Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1905-03-28

Solicited 0 vi
A weeks snow blockade compelled
the burning of some forty cent corn In
place Of coal in some western COM
munities this winter.
If one can raise one ear Of corn on
each hill weighing one pound, which is
nice big ear, the yield Of corn per
acre will be about thirty eight bushels.
II he can raise two such ears to the
hill But we will let you do the rest Of
the figuring
A man, just common sort of
farmer, whom we know received So. 65
TOR the cream product of his nine
COWS during the month Of January. OF
course these were good cows, well
cared for, but that is the only way to
run a dairy. What this man did thou
sands Of others might do and don't.
Some attention is being turned to
catch crops for their value as fertilizers
following crops Of small grains. Con-
siderable success is reported where soy
beans or cowpeas are sowed, disked In
on the stubble just as soon as the field
is cleared and then plowed under be-
fore the frost destroys the crop. 1t
costs about So per acre to give land
this extra treatment, and the invest
ment is returned, with good interest,
in the crop Of the following year.
A great fuss has been made over the
discovery Of very large diamond in
South Africa, said to be worth mat
ter Of 100000, but there is county
up in north central Wisconsin, which
only few years ago was wilderness
of brush and pine stumps, which the
past year sold dairy products Of a
value Of over 100000, and, what is
better, will do it every year right along.
When the lumbermen left it, it was
diamond in the rough, sure enough.
A new ship, the Minnesota, recently
sailed from Pacific coast port for the
occident carrying 10000 tons Of Amer
lean produce and merchandise. The
great capacity of such vessel is best
understood when we say that it is capa-
BILE Of transporting the product Of 216
well conducted quarter section farms,
allowing each farm to produce seven
ty-five tons Of hay, eight tons of pork,
four tons of beef, two tons ol butter,
twenty tons Of corn and ten tons Of
oats and potatoes.
All land, river bottoms and the like,
which Is subject to periodical overflow
is far more profitably kept as perma-
nent blue grass pasture than to attempt
to cultivate 1t and take the chance Of a
crop of corn or other grain once in two
or three years. Such blue grass pas
ture when properly used will pay lar
ger net return each year than the aver
age acre Of the farm which Is cropped.
Assuming the season to be a favorable
one for the growth Of grass, an acre Of
such blue grass will produce at least
So worth Of beef, and this is almost all
net profit.
The greater portion Of the prairie
west may as well accept and face the
fact that for half a century at least
the dirt road will be the common high
way of the country. This dirt road is
for period Of at least eight months
in the year the best road in the world,
and the money and work spent on the
roads should be with reference to
making it as passable as possible for
the other four months. This will be
best accomplished by thorough drain
age and frequent leveling The $4,000
mile macadam highway is an i'm
possibility from financial point alone.
Natures method Of restoring lost fer
tility to wornout lands is through the
medium Of grass and trees. 1t is a
slow process and may be seen in op-
GRAFTON on countless thousands Of acres
in the east and the south on lands
fields. On most Of this land she works
by the tree method, covering these de-
pleted and starved acres with confer
and deciduous trees, with vine and
shrub. Little by little humus and fer
tility are restored to the SOIL and at
the end Of seventy-five years the forest
may be again removed and man go in
to the soil robbing business again.
No one thing will help the cause Of
good roads more than the development
of local public spirit among the mem
bers Of the community which is direct
ly interested in such improved high
ways. AS it Is too often now, small
break In bridge which any man could
fix In five minutes causes the discover
er to travel three miles to get road
boss to fix 1t at an expense to the dis
trict of dollar or more. The public
spirit which we refer to would have
made the man fix 1t himself and made
no fuss about 1t, Some day men who
own good farms some are already do
Ing twill take real pride in the
hiDf,waya which border tf,eIr foryna M