The Fort Dodge Messenger: Nov. 3, 1903

Fish in the Farm Fields

An Interesting “Fish Story” From Hamilton County

After Past Wet Seasons Fish Have Been Deposited on Drying Farm Meadows

Webster City, Ia., Nov. 3 – Catfish and bullheads are so plentiful in the ponds, marshes and low places in the southern part of Hamilton county that women go out in the fields to the nearest ponds and gather them up on their aprons as they would chips. This extraordinary condition of affairs has just been discovered by the farmers of the section and “fish gathering” within the past few days has become quite the order of the day.

The fearfully wet seasons of 1902 and 1903 has brought about this strange phenomenon. All the streams during these two years have been so high that the fish, in seeking the headwaters have followed up the creeks, drain ditches and even the drain tile, although it is averred in some parts that the natural evaporation and precipitation of water has been carried on so quickly that small fish and spawn have been lifted from the rivers and have fallen with the rain. Those which fell in the lower places have lived and begot their kind. Of  course this story is more or less discredited, yet the fact remains that the farms in the southern part of the county are well supplied with fish. When the waters receded the fish were unable to get out of the ponds and marshes and can now be easily caught. Many of these ponds have receded to such an extent that the fish can be picked out of them with their hands.

There is something very peculiar about the way the bullheads act as the waters begin to dry up. The other day Sam Varland, a prosperous farmer living near Radcliffe, was crossing one of his fields when he came upon a small pond almost dry. Thinking, perhaps, there were fish in it, he removed his shoes and stockings and waded in. He found it literally crowded with bullheads and cat. While engaged in throwing them out with his hand he felt something hard and slimy deep down in the mud. He ran his hand down and what was his surprise to pull out a big bullhead weighing about four pounds. He kept on digging about, and before he left the pond he had succeeded in pulling twenty-five big fish out of the mud.

Fishermen explain this by saying that the bullhead, as soon as the waters begin to recede and freeze, will dig deep down into the mud, where it will live all winter and come forth again in the spring. Fishing in the larger ponds of the country has been common all summer but no one dreamed until recently that they were so full of fish as they now seem to be. All the farmers are now making a specialty of cleaning out their ponds and all the low places upon th efarm.

Much interest is manifest all over the county in the matter of fishing. It is likely that the farmers will get such a fill of fish that they will have no liking for the finny tribe after the present season is over.

The Fort Dodge Messenger: Sept. 28, 1906

New Auto on the Market

International Harvest Co. Making and Selling Autos

The International Harvest Company has entered the automobile field and is now making a very low priced automobile. The design of the machine is very unusual for an automobile but it is said to be good looking. It has the appearance of an ordinary one seated buggy with wooden wheels and hard rubber tires with the motor under the seat and the radiator in front of the dashboard. The engine is rated at eight horse power and has been found to go thru mud which others autos could not go thru. The price has been fixed at between two and three hundred and dollars and a strong sale is already being felt. One has been ordered by a local party while a Sac City businessman has ordered one. It is expected that later the company will start to manufacture surreys. This vehicle will be very popular with the farmers, many of whom are now using gasoline engines on their farms.

The Fort Dodge Messenger: Sept. 21, 1903

Potato Famine Has Been Broken

And Joy Reigns in the Kitchens of Fort Dodge Once More.

Is Dry Enough to Dig Them

And As a Consequence Plenty of Mealy Tubers Come on Market.

Joy reigns supreme in the hearts of the Fort Dodge housewife today – the potato famine is broken.

After a week’s almost total absence, the ever edible tubers are again with us and once more occupy a prominent place on the boarding house table, as well as on the bill of fare of the ordinary home dinner table.

As has been stated, potatoes were off the market for a while last week, after the long continued rainy weather, and were hard to secure during the latter part of the week, but today murphies may again be had without any particular standin (sic) with the grocery man.

Beginning at a dollar a bushel ($24), the first of last week and steadily advancing until they could not be purchased for love or money, and closing the week at $1.25 ($30) potatoes were scarce all week, but the price has dropped to $1 today and dealers are looking forward to a further decline.

