Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1903-12-05
.LOOKER-ON IN IOWA
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES

Dayton. Ia. Dec. Recently an
observing thinking farmer advanced
an argument concerning the probability
of big crops in Iowa in 1904, that. in
the writer's opinion, Is worth noticing.
His idea is that the phenominally
nice. /. e. dry weather in Iowa during
October and November. 1903, has left
the soil in remarkably good condit. OIL
for the coming winter and spring.
Says that a drain tile on his farm that
4 year ago was running q full stream
of water, now has decreased to almost
imperceptibIe drainage. In other
words the surplus water has been
drawn off his farm. Again, he claims
winter will cause the coming snow and
rain to stay on top of the ground till
spring, when large quantities will run
off naturally. leaving but little work
for the drain tiles next spring. He
mentions as a fact on a portion of his
farm this year the soil was so wet and
soft that it actually killed the weeds,
to say nothing of sowed oats and
planted corn, and that now this part
of his land has dried out and is in ex-
cellent condition for spring blowing.
And what is true of this mans farm
must be true of millions of acres in
Iowa. We all ought to feel good when
we can hear such talk from an opti
mistic Iowa farmer.
There's a meat war on In Nevada
that makes the meat eaters happy.
II 4. L.,
front of the meat markets:
Beef to 10 cents per pound.
Pork to 10 cents per pound.
NIutton-5 to 12ia cents per pound.
Sausage-Three pounds for %
cents.
Lard-S to 10 cents per pound.
And on Thanksgiving day there was
a fine assortment of dressed turkeys at
Is cents pound, dressed ducks and
geese at 12h. and dressed chickens at
10 cents per pound. Incidentally 1t
can be mentioned that lately a new
meat market has been opened in
Nevada.
Nevertheless there is all over the
state an inquiry, why, if prices of live
stock have gone down as the market
quotations show, how it is in nearly
all towns the retail price of meat re-
mains the same. There is this other
size OF the story. Few butchers. in
Iowa ever get rich. The writer makes
this statement deliberately from per-
sonal knowledge in 900 Iowa towns.
The expense of running q butcher
shop is all out of proportion to the
sales. Nearly every store in our
smaller towns carries stock of sailed,
dried. smoked and picked meats In
direct competition to the Elarketman.
The telephone makes 1t possible 70,
madam. the housekeeper, to ring up
the butcher and have 40 cents worth
butcher has to pay cash for everything
he buys, and trust out over half that
he sells. a farmer thinks 1t the most
natural thing in the world to sell a
butcher his fat COW for 2 cents a
pound spot cash when delivered, and
the next day go into town and buy big
lot OF fresh meat for the thresher's
that are coming. and have 1t charged.
Frequently he helps to eat part of his
cash sold COW and charged meat. And
the. number of people who get meat
free by having it charged, has to be
reckoned upon by the butcher who
sells some Of his fresh meat for cash.
No. Iowa butchers are not getting rich.
And it can safely be assumed that the
will do we'll to make the
most of their present opportunities.
eos
Down east they also have their meat
troubles. The Hartford Courant re-
Gently said editorially:
"A letter from Kansas City to the
Boston Transcript on the meat trust
opens with this amazing statement:
with the market price of cattle
down to such point that farmers and
feeders are counting how much they
will lose if they continue to feed corn,
prices of beef to the consumer are as
high as when cattle brought fancy
prices. With the hog market going
steadily lower. the price Of bacon and
hams Is lower today than year ago.
Some pork products have actually adj