The Elbert County tribune., 1907-01-10
IA N 0DEL FARM
WHY THERE SHOULD BE ONE IN
EVERY COUNTY.
SHOULD NOT BE VERY LARGE
How to Lay it Out and Work It Effec-
tiveIy.-Traets for Rotation Of
Crops.-WiIl Show Advantages Of
Small Farms Well Titled.

For less than a single item in many
of the annual appropriation bills, a
model farm, conducted as practical
object lesson in the best methods Of
tilling the soil and its most profitable
uses, might be established in every ag-
ricultural county in the United States
II is worth considering whether this
work should not be undertaken either
by the several state governments or by
the National Government, or by the
two coniointly.
A model farm is simply farm con.
forming in size, in treatment OF the
soil, in assignment to different crops
and their rotation, and in methods OF
culture to the most approved practice
that actual experience and scientific
investigation OF agriculture all over
the world have fixed. 1t focuses upon
one plot of ground, within the personal
observation of each farming COM
munity, the accumulated knowledge Of
one of the Oldest occupations, which
must now become more highly special
lied. 1t is a working model for COM
mon instruction.
Such a model farm should not con-
tain more than thirty or forty acres
This area would be ample for working
purposes 1t would also prove the eco
nomic advantage of the small we'll
titled farm over a larger holding, to
which equal care could not be given
Labor can be utilized more effectively
and the yield per acre increased with
out any decline in fertility.
On such a farm five tracts might be
set off for crops in due rotation. The
order of hay, pasture. oats, corn and
wheat has been found an excellent one.
The five tracts would be assigned to.
these five crops respectively, with
regular annual rotation, so that each
field should grow all the different
crops in their turn. Such Attenuation,
even without other aid, has been found
so congenial to the soil as to give
crops greatly exceeding those obtained
by the usual method in this country, of
sowing the same land to the same
thing year after year
Actual trial at experiment stations,
under conditions that any farmer may
reproduce, shows an average product,
over a series of years, nearly twice as
great as the average product of the
general farming area under private
cultivation.
The remainder, aside from the space
occupied by farm buildings and yards.
could be divided into smaller plots OF
from an acre upward, to be devoted,
according to need and use, to pastur-
age and to rye. barley, potatoes, fodder
corn, and garden and forage plants. A
judicious system of rotation on these
lesser areas also will show how greatly
productive power may be increased
and at how high level it may be kept.
Such farm will carry some cattle,
hogs and poultry, together with the
horses required for working it. A
careful utilization of manure will sup
ply most of the fertilizer needed. One
valuable lesson fought by the model
farm must be the Importance of en-
riching the soil with fertilizing ma
terial either supplied by live stock or
procured from without. The farmer
has to guard against the impairment Of
his working capital, which is the land,
as carefully as the merchant or manu-
facturer must guard against the vast
ing of his.