Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1903-03-24

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Rape. is better for both hogs and
sheep than clover.
Any dairy COW will cost at least $25
to keep one year. On this basis it is
an easy matter for any man to figure
out what cows it pays to keep.
While the milk of the goat makes
some of the very choicest brands of
cheese, it is curious fact that it can
not be converted into butter, the fat
globules refusing to unite as in the
case of the milk Of the COW.
The average price which the farmers
receive for sugar beets in Kansas is
$3.50 per ton, and some of them have
made the interesting discovery that
such beets are worth more than that
to feed to five dollar pork in connection
with alfalfa.
The modern inventions which have
made the transmission of electrical
power possible have made available in
France alone over 100000 horsepow-
er, largely in the shape of heretofore
unavailable waterfalls all through the
mountain districts
A little pile Of sawdust from pignut
hickory wood formed seemingly
tempting breakfast for a half dozen
bluejays in the writer's dooryard one
of the snappy cold mornings of the past
month. While the jay is an omnivo-
rous feeder. we did not before know
that he would eat wood.
All through the farming section of
the country it is not more land which
men need half so much as it is the
knowledge how to work what land
they have to better advantage. Three
fourths of the farms of the country are
not half worked and do not produce
one-half Of what they might be made
to do.
The kernels of the tips and butts Of
an ear of corn will, while to some ex-
tent malformed, still produce good
ears, though they will vary slightly in
the time of maturing The real rea-
son why such kernels should not be
used for seed is that their irregular
shape prevents to some extent uniform
ity Of dropping by the planter.
One acre of timothy hay, costing to
produce about SIS, crop one ton and one
half, will feed one COW six months.
The same acre Of land planted to corn
and the corn put in the silo at total
cost of SIPS will feed four cows the
same length of time with better ra-
ton. The more this problem in agri-
culture is studied the palmer will it
become that timothy hay is a very ex-
pensive dairy ration.
The highway problem is very seri-
Gus one i'll many sections of the west,
especially in those parts of the country
where the soil is black and mucky and
where there are no supplies of either
stone or gravel to be obtained where
with to surface the roads after grad
ing. While the dirt roads of such To-
calities are the very best in the world
for about nine months i'll the year, they
are for the other three months the very
worst.
The question of grass-pasture and
hay crop-is almost wholly question
Of sufficient water supply; no rain,
no grass. While moisture may be con-
served by mechanical manipulation i'll
cultivated fields, this process is not
applicable to pasture and meadow
lands. Thus when the winter forage
crop is raised in a corntield instead Of
meadow one has the crop under
much better control.
1t seems too bad that any parents
should try in these days to bring up a
family of children and deny them the
benefit of plenty of good wholesome
reading matter in the home. Yet some
do. We know of families where story
paper of the trashiest sort and filled
with off color advertising matter is the
only literary food given the children.
/ When this fact is understood in all its
bearings, 1t is no wonder where all the
great crop of suckers spring from.
| Furnish the children good reading mat
ter for the home, no matter what it
may cost
The first class farm hand looks good
| deal like $3.50 for the coming season
by the time his wages. his board, wash
ing and horse feed are all footed up.
This man cannot be used on land to
produce only twenty-five bushels of
corn or thirty of oats to the acre The
more such men and the more such acres
a man tries to bring together the worse
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