Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1910-09-28

TWO OF THE MARES THAT HELPED TO PAY
FOR A FARM.
would all sell for 500 an acre. Add
to this his cattle and horses and ma
chinery and a few incidentals, such as
bank stock and the like, and he has
fortune approximating S4,O00.000.
This has all been made In farming.
Corn has 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 it 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 be
lost $500. Last year his net profits
were 100000. In the meantime his
farm has increased TO $4,000 acres.
Colonel Smith was one of the first men
to build cottonseed oil mills and make
a profit from what formerly had been
waste product. His farm was TWEEN
ty-five miles from the nearest railroad.
but ne solved the problem by building
q railroad of his own. He has always
been a personal friend of all his men.
white and black alike. He has pro-
vided well 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 a 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 bis 200
acre farms a year ago yielded 1880
bushels of wheat and 200 bales of cot
ton. The wheat solo for 81 bushel
and the cotton for $50 a bale. making
a total income from the farm of S14,.
800 After taking ont the expenses
there was a net profit of sol an acre.
This might well make even a 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 az
its best. a young man Of the name Of
Henri Miller started out TO make a
| fortune in the ranch business. Today
be is worth $4,000. 900. He once an
bounced that he hoped some day to
own the whole state of California. In
this he did not succeed. although his
| holdings in California amount 10 CO.,
600 acres. He also has large tracts
Of and in Nevada and Oregon.
The ranch business IS on the decline
| in the west. and what was once one
mans cattle ranch is now being cut
up to make farms for the hundreds
of thousands OF land hungry settlers
who are pouring into what is still
| 1.-THE land of opportunity" About
/ twenty years ago an Iowa farmer sold
half section Of land. paid his debts,
and. with seven or eight thousand
dollars 81 cash. a wife and four chill
dren. started for Arizona Tie 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 tie learned # well
and made money. The surplus went
TO buy more land He Joined the