Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1904-03-29


week after the girls.
In many western localities where the
silo has been tried for the first time
the past winter the builders of the silo
have been wondering why they were
so very slow to adopt such useful and
valuable aid to their stock business.
The vitality of nearly all seed corn
saved from the crop Of 1908 is low, and
there is more need for thorough test
ing Of all seed to be planted than for
many years. The exact per cent of
termination should be determined be-
fore planting.
AS result Of the new order Of the
railroads withdrawing free transporta-
ton home to shippers of stock there
will be fewer grangers making the &C
quaintance of old friends in the city
and more able to bank the net proceeds
of the sale of their consignments Of
stock.
Thousands Of farmers can greatly
tighten their burdens by selling one
half of their farms. Any man Is land
poor who owns more acres than he can
profitably work under modern sys-
tenn of agriculture. Hate to let it go?
Well, you will have to let it all go
some day.
The one year renter is the bane Of
western agriculture. His brief tenancy
precludes anything like systematic
rotation Of crops, the keeping Of stock
to consume the products Of the farm,
the growing of clover crop, and in
evitably insures continued process Of
soil robbing and land skinning, with
but small profit to himself and the
owner Of the land.
You may greatly increase the yield
of your potato crop by cultivating
them every third day after the plant is
six inches high until the blossoms ap,
pear. This is especially true If the
weather is at all dry during that pc
Rod, while surface cultivation may
profitably be continued so long as the
vines remain green. AS a rule, the po-
tato crop does not get one-half the Gull
tivation it deserves.
This is not a new suggestion, but
none the less valuable on that account.
If you have a dozen or more pigs to
feed this season by all means SOW
patch of rape for them, and you will
find that it will take the place Of lot
of much more expensive feed. The
rape patch should be proportioned in
size to the number of hogs to be kept,
not over one acre for twenty small
hogs, rs the value Of this plant consists
in keeping it well fed down. If it is
allowed to grow foot high it becomes
tough and unpalatable.
Many varieties of our fruits are
bound to overbear-set more fruit than
the tree can possibly mature without
endangering the life and vitality of the
tree. While nature will ordinarily do
OOAC ld1A1Al1lS5 AClSCll LII OuSA SdoCS, IL
is quite common that the best thing
which can be done by the owner is to
give the tree vigorous thinning. We
know that this is not just the right
way, but where time and help are fac
tors we just take pliable switch and
where tree is carrying an overload Of
young fruit we just whip half or two
thirds of it off when it is half grown.
1t is harsh treatment, but effective.
1t is not little amusing to note the
gravity and profundity with which
many newspaper men discuss every
year the varying phases of the ground
hog signs as determining the length Of
the winter when all know the question
of whether or not the rodent sees his
shadow on the I'd Of February has Just
as much bearing on future weather as
all the rest Of the signs and petty su-
perstitions which have come down to
us from the days when agriculture
was an occult science dependent upon
lunar changes, vestiges Of the barba-
rian necromancy Of the medicine man,
whole brood Of luny theories and be-
liefs that man with all his progress is
wonderfully loath to abandon.
The bane Of SO many boys, both in
town and, country, is seeming lack of
ambition and desire to be somebody.
The law works very unerringly and re-
lentlessly that what the lad sows the
man reaps. If in youth he is willing
to drift merely, even if he is not posi-
lively immoral, the mature man is easy
to forecast-a shiftless, hapless mortal,
with no aim, willing to eat, though he
does not earn, three meals day; a
dead weight on his own family and the
community in which he lives, contribut.
ing nothing to the material prosperity
or happiness Of his time and slightly
missed when in declining years he slips
away. For the sake Of yourself first, if
you will, and for the sake of your
friends and the age in which you live,
brace up and be somebody. 1t is well
worth your while and will contribute
immeasurably to your own material
welfare and happiness.