The Sauk Centre herald., 1908-12-24
LIFE ON A FARM
Experiences of An Enterprisine
Young Couple
THEY WON SUCCESS
Raised a Big Mortgage and Lived a
Comfortably, Happy Life TiIliag
the Soil

Apropos of the inquiry conducted
bv President Roosevelt's Commission
OF Country Life" farmers wife in
Ogden, Iowa, has sent this letter to
the Des Moines Capital:
'In September, 1892, sixteen years
ago. my husband, then a young Illi-
nois man twenty-six years of age,
started northwest to seek a home. In
Central Iowa he secured an eighty
acre farm with three-room cottage
and small stable, paying down $1,000,
money he had saved from his wages
as farm hand, and giving a mortgage
o. the land for $1,000 for five years
at eight per cent.
'In the spring of 1893 We We're mar
ried and came to Iowa to live on this
farm. Starting in with two good
horses, a plow and a harrow. wagon
ard corn planter, two cows, one doz-
en- chickens, we went to work with a
determination to win. The first year
We did some tilling, built a cellar,
plastered and painted our cottage,
bought some machinery, paid our in
terest, and had $10O to pay as prin-
cipal. In the fall of 1895 We purchas-
ed another forty acres joining the
original eighty, paying 1920 an acre,
or $1,7O0. .-..=. s
"At the close of each year We al
ways pay all of our debts, our taxes
AID interest, and always have a snug
sum to pay as principal making it a
point to pay the cash for everything
We buy, SO far as possible
Have never run store bill to eX-
ceed ten dollars. 1t is so much easier
tc pay for an article when you get
it than after it is gone.
''The spring of 1898 found us free
from debt with some money on hand,
as we bought another 120-acre farm,
paying $45 an acre, which We have
paid or. by working hard and keep
in everlastingly at it. This farm we
have always rented out at So and 1925
an acre.
I'm 1901; we purchased another
forty, paying $40 an acre, which we
have paid for by close farming, rails
ing horses, cattle, and hogs to sell,
milking from five to eight cows, rails
iro about 200 chickens each year. We
have never kept a hired man, prefer
irg to do the work alone. In busy
seasons 1 often help do light work in
the field, such as raking hay, plowing
with riding plow, and picking corn
work that l find healthful as well as
profitable, having never been sick a
day. ai,At
'Tn 1905, we purchased another
eighty-acre tract, joining the two first
named purchases, making us a lovely
20O-acre home: farm, paying $40 an
acre with no improvements. This
farm we have improved by building
an addition to our house, a $1,000
barn, three wells and windmills and
other small buildings, besides laying
Il, 1000 tile on the, different farms.
'We have been very busy; but yet
have found time to make seven trips
to illinois to visit home folks. We do
not find it necessary to work on Sun
days, as some do, but find it plea
SAINT recreation to, drive to the village
church, three miles away, or rest
quietly in our own home, reading
good books or papers, among them
the Daily Capital We are no misers
or spendthrifts, always having plenty
to eat and wear. We are contented
and happy.
"We are, at present, preparing to
move to small farm near town to
educate our children. have en-
deayored to state facts as they oc-
Cured to us, hoping some one may be
benefited thereby and determined to
secure a home, for what two have
done surely others may do"
After reproducing the above, Col
lier's makes the comment, "a useful,
happy life. This family is attending
s
The Catholic Order OF Foresters OF