Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1904-01-14

sAAN ~oN.--N~S
than it is in the city. 1t seems almost
impossible to make some people under
stand this.
The last report of the secretary Of
agriculture, just issued, is the 1npst ex-
pensiye book ever issued by the gov
eminent, the edition costing 1920, 900.
Still it is money well expended.
We have the story from California,
pretty well authenticated, that man
raised 200 acres Of beans this year and
harvested 5000 bushels, or forty bush
els per acre, which he sold for So per
bushel.
One hundredweight Of clay loan soil
will hold without dripping fifty pounds
of water. This fact will explain the
condition of our prairie soils when they
had to take care of foot of water a
month last year.
Here in this month Of December,
1909, if q man or woman has hun
dred young hens of the winter laying
type and cares for them properly it is
no trick to be taking in from 81 to So
q day from the henhouse.
The 2:40 horse will bring from $3.50
to $500, according to style, and is hard
ly eligible for entry in any except scrub
country races. The POT horse brings
from $1,000 to $4,000, one of this sort
earning this year over $4,000 for his
owner.
If the boil weeyil stays and spreads
over the entire cotton producing terri
tory Of the country, as it bids fair to
do, the days of cheap cotton are over.
The department Of agriculture will ask
congress for half million dollars with
which to fight this pest.
a friend Of ours has a fine team of
Norman horses. He broke them in as
colts, has never driven them off walk
and has trained them to be fast walk
ers. We doubt If there can be found a
more useful farm team in all the coun-
try for all the heavy work on the farm.
The government standard for milk
is IL per cent of total solids-S1s Of SOL
ids not fat and 31a per cent of butter
fat. Condensed milk must contain %
per cent of solids, of which per cent
must be butter fat, and condensed
cream must have 1S per cent Of butter
fat.
We are glad to say good word for
the goose when we can, and here is an
Iowa goose this year rearing twelve
goslings which weighed $50 pounds,
which sold for Thanksgiving and which
brought IL cents pound, or $1s for the
work Of one old goose for one summer.
This beats pigs or sheep.
An old friend gives us this recipe for
catching carp, the most worthless fish
in our rivers. He says that the hook
used must be very small and be baited
with little wad of cotton in which is
wrapped some limburger cheese. He
says this will get them every time, and
it is just the kind Of bait which we
would expect such fish to take.
Farms, and good ones, can now be
bought in Oklahoma for from $25 to
$40 per acre which are just as sure to
double in value inside of ten years as
the sun Is to shine. Men who own 500
an acre land in the older states can
many of them make an advantageous
turn on these Oklahoma lands. But
look out where you locate, if you go.
A very remarkable advertisement APP
peared recently in prominent western
newspaper. 1t was a bid by eastern
banks for the surplus capital of western
farmers to assist in carrying the paper
of eastern manufacturing interests.
Not SO very long ago when nearly ev-
cry dollar with which to move and han
die the crops of the west had to be OBJ
tanned from the east.
AS experiments in the culture of the
sugar beet proceed it is found that the
semiarid sections of the west where
irrigation is possible are best suited for
the beet. There are reasons for this
excess Of sunshine to put the sugar
into it. soil surprisingly rich in the
mineral food the plant requires for its
development and the ability to there
secure the perfect ripening Of the beet
without fall rains.
One Of the big packing houses in Chi.
cago last year bought and killed 9,3S9,
729 head of cattle, hogs and sheep. The
value Of these animals when slaughter
ed and manufactured was $220,00O, OOO
Twenty-Five thousand six hundred per.
sons were employed in this work. The
product was sent to the ends of the
earth, and nearly every table in Amer.
| lea was patron. The utilization of
the offal of this vast number Of ami.
mails constituted most Of the profits OF
the concern.
We know that it is speaking out in
meeting, but, pom honor, we are dead
opposed to having every family in the
land held up by the sugar trust and
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