Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1903-07-08


thing doing in this country all the
time.
A proof of the degeneracy Of the
times may be found in the fact that
there are so many nice women who
think more of pug dogs than they do Of
babies.
Scientists have figured out that 247,
600 tons of steel dust are worn from
the rails on the worlds railways each
year and blown by the winds nowhere
and everywhere.
The flood losses in Kansas alone are
placed at $4O,OOO,OOO. while the drought.
losses in the New England states are
placed at $7OOO0.OOO, all this during
May and one week in June.
Beef animals were selling the last of
June about $2.75 per hundredweight
lower than one year ago, but the retail
price of beef hardly shows that there
has been any decline In the wholesale
price.
The very newspapers which decry
the destruction of the American forests
are themselves one of the worst eaters
Of forest growth, using acres of timber
in the shape Of wood pulp paper every
day in the year.
A New Jersey county has been fgur-
ing on the cost of getting system Of
macadamized roads and finds that it
will cost something over $5.OOO,OO0 to
secure it. These figures stagger the tax
payers, and well they may.
1t Is found that the poorer and more
porous grades of timber, such as elm,
black oak, birch and other soft woods.
respond more readily to chemical treat
ment for their preservation than do the
hard and more valuable kinds Of wood.
In California they have discovered
the fact that If dynamite Is used to
break up the earth to the depth Of
three feet where the grapevine is to be
planted 1t is thereby rendered immune
to the phylloxera, the great plague Of
the vine grower.
It is not essential today that q man
must have q pair Of calloused, horny
fists, hair all over the back Of his neck,
wear q three-year-old chip hat, smell
like section Of the COW barn and wipe
his nose on the sleeve Of his wamus in
order to be q successful farmer.
Science II working its way out on to
the farm in good shape, for here IL
case where some fellows chloroformed
six big fat hogs in a farmers yard,
then killed them and carried them OF,
leaving the sponge and a partly flied
bottle of the an@sthetic as their bust
ness card.
It IL strawberry week at our place
the middle Of June-and this summer
fruit festival will last about four
weeks, or until the last Of the Gandys
are gone-a bushel or more every other
day from bed two rods wide and sew
en- rods long; just raise them for fun
because we like to see them around.
One Of the most effective agencies in
the evolution Of plant life in the grow
ing season Is a June dew, dew which
holds every blade, tendril and twig in
a steaming sponge bath all night, an
elder down blanket Of moisture placing
crystallized jewels on leaf tip and geo.
metric spiders web, an all Unfolding
stimulant and tonic for all plant life.
The most valua BILE food element in
any kind Of cured forage Is the pro-
TEN, and this In the largest measure IL
only secured when the plant. whatever
II may be. Is cut and cured before ma
cut In early bloom showed 4.89 per cent
Of protein. while cut ten days past the
blooming period II showed only 800
per cent. This rule applies to corn cut
for fodder, all the grasses, sorghum,
the clovers and alfalfa.
There will be many an acre Of land In
the west this year upon which no crop
Of any sort save weeds will be raised 1t
being too wet to handle during the
seeding and planting season. These
acres should not be allowed to go back,
but as soon as possible should be
plowed and again plowed In Septem-
Der. which treatment will put the land
In the finest possible condition for a
crop next year A summer fallow Of
this sort is almost as good as coat Of
manure.
Things go at sort Of cross purposes
with some men. A year or so ago our
friend had big crop Of corn and lost
all his hogs with the cholera. He
called to see us the other day-about
the middle Of June-and said his land
has been so wet that he has not been
able to get a single acre of corn plant
ed, while FIVE sows in his hog yard have
raised him sixty nice pigs. He said
that he wished there was some way in