Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1908-01-28
Farmers All Attend and Stock
and Machinery Are Bid in at
Satisfactory Prices
MICH COWS SELLING HIGH
Farmers in Northern Iowa Going to
Town With Empty Wagons and
Hauling Home Corn With Which to
Feed Stock-c. e. Wilson's Rural
Observations.
Special to Times-Republlcan.
Observations.

Latimer. Jan. 28.-Those whose work
requires them to drive thru rural dis
tricts these days are in no degree sur
priscd to find almost any day that after
the middle of the forenoon nearly ev-
cry male inhabtant of the territory he
is trayersing is absent from his home.
A single question put to anybody that
car, oe found brings tho information
that locates the entire crowd. VIZ.
"Whcre is the sale?" Approaching the
place designated one sees Il hundred
or more teams hitched in the sheltered
places on the premises where the sale
is being held. Out in front of the barn
ring enclosing a space perhaps thlr-
ty feet in diameter, every one of them
directing his entire attention to the
horse which stands within the en-
closure gazing with apparent aston
ishment on the unusual proceedings
which mean for him a change of mas
tiers, and to the animated effort of the
auctioneer doing his very best to con-
vince his hearers that the animal IS
about to be sold for half it's value Be
fore long the scene of activities Is
shifted to the cow barn, where a SIM
liar performance is enacted. Hos
house, machine shed, haystack, corn
crib and granary are visited IN the
same manner and before sunset from
fifteen hundred to six or seven thou
sand dollars worth of property has
changed hands, the former owner Of II
generally we'll satisfied with the ag-
gregate receipts and each purchaser
feeling the same way, and why should
MT he, for he got what he bought at
a price named by himself. Perhaps
within a day or two a similar pro-
gram is carried out within%a very few
miles of this place and so it will con-
tinue until the first of March. when
everything will again be in order for
the coming of seed time activities on
the farm, every farmer in this part OF
the country hoping that the season so
soon to begin will prove more favorable
to grain growing than the last one
was.
OF each of these public sales 1t is
generally declared that everything sold
for all it was worth. AS one man re-
marked, at requires about so much
machinery and so many horses, cattle,
hogs and feed to run a farm. The NOV
ing away Of a man to another part OF
the country does not diminish the nee
90 vN1o
leaves, the average farmer in these
days knows the real value of the stuff
sold and in the crowd Of two or three
hundred men somebody will always
want everything put up for sale at Its
actual value. Mich cows, especially,
are bringing good prices. as this Is
about the only important source of in-
come to many farmers of this section
until another crop can be harvested
and sold.
It is certainly an uncommon sight,
that of farmers driving to town with
empty wagons, and returning with
loads Of corn to feed to their stock.
In the smaller towns it is perhaps
safe to say that at least a carload Of
corn each week is distributed among
the farmers living within three or four
miles of the place. It sounds rather
strange to hear men arguing among
themselves on whether it is better to
buy the best or a cheaper grade of
corn to finish up what the home crop
failed to do. Some have oats that
they are hauling to the elevators and
exchanging it for corn, claiming that
they can about double the feeding
value of the oats by this method.
In the midst Of one neighborhood
where this is being done there lives
a man whose three large cribs are
filled with corn Of his own raising.
thing is not apparent to the visitor at
his home. He has a very good farm,
but so have several of his neighbors
whose cribs are far from full A man
ure spreader stood in his yard, but
that is not uncommon in that COM
munity. The mail carrier says he saw
the farmer in the cornfield at work
about every day during tbs cultivating
season and that he was always &C
companied by some boys and occas-
ionally by girl or two. He can re-
member that the corn was plowed five
times and hoed good deal. What
ever the manner in which it was done
all his neighbors know that G. w.
Never, German farmer living five
miles north of Latimer, raised several
a year when raising good corn was a
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