Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1910-12-29
FARM PRODUCTION
Materially Increased Where Prac-
tical Methods Are Employed
PROFITS ALSO MUCH LARGER
Iowa General Assembly viii BE
Asked for Increased Appropria-
ton for Extension and snort
Course work at Ames

Des Moines.--One of the import
ant measuIes coming before the leg
is.ature this winner will be bliI
prov.alng lor a largely increased ap.
proprlat4on for the extension and
short course work OF the agricultur-
al college at Ames. The hackers OF
this q, asure are in hopes the pres.
ent appropriation of $4,000 per an.
mum can be increased to 100000 and
are confident that the returns upon
such an expenditure would be so pro
nounced and so beneficial to the
state as a whole that there will be
little difficulty in inducing future leg
islatures to renew the appropriation.
The movement had its inception in
the agricultural committee of the
Des Moines Commercial Club over a
year ago. On this committee are
such men as James Atkinson, editor
of the Homestead, Keller Bell, of the
FArmers' Cooperative Produce Com
p4ny; Charles Clark, editor of the
Register and Farmer; John Simpson,
secretary Of the Safe Fair; E. T.
Meredith, publisher of Successful
Farming. The committee was inter
ested through statistics gathered by
Secretary Botsford, of the CONNER
cial Club of results obtained b!
short course farmers as com pared
with the average farm results of the
state. Since the plan was adopted
others have become interested.
Among these are the Western Grain
Growers Association, the Iowa
League OF Commercial Clubs, the
Iowa Corn Growers Association, the
Iowa Bankers Club, the Iowa Small
Grain Association, the industrial de-
partments of all of the Iowa rail
roads and many others.
The short course and extension
work of agricultural colleges was
first developed in Iowa about ten
years ago by Professor P. G. Holden.
At this time about $4,000 per annum
is expended for this work in Iowa.
IlliI.ois has taken up the work and is
spending about 100000 per annum.
Wisconsin is spending about $4,000.
Iowa. In those states the demands
of the rural population are being
met and rural population is not de-
creasing as in Iowa. In Iowa the de-
mands of the rural population are
not being nearly satisfied and the
tendency is toward larger farms and
a decreased rural population. 1t is
the firm belief of those back of the
movement that it is the one prac-
tical solution of the problem of in
creasing rural population. They be-
lieve that it will result in better
farming, larger yielss and the con.
secuent decrease in the size of the
farm unit with a corresponding in.
crease in rural population. They be,
lieve that it will result in soil pre-.
servation, the reduction of the in.
vestment necessary to productive and
remunerative farming and a lessen.
ing in the labor of the farmer.
Searching investigation has disclos.
ed the fact that the successful farm.
ers of Iowa are following the meth.
DDS taught by the extensions depart
ment; that the production of farms
where practical methods as taught
in the school and the short course
are followed, is larger, that the prof.
its are bigger. f
made of the results obtained @on 81
farms in Iowa conducted by men who
have atten led one or more short
courses. These included farmers in
nearly every county in the state.
The figures are for the 1909 crop
season. These farmers had an aver
age of 63 bushels of corn to the acre.
The average for the state was 1928
bushels. They had 54 bushels of
oats to the acre, the average was
27.4 for the state. They had SO bush
els of wheat to the acre. The aver
age was 20.5 for the state. There
were yields that went as high as 81
bushels of corn. Merritt Green, in
Marshall county, reported an aver.
age of over 40 bushels of winter
wheat in ninety-acre field. Fred
McCulloch, OF Iowa county, reported
better than 62 bushels of oats. Quite
a testimonial for the short course.
But there is more to 1t than the fig,
ures would imply. 1t costs about
s11 an acre to produce corn in Iowa
This would make the average net
for the state $3.50 the acre. The
average for the 81 short course
farmers, after adding 81 more pei
acre for picking and hauling, would
be $3.50 per acre, or more than
three times as much. In other
words the short course farmer with
ten acres of 500 Iowa land, is pro
ducing as much ccrn as the average
Iowa farmer Is with 80 acres of 500
land. The saving is not only in the
labor. but in the investment. A mul
duplication Of results such as are Civ
en- here can have but one tendency
to-wit. to decrease the size of thu
farm unit In Iowa, which Is nov
about 159 acres. In this compila
ton the prevailing price of so cent.
for the 1909 season was used.
In the season of 1s09-10 there wer,
s3 applications to the extension de
partment at Ames for short courses
or these but twenty-five were grant
ed. The reason was that the crl
lego did not have the funds OF tn
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