Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1902-07-01

The enelmous wheat crop Of 1901 has
been absorbed without any marked de-
probation Of price. The short crops of
other cereals have made this possible,
wheat having been substituted for
corn as fattening ration for cattle
and hogs.
The Canadian Pacific railway will
shortly place the enormous amount of
23.O00,000 acres of land ON the market
for settlers. While these lands lie far
north and some of them are utterly
worthless, there is much fertile soil,
and all the cereals save corn will grow
and do WELL
We have come to the time when it is
unlikely that anything new remains to
be discovered about the mystery of
milk and the making of butter. A
more interesting thing than the evolu-
ton of butter making and the dairy
has never been witnessed in this coun-
try.
1t is only few men who have the
eye to draw perfectly straight fur
row when blowing or start the corn
planter on straight row. Where one
does do this it always attracts atten-
ton and is quite apt to be an indicator
of the general style on which his farm
is run.
A flock of 300 Angora goats bought
by western farmer three years ago
| not only paid their way in wool, or
hair rather, but sold for more money
than he paid for them and cleaned up
an eighty acre tract Of rough brush in
the very finest shape. These animals
will do this every time
There is one advantage on the farm.
and it is no small one either, and that
is the impossibility Of there ever being
an organized strike among farm labor
ers No business could be taken such
advantage of by laborers as that of the
| farm, and it is fortunate that 1t is
from the nature of things exempt.
These are the days when the man
who set out strawberry bed last year
| is reaping rich reward. One man in
about twenty will have all the deli
cious berries he wants; the other nine
teen might, but won't, because they
won't take the trouble. This is great
waste of opportunity and privilege.
There is one thing which good many
readers of these notes might do to their
profit-just sit down and figure closely
whether the cows which they are keep
ing are really paying their way. Weigh
! each cows milk, and if 1t proves that
she is giving less than $500 pounds
year you can figure out an almost GER
tain loss.
| Some one says that the good mixer
! needs to be Christian. Maybe that's
SO, but we recall the case of one good
/ man who for the time being really re-
/ GREETED he was one as he went through
| the experience of trying to milk a
kicking heifer in fytime, his church
relations preventing him from doing
the subject Justice.
I The oleo manufacturers have now
before them the difficult task of edu-
| eating the public taste in the line of
using and liking the uncolored article.
! 1t is just as good, just as nutritious,
! uncolored as colored, and it may be
that in time the popular prejudice
be overcome and large market made
! for the product.
One of them drew his months wages
and then went to town and blew his
money in doggery. When he started
for home, he was full as tick and,
| falling out of the buggy, broke his
neck. Another one had some trouble
in the shape of another fellow getting
his girl away from him, and he strung
himself up in the barn. Both of these
men lacked sense.
We would like to see the agricultural
fairs and associations offer good, sub
stantial premium of, say, $50 for the
largest value of crops raised on a small
tract Of land, from one to Ave acres.
The time is fast coming when the soil
must be worked better and made more
productive, and small tracts cultivated
in competition for such prize would
be splendid object lessons along this
line.
The robins which have been Matched
in the tree on your lawn and which
have lived off the grubs in the garden
| and the fruit in the orchard ssam hla