Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1904-05-03

There are COW keepers, and then
there are dairymen-more Of the for 4
mer than Of the latter.
There is no use in talking about a
balanced ration to millions Of the
earth's inhabitants, for they have to
eat just what they can get.
1t is about an even thing which Of y
the three will most sorely tax mans
patience = gasoline engine with
spell on, balky horse or windmill
which is idle for want of wind.
Owing to the war Japan has become
a very liberal buyer in this country Of
-four, salmon, barley, bronchos and
canned fruits, commerce which is
much prosperity to our Pacific
coast communities.
The chinch bug, the Colorado beetle
and the hog cholera, three Of the most
destructive pests which ever visited
the western farmer, seem to have had
their day and for time at least have
What pest is to take their
place is not yet clear.
We know Of farmers, unskilled horse
men, whose three-year-old colts, rough,
shaggy and unbroken, just in from the
fields, bring them from $1O0 to $3.50,
this because the horses kept to work
the farm are grade Shire or Percheron
mares, bred to first class heavy draft
sires.
The opportunity now offers for men
who have met grief in their specula-
tons in northern lands, oil stocks, min
ing schemes and cattle ranges to try
their luck with some stock in coffee
planta tons in Mexico and Central
America. Millions in it, according to
promoters.
While the sheep may be rightly said
to wear the golden hoof when kept on
the farm, no animal is more destruc-
tive when given the range of land de-
sired for the growth of timber. The
sheep should be absolutely excluded
from all the forest reserves set apart
by the government.
We noticed a statement recently
made by one of the big packers to the
effect that there was an actual money
loss to him Of 81 in buying steer and
selling the meat and that he had to de-
pend upon the offal and byproducts
to make this loss good and give him
his profit. One can do as he pleases
about believing this offal story.
The trouble which many farmers
meet with in having fences on bottom
lands and across runs and streams
swept away by freshets may be to
some extent prevented by planting a
row of willows on the line up to the
bank Of the stream and using the trees
as posts. This only applies to such
streams as do not carry large masses
of floating ice in the spring.
One year with another 1t will be
found safer to delay the sowing of rape
on the field of small grain where this
plan is followed for at least ten days
after the small grain is sown. If sown
at the same time 1t is apt under favor
able weather conditions to make too
rapid growth and swamp the grain.
We saw twenty acre field of oats last
year entirely spoiled in this manner.
A new line of railway 252 miles in
length was formally opened in China
in February. The building of this road
was very much like the running Of a
stick through an ant hill. The Celes-
tial takes kindly to the cars when he
once gets used to them. though he
fights them most vigorously at first
for the reason that the building of the
road disturbs the bones Of his ances-
tors.
Where has the black oat gone?
i ears ago IL was SIdLuolu SClCdl.
1t had stiff stalk and never crinkled.
1t never rusted and yielded large
crops. The meat was just as good
and nutritious as that Of the white
oat, but it's color banished it. The
degenerate condition of the cat crop
over much of the country would sug-
gest the wisdom of trying the black
oat again.
A curious fact in connection with
the northward migration of wild fowls
this spring has been the very large
number of wild swans, rare bird, in
deed, which passed across the states
Of Iowa and Minnesota. These birds,
tarrying to rest and feed, were dur
ing the month of March killed in many
places. They are the finest game birds
in America and are so rarely obtained
that they are nearly always turned
over to the taxidermist instead Of the
cook.