Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1904-11-08

There is no sense in blaming thu
wire fence when on one side of it will
be growing sixty bushels Of corn tt
the acre and on the other only twenty
five. 1t is the fellow who built the
fence who needs looking after.
There is one unfailing test Of the
good cook, and that is when one cal
eat the crust of her pumpkin pies with
out risking an attack of appendix It's
One way to get this good crust is tc
bake it before the film is put in.
The Haas apple has borne a good
crop this year; don't often do So
There is peculiar and to most people
unpleasant flavor to this apple when
! picked, which gives 1t bad name, but
if kept in cool cellar until thorough
ly ripened it becomes quite well fla
i vored fruit.
All unknown things will be brought
out if the world lasts long enough.
Here is a man who could not rest easy
until he had found out how many
feathers there were on a hen and has
discovered that the particular hen he
experimental with had S,12O. The next
valuable addition to our stock of
knowledge will be to know how many
hairs there are on tomcat
| A recent traveller tells the story of a
cedar tree in Washington state lying
PROSTATE in the big timber. On ton
of the tree, with roots growing around
1t, is a fir tree five feet in diameter.
the stump Of this fir when cut show
ing 1900 rings or periods Of annual
growth, proving beyond controversy
that the cedar went down in the far
ancient times, while the heart of it is
as sound today as it was $500 years
ago.
There is farm wagon on exhibition
at the worlds fair at ST. Louis which
is made from twenty-five varieties Of
wood grown on prairie Soils The list
of woods is as follows: White oak,
white ash, ironwood, hard maple, cher
ry, box alder, beech, American larch,
apple, soft maple, butternut, black
walnut European larch, red elm, chest
nut, Usage orange, willow, mulberry,
red maple, black locust, rock elm, ca
talpa, red bud and whitewood.
The problem Of the young orchard
and the rabbits is one which cannot be
neglected. We have for five years
worked combination plan of preven-
ton, have used the ferret and the shot
gun to the limit, paid premium for
each rabbit killed within certain
range of the orchard, have fed what
were left with corn and apples and
have found traps and poison unrelia-
BILE. We have the pests pretty we'll
cleaned out. Trees less than FIVE years
old should be protected with q wrap
ping Of some sort.
The agricultural department gives
out the following figures as to the beet
sugar industry for 1903: Average crop,
eight and one-half tons per acre; aver
age cost of produce, $35; average price
received by grower, SIS per ton; average
net profit per acre, $3.50. A possible
crop was thirty-three tons per acre,
produced at cost of $3.50, bringing
sos and giving a net profit Of $780,
this done by one Colorado farmer on ir-
rigated land. The general average,
however, does not make an attractive
showing for beets in competition with
corn within the limits of the corn belt
Just as soon as you get park-like
erect IN your orchard or timber grove
there's trouble coming. The blue grass,
which will give the fine ground set
ting for the trees, is death to them.
1t will hinder their growth and rob
them of the indispensable moisture.
Blue grass means pasture and constant
impaction of the soil by the tramping
OF stock when the trees need ahumus,
decaying leaves, a shaded soil surface
and plenty of mulch. AS soon as a
grove or orchard is got into blue grass
ana pastured the trees begin to die.
Any man can find illustrations Of this
fact close by.
We do not refer to the use and mis-
use of alcohol as beverage, but to it's
availability and use as a motive force,
as a substitute for gasoline, oil and
coal. AS commercial product it can
be most cheaply produced, the ma
chinery necessary being of the simplest
sort and entirely adaptable as a part
OF any farm equipment where the raw
material for its production can be
grown or obtained. Corn, the other
fereals, all fruits, sugar beets and sug-
er cane contain prolific stores of all
cohol when fermented. 1t might very
easily be made and sold at profit of
10 or IL cents a gallon and gives a
working energy the equivalent of gaso-
line, while being Of superior value as
fuel. Only one thing stands in the
way of its general manufacture and
use, and that the lack of some method
Of making it nonusable as a beverage.
Alcohol has broken the backs of many
a good man in vicious way, but it