Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1905-07-25

A June pasture for the COW Is per
feet ration, and all other rations fed
her should be modelled on it.
A temperature Of 80 degrees with
good northwest wind a-blowing is
very nice summer northumberland
to beat.
When supply Of ice is such COM
fort during the heated summer wealth
er, it seems pity that every family
IN the county should not have it when
it is SO easily obtained.
The eight hour day means whole
lot Of wasted time for the men who
demand it. Eight hours work may
keep Il man from the poorhouse, but it
will never give him much of a bank ac-
count.
The hens will usually lay well and
the cows give a large flow of milk up
to the last Of June; then the fowls will
begin to mott and the pastures get
brown, meaning fewer eggs and less
butter.
OF It's tramps fed by city during
one month last winter only one of the
lot would respond to an offer of work
at $1.75 per day. This sort are mostly
beyond help and should be treated
purely as human parasites
An English writer who recently Wis.,
tied this country made the criticism
that the American people lacked the
power of repose." If we could have
introduced him to hired man we
once had he would never have said
this
In general way 1t may be said that
it Is always easier to get rid Of sur
plus water from tract Of land than to
counterfeit lack of moisture. Drain
age methods are comparatively simple
when compared with any means Of ir-
rigation.
The high price Of wool is making the
sheep of Montana worth as much as
her gold mines When a sheep will
grow two dollars worth of wool and
a three dollar lamb in one year, the old
eve is pretty good proposition-in
fact, hard to beat.
A friend who raises each year good
deal of small grain hit on the plan last
winter Of giving load Of straw for
two loads of manure delivered on his
farm, with the result that he got $50
loads of fertilizer put where it will
do him lot Of good. He says this
plan is away ahead Of burning the
straw.
A rainfall Of eleven inches in eight
cen hours in western county this June
wrought irreparable damage. Bridges
and culverts by the score were torn
out crops all washed out on the roll
ing lands and buried with mud on the
lowlands. Where the land is hiily and
such storms liable to occur there should
be much grass and but little grain
raised.
John Burroughs makes the interest
Ing statement that while few dogs can
catch rabbit the slow travelling mink
always can. He gives as the reason
the fact that the rabbit seems to know
that when chased by dog it always
has it's hole as a last safe resort, while
when chased by mink 1t seems to re-
a1ize that the hole is no longer availa-
BILE as means of protection and seem
ingly becomes paralyzed, making it the
easy victim Of the mink.
It is seldom that great war has had
SO little influence upon the prices of
farm products as the present one be-
tween Japan and Russia. Both coun-
tries have been largely independent Of
the rest Of the world in the matter Of
food supplies and only to limited ex-
tent have they drawn on other coun-
tries. This country has sold some
meats, some hay and barley and some
range ponies and mules to Japan, but
not enough to visibly affect the price
of these commodities. For this reason
the termination Of the war is not likely
to have any marked effect upon prices
in this country.
Much speculation is being INDUCED in
as to the reason for a manifest decline
In the population Of the rural sections
Of the west, In the fat lands where the
big crops grow and where the average
value Of farm land Is $50 per acre, a
decline, as shown by a late census,
amounting to nearly 10 per cent. The
reason is partly found in the increased
value of farm land, almost compelling
the working Of it as much as possible
by improved machinery, this in turn
tending to increase rather than dimin-
ish the size Of the farms. Then young
men are almost of necessity compelled
to seek cheaper farms whereon to SGT
a start and q home