Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1903-08-04

One farmer IN the state of iowa will
breed 500 Poland China sows next fall
and expects to raise 1000 pigs.
The loss by flood on the potato crop
in Kansas and Missouri is very great.
In the Kaw valley in Kansas the esti-
mated loss is 1000 car loads.
If one has moist and shaded location
the dewberry may often be grown sue
cessfully where the blackberry will ut
terly fail, and the dewberry is better
berry than the blackberry anyhow.
When a crop Of growing grain on
the hillsides looks yellow it shows
lack Of nitrogen in the soil. When the
crop on low and wet lands looks yellow
it may be charged to imperfect subsoil
drainage.
Az an ornamental and hardy climber
too much cannot be said in favor of the
Crimson Rambler rose. 1t is hundred
times more attractive than the old
Prairie ,Queen. In the north it needs
protection during the winter.
Seven sows and twenty-one pigs
weighed and turned in on two acres Of
alfalfa and fed light corn sud slop
ration were again weighed at the end
of thirty days and showed gain in
value at the current price Of pork OF
$1S.01. This was in Nebraska.
Where man can raise alfalfa and
can get the pigs, cows and hens to
work in connection with the alfalfa
he has got about as certain and profit
able a business combination as we
know Of. Twenty acres under this
plan are better than forty acres in
corn.
People have craving for green's in
the spring and are sometimes careless
in what they gather to put in the pot,
as was one woman out west who tried
the broad leaves of the pieplant, which
contained enough poison to kill her.
Men have not the native instinct of ami
mails in the selection of green foods.
In those seasons when extra good
crops are produced under ordinary
methods of tillege the excess over ay-
erage yield may usually be credited to
favorable climatic conditions. A single
frost, ,hailstorm or a few days of ex-
cessiye.drought or moisture at critical
time very. often will greatly reduce
the yield Of any. crop.
b Il the strawberry bed has been fruit
ed two seasons the best thing to do is
TO plow it up, While it might be reno
waited by the expenditure Of a good
deal Of work, 1t will be found every
way better to rely on the new bed
which you, of course, set out last
spring. Then, the strawberry likes
change Of soil about every two years
anyway.
4 Nebraska man set out to raise a
big crop of corn-see what he could do
by specially preparing and fertilizing
an acre Of rich Nebraska soil. He put
$50 into the mechanical preparation OF
the soil and in fertilizers, raised 220
bushels Of kiln dried shelled corn, sold
tho crop for $500 and won q prize Of
$500 offered by farm paper and an
other $500 offered by the makers Of the
fertilizers used, The acre, also pro-
dueed $50 bushels Of corn the following
season without any special work being
put on the land.
Eleven rows Of strawberries seven
rods long gave. US this year bushel Of
berries a day for three weeks. The bed
cost but a trihe to plant and care for
and is good for another crop next year.
AS soon as the fruiting season was over
the bed was mown close with scythe
and the rubbish raked off and burned.
Then it was thoroughly worked with
horse cultivator, all except a strip one
foot wide in each row, which was left
to furnish new growth of plants. The
SoAaNuCSi VAL 81 taAOuHu tlC LEu LWO
or three times more before fall.
Cheap milk can only be produced
from good cows and good feed. If it
costs more to get quart Of milk from
a COW than it is worth, what is the use
Of keeping the COW? When lady takes
boarders she takes them not for their
Christian example or for their society,
but to try and make little profit from
feeding them. When man keeps
COW he is supposed to try to do the
same thing, but 1t is only too true that
many, Of his boarders do not pay their
way and afford him no profit. The man
who Is delinquent in his board bill gets
fired. and the cow should likewise.
We know some men who keep them
selves poor Just moving around, ON IN
easy, discontinued, dissatisfied lot, al