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This newspaper page contains 32 articles. Subscribers can read the full text of each article.
Newspaper
Semi Weekly Herald
Location
Eldora, Iowa, United States of America
Date
Apr 04, 1903
Page
7
The article argues for varied farm crops on sales properties, praises sunflowers and alfalfa for hogs, and notes bluebird returns. It laments stock feeding indifference, emphasizes scientific agriculture and irrigation limits, and warns on windbreaks, fences, shade trees, and orchard health.
A compact survey notes diverse claims from different regions. It mentions ants eating railway ties in four months, cheaper nails and oil in the US, critiques of libraries and colleges, corn crop promises, Swedish and Norwegian flour from fish and milk, road conditions, a Swedish casein flour innovation, the butcher bird as a pirate, Jer sey red hog sale prices, silo adoption, strawberry bed coverings, and spring winds as tonics for north country folk enduring long winters.
The speaker argues for keeping enough cows to keep one man busy with dairy work, then hiring him for that task. He notes dairy sections often house poorer grade steers due to the milk-beef rivalry and suggests better sires could help. An agricultural statistician from Washington cites manure value at 2,071,400,006 dollars, highlighting the impact of figures.
The prairie dog population in western Kansas and Nebraska is increasing, becoming a major farming nuisance as it fails to follow the traditional Indian and buffalo patterns.
A three year span shows nails and coal slipping to 2.75 and 5 respectively while wood and pork rise to 5 and 7. An initial bundle priced around 4 dollars now reflects divergent values: nails 2.75, wood 5, pork 7, coal 5.
A spring lawn care tip recommends applying a top dressing of well rotted stable manure each spring. Continuous mowing can stress grass roots, but ensure the manure is thoroughly aged to avoid spreading foul seeds over the lawn.
The coal strike shifts capital to lignite from Dakota and Montana. Mechanically treated lignite fuel will be on the market by next winter, rivaling hard coal in value.
Canals, even with railways carrying most freight, remain worth maintaining for their role in regulating freight prices. The transport service that can perform the work at the lowest price will fix rates for that service whether or not it wins the business.
The document states tame grasses such as clover timothy and blue grass do not acclimate well in short grass or range country. It notes a minimum average rainfall of thirty inches and identifies the Wrome Brass as the only grass seemingly suited to that country.
A note on potato varieties compares current common types unfavorably with older sorts like Peachblow Neshannock and Pink Eyes from forty years ago. The speaker laments that today’s varieties seem to have lesser quality and shorter shelf life.
Two recent farm sales illustrated the gap between neglected and well maintained gear. A lot of abused, poorly cared for machinery sold cheaply, while well kept farm tools brought more than half their original cost, leaving owners about a hundred dollars poorer or richer depending on upkeep.
The text asks whether spring ice sinks and explains it does not. Instead, the ice disintegrates as tiny crystals melt quickly in water, causing the ice mass to break apart and the icefields to vanish within minutes.
The article suggests spending 800 on pure bred stock across cattle swine sheep and poultry to start each line and investing 200 to send a boy to a good agricultural school for one year to combine science with farming. It argues this investment pays better than land schemes or other baits.
A farmer reports a method of growing winter wheat sown with Turkish Reid among corn, then fencing hogs into the field after plowing. Eight hogs per acre feed on corn and wheat until snow, saving harvest labor, fertilizing the field, and yielding 31 42 and 44 bushels per acre in three successive winters.
The corn grower can use several tools for cultivation. The weeder works well when corn is under ten inches high in dry weather. Disk cultivator handles fields with old stalks or roots, surface sullivator clears large weeds, and the four shovel cultivator followed by the weeder defeats started weeds. Fifty years ago corn was worked with a stirring plow and a hoe.
The article discusses historical gleaning by women in Europe and notes that while modern harvesters reduce leftovers, post harvest fields still yield weeds grass and fallen grain worth saving. It claims 160 acre western farms could yield about a thousand pounds of mutton by sheep grazing these wastes.
A peat bog of six to seven acres should be drained by an open ditch and tiling to the liteh, then covered with barnyard manure and sown with timothy seed. In three to four years the soil will improve and can be plowed for crop use, making it a productive field.
The Mississippi valley below St. Louis suffers periodic floods as levee work raises river beds, making overflows harder to prevent. The piece compares this to China’s Yellow River aqueduct system, describing it as a persistent menace to millions living on the plains below.
The Dwarf Essex rape has risen in use over the last five years as a forage plant. Farmers now sow it for hog pasture, as a summer crop, with small grain, or with corn. If not yet tried, sow a small piece for pigs and turn in when the rape reaches six inches high.
An international egg laying contest pits twenty one American hens, each with a 200 eggs per year record, against Australian poultry. The Australian government offers 25 dollars per hen at contest end and five dollars per dozen eggs. Australian hens lay fifty to sixty eggs yearly.
Read fragments describe chalk dissolving in vinegar releasing carbonic acid gas and foaming. It notes an egg shell spinning in vinegar until dissolved, and a DIY compass using a magnet and bone pivot with a needle that points north.
A hostess shows a humor device about misseeing grammar in a party game. A guest is tricked into eating bread and butter, while the host notes the misplaced antecedent it refers to the range, not the bread. The setup invites guests to laugh at the confusion and repeat the gag.
The American Boy notes that nest construction hints at family relations among birds and asks which family a bluebird would join from a hollow-tree nest, and how to connect nests of oriole, bobolink, and blackbird. It contrasts blue jay and crow nest similarity and ponders the broader patterns of feeding, singing, and flight across related species.
A historical pastime describes carving chalk vessels with masts and guns for a tabletop sea duel. Flat bottomed ships glide on vinegar seas, stirred to life on a platter as vessels rise, foam, and churn in mock warfare. Great fun for the young and a curiosity for the older reader.
An old-time experiment explains charging ordinary wrapping paper by wetting it and rubbing on a woolen cloth or varnished surface. The paper attracts tiny tissue scraps like a magnet, and brings light shocks when placed on a tea tray with glasses nearby.
A simple, free compass project for boys using a pasteboard pill box, a glass piece, and a short sewing needle. Cut a hole, seal with glass, and fix the needle point upward to create a functional magnetic compass with minimal cost and effort.
The excerpt describes constructing a compass pivot using wax sealing to center the box, a magnetized darning needle as the needle, and a bone square cut from a toothbrush handle as the pivot. A hole is drilled in the bone piece to receive the needle’s inner end, forming the swing axis.
A concise prompt explores navigating toward the center while avoiding any boundary or line crossing, focusing on spatial reasoning and safe traversal concepts. It frames a playful puzzle about visual geometry and movement within a defined area.
A playful pastime for all ages features five pasteboard rings hung in a doorway and bowls of strong soapsuds with glycerine. Players take two tries to blow bubbles through rings. the top scorer wins a small prize.
The article describes a simple floatation trick using a sewing needle rubbed warm on wool. After placing a warm needle on water, it will stay atop the surface if undisturbed. Additional needles can be added to form a line beside the first as they balance on the surface film. The effect relies on the surface tension of the liquid, which breaks if the film is disturbed, causing the needles to sink.
Patrick Farrell of Union Hill New York narrowly escaped death after a grave he was digging in Flowery Hill cemetery collapsed, burying him up to his chin. Two passing men heeded his groans and, after strenuous effort, dug him free before he suffocated.
The Fast Indians dub rock crystal as an unripe diamond in a colorful local term. The remark frames the mineral as a gem in waiting, reflecting playful regional speech about geology.
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