Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1902-02-13

1ue prize winning hereford DeeyeS
at the Chicago live stock exposition,
which sold for S12 per hundredweight,
were Texas cattle finished Off on Ohio
corn.
A car containing 1000 bushels of
wheat was unloaded at western -four
mill short time ago. We can all re-
call the time when 600 bushels of
wheat was considered big carload.
Milk dried and powdered is a new
product which is attracting some atten-
ton. 1t is claimed for it that 1t will
keep Indefinitely in any climate is cas-
lily handled and contains all the nutri-
tous properties Of liquid milk.
Some wise man notes that high pric-
ed corn and healthy hogs almost al
ways 60 together, the inference being
that if the hogs were fed less corn they
would not be so subject to disease.
There may be something in this.
The mounted head Of an old fashion
ed long horned Texan steer will inside
of ten years be almost as difficult to
obtain as the head of buffalo bull. The
white faces and the doddies are driv-
ang the Texas steer out Of existence.
When clover will do so much to reno
waite apd redeem the farm, why don't
more men sow it? It's hard to tell. The
many don't know and won't learn;
some get discouraged and quit because
their seeding fails; the few stick to it,
build their soils up and make money.
We saw stack of clover hay lately
30 feet in length, 16 feet wide at the
base and feet in height from the
ground to the apex of the roof. Clover
hay in that locality was worth 81 per
ton In the stack. How much did that
man lose by building his stack in this
manner?
| a friend tells us that he successfully
fruits his strawberry bed for five years
In succession. This may be done posi-
ibly with small bed, but where the
bed is large it is every way better to
fruit two years and then plow up. We
lind it less trouble to set out new bed
than renovate an old one.
| A farm boy made openings in the
loft of barn so that the sparrows
could find sheltered place to roost in
cold weather. They quickly tumbled
TO the snap, and after they were once
wonted it was an easy matter to close
the openings after they had gone to
foost and catch them with dip net.
The aged farrow COW is a Gamer by
predestfnation, but sometimes fails to
work out her destiny, and lot of kind
lly disposed persons in the community
are innocently compelled to eat her up
as prime steer fed beef. 1t does not
seem so bad when Chicago picnic
party works her up with beer and pref
GELS.
a western farmer suggests the re-
moval of the barb used on wire fencing
and the use of mild current of cleo
tricity generated by dry battery as
substitute therefor, claiming that the
light shock produced by contact with
the wire would soon educate all kinds
of stock to keep away from the wire
fence.
A grass fed Texas steer of the new
kind sold in Chicago in December for 81
per hundredweight. 1t weighed 1000
lie hy.n,1 I,,,+
have known what TO do with an ear of
corn had one been given it. Only the
very best of the corn fed steers of
Iowa and Illinois brought as much
money the same day.
\ We hardly know whether it is any
worse to sell your neighbor COW
which does not pay her way in your
dairy herd or sell her to the local
butcher for all your neighbors to have
a hand in eating her up. The principal
difference Is that in the first case you
get the cussing, while in the last the
butcher gets it.
4 Several men whom we know are try
ing these freaks, the mule footed hogs,
hogs which have solid instead of
split hoof The claim is made for this
breed that it is cholera proof. 1t is best
to wait awhile and see, the chances be-
ang if the brute is hog and not
mule that 1t will go the way of all the
rest of its kind when the epidemic
comes.
4 :
A buffalo bull recently slaughtered
in Iowa brought its owner nearly ST..
900. The head sold for 5000. the hide
for $500 and the meat for 80 cents
pound. In the year 1877 a drove of
buffalo estimated at 100000 head
crossed the North Platte river in Ne
braska and were worth dollar apiece
to the poachers who exterminated them