Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1910-08-12

TWO OC The AAhES THAI HELPED PAX
FOR A FARM.
would all sell for 500 an acre. Add
to this his cattle and horses and ma
chinery and few incidentals. such as
bank stock and the like. and he has
fortune approximating 100000.
This has all been made in farming.
Corn t..s been his speciality, and it has
always been marketed In the form Of
cattle. He has always used the most
modern machinery and the best equip
ment that money can buy. 1t has been
the same with help. His foremen are
men who can get results. He furnishes
them with automobiles to take them
from farm to farm because he has
found that 1t pays in the time saved.
He attributes his success to close per-
sonal attention and the application Of
business methods to farming.
Another man who has made millions
in farming Is Colonel James NJ. Smith
Of Georgia. Colonel Smith started
raising corn and cotton on rundown
quarter section in Oglethorpe county
soon after the war. The first year he
lost $500 Last year his net profits
were $4,000. In the meantime his
farm has increased to $1,000 acres.
Colonel Smith was one Of the first men
to build cottonseed oil mills and make
profit from what formerly had been
waste product. His farm was TWEEN.
ty.tive miles from the nearest railroad.
but he solved the problem by building
railroad of his own. He has always
been personal friend of all his men.
white and black alike. He has pro-
vided we'll equipped schools for both
the negro and the white children of his
employees. Unlike David Rankin. who
never had even a common school edu-
cation. Colonel Smith is college grad
uate. He learned to handle men in
the army. and he applied the same or
ganization to his farm work with
great results.
Colonel Smiths success has demon
strated what can be done on the farm
land Of the south. One of his 200
acre farms year ago yielded 1890
bushels of wheat and 200. bales of cot.
ton. The wheat sold for 81 a bushel
and the cotton for $50 q bale. making
a total income from the farm of Sl4.
300 After taking out the expenses
there was net profit Of $5l an acre.
This might we'll make even Missis
sippi valley farmer envious.
The west has been heralded as the
land of opportunity. In the early days.
when land could be had almost for the
asking and the cattle business was at
its best. II young man Of the name of
Henry Miller started out to make a
fortune In the ranch business Today
he is worth S2O.UOO.OO0 He once an
that he hoped some day to
own the whole state Of California. In
this be did not succeed. although his
in California amount to 600.-
900 acres. He also has large tracts
of land in Nevada and Oregon.
The ranch business is on the ,,ecline
In the west. and what was on e one
mans cattle ranch IL now being cut
up to make farms for the h. 1dreds
VI vi SCss'SaS
who are pouring into what Is still
1.-THE land OF opportunity" About
twenty years ago an Iowa farmer sold
4 half section of land. paid his debts.
and With seven or eight thousand
dollars in cash. wife and four chill
lren. started for Arizona. He located
in the Salt river valley. bought as
much of the cheap land as his money
would pay for and set out to learn
irrigation farming. He learned II we'll
and made money. The surplus went
10 buy more land. He Joined the
Water Users association and was in
dueutial in getting congress to start
the Salt river irrigation project. Gov
prnment irrigation insured permanent
for the Salt river valley.
and today this pioneer farmer who
set out to make fortune in 1.-The
great American desert" Is worth more
than $2OO.OOO
Success in the irrigated districts Is
not necessarily measured In extensive
farms and large bank accounts. A
few years ago locomotive engineer.
sixty years old and broken In health.
moved from Minneapolis to the state