Audubon County journal. (Exira, Iowa) 1884-1993, 1904-02-04

Less than twenty miles from Chicago
there stands on small farm an octa-
gon log barn kept in good repair
though built long ago, most interest
ing relic of the days of the pioneers.
The roof of this barn is coned up like
an Indian tepee.
The most remuneratiye agriculture
of the whole country is this year found
on the irrigated lands of Colorado and
largely in connection with the potato
crop. What do you think of a $4,000
income from 200 acre farm at an ex-
pense for labor of only $1,000?
The cotton growers of the south are
this year for the first time, owing to the
very high price of the staple, gathering
the unopened cotton bolls and running
them through thrashing machine to
secure the fiber which the bolls contain.
One planter in one day secured S62
worth of cotton from lot of what has
hitherto been regarded as trash and
worthless.
There are many ills connected with
the unrestrained opera ton of the law
of competition; but, bad as these may
be, they are never so hard to put up
with as the evils growing out of the
modern methods of consolidation and
combination. No man can be safely
trusted with the despotic power of reg
ulating production and fixing prices for
the consumer to pay. The thing may
look all right on paper, but it never
pans out that way.
We are all familiar with the sight of
the king bird giving battle to the hawk
and the crow chasing and bothering the
big owl, the contest in each case show
ing the hawk and the owl to be most
arrant towards, being driven hither
and thither by their unarmed antago-
nists when by one swoop of their
wings and one grab with their talons
they could not only whip their torment
ors, but kill and eat them for dinner.
So far as we know there is no parallel
animals.
Only very few of our deciduous
trees will stand q wholesale trimming
back Of the limbs all at once after they
obtain matured age The cottonwood,
willow, elm and soft maple will stand
the toughest treatment Pruning back
of shade trees should be done gradually
while they are developing We noted
a long row of handsome soft naples
which had been entirely killed by the
wholesale removal Of their tops last
May. The pruning of all the evergreens
must be done when they are young and
done from the outside
The best hen? Well, there probably
is none Nearly every breed does we'll
with some people. With hens there is
more in the care and the food than in
The breed. Even scrub or mongrel hens
Viii surprise one when they are treated
ie ariStocrats. The great advantage
liz having flock of full blooded fowls
lies mostly in thereby securing more
tiillUlLl VI gigs anu uEcSSGu
birds and in the greater pleasure in
seeing them around. We like the Hou-
dams for their fine eggs, the Leghorns
for their activity in foraging and lay
ing, the Partridge Cochins for the
beauty Of their plumage, the light
Brahmas for their winter egg produc-
ton, while for all round fowls it is
ha, tn
| Plymouth Rocks.
| 1t has been said that the one thing
| which marks the dividing line between
| man and the animal creation is the
| moral sense. While this is true, 1t is
| almost equally true that the art sense
in man is almost as good a test The
mammalia without exception are des
| titute of this sense the lair of the lion,
the hole of the fox the den of all ro-
dents, being bare of any adornment.
| The birds, however, are not wholly de-
| ficient in this respect. While the flesh
eating birds are closely allied to their
counterparts in the animal world in
! home building, the nests of the eagle,
| hawk, crow, raven, condor and buzZard
being but bird shanties of the crudest
construction, nothing could be more
artistic than the nest of the humming
bird or goldfnch or oriole, while the
bower bird of Australia will decorate
Its home with every available bright
and pretty thing it can secure. While
bright colors attract birds, they dis
turb and often infuriate wild animals.