Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1905-05-09

America furnishes England with its
best apples, better In quality and high
er in price than those from Canada,
The cement road culvert is coming
into general USE 1t is better than
large tile or stone and costs about the
same.
A Rambo apple tree In Indiana last
year produced forty-fve barrels of
fruit. -Four such trees to the acre
would return pretty good income.
| Grass in the orchard Is a bad thing
| in two ways-it robs the trees of need
ed moisture during dry time and be-
comes constant temptation to turn
stock in the orchard to eat it.
OF course 1t is important to have three
good stalks of corn in each hill. but If
the land is so poor that it can only pro-
duce one ear to the hill there will be
two barren stalks, which are just as
! injurious as weeds.
Public spirit has given the American
people an unrivaled public school sys-
TEN and compels creditable care and
regard for the cemeteries. If once de-
veloped in that line it will do the same
good work for the public highways.
We saw over $500 going to waste
around farmers homestead the other
day, good cash lying around wasting
1t was 300 loads Of good barnyard
manure, every load of which would
bring him in a dollar If he would only
get it on his worn and starved acres.
If you will plow up ten acres of that
old timothy meadow and plant it to
corn and build stlo and put the corn
in next September, you will say some
spring it was the smartest piece Of
farm work you ever did. In fact, you
can never realize low much 1t means
until you try 1t.
One single discovery made by the
experts of the agricultural department
at Washington now in general use con-
nected with the making of turpentine
is worth in the saving effected annual
ly in this business an amount equal to
the cost of maintaining the forestry
department Of the government for q
period Of six years.
ryAIy We +N hr,vv -, L..
spring get it near home Acclimated
corn will always yield more than i'm
ported corn. Anyway, get no seed from
a latitude south Of you, and never buy
1t shelled. Pay more and get it In the
ear. When one buys seed corn shelled
he has placed altogether too much
temptation in the way of the seller
If it is a mans duty to work hard to
provide the food for his family it is
equally the wife's duty to study how
to prepare and serve such food in the
best possible manner. If nine women
out Of ten would devote the time and
money now spent on music in learning
how to be expert cooks, the world would
be happier and there would be fewer di-
vorces and smaller doctors bills.
Some efforts are being made in the
west to try to utilize the large deposits
of peat as fuel. The process being
tried is the pressing of the peat into
briquettes and then drying them.
There Is an inexhaustible supply Of
peat in northern Iowa and Minnesota,
and 1t would seem as though in this
day Of economies some method would
be found whereby it could be satisfac-
torily used.
When you meet young fellow fresh
shaved, wearing red tie, his horses
decorated with good many strings, a
high colored lap robe over his knees
and cigar in his mouth. 1t is safe to
bet he Is on the way to get his best girl
and have buggy ride, and it is also
safe to bet that his team will be going
much slower when he is on the way
home than they were when you saw
| him. We have all been there, and it is
all right.
The country department store is rap
IDLY coming to the front as a solution
of the problem Of the loss of country
trade through the city catalogue
houses. The owner Of such store told
US recently it was the only solution Of
the matter, such a business to be sup
plemented with persistent and liberal
| advertising. The city store has got the
farmers patronage by getting close to
him. The country merchant must get
it back by the same method.
The efforts made by the English to
grow cotton on the east coast Of Afri-
ca have proved a failure. The soil is
good enough, the rainfall and tempera-
ture favorable, but, an insurmountable
obstacle is encountered in the deter
mination Of the native population not
to work if they can help 1t, and SO it is
impossible to get labor to care for the
crop. The wonderful cotton crop Of