The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1907-03-08
WHAT A MODEL FARM is.
And Why There Should Be One in
Every Agricultural County OF
the United States.


the United States.
For less than single item in many
of the annual appropriation bills, a
model farm, conducted as a practical
object lesson in the best methods OF
tilling the soil and its most profitable
uses, might be established in every
agricultural county in the United
States. 1t is worth considering wheth-
err this work should not be undertaken
either by the several State govern
ments or by the National Government.
or by the two conformity.
A model farm is simply a farm
conforming in size, in treatment OF
the soil, in assignment to different
crops and their rotation and in meth
| DDS 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, with
farming community, the accumulated
knowledge of one of the oldest occ:l-
! pations, which must now become more
highly specialized. 1t is a working
model for common instruction.
! Such model farm should not con-
tain more than thirty or forty acres.
| This area would be ample for work
| ing purposes. 1t would also prove
| the economic advantage of the small
well-tilled farm over 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 excel
lent one. The five tracts would be
assigned to these five crops respec-
lively, with regular annual rotation,
different crops in their tIrn. Such
alteration, 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 sta,
tions, under conditions that any farm
er may reproduce, shows an average
product, over series of years, nearly
twice as great as the average product
of the general farming area under
private cultivation.
The remainder, aside from the
| NJ, 20
yards, could be divided into smaller
plots of from an acre upward, to be
devoted, according to need and use,
| to pasturage and to rye, barley pota
toes, fodder corn and garden and for
age plants. A judicious system of rota-
tion on these lesser areas also will
show how greatly productive power
may be increased and at how high a
level it may be kept. Such farm
will carry some cattle, hogs and poul-
try, together with the horses required
for working it. A careful utilization
of manure will supply most of the
fertilizer needed. One valuable les.
son taught by the model farm must
be the Importance of enriching the
soil with fertilizing material 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 farefully as the merchant or manu-.
lecturer must guard against the vast
ing of his.-From James ]. Hills Gov.
eminent Model Farms" in the Cen.
tary.