Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1904-11-08
HIGH Price OF Iowa Land Brings
Realizing Sense of Value
OF Economy
BETTER CARE OF THE CROPS
Better Cribs Arc Being Built for Corn
and More Judgment Exercised In
Feeding it-cement Floors For That
Purpose Built by Many-Tilng Ex-
pensive But Profitable.
Special to Times Republican.

Special to TimeS-Republlcan
Jewell, Nov. Tit is always inter-
esting to observe the efforts of sue
cessful man to adapt himself to chang
ing conditions which have direct Ell
feet on his occupation. This necessar-
lily constant struggle is very notlceaple
on the average Iowa farm and Is occa-
stoned largely by the recent rise III
land values.
In driving over half a dozen rural
mail routes in this vicinity the patrons
Of which are for the most part q thrifty
and prosperous class Of people OIL
Scandinavian descent the writer mas
noticed at least score OF double corn
cribs newly built and painted and set
on stone foundations put up apparently
with as much care as tho they were
to be the foundations OF dwellings,.
They are large, handsome structures
ornaments to the farms on which they
stand. The owners of these new build
ings all tell the same story when the
high to raise corn to be wasted by
weather and rats. The expensive crap
was q necessity.
A number of farmers near Strat1oro
are building hog houses this fall WluH
cement floors and with feeding noor
In front laid something after the fash-
ion of a cement walk, but using coarser
material. One man who was finishing
one of these structures SAID ne was
tired of throwing fifty cent corn In the
mud and seeing half of 1t wasted.
Neither did he intend to continue
boarding lot of hogs the greater part
OF the year. only to have their PICS
killed by drafts OF cold wind and by
accidents caused by uneven dirt floors.
He thinks that he can now produce
pork cheaper than his neighbors un-
less they adopt similar measures.
The other day several men were seen
digging bitches for dling q dow Hat
tract of twenty-five or thirty acres sur
rounded on all sides by land consider
ably higher, but there was an "outiet
about thirty rods distant, and over a
hill between 1t and the land to be
drained were two long high banks of
earth--a ditch thirteen and half feet
deep at once point afforded the neces-
sary connection. and next year the
cultivable area of that mans farm will
be increased by about thirty acres. He
couldn't afford TO allow his high priced
land to remain idle, so he tiled 1t aleho
at great expense, the digging OF the
deep ditch alone required the work OF
four men two weeks.
Another feature of this section is the
frequency with which farm scales are
seen, and these. together with the mar
ket report obtained by daily paper or
telephone places the stock raiser on an
equal footing, so far as information Is
concerned, with the man who buys his
stock.
There is road making machine in
operation few miles from here that
is certainly up to date. 1t consists of
a pillow which throws a furrow on a
canvas working in an elevator similar
to the straw stacker of q 'threshing ma
chine. Twelve horses are required to
pull the huge affair, eight of which are
hitched ahead and four behind. When
a fill is to be made low wagons, built
specially for the purpose, are driven
alongside the machine as 1t operates,
receiving the dirt from the elevator.
These wagons are emptied when de-
sired by means Of levers and the a.
mount of filling that can be done in
given time is astonishing. After the
grade is brought to the desired height,
gravel which is abundant here, is
placed in the middle, then more dirt is
carried tc the sides to hold the gravel
in place and the result is first class
permanent road. Hamilton county
owns two Of these machines, which are
said to hive cost $1,000 EACH and hires
the men and teams necessary to their
operation.
was told that the owners of many
Of the farms here obtained their land
by tax title and that former owners
who abandoned them years ago as not
worth paying taxes o., and learning of
their present value are to this day oc-