Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1903-01-20

Iou can raise logs, calves, Sneep
and apples on the same land. If you
want stock more than you do fruit,
don't set the trees out.
Sweet separated milk brings so cents
per cwt. at the renovated butter fac
tories, where it is used to give butter
flavor to the deodorized melted butter
fat.
When men become so patriotic that
they are willing to haul q load Of
gravel and put it on the public high
way free of charge whenever they can,
then will the era of good roads be here
to stay.
The system of thrashing out Of the
shock caused a loss of millions of dol
lars to western farmers during the har-
vest season of 1902. but we doubt if
one in ten of them will heed the lesson
learned.
The chemical analysis of different
food rations for stock never rates the
important item of palatability. This
fact is often overlooked. We regard it
as most important factor in the value
of any food ration.
Dehorning the bull in no manner
changes his unreliable and malignant
instincts. He would just as soon have a
round with you when lie feels ugly
with his horns off as when he has them
on. You stand "a little better show in
the tussle, however, with his horns off.
About $6,O00,O0O is now available un-
der the new irrigation law. No public
work which the government has ever
undertaken will be watched with more
interest than this attempt to reclaim
desert areas by the intelligent storage
Of food waters and their use in irrigat-
ing. 1t is not yet decided just where
the first experiment will be made.
a summing up Of the experiences of
two or three of the experiment stations
proves conclusively that the lantern
moth traps do not catch the class of in
sects that are injurious to the orchard,
but do destroy many insects which are
OF great value to the fruit grower. For
instance, this form of trap will catch
neither the apple tree borer, beetle,
Goblin moth. curculio nor cankerworm
moths, and these are the four worst
insect pests of the orchard
We are asked why the tame apple
cannot be grated on the wild crab
apple. 1t can. but not successfully.
The wild crab is of very dwarfy
growth, and the apple scion soon out
grows its crab stock and is either
broken off by the wind or perishes for
want of an adequate root system to
supply its needs. The same difficulty
occurs to quite an extent when the
large varieties of tame plums are top
worked on wild plum stocks.
There are thousands of acres of rough
and billy land bordering the rivers of
Minnesota and Iowa. too steep to pillow
and too much exposed to bear good
crops of grass. which would make ideal
sites for orchards of Wealthy apple
trees, and In no other way could such
land be made SO productive and profita-
Bile. The Lord intended all the hills to
be covered with trees, and they would
be were it not for mans rapacity and
destructiyeness with ak and with fire.
Nothing better could happen to the
further subdivision of the farms. Nine
men out of ten try to work too much
land and thus do not reach the normal
productive capacity of the land by one
half. Smaller farms would mean more
farmers, more farmers more farm
homes, more farm homes more chill
dren for the public schools. more and
nearer neighbors and greatly improved
social conditions. Any political or eco
nomic change which will result in re-
duction of the size of the western farm
will be a good thing for the country.
With the advent of a new year we
feel like emphasizing the many virtues
of the pay as you go'' principle as a
guide for the conduct of business dur
ing 1908. The careless and injudicious
use of credit lies at the very founda-
ton Of over one-half the financial ills
which affiict the people. The use of
credit is always an expensive luxury,
IL not to the man who uses it, at least
to the man who extends it. We came
across young man, ablebodied,
healthy and industrious, not long since
who at twenty-five years of age had
piled up an Indebtedness. for personal
expenses of over $500. He had ruined
his credit and will probably always be
poor, shiftless crittar.