Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1902-12-16

The corn cr.p of 1902 will surpass all
previous records, the experts placing it
at over 2,500,0o0,O0O bushels.
The lump jaw is not a new disease,
as animals with "wen' were barred
for sac.ifcial purposes under the Mo-
sale dispensation.
On the LIST of December we are still
using very nice Wealthy apples picked
in September and packed in oats in
barrel down cellar. We think they will
keep till Christmas at least.
A market has been found for the
dog salmon of the Pacific coast, which
has heretofore been considered almost
worthless. 1t is canned the same as
other salmon and sold to the japanese.
We think that the turn has come in
the land craze of the past two years.
Maximum prices have been reached for
the present. More farms are being of
fcred for sale, and there are fewer
buyers.
When fruit trees of any sort make
very rapid growth, such growth is not
favorable to the formation of fruit
buds for the next season. When but a
small growth Of new wood is made,
fruit buds will be developed.
An Oregon farmer comes to the front
with a properly authenticated record
of crop of oats which yielded this
year 11S bushels per acre. They do
things on a large scale in Oregon, and
possibly the crop reports are large as
well as the crop.
The dogs of the state of Minnesota
are assessed for the purpose of taxa
ton at $56S,SSS, while the sheep of the
state are assessed at $500, 2S3, or only
trifle more than the dogs. This is a
bad showing for Minnesota 1t is
probably true that if there were fewer
dogs there would be many more sheep.
A powder or -four which will with
stand bacteria, mold, dampness and
changes of temperature is now being
produced from milk by late invention
This powder, by the addition of water
and heat, is then reconverted into milk
of a normal quality. 1t takes five quarts
of milk to make one pound of the pow
der
They say that in Oregon when it
commences to rain it never stops, and
when the sun gets to shining it shines
every day. Be that as it may, Oregon
has no billiards., thunderstorms, cy-
clones or 80 below, and it is the things
which country doesn't have which
may make it a very desirable country
to live in.
We do not think that it would be Of
any advantage to the dairy business to
develop q milking machine which would
do the work of milking the COW sue
cessfully. 1t would only tend to place
the business of dairying into the hands
of corporations and would leave the
small farmer, to whom the keeping of
the COW means SO much, unable to COM
pete with the big concerns.
The early and untimely frost this
season, which spoiled nearly all the
corn fodder in the northwest, proved
to be bad thing for the surgeons, for
there was no fodder to shred, and, be
ing none, lots Of fellows have good
arms and hands who otherwise would
have been minus paw and plus a sur
geon's big bill. Our blessings come
strangely disguised sometimes.
Every flock of quail is worth a dollar
head to the man upon whose farm the
birds live just as weed seed eaters and
insect deStroyers, and yet there is no
live thing on the farm which it is so
difficult to protect as these same little
friends Of the farmer. They have more
| than their share Of natural enemies
cats, owls, hawks, skunks but the
worst of all is the town pot hunter,
who cannot enjoy life unless he is kill
ing something. "''''t
He was induced by a smooth land
agent to buy a farm in central Mime
sofa last winter when the snow lay
deep on the grow. Snow, like charity,
covers a multitude of sins, and in this
case it covered soggy, cold. sour and
practically untillable tract, as the buy
er found out to his sorrow when he IN
dertook to make farm of it. He now
cusses all real estate agents, when he
should have had sense enough to have
waited and seen the land undressed.
When the bitter northwest winds
begin to get in their work out on the
prairie farm, nearly every man who
has none will wish that he had a nice
nd 1,