton, oats and potatoes
in the order named.
There are no straw stacks to be seen
in the far north wheat coun-
try The wheat is largely cut with
header, or where cut with a harvester
the straw is used up as fuel to run the
engine.
The lightning struck telephone line
wire conveyed a strong enough current
to kill lineman who was engaged in
repairing the line 80 miles distant from
where the bolt fell.
If ministers could only preach as
seductively about religion as land
agents do about the land which they
wish to sell, there would be great re-
vival of religion on in a short time and
large accessions to the churches.
We know quite number of men who
are worried as much over the problem
of how to so place their money and
credits that the tax ferrets cannot get
on to them as they are to find a safe
per cent security in which to invest.
There are now 5000 rural mail routes
in operation in the country and more
than 5000 more demanded. For an ex-
pertinent which was branded n COM
plete failure at the start the rural mail
route has nadcla wonderful develop
ment.
The politicians Of the beehive-the
bees whose business it is to look after
the queen and supervise the functions
of the bee goyernment-are all killed
off each fall when the busy season is
over. There might be here an object
lesson for man.
We passed lately through a country
community which six years ago was
swept and wrecked by cyclone. In
each back yard may now be seen a
cyclone cave, the practical uses Of
which are as well understood by these
people as is his hole in the ground by a
prairie dog.
The most inexcusably crooked work
we see done in the country is where the
highways worked with a grader are
run weaving and wabblng, varying
from 10 to 10 feet from the center Of
the road. such work seeming to be just
suited to the old granger who goes
home from town with jag.
A horse collar made of heavy cotton
duck and stuffed with cotton lint, man.
ufactured III Georgia and retailing at
80 cents. is proving the finest thing for
horses with sore or tender shoulders
which has ever been introduced, PROV
ing cure all for this trouble which
bothers so many owners of horses.
The lack of humidity in the atmos-
phere does almost as much to injure
plant growth when associated with ex-
IRENE heat as a lack of moisture In the
earth. 1t was the extreme dryness of
the air during the heated term of the
past month which did more to injure
the corn crop than the lack of mois-
ture in the ground.
Where timothy and clover are grown
as mixed crop for hay it is a very
common mistake to let the clover get
too far matured before the crop is cut.
These plants do not mature at the same
time, and it is far better to cut the crop
when the clover is just right even if
the timothy is not matured, for the
clover forms the best part of such hay.
The wonderful effects of the light
ming stroke are explained by the fact
that a power equal to that of million
horses is developed for an infnitesmal
space of time. This explains the riven
tree, the melted metal found on the
persons of people who have been killed
! by an electric stroke and many Other
marvellous phenomena connected with
lightning.
We were Ia locality in the west re
Gently where IL per cent was the rul
ing rate Of interest for money and the
security as good land as the sun ever
shone upon. 1t would seem as though
the great surplus Of money seeking in
vestment in the central and eastern
states would relieve this condition
though for some reason capital has al
ways been shy of the new countries.