The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1911-04-12
Farm Burrows.
(From The Iowa Homestead.)

GWn1le, dllTlSuL.
This is good weather, anyhow, to
drive fence posts. Few people who
try driving posts seldom go back to
the old way of setting them. A post
driven deep when the ground is soft
is there to stay ever after, until it
rOts.
Who knows anything about the gal
vanized iron cribs and grain bins, now
on the market? Would shelled corn
keep we'll in such a bin? This ques-
ton is bothering me now and so far
l have found no one who can furnish
the answer. Perhaps some reader can.
When the feed lots are as muddy as
they are now a person feels like lib
Grating the stock, but I cannot bring
myself to do as neighbOr does
turn everything out to track up the
pasture. This is good for the stock,
but bad on the pasture.
Who can find it profitable to get
along without a disk harrow? l must
confess that l would not get along
without one if the cost were twice
what it is. Actually it would not pay
anyone to do so.
The wide tired wagon is road max
err when the surface has dried enough
so the dirt does not pick up, but in
thin mud it is just as productive OF
ruts as the narrower tire, and the
draft is almost as much again. Many
Of my neighhors have been compelled
to abandon the wide tired feed wagon
during the period of deepest mud.
l saw another new thing the other
day-colts running in a muddy feed
lot, with their tails tied up, just as
you would tie up a horses tail before
going out on a muddy road. 1t struck
me as being a good idea, since it kept
the tail cleans, anyhow.
Years ago, before the tax laws We're
so rigidly enforced as they are now,
many farmers would plan to have their
fat stock and perhaps much Of the
surplus grain sold before the day of
assessment. This meant that the
money was hid, while the property
could not be, practical admission
by the man who did such business
that he had tax lodging in mind.
Nowadays the money is ferreted out,
too.
There are two items in every tax
list about which no one should COM
plain: the school tax and the road
tax. No taxes come back so directly
and quickly to the people as these
two and none with as much "value
received"
Soon will some neighbor get on
the uneasy seat, and he will go out
and mud in some grain. Other neigh
bors, seeing him work, will be given
the fever, and thus will a great deal
of grain be mudded in.
The farmer who has dragging to do
in his fields cannot be expected to
drag the roads, and many times they
need it then, although as a rule the
roads are in shape so dragging can
be done before the fields. l am abso-
lutely convinced that road dragging
pays $50 cents on the dollar and that
the cheaper roads are made with the
drag after a grade has once been
started.
One of the many good points about
an automobile is that it cannot be
abused by a drunken or otherwise
brutal driver. If there is any abusing
to be done it is generally the driver
that gets it and he gets it good and
plenty.
1t is an easy task to map out a
course OF work for a corn crop that
would insure success if the weather
would be accommodating enough to
fill in the prescribed dates with warm
sunshine and rain, but that is where
the rub comes. have in mind young
farmer who does the work on his
eighty-acre farm without hired help.
In 1908 he had his ground ready for
planting May 22d and started the
planter about four p. m, but the next
day and night it rained hard and by
the time the fields were dried they
were more fit for the pulverizer
than the planter. But there was not
any time to spare for scientific refec-
ton. 1t was time to plant corn and
plant it he did, but on ground that was
OOt SriaOti ficol1v porfoot ,rI M