Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1906-12-13
The Strawpile

1 termine whether to hold the hay over
| to sell in the fall.
| Glover shrinks something over half
! in going from the green state as stand :
| ing to the condition of fairly we'll cured
hay In certain cases, at the Mich
gan station, the loss Of weight from
| the fresh mower swath to the load
going into the barn was 60 per cent.
How much clover hay shrinks from
/ the time of storing as cured hay until
/, the following spring depends, OF
course, on it's condition when put In
At the Michigan station the shrinkage
has run all the way from II per cent
to So per cent. Where the clover hay
is fairly dry when stored the shrink
age may be expected to be about ~
per cent.
| No experiments have yet been tried
with alfalfa hay. altho enough work
has been done to show that the first
crop will shrink more than either OF the
other two where three crops are cut IN
season. 1t is interesting to note also
| that the composition of the alfalfa hay
varies between successive crops.
Farmers Rise Against Sign Painters
In Elkhart county, Ind, the farmers
have organized against a longtime
nuisance. writes j. A. Croft to the Prai-
RE Farmer. 1t is the custom of town
merchants daubing their fences and
mailing sign boards on their trees, that
the Indiana soil tillers propose to get
after as with sharp stick, and they
| intend to keep at the work until 1t is
| stopped.
A town tradesman who is too stingy
of pocket and too narrow of mind to
! buy little space in the town or county
newspaper, goes about the county with
wagon load of dry goods box tops and
sides cleated into sign boards. He also
has bucket of cheap black paint.
! He is too parsimonious even to buy
| the lumber of his fellow townsman in
the lumber business. nor has he pat
ronized his druggist or paint man for
the decoction that he uses to deface the
fences along the highways.
| Neither has this kind Of an adver-
tiser any conjunction about climbing
the fence Of a meadow and in climbing
a tree on private property to take up
sign.
1 ONCE III NyALo lIlClC 10 u vi soAh SetAA u
meeting association that advertises the
way to Heaven by smearing on fence
boards variety of Bible quotations
This Is mentioned to show that a good
many classes of people make unwar-
ranted use of the fence and trees OF
a farmer. It is this kind of thing that
the progressive soil tillers of this age
are trying to stop, and hope to make
1t costly piece of work to invade their
property and their rights to perform an
act of vandalism.
Some farmers are found who readily
give their consent to make such use
of their trees and fences. There are
some who will allow patent nostrum
Aend to decorate the gable end or even
the side of his barn for some small
consideration.
Others allow the larger city adver-
tisers to put up large sign boards in
their meadows, in most instances sad
ly marring the beauty that nature gave
the outlook. But today such privileges
are becoming more difficult to obtain,
and farmers are stopping other invas-
ions of their property.
The Indiana men who are leading in
this matter have determined to tear
down all signs that are nailed to their
trees and to prosecute the daubers who
string out advertisements on their
fences.
1t is claimed that some of the finest
trees Of the farms have been destroyed
by the repeated mailing of boards. The
farmers say they are in need of no law
to protect themselves from this in
fringement OF their rights, common
laws now on the books will give them
| the needed redress