The return of ideal weather has besides saving the corn crop, brought about the return of the potato. The recent famine was due entirely to the rains, it being impossible to dig potatoes in damp ground, and almost similar conditions had prevailed in Minnesota, where Iowa receives most of her supply. Now that the ground is in condition to be worked, farmers are bringing many into the city and a car of Minnesotas was received today at one of the local commission houses, so that no one need be without potatoes today.

The crop is said to be bad in this vicinity this year, the wet weather having rotted many of the tubers, but a good harvest is looked for in Minnesota and the western states, so that the present figure of $1 per bushel can not continue long.

The Fort Dodge Daily Chronicle: Sept. 9, 1910

Webster County Corn is Excellent

Crop Along the Interurban Line Best Between This City and the State Capital.

According to the reports which have been brought back to the city by members of the local tribe of Red Men who were in attendance at the initiation ceremonies at Des Moines on Thursday, Webster county has the best prospects of a bumper corn crop of any of the territory traversed by the Fort Dodge, Des Monies & Southern.

The crop in this county is in every way better than in the territory south of hear, while that in Boone county is better than in the country farther south, evidencing the fact that this section was more favored with rains at the proper season. In many places the husks are noticed to be turning color and the corn is rapidly maturing, and even should a frost come there is little danger that serious damage would result.

The Fort Dodge Messenger: Aug. 1, 1905

A Ton of Honey For New York

E.D. Russell of Clare Ships a Ton of Honey to New York.

There is a new industry that is assuming large proportions. This is the honey bee culture at Clare. The bee farm is owned by E.D. Russell of Clare who has a very large number of hives. All of his bees are fed on white clover and make the finest of honey because of this food. An article in the Clare Tribune states that Dr. Russell will ship this week a ton of honey to New York. This is perhaps the largest shipment of money (sic) that has ever gone out of this part of Iowa and Dr. Russell is to be commended for his management of his bees. The honey is shipped in basswood crates and goes to New York in a refrigerator. Because of the excellence of the honey and the earliness of the season, Dr. Russell receives the sum of $320 ($7,665 in today’s dollars) for his consignment.

The Fort Dodge Messenger: July 17, 1905

Record Breaking Weather Today

Sunday Was The Hottest Day in Two Years and is Equalled (sic) Today

97 Government Thermometer

The Finest Thing For Iowa Corn That Could Happen – Heat is Terriffic (sic) In The City – Asphalt Pavings Become Very Soft, Being Cooked by Sun.

To suffering humanity in Fort Dodge the news that the weather record for two years has been broken in the last two days will not be surprising. How many more years’ records are broken are not known as the local observatory was only established two years ago. The temperature Sunday afternoon reached 97 degrees Fahrenheit on this government thermometer which is located in about as cool a place as there is in this city.

The thremometer (sic) is located in a hollow back of Tobin college and is then protected by a small building. Thus it is “in the shade” and further more it is official. The day was the hottest that has been recorded since the local weather station was established and as today is very hot again this record may be broken before nightfall.

At one o’clock Sunday the government thermometer registered a little below 96 degrees. Before the day was over the temperature crept up to 97. A few minutes before 1 o’clock today the thermometer registered 96 degrees Fahrenheit and from indications will go higher.

A cooling breeze seems to have sprung up at 3 o’clock and maybe there will be relief for the city inhabitants. Fort Dodge was not the only place that received the high marks in temperature for in the entire Des Moines district the rise in temperature was very noticeable.

It is the finest weather for the Iowa corn crop that could occur and the present weather is worth many thousands of dollars each day to Webster county farmers alone.

The asphalt paving and in particular that laid the last year has become very soft because of the heat. A person can dent the paving with the heel of the shoe, while the horseshoes leave marks every day.

(Editor’s note: I will include an additional article from other parts of the country. This was next to the Fort Dodge article, on the same day.)

