Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1905-02-07

doing business just as soon as there IS
any new invention made. Within a
year or two it has been found that
very cheap and indestructible fence
post can be made on any farm with CO.
ment, and our promoter is already out
selling rights to manufacture the same.
Pass him.
A friend told us a curious fact re-
Gently. He said farmer up in the
Assiniboia country sowed field of
winter wheat in August, 1908. The
wheat lived through the winter, and it
took it until September, 1904, to get
ripe enough to harvest, when it gave
good crop. This is the first time we
ever heard of wheat requiring thirteen
months to make crop.
We are asked how far bees will fly to
secure supply Of honey. 1t is not easy
to answer this exactly. Last summer
we knew of case where man who
kept bees in small town had them
store up a plentiful supply Of honey
made from buckwheat bloom, grade
Of honey which is easily identified, and
the nearest field Of buckwheat to the
town was three and half miles. Civ
en- plentiful food supply, we should
not be surprised If in fair weather they
went even a greater distance than this.
We are told by the bug men that
tI,o,.o oro O00 n00 5iAPoro,,+ 1,{v,do oP
sects. We believe it. We are inclined
to think that we had $4,000 Of them
around our garden, orchard and farm
last summer. Not plant, tree or
shrub but seems to have its special in
sect parasite. This manifold insect
life has its mission, partly for one kind
to prey on another, partly as food for
birds and an equally useful mission in
the mystery Of fertilization Of all plant
life. Again, others serve as sections,
undertakers and garbage destroyers.
The wonderful economy of all plant,
vegetable, insect and bird life is so
closely interviewer and SO delicately
and marvelously adjusted that when
man rudely and arbitrarily interferes
with these laws he always suffers the
penalty. Thus in wantonly destroying
the birds he has thrown the machine
out Of gear and disturbed the nice bal
ance Of the species, the birds being one
Of the most reliable agencies for linz
iting the overpropagation of insect
life. The motto Spare the Birds"
should have q place in every home in
the land.
Not long since we saw the wife Of
pretty well fixed farmer dragging a
heavy sack and hunting around the
place for fuel with which to cook the
evening meal, and as she found some
cobs or some sticks or some pieces of
board she would put them into the
sack. Seeing this woman thus working,
we wondered If her husband thought
as much Of her as he did Of his COWS,
horses or hogs. Now, you men who
read this, see here. Don't you secure at
once for your own comfort and conven.
fence each and all Of the improved de-
vices for doing your farm work? And
don't you know that you often go into
debt for them at that? The use Of
these improved appliances has made
your work vastly easier and taken from
the farm very much of its old time
slavery and toll. Now, what have you
done in this line for your good wives
Practically nothing at all-no soft wa
ter save as you can catch some in a
leaking barrel, no woodhouse, no wood
pile, no conveniently arranged kitchen
and modern cooking utensils, no paint.
,e>l floor, no washing machine. none Of
the hundred and one little inventions
which so tighten the housekeeper's toll.
And the wife, partly because you al
ways preach that you are hard up
and partly because Of her Ignorance
that such labor saving devices exist,
goes on uncomplainingly. There was q
time when poverty excused to some ex-
tent this neglect and selfshness, but
that day has passed, and any man
worth $1,000 who will compel his wife
to work in the old poverty rut needs
attending to. In all fairness q man
should provide his wife with the same
Improved facilities for doing her work
which he secures for himself, and il
he won't do 1t he is an old brute.