Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1907-09-14
MISTAKES OF CITY men
Vainly Imagine that Old Fashioned
Farming Will Not Pay
and so Fail
TT seems to be a pet fancy with most
i city nennle whn are lnaltinQ for q

TT seems to be a pet fancy with most
| city people who are looking for a
location in the country, that square
|old-fashioned diversified farming won't
pay, but that there are by-ways. novel
methods, improvements and untrod-
den paths to fortune. For instance, a
friend of mine who Is booklteeper in
the city has not met me during the
last four years without asking me what
y thought of sheep raising in New Mex
leo or western Texas
He doesn't believe in farming as a
general thing. It's hard, dirty work;
you wear rough clothes and have
coarse hands; you go without gloves
and pavements: a COW stable has an
|ill-perfume, and worn-out farm
horse is a poor roadster; but he be-
to the west or southwest he would
soon make a fortune. Another nurses
the same romance about orange grow
ing in Florida, or the fruit business in
California, or about the Canadian
Northwest or the irrigated sections
The truth is that the fewest number
Of persons succeed on speciality, and
these few are persons who came up to
that speciality from the common level
Of general farming. In my opinion
the best farm for the unskilled farmer
to buy is one that will support few
cows, two horses a few pigs and a
flock of hens the first year. If it Is
too small or too poor for that there is
| little use of owning it for farming
purposes.
| From this as basis let him expand
his system in any direction in which
he is drawn by the advantages of the
situation. He may become essentially
truck farmer, or a small fruit grow
er, or grain farmer, or he may great
| ly increase his stock, and make most
Of his money from his dairy products,
poultry and swine. Here in the East
| the situation is in brief as follows:
The southern fruits and vegetables
have seriously damaged the truck
farmer who does not live close to the
cities where he may have private
trade who depend upon him to supply
them with fresh vegetables in prefer.
ence to buying them from the stores;
the great crops of corn in the western
states have made pork too cheap to
leave reasonable margin of profit
when grown in the East
On the other hand, strong and per-
manent meadows that will produce
two tons Of good hay per acre are
profitable possession. They give more
profit, with less risk and less ,outla,
for labor than any other branch O.
4 farming.
1 Improvements in tools have done
most for the hay crop; and any ordin
airy man with some intelligence car
hardly fail with ordinary industry tt
master the difficulties of hay field
Jour hay crop can be harvested at
cost Of from 81 to $3.50 ton It il
easier to keep up the fertility of tn,
meadow than of grain field or
truck patch.
| Mineral and condensed manures ant
fertilizers will make restoration t,
J meadow lands and enable their owne
to sell hay. without selling his farm
) by the ton.
} But to cart hay by the ton and re
store nothing to the meadow is ruin
Gus policy and should never be prac
ticed on any farm If the owner care
to keep up the fertility for futur
lcrops