Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1903-07-07

ton to Scotland back to Tyndall and
! from there on to Geddes in Charles
Mix county, there is absolutely no poor
corn on the route. 1t is all good; one
field near Geddes, being the best, that
stands today three and one-half feet
and the blades would reach higher than
ones head. / saw wheat near Geddes
that will go thirty-tive bushels and oats
that are good for seventy. talked
with travelling men wno make this
country. south of the Milwaukee line,
from Canton to. Chamberlain, as well as
part of northwestern Iowa and south
iern Minnesota. and they tell me that
nowhere in their field are collections SO
good as in South Dakota. Everybody
seems to be prosperous and contented.
The banks are full of money and farm
ers out of debt. Mr.. Sraulding, of the
Spaulding Manufacturing Company, of
Grinnell, told me that his buggy sales
along the Milwaukee lire last year
brought him So per Ger. cash, and he
says his notes are of a very high aver
age.
Farm sales in this country yield 4
larger percentage of cash than down
In Iowa. Farmers carry check books
and use them. One gentleman at Ged-
des told me that it was not an unusual
thing TO bring home from one of his
farm sales less than 5000 in notes. The
corn condition here is better than in
Iowa, but l was surprised to see it
looking so fine in northwestern Iowa
after reading so many discouraging re-
ports.
I can not see why it IS not a good
proposition for tenant farmers in Iowa
who are paying $3.50 to 81 per acre rent
to come here and take these farms be-
longing to nom residents in share rent,
or what will be better. stock them in
partnership with the owner. Grass is
plentiful and the pasturage fine. The
man who wants to own farm had bet
ter try one of these at $50 or $50 than
one in Iowa at $75 and 800. mean
the man with small capital who has to
buy on time and pay interest. It Is
true that his crop here Will not always
yield thirty-five bushels Of wheat to
the acre, but the man in Iowa who sows
wheat never expects over fifteen, and
that here is about the smallest yield
that the farmer need figure on. He al
ways gets a crop, not always a large
one, but something, and generally
very satisfactory yield. He need not
count on less than thirty-five or forty
bushels of corn if he viii do his duty.
This is not an Iowa crop, but farmers
here do not farm as they do in Iowa,
and part of the difference is due to that.
The lister may be a useful machine,
and in dry seasons ] think it must have
an advantage over the check rover. but
1t is very difficult to keep corn clean on
land that has been farmed six or eight
years by blowing one way. / am sur
prised to find 1t as clean as it is.
On the whole this country seems to
me very little inferior to the best parts
of Iowa, and with farming equally as
good there would be little appreciate
difference, especially after the land IS
old enough to raise timothy and cloyed.
III Bon Homme I saw grand clover
meadows, but around Scotland they
have been farming the land twenty
i've years.
Those Dunkard farmers In Bon Hom-
me are refusing $50 and in my judg-
ment the land around Geddes Is supe-
rior to Bon Homme, for the reason that
Charles Mix has a clay subsoil like
Iowa, while in Bon Homnne the subsofl
contains a good deal of gravel. The
upper soil in both counties is similar
and runs from twelve inches to three
and one-half feet-about the same as
in Iowa,-thinner on the higher lands
and deeper on the lower ones.
On the whole the. landscape is most
pleasing and at this season. particularly
so, and is hard to duplicate or surpasS
80 ID. W. NORRIS.
Grinnell, Iowa.