Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1903-01-13
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|FARM.O ORCHARD Ass)
GARDEN. Ns:TRyGc. |

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The condition of winter wheat
throughout the winter wheat growing
section has seldom been as good as it
is at the present time.
The high price which turkeys are
bringing this year will make everybody
want to raise them next year. At So a
bird they are very profitable crop.
Men in the soft corn sections of the
country who bought four and half
cent feeders to consume their soft corn
will get rid of their corn crop, and that
is about all.
A successful fruit grower recommends
the blowing of the orchard just before
winter sets in as the best means of re-
tanning and conserving the melting
SHOWS and the spring rains.
If we wished to establish q herd of
blooded stock, we think we would wait
a little while before investing, prices
for this class of stock being at high
water mark. We look for a reaction
inside of two years, when such stock
will be more easily within reach of the
average farmer.
The mineral products of the United
States loom up in large figures gold,
| $TS,000,000; silver, $31,000,O00; copper,
$S7, 100000; lead, $23,00O,00O zinc, SILL
100000; abrasive and chemical mate
rails, $3S,0o000O; clay products and ce-
ment, $239,OoO,Oo0; coal, petroleum and
natural gas, SAP, 000,O OO-making q
grand total Of $949,0OOOOO.
| A few days since we Travelled through
section of the west where scores Of
men We're busily engaged in digging
out and hauling to the barns the shocks
of corn which were half buried in snow
Laying aside the waste connected with
this process and viewing it simply from
the standpoint of convenience, surely
the silo has very much to recommend it.
/
The canneries Of the west are now
making their contracts, for the crop of
sweet corn for 1908. The price being
paid is So per ton, which makes it a
very profitable crop to grow. The yield
! in extreme cases is as much as seven
tons per acre. To this should be added
one and half tons of choice fodder
and the further fact that the crop is in
no sense exhaustive of the soil.
| A lady who this year raised over 300
4 ducks, whose husband kicked good
deal because as he said, the birds ate
their heads off, made him make out a
bill for the food consumed and was
able to pay the bill and have $40 left
from the sale of the feathers which she
picked from the ducks before she sold
them. She then sold the dressed prod
uct for $3.50, no part of which the stin-
gy old man had the nerve to ask for, or
would have got If he had asked.
/ We have one or two inquiries about
speltz as crop. Like other crops, this
one has it's place determined largely by
the question of latitude and rainfall
We do not think that where wheat
oats, barley. rye and corn can be sue.
cessfully grown there is any place fo1
it. 1t is especially fitted for the semi
arid sections of the west and north.
west, where the rainfall averages from
ten to fifteen inches. 1t withstands
drought and the hot winds better thar
any OF our common cereals and pro
duces crop of equal feeding value
with oats.
The American tariff en- agricultural
machinery, primarily supposed to pro
mote the upbuilding of factories fol
the production Of such machinery il
this country, is having exactly an op
posite effect, so far as Canada is con
cerned. A vast cereal producing terri
tory is being opened up in the Cana
dian northwest, creating an enormous
demand for all kinds of improved
American farm machinery. To holt
her own with us Canada imposes (;
duty of % per cent on all machiner.
n imported from this country, and nu
merous factories are now being bull
in Canada by American capital to pro
duce the machinery needed in tina
country.
!. The state Of Iowa has taken marke'
$ step in advance in the matter Of work
! ing the public highways. Hereafter al
I road taxes are to be paid in cash. TIL
! good old times are gone never to re
{ turn when John Smith would turn u
about o'clock a. M in response to til
J. call of the road supervisor, plow fey
8 burrows alongside the highway so as
dam up the water and spend muc
time lying down in the shade of co
tonwood tree spinning yarns which b
! dare not tell at home, going home q
11:30 and repeating the performance j
: the afternoon, getting credit for wor
= to the amount of $3.50 faithfully al
piled on the public highway John wi
now pay his $3.50 in money, and som
!, man will be hired to do a days work {
: ten bours under tha suneryisioD nf