Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1905-03-04

about agriculture as his father. He
has got to know more and will.
There will be better litter of pigs
and more of them raised to the period
of weaving if the old SOW has nothing
to do with the corncrib before and aft
er the pigs are born.
Soil fertility, like money, should be
kept at home. Raising grain and SELL
ing it off the farm is just like patroniz-
ing the city department stores-both
fertility and money leave the commune
ty for good.
The state Of Minnesota owns vast
tracts of worthless swamp land in the
northern part of the state and Is very
sensibly appropriatiag large sums Of
money for the purpose Of draining and
retaining these lands.
Some wise man notes that high priced
corn and healthy hogs almost always
go together, the inference being that If
the hogs were fed less corn they would
not be SO subject to disease. There
may be something in this.
We do not think that the average
farmer needs to know how to make
more money so much as he does to
know how to make it easier and in a
more profitable way-make fewer acres
do the work Of the many now run over.
We are getting class of people in
this country who want the milk lamb,
dollhouse tomatoes and green stuff in
January, frogs legs, fresh eggs in win
ter, and such stuff, and, while it pays
to feed them, they don't, as rule,
amount to very much.
A pair Of sparrows we saw nest
building in December found themselves
when the blizzard struck them few
days later like a pair Of young fools
who got married on $3.75 and inside Of
a week found no fuel, flour or meat ir
the house and no money to get any
with.
Lucky is the man who is SO situated
that he can look upon his big corr
crop as simply so much raw materia
to be, every bushel of it, converted in
to some form of finished meat or dairy
product. The man who sells the corr
will get 35 cents bushel,, and the mar
who feeds it will get so or 60 cents.
In planting a grove Of native timbe'
it is well to remember that some vari
cites of trees may be planted mucl
closer together than others. The sof
maple will bear thick planting, as will
the larch, catalpa and many Of tn
conifers. The cottonwoods, on the con
trary, will not stand thick planting, blu
will nearly all die by the time they ar
twenty years old.
We know of farm whose productiy
power has been fully doubleninside O
fifteen years by keeping on it as muc
stock as it would carry and consum
ing all the products Of the farm upo
the farm. The same thing may be don
with thousands of other farms, and
matters little whether it is Stoke
with sheep, dairy of cows or devote
to the production of beef. 1t cannot b
done so well with hogs, as the hog is
very poor distributor Of fertility.
We are told by prominent cattle
man from the range that no attempt
ever made to furnish the stock Of tina
country with supply of salt. Thi
seems quite strange in view Of tn
trouble which is taken to furnish cal
tie a supply of salt in all other section
of the country. 1t is barely possibl
that the alkali nature of the soil in tina
country furnishes through the waite
and the growing vegetation sufficier
supply Of salt to meet the needs of til
animal
A friend who had planted bed {
strawberries in what had been fl
years feed yard for cattle and hog
complains that he does not get an
fruit The trouble Is not because |
failed to plant the staminate and pi
tilate varieties so as to secure perfet
fertilization, but probably because tt
soil is too rich. We know from expe1
, ence that it is entirely possible to G.
land too rich for strawberries. A sc
which is fertile enough to produce ST
:, ty bushels of corn to the acre is plen1
rich enough for the strawberry.
: Many men have hobby in the ms
ter Of the color Of their corn, son
claiming that white corn is the be
and some yellow, while not few W
: swear by their calico corn. The fact
there is practically no difference at {
in the feeding value of the differe
colored corn, assuming that it is ali
3 matured. There is, however, We
marked difference in the types of co
Of any given color in the matter of pI
! ductiveness. and this thing is VT
worth studying. The biggest ear
not by any means the pest ear.