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This newspaper page contains 11 articles. Subscribers can read the full text of each article.
Newspaper
Elgin Echo
Location
Elgin, Iowa, United States of America
Date
Apr 03, 1902
Page
6
A 1902 agricultural miscellany notes potatos and tariffs, sheep losses paid by law, dairy milk products at 30 cents per 100 pounds, imports from Europe, lambing for market, and a midwest railway planting catalpa trees for ties. It highlights thrifty plant tips, profitable lambing, and timber-into-tie plans for future rail needs.
The piece weighs tariff and bounty tactics against beet sugar growers, noting cane sugar’s future dominance abroad. It also mentions faulty highway culvert tiles cracking in frost, a folk tip for protecting seed corn from cutworms, and Western Iowa separator creameries selling skim milk to support process butter.
The piece surveys dairy profits from creameries and butter factories, contrasts irrigated blue grass pasture yields in Idaho with Iowa summer ranges, and notes a sparrow misidentifying curculio eggs. It recounts hog cholera remedies, a skeptical farmer at a farmer’s institute, and a tenant farmer who refused debt yet saw land values soar from fifteen to sixty five dollars per acre as rents rose.
The piece advises owners likely to sell within five years that now is a good time to let go as buyers are plentiful and competition among buyers is sharp. Prices are at a high-water mark and a market reaction is expected soon. waiting may make future land sales harder as prices could decline.
A historical note describes the manufacture of what is termed renovated or process butter. It cites raw materials from creameries and the handling of odorous grease, noting the presence of unrefined scents and various smells in the fat.
A semicivilized method produces clear yellow oil from melted butter by eight to ten hours of heated air. The odor is removed, skimmilk is added, and after churning the product resembles oleo and sells about four cents a pound under western extra creamery. Such a factory is likened to a reform school, turning tough raw material into a useful product.
A poultry raiser warns that crows have become bold and numerous, destroying eggs and killing chicks on farm outskirts. She urges constant effort against crows and sparrows, arguing that game grubs in fields do not excuse their presence around premises.
A general guideline for land buyers to locate suitable regions by drawing a north south line at 100th degree of longitude. West of the line is likelier stock raising land, east tends toward cultivation. The line varies 100 to 200 miles and isn’t precise but serves as a rough rule for choosing land.
The piece argues that lax game laws and repeated shotguns and rifles have nearly wiped out wild game. It warns that large tracts may be bought by sport-loving syndicates to protect game, else few birds and animals will remain in states like Illinois Missouri Wisconsin and Iowa. It notes wild pigs gone, few prairie chickens, and heavy hunting of ducks brant and geese from August to April, urging better protection for quail and other species.
A rugged chatty piece recalls Henry Bessemer and modern steel progress, then shifts to Uncle Bill arguing tax ferrets harass farmers. The editor and Uncle Bill clash over unpaid taxes, mortgage details, and overpaid taxes, ending with Bill planning to tend his plow.
The current farm land boom, driven by easy credit and prosperity, attracts many land agents. Buyers should inspect each property thoroughly, checking soil, drainage, rainfall, growing season, frost risk, timber, fuel, and proximity to markets before investing.
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