Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1913-09-24
SMALL FARMS ARE
MOST PROFITABLE
j. F. Sparks of Linn County Writes
Experiences to Iowa Farmers.
100 ACRES IDEAL SIZE
FOR A GOOD IOWA FARM.
Some Sensible Advice on Planning
and Conducting Farm From
One Who Knows.

For several reasons I consider 12O
. acres as the ideal size farm. I
speak from experience. I have own
ed an S0-acre farm, a 12O-acre farm,
a 160-acre farm, and have been the
one-half owner and operator of
49O-acre farm; and my experience
leads me to believe there is a richer
life, and less pain and sorrow and
more profit IN farming just enough
land to keep one busy without keep
ing hired help.
Divide your 120-acre farm into
four fields of thirty acres each, and
fence each hog tight. Have upon
this farm the following buildings: A
good, modern house, a barn, a cow
stable and silo, a hog house with
cement feed door outside, chicken
house, cribs and granary, and ma
chine sheds. Have good machinery.
and as soon as the bearings are worn
so the load or draft is increased, dis
card it and get new and better ma
chinery.
/ You should have two splendid full
blooded draft mares and raise
draft colts, and keep from eight to
ten head constantly, mares and colts
included.
Keep twelve milk cows and one
bull, large flock of chickens, say
800 hens, some geese, some ducks,
some turkeys, some guineas, pair
of peacocks, twenty head of long,
lank, good brood sows and one boar;
five stands of bees. You say this
costs money. Sure, it does! Did
you ever see any real good thing that
did not cost money?
/ l would raise the following crops:
Thirty acres of corn with pumpkins,
followed by oats and winter wheat;
thirty acres Of oats and winter wheat
i twenty-five acres of oats and five
of wheat), followed by clover; thirty
acres of clover, followed by corn;
thirty acres of permanent pasture,
less building sites, garden patch and
orchard. l would scatter the manure
upon this pasture, and if it needs it,
i | would harrow it annually in the
spring, and if needed, would re-seed
the thin places and disk and harrow.
Thus my corn would always be rais-
ed upon clover sod, which / would
plow either in the fall or the spring.
way, just so you do it-and when
the weather is warm enough in May,
, plant your corn. Plant it edge drop
or hill drop, just so you plant six
inches each way, or $500 hills to
, the acre; and so care for your corn
that it will produce one good ear to
each stalk, three ears to each hill,
and if each ear weighs twelve ounces
, your corn will make 115 bushels per
, acre.
An experience I had; I selected
100 nice looking ears of corn and
took six kernels from each. and test
ed them in a seed testing box. The
, six kernels from each of two ears
: were black with mold all over except
, the outer end. However. I tested
these, just to see If moldy corn
would grow, and each of these
twelve kernels not only terminated.
but gave the strongest sprouts of all
the kernels tested.
Cultivate your corn as often and
as thoroughly and as many times as
: you can. In September, drill in with
: one-horse drill five acres to winter
wheat, and leave the fodder standing
; in order to hold the snow. Near
spring, break down the stalks and
seed to clover, and let the clover
' freeze in. In the spring, cut the re-
4 naming twenty-five acres of your
: stalk ground with disk and seed
: to oats and clover, sowing four BUSH
4 els of clean, heavy oats to the acre.
: 1t is better to raise oats than weeds.
After seeding, re-disk and drag, and
you are done until harvest. AS TO
how much clover to sow, you find
: from your best farmers how much
they SOW, and then sow little more.
: Don't be afraid you will get too
u much on. 1t will cost a little more,
but don't let penny obscure your
vision of dollar little farther on.
: You will get it all back in better
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