Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1906-02-13

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Not few farmers have invested in
typewriters and find them very use
full adjunct to their business.
We once knew man who could nell
Their read nor write, yet there was not
man who could beat him figuring inter-
est on note.
A corn grower in Iowa last year had
1900 acres in practically one corn
field, which averaged him fifty BUSH
els an acre, making it really notable
crop.
The Hungarian bronze grass is al
most as hard to get rid of as quack
grass and should not be sown as ro-
tation crop where clover and timothy
will grow.
II corn Is planted too thick, there will
be few II any ears, and in this case 1t
is not defective seed or seed which
lacks in vitality which is the cause Of
the barren stalks.
Even in Ohio the farmers hardly dare
try to raise a crop Of wheat unless they
use about 200 pounds Of bone dust to
the acre, and the farther east one tray
els the more they have to use.
Better butter than Is now made will
probably never be made, but there are
lots of chances to make more of it.
With modern facilities and knowledge
1t seems strange that there is SO much
poor butter still made.
We have two or three inquiries as to
the changing Of seed grain. 1t will al
ways pay to change once in three or
four years, getting the seed from the
north Of you and from sandy land If
yours Is clay, and vice versa.
It is estimated that country green
horns and suckers have dropped $780,
100000 in Chicago the past year in
connection with the various games Of
graft which thrive in that city, the
board of trade chief among them.
The colored man has simply got to
work out his own salvation, and he will
never do it save through good hard
work and economy. The easiest way
out for him is through bank account,
for the possession Of money will secure
him respect and consideration from
the white race which he can obtain in
no other way.
The farmer Of fifty years ago was
not supposed to be an educated man.
In fact, it was commonly thought that
the less education he had the better
farmer he would be. Today the sue
cessful farmer is almost of necessity
an educated man. The MORE he reads
and thinks and the more he knows the
greater his success.
A friend tells us that he rid a large
field Of cookie burs which had COM
plete possession of the land by repeat
ed moving during the late summer and
fall. Another tells us that he got rid of
them by pasturing the land closely with
sheep. Another says that summer
fallow with two or three plowings and
plenty Of disking and dragging will
finish them up.
There are three or four promising
wheat propositions in sight today-one
the winter wheat possibilities Of the
southwest, In Oklahoma and the Indian
Territory; another, winter wheat on the
dry lands of western Kansas and Ne
braska, macaroni wheat on the semi
arid portions Of North and South Da-
kota, winter wheat in the Alberta coun-
try and spring wheat all the way from
Winnipeg, 1000 miles northwest. Not
the least promising Of the lot is the
macaroni wheat proposition.
An interesting fact In natural history
Is related by an observer-that of col
ony Of bank swallows which found a
large horned owl hidden in hole in a
large tree and the united work Of the
little birds to destroy common enemy
by closing up the entrance to the hole
with small sticks, mud and the gluti-
nous matter used in the building Of their
nests, making the old pirate prisoner
to starve to death. It would be inter
esting to know Just how this deep laid
scheme was born and by what sort Of
bird telepathy all the birds Of the large
flock became inspired with the one pur-
pose, which was accomplished between
daylight and dark Of one day.
A reader wishes to know why he
cannot raise as good crops now as he
did forty years ago, when his section
was first settled. That's easy to an
swer. He would not expect to get as
much work out of an old and broken
down horse as he would from a young
and vigorous one, and it is that way