Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1906-02-27

ldTuS anu IOolOilllE llC1l Lei Lilly AAa
then reselling them at very substan-
tial advance in price. The wise farmer
will tend to this matter for himself.
Most ladies love flowers, and gen.
eral favorite with them is the pansy.
Right now In February is good time
to get paper Of pansy seed and SOW
it in box to be kept in the kitchen
and so get the young plant well start
ed by the time that spring comes.
The west is enjoying rather re-,
markable winter, more open and mild
in type than any which has visited
that section since 1856. Stock has had
the run Of the fields up to February,
and hardly any draft has been made
upon forage supplies, the blue grass
pastures seeming to afford an album
dance Of palatable food.
One corn raiser and very success
full one tells us that he can add ten
bushels per acre to his yield of corn
by simply giving the field thorough
hand hoeing after the corn is laid by in
July and cutting out all the barren
stalks. If this is true it Is something
worth knowing, as the extra yield Of
corn would more than pay for the work.
The merchant who counts upon his
country trade to work OFF his odds and
ends need not go around bowling be-
cause the mail order houses are get
ting his trade. The time has passed
when, because Of remotely located trad
ing points and meager knowledge Of
prices and quality, the farmer can be
sold any old thing. Nowadays the man
in the country is generally as well post
ed and knows as well what he wants
as many of the people in the towns.
An interesting object lesson for the
farmer who is Indifferent to the neces-
sity. Of proper crop rotation and soil
renewal b found in some districts of
the south where land which had been
cropped to death is being increased in
value from so to 100 per cent by the
scientific employment Of fertilizers and
the practice Of crop rotation. The
good seed gospel is great one, but It
can never prosper to any great extent
unless hitched up with the gospel of
good soil brought about by proper
care Of the same.
While most farmers are quick to ap-
preciate the value of good blood in all
their breeding animals many are
strangely reluctant to apply the same
rule to the seed sown and planted in
their fields. 1t matters not whether II
be corn or any Of the small grains, the
fact remains that the poor and inferior
seed If sown or planted is certain to
be the prime begetter OF poor and In
ferior crop. No work done on the farm
is so well paid as is that devoted to
careful selection and thorough prepa.
ration Of the seed to be sown.
The men who undertake for the first
time the job Of feeding carload OF
steers for the market nearly always
SO1AO wv AOoOAS. 4 AC plOAldOlC 4CCO
ing Of steers is just as much of spe
cfal business as dairying. The usua
cause Of such failure is the fact that
they pay too much for their feeders
and nine times out Of ten buy the
wrong kind; then they quite often sci
at the wrong time. The safest thing 8
man can do who wants to take up this
line Of business Is to go and work fol
some successful feeder for year ant
learn the A B G Of the business.
Here is new scheme on hog steal
ing: A large stock raiser became salts
fed that in some manner or other hi
hogs, which had the run of large lot
were being stolen, but as there wa!
never any squealing in the yard b.
could get no clew to the matter. 81
finally hired detective and PRESENT.,
found out that man who had previ
ously been in his employ would driv,
the team at night up to the hog lot and
fastening large sponge on the end o
stick, would saturate it with chloro
form and then 60 to the sleeping hog
and soon have some Of them in a con
dition where they were easily handled
and put into the wagon without an.
fuss.
North Of latitude AZ degrees it Wi
be found, taking a series Of year,
that it will be safer and more profits
BILE to plant varieties Of corn whic
will ripen within period Of 100 day
than it will to grow the larger an
later maturing kind. The temptatio
, to grow big corn along the norther
Limit Of the corn belt costs the cor
growers of that latitude vast sum {
. money each year. For, while they ca
!, raise the big corn and the big ears,
is only rarely that 1t Is enabled
! properly mature before the fros
catches 1t. 1t Is every way better f
a man to have his cribs filled with
thousand bushels Of good sound cor
which will keep than it is to have Loo
bushels of soft and immature cor
e which he must feed ont at once in a