Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1905-03-21

Capons bring from to cents per
pound mere than other chickens, and it
is the best possible use to make of a
lot OF worthless young roosters.
A cement fence post selling at %
cents is on the market-a durable, sub
stantial post, which at the price named
would seem to settle the question of
fence posts for the future.
The COW and the hen are having
their innings this winter, with butter
retailing at So cents per pound and
fresh eggs at 30 cents per dozen. At
these prices butter and eggs can only
find their way to the table of the rich
man.
The Japs are fast learning to eat
American flour us result Of the pres
ent war and in the future bid fair to
become important customers of this
country for breadstuffs which from the
very nature of things in that country
they can never produce for themselves.
It begins to look as though for all the
territory where the dairy is not made
the principal business on the farm
the farm separator will supersede all
other methods Of handling the dairy
product. Where small diaries are scat
tered over an extended area it is really
the only sensible way.
A great many very serious mistakes
have been made in the attempt to tile
drain land, the tile not being properly
laid. We met two men recently who
will have to take up hundreds Of rods
Of such thing and have it properly laid.
Tile draining is too expensive a propo-
sition not to have it properly done.
1t seems to greatly lengthen the keep
ing term Of fall apples like the Wealthy
to pack them in oats when put away
for the winter. For this use none but
perfectly sound and well matured fruit
should be used, and it should be kept
in cellar the temperature Of which
is as near the freezing point as safety
will permit.
1t is great pity to strip all the tim
Der from the borders of the small
creeks and streams, as SO many do. At
best these bottom lands are fit for lit
tie else than pasturage, being subject
to periodical overflow. Because of
the moisture and superior fertility Of
such localities trees always do WELL
The creek which runs through the farm
should be bordered with trees, both
from an economic and from an aesthetic
standpoint, as nothing adds more to the
beauty of the landscape.
A reader wants to know whether, see
ing that he has not much work to do
this winter, it would pay him to haul
straw out on to his fields and burn it
for Its value as fertilizer, he living
where the soil is rich and we'll supplied
with potash and such other mineral
constituents as would be the residuum
of the burned straw. We do not think
this work would pay, as it is the wrong
way in which to use the straw, the
value Of which lies almost wholly in
the humus which it furnishes the soil.
The straw should be fed to stock in a
yard and when converted into manure
be hauled out on the fields, when it
then becomes the most valuable ferti-
IjZpr IN no obtained TIn1or No nj
stances should straw ever be burned.
We have had several inquiries of late
as to what the silo will do and its
value to the average farmer. We will
answer two or three points. The cost
of a silo is about SIPS per ton for it's
holding capacity. An acre Of field corn
which will yield sixty bushels Of corn
will make fifteen tons of silage, or 3d.
600 pounds. A matureG COW or steer
will eat not to exceed forty pounds of
this silage a day, and it will represent
about two-thirds Of the ration needed
by such animal The acre of corn thus
treated will thus furnish good food
for one animal for $50 days, and the
variations can be easily figured out on
this basis. In no other way can so
much food be stored so cheaply; in no
other way can so much nutritious and
palatable food be secured from so small
an area Of land. The silo goes with
high priced land and progressive farm
ing.
This Is the season when, If you are
going to make hotbed, you must be
thinking about doing it. For many
years we have made sort Of cheap
family hotbed as follows: We take a
sheltered spot on the south side Of the
chicken house or some shed, pile up a
bed of fresh horse manure four feet