Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1903-05-05

In the pioneer days when men were
fighting to live and hold their land
they did as we'll as they could in their
methods of farming. Now they may
and should do as well as they know
how to do.
The man who used to move his barn
to get rid of his manure piles has most
" disappeared from the west He
went with the man who burned his
straw and stole wood from the specu-
lators' timber lots.
1t is this way out west: More hired
mon are wanted. more hired girls,
more teachers-in fact. more of any
kind of people who are willing to do
the hard and dirty work of life for
reasonable compensation.
Some deer from England which were
turned loose i'll the forest regions of
Molokai, one of the Hawaiian group of
islands, many years ago have SO in
creased in numbers that they threaten
the destruction Of the forests.
One of the April magazines had no
fewer than nineteen different adver-
tisements of automobiles, prices rang
ing from S550-up. The auto is here to
stay and will be cheaper in price be-
fore long, just as it was with the
bicycle.
Interest and rent are two things
which we do not like to have to meet.
OF course men can't dodge them al
ways. but there really is lots of salts
faction in owing no man a dollar and
in living in your own house or on your
own farm, and lots of men die in ig-
norance of this pleasure.
And now comes a college professor
with the honesty and good sense to at
firm that it is better for girls to put in
the time usually devoted to the dead
languages and higher mathematics in
securing a practical knowledge of home
making and home keeping. This pro-
fessor should have his salary raised ut
once
Where the desert lands of the west
are not impregnated with alkali they
are wonderfully productive just as
soon rs water is brought into contact
with them. far more so than ordinary
soils within the rain belt. The very
aridity which has rendered these lands
worthless has resulted in storing up in
them almost unlimited fertility.
One of the best farm hands we ever
knew is an old bachelor. bit bald
with sandy chin whiskers. who got
shook by a girl some years ago and
who has had it in for the girls ever
since. This man stays at home nights
and is willing to do the Sunday chores
and enjoys the good home and freedom
from family cares which are his lot.
The country needs more of this kind.
The three states of Minnesota. Wis
consin and Michigan have furnished
the country with 1SS,391 100000 feet of
white pine during the past thirty years
and are well nigh stripped clean of this
most valuable timber. Unlike the con-
Tiers on the Pacific coast, the white
pine does not reproduce itself, but
when removed its place is taken by
other and less valuable varieties of
timber.
This is day of large things. Here
is the state of New York proposing to
spend $100,000,0o0 to enlarge the old
Erie canal and secure water transpor-
tation from the great lakes to New York
city for barges of l 900 tons capacity. If
this canal is built, it will remain for
ever rate maker on freights whether
it gets the business or not. 1t means
as much to the agricultural interests of
the great northwest as it does to the
city of New York.
One could hardly believe that the
practical and steady going Dutch
would ever get so carried away by
speculative craze as to give for sim
CIV ltiil' phAp iVui WIS VI w hSttts
eight tons of rye, four fat oxen, eight
pigs, twelve sheep, two hogsheads of
wine, four barrels of beer. two barrels
of butter 1000 pounds of cheese,
bundle of clothes and a silver pitcher.
Yet this was actually done in the year
1857, when the tulip craze seized the
people of that country
. +
While it is all right for farmer to
diversity the interests of his farm-the
more the better. we often think-still
we like to see him take up some one
thing as a sort of specially. 1t may be
truit or well bred poultry. sheep, swine,
horses or cattle and, better yet, boys
and girls; raise something on the farm
by which he will be known the pro-
ducing of which will bring him not
only profit, but local fame at least.
The producing of the very best things
of any sort is the uncommon, and no
man can do it without advertising his
enterprise.