Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1912-01-02
MANY FARM IMPROVEMENTS DUE
TO PERSONAL EFroRrs OF
RENTERs.
CONTEMPLATION ron OWNERS
FREQUENTLY MISPLACED
G. z. Wilson Discovers Several In.
stances Where Tenants Expended
Much Labor and Money 70 secure
Needed sui'dins. and TiIins-Fi.hins
Rsssrt Produces pig Crop.
Special to Times-Republican.

xlIUcSsxS6UuOlCans
Clarion. Jan. 2.-Last year big farm
near town in Wright county was inn
proved by the building Of fine dwell
ing, great barn, double corn crib ard
other outbuildings. For good many
years there had been only shanty, a
little stable, and a few old sheds where
these modern buildings now stand. The
place belongs to man who lives in
town and rents this mad other farms
thta he owns. A very cred;table thing
Tor the landowner to do; thus to fur
nisn the renter with decent
house In which to live and accommoda-
tioEs for his stock. besides giving the
entire neighborhood all improved APP
pearance. OF course the owner Of this
farm didn't do all this in purely
benevolent spirit. Nobody could ex-
pect such thing except from a pro-
fessional philanthropist The farm in
Its present condition is worth more to
g tenant than 1t was before. rJudicious
Improvement of any Iowa farm never
lost Its owner any money altho not
every nonresident landowner cares to
invest In farm improvements to any
great extent and an instance of the kind
above noted always attracts some at
tention. 1t was suggested thta there
ought to be more Of this kind of wory
done than there is when man said:
wait a minute: let me tell you some
things about this deal that you evil
IDENTIFY don't know. Do you see that
man there in the yard among those
cattle? That is the man who rents this
farm. How much do you suppose he
has invested in these improvements?
Well, l happen to know. Not a cent
less than 5000. He hauled out all the
material, hiring considerable extra help
when the rushes came He dug the
big cellar under that house without
cost to the owner. Ever dig big GEL
lar? It's quite job. One man can
hardly do it alone. Long term lease?
No. only one year at a time and a con-
stantly increasing rate of rent. Don't
praise that man for improving his
farms. The tenants make the improve
ments cheap to the owner, so very
cheap that he can't afford to not i'm
prove" A day later another tenant
farmer in another neighborhood told his
story. Farm owner had agreed to do
lot of thing. Made the tenant this rea-
sonable ca offer. He would buy a car
load of tile. The tenant was to haul
it to the farm, a distance Of six miles.
Could do it at time Of year when
there was nothing else to do. OF course,
when q car Of tile comes in it must be
unloaded at once, but he could hire 4
little help for that. Feed bills and hotel
avnonca at tou,,, UouJd,,sf 10
more than few dollars Oh, no, he
couldn't rent the place longer than one
year at a time nor he couldn't agree
not to ask higher rental next year. He
didn't care if John Smith did give his
hauled tile. plowed up tough sod and
couldn't do that way.
These are doubtless extreme in
stances of the kind but it would seem
that two of them in two successive
days are good many to be finding
without any inquiry on the part of the
traveller. Everybody except, the tenant
farmer has his troubles and he evil
IDENTIFY has some too. occasionally.
80
Mr. o. j. Pardun, a Clarion farmer,
planted a fifteen-acre field to corn
last spring. The land has been crop
ped continually for ten years and last
years was the ninth one for corn The
ground was heavily maaured, we'll
plowed and narrowed six times in all,
and given four civilizations with
six shovel cultivator. A carefully
measured acre was gathered and
weighed and the figures showed yield
of ninety-seven bushels and six
pounds Pardun is some potato raiser.
80 To harvested 9o00 bn,shols ~