Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1903-04-28

liable to drop down upon him and wipe
all his work out in single night.
A western landlord got rid of poor
tenant by proving that when he took
possession of the farm his horses had
cockleburs in their tails. The court
held that this was violation of the
terms of the lease. More than one
way to skin cat.
If you want to dig nice, clean and
smooth potatoes next fall, cut your
seed potatoes and soak them for two
hours in a solution made of eight
ounces of formalin and fifteen gallons
of water. Use coarse gunnysack.
This will fix the scab.
The late census shows that the state
of Iowa leads in the production of
gooseberries. This is a census joke, for
the gooseberry is not at home in Iowa
too hot and dry. Guess the boys gave
the census man the wild bushes down
by the creek in the pasture lot.
The Germans by prohibitive tariff
legislation have practically shut out
the American Poland-China hog and
his products. They have also placed
tariff of 50 per barrel on American APP
pies. Roast pork and apple sauce are
luxuries in that country as result.
An old pilot of forty years. experience
on the lower Mississippi valley says
that the expenditure of money by the
government in the construction of
levees is all wrong; that the higher,
these levees are built the more it raises
the bed of the river. The old pilot is
right.
The compulsory brand, Renovated
Butter" which the government COM
pels to be placed upon all butter so
made is seriously hurting the sale Of
this product, and vast amounts of the
stuff are now. being held in cold stor-
age and are salable only at tremen-
dous loss.
If you have a sandy knoll or ridge
on the farm where grass will not grow
that is, timothy, clover or blue grass
try the Hungarian bronze grass or
alfalfa or set the hill or ridge out to
evergreens, the white, Austrian or
Scotch pine and red cedar. Make some
use Of the waste place.
AS rule corn having more or less
of the flinty makeup will be found
safer to plant all through the extreme
north edge of the corn belt. The rough
cared, deep kerneled dent corn which
does well through the central zone is
not safe to plant in the north country.
1t takes too long a season to mature it.
A stepladder, an ak and saw should
be brought into use on the shade trees
which bury many home in a dense
and unhealthful shade. Let a little
sunshine in on the home even if it
does seem hard on the trees. You can't
afford to shut it out unless you prefer
to pay doctors bills and patronize the
undertaken.
If it is possible for you to raise a few
acres of alfalfa on your farm, you will
then be easily able to furnish all of
your stock with perfectly balanced
ration and be entirely independent of
bran, oilmeal, cottonseed and glucose
meal. 1t is for this reason that every
farmer should make the effort to raise
some, If possible.
Nearly every woman has an instinc-
tive love for flowers, and almost any
man is sure to please his wife and
daughters if lie will do what he can to
cater to this taste for flowers. While
there are many good and sufficient rea-
sons why a man should not interest
himself in his wife's pug dog, there is
none as to the flowers.
The farmers interested in the several
cooperative grain buying associations
are discussing the question of having
their own representative in the termi-
nal markets to receive and dispose Of
their grain, the trust known as the
Grain Dealers association being dis
posed to boycott these cooperative en-
terprises, not only refusing them daily
quotations, but also refusing to handle
their consignments.
1t has been noticed that In those
communities where bounties have been
offered for gopher scalps-the striped
gopher-the cutworms have done much
more damage than in those localities
where the gopher was unmolested.
While this little rodent eats some of
the corn, he also destroys vast num-
Der of cutworms, and in some places
where bounties have been paid for his
scalp he is now let alone for the good
| that he does.
According to the political economy
sharps, 1t is going to cost 6 per cent
| more to live in 1903 than in 1902. Just
when these yearly additions to the
F! cost of living, the cost of labor and the
, products Of labor will stop no one
knows, but it would seem as though
| the limit must have been nearly reach
ed. The man who hoe ,ynrL cd an thu