Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1903-02-04

aud one hill will be rocks after you
get down in the ground or 10 feet
and the next one will go 80 feet and
no signs of rock, only red soil from
top to bottom. They say it is just as
rich at the bottom as at the top. The
ranch buildings here are generally
small and poor and houses of 2 to 3
rooms and are mostly built of rough
lumber and are all ceiled or else
covered with cloth and papered There
are not many barns to be seen, only
for horses and the other for hay or
rather wheat sowed and put up for
hay There is very little hay here,
some timothy is raised in the valleys,
but wheat and bronze grass are the
main thing used for hay Oats are
claimed to yield 60 to 80 bushels and
barley 80 to so bushels. Stock runs
out here all winter and looks we'll.
Bunch grass is green and stock live
lOOh W. II OlI tliC SlON
in the stubble and around straw
stacks. They are very wasteful here
and there is lots of wheat left at every
straw stack. The horses are mostly
fed on wheat chop or crushed wheat
and some mix oats with it. Most of
the horses run out and receive no
grain and every ranch has 10 or 10
horses running out. There are not
many cattle here but south and west is
a good cattle country; you will hard
ly see more than 8 or 10 cattle on 800
acres here, and they only milk
enough for their own use. This is a
fine fruit country and apples are now
worth rs cents per hundred and they
would not be worth that only they
were not gathered last fall. There are
lots of apples hanging on the trees
here now; the creeks and ponds are
not frozen and the gound is free from
snow; grass is looking green in
spots and / saw peas sprouting in the
garden yesterday where they were left
on the ground Potatoes are worth
80 cents per hundred here and the
incest ones ever saw, all-sorted and
nothing but those large enough to
cook in the sacks Everything in
vegetables is in sacks and you get the
sack free with all sacks sewed instead
of tied, and everything but wheat
is sold by the hundred pounds. Ma
chiuery is very high here, and so are
cows; hogs have been selling at s.. 30,
live weight lumber is much cheaper
here than there coal is 81 per ton and
pine wood So per cord Good horses
are worth from $75 to 1925 and
bronchos $50 to $75 per pair, but used
only for light driving or riding. Most
of the horses weigh from 200 to
1 800 pounds. Wagons are four inches
wider in the track than there and
have mostly wide tires and sell for
$S2 to $50 without box, and they
use rack 16 feet long and haul from
As to 60 sacks to load and use A to
horses OH a wagon; a sack holds
bushels and 10 to 20 pounds. We can
60 mp on the hill back of the house
and see Mt. Steptoe 20 miles east of
us and we can see several mountains
north east though none of them are
high enough to have snow on them.
The farmers are all doing we'll here
and are beginning to build barns and
improve their farms. Water is good
here and is all soft and there are lots
of springs. Land is selling at from
$l5 to $25 per acre, mostly at $50 neal
town and some pieces are held at $35
per acre. West of here in Douglas
county it is as low as &c. 80 per acre,
but that is no. good farming land,
better for grazing, and is what they
call alkali land. Well l will close,
hoping you can find enough in this
to interest you. Wishing you a good
morning. 1 beg to remain your friend,
w. M. Baker.