Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1899-01-27
OUR CANDIDATE IN 1900
The Up-to=D Date Farmer.
Paper Read by J. w. Bopp Before
Farmers Institute.

a|hr 1I1SklkNtSs
In speaking of the up-to-date farm
or, we r in the habit of calling on
those who have made a large success
in some particular line; men who have
accumulated large farms, large stocks
Of cattle and other stock and possibly
large outside interests as a result o
their efforts on the farm; but to my
mind, a man may be an up.to.date
farmer on a ten, twenty or forty acre
piece, and if he lives up to the limit oil
his capacity and lives up to the best
light and knowledge that he may have,
he may be an %up-to-date and success
full farmer even on his small holding.
The important factor in determin.
ing whether a nan is an up-to date
farmer is whether he has found his
proper limit or whether he has prop.
erly gagged his capacity and is confn-
ing himself to it. A man may be sc
constituted, or his surroundings, his
family and his means may he such,
that If he undertakes the management
of large affairs, he will make a failure.
The up-to.date farmer is likely to be a
man who commenced in moderate cir.
cumstances and has consequently
made the best of his surroundings and
his opportunity. How often we see a
small farm or ven a garden in which
everything is neat, well-kept and order
ly. If the holder of the small farm is
satisfied and has no longing for larger
things, for larger affairs, and his fami.
ly is contented in their small home,
he is fully as much up to date as the
man whose ambition and desires are
for the large affairs. How often do we
see the poor farmer with poor tools
make better crops and more produce
than his lazy rich neighbor with plenty
of fine tools! The poor mar works
hard with his poor tools, while the
rich man sits in idleness and the rust
consumes his efforts. So it is with a
man with poor school training. He
read and kept his mind bright and
active while his college bred neighbor
sits around forgetting all he had ever
learned al school and did not keep up.
He had the fine tools but rust ate them
up. A man does not have to sit hump
ed up with the book or journal in his
hands all the time nor do you have to
sit up till midnight reading by lamp
light to get a general education.
1t is almost entirely the matter of a
clear mind which knows its capacity
and lives up to it. Every man who
builds a house or plants an orchard,
CT invents a machine, or discovers a
law of nature, or does anything which
tends to promote human comfort or
happiness, is a public benefactor; but
any man who stands between industry
and the natural elements to levy a
tribute on labor or to keep a foot of
land out Of use, is a curse to his coun-
try and a destroyer of his fellow-men.
Success on the farm, as in any line
OF business, depends almost entirely
upon the personal industry and atten.
ton OF the most interested. The aver.
age hired man cannot be expected to
do as thorough work, having no inter.
est IN it other than getting his pay, as
the land owner himself. AS success
depends upon the owner it should be
remembered that the farm will not run
itself.
The soil does not produce its wealth
with its being called forth by the eff.
forts of an intelligent, frugal and
moral people. Such a people Iowa
has, and it is the opportunity of hav-
ing a home among such people, or be-
ing within the influence ofgood schools,
and helpful churches that adds great
ly to the inducements presented tor in-
vesting in and remaining upon Iowa
soil.
There are SO many sides TO this sub
ject that only a few can be taken up,
and those only in a general way. Less
than forty years ago there were Just
two uses considered in the selection OF
a piece of land. On the prairie, how
much wheat will it produce; and in the
timber how much wood will it yield?
Since that time there has been a con
slant change, and the fields which in
many instances produced the largest
crops of wheat, have not raised a
pound of it for twenty years, and the
timber which it was confidently pre-
dicted would be worth Sfoo per acre,
ere this, is sold to the poor mar for
what the stump land is worth after the
timber has been cut Oft.
The termination of these two ideas,
in the value of land, ruined large num-
bers Of farmers, who pictured to them
selves fine farms aud happy humes