Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1909-01-14
ECONOMY IN SMALL THINGS
Lack ofJudgment and Neglected
Opportunities Are, Sources
of Poverty and Failure.
BY PROFESSOR W. F. MASSEY.

SWAMP in aoutneast Virginia and north
east North Carolina, | have seen vast
K fieids of corn from which the ears only
were snapped and the fodder left to
waste in the winds and cattle ranging
= land cleaning the almost WORTH
49,; fodder.
~. - waste of valuable feed is
.5s:,;;e in this way. Farmers on these
sych soils do not seem to think that it
:, LAY them to take the same eco
Ssal methods that other farmers
y The western farmers especially
arc wastefu and could feed far more
stock if the corn slower was properly
saved.
With tho corn harvester and binder it,
would not take a great deal more labor
n to save the crop in u proper manner
+ and save nearly half the feeding value
of the crop.
In PENNSYLVANIA / saw the Dutch
farmers laboriously loading the manure
atthe barnyard, hauling it out in wag-
ons and then lalooriously forking it off
/ in little piles over the fields; to be
\ later laboriously spread by hand.
Here are three landings of the ma
nltre when one would have sufficed had
they loaded it into u manure spreader
and had it spread Withdrawing over the
!, field, and spread far better and made
to go further than is possible by hand.
Farmers complain of the scarcity of
labor whilo using three times as much
human labor as is needed.
J In the beautiful country of east Ten
nessee. with splendid limestone vail
leys. [ found it hard to get over the
roads in q light buggy with d pair OF
good horses, and Of course the farmers
arc shut up at home aud not able TO
do any haij]inpr hateynr N, s;l1rl, roads
And that was in a country where rock
abounds and good, hard roads could be
easily made.
That, country needs more farmers,
bntsif the northern farmer came there
in early spring he would hesitate about
buying the best, land with such roads
TO travel over.
I'm the black prairie lands of Illinois
the farmers have a. real road problem,
hut in a section like east Tennessee
where there is. the greatest abundance
OF road material good roads should be
common.
North Carolina is setting a good ex-
ample of road building. Mecklenburg
county is booming and the city of Char
lotte is growing With wonderful rap
n jdity. Then about the other towns of
N North Carolina the nacadamized roads
&nre stretching out.
VI In each North Carolina county men
who commit petty offenses are not sent
10 the penitentiary, but are put in the
road gang. Each county has it's road
Il gang, rock crusher and steam roller
4 and the state is rapidly getting famous
Tor good roads.
4 Instead of hauling one bale of cotton
\ with pair of horses, as formerly, now
u IN many sections one horse hauls four
N lla1pS with thar, the t,Ep co5
10 haul one bale
Then J have seen them laying by
their crops of corn and cotton on rows
running around the contour of the
hills, by throwing up d great ridge Of
earth to the plants, cutting the roots
4 and damaging the crop, and forming
burrows to catch a head of water to
break over and make more gullies.
And in every section of the country
| have been impressed with the idea
that the great need Of our agriculture
Is brains and intelligent study Of ones
4 conditions
A In Pennsylvania I saw great barns
a that must have cost thousands of dol
lars set on stone Easements, and the
n COWS In these easements with no light
Il or ventilation, and I did not wonder
B that cattle get tuberculosis under such
Il conditions.
H And yet the farmers crowd to the
p Institutes and hear lectures on the
q proper methods of cultivation and the
II proper methods of feeding, the proper
"a ventilation and lighting of COW stables,
H and go home and keep on in the same
|a old way that their grandfathers fol-
IL lowed.
see men in nearly all sections farm
FL Ing on old lands from which the care
los fiIrnf o. t1,a oe.t
III out all the humus or organic decay
III growing crop after crop by the aid of
II extensively bought commercial fertili-
|g zers when they could save the expense
III and get better crops by a good rotation
n and the cultivation of legume crops for
HI feeding and making the manure that
II would also Increase the hunus in the
III land and make a permanent improve
q ment.
q have seen lands in the Mississippi
~ valley, where, when 1 was a young man
the farmers said that thein lands would
ID never need manure, and they made %
II to 80 bushels of wheat per acre and
# they moved their barns TO get away
N from the manure accumulation I have
"a seen these lands run down to Is or less
bushels per acre and laws being passed
"a TO regulate the sale of commercial fer
"a lilizers.
have seen another section in the
IN east where years ago the lands made 1C
sE to 10 bushels of wheat per acre. But
81 the farmers there realized that some
81 thing must be DONE and they adopted a
good, short rotation, and for twenty
%l years have bought no nitrogen in a fer
M tilizer while their wheat crops have
SCI run up to an average of 40 bushels OF
ST. wheat per acre, with only acid phos
en- pilate and potash used once in the rota-
ia ton, but clover often on the land.
~ And not far away. near a large city.
"a have seen the farmers run their lands
81 In grass till no paying crop could be
grown, and then back to corn and seed
81 down again, and when asked why thew
MI did not practice a shorter rotation and
S grow more clover they said that clover
n would not grow there any more.
And I'did not wonder that it did not
10 fer the selling OF tiinofhy off of IL ,,.r,x