Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1906-10-30
.s-ss-ss..ss..s-ssssssssss..ss-s
! LOOKER.ON IN IOWA !

Traer, Oct. s0.-Every locality in
Iowa Is Dragging these days. And
when the writer gets to town anu
everybody Is talking about our Dig
pumpkins, it's the most natural thing
in the world to help things along. For
sthe past two years in this column mas
been told the cabbage story from Brls-
tow, and the story, like the cabbages,
gets bigger each year. in 1874, nine
cars Of cabbages were shipped from
Bristow; in 1905, thirty-six cars We're
loaded and shipped to the market. but
this year nearly thousand acres were
under CIVILIZATIONS and 500 cars will be
required to carry off the crop. These
figures come to the writer from what
seems to be good authority. These rails
ers of cabbage have got machinery TO
do everything but harvesting. The
cabbage head has still to be cut by
hand. But every other pa1t Of the
cabbage raising is by machinery. The
plants in the spring are dropped and
set by machine that actually squirts
some water on the plant after being
set out A car load of cabbage is
shipped with an inverted platform run
lengthwise thru the car for ventilating
purposes, otherwise handled as any
other soil product. There's cash mar
ket for all that can be raised, as sauer-
kraut manufacturers, like the consum-
ers Of it, never get enough, or injure
themselves by over consumption. The
raiser finds it a profitable crop at pres
.ent prices, and why 5000 cars instead
of 500 is not shipped from Bristow
seems to be only acquisition of time.
Here's Some Dragging about Iowa
soil. Four miles out of Parkersburg,
not long ago, 10 acres of land was
sold at $95 an acre, not a thing on the
land in the way of improvements eX-
cepting wire fence that enclosed the
whole farm. 1t is said that man still
living near Parkersburg once owned
this farm at SIS an acre. A quarter of
mile from the same town only last
year an 80 was sold for $40 an acre,
and the owner now asks 5000 an acre.
In Bode last week they" shipped in
a car load Of potatoes. Farmers, from
nearby towns We're buying them by the
wagon load at SO cents per 'bushel. In
Bows recently a farmer drove up to
the creamery while the writer was
present and, bought five pounds of but
ter. Several times last season the
writer has seen farmers buying water
melons out Of the stores to take home.
It's an every day occurrence for a
farmer to sell the butcher a fat COW for
two and q half to three cents a. pound
and then go to town and pay the
butcher 12h cents for beefsteak cut
from the carcass Of that Identical COW.
There is no doubt that many an Iowa
farmer sells hog for five cents a
pound, that returns to the old home as
piece of bacon from Chicago, for
which said farmer pays Is cents a
pound: Editorial writer's can use this
paragraph as text and headlined,
Why is this thus?
In an Iowa town the other day in an
implement house, the, dealer said to
this scribe, edo you known that can
not buy a corn husker for immediate
delivery any where. They are all con-
tracted that can be manufactured for
this seasons use. The same is true of
manure ,spreaders. When the price was
$3.50, and they were new on the mar
ket. it was slow business. Now at
$125 bought all dared to, but they're
all sold, more wanted and not to be
had for immediate shipment.
Speaking of farm machinery few
realize the large amount of money be-
ing put into ditching machines for
operation in Iowa. This to say moth
ing of the thousands Of dollars being
paid out for tile. On the train the
other day the writer met one of our
well-to-do citizens that owns several
farms in northwest Iowa. He has re-
Gently purchased at a cost of $1,000 a
'dftching machine and is systematic
ally using 1t on his farms. He en-
ploys a practical foreman and tiles
his farms, say at a cost of SIS an acre.
But the arithmetic part of such work
is ueculiar. He paid $40 an acre for
a wet farm, tiled it, and now asks $50
an acre. Some Of his farms that would
not rent for $3.50 a year, after they
We're tiled brought him in $500 a year.
This machine Is wonder. 1t runs on
a regular railroad track. built on ties,
and digs an open ditch, seven feet
wide. 1t is claimed by the inventors
that it does the work of 1000 men,
that is, in e. day it will dig as deer
and as long ditch as thousand men
could do In ten hours. Such machines
are coming into use by contractors In