Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1902-07-10

1t is recognized fact by our most
] successful poultrymen that where hens
are kept for the sole purpose of pro-
ducing eggs they will lay more eggs
and the eggs will keep better if no
rooGters are kept in the flock.
II clover is put into the barn or stack
m an uncured condition, it will certain
ly heat. If the air gets at it, it will GER
tainly burn and spoil. If you can keep
the air from it, you will have to all in
tents and purposes clover ensilage, a
very palatable and nutritious dairy ra-
ton.
Many farmhouse cellar could be
much improved in cleanliness and COM
fort by plastering the walls, cementing
the floor and putting more light in
] 1t. The cellar when properly arranged
is one of the most useful rooms in the
house, but too often it is little save a
deathtrap.
The condition Of the public school
grounds whether in country or town
is very likely to reflect the home sur
roundings of the people Of such COM
munity. Where the schoolhouse is
made every way pretty and attractive
inside and outside there will be found
nice homes.
AS we note it, the English sparrow
will on an average hatch three broods
during the season, and the first brood
Matched will raise one brood of their
own. This is a frightful rate of propa-
cation and easily explains how, in
spite of all their enemies, these pests
increase in number as they do.
| We have an elm tree in the door.
| yard which seems to be q fayorite
nesting place for the birds. During
the past four years the crotch in the
| tree has been occupied in rotation by the
/ patSJoSS5 ioplhS, SdlDluS duu
ing doves. This year a grosbeak want
ed the place. but failed to get it.
So many want to know how to kill
| quack grass in the fields, squirreltail
grass on the lawn, burdocks, squash
bugs and aphis, borers, cankerworms
chicken mites and flies, how to cure
| self sucking COWS, sick hogs and lousy
calves, that it seems as though almost
| every man on the farm had some trou-
| BILE or other.
One aggravating thing connected
with the automobile is that even
should the public highways be so i'm
proved as to permit of high speed with
the machine the law will so limit the
speed in the interest of public safety
that running machine will seem like
making but twenty miles an hour on
fast mail train.
A young friend of ours has started
| this season to lay the foundation for q
future herd of fine cattle He has
bought three registered Polled Angus
heifers and bull. II he will take
| proper care of these animals, he will
have a herd inside of ten years which
| he will be proud of and which will
make him a lot of money
A Minnesota man sowed four pounds
of rape with crop Of early sown mil
let and claims that it is success, the
rape making a new growth after the
millet was cut and affording an abun
dance of good sheep pasture till frost
| came. We should think that there
! would be trouble in curing the millet
with more or less of the rape in it.
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 OF
| 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
NatSlo w uiSu SulliSu IL Oh al SUlultOl
to the ocean.
Experiments made by the depart
ment of agriculture in Connecticut II
the growing of Sumatra tobacco prove
that this choice leaf can be produced
in that state under cover at cost Of
20 cents pound and Il yield of 1000
| pounds per acre obtained. AS the
product is worth $1.25 per pound in thu
market very handsome profit is real
/ lied 1t is not likely that the growing
Of this leaf need be confined to Con
necticut either.
The writer personally cares for 8
vegetable and small fruit garden con
tanning little over one-half acre OF
ground. The seeds are all sown and
the land well cultivated and kept free
from all weeds by the use of a Planet
Junior cultivator. So adaptable and
| useful do we find this tool and so vel