Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1901-12-19

Of when it is sold.
The best things produced on the farm
always bring enough more than the
common and average product to well
repay any one for the trouble taken to
produce then. Then there is tho pleas
urc of producing these best things.
which is worth not little.
We know a man who raises 5000 or
10000 bushels of corn each year and
who has as many hogs, horses and
cows as JOB had of camels, asses and
he goats who still keeps enough bees
so that the proceeds from his honey
crop will pay his taxes each year.
One of tbase men with n microscope
has located as many as 194, $4,000
bacteria in one cubic centimetor of
milk. AS a fair sized drink of milk
would measure about a hundred cent?
meters you can figure out about how
many wigglcfs you are taking into
your stomach.
Farms In England are almost always
rented on long term leases, usually
twepty-one years. 1t often happens
that one family will occupy the same
farm for generations. The sooner
leases in this country are not made for
less than five years the better for land
lord farm and tenant.
We never hill our potatoes, but pre-
FER to thoroughly prepare the soil.
plant Mt least five inches deep and
then give level cultivation. This plan
does much TO prevent the i'll effects of
July and August droughts and permits
the surface cultivation of the field
long after the time when the field is
usually laid by.
Because of the high prices command
ed by potatoes this year there will be
altogether too many men who will nav
n dollar bushel for seed potatoes next
spring and have hard work to sell the
crop fors2o cents. 1t has always been
this way and always will-always men
W ii'''S iiihi OF S,llI llc DbSl UpVeiODpu
thing about them.
The fertility of the pastures of Eng
land may be largely credited to the I'M
ceasing work of the earthworms. In
figurative way it may be said the ara.
BILE lands of that country have been
eaten. disested and expelled by this in
significant worm many times over. and
still there are lots of people who think
that the only use to which they can be
put is to bait hooks for suckers.
The wild fowl are much better
weather prophets than the seers who
consult the stars. During a late beau
tiful and warm November day we
noted great tlocks of ducks and geese,
flying high, fastening south with more
than railroad speed. A drop of 45 de-
grees in the mercury and binding
snowstorm which arrived twenty hours
later proved the instinct of these birds.
We watched big raft of pine logs
going down the upper waters of the
Mississippi river recently and was
greatly surprised to note the wonderful
in the size of the logs being
cut and rafted to supply the mills of
the northwest. These logs would not
have been called saw logs forty years
ago, most Of them being of a diameter
of from ten to sixteen inches and fear
fully knotty and crooked at that. See
Ing the logs, it was very easy to I'M
dcrstand why the quality of the lum-
Der in use today has so greatly dete-
riorated.
There are two agencies which more
than any others are destroying the
forests of this Countrywide sheep herd
ers and forest tires-and both of these
are largely under the control of man
and should be prevented. The care
less and shiftless way in which the
refuse of all timber is left where it Is
cut for market invites the forest fire
and makes it difficult to control, while
the sheep absolutely prevent the
growth of all young timber to take the
place of that removed. If enough
sheep cannot be raised in this country
without their having the range of the
few remaining forests, it is better that
we buy both mutton and wool abroad.
If you should happen to see that dol
lar sirloin beefsteak ordered at some
good chophouse or on some railway
dining car as the colored cook took it
from the meat chest preparatory 10
broiling it, you would not eat a mouth
full of it. Being in blissful ignorance
of its condition you pronounce it the
best steak you ever ate III all your life,
still When he took it from the box it
was all covered over with n fungus
growth-''feathered out" the cook says
the outgrowth of the ripening proc
ess, to which it has been subjected to
make it juicy and tender. In general
way it is better for man to keep out
of the kitchen if he wishes to enjoy his
dinner.
AS general rule stalk of corn
which shows its intention to try to
produce two ears of corn will produce
moro I,nrpaIc and vaiyhf nf ror, 10 opo