Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1902-12-23

sTs' Copyright, sabyIEI Y
- q. SIRIGd. Rockford III ia.
G ,a9 IlsE: t7n p ek:: 5o-Ie TIED
The dozen of eggs and the pound of
butter keep pretty close together in
price.
There is said to be S2,500,ooo,oOO in
gold in sight in South Africa available
during the next thirty years.
If you want to make butter which
will be strong enough to hold its own
with any competitor, feed your COWS
turnips.
AS the commercial relations between
this country and China are being de-
yeloped they take more and more of
our cotton cloth and wheat flour.
For 1892 Germany produced 100000
tons of beet sugar, Russia 1,142,71O
, and Austria 1,021.1 1t will be some
time before the United States reaches
these figures.
We note in an agricultural paper that
q Mr.. Friday of Texas has goats for
sale. Is it possible that Mr. Friday is
q lineal descendant OF Mr. Crusoe's
hired man and that these goats are OF
the Crusoe breed?
This has been great hop year fol
the hop growers on the Pacific coast
| The crop Las been large and the price
high, returning as high as 5000 pei
acre. Many growers there will receive
| from $4,000 to $4,000 each for their
crop.
The best farms in the state of ILL
nois are now selling as high as $3.50 an
acre, and the rents paid for such
farms are up to SO per acre. Tenants
can only pay such rent with the hog,
the hen, the garden, the COW and the
orchard.
Minnesota has gone to the head of
the dairy states. There are reasons
for this. The north country is every
where the best dairy country; then this
state has more educated Scandinavian
dairymen than any other state. Condi-
tons are such that she is likely to
maintain the position.
In pioneer days the cheapest and
r,lantip,11 10. M
slipshod misuse Of the soil was the in.
evitable result. This practice became
such fixed habit with many men that
| they find it very difficult to adopt those
more thorough methods of cultivation
which alone can make the farming OF
| high priced land profitable.
| The first noticeable development along
| agricultural lines in connection will
! the opening of the new Siberian rail
road is seen in a large and increasing
export Of butter and eggs from the ter
ritory through which the road runs
| these products being the only ones suf
| flciently condensed to permit of raj
shipment from this faroff country.
| Originally all the ostrich plumes ii
use were obtained by killing the wilc
birds. Thirty-fye years ago it wa.
found that these birds could be domes
| ticated, with the result that in Soutt
Africa today there are 100000 tame
ostriches, producing plumes of a year
1 ly value of $6,G00,O0O. Within a few
| years the raising of these birds has
been undertaken in California and Arr
! IONA with much success.
| If Russia had republican instead Of
despotic form of government, thu
1 story of the wonderful development O.
the United States would be repeated il
| the new Siberian territory recently
!. opened by the Siberian railway. Thu
climate. soil. rainfall. navigable rivers
/ timber, grasses and mineral wealth
! cover an area equal to that of thu
/ United States. but the blight of despot
ism and ignorance broods over it all.
Every man locating in countr!
WHERE llle dNeIiSe Filllldll uOeS uO
exceed fifteen inches should make ;
i study of what is known as the Camp
bell system of cultivating the land
This is method of SO preparing an(
handling the soil that the moisture il
conserved and retained in the soil TO
the development of the crop. Most re
markaEle results have been obtained
| by the use of this method in Kansa
| and Nebraska, and rs it is purely :
1 question of the mechanical manipula
ton of the soil it may be practiced b.
1 any farmer.
Forty years ago settlement preceded
1 the railroads, the pioneer settler Otter
! having to wait from ten to twent,
years before he was afforded any bene
| fits of railroad transportation. In thes
days the railway goes ahead of the set
| tier and thus removes many of tn,
J hardships which fell to the lot of til,
pioneers of the. west. The roads SHOULD
have credit for much enterprise in thi