Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1904-08-16

Because of the packing house strike
a porterhouse steak at a city restau-
rant has come to look like $1.75.
The crop situation is being evened
up in Kansas, for the rains which so
seriously injured the wheat crop have
been the making of the corn.
Hay is worth Sc per ton, yet one man
knew no better than to put his nice crop
of sixty tons in six little dinky stacks
eight feet high, one-third to be wasted.
Whenever a dog, bull or horse
begins to show signs Of viciousness the
sooner one is rid Of it the better 1t
furnishes risks which it does not pay
to run.
Women always, or nearly always,
have to work harder to earn dollar
than a man does, and when they have
it earned they will always make 1t
go further.
There are plenty Of men who think
they have done smart thing when
they can cross railway track and
have the engine skip their rear wheels
by couple Of feet.
1t costs from so to 60 cents a rod
to lay 3la inch tile, and there is more
money in the laying Of it on thousands
of farms than in feeding twenty cent
corn to seven dollar hogs.
The finest wheat raised in America Is
in danger Of being ptnched by Sep
TENDER frost-the crop in the great
northwest county in western Canada.
The crop is unusually late this year,
much Of it not headed out Aug. /.
After seeing, we are firmly Of the
opinion that it will pay any man to
scrimp himself next year for the priv
ilege Of spending ten days at the st.
Louis worlds fair One cannot at
ford to miss seeing it if it is posi-
bic thing to go.
A sheep man writing for prominent
agricultural paper advises that no
sheep be allowed to die on the farm of
old age. We are satisfied that very
few are, Judging from the quality Of
some of the mutton passed of on us
for spring lamb.
The best thing about the silo is that
it may be filled with the best Of food
independent Of the weather. The rains
which spoil the hay never hurt the
silage. A man is absolutely sure Of the
quality Of his winter forage supply
when put in the silo
Because of the high prices demanded
for labor, every mine owner, manu-
facturer, railway corporation and farm
er seeks in every possible manner to
substitute some sort of machine for
man. While almost compelled to do
this now, the time is coming when be-
cause of it the unskilled laborer may
not find it easy to get work.
John Ruskin, studying some Of the
social problems of his day, says that in
view Of the restless and almost revolu-
tionary attitude of mans social and
economic existence in these latter days
the principle is good that each man
shall possess the ground he can use
and no more. This would be social
leveler, for modern aristocracy Is most
ly based upon land ownership.
II you arrange to thrash from the
shock during August as so many farm
ers do, and wish to save the straw
in the best possible condition. just get
a small boy and pony and let them
tramp the center Of the straw stack as
the swing stacker distributes the straw.
A stack so tramped will settle in per-
feet semicircle and be almost rainproof.
This is no experiment, but practical
suggestion worth needing.
A friend wants us to send him some
strawberry plants to be set out during
August. We have found that a straw
berry bed set in the late summer, even
if the plants can be made to live, which
is no easy matter, has no advantage
over the same bed planted next spring,
for 1t will produce no crop to speak Of
next year. This applies to the north
country. Farther south fall set berries
do well. for they have chance to grow
all winter.
The best ideas are often of humble
origin. Here is an old Missouri farm
er winning a national reputation, all
because he took notion to split box
elder log in two pieces and fasten them
together fiat face to the front, hitch
ed on his team and tried smoothing
the clay roads in front of his place aft
er the rains. Out Of this very crude be-
ginning there has been established the
theory that such treatment of the dirt
highways will immensely improve
them at a most trifing cost. - :.