Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1903-12-23


be regarded as the garden of Eden.
Cows fed on enslage during the win
ter without any side ration will give
80 per cent as much milk rs when fed
on grass during the summer.
One of the very best calves we ever
saw never even had an introduction to
it's mother and always bawled as soon
as it heard the hum of the farm sepa-
rator.
The very poorest grade Of hogs sent
to the markets is known as govern
implying that they find their
way into army and navy rations. We
used to get this kind in 1868.
There has been reduction of nearly
25 per cent in the freight charge since
1889. Then the charge was cent and
a fraction per ton per mile; now it is a
fraction over three quarters of cent.
Query: If it is right to appropriate
the public money to get water on to
desert. why not to drain a swamp?
And yet every drainage enterprise so
far undertaken has been by private en-
terprise.
A prominent paper in the west states
that one of its patrons this year raised
100 bushels Of popcorn on twO-thirds
of an acre Of ground. Affidavits should
always be attached to this class of ag-
ricultural yarns.
The state of New York voted at the
late election thesenormous bond issue of
$101, 100000 for the enlargement Of the
Erie canal. This improvement means
more to the western producer than it
does to the farmers of the state Of New
York.
We are wont to think of gold mine
as the best illustration of concrete
wealth and profit, but here is the Cal
umet and Hecla copper mine giving
its stockholders a total of $S3,350. 900
in dividends since its opening ON an in
vested capital of only $2,5O0,OOO.
1t is often difficult to get bait which
will attract rats into trap, for these
rodents are very wise and crafty, but
we are told that there is one kind of
bait which they never can resist and
will run any rat risk to obtain, and
that is pumpkin seeds. Try this bait.
The Maine experiment station has de-
termined by analysis that 10 cents
worth Of common bread and milk con-
tains more than twice the amount of
nutriment than 10 cents worth of any
Of the greatly advertised cereal food
and, besides this, the
bread and milk tastes better.
At this season of the year the "side
hunt" is very common feature Of
western SO called sport. While this sort
Of hunting or sport might be permits
sible in jack rabbit country, where
these animals are pests. in the major
portion Of the country. where wild life
is all too scarce anyway, such hunts are
little short of barbarism.
Every farmer has some one question
his farm work which he
would like to have answered by some
man who is competent to answer it.
Now, the right thing to do is to attend
your county institute and just ask that
question. You may thus be benefited
yourself and a lot of your neighbors
as we'll 90 and ask that question.
Continued experiments in the cold
curing of cheese are showing remark
ably satisfactory results, very SUI
perior quality of cheese being thus Oh
tanned. 1t is now found that if such
cheese is given a covering of paratfin
there is Il great saving in the shrinkage
incident to the curing process. II bet
ter cheese was made there would be
much more of it used.
1t is estimated that the deer killed
last fall in northern Minnesota would
have brought the large sum Of 100000
if they could have been sold in the
open markets of the country. The rigid
Of the game laws is re-
sulting in making deer very plentiful,
not only i'm northern Minnesota, Wis
consin and Michigan, but also on Long
Island and in the northern portions of
Maine and Vermont.
Contracts are being let by the gov
eminent for the great irrigating plant
in the Tonic basin on the Salt river in
the first work undertaken by
the government under the new law.
This work will include dam 160 feet
high, the impounding of the water in a
lake eighteen miles long and over half
q mile wide, with a depth of 100 feet.
and the reclamation of 100000 acres
Of what is now utterly waste desert
land