Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1908-05-23
Looker-On In Iona

Ottosen, May 23.-The crop pros
poets in central Iowa never were bet
ter Oats are coming In fine shape.
The pastures are getting ahead of the
cattle and the hay crop will mature
two weeks earlier than usual and be
a heavy yield. Corn ds two thirds
planted, Notwithstanding the frequent
rains, and some Of it Is coming UP. SO
far, reports are very favorable, show
ing more than usual care In the Sc
lection OF seed. The late crop OF ap-
piles will be big one unless some
thing unforeseen occurs Ten percent
age of early apples, cherries, raspber-
ries, strawberries, and grapes that
was injured by the frosts is very small
in the above mentioned territory.
Travelling men that work along the
20" railroad in the lower tier OF coun-
ties say that there Is no question that
much of the fruit there was injured by
the April freeze, as all vegetation there,
on an average, is two weeks IN adj
vance Of this part Of the state.
The work done during the past year
on the big drainage ditohes is to be
plainly seen these days from the car
windows. The heavy rains during the
past two weeks have filled them to
overflowing. For that matter nearly
all of the streams that receive this
drainage water are in the same condt-
ton. But land owners say that II
this water was not in these big bitches
1t would be standing on many forty
acre lot, and running the land Tor any
use this season. Some Of these big
bitches, whether the cause is in the
surveying, or from the lay of the land,
have too swift a flow OF water, the re-
suit being a washing out OF the ditch
at the head and a filing in at the lower
end where it enters the river. One
farmer claims a new ditch
in this way has ruined forty acres
Of his farm. Probably when our
present drainage law was enacted, the
makers thereof had little or no inter-
est in the fish supply Of Iowa, but these
drainage bitches will serve as spawn
ing beds for many varieties All of
them are connected with some stream
or river that contains all Of our game
fish, and some not gamy These bitches
will nearly all have clear running wa
ter after the spring rains are over,
and make ideal places for the young
fish after the usual water vegetation
grows. Not every one knows that
with perhaps one or two exceptions
all of our Iowa fish are vegetarians,
in the sense that they feed largely on
a certain and sure crop of grass or
weeds or moss always to be found in
fresh water streams OF course. few of
them refuse a fat angle worm or a
juicy minnow, but even our black bass
take to a vegetable diet as soon as
the grass starts in the lakes.
And this suggests that the people of
Clear Lake are very indignant, over
the SEEMING story so freely published
by the state papers. The CONNER
cial club of Clear Lake hired five fish
wardens for several weeks previous to
the open season, and they reported
that hundreds of pounds seined and
sold were suckers and bullheads. Some
members of the Commercial club use
those names to characterize the ones
that made up the newspaper accounts
and those that believed the fish sto-
ries. The writer was in Clear Lake
on the 10th inst. and saw numerous fine
strings. Three men from Hampton
had in the smoker a clothes basket
with at least seventy-f five to a hum
dred pounds of pickerel caught the day
before. There's plenty of fish in
Clear Lake, as the fishing off the
docks shows every day.