EXTRA

Twelve Die From Heat in Chicago

The Mercury is 93 in Shade and Twelve Deaths Are Reported.

Chicago, July 17 – Noon, mercury 93 in the shade; twelve deaths from heat.

New York, July 17 – The hot wave which caused many deaths in New York last week and which only ended yesterday returned again today bringing higher temperature than ever before and a renewal of intense suffering.

The Fort Dodge Messenger: July 12, 1904

Day is Too Short For The Farmer

He is Working From Dawn Until Dark and Still Has Plenty to Do.

Prospects Are All Smiling

Haying Season is Now At Its Height – Cutting of Small Grain to Follow and Then Comes the General Harvest – Corn Doing Well.

The haying season is now at its height and some of the early pieces of oats are most ready to cut. With the past few pleasant days the farmer has raised his hopes several notches and is buckling into the work with renewed zest. From now until after the shock threshing season is over he will be as full of business as an electric belt fakir on a street corner.

Now he is riding the mower and rake from morning until night. Enormous stacks of hay are rising as if by magic in the meadows, and the great barn lofts are being crammed until they groan with their burden of sweet smelling new-mown hay. Following close upon the heels of the haying season will come the cutting of the small grain. Some of the early “Fourth of July” oats will be due to cut the first of the week and about seven days later the real general harvest will commence and from that time on until the last of August every farmer in the country will be on the jump from “sun up” till dark and still be wishing he might have the service of Joshua in order that he command the sun to stand still until he could get “that last load in.”

The cold wet weather of a few days ago was not just the kind required to ripen the grain rapidly, and there was a little tendency toward rust, but generally the grain was little damaged, and with the present warm dry weather it is coming on very rapidly, and there is no fault to be found with the progress it is making.

Corn, too, the past few days is fairly jumping out of the ground. When the nights are warm and the air feels stuffy, then is when the corn crop gets up and humps itself. Nearly all of the corn in the county is now pretty large to plow and most of the fields are ready to lay by.

(Editor’s note: An electric belt fakir seems to be someone selling electric belts – or a substitute – for some medical purpose. But the connotation is that the people selling are charlatans or scammers.)

The Fort Dodge Messenger: July 7, 1905

Iowa Butter for Use in the Navy

Creameries of the State Will Be Called Upon For Large Amount

The Local Product May Go

Fort Dodge Company Not Yet Called upon But May Contribute Before Contract is Filled – All Must Be of the Best Quality.

Fort Dodge people may be interested in the news that Iowa will furnish nearly all the butter for the consumption of the sailors in the United States navy next year, and that possibly some of the product of this city may go to make more palatable the hard tack of the boys who uphold the nation’s honor on the blue expanse. Four hundred thousand pounds or over is needed and all the big creameries of the state will be called upon to aid in furnishing the supply. Last year much of the butter consumed on naval vessels was bought from this state, the Sioux City creamery putting most of it on the market.

This season a much larger amount will be used and creameries all over the state will aid in putting forth the required amount.

The local manufactury as yet has had no call to put forth their product for the purpose but when the time comes those in the contract may be so rushed in filling the orders that resort will be made to the butter that is made in this city.

At Clarinda the big creamery is busily engaged in making 200,000 pounds of this butter, while the Monticello creamery has a similar contract.

Butter for the navy must all be put in three-pound cans, which are hermetically sealed, placed in sawdust packed boxes and then kept in cold storage at zero temperature, until ordered shipped to some ocean port to stock an American man of war. Swift & Company, the big packers of Chicago, secured the butter contract from the navy department and then sublet the immense contract to Iowa and Kansas creameries. As soon as the butter is packed it is sent to Chicago to be kept in the big cold storage buildings of the company until it is needed by the navy.

The government requires a somewhat different butter for its navy thatn is placed on the table for a landsman. It has been found that butter to stand the long trips of the war vessels to all climates must contain a low per cent of water and a high per cent of salt, and all the navy butter is made according to this requirement. The contracting companies are required to guarantee that this butter will keep for at least three years. In order to have the best possible dairy butter, the government also requires that its navy butter be packed only in the month of June and July. It is placed in three pound hermetically sealed tin cans.

