Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1905-10-31

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We know of man who year by year
makes 500 per acre from his crops Of
Hubbard squash, and they cost no
more to raise than crop of pumpkins.
The average American likes to do
work on the hurrah plan--a lot of ma.
chinery, men and teams-likes the big
thrashing outfit, the big road grader
and the big gang of men to boss. These
big outfits are by no means the most
economical for the small farmer.
In the old baronial days boar's
head baked was considered the great
dish Of the feast. Recalling this fact
we are reminded that the tastes of the
people have improved, for it would be
hard to find a coarser, ranker meat for
banquet than an cid boar's head
A raiser Of turkeys for the market
advises the pouring of pint Of strong
vinegar down the threats Of the birds
twenty-four hours before they are
killed, claiming that such treatment
will make the flesh Of the bird more
tender. This is good example of the
refined brutality Of our modern civili-
cation.
Sometimes when q man imports
good horse into q community he does
as much in a patriotic way for his
community as though he had enlisted
in the army. We recall one instance
where the importation of such horse
gave to the horses sold during the sue
ceeding ten years an added value of
over $4,000.
With wool at from 20 to % cents and
mutton worth 5 to cents per pound
the sheep Is one of the best PROPOSE
tons there is on the farm today. They
pay as we'll as the COW, are better fer
tilizers and weed destroyers and no
bother about milking. If these prices
for sheep and their products could only
be assured there would be hundreds
kept where none is now.
A man never makes very much Of a
mistake when he selects a soil for q
farm upon which the clovers grow nat
urally. Poor though the soil may
seem to be, the presence Of the clover
gives assurance Of large productive
capacity and certain promise that such
land can easily be REINFORCED and en-
riched. We have come to the opinion
that the worst thing which can be said
Of any soil Is that it will not grow
clover.
We came across an old man of eighty
years the other day, one who was
pioneer settler Of the western prairies,
who went through all the hardships
incident to that kind of a life fifty
years ago, and he was not loafing
around on the porch in an easy chair
or hobbling around with a cane, but
was tough and wiry enough so that he
had just finished blowing eighty acres
Of land, using four horses, and he told
us that he thoroughly enjoyed doing the
work. Now, that is the right way to
grow old.
An old friend told us recently that
when the first steel pillow which would
scour in the muck soils Of the Illinois
river bottoms was brought into his
neighborhood the man who got it was
SO tickled with 1t that be wanted to
keep it going night and day. When
steel was so tempered that pillow
would keep clean and bright in the rich,
sticky soils of the prairie west it was
one of the greatest of agricultural dis
coveries. Modern methods of farming
would be simply impossible without the
polished steel to work the soil.
One Of the most encouraging things
IN an agricultural way to be noted
these days is the fact that the Amer
lean people are fast learning much
about the wonderful productive capac-
ity of small piece of land when intel
ligently and properly cared for. What
these possibilities are is we'll illustrat-
ed by the case of ten acre truck
farmer near Boston. who is said to
take from his land produce worth
$4,000 a year, or ut the rate of $1,000
per acre. Millions and millions of
acres Of the best land in the world are
heated in the west which do not make
crop return of over SO per acre, and
other millions which do not do as well
as this.
We have two or three complaints
about failure to secure stand Of
clover which was sown with nurse
crop last spring. This is not an I'M
common thing. The nurse crop, wrong
ly so called, often smothers the tender
clover plants, or, il it does not entirely
kill them, they are left SO weak and
spindly when the crop is removed in
July that the fierce midsummer heat
and drought very soon finish them up.
The surest way to insure stand of
| clover is to sow 1t without any nnrse