Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1902-07-02

vesting.
The enormous crops Of strawberries
raised in North Carolina on the coast
have extended the season of cheap
strawberries for all the large northern
cities nearly one month.
The specific gravity Of wood varies
more than one would think. a cubic
foot of white cedar weighing only
twenty-eight pounds when dry and a
cubic foot of lignum vitae S3la pounds.
One of the most profitable industries
of the western farm today is the grow
ing of hogs. A ten-mOnth-old pig
which now sells for over $50 will not
cost the producer over $40, if it does
that.
The actual losses sustained on any
farm where colts are raised by turning
them into the pasture fenced with
barbed wire will amount in two years
to more than enough to fence the pas
ture with woven wire.
We never could see why 1t is that the
blackberry will grow wild where it is
not wanted and will not grow and do
well when one tries to make 1T grow in
the garden. The blackberry has
good deal of meanness about it any
how.
Dry seasons and scant crops result
in the storing of much plant food in
the fields ready for use'when the rains
come and make the crop. All the so
called waste arid lands of the west are
very rich in stores of plant food and
only need a water supply to make
them very productive.
The average cost in the state of ILL
nois of raising a bushel of corn as
determined from an exhaustive line of
experiments was found to be 16 cents.
When corn thus raised commands 80
cents bushel, 1t is easy to see why
good corn land Il that state readily
sells for 500 pe5as,re and upward.
f. -..
,%ffty cents worth of rape seed sown
with the acre of barley will furnish
nearly three months feed for and fat
ten for market ten medium sized sheep,
or it will keep ten shotes nicely for
three months One thus gets two
crops in one year and finely fertilizes
the land for next seasons crops be-
sides.
1t looks to us to be a pretty mean
sort of tn 9 to give a sitting hen
goose eggs ~ hatch. If old Biddy has
any feelings at all, how must she re-
gard the fraud practiced upon her as
she tries to feed and train the ungainly
goslings? Any self respecting hen is
justified In striking under such cir
cumstances Duck eggs are bad enough.
A very few years ago the stock grow
ers were bowling about the meat trust
and wanted an official investigation
because prices were so low. Now the
stock grower is very quiet, while the
consumer is roaring at the prices he
must pay for his sirloin steak. The
law of supply and demand in it's silent
and irresistible work never pleases all
classes.
A friend of ours who has quite
large grove of matured red cedar trees
derives considerable income every
spring by selling the little cedar trees
which come up by the hundreds in his
timber lot, the cedar seeds being car
ried there by the birds and finding I'M
der the shade of these deciduous trees
just exactly the best conditions for
termination and development.
The west had to take care of nearly
n foot of water on the level during the
month of May. There was general
filling up of rivers, lakes, wells, els
terms, springs, swamps, such an all
round soaking up as the territory COW
cred has not experienced for years. AS
timely agricultural topic ditching
and drainage have crowded that of
conserving soil moisture &c the rear.
A cyclonic storm in early May swept
into its folds host of migrating birds
during the night, and they were blown
hither and thither against buildings,
wires and fences and were picked up
by the hundred the next morning
grosbeaks, orioles, vireos, fycatchers,
Hangers, wood thrushes and scores of
other varieties. The keen bird instinct
is not always equal to the perils which
beset our little feathered friends.
The greatest loss TO those sections Of
the Mississippi valley which have beer
visited with such tremendous floods
this season has not been in the crops or
bridges destroyed. but rather in the
loss In sod fertility by erosion over mil.
lions Of acres of choice farm land, ev-
cry farmer contributing not little of
the best part OF his Farm to the rushing
waters which carried it of in solution
TO the ocean.