Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1902-08-12

The best hay is cut in the morning
End put In the barn In the afternoon.
The busy harvest season Is here
with all Its reward for intelligent toll
T 1t is just as well that we do not
. know what sort of weather we are to-
have next week and next year. yN'S
OF the $4,000 tramps IN the country
about 5000 get killed each year, large
~ by the cars and fights among them
selves
The Jersey cow should be tested as
any other COW. The Jersey COW often
looks mighty pretty, but is not worth
a cent in the dairy
One of the worst things about some
hired men is that they corrupt and de-
grade the boys on the farm home.
That sort are dear at any price.
When man finds he has to make
land worth 500 per acre pay its way,
he should have no bull at the head of
his herd worth less than an acre Of
land.
A superannuated minister manages
to live comfortably on three acres of
land. His half acre of celery market
ed in New York brings him in from
S700 to $500 each year.
The sugar beet will find its most
congenial home on the irrigated lands
Of the west. Irrigation almost COM
pels intensive culture, and this is just
what the sugar beet needs.
The common skunk or polecat Is one
Of the pests Of well settled agricul-
tural country. Skunks are real pests In
almost every way, and there should be
more organized effort to exterminate
them.
The placing of Jersey bull ut the
head of a herd Of native cows so i'm
proved the grade of fifteen heifers, the
product of this herd, that they made
100 pounds more butter per head than
did their mothers.
It is not true that farmers wives
are more than any other class of wo-
men liable to go insane. When we
consider the sort of men some Of them
have for husbands, we wonder why
more Of them do not go crazy.
There is no profit in crowding hens
into winter laying of twenty cent eggs
when her enforced spring and summer
product will bring from 13 to Is cents.
Cold storage has largely robbed win
ter egg production of Its old time profit.
If you gave your boy pig or calf
and later sold it and pocketed the pro-
ceeds. don't join the church until you
have squared up things with the boy.
1t will be a hard matter to keep him
from playing with the cats tail while
you offer the family prayers If you do.
A lady who was in the bee business
In small way, keeping twelve
Swarms. did well with them until q
distillery was started in her neighbo.-
hood. After that the bees would go off
and get drunk and woLM not work,
just like some animals-man, for in
stance.
Your cows will give more milk If
during the heated and fly period of
midsummer they are kept in the cool
and darkened basement barn from 8
a. IN. to p. m. and are allowed to have
the run Of the pasture all night There
should be sweet corn patch to draw
on for a midday ration.
Plants find the best condition Of soil
for their growth and development
when the soil holds about so per cent
of the moisture of which it is capable
of carrying. Less than this keeps the
plant from making normal and
healthy growth while an excess tends
to exclude the air, which is almost as
vital as water.
The way to keep one of the boys on
the farm is to interest him in the farm
work while he is young. This means
that he should not be overworked,
should be given chance to have a
boys recreation, be given some animal
or crop his very own and be encour-
aged in studying about the scientific
as well as the practical side Of farm
life.
The straw stack and cornstalk dairy
COW is fast becoming thing of the
past. A better knowledge Of the laws
governing milk production has turned
the straw stack and the stalkfeld
over to the colts and the young stock,
while old bossy finds good ration
awaiting her in q warm barn. much to