Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1906-03-13

The first garden work in the spring
to command attention is to make the
hotbed, plant the early potatoes, the
onions and the peas.
The ordinary plow used to cut down
the drifts after heavy snowstorms has
been said to work successfully, leav-
ing the otherwise impossible roads in
fine condition.
! Much has been said about good seed
corn and good seeds in general, but 1t
ia too much to expect good seed to do 1T
all. Good sense, good soil and good
care are also necessary essentials.
While the lack Of it gives to the home
desolate appearance, there is more
danger in too much shade than in none
at all. Sunshine is the greatest germ
destroyer yet discovered and has the
advantage Of costing little.
If your child has taste for reading
encourage it along right lines. A little
history, biography and science along
with the stories may be the means OF
lifting your boy from the plane of a
Jack of all trades to some honorable
and lucrative position.
hon al 5<>< l.
vate and redeem the farm, why don't
more men SOW it? It's hard to tell
The many don't know and won't learn.
Some get discouraged and quit because
their seeding fails. The few stick
to 1t, build their soils up and make
money.
The mistakes of last years crop sea-
son should not be repeated this year.
one of the most serious Of which con-
sisted in planting corn only 60 per
cent Of which would terminate 1t is
well to remember that the largest yields
of corn ever obtained were the result
of an even stand of corn.
There are probably no two articles
upon the market today which are more
generally adulterated than maple sugar
and baking powder. The former is
made from the juice Of corncobs and
glucose and the latter from alum and
various phosphates. Neither of these
commodities is cheap at any price.
For an all around primary school you
can't beat the little country school
house, ten or more little folk and
sweet little woman to teach them.
Every child may represent separate
class, but that doesn't matter. Each
child has the patient, careful aid in it's
studies which Is SO largely denied it
when attending the larger and graded
school.
The year 1906 opens up with fair
prospects for the American farmer. The
nonproducers of the country are all en-
ployed at good wages, insuring good
markets for all the produce which he
can raise. He commences theyear with
larger knowledge of how best to work
his land and grow his crops than ever
before. He Is at last working In per-
feet harmony with science as applied to
agriculture.
Far better of is the boy, whether
in city or country, in doing some re-.
spectacle work and thereby learning
the value Of the hours and the dollars
than in school when kept there against
his will. You may be sure that he is
not only losing ground himself, but is
an all around nuisance both to his
teachers and his classmates as well.
You can drive horse to water, but you
can't make him drink.
The recent act prohibiting the fenc-
ing of government lands by the great
cattle companies Of the southwest has
resulted in some of the largest of these
enterprises going out of business, a
thing not at all to be deplored, as they
had existed for many years only by
crowding out the smaller landowner
from what was rightfully his own and
guilty of actual bloodshed and violence
in some instances in the attempt to
maintain their unlawful possessions.
The time Is not far distant when the
new lands, irrigated or otherwise, will
be all taken up, and instead of going
west the farmer will have to turn his
attention to a more economical method
of farming the land he has Thic will
mean that the roadsides will grow hay
instead Of weeds, that straw and hay
will be more carefully stacked, that
machinery will be put under some
more protective cover than the heavens
and that the general air Of thrift and
care SO noticeable to one travelling in
the agricultural districts of foreign
lands will be more in evidence.