Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1912-04-30
HIGH PRICE CAUSES FARMERS
OF oREENcAsrLE TOWNSHIP
TO SELL SURPLUS.
1900 BUSHELS SOLD At
PICKERING IN FOUR DAYS
Good Reason for 500 Acre Land in
That Section Of Marshall County
sssd Corn In Marshall County Good
and Big Crop is Professionalism
Rural Observations.
Special to Times-Republican.

corn Smelling week In Greencastle
township. The "a cent market stirred
to action every man who had corn to
sell and every shelter in the commune
ty was running. AS 1t requires from
sixteen to twenty wagons to take care
of the delivery from the machine to
the elevator it may readily be seen
that a large part of the farming popu-
lation was hauling corn.
At the Pickering elevator Erickson &
Jacobson received about 1900 bush
els of grain from Wednesday morning
to Saturday afternoon, all coming from
one Smelling outfit. Fiftythree hun
bred bushels went thru their dump
last Thursday, 104 loads, within ten
hours Of time. A five minute interval
between loads of corn worth nearly $40
apiece all day long. All Of this 1900
bushels Of q cent corn came from
within a mile and a half of the place
where it was marketed. A good many
cattle, horses and hogs are raised In
this section and many thousands of
bushels of corn Is fed to stock, but
still there is grain to sell when the
price goes up. Not much Of this land
can be bought under 5000 per acre any
more. Such land has to be made to
produce big corn crops II there is to be
any profit in farming it.
One man who owns a 240-acre farm
said: 1.-The man who farms my place
raised 5000 bushels Of corn and 1000
bushels Of oats to sell. get 1000 for
the use Of the place. II / had rented
for half, which l might have done,
I would have received $4,000 rent
money this year. ] was offered 5000
an acre for my farm but with such
possibilities as these it is worth more
than that. and why should I sell it?
Two hundred dollars isn't enough for
an acre Of farm land In this part Of
the country"
In answer the oft-asked question,
"Have you tested your seed corn?" one
man replied "No, and I don't intend
to bother with the performance. In
stead of going to that trouble I take
a little extra care at another period
Of the process. select my corn before
the middle of September, dry 1t out
over the kitchen stove, put it away IN
dry place and shell and plant 1t In
the spring. That's all and that's enough.
Seed can't be other than good when
picked and cared for in this way. I
have an offer now Of So bushel for
all that don't use myself One who
has made very many inquiries about
the results in seed corn tests in Mar
shall county in the past few weeks
has not yet found a single case where
there has been an unsatisfactory re-
suit. A lady living near Rhodes planted
100 grains. or thought she did, and
found ninety-n nine good, healthy sprouts
and searched in vain for the one that
failed to grow. Another case that pro-
duced astonishing results was that in
which man planted twenty-four
grains. or thought he did. and dug up
twenty five with sprouts two inches
long on every one. II there isn't a
good stand Of corn this spring in this
county it will not be because of poor
seed.
Forty-four years ago man came to
Marshall county and bought a farm.
The price paid. or rather to pay, was
81 per acre. Time passed and the
farmer improved his land and reared
family. Perhaps met with some re-
verses and encountered his share Of
those misfortunes that prevent man
from growing rich. He is well along in
years now but it was with feeling of
satisfaction as evident as would have
been the case had the remark been
made thirty years ago that he said. II
am not working in the field this year. I
have finished paying for my land. made
the last payment this spring and am
going to take things easy from this
time on" A plain instance of how ev-
erything comes to him who waits-and
plans and works.
Mr.. B. L. Barnes, who lives In the
west part Of Tama county, tried an in
terest!ng experiment in farming this
spring and with entire success. He
fastened couple of nine foot discs to
twenty horsepower gasolene trac-
ton engine, attached big harrow in
the wake Of the combination and pro-
ceeded to put in an oats crop. Three
hours after the beginning he had COW
cred an area of fifteen acres. It was a
pretty big field and before he could get
1t finished an attack Of chickenpox
stopped the activities of the engineer