Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1913-03-19
The IDEAL IOWA FARM
J Il. Sparks of Walker. Ia, Believes
i'm 100 Acres.
WHAT INCOME MAY BE
FROM FARM OF THIS SIZE
Interesting Discussion of Subject of
Importance to Every Citizen of
Great Commonwealth.

Earn is moral. 10 DO uselul
things is moral Earning is doing
useful things. To earn says the.
photographer, is to merit or deserve
as by labor or service. So earning
is moral, always moral, positively
and unqualifedly moral. The amount
he earns measures the half of him
what he does with his earnings meas
ures the other half. DIR. Franklin
Hall
Fortunately, every normal young
farmer desires to acquire. The fol-.
lowing lines should not diminish the
desire, but should direct towards ac-
QUESTION by earning.
The desire to get money by earn
ing it by honest farm toll, seldom
harms the one who entertains the
desire, and never harms his neigh-
Dor.
If what l say here will stimulate
the desire of any young farmer to
excel, then these words will not have
been written in vain.
The Book says: 1.-THE poor We
have with you always and | earn
estly believe this may be applied to
farmers, and / expect to see poor
farmers so long as l remain on this
earth-the Iowa Agricultural Col
legt and Tama Jim Wilson (Secre-
tary of Agriculture Wilson is known
in Iowa as "Tama Jim } nothwith-
standing Hence, l eliminate the
hopelessly poor from consideration
in this paper.
/ eliminate the unfortunate, who
do not possess an average of mental
ity.
l eliminate the elderly successful
farmers. 'Twould be presumption
to tell them how to succeed-they
know.
/ eliminate the obstinate. Life is
too precious to waste time with an
obstinate man.
/ want to talk to the wide-awake,
progressive, bright, young men who.
are open to f'iIessst
I would II last dared to talk a lit
tie to the laikAriso, but a hint per-
haps is enoJ
The Yank ar states are fritz
tering away opportunities and
despising their birthright and the
foreign-born are becoming the own
ers of our farming lands. This ought
not so to be.
l am sorry, but my observation
forces me to the conclusion that as
helpmeet on the farm, daughter of
parents, as a rule, is
superior to our Yankee girls and on
the other hand, son of foreign-born
parents is more domestic, as rule,
than our Yankee boys.
If you wish 10 excel in farming,
you must have plan and start right;
have some idea of where you are
coming out.
If you already own farm, and it |
is not properly equipped and you
don't have the money to under-drain
it and stock it-borrow the neces-
sary money. oh you say,'I am in
debt already" Well, don't you know
that the way for farmer to get out
of debt is go deeper in debt? You
run the minimum of risk in going in
debt on a farm situated in the corn
belt, especially If the advice of Sen
ator LATE Young, of Des Moines, can
be followed, and the country is CIV
EN- legislative rest.
For several reasons l consider 100
acres as the ideal size farm. / speak
from experience. / have owned an
S0-acre farm, 120-acre farm, 160-
acre farm, and have been the one
half owner and the operator of a
49O-acre farm; and my experience
leads me to believe there is richer
life, and less pain and sorrow and
more pro rated profit in farming lust
enough land to keep one busy with
out keeping hired help.
The ideal soil is deep, rich, black,
level, or wavy soil, with a clay sub
soil. If you are the owner of this
kind of land, sell it not; no, not for
$3.50 per acre. Don't despise your
birthright, especially If your farm is
within the corn belt. Take a COM
pass, place one leg upon Ottumwa,
Iowa, as hub, and with the other
leg describe circle, passing through
Salem, s. d., Wichita, Kan, and Ind
annapolis, Ind, and you have circum-
scribed all the real good, non-com-
mercial-fertilized corn producing land
in the United States, that needs to
be considered as producing an
amount of corn in excess of local de-
mands. And the burden of produc-
ing the excess of corn for the needs
of this nation rests upon the farmers
- l.