Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1903-08-25

Two-thirtls Of the worlds sugar IL
now produced from the sugar beet.
We simply note that the towns which
make war on weeds rarely have any
No ten cent corn in sight this year.
July reports on the crop show but IS
per cent of a full crop.
Pigs born with five legs are becoming
common. Can 1t be that we are to
have an extra ham on the hog of the
future?
The standard macadamized highway
is figured out to cost about $500 per
mile, or enough to grade and lay the
ties for an electric line.
Kansas got rid Of every tramp by ad-
vertising for harvest hands and ar
bitrarily compelling every idle man to
help save the big wheat crop.
The selling Of skim milk from red
cans, and such only, is healthy piece
OF municipal legislation which has just
been put into operation in Chicago.
Hogs are So. lower in price than a
year ago, but they still remain on the
right side Of SIS, and as long as they do
they are the big money makers Of the
western farms.
Where the corn crop cannot be prop
erly worked during the first six weeks
OF the season--n matters little how ia
vorable conditions may be for 1t later
it will be poor crop.
Drainage schemes completed and un-
der way in northern Indiana will re-
claim a million acres of marsh and
frog ponds and convert them into corn
land worth SITS per acre.
In no section OF the country is the i'm
portant question Of crop diyersifcation
being, discussed with more interest
than in Texas. A long list Of profitable
crops can be grown In that state out,
side of cotton, and the people there are
just finding 1t out. =,
One Of the most useful and handy
things we have about our place did not
cost over 50 cents, 1t is light stone
boat, made of inch boards four feet
wide ana six feet long, TO be hauled by
one horse, For, cleaning up rubbish
around the place and hauling the
manure from the yard out on the gar
den we find 1t almost Invaluable.
No crop is giving as good an account
of itself all over the country as alfalfa.
Hitherto generally supposed to be only
suited to the semi-arid sections where
irrigation was possible. it is being
found out that it adapts itself kindly
to general conditions both east and
west, great success being had with It
in Iowa, Minnesota, Texas and New
York. 1t is we'll worth any mans
effort to try it in nearly all soils and
nearly all states.
We are asked to answer hard ques-
ton - how to rid pond of water
used as watering place for stock of
the lizards, crabs and other animate
things which keep the pond muddy and
do It without rendering the water unit
for the stock to use. A small meshed
seine would no doubt clean out much
OF the Objectionable matter, provided
the pond is not too deep or too large.
The explosion Of dynamite In the water
would also destroy. most Of the in.
habitants and perhaps prove the most
effective remedy.
Extremes Of climatic conditions,
whether of drought, food, cold or heat,
seem to develop in a marked degree
special types Of parasitic life and of
weeds. A dry year is always conducive
to great growth Of purslane ana Of
chinch bugs, while wet season pro-
notes blight In the apple and pear
trees, and this season, an unusually
wet one whore the writer lives, has de-
veloped a tremendous growth OF sheep
sorrel In oil the low spots In the pas
lures and meadows, pestiferous weed
which has hardly ever been noticed be-
fore. No matter how the season comes,
1t may be depended upon that there
will be q full complement Of parasitic,
insect and vegetable pests to At It
The evolution Of the Poland China
hog from Its Arkansas rooter ancestry
has been worth untold millions to the
country. and 4 queer thing Is that,
Notwithstanding the success attained
with the hog, little or nothing until
within year or two has ever been
done to improve the corn upon which
he is fed. 1t is probably entirely with
III reason to say that fully as much
can be made In the corn