Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1911-05-03
TvE NTY ACRES PROFITABLE.
How Money Can be Made on a
Small Patch of
Ground.


Star
However, that the small live
stock farm can be made highly pro-
titable has been demonstrated too
often to be longer in doubt. One no.
table instance is that of a Pennsyl- |
vania man who kept thirty head of |
stock on fifteen acres and grew all |
Of the roughage on the place. The |
farm was run down when this sort
of farming was begun. The frs
year the farm lacked SAC of paying
expenses. In the next six years
mortgage of $1,000 was paid off.
The owner of this farm was a min
lister without any previous expert
ence at farming.
While the farming in this parti-
cular instance was probably more
intensive than most people would
want to practice, it is a fact that
the small farm can be made quite
profitable by proper management of
live stock.
The problem of producing enough
roughage on an acre of land to feed
dairy cow for whole year is not
small one. The acre of blue grass
which will furnish grazing for a COW
in the summer months is considered
exceptionally good. When the task
of producing three or four times this
amount of roughage is considered
the problem Immediately becomes a
large one, indeed.
However, it can be done under
proper management and a good way
to make substantial salary and
still live the independent life of the
! farmer is to operate small dairy
farm as did the Pennsylvania man.
To do this profitably on twenty
acres the soiling system must be
green roughage to the stock rather
than letting the stock harvest it
themselves.
The advantage of this system lies
in the fact that one acre of soiling
crop will produce just about five
times as much food as an acre of the
best blue grass pasture. Experiments
have proven this to be true This
system also does away with the need
of division fences on the farm.
| For the man who does not care to
go to extremes in the matter, ten
milk cows, with some young stock
and two horses, Is about the right
twenty acres With this amount OF
live stock there will be enough
room to have barn lot or small
night pasture into which the ami
mails may be turned for exercise
each day. 1t is necessary that the
cows be we'll bred so that the calves
can be sold to good advantage.
OF course, the concentrated foods,
such as bran and oil meal, will have
to be bought and for twenty head
of stock would cost close to $500
corn. Silage is fed in the winter.
and cheapest roughages that can be
used during the winter and for this
reason a silo is essential.
The roughage throughout the
summer may well consist of green
rye, beginning about May LIST, fol-
lowed by timothy and clover for a
few weeks, then cowpeas, which
have been planted at successive
times, and in the late summer green
corn. Silage isfed in the winter.
Enough silage to feed twenty head
of live stock through the winter can
be grown on four acres.
If more of any crop is planted than
can be used for green feed before 1t
becomes too ripe it can be made
/ into hay and fed in the winter.
An important factor on farm OF
this kind is the manure. The
amount produced will seem prodigi-
Gus to most men. Nearly all of the
manure is deposited in the barn and
for that reason can be readily haul
ed to the field which needs it most.
In this way the fertility Of the farm
can be rapidly built up.
when such intensive farming Is
practiced more labor is needed, so
that on the small farm it will be
necessary for the owner to keep
hired man the year around and
some additional help in haying and
silo-filling times.
| Besides the stock mentioned
poultry and a few pigs can just as
we'll be kept and every farmer
should, of course, have garden.
These two items should easily feed
and clothe family of five.
The finances of the farm for year
will then figure something like this;
| Mill from fen cows 5000 gal