Dakota farmers' leader. (Canton, S.D.) 1890-19??, 1908-04-24
Profitable Investments on the
Farm.

| ing out from farming sections In
every possible direction. evidently as
the result of the conviction that
money will bring greater returns when
| invested off the farm than on it. The
farmers in the corn states have been
investing millions in mining PROPOSE
tions, in land in the arid and semi
arid belt, in the Indian reservations
being opened up, in irrigation projects
in the mountain states Vast sums of
money made on the farm have gone to
the great centers to be \ invested in
various kinds of speculation. Whether
all this money will bring interest, and
whether it will ever return with OF
without interest, is one of the prob
lens that time only can answer. We
fear that good deal of it will never
return, and some Of it will come limp
ing home reduced in quantity half or
more.
This raises the question Of whether
there are not now and have not always
been better opportunities for profit
able Investment of the farmers money
on the farm than in mines or wild
lands or railroad stocks and bonds,
or in any other kind of outside specu-
lation. We have for long time had
decided views on this question.
Does any part of your farm need
drainage? If so, and you have an out
let or can secure one at any reason
able cost, with or without the co-opera-
tion of your neighbors, then tile
properly laid will pay you better than
any speculation you can make in any
kind of outside property.
What kind of fences have you on
your farm? The old-fashioned three
barbed wire fence with posts twenty
four feet apart, that sometimes will
restrain cattle and horses and some
times not? Or have you it fenced both
inside and out with woven wire hog
| tight and sheep-tight as well as cattle
and horse-tight? If not. here is an
opportunity for investment that will
beat outside Investment two to one.
Have you any COWS kept for dairy
purposes on your farm that yield less
than two hundred pounds of butter
fat year? Have you any that actu-
ally yield less than one hundred and
fifty? Then better COWS, COWS that
will give two hundred pounds Of but
ter fat and over year will be bet
ter investment than outside property.
If you are growing beef cattle, is
your herd kept as well as it should
be? Can you not afford to put a better
bull at the head of the herd and in
crease the value of every calf several
dollars when ready for market? There
are very few farms on which the
farmers cannot afford to pay an extra
hundred dollars in getting irst-class
sire. The same may be said of every
kind of live stock.
Have you the best labor-saving ma
chinery, or are you getting along with
something that is ten years behind
the times? Here is an opportunity
for making good investment. Has
the good wife all the conveniences
that she neeos? Why not ask hel
about it? Have you all the fruit you
should have on the farm? Would not
an investment in some frst-class fruit
trees be a good thing this year? Are
you raising scrub chickens, or well
bred ones of some of the many choice
breeds that are available? Do you
keep miserable cur good for nothing
but to run out and bark at passing
teams? Would not good Collie be q
fine investment?
These are illustrations of possible
lines of investment, and the beauty
of it all is that they are entirely with
in your own control. You are not trust
ing to anybody else to spend your
money, nor to look after it. There i:
no danger of anybody getting away
with it. The> profit that will come
from these investments will depend
upon yourself, and will be greater OF
less according to the intelligence you
exhibit in managing them.
There is limit to profitable invest
ment on the farm. There is no neee
of house larger than is necessary fo1
the comfort of the prospective family
There is no need of barns larger thar
the necessities require, although ther,
is need on almost every farm of on,
additional building "a tool house. 1
is possible to put more expense OF
the farm than will pay; but we hav
not nearly reached that point yet.
When all the land that drain
age has been properly drained, wheI
all parts of the farm that are capabl
OF growing timber at a profit ar
planted, when the farms are fenced S,
that where an animal is put there i
will stay until sent for, when the lant
has been brought up to point of fer
tility where it will grow fifty bushel
of corn almost any year and one hun
dred bushels in a 6rst-class year
when it has been brought up to th
point where it will grow on an aver
age thirty bushels of winter wheat t.
the acre and twenty of spring wheat
, then will come the time to seek in
vestment outside. We have not nearI,
reached that point yet except on oc
casional farms.
~ ipa for g.