Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1905-03-07

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chickens tear up his neighbours garden
he has not got the right sort.
The Poland China hog has not only
been mortgage extinguisher, but
lusty builder of bank accounts for the
men who raise him these late years.
With butter at 35 cents pound and
fresh eggs at 80 cents dozen to the
consumer in January the way would
seem to be clear how to run some
farms more probably.
We noted man putting up supply
Of ice lately, and he was taking it from
an artificial pond which he had made
on draw on his farm. He would have
had to go eight miles for ice If he
could not hare got 1T on that pond.
A man drained with tile tract Of
wet land year ago and grew this past
season fifty bushels Of good corn to
the acre. On the portion of the same
field not SO drained the crop was to-
tai failure. The first crop nearly paid
all the expense of drainage
An English stockman has succeeded
in crossing the American buffalo on the
highland cattle, and the cross is a sue
cess, though the hybrids are so wild
that in the effort to ship two of them
to market one broke Its neck and the
other had to be shot in the car.
The wheat crop of England for 1904
was the smallest ever grown in that
country, only 3S,O00,OOO bushels. Many
Of the best farms Of that country are
being converted into game preserves
and deer parks. The agricultural inter-
ests of that country are in most dis
couraging situation.
An enterprisfhg woman left to shift
for herself hired a small room and,
with the aid Of two girls and two sew
ing machines, commenced making
women's skirts in various tasty styles
This was twelve years ago, and from
this small beginning has developed a
large factory whose sales last year
amounted to the sum of $35O,OO0.
The farm telephone costs about $25
per mile to put up, which sum includes
one telephone instrument complete A
ten mile line reaching ten families would
thus cost $3.50. TO this may be add
ed $40 for each additional phone on the
circuit. For the money thus invested
no greater convenience is within reach
of the average farming community.
To be obliged to hunt for tool Just
when one wants to use 1t in hurry is
hard on ones temper. The small boy
is not always responsible either for
tools or other things left out Of place
The proper care Of things-the putting
of them where they belongs just sim
ply habit, habit just as easy to ac-
quire as that Of leaving things kicking
around.
We once put a matched roof Of
coarse slough grass on cattle shed
which lasted for eight years with no
repairs needed. Barns and even good
houses are thatched quite generally in
the old countries. In the newer parts
Of the northwest this sort of roof can
be used to good advantage on small
outbuildings- pigpens, machinery sheds
and the like.
For the man in town who wishes to
keep chickens the heavy Asiatic breeds
should be chosen in preference to 9TH
ers. These are generally better winter
layers than are the lighter and smooth
legged birds and may be kept on u
smaller area Of land and where they
belong with an ordinary four foot WOW
en- wire fence. The Light and Dark
Brahmas, the Cochins and Langshans
are any Of them well suited for this
use.
A very encouraging fact in the de-
velopment Of modern agricultural meth
DDS is found in the fact that $50 young
men from the farms Of western state
this winter left their work and took
a short course Of two weeks in agri-
culture at the state college. The young
men all returned to their homes with
broader view Of their profession, and
each will be missionary to spread the
gospel Of improved farming in his com
munity.