Morris tribune. [volume] (Morris, Minn.) 1880-2000, 1907-04-06
COUNTY POOR
FARM EXPERIMENTS
MAKING THE POOR FARM AN Eek.
DERIr1ENTAL FARM.
WaIlace's Farmer Tells How Ten
Counties in Iowa have had Goo d
Success i'm Utilizing the County
Farm to Determine the Best
Crops for the NeighborhoOd.

Crops for the Neighborhood.
While so much is being said about
gricultural education and expert
m entail stations, the following from
t he Wallace's Farmer is of interest
and contains valuable suggestion.
The Farmer says:
A Louisa county, Iowa, correspond
ent asks:
"What are some of the benefits the
farmer may derive from small
amount of land, set aside for the
county poor farm? Should the county
supervisors appropriate, say two or
three hundred dollars to carry on ex-
periments in small way?"
We know of no way in which the
money can be invested to better ad-
vantage in any county than an appro-
priation such as our correspondent
mentions for experiments on the
county poor farm, provided the soil of
the farm is typical of that of the
county; and provided further that the
poor farm has superintendent chosen
because he is good farmer and not
because he is a a politician; and pro-
vided still further, that the farmers in
the county interest themselves in the
work going on at the farm. Handled
in the right way, the poor farm be.
comes in effect a local experiment sta
ton.
Only few acres will be required,
and these should be as far as possible
typical of the soil of the county. The
first year field of appropriate, size
should be selected, prepared as thor
oughly as possible for corn, divided
off into plots say one tenth of an acre
or less and each plot planted with a
separate variety of the various varie-
ties of corn grown by the best farmers
in the neighborhood, taken, so to
speak right out of the sack from which
the farmer intends to plant his own
corn field. These plots should be
given good cultivation. They should
be properly marked, the crop of each
plot husked separately and weighed
and reports furnished to the county
farmers institute at it's next annual
meeting. There should be picnic of
the farmers of the county at the poor
farm, say in August or September, in
order that they may see for themsel-
YES the difference in the yield of the
varieties of corn grown from seed sell.
ected by the farmers themselves.
We venture to predict that if Louisa
county farmers adopt this meteod they
will find difference of from ten to
twenty bushels between the yields OF
the different varieties of corn grown
in that county under exactly similar
conditions.
At the same time field of say ten
acres should be devoted to oat expert.
ments, each acre to be sown with q
different variety of oats secured from
the farmers in the neighborhood. Cut
and thrash each lot separately report
the yield in the county papers ane
also give the results of the experiment,
at the next institute.
These experiments may cost from
two totthree hundred dollars, possibl,
not half that much; but the super
visors of the various counties should
appropriate whatever money may b'
necessary. The experiment station a
Ames will assist in marking out thu
plots and in keeping the books ant
making the reports, without furthe
expense to the county, we understand
than the cost of two or three visits o