Pocahontas star herald., 1912-02-23
OAKLAND FARM NOTES
INTENSE FARMING, LOGl-
CAL METHOD
THE SMALL PLACE MORE CERTAIN TO
MAKE FAIR RETURN FOR LABOR

read the other day an account
of a man who made last season the
enormous yield Of 1853 bushels oil
corn per acre a total of 4,4OO bush
els on venty.seven acres.
Just think of IT. His yield was
1853 bushels per acre and that OF
most OF the people in his vicinity
was only 40 to 60 bushels.
Say. that made me sit up and
think. wrote this man at once
and asked him to please tell me In
his own way just how he did it and
here it is;
He did it by simply doing well
all that we all know Is needed to
bring the best results. He began
with tie seed. He selected the
most perfect ears in his entire crop
to get the seed and then he treated
it very carefully. Did not let it
freeze or be otherwise injured and
used only the most perfect grains
off each ear.
As for the land he used large
quantity of COW manure that was
kept tramped down hard under a
shed and never had the strength of
it leached out. And in addition
he made liberal application of
phosphate which supplied lack
that existed in the soil.
Thus, having the land filled with
plant food in most assimilable form,
the soil itself in the best physical
condition and the drainage SO per-
feet that the crop suffered little, if
any, from either too much or too
little rain. And the conditions be.
ing such that perfect cultivation
could be given he naturally got the
best possible results,
This mans experience is an object
lesson that all of US may heed with
much advantage to ourselves. In
the first place we need TO learn that
important lesson of cultivating less
land to get the results we need and
expect. Doing your farming on a
large scale Is a demOralizing bust
ness. We soon find that 1t is I'M
possible to do many things as well
as it should be done. And we not
only get smaller returns but it takes
more labor TO do it.
What we need is to learn to ap-
preciate the intensive method. No
man can do farming on a great big
scale and do it as well as he can on
small acreage that is made as pro
ductive as possible. And a most
important item connected with this
method is the fact a man is not kept
IN a condition of being rushed all
the time and in case of bad season
when too mnch rain throws the
work back he knows that he is
bound TO lose lot of money because
he can never catch up.
No farmer should run his farm
on a system thGt requires every
minute of his time to accomplish
what lie sets out to do.
A big effort is always harder TO
make successful than one that
easily falls within the ability of the
person to put it through.
AS rule most of the big farmers
get inadequate results. And the
small farm, well titled almost invar.
lably, pays we'll and gives satisfac-
ton. Try it.
We farmers are so busy we often
fail to make the most of our time.
A man might better be working
than just loafng but sometimes we
we get into the habit of working
too long days. There are no
unions on the farm to mark the
stopping time.
When man works too long or
too hard his nerve forces and his
thinking powers are dulled.
1t is pleasing to see man have
his work all up but if it is done at
a cost of his own ability to enjoy
life then the cost is too great.
That is not only spending the in.
terest but it is breaking in on the
nrincinal "a we'll