Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1902-09-16

The condition of hay in the stacl,
varies so much that it is difficult to
determine the exact number Of cubic
feet OF hay required to make ton of
hay. Where the stack is of timothy
and it is not less than twelve feet in
height when 1t has settled solid about
40 feet will make a ton, while if it is
of clover at least .450 feet will be re-
Qufred.
The crop experts are guessing on q
2,5O0,000,000 bushel corn crop for 1902.
This would mean 100000 tons Of
corn, or .2333.333 carloads. or 46,GGG
trainloads of fifty cars each. But only
small part of this immense crop will
ever be handled by the railways, for it
will seekfa market as beef, pork, NUT
ton, butter, cheese, milk, wool, poultry
and eggs.
AS we stood beside a bed of salvias
the other morning humming bird
came and made his breakfast from the
blossoms, working within one foot Of
where we stood. The marvellous poisa
of this bird as he sucked out the honey.
sustained by whir of tiny wings,
gave some faint idea of the mechan-
ism required to overcome the law OF
gravitation.
The state of Illinois produces two
thirds of all the broom corn grown in
this country. Just why we do not
know, rs any of the corn belt soils will
produce good broorI corn. Like tobac-
co growing, the culture of peppermint,
onions, celery and some other of what
may be termed special crops, the bust.
ness develops in certain localities and
is confined to them.
The war between the cattlemen and
the sheep herders has reached an acute
stage out in the range country. Cattle
and sheep cannot be herded OH the
same territory, for where the sheep
run there the cattle will starve. The
cattlemen are slaughtering the flocks
of sheep and threatening to e1termi-
nate the herders. There was the same
old trouble in Abrahamic days.
The name of the owner of the farm
printed upon the rural mailbox in
front of his house is no little conven-
fence to the travelling public. Only
the men who have old. ramshackle
places, with hogs in the dooryard,
down fences and the mark of shiftless-
ness all over, object to it. The man
with a neatly kept farm home is cred
itably advertised by his name on the
box.
We have found the weeler an utter
and complete failure for the cultiva-
ton of crops this season, and this not
because of any inherent fault with the
tool itself, but solely owing to the Pc
culiar climatic conditions of the sea-
son-too much rain. This is essential
ly dry weather tool and of no more
value in a wet season than a boat
would be on a dried up lake bed in
Manitoba.
Asupposed perfectly worthless house
cat that for long had persisted in MAX
ing the front porch by our bedroom
window a trysting place where duels
We're nightly carried on deposited the
scalp and nose of large rat on the
doorstep one night recently, done, we
suppose, to prove that his reputation
was not as bad as we took it to be.
But we are not sure that some other
cat did not kill that rat.
Nineteen hundred and two will prove
very productive one in spite of nu-
merous storms, floods and isolated
crop disasters. A friend tells us
that he has more potatoes this year
OH one square rod of ground than he
had on an acre last year, another
that he will get more oats from fifteen
acres this year than he got from forty
acres last year, while the yield of hay
Is more than six times as great as that
of 1901.
The time is not far off when a new
Indictment will be returned against the
sparrow. When this bird becomes more
plentiful, which will not be long, vast
flocks Of them will descend upon the
wheat and oat fields just as the grain
gets in the dough, and if unmolested
they will literally ruin the crop by
squeezing the pulp out Of the kernels.
All over the country persistent and
organized warfare should be kept up
on this bird.
Six million three hundred thousand
Frenchwomen work for living-that
Is, they do that kind of work which in
this country is usually assigned to
men and not to women. A large per-
centage of them work on the farms Of
that country and do the blowing, dig
ging hoeing, milk the cows. feed the
stock and market the farm produce