Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1910-09-27
FARMER WITHOUT A CENT NETS
$500 ON SINGLE LAND
DEAL.
BOUGHT FARM LAST MARCH,
NOW SELLS AT BIG PROFIT
Borrowed $1,000 With Which to Make
First Payment - Primitive Hus-
bandry Found Near Eagle Grove -
Fish Caught in Drainage Ditch -
Prairie Chickens Near Goldfied -
Wilson's Rural Observations.

Special to Times Republican.
Eagle Grove, Sept. 27.-One day last
March a local resident borrowed $1,000
and with the money made a payment
on a S20-acre farm near here. Pay
ment of the balance, matter of some
$4,000, or so, was arranged for in some
manner, and then the purchaser waited
for rise that soon came. September
10 that farm was sold again for s110
per acre and the thousand dollar man
found that after paying the cost of
legal papers, commissions and other
minor expenses, he was ahead just
$500. AT Bows a real estate dealer
paid S65 per acre for a 120-acre farm
and within ten days thereafter sold it
for s95, thus realizing $4,000 net profit.
Is it any wonder that with such ex-
amples as these to enthuse him the
ordinary mortal is possessed with the
desire to speculate in land?
Some rather primitive husbandry is
being conducted on a diminutive farm
about two miles from this town. Three
of four years ago a man purchased q
three-acr tract taken from the corner
of a large farm, built a little shack and
started up in farming" The only stock
he keeps is said to be four chickens.
Each year the entire place is carefully
plowed-with a spade. This season
the oat field consisted of something
more than one acre. The crop was cut
with small sickle, shocked and
threshed-with fail, and marketed
Last week one day this farmer went to
town for supplies-with a common
wheelbarrow. He is thought to have
no other income than that derived
from the place he calls home. yet $3.50
per acre has been offered him and re-
fused. Those who have visited the old
fellow declare that his housekeeping is
no more up to modern standards than
are the agricultural methods he prac-
tees. He is simply the antithesis Of
the modern farmer. the number of his
kind, so far as this locality is concerned
being limited to one.
One of the big drainage bitches in
this vicinity became clogged with
temporary obstruction the other day
and it was discovered that the pent up
water was alive with fish. One farmer
visited the place and took home sixty
enc carp some of which he thought
would weigh at least three pounds.
Along the bank of the ditch he also
found a pickerel evidently dropped
there by a bird Of some kind. The
fish had doubtless travelled up the
course of the ditch from the river into
which it empties and the crumbling Of
a bank prevented their getting back.
One of the deepest of these bitches
is now being dug a few miles north
west of here. At one point on a farm
belonging to Senator Dolliver it is
forty-six feet wide at the top and
when completed will be more than
twenty three feet in depth. In this case
the big dredge was put thru the course
of the ditch then taken back and the
good many tile factories in this part
of the state are kept busy furnishing
the tile necessary to drain the land
into these artificial outlets.
Three Goldf1eld residents started out
from town one morning recently in a
buggy. Each had a shotgun and rid
ing along in the spring wagon was a
bird dog. In the evening they returned
with five prairie chickens. A few days
earlier two men went out in the same
manner and came back within two
hours with twenty dead birds. This
species Of game is said to be moro
plentiful in that locality than for many
years. The reason given for their
abundance this fall is that the unusual
dryness of the season permitted of
their undisturbed Matching and growth
in places which We're not cultivated.
nor pastured, being in most years, a
. =; wit :,
water.
Within one week Of time during the
present month four automobiles were
purchased by farmers in a Hamilton
county community. One Of the we'll
known residents there did not contract
the "fever," however, and he backs up
his anti-auto ideas with some figures
which he says do not prevarcate. Here
is the argument: "The yearly interest
on the cost of a new machine may be
put down at $50. Repairs for twelve
months 500. Gasoline $50. An auto,
chauffeur and all may be hired for $40
per day. Therefore a man might order
an entire outfit at least one day out OF
each six weeks during the whole year,
and be money ahead over the owner
ship plan, to say nothing Of having a
trained chauffeur to run the machine,
allowing the farmer opportunity to
glance occasionally at the landscape
attractions without fear of a collision
or some other kind Of catastrophe"
All this Of course, was repeated to the
very next man that could be coaxed
into the admission that he expected to
buy an auto some day himself and then
this individual demolished the position
taken nv the other with the assertion
Eyes, but he nor any other man not
HoW's THIS?