Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1905-09-06


A little work with the mower in the
pasture just now will greatly discour-
age the weeds and improve the fall
feed. Not even the worst and tough
est weeds like to be cut down just as
they get ready to bloom.
1t Is better for the pastures, insures
more feed and is better for the stock
to divide the pasture and let one half
rest while the other half is being fed
off, and we wonder why it is that this
is not more commonly done.
Ensilage is much less costly to put
up for a succulent winter forage than
roots Of any kind, and 1t is more easily
preserved and fed out, and 1t is equally
as palatable and nutritious. An acre
of corn prepared as ensilage Is almost
doubled in feeding value.
Some one has figured out that the
bees have to visit 64,OOO,OOO clover
blossoms in order to extract single
pound of honey. Still we know of
fields Of wild clover in the fore part of
July that would furnish a thousand
pounds of honey II 1t was all gathered.
The Angus cattle lead all others in
price obtained at the auction sales, in
the number Of prizes awarded at
shows and In the ability to command
the top Of the market as beef animals.
They are a pure beef breed and have
nothing to commend them as dairy
The easiest possible crop with ia
vorable season is sixty bushels of corn
to the acre Still not one man in
twenty attains this. What with poor
seed, poorly prepared soil, insufficient
cultivation, poor planting, the average
crop Of the corn growing states is less
than half the possible crop. SIS.
-
There are altogether too many people
end Of the year just pay out and make
both ends meet While this is in a
way better than running behind,
man should have ambition to do some
thing better. There are large possibili-
ties connected with saving even so
small an amount as $50 year.
The average man has no conception
of the vast area of the possible wheat
fields of the far northwest There is
an empire in western Canada where
wheat for the whole world could be
easily produced. Land which will pro-
duce an average crop of twenty BUSH
els per acre of No / hard wheat for
ten years in succession Is there in
area as large as all the New England
states put together.
Cotton, which seemed to be over
produced last winter and much Of
which was not picked, is up again to
IL cents, a price which is the same,
so far as profit to the producer is con-
cerned, as would be 20 cents for corn
or 81 per hundredweight for pork.
Every effort was made to restrict the
acreage planted to cotton this year,
and now the men who did this wish
they had not done So
We saw some real skim milk calves
the other day. We doubt If they had
ever tasted whole milk They looked
just like the poor little orphans at the
English workhouse so well described
by Dickens. 1t is all mistake to try
to raise good calf ON nothing better
than skim milk from the start They
might have been the best bred animals
in the country, yet the want Of proper
food makes scrubs Of them.
The great trouble with the American
people today is that they all want to
get rich In a hurry, can't be content
with slow and safe gains. Nine-tenths
of them commence specializing and
gambling as soon as they can reach up
to drop a nickel in a slot machine and
keep the thing up as long as they live
and die poor. The old fashioned way
of being content with moderate profits
in the doing of a legitimate business
is almost out Of date.
Two hundred miles to q creamery is
getting to be q common thing all
through the west, the cream being
shipped that distance to a central
creamery plant, which converts 1t into
butter. The cost Of shipment Is about
a cent pound for the butter 1t will
make, which Is as small sum as 1t
can be gathered for and delivered to a
home creamery. This plan Is opening
up great possibilities for the dairy
business in localities where cows have
never heretofore been kept.
The bicycle, which for a few years
formed the center of many of the sport
ing events of the country, has COM
pletely fallen from It's high position
and Is valued today solely as utility
machine, in which capacity 1t is doing
most valuable work. We have not
heard Of scorcher for nearly two
years, and, II anything, the machines
are more popular out In the country
districts than in the cities. The auto
now monopolizes public attention as a
spOrting craze This In time will fol-