The daily sentinel., 1905-03-04

A Model Farm

ne tdllutl WHO luluhS out what
he wants to do, and then works hard.
will win. and no others do, or ever
have. or can.
The Chamber of Commerce is in
receipt OF little pamphlet, issued
by the department of agriculture at
Washington, entitled. "A Model
Farm"
This model farm is located in
southeastern Pennsylvania and con
tains only fifteen acres. Thirteen
acres are under cultivation. and the
remaining two acres are occupied by
buildings and surrounding yards.
The present owner of these fifteen
acres came into possession in 1881.
with mortgage of $1,000 upon it..
The first year the farm lacked SIG
of paying expenses. Now, some farm
ors are great believers in horseshoe
lucl, and others there be that consid-
err a good idea worth ton of luck.
The owner of this model farm in
Pennsylvania had an idea. and this
is what came of it: The first year,
we said. the farm lacked SAC of pay
ing expenses. Within the next six
years he had paid on the entire mort
gage and interest. That is, he made
$1,000 a year off his fifteen acre
patch, and this sum is the annual
net profit he has been setting aside
ever since the debt was paid.
How did he do it? Well, to begin
with. the natural soil of this fifteen
acre farm is poor reddish gray
ely clay It was so run down in
1881 that two horses and a COW, quit
the farm in disgust, because of not
having enough to eat.
Now this same farm raises the
roughness for thirty head of stock
seventeen of which are milch cows
This remarkable change was brought
about solely by the use of stable ma
rure applied directly from the barn
as it was produced. The manure
was hauled from the city or other
places. The waste of the farm was
used to the best advantage in bring
ing the farm up TO its present high
state of productivity.
This man. we said. had an idea;
this idea led to others. He read
Quincy's book on the soiling of cat
tie. published in 1859. "Soiling"
consists in cutting and feeding green
feed instead of allowing the animals
to run on pasture. This practice the
farmer adopted and carefully pre-
served all waste The next year he
read tSewart's book on feeding ami
mails and learned his first lesson in
balanced Rations." He also learned
to feed some dry hay with the soil
ing crops. thus giving the manure a
proper consistency. Having com
piled with certain conditions he al
lowed nature to do the rest. The
farm began not only to pay a profit
but to increase in fertility. One man
and a boy do the labor of the farm.
except in hay harvest and during the
cutting of silage. The owner does
the thinking and few hired hands
do the work Our farmer. being a
man of ideas. is, of course, systematic
in everything he does. So systemat-
ic is the work of the farm that he
often goes away for weeks at time.
confident that if his instructions are
carried out, certain results are sure
to follow. and he is never disappoint-
ed. He has plenty of time for rest
and recreation. He pays no regard
to rotation of crops. His remark
able success is the result of doing the
right thing at the right time; that
is. planting the right kind of crops
feeding his animals a balanced ra-
| tion-not too much nor too little
preserving all manure and waste and
protecting the farm from being
washed out by torrential rains.
This model" farm is youched for
by your Uncle Sam; he sent com
mirtee to investigated; they reported
that they found this ffteen-acr,
farm a model. 1t shows what can b,
done by a man who uses his thinker
II also shows that inferior lands car
be made fruitful and that ordinar!
lands can be made to yield twice o.
three times as much as the presen
average farm land. The model farm
is a hint of what can be done with tn,
aid of science. Science is organized
common sense. 1t does not call 70
the prophetic gift to assert that a
some time the desert lands of tn
west will become fit habitations 70
the children of men; and that pa
tient diligence, with knowledge o
chemistry Of soil and the physiolog
8 Of plant life will some day max
the valley of the Grand the gardei
spot of the world. knowledge is pow
CEORGE N EAT GOMEZ