Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1905-08-16

The Asiatic breeds of poultry are the
only ones worth caponizing. TO at
tempt this work with the small breeds
is like trying to make beef critters out
Of Jersey steers.
There is no place on the farm where
the manure can be so easily applied
and where it will produce more lasting
results than ON the pasture and mead
ow land used in five year rotation Of
crops.
No man should talk about taking q
summer vacation If he Is owing a gro
Gerry bill. A mans first duty Is to pay
his way even If he has to wait for the
undertaken to give him his first vaca-
ton trip.
The burden Of testimony from plum
growers Ia to the effect that where
poultry 10 kept In the plum orchard
the trees are more thrifty, the fruit Of
better size and freer from insect pests
and the yield larger.
The greatest problem confronting the
vast southwestern section Of the coun-
try Is to corral and store up the food
waters of that region which now work
so much destruction. Every acre Of
desert upon which these waters can be
placed is an undeveloped gold mine.
f6s~ss11tsp,>--
Crops which may be planted or SOW
ed in July are not very numerous 1t
will do to put in piece of buckwheat
up to the 10th of the month, the Swede
turnips may be sowed. bit Of corn
planted for fodder, while miilet will
mature a crop sowed not later than
the LIST Of the month. The white and
fat turnips can be sowed as late as the
LIST Of August
The struggle between the steamboat
and the locomotive as transportation
agencies has continued now for thirty
years, with the result that the locomo-
tive has whipped out the steamboat to
q finish Water transportation will
hold it's own for all time, however, on
the great lakes and In the lower Mis-
sissippi valley. The simple question of
time required In transit has settled the
contest in favor Of the railway.
A reader Of these notes in Michigan
wrote US recently wishing to know If
capons would do we'll in that state
and requesting that we inform him
as to the cost Of setting of eggs and
where they could be obtained. This
was q very embarrassing request to
make and Of necessity was disposed Of
by letter. 1t reminded US of the Eng
lishman who went to Dakota to start
a mule ranch some years ago and who
was very particular about the selection
OF his breeding mules.
If everything went we'll with the
farmer all the time-perfect weather
conditions, no insect pests, no blight
or rust, cheap and dociie hired help, no
summer hailstorm or untimely frost,
no floods or droughts-there would still
be trouble, for so many would want
to farm and 50 much would be pro-
duced that the business would not pay.
So 1t Is just as we'll to regard the ca.
lamities which beset the business as
really essential to its best interests.
It Is only the disagreeabIe features,
the slavery connected with dairying,
which make it the most profitable bust
ness on the farm.
II one wishes TO raise a crop Of on
ions next year, now Is the time to
commence and prepare the land de-
voted to the crop. Clean land-land
free from weeds-is almost indispen-
sable in securing success In onion cul-
ture. The field should be well fortified
and be plowed two or three times
quite shallow to destroy every weed
which makes its appearance this year.
So treated, it will be in the finest pos
sSbie condition next spring for the
crop. The field selected should be as
near level as possible, for field which
will wash is death to the crop. 1t L.
not possible to get the soil too rich
for onions, but the fertilizer used needs
to be well rotted and thoroughly in
corporated with the soil.
It is queer how slow some men are
In catching on to a good thing. We
know Of a farmer who has raised corn
and oats to sell for twenty years, run
ming his farm as a grain raising and
grain selling farm, and. Of course, run
ming his land out A year ago we per-
suaded him to SOW twenty acres Of his
ont crop with clover, with the result
that he has this year a magnificent
crop Of clover, and he brags more over
that clover field than any crop he ever
raised. And he has not got the best Of
II yet, for he will pillow the second crop
under In September and next year
raise sixty bushels Of corn to the acre
on land which has not given him to
exceed thirty bushels for the past
twenty years. 1t Is needless to say
thnt h intends to SOW clover every
ysaf from now on.