Dakota farmers' leader. (Canton, S.D.) 1890-19??, 1909-12-17
Man in Nebraska Gives a Practi'
cal Illustration of lnten-
sivc Methods.
GETS $1,000 PROFIT A YEAR
Arnold Martin Had a Capital of $275
and Bought Rough Land Re-
jected by Everybody.

How a man may get rich on a farm
of twenty acres was shown recently at
the fair of the Missouri Valley Agrl.
cultural and Horticultural Society,
the Kansas City Star says. Arnold
Martin, owner of a t~Wenty-acre farm
in Pawnee county, Nebraska. had an
exhibit at the fair and in his lectures
tells how he makes upward OF $1,000
a year profit off his land.
Among the things grown on the
Martin farm + cornstalks seventeen
and one-ha.f feet high, with the ears
eleven feet from the ground. There
was one ear OF corn raised on his place
which took first prize at the State fair
this year in Lincoln, Neb. After the
fair the managers of it auctioned off
all the prize winning exhibits and
Martin bought back his own prize ear
of corn for $50. 1t has twenty-four
rows of corn and LOO grains on it.
Ten years g Mr.. Martin came from
Switzerland and worked on a farm in
Northwestern Kansas. At the end of
three years he had saved 1915. In
Pawnee county he found q tract of
twenty acres that no one would farm.
1t was rough land and covered with
brush and small trees. Land all
an acre. He bought the twenty acres
for $3.50 an acre and paid $1OO down.
The Farmers Bulletin says about
Martin: His neighbors used to laugh
at the young farmer and nicknamed
him 'Hazelbrush,' but now they say he
is making more money on twenty
acres thar we do on $780, He does not
want any more land, but wants to
farm what he has better"
Martin now has his farm all paid
for and does not owe a dollar. He
has a a house, a barn with a stone
basement for stock and the upper part
for hay and grain. He has money in
the bank and has been offered $4,000
cash for his farm. He has made three
pleasure trips to Colorado and spent
three months last winter in Switzer-
land.
A small field of nearly two acres
is kept for annual crops. The slopes /
are rocky in places and the soil is a
residual, clay loan having been form. |
ed mostly by weathering of the lime.
stone which underlies it. About eight |
acres OF this is set to orchards, one
acre in alfalfa, one in timothy and
clover. three in pasture and a little
in annual crops. Says the government
bulletin:
The Intensive methods are of par
ticular interest. The lane is kept busy
from spring to fall. At the last Gull
Of potatoes corn is planted
between the rows. AS many as 700
bushels of potatoes and Is bushels of
corn to the acre have been grown in
this way. Squashes are sometimes
planted the same way. Usually parts |
Of the potato patches are sowed with
millet or sorghum just before the last
cultivation. This makes a good crop
of feed and does not hurt the melons
are planted in the rows between
the onions. Part of the orchard is set
small fruit and part is planted
with potatoes and t. uck.
The orchards contain about 900 pear,
200 cherry, about 500 peaches and a
few apple trees. The trees are planted
straight rows and between the trees
are raspberry bushes, tomatoes, cab
bages and sweet potatoes with beets
close beside.
IF my farm was near a city I could
much more than l do" says Mr..
Martin. My only market is a town
of $500 which is seven miles distant.
Consequently the prices I get are low.
I can't understand why a man will
live in a city and work for wages that
do not give him a fair living when he
can walk out a hundred miles or so
and get a farm like mine and be in.