At Clarinda a new process for sealing the cans has been successfully adopted. A cement composition is placed on the edge of the can top and then the can top is crimped firmly by a machine into this cement, thus making it air tight. Other creameries have had to solder each can and at Sioux City last year, when the navy butter was put up there, a force of nearly fifty solderers alone were kept busy. The new sealing process at Clarinda requires the services of only two or three men for the same amount of work.

For this butter in cans the government pays 29 cents a pound, which with the present butter market hovering about 20 cents a pound, is expected to give a good profit to the creameries, though the packing is more expensive than that required for the ordinary marketing of butter in the United States.

The Fort Dodge Daily Chronicle: June 21, 1915

Grow Your Own Feed

More Cowpeas Could Be Grown to Advantage of Dairyman.

Cost of Milk Can Be Greatly Reduced by Replacing Part of Concentrates in Rotation With Silage – Alfalfa is Cheapest.

Two many dairy farmers are running to the mills and feed stores for supplies for their dairy cows. They know they need concentrates, but do not study the problem of feeding to a conclusion. Down in Tennessee they raise a great deal of cowpea hay, and think much of it. Northern farmers might raise more to advantage. They are also beginning to know what alfalfa is down there, and they are feeding it largely in many sections of the state.

The Tennessee station has helped the farmers immensely by experimenting with the different feeds for dairy and beef cattle. The investigators find that the cost of milk can be greatly reduced by replacing a part of the concentrates in a ration with silage, because of its succulent and palatable nature.

A ton of alfalfa or pea hay can be produced as a cost of from $3 ($63.85 in today’s money) to $5 ($106.42), whereas wheat bran costs from $20 ($425.70) to $25 ($532.12). From two to three tons of pea hay and from three to five tons of alfalfa can be obtained from an acre of land; hence there is a great advantage in the utilization of these roughnesses in the place of wheat bran.

Alfalfa and pea hay cannot be substituted to the best advantage for cottonseed meal, as this foodstuff is so very rich in protein, that a larger bulk must be consumed than the capacity of the average cow will permit. The substitution of a roughness rich in protein for an expensive concentrate will enable the dairyman to make milk and butter as a less cost and will thus solve one of his most serious problems.

In substituting alfalfa hay for wheat bran, it will be best to allow one and one-half pounds of alfalfa to each pound of wheat bran; and the results are likely to prove more satisfactory if the alfalfa is fed in a finely-chopped condition.

These tests indicate that with alfalfa hay as $10 ($212.85) a ton and wheat bran at $20 ($425.70), the saving effected by substituting alfalfa for wheat bran would be $2 ($42.57) for every 100 pounds of butter and 19.8 cents ($4.21) for every 100 pounds of milk. The farmer could thus afford to sell his milk for 19.8 cents ($4.21) a hundred less than he now receives, and his butter for about 22 cents ($4.68), as compared with 25 cents ($5.32) a pound.

These experiments show why alfalfa has been frequently used as a basis of manufactured foodstuffs, and indicate that the farmer who can grow it makes a mistake in purchasing artificial stuffs of which it forms the basis.

When alfalfa was fed under the most favorable conditions, a gallon of milk was obtained for 5.7 cents ($1.21), and a pound of butter for 10.4 cents ($2.21). When pea hay was fed, the lowest cost of a gallon of milk was 5.2 cents ($1.11), and a pound of butter 9.4 cents ($2).

In localities where pea hay has grown well, it can be utilized to replace wheat bran; and in sections where alfalfa can be grown, this crop can be substituted for pea hay with satisfaction.

(Editor’s note: I have attempted to put the adjusted for inflation price in italics next to the 1915 price in every case. And remember, although the article says that a gallon of milk could be produced for the equivalent of $1.21, that doesn’t include packaging and getting it to market. This is no reason to get upset with farmers for today’s high prices.)