Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1902-07-22

products of this country in some form
or other.
Alfalfa is being raised successfully
in several localities in the state Of Min
nesota. This proves that it is not cold
weather which kills 1t.
There is no reason why four or five
town families could not keep CO.
operative town COW, thus securing
supply of pure milk at minimum of
cost.
Critically noting the relative merits
of several varieties of strawberries
which we have fruited this season, we
find the Warfield well to the top of
the list.
The spring chicken is never killed to
so good a purpose as when two of
them will just fill a frying pan and
two people are supposed to make away
with them.
A six years drought in Australia has
converted large productive and fer
tile section of that continent into
desert wilderness. The losses on stock
alone have been enormous.
Every farmers wife should realize
enough out Of her dover interest in the
farm while she lives to provide her
with modern and convenient accesso-
ries for doing her household work.
When white Brahma hen has laid
all winter long, raised nice brood Of
early chicks and will sell for 8 cents
a pound in June for chicken stew,
she is pretty profitable sort of bird to
have on the farm.
AS predicted when the experiment
was first tried, the Tanworth or bacon
hog when placed under corn belt con-
ditions and fed corn belt rations i'm
mediately begins to drop his Tan
worth characteristics and in short
time so kept will inevitably gravitates
into the type Of the corn fed or lard
hog.
A friend in Pennsylvania sends us
the following as successful remedy
for both the striped and big black
beetles which work such devastation
on the squash and melon tribe. 1t con-
sists of getting the fine tobacco clip
pings and offal from the cigar facto-
ries and placing some of it on each hill,
when the bugs let the vines alone.
Your home surroundings may be i'm
maculate from a sanitary standpoint,
the, food which you eat may be most
carefully selected and prepared, you
may work and live each day with
strict reference to the laws of health,
and still at the same time be imbibing
a subtle poison every time you take
drink of water from your well. Nearly
| every case of typhoid, diphtheria and
kindred diseases may be traced to the
use of impure water at the family
home.
We are asked who lost the $5OO,OOO
which the man who ran the late corner
on oats in Chicago made. 1t did not
come out Of the farmers and producers
of the grain, for the very existence of
this corner, which was Of the ''bull"
type, had a tendency to support the
market and stiffen the price of this
cereal. 1t was the board Of trade
smart Alexis who sold that which they
did not own who lost the money, whose
ability to bet exceeded their ability to
correctly judge of the course of the
market.
A shellbark hickory stub 10 feet
high and 6 inches in diameter has this
season, standing out alone near our
orchard, been curiously utilized as
nesting place for birds. First pair
of bluebirds selected hole near the
top for their nest. Before their brood
was f1edged pair of king birds built
nest right on top of the stub, and be-
fore they got through housekeeping
another pair of bluebirds nested again
in the hole. Just why these birds Sc
lected such an exposed location for
nesting is puzzle to us.
A vast sum Of money is spent every
year in all the civilized parts of this
country for the education Of the chill
dren, and the weak spot connected
with the spending Of this money is that
too much of it goes for educational
frills and fads and not enough of it
for the education of the child along the
common, practical lines-things which
he will be SO much In need of as he
takes up the business of life. When
high school graduate spells "wholes
minus the W." something is wrong.
even if he can conjugate Latin verb.