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

The cooperative idea finds it's best
illustration in the case Of the ant and
the bee.
The average rainfall In Kansas is all
right, but there is trouble in adjusting
the shortage Of the dry years.
Some years ago $500 prize was
won by farmer In Utah for produc-
ing eighty bushels of wheat on an
acre Of land.
This unitarian and unsentimental
age permits the grinding up Of Egyp-
tan mummies and the use Of them as
fertilizers for English crop production.
The railway, while the great ctvilizer
and developer Of the country, has been
and is now the great forest destroyer,
its demand for tie timber being insati-
able.
Where a man so keeps his cows that
rubber boots are an essential part Of
his milking equipment the chances are
that he is furnishing flavor as well as
milk to his local creamery.
Partially cured clover hay damp with
dew or rain will almost always make
trouble If put either in the NOV or the
stack If dry and carrying no moisture
save that in the stalks the danger Is
much lessened.
There are eighty public gardens car
ried on by poor people in the city OF
Washington, conducted on the Pingree
plan-vacant lots given by the owners
for this purpose, both to the advantage
of the city and the poor people as well.
The good times which the granger
has had for the past two years convert
ing a bushel Of potatoes into dollars
worth of sugar comes to an end this
year unless all signs fail for the tuber
crop is very promising all through the
west
There Is looming up crop OF cotton
for 1904 worth $5OO,OOO,OO0, a crop Of
6OO,OOO,OOO bushels Of wheat worth
$4SO,OOO,OOO and crop Of corn worth
another $5OO,OO0,0OO, trinity of re-
sources which almost precludes such
q calamity as what we call hard times.
What made that dark spot in the
cornfeld where the corn was twice as
high as it was all round the ield2
Why, last year the owner of the land,
in an absentmlnded fit, scattered
load Of manure there, and the growing
crop wants to encourage him to do
more work in that line.
Twenty-Five cars of cattle from the
state Of Washington were on the Chi
cago market one day recently. They
were wintered on alfalfa and finished
on grass and were good enough to
bring SIS per hundred. There is some
thing in this item for beef producers in
the corn belt to think over.
The value Of the governments work
in taking up these large irrigation
schemes Is well illustrated by the fact
that it requires from fifteen to twenty
acres Of land which it is proposed to
irrigate to support one cow, while as
soon as the water Is turned on the one
acre in alfalfa it will support two COWS.
Denmark leads In successful cooper
alive work among farmers. 1t now
has 1857 cooperative creameries, han
! ding the milk of $4,000 cows. The
cooperative bacon factories have 65,-
900 members and do business of Sill
100000 per annum and realize 4 cents
pound more for their bacon than any
other country.
Potatoes have brought very high
prices the past two seasons-from 81
to $1.5O per bushel. This is too much
for the tuber and instead of being
as it should be, staple food product
for every family, it becomes luxury.
Fifty cents Is good price, enough to
give the grower a nice profit and still
be within the reach Of the poor man.
The natural law is that things will
sell for what they. are worth and
man be valued for just what he is
rather than that which he thinks he is
or pretends to be. Because of this it
never pays in the long run to put the
small apples and potatoes in the mid
die Of the barrel or for the man to as
sumo to be other than what he really
is.
We find that early potatoes maturing
In August are much better dug as soon
as ripe and put In cool root house
or cellar than they are to leave them
to a continuous baking by the mid
summer sun. This plan further en-
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