Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1903-05-19
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The man who is always moving
around never takes much pride in the
looks of his home.
A number of our neighbors are this
year setting out strawberry beds for
the first beginning to appreciate
their blessings.
There are good many men this
spring who in the matter of their seed
corn are very like the foolish virgins
and the oil for their lamps.
The educated colore6 man of Tuske-
toes on the ground from which his I'M
educated brother can get only fifty
bushels.
Now, here was good neighbor, for,
living in town and finding it almost
impossible to keep his Leghorn fowls
shut up in his yard. he just up and
sold them rather than have them an
noy his ueighbors.
Not long since we asked contractor
who was laying a sewer in the city of
Dallas, Tex. how much he paid the
forty CT more colored men employed on
tie job. He said that he paid them
50 per day for eight hours work. At
such wages the colored man ought to
get on his financial feet.
We know of no place on earth where
just exactly the right AMOUNT of
warmth. moisture and sunshine can be
depended upon at just the right time,
10 place where crops will be free from
all forms of insect pests. 10 place
where a man who works the soil will
not have TO take chances, and lots of
them. We wish we did.
We have known q six inch hole bored
In the. lowest point of a slough which
could not readily be surface drained to
drain it as perfectly as the surface
ditch would have done The success of
this method all depends upon the sub
soil. Ii one can strike vein Of sand
or gravel. the water can be got rid of.
If it isftough clay all the way down, it
is no use 10 try it,
The public highway in most of the
northern states is four rods In width.
In Texas it is only two rods wide
Neither is just right The four rod
road involves u tremendous waste of
good land. and the two rod road is
hardly wide enough TO work ii prop
ery. There is !. happy medium be-
tween these two. The three rod road
is just right.
The top has been reached Men are
refusing to build houses. factories and
railways because of the high prices of
labor and materials and the risks CON
nccted with strikes. Farmers are let
ting land so uncultivated this year be-
cause of the scarcity and high price of
farm help. Everything has been boost
ed up to the top notch. and any further
change will be on the downward scale.
In north central Texas, where win
ter wheat, big herds of cattle and large
ranges prevail. we came across Ger
man settler. a finely educated man.
who had induced a number of his coun-
trymen to locate near him. Here We're
nice homes. schools, 4 church, good So
ciety, registered Herefords, tine or
chards and an agricultural civilization
of the highest type. an oasis in a des-
ert.
We know of an old fellow who is
the owner of Il section of fine land and
who is Shaving himself to death TO buy
more. giving as reason that while he
had land enough he did not know what
his boys boys We're going to do. he
might as well quit fretting, for his
boys boys will know enough more
about farming SO that they will raise
as much on one acre of land as the old
man does on three.
We are impressed with the marked
advantage which the south country has
over the north i'll working farm, in
the matter of the extra two or three
months in the year given the southern
man in which to do his work This is
no small matter. There are growing
and crop season in Dakota and Minne-
sofa Of only five months ana seven
months lay off, while in the south the
crop season lasts nine months and farm
work is possible for the whole twelve.
1t should never be forgotten that it
is the rain which falls during the grow
ing crop season which counts for the
crop. There are localities which are
being highly doomed for agricultural
uses where an average rainfall of
eighteen or twenty inches is certified,
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