Warren sheaf. [volume] (Warren, Marshall County, Minn.) 1880-current, 1907-01-03

enormous expense on the majority Of
western farms devoted to grain pro-
duction. The average length of the
working day for horses on Minnesota
farms is shown by Table / to be
little more than three hours, and
Table VII shows the total cost Of
keeping one horse for year to be
S75 to 800. The cost of horse labor
on any farm operation can be ma
terially reduced if the system of farm
management provides regular WORK
for the horses, for a horse can work
an average throughout the year Of
five to eight hours day with about
the same cost Of keep as he can work
three hours.
Concentration in farming by man
aging the lands in large estates
would result in more systematic
organization of some features of farm
production. The values consumed in
farm machinery, for example, can
undoubtedly be decreased under
extensive farming conditions, and
transient labor also can be more
easily employed and more effectively
utilized.
While consolidation of farm lands
under a few managers having excep-
tional ability would undoubtedly
have many advantages in furthering
system and efficient use of capital
and labor on farms, the disadvant-
ages in such system must not be
overlooked. The creation of large
estates would tend to create large
wage-earning or peasant-like labor
class, and to greatly disorganize the
development of good American citi-
zens in the independent home on the
farm Of family size. 1t is question
also, whether the fertility of the soil
can be conserved as we'll UNDER large
estate farming as under system
where small piece of land is under
the supervision Of a man who will
care for the soil and husband it's
strength because Of an innate love
for the land which makes his home
and is to be the home of his child
rem.
And yet it must be admitted that,
under our present methods of farm
management in the Middle West, a
majority of the farms of medium size
are not as we'll planned nor as we'll
managed to yield good profits at the
least expense of capital, labor, and
fertility as are the large farms super
intended by men of unusual business
ability. Waste of machinery and
other capital, waste of labor, and
waste of fertility are conspicuous
features of the agriculture of the
Middle West. The settler has sacri-
feed soil fertility and great values of
farm machinery in order to obtain
quick profits and ready cash, and
then as the country has grown older
he has neglected to remodel his bust
ness to meet the new and changed
conditions. 1t is not idle prophecy
to sound this warming, that, unless
the next generation which tills the
soils of the Middle West puts The
fields under systematic crop rotation
and better systems of farming man
agement, fertilizer problems such as
now confront the East and the South
will have to be met before many
decades. On the other hand, it the
proper physical conditions for soil
decomposition are maintained by
systematic crop rotations and intel
ligent methods of farm management,
the producing capacity of the prairie
soils can be maintained indefinitely.
Land on which crops are rotated
Systematically demands more intelli-
gent methods of field management,
more Intelligent use of live stock,
and other capital and
labor. All these are corollaries of
crop rotation, and the result of
systematic crop rotation must always
be increasing profits due to greater
in the soil, more
effective employment of capital and
labor, and sounder business methods.
The intensive system Of farming
practiced near the great cities of the
eastern part of the United States,
where grain and mill feeds are ship
pea in from the West, can not be ex-
tended to majority of the farms in
the United States. Such systems of
farming can only be practiced at the
of the fertility in other agri-
regions from which concen-
5rated feed stuffs are purchased, and
they are therefore undesirable for
jhe majority OF American farms.
80 ~tS