Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1909-01-05
AGENCY FARMER
PREPARES PAPER
N. o. JOHNSON TELLS HOW TO
INCREASE FERTILITY OF
THE SOIL.
ROTATION OF CROPS
Use Of Manure Advocated Makes
Compost for Supplying Fertilizer
Necessary to the Life of
the Land.

paper prepared and read recently
BY N. Q. Johnson of Agency township,
before Wape!lo county farmers, will
be read with absorbing interest by all
VINO are interested in the products Of
the soil. Rotation Of crops and the
use of the manure spreader are ad-
vanced by Mr.. johnson, whose per-
sonal experience with this means of
fertilizing the soil is we'll worth the
study of the practical farmer. His
demonstration of the efficacy of com
post and the manner in which he
makes 1t, is of great value to the man
WHO would increase the productiveness
OF MS lard. The paper follows:
FARMING Versus Oratory.
Il come before you as a, neiehbor
WIN few suggestions on farming.
Not as man who thinks he knows
1t all. for readily see lengths, breadths.
heights and depths as yet not pene-
tratcd by any one. I believe in taking
one step at a time as more practical
than trying to jump a mile and it is
along these lines / offer these sugees-
lions. L don't believe it necessary for
man to be an orator when talking
10 his ,neighbors about farming. Ora
tory has been dished out bv the
SCOOP shovel full the last three months,
and 1T is pity that oratory does not
produce acknowledged chickens thick
cream, fine favored butter, wooden
blankets and the innumerable articles
Whlch serve to satisfy our wants.
In getting my dinner today. | was
served with some good bread. The
labor to produce it, began about eight
cen months ago and continued down
to the minute the baker took the loaf
from his oven. finished product.
Coffee from Brazil. Labor began seven
or eight years ago, and SO with every
article on the table. Labor is every
thlng, but no oratory in anything
Future Prospects.
We stand upon the threshold OF the
future. and are about to enter upon
some strange and astonishing con-
dltions Some OF the best informed
men in the country. j. j. Hill, of ST.
Paul, for one, are predicting a popula-
ton. in 1850, Of 2o0.oOO,O00 people, and
the problem Of providing for the wants
OF such an ocean of humanity will be
greater problem than that of build
ing lot of war ships which may be
made worthless or useless by the in
vention of airships.
The little boy of today, in his first
pair of pants. who will be farmer
at that not far off day and will have
carloads of wheat to sell, will be farm
ins and owning land worth five hun
dred dollars per acre and upon whose
/.
will hang the fate OF the nation. When
think of these facts, 1 would like to
sit down with this boy and have a
long talk with him. When that day
comes, he can't farm like we do at
the present day, and five years from
now, we must farm better than we do
now or quit. These are facts looking
US straight in the face.
Land Still Good.
We often meet with some old farm
er. who tells us about how he used to
have big crops when the land was
new, as he calls it, but now, he says
the land is old and worn out. He like
ly has an old wagon or an old moving
machine or q pair of old boots which
are worn out, but when he talks about
Iowa land. soil % inches deep on a
layer Of clay so feet deep, and worn
out in 60 years, he is off of his base.
those countries bordering ON the
Baltic, the North sea or on the Med